Leading Trump - Pradeep U.N. & his Blog about Nothing. : General Musings

The world is Flat. The Immigration requirements say otherwise.

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:26:00 GMT

Recently I completed listening to Tom Friedman's "World is Flat" on an audiobook had to agree with a lot of his statements, especially given how my life has been spawned over several countries and continents in the last decade. But when it comes to immigration requirements - I have to tell Mr Friedman - The world is still has a while to go before it really becomes more flat. Ofcourse Mr Friedman wouldnt mind - his book seemed a lot more focussed on how Americans (And ppl in developed countries) should innovate than worry abt ppl from developing countries are competing with them in brilliant ways.

Even though this post might could not be any more ill-timed given the recent developments (Terrorist attempts which were foiled) in the UK-Heathrow airport about it is still true: Travelling for most immigrants who are not part of the developed western world is not a walk in the park. Most of my American colleagues and good friends' vacation plans start and stop at scheduling tours, vacation packages, hotel and OOF (Out of Office) notices at Microsoft - they can walk into most countries for 90 days and out with just their passport, and credit cards.

On the 3rd edition of my "Hello World" Tours (I was lucky to go to abt 12 countries in Western Europe for 45 days after school in 2004, Egypt in 2005) - The plan for this year is to make it to Berlin and Prague during Labor Day Week for which as an Indian passport holder - I need 2 Visas.

Enter the concept of the "Tourist Visa" - the most easy annuity revenue for most countries. At an average of 50$ a pop the tourist visa for most countries last abt 30 days (Czech/Switzerland) - 2 yrs (Canada). But if the expenses do not get to you and the varied levels of paperwork required in propreitary formats: copies of insurance, bank statements, payslips, Tax forms, birth certificates etc - just raises your frustration - The fluctuating exchange rates (and therefore visa fees) combined with the non-updated websites - makes ur hands curl into fists - its the photo requirement that is usually the last straw that ultimately makes u ram that fist through a corkboard on the wall. Newton's third law does the rest. Action and reaction are equal and opposite. Well when your knuckles showcase the pain that your brain has had over the last few days in the immigration, Newtonian physics is the least of your issues.

The American Immigration which is one of the most stringent that I have faced have strict rules on their photos but the German "photo police" raised that bar in their document of "FotoMusterafel 2005" where it shows how you cant move, smile, laugh, turn, tilt or do anything but look like you were a zombie. A Zombie with all necessary documents. There are lot of similarities with the American rules - but the Germans also suggested that flash reflection on your face is Verboten! A little light on your glass? Nein Das ist verboten auch!

Ofcourse I do what every independent, self confident, well educated person from the biggest socialist democractic country in teh world would do - Comply to the last word.

But it does make me wonder - Why is this example (of Erika Mustermann) on the german photo-requirements website not complying to any of the guidelines mentioned in the FotoMusterafel 2005? But then again I cant figure out why an "Erika Mustermann" would apply for a German visa either.

WA Lawyer gets Both Speeding Tickets dismissed!

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:17:00 GMT

Late June, I had managed to get myself 2 tickets within a week which were to be contested at the Bellevue Court and one at the State court. The fines for the infractions were initially to about $300 (total) though the potential damage it could do to my insurance given that I drive a sunset-6spd 350Z Touring could have easily sky rocketed.

Enter Jeannie Mucklestone a lawyer who specializes in traffic-law in the state of Washington.

2 short Emails later the guidance she gave me was to snail-mail her the original citations and copies of the notice of hearing that I would receive from the courts. An agonizing silence that last 4 wks later - I get the good news snail mailed to me by her:

From the City Court: "The judge dismissed your case because my motions to suppress evidence were granted and there was not enough evident to find you committed the infraction..."

From the District Court: "The judged dismissed your case because the State did not meet their burden of proof after our motions to suppress were granted..."

What was really awesome about this (expensive) experience was that Jeannie absolutely minimized my involvement once I had her represent me. She took all the burden on her, didnt even have me go to the court during the hearing (both times) and got a great result. Brilliant and impressive.

The obvious question in my head - What does "Motion to suppress evidence" really mean?

Howe & Howe from NJ state: (The paragraphs below are cited from Howe&Howe's web pages)

"A motion to suppress evidence is a legal proceeding designed to challenge evidence on constitutional grounds."

How would this exactly work in a court?

"Defense counsel initiates the motion to suppress evidence by filing formal papers with the court. The prosecutor and defense counsel then submit legal arguments in an official document known as a brief. If there has been an arrest or a search without a warrant, then the prosecutor files the first brief. In the prosecutor’s brief, he or she must justify each step taken by the police. The defendant then responds with a legal brief explaining how and why the police violated the defendant’s constitutional rights."

"After the briefs are submitted, the court then holds a hearing with testimony and exhibits to resolve any contested issues. The state has the burden of proof at the hearing. If the court grants the motion to suppress evidence, then the prosecutor is barred from using the challenged evidence against the defendant in court."

Interesting read. And from experience - Great strategies on paper is one thing, to implement them consistently to get desired results is entirely another. And on that regard Law and Business have the same concept.

Thank you Jeannie Mucklestone :)

.. Does God have the lowest price or does He/She Value Price ?...

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 21:44:00 GMT

Scott Adams in his blog today makes a passing point abt "competitive strategies", and I quote:

"And what’s up with the people who pray for material things? If you believe that God answers prayers for merchandise, it means the gap between the Almighty creator of the universe and Walmart is closing.

God still has the lowest prices and widest selection, but how long can that last?"

Now to this assertion (That I do not really agree is true) and I have a question:

Why is God not Value-Pricing??

I know the one in Thirumala-Tirupathi (that I was taken to this summer when I was in India) does. Here is a wiki article about the temple for background:

"Hindus believe that this richest Hindu temple is the second most visited religious center after Vatican City. About 60,000 to 150,000 devotees visit the temple complex every day donating nearly $2 million every month (This number is NOT adjusted for PPP* Purchasing power parity). Complex queueing theories and emerging technologies have been evaluated and implemented to manage the large and unmanageable crowds by the TTD. The deity has also over 1000 kg of gold and diamond jewellery, making it one of the richest temple treasures."

Now back to the question - why is God not value pricing? At Tirupathi it is a working example of how value pricing works:

Sarvadarsanam (Visit for all): FREE as it is open for 50,000 ppl a day!!
Special Darshan Queues: For about $1-$1.5 (Token queuing system)
Morning Sevas (offerings): $3 (for batches of 200 ppl)
Special Morning seva: $5 (for batches of 1000 ppl)
Various levels of other (about 15) sevas: $25-$300 (for batches of 5-10 people)

Obviously for higher prices, the queue is shorter, quicker and the "time" in front of the main deity is longer. When I Was there we were on the $150 ticket which still meant we had to wait 4 hrs in a queue standing barefoot in Indian summer to get our time in the main idol, wherein the actual "viewtime" was about 30 seconds. If thatz for a top tier $150 ticket - go figure what it is like for the FREE crowd where 50,000 ppl queue at 70% humidity on a 120 degrees Indian summer!

*That* is Value pricing. And God does it excellently. Atleast in Tirupathi!

So Scott, I am not sure God has the lowest prices, but She/He defnitely does value price for a really vast portfolio.

The IKEA Effect meets the HelloKitty Frenzy.

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:38:00 GMT

Two words Heather - Marketing Power. That's my answer to Heather's "Does not Get it" question when she focuses her attention on IKEA and its maniacal shoppers. Allow me to respond with an even better example of MarketingPower that drove customer buying maniacal-frenzy of an even more scarier order.

Back during the millenium 6 years ago when I was in Singapore - the McDonald’s chain in Singapore introduced a series of 6 wedding costumed Hello Kitty dolls with the purchase of Happy Meals. Licensed to McDonald’s for its promotion by Sanrio, customers buying a Happy Meal were entitled to buy either a Hello Kitty or a Dear Daniel (her lesser known male counterpart) that came in matching wedding outfits at S$4.50 each. For each of the 6 weeks, a new pair of these dolls was introduced, each featuring a different wedding costume. The first saw the space age wedding outfits to celebrate the new millennium, culminating with the Chinese wedding. Wedding outfits from other nationalities such as Korean, Malay and even Indian were also featured. For each design, 400,000 pairs of Kitty and Daniel were produced. Each store received an average of 2,000 pairs to sell, depending on sales volume. Yes! Math geniuses - thats abt 200 McDonalds in the island of Singapore.

Did the IKEA-Effect happen? Well Yeaaah - only worse!

A Case study here describes this catfight in detail - "Demand for the dolls was unprecedented. People stood in endless queues overnight just to buy a pair. It was reported that some 250,000 people were waiting in queues even before the outlets were opened. Reports streamed in about fights, unruly behavior, and even molest as people queued for these dolls. Although the police were called in to control the crowd, jostling in the queues resulted in several fights. A glass door at a McDonald’s outlet shattered under the weight of the pushing crowd, injuring several customers. Several people were arrested in the process of purchasing the coveted dolls, while others were fined. There were also instances of fainting while queuing for the dolls. Some of the McDonald’s outlets were also forced to close to break the crowd. Besides such rowdiness among people in the queue, the long queues also created massive traffic jams."

"There were also some civic embarrassments. Singaporeans were more interested in the dolls than in the Extra Value Meals. Thousands of the hamburgers were strewn on the roads. People were not interested in eating them. They queued only for the dolls and threw away the meal set that had to be bought to buy the doll. The mindless throwing away of food fit for eating enraged the community. After the first five wedding sets were introduced in the first month, McDonald’s had raked in S$20 million from the meal-and-kitty set. A total of 2.8 million dolls were sold, and 12,000 meals were donated to charities by customers who were more interested in the dolls than in the meals."

This was Marketing Power on an overdrive which sold the product of Sanrio in a Channel of McDonalds with a really unique bundling to get an insanely frenzy demand that had only to be seen to be believed. The social consequences these had in relationships especially when you are in college (which I was then) was a great seat to view and understand this.

I do NOT think the IKEA effect comes close to mirror Hello Kitty. Wont you agree Heather ;)

Hate Meetings? Mr. Levitt: your going to have trouble if you joined Microsoft :)

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:39:00 GMT

The New York Times the other day talked about the problem with business meetings about too much time being spent in meetings per week. The Average as you can see from the graphic on the left is 4.34 hrs spent per week and about 2.28 hrs for Males and Females respectively.

Steve Levitt a prominent economist of our times writes .... "..Personally, I hate meetings. .One reason I left my job at the N.Y. Times after 5 years was because, as much as I admired and enjoyed many of the people in the back-to-back-to-back meetings, it was too hard to get any actual work done. I would sometimes look around, watch 20 talented and well-compensated people spending an hour batting around ideas, perhaps 2% of which would come to fruition, and mourn the loss of 20 man-hours and what could have been accomplished individually during that time …"

Well Steve, thats going to be tough in corporate Microsoft for sure. My average meeting hrs this week was about 24 hrs for the 5 day work week. But then again I'm sure a bestselling author wouldnt really care to be a Product Manager anyway :)

Game Theory and the Soccer WorldCup Penalty Shootout Rnd of 16

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 04:00:00 GMT

Yesterday, Levitt wrote this wonderful little piece about the Ukranian win over the Swiss in Penalty kicks where the Swiss apparently "took his advice" and shoot in the middle of the goal and Lost.

The advice I refer to is his paper on the predictions of game theory using penalty kicks in soccer.

Office12: Chunk up ur Outlook PST File - sayz the HelpDesk Police

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 22:58:00 GMT

On my migration from Office 2003 to Office 12 - Outlook went from slow to Stop.

After long calls with the IT Helpdesk the problem was resolved. My PST files were 1.8GB big, the recommended size is about 1 GB.

It took a good part of 4 hrs to chunk that up into smaller PST files before Outlook12 started working with a speed that warranted the usage of Outlook and producitivity in the same sentence. Summary - Large PST Files - Bad.

India Inc. On the latest edition of TIME Magazine...

Pradeep U.N. — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 20:02:00 GMT

Quite interesting that when India makes it to the covers that the foto to be chosen (Left) is a Bharathanatiyam dancer from South India. Especially when you realize that 5 out of 7 ppl polled typically would have said that the TajMahal as the first thing that comes to their minds when u say India. (The 6th one would say Curry and the 7th would say Infosys. :)). But I guess having the Taj with a satellite dish is not as pretty as a dancer with a headset :)

The cover story for this article lies here.

"Writers like to attach catchy tags to nations, which is why you have read plenty about the rise of Asian tigers and the Chinese dragon. Now here comes the elephant..." Now seriously - I like the whole imagery here, and love my indian elephants but cant we get a more agile animal-tag here to compete with the tigers and dragons?

A read into "Bombay Boom" another cover story, which describes the fundamental issues that have yet to be solved - does give an idea to why elephant might not a bad imagery after all.

Dammit Jim! Wherez my wallet?

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 02:12:00 GMT

Remember the mainframe concept of consolidation? Where all the CPU power, rules , data are all in one central server - and if that crashes all hell breaks loose? Well the way I maintain my wallet is not too dissimilar to that. All credit cards, cash, membership cards, IDs and licenses are all stored in one consolidated wallet - which makes for great efficiency in access.... till I lost track of it yesterday.

Therez an entrepreneurial idea - as soon as the distance from the wallet to the person who owns it increases by more than 10 yards - there is a mssg going on to alert my laptop, smartphone abt its location.

Question is - Whatz the business model? How does one make money out of this? For one - not losing a wallet would be a good starter.

6 wks away: What happened during my Blog Sabbatical?

Pradeep U.N. — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 23:22:00 GMT

SIX Weeks away from blogging and there have been several hallway conversations/ lunch-talks/ emails and several IMs about my "life after blogging"...

The forced mini-sabbatical was indeed to make sure the various moving parts happening here with re-orgs, role changes, newer responsibilities reached a steady-state before I captured any state of progress.

In other words - I'm Back :)

Thank you for all the emails that have been coming in through the blog asking if things were all well :)

Steeler Football ready for the seahawks in Superbowl..

Pradeep U.N. — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 10:26:00 GMT

3 days to SuperBowl XL and the team I support is playing the team of the city I live in.

This cartoon that I saw today pretty much supports the story that we keep hearing about the Steeler Football - trying to play the Seahawks!

Just decked a new Steelers banner across my office door here at Redmond to egg on the ppl arnd here at work. And it has been total fun!

Gooooo Steelers!

Indian Arranged Marriage - Wanted: A Curry Rice Girl.... Hilarious stuff :)

Pradeep U.N. — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:57:00 GMT

This video has been circulating the Distribution lists and emails for a while and it is absolutely hilarious. Set to the music of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl it has been "indianized" with the context of an Indian arranged marriage and for "the want of a curry-rice girl..."

U like my biyo-daataah? B-I-O-D-A-T-A ....

Sidesplitting stuff :)

Go Seahawks! Yet another town goes Football Crazy...

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 08:12:00 GMT

With the Terrible Towel adorning my office walls at Microsoft not to mention the mini-Steelers helmet on my shelf at work - its no secret where my NFL fan-loyalty lies - but seriously its interesting to note that the last 3 cities I have lived in have made it to the championships when I lived there!

First Pitt before they met the Pats a few yrs ago (when i lived there 2001-2004) - then the Eagles went to the Superbowl before the Pats decimated them last yr (when I lived in Philly in 2004/05) - and now the Seahawks when I moved to Seattle in 2005. (And Thank goodness Brady aint around this time to ruin any parties)

Of the 3 cities I always thought Pittsburgh is the most insanely crazy Football fans while the Eagles' can be meteorical in their rise and fall of loyalty and decibel levels - on an all year around basis. But this season nevertheless has seen Seattle reach new heights of insanity that I have never seen before - Literally!

Take a look at this photo - They have a 12th man flag atop of the Space Needle! My roomie, Erin who is a die-hard Seahawks fan (and a forced Huskies fan) also claims they have posters of the "12th man" on the tall sky scrapers around Seattle and Bellevue downtown. Pity we never do have clear skies to actually see any of that. Bring on the rain, bring on the fog, Win over the Panthers I say - and hope for a Steeler-Seahawk superbowl :)

Thanx to Kenny Wolf for this photo...

Too much BS in your documents?? No problem! Herez Bullfighter!

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 07:26:00 GMT

You might think this is a joke - its not!

A Team member on my group - Matthew Lehman discovered this epoch tool called BullFighter and forwarded it to our team minutes ago with the disclaimer "For people like me that can’t seem to form a sentence without inserting technical nonsense, it’s invaluable."

Bullfighter includes a jargon database and an exclusive Bull Composite Index calculator that will allow you to see -- in an actual window, on your PC display, live -- just how bad a document can be. Says their website.

What is curious is that this was developed by Deloitte.... Hmmm.... In..t.er..es..t..i.n.g!

Wonder what would happen if the BullFighter was unleashed on all documents at Bschools during our MBA days??? Lean Document Manufacturing with all the fat cut out ofcourse :)

Teens not interested in Science? Get Diane Kruger to play Geek...

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 02:05:00 GMT

No seriously that is the option. Or maybe Brad Pitt too.

BBC News had a survey among 11,000 adolescents recently about science and scientists and came up with the response that over 70% of them said scientists are not seen as "normal and young attractive men and women"

They all agreed aleast 80% of them did that scientists did "important work" and 70% said they did that "creatively and imaginatively".Throw in the fact that enrollments for science and math are declining at rapid proportions.

Assuming the kids want to work in a position of importance and be creative and imaginative What is obvious from this is that looking normal, young and attractive is more important than really doing important creative work! Well these are adolescent kids... but still!

Hence the Solution - Diane Kruger. :)