My Notes

100 most useful websites!!

2009-12-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

The best sites for saving money
Bargaineering
Consumerism Commentary
The Dollar Stretcher
Financial Integrity
Get Rich Slowly
The Simple Dollar
The Simple Living Network
Smart Spending
Wise Bread

The best sites for savvier spending
Angie's List
BillShrink
The Budget Fashionista
Consumer Reports
The Consumerist
Edmunds.com
ePinions
FreeShipping.org
Red Tape Chronicles
Shop It To Me
ShopLocal.com

Best sites for bargain hunting
Ben's Bargains
DealNews
Ebates
FatWallet
MyBargainBuddy.com
Slickdeals

Best sites for grocery savings
CouponMom.com
The Grocery Game
Hot Coupon World
Penny Pincher Gazette

Best sites for coupons
Alex's Coupons
CouponCabin
CouponCode.com
Coupon Mountain
RetailMeNot.com

Best sites for comparison shopping
BeatMyPrice.com
BeatThat!
DiscountMore.com

Best sites for saving and investing
Bankrate.com
Findacreditunion.com
Morningstar
Financial Engines

Best sites for paying for college
FinAid
Savingforcollege.com

Best sites for managing your credit
AnnualCreditReport.com
CardRatings.com
Credit.com
CreditCards.com
CreditMattersBlog.com
myFICO

Best sites for real estate and mortgages
ThinkGlink.com
Mortgage Professor's Web Site
HUD.gov
Making Home Affordable

Best sites for free government help
Federal Citizen Information Center
The Federal Reserve
Govbenefits.gov
Home Energy Saver
Mymoney.gov

Best sites for insurance
Insure.com
United Policyholders

Best sites for doing it yourself
Fix-It Club
Instructables
Nolo

Best sites for travel
Farecast
Kayak
MouseSavers.com
OneBag
SeatGuru
Theme Park Insider
TripAdvisor
The Universal Packing List
WebFlyer

Best sites for really cheap travel
CouchSurfing
HomeExchange.com
Less than a Shoestring

Best sites for charitable giving
Charity Navigator
DonorsChoose.org
GuideStar

Best sites for productivity and careers
The Blog of Tim Ferriss
The Brazen Careerist
Lifehacker
The Thin Pink Line
WebWorkerDaily
Zen Habits

Best sites for free entertainment
Fancast
Hulu
Pandora

Best sites for freebies
Freebiewatch
Free Stuff Times
Hey, It's Free!

Best sites for swapping stuff
Freecycle
PaperBack Swap
TitleTrader

Best sites for free tech stuff
5 Star Support
OnlyFreewares.com
Mozy
Tech-Recipes
Wi-Fi Free Spot
Zoho

'A' Class and 'B' Class Shares - BSE

2009-12-20T06:07:00.001-08:00

FUNCTIONING OF STOCK EXCHANGE

LISTING

Listing of shares, on a stock exchange, means, such shares can be bought and sold, in stock exchange.

A Company, which intends to issue shares, through prospectus, shall have to apply to one or more stock exchanges, for getting its shares listed.

The detailed and elaborate procedure of getting the shares listed on a stock exchange is monitored by SEBI. The SEBI, issues guidelines and notifications, from time to time, with regard to listing of securities.

Once the shares are listed, the are divided into two categories:

1. GROUP "A" SHARES
2. GROUP "B" SHARES

GROUP "A" SHARES: are referred to as " Cleaned Securities " or " specified shares". The facility for carrying forward a transaction from one account period to another is available for these shares. Group "A" shares represent companies, with huge amount of capital, and equally a large scope for investment. These shares are frequently traded and command higher price earning multiples.

GROUP "B" SHARES: are referred to as, Non cleaned securities or non-specified shares. For these groups facility of carrying forward is not available.

Whenever a share is moved from Group "B" to Group "A" its market price rises; likewise, when a share is shifted from Group "A" to Group "B", its market price declines. There are some criteria and guide lines, laid down by stock exchange, for shifting stocks from the non-specified list to the specified list.

VARIOUS ORDERS AND TRANSACTIONS:
SETTLEMENT CYCLES

There are various types of orders, which can be placed by the buyer or seller. They are:

Market Order
A market order is to be executed as soon as possible at the best prevailing price in the market.

Limit order
A limit order is constrained by the price limits specified by the investor. The seller specifies the minimum price that the security must fetch, and the buyer specifies the maximum price that he is willing to pay.

A Day order
A day order remains valid only for the day when it is placed. If the order is not executed on that day, it automatically lapses.

A Week order
A week order is one, which is active for a week

A Month order
A month order is an order, which is valid for one month.

An open order
An open order is an order, which is valid for one month. An open order remains in effect until it is executed or cancelled.

Similarly there are certain types of transactions, which are allowed on the stock exchanges. They are:

Transactions for Spot delivery
The delivery and payment is effected within the time or on the date stipulated when entering into the transaction or within fourteen days, whichever is shorter.

Transaction for Hand delivery
These transactions also referred to as the transaction for "the account", are cleared and settled through the clearing house.

Transactions for special delivery
The delivery and payment is effected within any time exceeding fourteen days following the date of the contact as may be stipulated when entering into the transaction, provided the same is permitted by the governing board or the president of the exchange.

Leadership Qualities

2009-12-14T20:06:00.001-08:00

1) Strategic Thinking

2) Achievement Orientation

3) Commitment to Excellence

4) Self Confidence

5) Driving Change

6) Customer Orientation

7) Working in Teams

8) Developing People

9) Intercultural Sensitivity

2009-10-28T18:07:00.001-07:00

THE MOST TERRIBBLE POVERTY IS LONELINESS AND THE FEELING OF BEING UNLOVED."

Seven Social Sins - Mahatma Gandhi

2009-10-15T05:22:00.000-07:00

Politics without Principle
Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Knowledge without Character
Commerce without Morality
Science without Humanity
Worship without Sacrifice"

Mahatma Gandhi - in "Young India"

2009-09-28T04:39:00.001-07:00

മനസിന്‍റെ മണിയറയില്‍ സുന്ദരനായ മോനുണ്ട്‌.. കഥ പറയാന്‍ കൂട്ടിനായി കാത്തു വെച്ചൊരു പൊന്നാണ്.. നാണത്താല്‍ ചിരി തൂകും സുന്ദരനായ മോനാണ്.... ഉപ്പാടെ കരളാണ്...ഖല്‍ബിന്റെ നിധിയാണ്‌...

2009-08-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

2009-08-16T19:01:00.002-07:00

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

KNOW ALL ABOUT ABOUT.COM

2009-08-16T19:01:00.001-07:00

A pioneering website that was a bit like Yahoo with expert human guides, writes Jack Schofield

In 1996, when the web was young, someone emailed me with a brilliant idea. Scott Kurnit from The Mining Company was starting an information site that would bring together thousands of people who were experts in their particular field – computing, cooking, cartooning or whatever – and host them under one giant umbrella. It would be called About.com.

At the time, thousands of amateurs were setting up small websites, but most of them didn't really know what they were doing. Even if they did, there would be thousands of small sites that all looked different, and had different editorial standards. By joining About.com, these would-be webmasters could band together, share site designs, and get basic training and support.

They would get more visitors, because most people who went to About.com would generally visit two or three different topics. They would even make a little money – $250 a month, to start – because About.com would be big enough to sell advertising to companies that would never deal with lots of small amateur websites.

About.com was duly launched on 21 April 1997, and it was a success, though it was nothing like as successful as I'd expected. The quality was patchy, the site wasn't easy to navigate, the page design was flat and dull, and About.com had an annoying habit of "framing" other sites. (If you click a link to go to a different site, its content is shown under a big About.com header.)

2009-08-16T18:52:00.001-07:00

One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim " by Henry Brooks Adams

8 NEW FEATURES IN GMAIL

2009-08-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Google may have disappointed some of its users lately with frequent outages, however, the company is all set to please them with a slew of new features. The company recently added eight new features in Gmail.

Presently, a third in global email marketshare, Gmail is striving hard to increase its turf. So here's looking into all the new features that Gmail has added in the recent past in its endeavour to climb up the ranking ladder.

Import mails and contacts from other accounts

Find the process of importing your emails and contacts from other accounts to Gmail troublesome? Gmail's just added a new feature that promises to simplify the process for you.

Google has added a new feature which will let Gmail users easily import all their emails and contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, or AOL accounts. All a user needs to do is enter his Webmail account details (username and password) into Google's service and over the next 24 to 48 hours, all his emails and contacts will be automatically imported to his Gmail account.

Google Search comes to Gmail

Search engine giant Google has added a search widget in Gmail, which enables users to search the web without opening a new browser.

The new feature shows a search box onto the left side of Gmail inbox. When a user types in a search, a window (like a chat window) appears at the bottom of the screen with search results.

The feature can be activated by clicking settings tab, followed by selecting the Labs feature, and enabling the Google Search feature option. Google says that new feature aims to help users to copy and insert any required URL and send it to others using email or Gmail chat.

PowerPoint and TIFF file viewing

After adding online viewing option for PDFs, Google has extended its support to TIFF and Microsoft PowerPoint document formats too.

With this functionality, users can now view TIFF and PPT files online, directly in the browser, without having to save the files to the computer. There is also no need to buy, install, or wait for any software to start up.

This means users can view all PDFs, PowerPoint (PPT) presentations as well as .TIFF-formatted images that have been received as attachments in Gmail's HTML, multi-page document viewer.

Suggest more recipients

You may have many a times mistakenly left someone important out of an email? Or you keep on thinking who all from your long list of contacts need to be sent this mail? Gmail aims to solve this problem for you. Gmail Labs new feature called "Suggest more recipients" is intended to do just that.

On enabling the feature from the Labs tab under Settings, a user can see a suggested recipients list while composing a message. Gmail will suggest contacts that a user might want to include based on the group of people they email often.

Inserting images

Here's a feature to help users get users rid of attaching images in email. All that a user needs to do is just turn on "Inserting images" from the Labs tab under Settings, and users will see a new toolbar icon. On clicking the image icon, users can insert images in two ways: by uploading image files from computer or giving image URLs.

Gmail doesn't show URL-based images in messages by default to protect users from spammers. So if a user is sending mail to other Gmail users, they will have to click "Display images below" or "Always display images from ..." to see the embedded images

STOCK TRADERS CRACKING FAST AGAINST PRE-WRITTEN SOFTWARE CODES

2009-08-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Santosh Nair & Shailesh Menon, Mumbai

A decade ago, the demise of the open outcry system shifted action from noisy trading floors of stock exchanges to air-conditioned dealing rooms of brokerages. Today stock trading is in the throes of the next big change.

Professional day traders, hired by brokerage houses on a profit sharing basis, are slowly losing out to pre-written software codes, which does the same functions at a speed that is humanly impossible. Instead of providing office infrastructure to a dozen ‘jobbers’ (as day traders are known in market parlance), a brokerage can now do with two CDs containing pre-written trading strategies, and two people to oversee the execution.

Not only does it save costs for the brokerage firm, but also improves the chances of making profits, as software codes are faster and efficient than the most skilled of traders. In short, software codes will battle each other for a share of rapidly thinning intra-day trading profits.

This spells serious consequences for the 20-25,000 strong force of professional day traders who speculate in equities. Even veteran traders are dismayed at this emerging trend, as it robs them the fun of matching their wits against those of rival market participants.

Instead, they are now locked in a unequal battle with software programmes, that can spot an arbitrage opportunity and cash in on it even before the traders can press the keys on their trading terminals.

“There has been an increased acceptance of trading software over the last year, as traders are struggling to generate decent returns in the face of volatile market conditions,” says Shubham Pradhan, marketing head at Essex India, a firm that offers trading software.

Indeed, algorithm trading, which involves pre-written software codes identifying and executing arbitrage opportunities at lightning speeds has been at the centre of controversy in a few developed markets, as regulators and a section of investors have raised ethical questions.

But in India, they are fast catching on, as many brokers are gradually reconciling to the fact that even the most skilled of their traders will never be able to match the speed of execution of a software program.

One of the common arbitrage strategies is to sell stock futures quoting at a premium to spot, and buy the shares, thus locking in the difference. Another common strategy is to sell shares on the exchange where the prices are higher, and simultaneously buy them back on the exchange where the prices are lower, or the other way round. But the spread has to be such so as to be able to make a meaningful profit, and a trader should be able to seize on the opportunity as soon as it shows up, because they barely last for a second for a second or two.

Here is where a program can execute the trade faster than a human being. “But you also need sophisticated hardware and a good network to get the maximum benefit out of these software programmes,” said Pradhan who thinks brokerages will cut back on the number of in-house jobbers as well as those hired on a profit sharing basis.

Market watchers say many of the high-end trading software are not yet on offer for two reasons. One, the stock exchanges trading systems have to be more efficient to for these programmes to deliver optimum results. Two, the software vendors have to run their codes through the stock exchanges for approval, and some fear that proprietary trading strategies could be leaked.

2009-06-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

" A successful individual typically sets his next goal somewhat but not too much above his last achievement. In this way he steadily raises his level of aspiration" by Kurt Lewin

" There is only one admirable form of the imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, that it makes things happen " by Sean O'Faolain

" Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will " by George Bernard Shaw

2009-06-03T18:09:00.002-07:00

"Imagination is more important than knowledge... ." - Albert Einstein

Fools and fanatics are always certain of themselves, but wiser people are full of doubts

"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." - Anthony Robbins

APPLE TO UNVEIL NEXT-GENERATION IPHONE SOFTWARE

2009-06-03T18:09:00.001-07:00

Apple plans to give the world a peek next week at its next-generation operating system for iPhones.

Apple on Thursday invited news reporters to a "town hall" event at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, and promised a "sneak peek" at the upcoming iPhone 3.0 operating system.

The maker of iPhones, iPods, and Macintosh computers said the event will center on a new software developers kit for its popular multi-purpose mobile devices.

More than 500 million applications for the Apple iPhone have been downloaded from the company's online App Store since it opened in July of last year.

A study released in February, however, indicates that users quickly lose interest in those applications.

The study by Pinch Media found that fewer than five percent of iPhone users are still actively using an application a month after downloading it.

Apple iPhone users lose interest in free programs slightly faster than in paid ones, said Pinch Media, a company which offers advice to developers of applications for the hot-selling smartphone.

2009-06-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

" Four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, and the neglected opportunity " by Omar Idn Al-Halif

"Optimists enrich the present, enhance the future, challenge the improbable and attain the impossible”. - William Arthur Ward

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will." - George Bernard Shaw

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings." - Samuel Johnson

MORE ON OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE

2009-05-04T17:58:00.001-07:00

Paromita Pain, May 04, 2009

The open source software movement has a rich history.

The UNESCO Free and Open Source Software Portal at http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/foss/page.cgi?d=1explains how we can make better use of its resources.

Intended to “provide a single interactive access point to pertinent information for users who wish to acquire an understanding of the Free Software movement, to learn why it is important and to apply the concept...”, the portal is easy to navigate and has important ideas outlined simply for even lay readers to get familiar with.

Each category is clearly defined. For example: under the header of Health is grouped all the software that is medical related or that can help medical professionals. Of special interest for individuals here is the KPumpe (http://kpumpe.sourceforge.net).

This is designed to be a diabetes diary application with support for reading records from one’s glucometer. It supports the Onetouch Ultra and other glucometers where glucomodule plug-ins are available.

The section titled “Productivity Tools” has interesting products that can be used for small businesses.

For example, the Accountancy software has payroll, accounting, inventories, and receiving features, besides storing birthdays for employees. GnuCash is software that allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses.

Children and young people too have something they can use. Under the “Education” category are Maths Tutors and Painting Software. GCompris is an integrated education application that introduces different activities to children aged three to eight.Tux of Math Command is a good way to introduce young people to Tux, the Linux Penguin.

There are detailed reports of the various projects that are being run around the world. Check out the SchoolTool Project that works to develop a common global school administration infrastructure, freely available under an Open Source licence. A Web-based student information and calendaring system is being worked on as well.

Guru Speak : Prince Al-Waleed

2009-04-26T12:24:00.001-07:00

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, popularly known as Prince Al-Waleed was born on March 7, 1955 as a member of the Saudi Royal Family. He is an entrepreneur and an international investor who is well connected in politics and power houses in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. He has amassed his wealth through his numerous investments and via selling medium term notes, bank guarantees, and standby letters of credit, through his law firm/broker Rockwick Capital. As on March 11, 2009 his net worth is estimated at $13.3 billion, down from $21 billion, according to the Arabian Business rich list published December 2, 2008. He is ranked by Forbes as the 22nd richest person in the world and has also been nicknamed by Times magazine as the Arabian "Warren Buffett".

Al-Waleed began his business career in 1979 but as an international investor he came to the forefront when he bought a huge portion of Citibank shares in 1990 when the bank was in trouble. With an initial investment of $550 million, at $2.98 a share to bail out the bank from its underperforming American real estate loans and Latin American businesses, his holdings now comprise about $1 billion. His stake in Citi, while once accounted for approximately half of his wealth, by January 2009, this holding had lost nearly all of its value. He also made large investments in AOL, Apple Inc, Worldcom, Motorola, News Corporation Ltd and other technology and media companies. He has made investments in London's Savoy Hotel and Monaco's Monte Carlo Grand Hotel. He currently holds a 10% stake in Euro Disney SCA.

and#149; If I'm going to do something, I do it spectacularly or I don't do it at all.

and#149; Nowadays, anyone who cannot speak English and is incapable of using the Internet is regarded as backward.

and#149; My wheels are running. My investments are local, regional and international.

and#149; I'm not panicking, and I'm not scared, I've been through the Gulf War, the Asia crisis, and the Russian crisis.

and#149; We're getting hurt, but I'm a long-term investor.

and#149; You should never commit to something that you can't deliver

and#149; The lesson is that, No 1, this management has to be at the highest class possible. No 2, they have to have a succession plan. You can't have a company that size without a successor ready. And No 3, you need a professional who has run a bank.

and#149; Through my holdings in the US, Canada and Europe, I invest indirectly in more than 120 countries. Because of this global presence, my company operates on a dollar basis. I am not interested in currency speculation.

and#149; America's problem is not just its budget deficit, but also its enormous trade deficit. No country on earth can afford such an imbalance forever, not even the US, with its strong economy. Of course, as a major investor I am interested in a stable US economy and a budget deficit that remains within reason.

and#149; I see myself as a philanthropist, as a politician and as a member of the Saudi royal family. God has blessed me with great wealth, but this comes with obligations. Those who build bridges must be capable of seeing the big picture, and if I am needed as a businessman, I can also help out financially.

POWER OF IDEAS: DISCUSSING IDEAS TO STAY AHEAD IN TIMES OF SLUMP

2009-04-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

Bangalore, April 20, 2009

The Economic Times Power of Ideas mentoring session held in Bangalore last week in alliance with the Indian Angel Network (IAN) set the tone for the final shortlisting of ideas, which will happen in May. The mentoring session of The Power of Ideas discussed the solutions and issues that start-up companies and entrepreneurs have to face in the economic downturn.

Of around 12,000 Power of Ideas entries received, 42 percent have come from south zone entrepreneurs. “The first step when an individual decides to be an entrepreneur to me is the most powerful idea. That risk taking animal, who is ready to face the uncertainty of the future is an entrepreneur. It is a very tough life, very painful but at the same time after having been an entrepreneur after 17 years, it is the most exhilarating experience,” Subhash Menon, founder and chairman of Subex said in his keynote address to around 500 budding entrepreneurs attending the mentoring session.

Giving his own company’s example, Menon said that eight to nine years ago Subex decided to become a software product company and venture capitalist and private equity investors did not fund them, as they couldn’t believe in their idea of developing telecom fraud management software product for the world.

Janesh Janardhan, CEO of Robhatah Robotic Solutions company, which started in Singapore in 2004 focusing on electronics, education, entertainment and defence thought it would be easy to be an entrepreneur and ride the wave of success that was coming in his way. “One fine day we got an order for humanoid robots that could walk, dance and play soccer. Our robots were even winning matches organised by Federation of International Robot-soccer Association. There were happy times initially but then we went down as we could not sell humanoids all the years,” says Janardhan. An entrepreneur should look whether customers will fall in love with his product.

Sharad Sharma, former CEO of Yahoo India R&D, said that start-ups have to solve problems and hard times make problems more visible. “My first start up was in the wireless infrastructure space in February 2001. There was blood on the floor and that time our competitors became our partners. That would not have happened otherwise,” he said. If you are a genuine entrepreneur, any time is a good time argues entrepreneur-turned-investor Sanjay Anandram, managing director, JumpStartUp Fund Advisors.

2009-04-03T18:46:00.001-07:00

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing " by Theodore Roosevelt

2009-03-02T21:40:00.000-08:00

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire." - Aristotle

MENTOR SERVICE FOR THE STARTUP COMPANIES IN SOFTWARE

2009-02-27T00:55:00.001-08:00

Call them 'virtual' angels if you will. Shirish Deodhar, Hemant Joshi and Madhukar Bhatia are almost like your regular angel investors, minus the money. So what do they do? The three co-founders of Pune-based nFactorial Software provide mentoring services to software product companies that have just started out or those with some revenues and in need of scaling up to the next level.
"Software product companies need mentoring and there is a near absence of that in India," says Deodhar. "In the Bay area (US), people usually work in a company and then set out on their own so they can tap into a mentor or client. In India, there is no such role model for product development companies and hence no support system for them.
We come in by lending our experience to these entrepreneurs." The three co-founders of this mentoring, advisory and `virtual' angel funding company are all serial entrepreneurs themselves--Deodhar founded Frontier Software, which was later acquired by Veritas, which in turn was acquired by Symantec. Later, along with Hemant Joshi and Madhukar Bhatia, he launched In-Reality Software, which was acquired by Symphony Services.
The firm helps the startups identify investors who usually invest in their personal capacities. The method followed is that three-four investors make a small investment in the company, which has the benefit of reducing risk for the investors and gets the recipient company 3-4 investor-advisers. "We are operating on a venture capitalist's model--we sort out ideas, decide the best companies and the best fit for them," says Bhatia.
Factorial mentors 8-9 companies at a time, and its founders say they've deliberately limited themselves to companies that are either in "the white space" that is, brand new start ups which are pre-revenue, or early stage, that is, with annual revenues of Rs 2-4 crore but want to grow 10x. "We identify and mentor startups that aspire to become Rs 20 crore companies. We then ask for an equity stake in the pre-revenue firms.
In the early stage ones we take a small stake in the form of sweat equity and, if they can afford it, a retainer," says Deodhar. Mentoring, for the three industry-veterans, involves sorting out issues for the new entrepreneur. Since technology startups are usually launched by first-generation entrepreneurs, they don't come with much baggage. The downside is that they also do not have access to the inner workings of a business. This is often the area where they need help, or mentoring.
Deodhar explains that they chose the software products space as it's poised to grow at a fast clip, particularly considering the potential demand in the domestic market. "Building products specifically for the India market is an opportunity and there are some sectors that are by nature, Indian. For instance, text messaging is rampant here.
Even on managing your taxes and related issues our regulations are very different, so there's scope for products, which cater to Indian users," he adds. The realisation came early to the trio that there are advantages in creating a cluster (of software product firms) since they can sell to each other, cross-sell to customers or build a reseller network and grow faster.
Some of the companies nFactorial has mentored are Career Vidya Labs (a career management company), Product Dossier, a P3LM (Project, Process and Product Lifecycle Management) company, and Clarice Technologies, a usability and UI solutions venture. While the investment arm used earlier was the IIT-Bombay alumni association funded Pi2 (PiSquare), it's now tapping into the India Innovation Investors (I3), an investor group of successful IT professionals in India and the US.

Richest technology companies

2009-02-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

Even as many US companies struggle to stay solvent in one of the worst financial crises in decades, some technology companies are bursting with cash, with the only question being how they plan to use it. Fitch estimates that the US tech industry is carrying a cash balance of around $260 billion, one of the largest among all sectors.
"There's a strong emphasis on the preservation of liquidity, but we think the larger players will use their balance sheets and use their cash balances to ignite mergers and acquisition activity," said Fitch Ratings analyst Nick Nilarp.
The old cliché that cash is king is never truer than in bad times. So as investors navigate tough financial markets, the cash hoards held by tech companies could make their shares more attractive and bolster the argument made by some analysts that the sector will lead the way out of the downturn.
Here are some of the technology companies with huge cash piles.
Cisco
Cisco Systems Inc is the most cash-rich tech company with $29.5 billion in hand, putting it just behind Exxon Mobil Corp's $31.4 billion, despite having a market value less than one-quarter of the oil giant's.
The company has been rather upfront about its plans to use some of this cash to make acquisitions. Cisco has said it plans to be acquisitive during the economic downturn, and bankers and analysts think it may make a move on virtualisation software maker VMware Inc or its parent EMC Corp.
Taking advantage of loosening credit markets, Cisco recently made a surprisingly large $4 billion debt sale. The company stated that it intends to use the recent debt sale "for general corporate purposes" and to repay $500 million in notes due in 2009.
Apple
Another tech company with some of the largest cash piles includes Apple Inc with $25.6 billion. In spite of spending about $2bn a year on R&D and capital investment, Apple's $26bn in cash has left it with the biggest cash pile in the technology world -- a big contrast to the last downturn, which it started with less than $4bn. The cash now accounts for about a third of its market value.
The company's stock price too has rebounded from its low of $78.20 in the week when Steve Jobs announced his leave. The realisation that Apple's cash can be a big strength during recession has quieted critics, who in the past have called on the company to buy back shares or offer a dividend.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corp too sits on a huge cash pile of $20.7 billion. The rich software giant, however, announced rather disappointing quarterly results recently, unlike IBM. Microsoft recently announced that its Q2 2009 profit sank from $4.71bn a year ago to $4.17bn, a loss of 12 percent. Total revenue was $16.63bn, a 2 percent rise from year before. This was only possible thanks to higher server, tools and entertainment sales. Client sales revenue, which includes Windows products, fell 8 percent.
The company may have missed the analysts’ target, however, the fact is it is still posting big profits -- $4.17B in profit is enough to make even some of the biggest companies drool.
Google
The search giant Google Inc too sits pretty with a cash reserve of $15.9 billion. The Mountain View, California-based company had almost $16 billion in cash at the end of the recent-announced fourth quarter.
According to Google CFO, Patrick Pichette, the cash reserves provided Google with sufficient flexibility "for the right deal at the right price."
Google said its Q4 earnings declined to $382 million, far below the $1.2 billion it earned in the prior-year's fourth quarter. The fall was attributed to losses from Google's investments in AOL and Clearwire Corp.
Oracle Corp
The enterprise software giant Oracle too sits on a $7.4 billion pile of cash. Little doubt that the Redwood Shores-based company is quietly going on a shopping spree.
The software giant completed as many as 10 acquisitions in 2008, ranging from a maker of insurance policy-writing tools, to a designer of `plan-o-gram' software (the software used by stores to optimise shelf space usage). Recently, the company bought mValent Inc, a small software company that helps configure other software. The deals put Oracle in the club of cash-rich companies bargain hunting amid the present economic turmoil.
Oracle made sales of $22.4 billion in fiscal 2008. However, the company hasn't been unscathed from the slump, it recently reported a 1 percent drop in net income, the first decline in three years.
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems might be facing hard times. The company’s stock has been faced considerable hammering in the past few months further accentuated by fears of weakening global tech spending. However, Sun Microsystems too is among the companies with a relatively large amount of cash. The company carries a cash balance of $2.6 billion and a market cap of $3.8 billion.
The high-end computer and software maker posted better-than-expected results as a strong software and open storage business cushioned declining overall sales.
Like much of the industry, the company is now struggling to slash costs as tech spending dissipates globally. It said in November it would cut 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, or 15 to 18 percent of its workforce, as part of a plan to save $700 million to $800 million a year.
EMC
Hopkinton-based EMC Corp's fourth quarter profit though fell 45 percent, the company said that it increased its cash reserves by 9 percent.
In Q4, EMC's profits fell from $526 million to $288 million, on restructuring charges. For the full year, the company reported revenue of $14.9 billion, a 12 percent increase over the prior year, and a profit of $1.4 billion, a 14 percent increase over 2007.
The data storage giant's fourth quarter revenue hit $4 billion, an increase of 8 percent over the third quarter and 5 percent over the fourth quarter of 2007. EMC announced recently that it would lay off about 2,400 employees, 600 of them in Massachusetts.
While these tech companies are guarding their money and investing in only the safest of instruments, such as US Treasury debt, analysts expect the bigger players to put their cash to work later in the year in the form of acquisitions or share buybacks.
Past learning
Seems the experience of previous downturns and fear that they could need deep reserves to draw on has made technology companies cautious on spending.
Some Silicon Valley veterans point to earlier near-failures, with Intel forced to take an investment from IBM in the 1980s, and Steve Jobs famously accepting a $150m cash infusion from Microsoft after returning to head Apple in 1997.

INDIAN GEEK INVENTS ‘SIXTH SENSE’ GIZMO

2009-02-23T04:25:00.000-08:00

Pranav Mistry is no ordinary geek. He can just wave his fingers in air to draw a figure on any surface just as you use a computer mouse and a screen to do so. He can simply frame a scene with his hands, snap its picture and project it anywhere he likes.
Not only that, he can also check his email on his palm, draw a watch on his wrist to check the time and use his palm as keypad of his mobile phone.
This is no science fiction or virtual reality. You may call it ‘ mad science’ but Pranav calls it the ‘ Sixth Sense’, a sensational invention that is creating waves in the world of high technology in North America these days.
Pranav, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, is currently pursuing a doctorate in fluid interfaces at the famed Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here.
He has created a gadget using available hardware — a webcam, a small projector and a laptop — and highly complex software, which allows you to do away with keyboard and mouse, and a screen to connect and communicate with the digital world.
The real power of the device comes from the machine vision and the complex algorithms that Pranav has written.
The combination is a wearable machine that can empower you to use your fingers to access data and use any surface to project it.
“ I got this idea while I was visiting my parents in India last summer. So far, virtual reality and augmented reality has happened only in laboratories. I wanted to make a real consumer product which people can use,” Pranav said. “ So, I thought of this crazy idea of putting a projector on my head and using a webcam as a digital eye to capture information.
The digital eye understands what my hand is doing, whether I am gesturing or holding a product or a piece of paper. Once it understands what I am doing, it can send the information to my laptop or any computing device in my backpack and the information can then be projected on any surface through a projector,” he added.

THE BILLION DOLLAR IDEA- STORY OF YAHOO - David Filo

2009-02-19T22:05:00.000-08:00

Back in 1993 when Jerry (Yang) and I were at Stanford, the web was non-commercial and was mainly used by universities and research labs. It was a totally different world all together. That is until we experienced the web using Mosaic, which had the capability to render rich graphics and support data and forms. This inspired me and Jerry to think, “Wow! there are a lot of possibilities here!”.
As we started to use the web more and more, we realised how difficult it was to find the stuff we were looking for. There were no directories or search services. This led us to start organising the web for ourselves. Eventually, we went on to catalogue the stuff that we were interested in. We categorised the links into a directory structure and loaded it on to a webpage. An unintended outcome of this effort was that other people could come and visit the webpage and find stuff they were looking for quite easily. Our friends started using it and slowly the word spread —here was a tool that you could use to find things that you need on the web.
Within a month people from around 30 countries started visiting our directory page. We started receiving submissions for useful things around the web and building on our list. And that was how we began to build a property as we know it today — looking at w e b - sites, cataloguing them and categorising them based on where they fit in the hierarchy.
We were quite passionate about our work to make the web more practical and usable. Eventually in 1994, what began as a tool that was meant to be used by me and Jerry became Yahoo! — a customised web database that thousands of people from across the world began to use regularly.
In the early days, none of us realised where things at Yahoo! were headed and how quickly we could unleash the potential of the web. We saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in the revolution the web was creating, though we did not yet know how to make it a viable business. While there were a lot of people who were looking at web ventures with business models in mind, we were really focused on the consumer experience — how can we create the highest value for the consumers who visited our site, how do we listen to what they want and deliver it to them.
Soon, we saw a rapid increase in the users visiting our site. We had managed to secure one million dollars in funding. While this was a big feat, we quickly realised that we would need more to keep pace with the highly dynamic and fast growing environment of the web. We needed more people to maintain the momentum. This motivated us to pause and think how we could generate revenues. So eventually, it was sometime in late 1995 that we signed up our first five advertisers and since then there was no looking back. Today, Yahoo! is one of the leading internet brands in the world and one of the most visited site on the web.
The author is the co-founder and Chief Yahoo, Yahoo!