Oracle Warehouse Builder Documentation On TechNet

Oracle Warehouse Builder Documentation on Oracle TechNet.

IndiaGames Web Site - IE Only!

I browsed over to the India Games web site today and got a rude surprise. A browser alert box popped up in my face saying, quite rudely, that the site needs IE 5.5 and above; other browser NOT SUPPORTED!

Well India Games, you just lost a potential customer. I use FireFox and have no intention of ever using IE.

Yet Another Rehashed Investment Article!

The Investment Gurus have nothing new to say! I for one am rather tired of reading the same old stuff rehashed over and over again. There are so many things about investing to talk about! But no. We see the same old stuff repeated.

Personalfn.com has republished an article by Business India called "5 Things To Do With Your Money".

And what are the 5 things?

1. Tax Planning
2. Retirement
3. Insurance
4. Contingencies Planning
5. Charity

What??? These are the 5 things to do?

Do your market research guys. We want value for our time and money. Start talking about all the other stuff.

Here are some ideas:

1. Mutual Funds: Exchange Traded Funds. These are new and could be explored further.
2. Gold: City wise analysis of what is on offer. List of retailers, jewelers, banks with cost break down and notes on reliability.
3. Stocks: Notes on Technical Analysis and related topics that will help educate investors.
4. Etc etc.

Any takers?

Article On Buying Gold (India)

PersonalFn.com has an interesting article on buying Gold from private retail Banks in India.

Good article. Worth a read. However they have left out critical information that essentially leaves the article crippled and incomplete. They claim that the investor must go hunting for alternatives to banks. They mention Branded Retailers. Who exactly are these? And what Jewelers have they spoken to? Is there an certification authority? How does the investor verify that the Jeweler who is charging less is in fact selling pure gold?

The article would be better if these questions were addressed. But a good read anyway.

Interesting Article on the Indian Media - Who Scans Media?

IBNLive.com has an interesting article called "Face The Nation: Who Scans Media?"

YES! The media needs to be judged. They have played a critical role in our nation for a very long time now. However I now see greed overtaking good intentions.

News, any news! As long as I get there first! And stay on it till I have wrung every single drop of news I can.

What of the cost? What of Anant and his kidnapping? Why was the media covering it so intensely? What if harm had come to the little boy because the kidnappers panicked?

Social Justice is a high ideal. The Jessica Lal case deserves the attention it gets because it is about the criminal and not the victim. When the media hounds the victim then they become the criminal.

Take care guys. Freedom is never free.

Anant is Back With His Parents!

Thank God! We are very happy that Anant is back home. We have been praying for the boy and his family. As parents ourselves we could understand the anguish of the little boy's parents.

The police have done a good job.

The media's role & intentions however are suspect. Would they have shared the blame if harm had come to the child? In their hunger for news, any news, they ignore the possibility of the media glare scaring the kidnappers into doing the child harm. And what of the child himself? Should he be paraded before the cameras after what he has just gone through?

Back off guys. Take a deep breath and ask yourself if what you are doing is the right thing to do. This is about the life of a small child. Your greed for revenue might have caused him harm.

The media is free in this nation. But that freedom comes with responsibility. If you cannot or will not be responsible then you do not deserve your freedom.

Live long and prosper Anant. Our blessings are with you.

The Samaj Printed Our Photo Of Prathamastami Pooja - Cont.

This is the photo that appeared in the Sunday, Nov 12, 2006 edition of The Samaj.

The Samaj Printed Our Photo Of Prathamastami Pooja

The Samaj is the leading Oriya daily newspaper. I remember my mother reading the Samaj when I was a child. She used to pick words from the paper for dictation tests. I was horrible at spelling, much to her despair.

Anyway, my parents called today to tell us that a photo of me blessing Mamli & Bablu (the photo titled Prathamastami Pooja on my family web page) has appeared in the Nov 12, 2006 edition of Samaj. Under an editorial about Prathamastami Pooja.

I immediately Googled for "Prathamastami" and got this results page. My photo is the first result. It seems to me that somebody at the Samaj editorial offices used the same search, liked the photo on my web site and decided to use it. Definitely a copyright violation but I don't think I will take it up with the newspaper.

By now all my relatives have seen the paper. Everybody but us here at Hyderabad. We don't get the paper here. Have asked Baba (my father) to save a copy and send me a scan of the relevant article. Will post it here when I get it.

In Training For The Next Three Days

I am in a in-house training on Oracle Warehouse Builder 10gR2. SO far it has been rather good.

WorldVision India

Today I received a mailer from an entity calling itself WorldVision. They were asking for money to sponsor a child. About Rs. 20/- a day. Not a large amount. Most middle class families can afford it.

I contribute to CRY every year. My little help-others-in-need program.

The WorldVision mailer and website almost made me reach for my cheque book. Then I arrested the movement and threw the mailer in the trash. Why? because of this:

Who We Are...

"World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organisation working to create lasting change in the lives of children, families and communities living in poverty and injustice."

Christian.

Somewhere on their website the organization claims to have no religious affiliation or preference. But they call themselves a Christian organization.

Why?

Drop that word and I will help. Retain it and you will get nothing from me, a Hindu Brahmin who is tired of the Christians and their so called humanitarian work.

The true humanitarian does not need a religious label.

Web2FTP.com is Back!

I noticed today that Web2FTP is available again. They have posted a new message at the top of the page saying:

"IP number and time are logged for backtracing purposes in any case of abuse !!!"

Not that I care. I am using this only to access my website's FTP server from work. From home I use FileZilla.

Cool. I am happy...