Wish you all Happy Holidays and a very Happy New year!!

2010 was fantastic year by all means. It was very happening year both from personal and professional perspective. Had a great time.. Lots of new of first things..

Started regular blogging!!
Had a great international experience and total perspective change..
Great time with family and kids...

what's up for 2011... I think I will be targeting something new and adventurous. Don't know yet but definitely do something challenging..

Cheers!!

WikiLeaks' Assange Freed on Bail

WikiLeaks' Assange Freed on Bail

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released on bail and headed for an English country estate, where he is set to remain under "mansion arrest" as the U.K. decides whether to extradite him to Sweden.

From WSJ:

By PAUL SONNE

LONDON—WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released on bail Thursday night and headed for an English country estate, where he is set to remain under "mansion arrest" as the U.K. decides whether to extradite him to Sweden for questioning over sexual-misconduct allegations.

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European Pressphoto Agency

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange celebrates as he emerges to speak to the media on the steps of London's High Court.

Mr. Assange's release was the latest development in an odyssey in which—amid criticism from the U.S. government over the release of thousands of classified documents—he has become enmeshed in sex-related allegations that ultimately led to his arrest in the U.K. last week.

The 39-year-old Australian had been held in U.K. police custody for nine days on a European arrest warrant issued by Sweden on the sex accusations. He was granted release from prison on £200,000 ($310,880) bail Thursday, after a U.K. court struck down an appeal that sought to keep him in custody as a flight risk.

"I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter," Mr. Assange said after exiting the Royal Courts of Justice in London around 6:00 Thursday evening. He thanked his supporters, his lawyers, those who provided money for his bail and the British justice system.

"During my time in solitary confinement in the bottom of a Victorian prison, I had time to reflect on the conditions of those people around the world also in solitary confinement," Mr. Assange said after his release, advocating for the rights of fellow prisoners.

Mr. Assange was initially granted bail on Tuesday, but British litigators acting for Sweden quickly appealed that ruling. In a hearing on Thursday, the U.K. High Court turned down the appeal.

Julian Assange comments to the press and public outside a London courthouse, thanking those who support him and WikiLeaks. He states that his release is a sign that "justice is not dead yet."

As he awaits a formal extradition hearing early next year, Mr. Assange must wear an electronic monitoring tag, observe a curfew, check in with police every day and spend every night at the same location—an estate in the English village of Bungay, northeast of London. Mr. Assange is expected to appear in court next on Jan. 11.

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AFP/Getty Images

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is led into London's High Court on December 16, 2010.

The Georgian manor where Mr. Assange will be confined, Ellingham Hall, is owned by former British journalist Vaughan Smith and set on hundreds of acres. Mr. Assange's attorneys have jokingly referred to his confinement there as "mansion arrest."

Mr. Smith, a former captain in the British army, started the Frontline Club, an organization for journalists in London that supports freedom of the press and free speech. Mr. Smith met Mr. Assange for the first time in July before an event at the Frontline Club, according to the lawyer representing Swedish judicial authorities at Thursday's hearing.

The U.K. appeals-court judge on Thursday added further conditions to Mr. Assange's bail—requiring that he stay confined to the "bricks and mortar" portion of the country estate and necessitating that more people, known as "sureties" in the British legal system, be held liable for Mr. Assange's whereabouts.

Sweden's case against Mr. Assange comes as his website, WikiLeaks, continues to cause a firestorm by gradually leaking thousands of classified cables. Earlier this year it released thousands of classified files about the war in Afghanistan.

Swedish prosecutors have alleged that Mr. Assange raped one woman and molested another over the course of a single week in August, when he was visiting Sweden for a seminar, but they haven't filed formal charges against him.

One of the Swedish women alleges Mr. Assange forcibly held her arms and prevented her from moving, and had sexual intercourse with her without using a condom, despite knowing the prophylactic was a prerequisite for her. The other woman alleges Mr. Assange had sex with her while she was asleep, again failing to wear a condom despite knowing she required it.

Assange Archive Videos

• WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Granted Bail
• Assange Granted Bail, Will Remain in Custody
• WikiLeaks Founder to Fight Extradition
• WikiLeaks Chief Arrested Over Rape Allegation

Mr. Assange has denied the allegations and called them a smear attempt. His attorney, Mark Stephens, said in an interview last week that he believes the Swedish case is a "holding offense" that allows authorities to detain Mr. Assange while the U.S. builds a case against him. Sweden, however, has denied the case is politically motivated.

At Thursday's appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, Mr. Assange was expressionless as he sat in an iron cage, wearing a dark suit and a white shirt. Two security officers guarded him; his mother had come from Australia to watch from the gallery.

Gemma Lindfield, the British lawyer representing Sweden, tried to paint a picture of a rootless Mr. Assange being able to easily abscond before extradition, thanks to access to cash from WikiLeaks supporters. He "leads a nomadic lifestyle," has "weak community ties" to the U.K. and travels extensively, Ms. Lindfield said.

She also warned that the British residents vouching for Mr. Assange and offering money as collateral for his bail were fighting for a cause rather than giving personal assurances. Many had met him only a few months ago, she said, arguing that if Mr. Assange were to flee, his supporters might approve his move as a righteous act of protest by citing an international conspiracy and the supposed impossibility of a fair trial.

Geoffrey Robertson, the trial lawyer representing Mr. Assange, dismissed those claims. "There is not an iota of evidence" showing Mr. Assange is likely to flee, Mr. Robertson said—not "a single concrete block or even a pebble."

"There is no evidence that he has access to money," Mr. Robertson said. "His accounts have been closed down. As it happens, he is not a wealthy man."

Mr. Robertson added that fleeing would severely damage the reputation of Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks, and dismissed the notion that his client did not trust the justice system: "The idea that he has no faith in British justice is entirely wrong."

Mr. Robertson also noted that the rape allegation brought against Mr. Assange in Sweden carried maximum jail time of one year, with the sentence often reduced for good behavior. "He has no great fear of what will happen to him in Sweden," the lawyer said.

The Swedish prosecutor's office said Thursday that the decision to release Mr. Assange on bail wouldn't affect the continuing investigation into sexual-misconduct charges. "The matter of extradition is now handled by British authorities," Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny said in a statement.

Write to Paul Sonne at paul.sonne@wsj.com

U.S. seeks to build WikiLeaks conspiracy case

My heart sinks while reading these kind of news.. I really can't understand why these bureaucrats are wasting time on trying to suppress this information. By doing all these things they are actually fueling this fire further more. They need to think bout them as past and move forward. Fix their own language of communication and make sure that there is nothing offensive in their communication.

It is just vanilla truth.. however bitter, truth is truth.. it should never be suppressed. First of all, I feel that these kind of things shouldn't even be classified. If they have so bad details that they are becoming security risk then they shouldn't even be created or written in first place.. 

Honestly, I didn't expected this from President Obama. I was thinking that at some point he will come forward and say that enough is enough and let us move forward. But, he is coming out to be hopeless president. at least on this case..

Here is the damn article which made me write again for the day..
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BF0KQ20101216


WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 15, 2010 10:57pm EST
(Reuters) - Federal prosecutors are looking for any evidence WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange conspired with a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking classified government documents, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

U.S. Justice Department officials were trying to determine whether Assange encouraged or helped Private Bradley Manning extract classified military and State Department files from a government computer system, the newspaper said.

If he did, officials believe Assange could be charged as a conspirator in the leak, not just as a passive recipient of the documents who then published them, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the case.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the report.

The Justice Department has been looking into a range of criminal charges, including violations of the 1917 Espionage Act, that could used to prosecute the WikiLeaks case.

Prosecutors were studying an online chat log in which Manning is said to claim he had been directly communicating with Assange while downloading government files, The New York Times reported.

Manning bragged about his exploits to former hacker Adrian Lamo, who then turned him into the authorities, Lamo told Reuters.

Manning has been detained at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia after being charged in July with improperly obtaining a classified video showing a 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists.

Assange has been held in a London jail after being arrested in connection with an unrelated investigation by Swedish authorities into alleged sex crimes in that country.

Some legal experts have said it would be difficult for the Obama administration to prosecute WikiLeaks or Assange, who is an Australian citizen, for espionage. Other parts of U.S. law, however, make it easier to prosecute people for unauthorized disclosure of certain classified information.

Twitter Valued at $3.7 Billion in Funding

Twitter Valued at $3.7 Billion in Funding

Twitter said it has raised a round of funding that valued the company at $3.7 billion, becoming the latest Web start-up to attract a multibillion-dollar valuation.

Personally I think twitter is not going to sustain for long time. It was interesting concept however, it was big fad and still it is big fad. I feel that it has limited utility in terms of usage. With proliferation of smart phones and apps with built in notifications in emails/facebooks and other news apps like (CNBC/CNN), twitter will have limited usage. Unless we want information overload, or if I don't have anything to do, I rarely go to twitter.

What do you think? on other hand, I think, pie is big enough that it will take care of Twitter as well... It is interesting and yet so simple concept that it will sustain test of time.. 

Train to nowhere

Interesting to read and hear so much excitement around new railway line being built between San Francisco and LA area. As part of first phase, we are starting on segment which is called as "Train to nowhere". Some 65 miles high speed track costing Four Billion USD between two cites which haven't been heard by any one outside those cites..
However, when you read rationale and logic of those in-charge of project they do make sense..  All kind of logic like cheap, faster and most importantly that no one will like to hear and own term called "Train to nowhere" so they will get funding for entire project.
Generally I am supported of public transport projects like this. However, I feel that without proper ecosystem around these projects they are going to be failure. As per current estimates, cost of ticket between SFO and LA will $120, which is expected to go up as project will be invariably delayed and will continue to cost more. Right now, you can easily find air ticket deal for $60/70 between SFO and LA. I don't know why will I pay double the amount for train.. May be better scenery for longer time? I can't comprehend this project's idea.. It is novel project based on great charity at the most..

iPad Revolution

I was reading this article in WSJ:

IPads as Weapon in Medical Sales

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703493504576007723119984758.html

Nutshell... iPad is changing way we work, live, enjoy and may be even sleep (my dad loves when his iPad is used as night clock providing him both night light and time which some how he has to check 4-5 times!!!). 

Well this article was about pharma companies doling out iPad to all of their sales force and putting all literature and sales demos/tools in iPad. I don't know where we will go with this.. 


Honestly, I was very skeptical when iPad was announced almost a year back. I was comparing it with apple TV and made big time fun of my cousin who posted on his facebook that he wants iPad.. Well I have to agree now that he proved right!!


So, what is the reason with such a huge success of iPad. I guess, it is few basic things which despite being obvious, none of the other manufacturers could understand or able to do it. I could shortlist Usability and Graphics as one the finalists which makes Apple products so much lovable. Nobody could beat them in terms of usability.. I agree. they are number one for long time.. however, I can't understand what is wrong with graphics. Why can't anybody else render graphics as they do. Starting from iPhone to iPad to their MAC line. It is simply amazing.. I watch DVDs on my macbook and they are almost blu-ray quality on TV. even with dismal MAC machine configuration, they simply do amazing job when it comes to Graphics rendering.


However, another aspect is.. it makes you so addicted to iPhone.. sometimes if I forget it at home.. I feel so lonely :-) as if something is missing from my life.. there is some kind of confidence when I have iPhone with me. I don't need anybody else if I have any question.. I can simply google on it.. Well that is just me.. But definitely iPad and similar devices are going to change way we work, play and live and off course sleep!!!


Cheers!!

Hackers Strike Back to Support WikiLeaks

One of headline on WSJ. Though I am against any form of violence but from bottom of heart I like this news. Honestly, I am kind of against Pay Pal and MasterCard for budging so easily under government threat. It is really shame that these companies despite being based in Silicon Valley participated in these crimes. 

I have decided to shut down my Pay Pal account and Cut down all my master cards in protest. I guess, if we can start some kind of revolution against these companies who are helping to suppress all the truth.. I was looking for pages/sites where we can start something like that. Didn't find anything good. May be it is time to start something like that. Here is the news article:

 

===============

A growing list of organizations and individuals that have tangled with WikiLeaks and its detained founder, Julian Assange, have suffered online attacks, in what appears to be an effort by hackers bent on exacting revenge for the document-leaking website.

The attacks stepped up Wednesday, a day after Mr. Assange was arrested and denied bail in London in connection with sexual-misconduct accusations in Sweden. A range of organizations, including MasterCard Inc., and the Swedish prosecutor's office, reported technical difficulties with their websites that appear to stem from so-called denial of service attacks, in which computers flood a server to prevent it from displaying a Web page.

The attacks in recent days have hit eBay Inc.'s PayPal as well as MasterCard, both of which have pulled services from WikiLeaks in recent days. Also affected: Swiss bank PostFinance. The unit of Swiss Post recently closed Mr. Assange's account, saying he provided a false address in Geneva, failing to meet the bank's requirement of Swiss residency for account holders. While the attacks caused some business disruption, they were mostly annoying rather than crippling.

Nice, Funny and Pleasing song..

Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yihq8BIhL9c&feature=player_embedded

Courtesy my lovely niece Pooja!!

Obama's Tax Deal with Republicans

At first it really made me furious. I felt that he has ditched his promise. Which is true whatever the explanation Mr. Obama might have. Even though he say that this is what US voters have given decision by making Republicans win mid-term elections. However, he is the one who was not able to convince US voters for his policies. In any case, let us go back to real topic of this so called deal on Bush Tax Cuts. Looking at the deal details, it seems that they are trying to give another shot of Stimulus without calling it stimulus. Deal is going to cost US exchequer almost half a trillion dollars.  almost 1.5 billion USD every day..

I don't know from where they are going to recover this money.

However, his today's speech on this tax deal or compromise was very good and after listening to it he really makes you feel guilty for 15-30 minutes. After that once your senses are back you still end up feeling that you have been cheated.  Nevertheless, I really admire his talking skills. He does seem to be very honest and gentleman and very convincing. In-directly he was blaming Republicans about this deal. However, next elections are two years away and with such a short memory of US voters, they would have forgotten about this incidence all together.

Cheers!!!

What defines us?

I was thinking about our own perception about ourselves. What do we think about ourselves? Is it really our own perception or what other people think or tell us. Why can't our brain be simply content with it's own perception. Why it is always seeking other's opinion or perception...

Most of the time we value opinion from the people we love or whom we look at. Nothing wrong about it as long as it doesn't start influencing our own perception. You should listen to every one whom you consider as your own but you decide or act or think what you (or we) think that is right without getting yourself influenced by them,,

Once we start changing our own perception based on others perception we are simply letting our life governed by them and simply lost control of our own life ourselves. We become highly reactive and emotional to someone else. We let others control our life instead our own control.

How can we stop this from happening?? I guess this is real yoga to believe in yourself and stop reacting to what others and society thinks about you or your acts. At the same time if everyone starts thinking like this then I don't know what will happen to our society. By this opinion criminal is as right as any other great leader or person. Ignoring these kind of extreme corner cases... I believe that you need to be really honest and brave to be able to act and define yourself. Honesty and truth to yourself is first stepping stone for bravery and hence first foundation stone to define yourself. and best of all no one else knows better than you yourself about your own honestly and truthfulness...

Since we know so little about our own brain, I think it is this discovery which made all these great men really great. This is never ending thought process but I think this is it for today.

Cheers!!

Can manufacturing ever come back to US

I was reading one article written by Andy Grove in Bloomberg on manufacturing jobs in US as suggested by my good old friend Amit.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-01/how-to-make-an-american-job-before-it-s-too-late-andy-grove.html

It is very sincere effort and in all probability he is right about it. It was biggest mistake by US policy makers in 80s to let manufacturing slip out of US. That shouldn't have never been allowed in first place. Without good manufacturing base in high tech US is mostly dependent on rest of the world for most of the basic needs for goods. However, fact is that most of the manufacturing has already gone out and whatever is remaining, is going out continuously.. Unless federal or state governments subsidize local industry or penalize import, manufacturing in US is not going to come back..

Question is, whether it is worth bringing back. Honestly it is dirty work and no body wants to do it here. If we were really good and passionate about manufacturing we would have survived cheap workforce syndrome of Mexico, China, far east.. Honestly, I feel, once Henry Ford started assembly line system for manufacturing it made it pretty boring and this boredom was responsible for poor manufacturing performance out here in US.  Otherwise why didn't we improvise on our manufacturing, way Japanese did it and even with higher cost basis for labor we could have kept it here. Basically, I feel that assembly line kind of manufacturing is/was very much opposite to Free and Creative spirit of Americans. It was/is pretty mundane with same task keep on doing like robots. That is what Japanese did, automated it and worked hard on building Robots. We didn't...

Our Policy makers thought that we will have enough jobs designing and engineering robots (or machines for assembly lines). Which was true in beginning. But they forgot to see future.. Once you have basic manufacturing revolution, you start developing adjacent technologies and slowly creep into other design, engineering, testing and other fun stuff. Where as once you don't have it (like in US), you start loosing touch with this so called fun stuff which you had hoped that it will continue generating employment. Now, even companies who make these kind of machinery for manufacturing (I guess, AMAT kind of companies) also started moving work to these countries so they can be closer to their customers and market.

Other fundamental breakdown with this policy happened when US policy makers failed to reform education along with this shift in manufacturing. They thought that US will be doing high value R&D and other managerial kind of jobs and let these manufacturing and call center go out. When these mid category jobs were going and there was surge in high end jobs there were no local man power to support There were not enough students coming out of college to take up these high tech jobs and that forced US companies to go out and even off shore these jobs in India and many other developing economies. Slowly this set up took effect and these US companies got addicted to lower cost of doing R&D in offshore. So US ultimately started loosing these high tech jobs as well.

So what now? The only hope is with Bio Tech or similar areas.. Unless republican's don't mess it up.. I guess. There has to be some next Quantum leap which will spur growth and hopefully we will be ready for it and won't miss the boat. US policy makers need to make sure that there is enough emphasis on education in K-12 and subsequent University system so we can't miss this opportunity. Also, this time if we are able to get this kind of Quantum leap we should be able to keep complete eco-system of R&D, Design, Engineering, Manufacturing and QA in house. Even if it means that we provide some kind of subsidy to local entrepreneurs.

Otherwise, very soon my kids may be in line to get Indian/Chinese green Cards so that they can work there.

Unemployment benefits

It is really sad to see unemployment benefits getting expired for Four million Americans right when holiday season is kicking off. I wish our politicians more focussed on real people's issues instead of just fighting each other on useless partisan issues like tax break extension and other issues.

I liked optimism of President Obama about this unemployment and other issues which are under negotiation table. I guess he is very cool and confident about resolving these issues before congress breaks away for holidays. If I was on his place, I would have been critical about Republicans and given them my piece of mind. Well, that could be the reason I am not President.

Another thought about these unemployment benefits. Apparently these are expiring for around four million people who are still unemployed after one and half years. Even though I am in favor of extending due to holidays at this time, but there has to be another solution. Obviously, other solution is that get these four million people jobs. But apparently we don't have jobs. What I heard and read about unemployment in this recession is that it is even worse due to extremely bad real estate. Due to bad real estate,  many of these peoples are stuck at same place and are unable to move to places which might have jobs for them.

What do we do now... Fed is doing everything in their power to boost real estate market. But they are at the most able to hold real estate prices. Without their support for mortgage backed security, mortgage rates could be easily double of what they are right now and may be real estate prices further half of what they are right now.

However, in my view government should start encouraging people to move. Give them some benefit or incentive so they can move and go to places where there are higher chances of getting job. Make this sub-prime mortgage easier to ditch and move to places where there is demand for their skills. Start some kind of program where if they move, say more than 1000 miles and are able to get job within 30/60 days they will be gives some extra benefit.. May be 10K moving bonus.

What else could be done.. another idea.. offshore your human resources.. Americans are trained to be excellent sales/marketing and managers. May be start some program, let us say instead of paying them unemployment benefits at home, government will give them half the amount if they decide to move to Middle east, India, China, Brazil, Russia or any country outside of USA. That way these people will see the world and gain some good experience and even help the country where they will move. At this moment, with all of our economies interlocked, any nations' prosperity will percolate to rest of the countries. That way we may have even better world!!

US Budget Deficit

There are lot of news and action going on how to contain US budget deficit. How to stop Social Security from getting solvent in next 5-10-15 or whatever number of years..

Based on our traditional knowledge of basic business, there are only two ways.. Either you cut expenses or increase revenue. Everyone understands and almost no one likes cuts.. These kind of cuts could be delayed benefits and/or cuts to rich and ultra rich people.

However, increase in revenue though not simple but definitely achievable.. One is increase tax revenue.. couple of models proposed like reducing or eliminating tax benefits on Mortgage interest.This alone is suppose to generate 300 Billion USD more every year. and can be substantial to cover lot of entitlement expenses. However, given housing market condition this is unlikely to fly. Though it seems to be very good solution..

But all these things are penny as compared to revenue and growth which were generated during dot com boom. Don't we remember how much surplus we were during dot com boom time. Well, one thing we need to make sure that we don't elect somebody who can blow all the money in tax rebates and fighting some useless wars.

In any case, why the hell we don't work on some thing like that and try to fill US treasury coffers. Why don't we think about creating some other boom.. say in biotech.. may be make it target that by 2020 you can get brand new kidney for say 10K or Heart for 30K or lungs for 25K. or something else.. create some kind of Organ boom..  or whatever Bio-Tech could do. or some other boom like space travel race.. or say that by 2030 we should have colony on MARS.

We should spend our energy in creating these kind of growth booms rather than think how we can cut penny here and there.