rantlust

Posted by crewcut on September 25th 2007 in Economics, Environment
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When we moved into our new home, we made sure all the lights we used most often had CFLs. Following the 80-20 rule on lights seemed the most practical option given that I would have to spend only an extra Rs 1500 on those few CFLs instead of > Rs 5000 if we had CFLs everywhere.

Recently, I identified the “Tier II” lights that could use CFLs. So I bought a Rs 200 CFL to replace the existing Rs 10 bulb in a light that was used for about an hour everyday. The problem that I didn’t expect to face, was that I had no idea what to do with the perfectly good bulb that was replaced.

There weren’t any empty sockets to plug it into. I didn’t want to keep it as a spare, because if another bulb blew, that would be a good opportunity to use yet another CFL. It could have been donated to the domestic help to use at their house but that wouldn’t save any electricity at the macro level. The last option was to break the bulb and dispose it.

This bulb dilemma is a good reflection of most energy efficiency initiatives and or initiatives to reduce CO2. When there is a new initiative or project and if there is enough money to invest, it’s easy to “buy new CFLs” and save money through efficiencies. The problem is with existing assets. How much money can one spend to upgrade these and what does one do with the residual value of replaced assets? It’s difficult to find projects with no upfront or ongoing costs.

Now the question is, what do I do with the bulb lying on my table?

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Posted by crewcut on August 19th 2007 in India, Politics
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When I was in school and college, Indian politicians used to attribute their failures to the “Phoren Hand” (Foreign Hand). This most often referred to the Americans and the CIA. You hardly hear of it now and I guess that generation of politicians and journalists have passed.

The Indian left parties that support the coalition UPA government are threatening to pull the plug if the government signs the nuclear cooperation treaty with the US. Whether the government will stay in power or not is uncertain but what is certain is the fact that the nuclear deal is doomed despite US threats that it’s either now or never.

Who is the biggest loser? India as a whole, as we will miss our target of 20,000 MW of power generation coming from nuclear sources by 2020. Lack of electricity will put a slow brake on the growth of our economy and wouldn’t a certain neighboring communist Asian superpower like to see that happen?

Maybe this is why the Indian communists have been so busy opposing economic reforms of the Central government ever since the UPA government has come into power, while in their own playground of West Bengal, reforms are going at full steam turning the state into an economic powerhouse.

What’s sauce for the goose is obviously not sauce for the gander or is there a “Phoren Hand” stirring the pot?

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Posted by crewcut on November 20th 2006 in Disease, Statistics
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A final year MBA student from my alma mater committed suicide last week after having been diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Disease, a fatal genetic disease.

According to Wikipedia, the highest occurrence of NPD is in the Ashkenazi Jewish community, with an incidence of 1 in 40,000. Given this incidence and a test accuracy of 99.9%, the chance of actually having the disease, if tested positive, is just 2.4%. If the test accuracy fell to 99%, the chances drop to 0.25%.

Could this be a case of the test providing a False Positive?

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Posted by crewcut on October 26th 2006 in Branding, Business, Law, Rants
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Google is getting touchy about how people are using “google” as a verb. It’s okay to say that you googled for something if you actually used Google but they don’t want you googling for information elsewhere.

From the way the post liberally uses the word “lawyer” it looks like they are quite serious about not letting the brand go the Xerox way.

Wake up lawyers, is there anything you can really do to stop this?

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Posted by crewcut on October 03rd 2006 in Auto, Cars
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After successfully catalysing the sub-orbital space travel industry, the
X Prize Foundation is now trying to push the limits of automobile efficiency through the Automotive X PRIZE. The prize for the first car to run 100 MPG is rumoured to be $25 million.

PS Anousheh Ansari has her own “space” blog.

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Posted by crewcut on August 23rd 2006 in Blogs, Business, Rants
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This is Broken is a blog which lists really dumb things that companies do. Here’s an example of something that’s broken: in Microsoft Outlook (and probably in other email clients) if you Reply to a email in the Sent folder, it puts only your name in the To line. Logical but useless and very annoying.

Seth Godin gives a really nice talk (20 mins), at the Gel Conference 2006, with lots of illustrations about things that are “broken.” How can anyone make a signboard that reads, “SOCCER MAY ONLY BE PLAYED IN ARCHERY RANGE”?

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Posted by crewcut on August 10th 2006 in Food & Wine, Humor, Mathematics, Rants
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Hi, welcome to Subway
     Hi,
How can I help you?
     I’d like some lunch… how about a fresh sub?
Sure, you can choose between a Veggie Delite, Ham, Turkey Breast, Turkey Breast & Ham, Roast Beef, Oven Roasted Chicken Breast, Subway Club, or a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub
     Hmmm, I’ll have the Turkey Breast
What bread would you like to have that with? We have Italian, Wheat, Honey Oat, Italian Herbs & Cheese, or the Deli-Style Roll.
     Make it Wheat
(Read more…)

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Posted by crewcut on August 03rd 2006 in Developing Nations, Disasters, India, Rants, Roads
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Till last weekend, I have never seen any place in India with roads that are consistently good everywhere. At best, you will find a few highway stretches on the Golden Quadrilateral that are of international quality. [Great NYT article on the Golden Quadrilateral.]

Over a 3-day sojourn in Goa, I was amazed by the consistent quality of the road surface everywhere I went. There were small things that together made a big difference. A smooth and even pothole-free surface, clear white lines down the middle and on both sides, and lastly small but very clear and standardised signboards at every junction.

Such a simple formula seemed to transform narrow 2-lane roads into a driver’s paradise. Bangalore roads are a nightmare at best. Most roads, even though they are 4-lanes wide, have pockmarked surfaces and unnerving undulations. The lines drawn down the middle look like they were done by Pablo Picasso.

I gave up looking at Bangalore signboards after I saw one that had three arrows pointing to K R Circle, K H Circle, and K G Road. In addition to the information being useless, the signs at each junction are of different sizes, colours, and formats making the process of finding a road sign among the sea of billboards, ads, and shop signs impossible when you have 5 seconds remaining to catch the green signal.

This is all of course if the roads exist after being dug up by various telephone companies running fibre optic cables, works department building sewers, water authorities installing pipes, electric companies laying cables, and locals tapping new water connections. Normally all this activity happens after a new road has been laid.

I travelled around quite a bit and didn’t see a single instance of road damage anywhere in Goa.

The government always blames the poor condition of Kerala’s roads on the monsoon. The monsoon rains in Goa are of no less intensity but the roads look straight out of America. So much for excuses.

When will our other states learn from Goa?

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