Working at a Startup vs Big Company

Quite often you hear people boasting about their employer(or themselves), "I am working with Infosys..., I am with Wipro..., Cognizant...". I've been working for more than 6 years now and of-course, I have my own reasons for vouching on Startups compared to these big companies. My career started in a small start-up where the CEO/MD of the company knows every employee by his/her name; and every employee knows his CEO not just by name!
A year ago, I linked up with one of the big organisations and the professional and cultural difference made my mind think and compare my present and past experiences. It tried to create a poise but I was more inclined towards the Startups for many reasons:

1. Responsibility, Accountability: 
At a startup it’s unavoidable to have lots of responsibility and accountability. There’s no doubt, too, that being at a startup will put you in a position to make a huge impact. If you do amazing work the entire company and all of its customers will benefit from it. And you’ll be loved for it. You’ll get notes from the CEO and other leaders complimenting you on how awesome your work is. On the flip side, if you make a big mistake, the whole company pays for it. But keep in mind that most startup cultures prefer agility and speed to cautiousness. It’s likely that your mistake won’t actually get you in trouble, as long as you were trying to do the right thing.

2. Risk: 
working at a startup is riskier. The startup likely isn’t profitable, and probably only has at most 12-18 months worth of money in the bank (this is called the startup’s runway). If the company does very well, the CEO will raise more money and extend the runway. You’ll still have a job and each round you’ll get a salary closer and closer to market rate (more about this later). If the startup doesn’t do well, you’ll be out of a job when the startup runs out of money. But you’ll be forewarned if the CEO is transparent — most of them are in earlier stages. A startup is risky because you’re building something from nothing. You’re doing something ridiculously hard because you believe in it and want nothing more than to see it succeed (this part I love the most). You’re not failing even when all the odds are against you. You’re the underdog in many ways.

And by the way, if you’re a good engineer you’ll have zero issue finding another job. Zero. Every company in software, big and small, needs more good people. This trend won’t change for a long, long time, either.

3. Opportunities for generalists (This point perhaps is more focused on me): generalists don’t do well at big companies. Big companies want you to be really, really good at that little thing you spend all your time on. Not at a startup. Although specialization is still important at most startups, there are far more opportunities at startups for generalists. I’m defining generalists as people that have interests in one field or many fields. For example, if you want to be an engineer and work on the website, the data infrastructure, and the mobile app, you’ll love a startup. Similarly, if you’re an engineer and want to get your hands dirty in marketing or recruiting or whatever, a startup is also a great place for you to learn and grow. To be totally clear, I’m not saying specialists don’t do well at startups — they do incredibly well. Generalists, however, don’t do well at large companies. 

4. Ownership and leadership: 
At a big company you need to wait years and years to become a true leader with big ownership. Not at a startup. If you’re awesome you’ll be able to grow and move up in your career far faster. Mark Zuckerberg would have never been given a CEO role at a big company he started working for after college. The only way he could find himself at the top of an organization is by starting it, or in the general case by joining a super small team. Your career will be accelerated in a major way by joining a startup.

5. Transparency: 
Startups usually have far more transparency than big companies. You’ll know why the CEO decided to raise a new round of funding, or why a VP of marketing was hired, or why the company decided to open a new arm of business, or how the CEO did the recent round of investment. There will always be information that isn’t shared, though, for example salaries and equity compensation, certain board meeting information, and certain sensitive investor information. But in general every other decision made about the company will be transparent. You’ll get to see how the company grows, why certain decisions were made, and how the company reacts to competitors and business plan changes. All of this will teach you about business and prepare you to do your own startup one day.

6. Company culture: 
You get to help define it. A company will be, for the most part, an extension of the founders’ personalities. But especially in the early stages you’ll have a huge impact on the culture of the company as well. You’ll be in a position to define company-wide celebratory goals, or traditions that the team rallies behind. At the end of the day a startup is just a few people in a room. If you’re one of those people your personality will rub off on everyone else and you’ll help create a company that is as much a part of you as you are of the company.

7. Hiring: 
You’ll probably do a lot of interviews, and you’ll be part of the decision to hire or not hire someone. I interviewed candidates more experience then me. Even if you’re right out of school you’ll still be asked to interview. Of course, if you don’t like interviewing, you’ll only need interview potential team mates. If you’re an engineer you’ll only interview other potential engineers.

8. Financial incentive: 
In general your salary will be lower than at a big company, but your equity, or ownership in the company, will be significantly bigger. Depending on the stage of the company you join, you’ll be granted anywhere from a few percentage points to a micro fraction of a point. If the company is bigger, you’ll get fewer shares and your salary will be more inline with the market rate. If the company is smaller, your salary will be smaller and your equity will be far greater. Equity has a long, long tail, meaning the first 5-10 employees get significantly more equity than all other employees that follow, with certain exceptions for executives. This is especially true for the first and second hires, though.

A little more about stock: if you join a company that is already doing incredibly well, you probably won’t get enough stock to retire unless the company turns into the next Facebook or Google. In most cases, you’ll only get retirement money if you’re one of the first five employees. Otherwise you’ll get a large down payment on a nice house, assuming the startup does well of course  . Let me say that all again: except in very rare occasions like Facebook or Google, you can’t expect to join a company that is already killing it and hope that you’ll retire on the money your equity brings.

9. Politics: 
I’ve never heard of a company with more than 50 people that didn’t have politics. Politics are a necessary evil whenever a company reaches a certain size. The point of no return is when the first middle manager is hired — or when the first job opens up that is about controlling people and nothing more. Small startups can have politics, too, but in the early days there’s generally too much camaraderie and too much daily work to worry about power or any other bullshit like that. Oh yeah, and while I’m here, unless the leaders of a startup are lame, there won’t be any bullshit. Everything is pragmatic at a startup, or at least should be.

10. Be a part of something bigger than you: 
At a startup you’re a part of something much bigger than just what your job asks of you. Sure, you need to write code, publish blog posts, whatever, but you’re doing much more than that. You’re building a company. It’s hard to describe what that feeling is like, though. Being a part of a small company is somewhat like creating a community or finding new best friends. You’re making something from nothing, with people who are in it for the same reasons you are. You’re at the apex of what might become something big, something meaningful and different. And the excitement is amazingly powerful.

Disclaimer:

The post above is purely based on my personal experience and understanding. It is in no way meant to offend any person or institution what so ever!!!

A Chronicle of Sindh and the Sindhi

INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

Sindh, as of today, is one of the province of Pakistan. Sindh was home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization which included the cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa at least 7,000 years old. The remains excavated in Mohenjo-Daro depict the state of affairs from civilisation point of view at that period. The region got it's name "Sindh" from the river sindhu (Indus) and the people living here are called as "Sindhi". Since the time of indus valley civilization this region is called as sindh and the people as sindhi. The term Hind and Hindi is derived from word Sindh and Sindhi as the ancient Persians pronunciate "s" as "h" e.g. sarasvati as harasvati, the same way they called the people of this region as Hindi people their language as Hindi language and the region as hind, the name which is used for this region since ancient times and later for whole northern part of Indian sub-continent even today India is also known as Hindustan the name which has nothing to do with hinduism, but related more to a people and their language named after the main river flowing through this region sindhu (Indus).
Indus valley civilization was one of the most developed and advanced city in South Asia, during its peak. The planning and engineering showed the importance of the city to the people of the Indus valley.

The Indus Valley Civilization encompassed most of Pakistan, extending from Balochistan to Sindh, and extending into modern day Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab as we know today. When the Aryans came to India and stood on the banks of the mighty river Indus, they exclaimed in sheer wonder, "Sindhu! Sindhu!" The word 'Sindhu' appears in a number of hymns in the oldest Scripture of humanity, the Rigveda. And India was originally called, "Sindhustan" the " Land of the Sindhu". These Aryans in Sindh virtually the Indus Valley are mentioned in history of having played role in the battle of Hastinapur when King Jaidrath took his army to support the Kurus. The Sindh time line:

• The Sindhis rule the Sindh : 3300 BC - 1700 BC.
• Achaemenid Empire : 522 BC
• Macedonian and Greeks under Alexander the great : 326 BC
• Mauryan empire led by Chandragupta : 305 BC 

And from that time onwards they played the role of refugees. My regret is that many Sindhis - scattered, as they are, all over India and the world, are unaware of rich heritage which belongs to them. In the recent past, after partition in 1947, we left our home and spread out in every part of the world. And we still continue to be refugees. Though we are refugees driven away from our home we are again with our own Aryans who had spread out in parts of the country. The brother Aryans kept the banner of Sindh alive by including our identity in the National Song and recognizing as a positive community whose future lies in recovering the land of our birth and supporting the country as we did in the battle of Hastinapur. For at that time, we learnt that we were part of the central government ruled by Duryodhana. After the partition of India, Sindhis were dispossessed of their lands and properties (as my grandparents told me), they did not give into despair. Leaving their properties and possessions in Sindh, they migrated to India, bringing with themselves their enterprising sprit, their faith in God and their many qualities of head and heart. In Sindh, "there was never a Sindhu beggar". When they came to India, "they resolved that they would starve rather than beg". Little boys attended school during the day and in the afternoon, kept themselves busy hawking on the streets or in railway trains. Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region and is spoken by the Sindhi people over the world. Sindhi has various dialects:

• Sireli : Spoken in upper Sindh
• Vicholi : Spoken in the Centre
• Lari : Spoken in delta of Indus (Sloping grounds)
• Tharri : Spoken in the Thar
• Lasi : Spoken in Baluchistan

Sindhi Surnames: 

Derived from place of origin, caste, title... 1) Many Sindhi's have their surname ending with "-ani" (like mine, "Lalwani") Famous Sindhi scholar Professor Bherumal Advani even claimed that "-ani" surname dates back to Rigveda, According to him, pronunciation of Sanskrit suffix ayan and ayani have changed to -ANI in Sindhi and its meaning is "a descendant of". This means a surname "Lalwani" will mean descendants of Lalchand. 2) Surnames based on place, like from "Aror" has "Arora" or from "Shikarpur" has "Shikarpuri".. 3) Surname based on caste: Thakur, Bhatia, khatri... 4)Surname based on title: Mukhi(head of panchayat), Choudhary(head of village) 5) Surnames based on Nukha (totem): Chawla, Kukreja... 6) Surnames suffixed with "PAL"(protector): Rajpal, Nagpal... Similarly most other surnames...

The ever-changing technology

Recently I had a discussion with my friends on, "How dependent are we on Technology". Few days later, I came across this article on Facebook.

Why Day Trading in Capital Markets is waste of time!

As discussed in my earlier post, How to make money in Stock Market that, it is not so easy to make money in capital markets, am sure you must be thinking, "What a loser I am!"
So, most of the investors today are trying to become rich by either "Active" Investing or Investing in "Passive" instrument.

There are two basic ways to invest your money in stocks:
1. Active
You invest your money in select stocks or in funds which try to beat the market and continually monitor and adjust your portfolio in order to get good returns.
2. Passive
You invest your money in a passive index fund or ETFs which track the index, thus incurring the minimum investing fees and just trying to achieve market returns.

Why Active Investing is a Waste of Time
To be able to consistently beat the market in terms of risk adjusted returns, you have to be either
1. A fucking genius
2. Very fucking lucky
The probability of you being a big fucking genius or at least smart enough to beat the market is very low, tending to zero. There are many very intelligent people who have tried to do it, and have failed miserably, including ME!
There is one who has done very well – Warren Buffett, and he definitely isn’t a proponent of active investing, at least not in the form that most of you practice it. Buffett swears by the power of passive investing, even though he doesn’t do it himself.
Buffett can be considered to be the most successful investor on Earth, and he has always believed in value investing and passive (indexed) investing. If he says something, I’m surely inclined to believe him. Even history shows that passive investing is the best way to invest in the long term.
Coming to the second point, the probability that you will make a good amount of money by just being lucky is also quite low. There are seven billion people in the world. Assuming that there are 10000 people who will be able to beat the market by sheer luck, the probability that you will be one of them is 1 in 700,000. The odds are just too low to even try.
Buffett is probably both – a genius and very lucky, and as you can see, there is only one of him. If you believe that you are smarter than him, or the many smart people who have tried to beat the market, and failed, you need to read this.

The only easy way to make a risk-free killing in the market is to have some informational advantage (inside information), which I assure you, that you as a normal investor, never will.
Here are some other ways to make money in the stock market.
Stop trying to beat the market by acting on ‘sure’ tips by your broker or your grandmother’s neighbor’s watchman, just because someone you know got lucky and made some money in the market, and now you feel that if that idiot could, you can too. Instead, invest in some equities or commodities index, and divert your energy to something productive, and actually create something of value. You will have a much better chance of getting rich that way.
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Note: I know that you probably think that you are the next Warren Buffett, and that you are smarter than all the idiots who couldn’t make shitloads of money in the stock market, including me, and that you are going to take a shot at it anyway. Here’s a tip: You aren’t. And don’t.

How to make money in the Stock Market

It has been quite some time now, I've been working in Capital Markets and not that I know much but, whatever I have acquired working for one of the Europe's biggest bank (refrain the name).
Here are some foolproof ways to make money in the stock market, since, obviously, investing your own money isn’t a very good option.

1. Start a Broking Firm
Get some idiot investors to buy and sell stocks daily and earn brokerage on their transactions. Convincing them that they are the next Warren Buffett or Rakesh Jhunjhunwala might help.

2. Start a Research Firm
Convince other idiot investors that you have the ‘key’ to becoming rich instantly – your valuable ‘research’ which will point them to the next multibaggers, and sell it to them. It works better if you are also their broker.

3. Start a Hedge Fund
Start a hedge fund, preferably a closed-end one. Convince people that you are the next Warren Buffett, and get them to invest in your fund. Once you have their money, invest in the riskiest securities you can find. Your bonuses are tied to the performance of your fund, and you are playing with other people’s money. Is there any better way to get rich? You have tremendous upside, limited only by the amount of risk you can take, and zero downside. Even if you fail miserably, you will still get a 2% fixed fee. If you do well, you will get the 2% fee + a 10-20% share of the profits.
Note: This will work only if you can convince other people to let you handle their money.

4. Start an Investment Bank
First of all, try to become as big as possible, by actually doing all the boring stuff that investment banks are supposed to do – IPOs, underwriting etc. When you become “too big to fail”, put all your clients’ money in the riskiest shit you can find. Start a proprietary trading division to invest your clients’ funds, and create synthetic instruments no one can understand easily. By the time they do, the world will have collapsed and the system will have to bail you out.
Even if they don’t, and your firm goes under, you still have your multi-million dollar bonuses, right?
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Disclaimer
The post above is purely based on my personal experience and understanding. It is in no way meant to offend any person or institution what so ever!

The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value

The real market vs the expectations market
In today’s paradoxical world of maximizing shareholder value, which Jack Welch himself has called “the dumbest idea in the world”, the situation is the reverse. CEOs and their top managers have massive incentives to focus most of their attentions on the expectations market, rather than the real job of running the company producing real products and services.

The “real market,” Martin explains, is the world in which factories are built, products are designed and produced, real products and services are bought and sold, revenues are earned, expenses are paid, and real dollars of profit show up on the bottom line. That is the world that executives control—at least to some extent.

The expectations market is the world in which shares in companies are traded between investors—in other words, the stock market. In this market, investors assess the real market activities of a company today and, on the basis of that assessment, form expectations as to how the company is likely to perform in the future. The consensus view of all investors and potential investors as to expectations of future performance shapes the stock price of the company.

“What would lead [a CEO],” asks Martin, “to do the hard, long-term work of substantially improving real-market performance when she can choose to work on simply raising expectations instead? Even if she has a performance bonus tied to real-market metrics, the size of that bonus now typically pales in comparison with the size of her stock-based incentives. Expectations are where the money is. And of course, improving real-market performance is the hardest and slowest way to increase expectations from the existing level.”

Continue reading : The Dumbest Idea In The World.

How the Bubble burst?

Just found this little anecdote which explains How a Bubble is formed and how/when it bursts. A simple explanation of the sub-prime crisis.
—
Once there was a little island country. The land of this country was the tiny island itself. The total money in circulation was 2 dollars as there were only two pieces of 1 dollar coins circulating around.
1) There were 3 citizens living on this island country. A owned the land. B and C each owned 1 dollar.

2) B decided to purchase the land from A for 1 dollar. So, now A and C own 1 dollar each while B owned a piece of land that is worth 1 dollar.
Thus,
- the net asset of the country now = 3 dollars.

3) Now C thought that since there is only one piece of land in the country, and land is non producible asset, its value must definitely go up. So, he borrowed 1 dollar from A, and together with his own 1 dollar, he bought the land from B for 2 dollars.
- A has a loan to C of 1 dollar, so his net asset is 1 dollar.
- B sold his land and got 2 dollars, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
- C owned the piece of land worth 2 dollars but with his 1 dollar debt to A, his net residual asset is 1 dollar.
- Thus, the net asset of the country now = 4 dollars.

4) A saw that the land he once owned has risen in value. He regretted having sold it. Luckily, he has a 1 dollar loan to C. He then borrowed 2 dollars from B and acquired the land back from C for 3 dollars. The payment is by 2 dollars cash (which he borrowed) and cancellation of the 1 dollar loan to C. As a result, A now owned a piece of land that is worth 3 dollars. But since he owed B 2 dollars, his net asset is 1 dollar.
- B loaned 2 dollars to A. So his net asset is 2 dollars.
- C now has the 2 coins. His net asset is also 2 dollars.
- Thus the net asset of the country now = 5 dollars. A bubble is building up!

5) B saw that the value of land kept rising. He also wanted to own the land. So he bought the land from A for 4 dollars. The payment is by borrowing 2 dollars from C, and cancellation of his 2 dollars loan to A.
- As a result, A has got his debt cleared and he got the 2 coins. His net asset is 2 dollars.
- B owned a piece of land that is worth 4 dollars, but since he has a debt of 2 dollars with C, his net Asset is 2 dollars.
- C loaned 2 dollars to B, so his net asset is 2 dollars.
- Thus the net asset of the country now = 6 dollars; even though, the country has only one piece of land and 2 Dollars in circulation!

6) Everybody has made money and everybody felt happy and prosperous.

7) One day an evil wind blew, and an evil thought came to C’s mind. “Hey, what if the land price stop going up, how could B repay my loan. There is only 2 dollars in circulation, and, I think after all the land that B owns is worth at most only 1 dollar, and no more.”

8) A also thought the same way.

9) Nobody wanted to buy land anymore.
- So, in the end, A owns the 2 dollar coins, his net asset is 2 dollars.
- B owed C 2 dollars and the land he owned which he thought worth 4 dollars is now 1 dollar. So his net asset is only 1 dollar.
- C has a loan of 2 dollars to B. But it is a bad debt. Although his net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.
- Thus the net asset of the country = 3 dollars again.

10) So, who has stolen the 3 dollars from the country? Of course, before the bubble burst B thought his land was worth 4 dollars. Actually, right before the collapse, the net asset of the country was 6 dollars on paper. B’s net asset is still 2 dollars, his heart is palpitating.

11) B had no choice but to declare bankruptcy. C as to relinquish his 2 dollars bad debt to B, but in return he acquired the land which is worth 1 dollar now.
- A owns the 2 coins; his net asset is 2 dollars.
- B is bankrupt; his net asset is 0 dollar. (He lost everything)
- C got no choice but end up with a land worth only 1 dollar
- The net asset of the country is again = 3 dollars.

The story ends now, but —
There has been a redistribution of wealth.
A is the winner, B is the loser, C is lucky that he is spared.
A few points worth noting -
(1) When a bubble is building up, the debt of individuals to one another in a country is also building up.
(2) This story of the island is a closed system whereby there is no other country and hence no foreign debt. The worth of the asset can only be calculated using the island’s own currency. Hence, there is no net loss.
(3) An over-damped system is assumed when the bubble burst, meaning the land’s value did not go down to below 1 dollar.
(4) When the bubble burst, the fellow with cash is the winner. The fellows having the land or extending loan to others are the losers. The asset could shrink or in worst case, they go bankrupt.
(5) If there is another citizen D either holding a dollar or another piece of land but refrains from taking part in the game, he will neither win nor lose. But he will see the value of his money or land goes up and down like a see saw.
(6) When the bubble was in the growing phase, everybody made money.
(7) If you are smart and know that you are living in a growing bubble, it is worthwhile to borrow money (like A) and take part in the game. But you must know when you should change everything back to cash.
(8) As in the case of land, the above phenomenon applies to stocks as well.
(9) The actual worth of land or stocks depends largely on psychology (or speculation).

If you are still reading this then probably your would be further interested in reading what and how the real burst happened. Here is the advanced version of it.

Robotics

Since my final year of engineering I was obsessed with the subject "Robotics". I was fascinated with the basic concept of "Robotic Arm" and the fact that I had ATKT in this subject made me get more involved (I believe it was other way round :P).
I knew there was not much scope for Robotics in India then, and I was not so eager to do majors in US or some other foreign country.
Recently I saw this great video of microcopters (Quadrotors) performing complex maneuvers depicting the future of robotics!

Hunt for another beast...

Its been almost four years now with HTC's TyTN II and the time has come to make a choice again!
I still remember the time when I started looking for windows mobile OS in late 2007 and ended up buying TyTN II. People then used to wonder and question why I am so involved in the  phone analysis and some who understood still come to me or have started the same and the rest will never understand (phone is to just make calls, huh!)
It was then I came across this very informative and useful site GSM Arena. It shows me whatever detail I need. And it was then, I fell in love with HTC and soon I realized that, companies like Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson... (rulers in that era) have no future. Ofcourse, it was very hard to convince my parents and friends who where either craving for Nokia N95 or N73 (if I remember correct) and it was quite challenging to oppose or criticize these models but I could foresee the change - a revolution which is known to us as 'Smartphone' today!
I believe the time has come again and this time it is more difficult for obvious reasons, my mind asks why can't I just assemble a phone with all the specification I want (A CUSTOM MADE PHONE,  WOW!!!). But, I am sad I can't do it :(
Now, the question is what is available to select from. I still somehow feel it will be possible to have customized phone but that is separate topic :P For now am looking
OS : Android (WinMo, Apple just can't get out of the patent name game, I believe in freeing the mind)
Processor : "Dual Core" it must be
RAM : worshiped like the Hindu god
Screen : One of the most important and decisive factor, should be atleast AMOLED if not PixelQi. Should also be 3D
I am not so found of high mega pixel cameras in phones. Photography is a completely separate subject for me and I love to shoot with an SLR.
Ofcourse, decent Audio processor is a must since it will also be used as personal music device :)

UPDATE : I have finally found the beast I was looking for, the all new HTC ONE X
OS : Android Ice cream sandwich
Processor : Quad core Nvidia Tegra 3
RAM : 1 GB
Screen : Magnificent 4.7 inch IPS S-LCD2 with Corning Gorilla Glass
Audio processor by Beats Audio
Camera : 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, Simultaneous HD video recording 1080p@30fps & capture, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, video stabilization
Camera 2 : 1.3 MP, 720p
Sensors : Accelerometer, Gyrometer, Proximity, Compass
...

UPDATE : just another update to show the power of my HTC One X :)

Why do men marry???

I will be turning 30 this year and apart from my parents even my friends have started interrogating, "Why aren't you getting married?"
I began reflecting on why a man would want to marry at all. What is it that a man could get out of marriage, that he could not get otherwise!
First and foremost, at least in the formative years of a marital life is someone who would share the marital bed and keep the man happy on that respect. After all, we men are all built to function that way. Sometimes I wonder if that is all that is there for all the men to do. I wonder, had it not been we men who carry the million of invaders required to infuse life into the otherwise infertile egg, there would be no need for the creed of man; And with all the accessories available today we are not really required (I don't like it).

Coming back to the topic, the second reason why a man would want to marry is for someone who would do the basic feeding, cooking, and housekeeping stuff. Men, I admit, are not socially geared to that role, although more are picking up the basics pretty good these days. But then again, you can always hire a maid for the same purpose (I would like to do the cooking myself anyways).

Third reason, is for that yearning for constant companionship. Somebody who would take up the emotional side of man (yeah, men do have a emotional quotient), listen with a good year. Someone who is smart, intelligent and is able to engage the higher needs of existence. Preferably someone who can also handle the finances (but then you have portfolio managers for that). Again, for this a man can have very good female company that is totally platonic.

There is yet another reason why a man might want to marry. And that is for an offspring. For a child that a man can call his own. For a kid, for which the man can proudly say he has fathered. I think that is the most major reason, why a man would go to any lengths of time to actually search for such a potential wife. And for this, and for this alone, I could not find any counter. I am not able to see what alternative could potentially replace this need (let's leave aside those men that choose to live the life of a hermit out of the society).

After writing such a post, I still hope that someone out there is still ready to marry me sometime in the future, if not now. Since, we men are supposed to be narcissistic chauvinist, I wonder what keeps the women from being so...

DISCLAIMER: The post above is not to offend any women. It is just for light humor.

Disgusted with self!

I have been so caught up with the corporate world of managing things, achieving results and deliverables that I forgot I used to like to learn new things. That I once took pride in the fact that I was near the ideal where if I knew something, I could explain it to my grandmother or a kid.

Lots of people, including myself, think that building an application is like gluing different parts together, without thinking about form, just based on function. And indeed that is how it is promoted today in the software applications world. This approach does indeed work towards delivering results in the form of applications running in today's world.

But I am beginning to realize the difference between a mason and a sculptor. When a sculptor build a sculpture, he has the final form in his mind. It is only he who decides the design and only he who delivers it. And then it becomes a thing of beauty to behold. A thing which lasts for generations. No wonder application architects are respected so highly (and paid highly too).

Jägermeister - The German drink

I had never heard about this drink until an evening with my colleagues at The Dubliner. One of my friends cringed as he quaffed a shot of it, so I had to try it to see if it was really as bad as he made it. Then that was it, I was hooked! Everytime we went out I made sure of Jager shot!
Jägermeister is a German digestif, not a digestive!
It is a drink that is made up from 56 different herbs and spices including; citrus peel, liquorice, poppy seeds, saffron and ginger. Jagermeister is a German creation which literally translated is "Hunt-Master", with a little bit of digging around about the brand it seems that the stag on the front of the bottle with the cross between its antlers has something to do with the stories of Saint Hubertus and Saint Eustace, patron saints of hunters. The drink was introduced to the world back in 1935, so this tipple is one of the more aged ones, yet still somehow it managed to elude me for years!

Ingredients:
Most of it is a secret but of what I know, Ginger, orris, galengal, lovage, chiretta, angelica, elecampane, hyssop, pomerance, camomile, lavender, coriander, pepper, cloves, star anis, allspice, nutmeg, cardamon, fennel, bitter orange, rose hips, quinine, licorice, tumeric, mace, saffron.
Possibly, yarrow, burdock, curcuma, grains of paradise, cubeb, wintergreen, cassia, betony, purslane, borage, sandalwood...

How to drink it?
Well, the fact that this drink is made up from 56 herbs and spices, by nature it is very hot. Thus, there are recommended temperatures this drink should be at, like being kept in a freezer at -18 degrees, or on tap at around -11 degrees. When served it is meant to be served over ice, but I don't know anyone that does serve it that way
JagerBomb - shot of Jagermeister and some Red Bull. Apparently the most popular way of having Jaegermeister. I not only liked the style of preparing it but also the feel and taste. Here is the official world record on JagerBomb

However, I like to take it as a direct shot which goes in like hot bullet burning all inside and it leaves a typical after taste (I love it). To some it may smell like a cough syrup which may put you down initially but once u have it, it will remain in your throat for sometime which is why some like to have it with red bull or some energy drink.
Be careful with this one if you are sensitive to alcohol, as it is one that doesn't hit you until you stand up and try to walk! If you have never tried it before I urge you to try it, look out for it behind the bar it is the one that's in the green round topped bottle, with the stag on the front, but don't be surprised if there isn't a queue of drunk people behind you asking for the same!

Why does socialism fails!

My great Economics professor at SIBM, prof. Azhar Khan once said, behavioral economics plays an important role in nations economy! He always said, "Economics and Politics are inter-linked".
He always argued that, "government should not give any subsidy to any service or commodity".
Being in Denmark for almost 8 months now, I've noticed that, a retail store seller and an IT specialist in a reputed bank earns almost the same salary!
So, people who work hard were upset and people who work little were happy.
If this continues, and by general human tendency, people who worked little, work even less and the ones who worked hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they worked little. Thus, at the end of the day no one worked as required and eventually it lead to system failure. So, the one who works harder should be rewarded!
When the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Time lapse view from space by NASA (HD)

Dharavi - An informal economy in Bombay!

Bombay (as I still prefer calling it), At the edge of India's greatest slum, where decrepit shanty is cleaved like a wedding cake, four layers high and sliced down the middle. The missing half has been demolished. What remains appears ready for demolition, too, with temporary walls and a rickety corrugated roof. Yet inside, carpenters are assembling furniture on the ground floor. One floor up, men are busily cutting and stitching blue jeans. Upstairs from them, workers are crouched over sewing machines, making blouses. And at the top, still more workers are fashioning men's suits and wedding apparel. One crumbling shanty. Four businesses...

In the labyrinthine slum known as Dharavi I've read that, there are 60,000 structures, many of them shanties, and as many as one million people living and working on a triangle of land barely two-thirds the size of Central Park in Manhattan. Dharavi is one of the world's most infamous slums, a cliche of Indian misery. It is also a churning hive of workshops with an annual economic output estimated to be $600 million to more than $1 billion (I know it is unbelievable!). 

"Parallel economy", people are involved in several businesses in Dharavi. "In most developed countries, there is only one economy. But in India, there are two."

India is a rising economic power, even as huge portions of its economy operate in the shadows. Its "formal" economy consists of businesses that pay taxes, adhere to labor regulations and burnish the country's global image. India's "informal" economy is everything else: the hundreds of millions of shopkeepers, farmers, construction workers, taxi drivers, street vendors, rag pickers, tailors, repairmen, middlemen, black marketeers and more. This divide exists in other developing countries, but it is a chasm in India: experts estimate that the informal sector is responsible for the overwhelming majority of India's annual economic growth and as much as 90 percent of all employment. The informal economy exists largely outside government oversight and, in the case of slums like Dharavi, without government help or encouragement.

For years, India's government has tried with mixed success to increase industrial output by developing special economic zones to lure major manufacturers. Dharavi, by contrast, could be called a self-created special economic zone (SEZ) for the poor. It is a visual eyesore, a symbol of raw inequality that epitomizes the failure of policy makers to accommodate the millions of rural migrants searching for opportunity in Indian cities. It also underscores the determination of those migrants to come anyway.

"Economic opportunity in India still lies, to a large extent, in urban areas," said Eswar Prasad, a leading economist. "The problem is that government hasn't provided easy channels to be employed in the formal sector. So the informal sector is where the activity lies."
It is ingrained in the Indian imagination, depicted in books or Bollywood movies, as well as in the Oscar-winning hit "Slumdog Millionaire." Dharavi has been examined in a Harvard Business School case study and dissected by urban planners from Europe to Japan. Yet merely trying to define Dharavi is contested.
Maybe to anyone who has not seen Dharavi, Dharavi is a slum, a huge slum, but "I have also looked at Dharavi as a city within a city, an informal city".

It is an informal city as layered as sheared building - and as fragile. Plans to raze and redevelop Dharavi into a "normal" neighborhood have stirred a debate about what would be gained but also about what might be lost by trying to control and regulate Dharavi. Every layer of Dharavi, when exposed, reveals something far more complicated, and organic, than the concept of a slum as merely a warehouse for the poor.


One slum. Four layers. Four realities.
On the ground floor is misery.
One floor up is work.
Another floor up is politics.
And at the top is hope.

"Dharavi," said Hariram Tanwar, 64, a local businessman, "is a mini-India."

Misery
The streets smell of sewage and sweets. There are not enough toilets. There is not enough water. There is not enough space. Laborers sleep in sheds known as pongal houses, six men, maybe eight, packed into a single, tiny room - multiplied by many tiny rooms. Hygiene is terrible. Diarrhea and malaria are common. Tuberculosis floats in the air, spread by coughing or spitting. Dharavi, like the epic slums of Karachi, Pakistan, or Rio de Janeiro, is often categorized as a problem still unsolved, an emblem of inequity pressing against Bombay, India's richest and most glamorous city. A walk through Dharavi is a journey through a dank maze of ever-narrowing passages until the shanties press together so tightly that daylight barely reaches the footpaths below, as if the slum were a great urban rain forest, covered by a canopy of smoke and sheet metal.
Traffic bleats. Flies and mosquitoes settle on roadside carts of fruit and atop the hides of wandering goats. Ten families share a single water tap, with water flowing through the pipes for less than three hours every day, enough time for everyone to fill a cistern or two. Toilets are communal, with a charge of 3 cents to defecate. Sewage flows through narrow, open channels, slow-moving streams of green water and garbage.
At the slum's periphery, Sion Hospital treats 3,000 patients every day, many from Dharavi, often children who are malnourished or have asthma or diarrhea. Premature tooth decay is so widespread in children that doctors call them dental cripples.

"People who come to Dharavi or other slum areas - their priority is not health," their priority is earning.

And that is what is perhaps most surprising about the misery of Dharavi: people come voluntarily. They have for decades. Dharavi once was known for gangs and violence, but today Dharavi is about work. Tempers sometimes flare, fights break out, but the police say the crime rate is actually quite low, even lower than in wealthier, less densely populated areas of the city. An outsider can walk through the slum and never feel threatened. Misery is everywhere, as in miserable conditions, as in hardship. "But people here do not speak of being miserable. People speak about trying to get ahead".

Work
The order was for 2,700 briefcases, custom-made gifts for a large bank to distribute during the Hindu holiday of Diwali. The bank contacted a supplier, which contacted a leather-goods store, which sent the order to a manufacturer. Had the order been placed in China, it probably would have landed in one of the huge coastal factories that employ thousands of rural migrants and have made China a manufacturing powerhouse.
In India, the order landed in the Dharavi workshop of Mohammed Asif. Mr Asif's work force consists of 22 men, who sit cross-legged beside mounds of soft, black leather, an informal assembly line, except that the factory floor is a cramped room doubling as a dormitory: the workers sleep above, in a loft. The briefcases were due in two weeks.
"They work from 8 in the morning until 11 at night because the more they do, the more they will earn to send back to their families. They come here to earn."
Unlike China, India does not have colossal manufacturing districts because India has chosen not to follow the East Asian development model of building a modern economy by starting with low-skill manufacturing. If China's authoritarian leaders have deliberately steered the country's surplus rural work force into urban factories, Indian leaders have done little to promote job opportunities in cities for rural migrants. In fact, right-wing political parties in Bombay have led sometimes-violent campaigns against migrants.
Yet India's rural migrants, desperate to escape poverty, flock to the cities anyway. Dharavi is an industrial gnat compared with China's manufacturing heartland - and the working conditions in the slum are almost certainly worse than those in major Chinese factories - but Dharavi does seem to share China's can-do spirit. Almost everything imaginable is made in Dharavi, much of it for sale in India, yet much of it exported around the world.
Today, Dharavi is as much a case study in industrial evolution as a slum. Before the 1980s, Dharavi had tanneries that dumped their effluent into the surrounding marshlands. Laborers came from southern India, especially the state of Tamil Nadu, many of them Muslims or lower-caste Hindus, fleeing drought, starvation or caste discrimination. Once Tamil Nadu's economy strengthened, migrants began arriving from poverty-stricken states in central India. Later, the tanneries were closed down for environmental reasons, moving south to the city of Chennai, or to other slums elsewhere. Yet Dharavi had a skilled labor force, as well as cheap costs for workshops and workers, and informal networks between suppliers, middlemen and workshops. So Dharavi's leather trade moved up the value chain, as small workshops used raw leather processed elsewhere to make handbags for some of the priciest stores in India.
During this same period, Dharavi's migration waves became a torrent, as people streamed out of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the teeming, backward northern states now at the locus of rural Indian poverty.
In 1990s,"It used to be that 100 to 300 to 400 people came to Dharavi every day. Just to earn bread and butter." Leatherwork is now a major industry in Dharavi, but only one. Small garment factories have proliferated throughout the slum, making children's clothes or women's dresses for the Indian market or export abroad. According to a 2007 study sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, Dharavi has at least 500 large garment workshops (defined as having 50 or more sewing machines) and about 3,000 smaller ones. Then there are the 5,000 leather shops. Then there are the food processors that make snacks for the rest of India.
And then still more: printmakers, embroiderers and, most of all, the vast recycling operations that sort, clean and reprocess much of India's discarded plastic. "We are cleaning the dirt of the country," said Fareed Siddiqui, the general secretary of the Dharavi Businessmen's Welfare Association.
Mr Asif, the leather shop owner, is a typical member of Dharavi's entrepreneur class.
Now 35, he arrived at the slum in 1988, leaving his village in Bihar after hearing about Dharavi from another family. He jumped on a train to Bombay. He was 12.
"Someone from my village used to live here," he said. "We were poor and had nothing."
Mr Asif began as an apprentice in a leather shop, learning how to use the heavy cutting scissors, then the sewing machines that stitch the seams on leather goods, until he finally opened his own shop. As a poor migrant, Mr Asif could never have arranged the loans and workspace if Dharavi were part of the organized economy; he rents his workshop from the owner of the leather-goods store, who got the order from the supplier for the briefcases for the bank.
Today, nearly all of Mr. Asif's workers are also from Bihar, one of the myriad personal networks that help direct migrants out of the villages. A worker earns roughly 6,000 rupees a month, or about $120, as a laborer in Mr Asif's workshop. He sends about half home every month to support his wife and two children. He is illiterate, but he is now paying for his children to attend a modest private school in their village. He visits them twice a year. And all this for better education and future of his family!

Politics
"Now the place is gold," said Mr Mobin, the businessman.

He is sits on the top floor of his building, surrounded by men's suits in the apparel shop. His family began in the leather business in the 1970s and has since moved into plastic recycling, garments and real estate. Slum property might not seem like a good investment, but Dharavi is now one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in Bombay. Which is a problem, as Mr Mobin sees it.
"People from all over the city, and the politicians, are making hue and cry that Dharavi must be developed," he said. "But they are not developing it for the people of Dharavi. They will provide office buildings and shopping for the richer class."
As Bombay came to symbolize India's expanding economy - and the country's expanding inequality - Dharavi began attracting wider attention. Bombay grew as Dharavi grew. If the slum once sat on the periphery, it now is a scar in the middle of what is a peninsular, land-starved city - an eyesore and embarrassment, if also a harbinger of a broader problem.
Today, more than eight million people live in Bombay's slums, according to some estimates, a huge figure that accounts for more than half the city's population. Many people live in slums because they cannot afford to live anywhere else, and government efforts to build affordable housing have been woefully inadequate. But many newer slums are also microversions of Dharavi's informal economy. Some newer migrants even come to Dharavi to learn new skills, as if Dharavi were a slum franchising operation.
"Dharavi is becoming their steppingstone," said Vineet Joglekar, a civic leader here. "They learn jobs, and then they go to some other slum and set up there."
Dharavi still exists on the margins. Few businesses pay taxes. Few residents have formal title to their land. Political parties court the slum for votes and have slowly delivered things taken for granted elsewhere: some toilets, water spigots.
But the main political response to Dharavi's unorthodox success has been to try to raze it. India's political class discovered Dharavi in the 1980s, when any migrant who jabbed four posts into an empty patch of dirt could claim a homestead. Land was scarce, and some people began dumping stones or refuse to fill the marshes at the edge of the Arabian Sea. Rajiv Gandhi, then India's prime minister, saw the teeming slum and earmarked one billion rupees, or about $20 million, for a program to build affordable, hygienic housing for Dharavi's poor. Local officials siphoned off some of the money for other municipal projects while also building some tenements that today are badly decayed. The proliferation of shanties continued.
Three decades later, the basic impulse set in motion by Mr Gandhi - that Dharavi should be redeveloped and somehow standardized - still prevails. But the incentives have changed. Dharavi's land is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Private developers do not see a slum but a piece of property convenient to the airport, surrounded by train stations and adjacent to a sleek office park.
A sweeping plan approved in 2006 would provide free apartments and commercial space to many Dharavi residents while allowing private investors to develop additional space for sale at market rates. Many Dharavi civic and business leaders endorsed the plan, even as critics denounced the proposal as a giveaway to rich developers.
For now, the project remains largely stalled, embroiled in bureaucratic infighting, even as a different, existential debate is under way about the potential risks of redeveloping Dharavi and shredding the informal networks that bind it together.
"They are talking about redeveloping Dharavi, but if they do, the whole chain may break down. These businesses can work because Dharavi attracts labor. People can work here and sleep in the workshop. If there is redevelopment, they will not get that room so cheap. They may not come back here.
Matias Echanove, an architect and urban planner, has long argued that Dharavi should not be dismissed as merely a slum, since it operates as a contained residential and commercial city. He said razing Dharavi, or even completely redeveloping it, would only push residents into other slums.
"They are going to create actual, real slums," he said. "Nobody is saying Dharavi is a paradise. But we need to understand the dynamics, so that when there is an intervention by the government, it doesn't destroy what is there."

Hope
Sylva Vanita Baskar was born in Dharavi. She is now 39, already a widow. Her husband lost his vigor and then his life to tuberculosis. She borrowed money to pay for his care, and now she rents her spare room to four laborers for an extra $40 a month. She lives in a room with her four children. Two sons sleep in a makeshift bed. She and her two youngest children sleep on straw mats on the stone floor.

"They do everything together," she said, explaining how her children endure such tight quarters. "They fight together. They study together."
The computer sits on a small table beside the bed, protected, purchased for $354 from savings, even though the family has no Internet connection. The oldest son stores his work on a pen drive and prints it somewhere else. Ms. Baskar, a seamstress, spends five months' worth of her income, almost $400, to send three of her children to private schools. Her daughter wants to be a flight attendant. Her youngest son, a mechanical engineer.

"My daughter is getting a better education, and she will get a better job," Ms Baskar said. "The children's lives should be better. Whatever hardships we face are fine."

Education is hope in Dharavi. On a recent afternoon outside St. Anthony's, a parochial school in the slum, Hindu mothers in saris waited for their children beside Muslim mothers in burqas. The parents were not concerned about the crucifix on the wall; they wanted their children to learn English, the language considered to be a ticket out of the slums in India. 
Once, many parents in Dharavi sent their children to work, not to school, and child labor remains a problem in some workshops. Dharavi's children have always endured a stigma. When parents tried to send their sons and daughters outside the slum for schooling, the Dharavi students often received a bitter greeting.
Mr Hashim responded by opening his own school, tailored for Muslim children, offering a state-approved secular education. He initially offered the curriculum in Urdu but not a single parent enrolled a child. He switched to English, and now his classrooms are overflowing with Muslim students.
Discrimination is still common toward Dharavi (on higher level its almost everywhere). Residents complain that they are routinely rejected for credit cards if they list a Dharavi address. Private banks are reluctant to make loans to businessmen in Dharavi or to open branches. Part of this stigma is as much about social structure as about living in the slum itself.

"They all belong to the untouchables caste," the longtime social activist, "or are Muslims."

But money talks in Bombay, and Dharavi now has money, even millionaires, mixed in with its misery and poverty. Mohammad Mustaqueem, 57, arrived as a 13-year-old boy. He slept outside, in one of the narrow alleyways, and remembers being showered with garbage as people tossed it out in the morning. Today, Mr Mustaqueem has 300 employees in 12 different garment workshops in Dharavi, with an annual turnover of about $2.5 million a year. He owns property in Dharavi worth $20 million.
Dharavi's fingerprints continue to be found across Bombay's economy and beyond, even if few people realize it. Mr Asif, the leather shop owner, made leather folders used to deliver dinner checks at the city's most famous hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace. The tasty snacks found in Bombay's finest confectionaries? Made in Dharavi. The exquisite leather handbags sold in expensive shops? Often made in Dharavi. "There are hundreds of Dharavis flourishing in the city," boasted Mr. Mobin, the businessman. "Every slum has its businesses. Every kind of business is there in the slums."
But surely, Mr Mobin is asked, there are things not made in Dharavi. Surely not airplanes, for example.

"But we recycle waste for the airlines," he answered proudly. "Cups and food containers."

How to apply for IPOs using ASBA (in India)

Few days ago I had applied for L&T Finance Holding and I came across a new concept ASBA.

What is ASBA?
ASBA (Applications Supported by Blocked Amount) is a new payment method using which you can apply for IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). It is available only for retail investors and is supported only by certain banks. Using ASBA, you can apply or subscribe to any IPO easily without paying any money upfront.

Which Banks offer ASBA?
Only Banks certified by SEBI, Self Certified Syndicate Banks (SCSBs), can offer the ASBA facility to their customers. There are now 53 such banks which offer this facility in India.
List of Banks offering ASBA in India

How does ASBA work?
ASBA (Applications Supported by Blocked Amount) allows you to apply for IPOs without paying any money upfront. Your money is just blocked by the bank until the IPO book building process is over and the share allotment is done (you cannot withdraw it until then). After that, the money is deducted from your account based on how many shares have been allotted to you. The remaining amount is unblocked immediately.
This is much better than the traditional way of applying for IPOs. You don’t need to send a cheque for applying to the IPO or wait for a refund when the allotment is over. You also keep receiving interest on the blocked amount under ASBA.


How to use ASBA for Applying to IPOs
1. If your bank is in the list of banks supporting ASBA (SCSBs), you just need to go to your bank’s website and register your CDSL or NSDL demat account under the ASBA facility by entering your account details.
2. You can then view a list of open IPOs and FPOs and submit your bids for it using ASBA. If your bids are valid, the bank will give you an acknowledgement number and your application is complete.
3. When the book building process is over, the shares allotted to you will be deposited to your demat account and the balance amount will be unblocked in your bank account.
More details about ASBA on BSE and NSE

Indexes in SQL

We very well know what the purpose of an Index is and how useful it is when it comes to searching.
Same rule applies to the data stored in Table.
Here we have two types of Indexes, i.e. Cluster Index and Non-Cluster Index. It is very important how you apply Clustered/Non-Clustered index. It completely depends on the requirement.
In general, indexes improve performance when they are created on fields used in table joins.
When dealing with relatively small tables, indexes do not improve performance.
Although indexes improve search performance, they slow the updates, and this might be something worth considering.

Clustered Index:
By applying cluster index, the data is physically sorted on the field on which index is applied. This also implies that we can have just one clustered index per table as this also acts as the ‘RowLocater’. Querying through such a data takes much less time compared non-indexed data.
Clustered indexes are ideal for queries that select by a range of values or where you need sorted results. This is because the data is already presorted in the index for you.
Examples of this include when you are using BETWEEN, <, >, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, JOIN and aggregates such as MAX, MIN, and COUNT in your queries.
Avoid putting a clustered index on columns that increment,
Thus, all primary key constraints of capture DB are modified to Clustered Indexes. Primary keys of table ItemsInBlock and RO_ItemsInBlock are not made Clustered, reason being these table have cluster index on other fields.

Example:
Consider a Table_A, which has 3 columns (ID, Name, Age) and ID being Primary key then,
CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX [PK_Table_A]
ON [dbo].[Table_A] ([ID])


Non-Clustered Index:
In this, the data in the table is not physically sorted but instead it maintains indexed data. The row locater is just a pointer refers the rows depending the on the non-cluster index. Non-cluster indexes should be used as per the needs. Practically a table can have upto 249 non-clustered indexes. But, as mentioned earlier having too many indexes will slow down the performance on INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE will affect the data in Index too.

Example:
Consider a query SELECT Name FROM Table_A WHERE ID = 3 on Table_A, which has 3 columns (ID, Name, Age) where ID being Primary key and we have a non-clustered index :
CREATE INDEX [IDX_Table_A_ByID_Name] ON [dbo].[ExternalInputStatus]([ID], [Name])
In the above example, the data will be fetched from the non clustered indexed object of table instead of actual table (clustered index) because, all the data it needs is in the index.


Covering Indexes:
Apart from the above mentioned Indexes there is one more “concept” know as Covering Indexes. Its not a specific type of index.
The idea is, when you create an index, an object is created in the database that has all of the data in the index. SQL Server can then use this index to speed up your queries. Now, consider a query that only uses a couple of columns in your table. If you create an index that has all of the data from those columns, then there is no reason for the query to use the table (because all of the data is found in the index).

Example:
Consider a query SELECT Name, Age FROM Table_A WHERE ID = 3 on Table_A, which has 3 columns (ID, Name, Age) where ID being Primary key and if we apply an Index like:
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IDX_ID_Name_AGE] ON [dbo].[Table_A]([Id], [Name], [FavoriteColor].
In the above example, the data will be fetched from the non clustered indexed object of table instead of Actual table. But, as mentioned earlier having too many indexes will slow down the performance on INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE will affect the data in Index too.

Core i3 vs Core i5 vs Core i7 - Whatever but, Intel Inside!

In my previous post I tried to explain the difference between a Core2Duo and Core i3. My crave didn't stop there and I went on further...

This post explains the difference between the Intel Core i3, Core i5 and the Core i7 processors.


Intel Core i3

Codenamed: Clarkdale (Westmere)

Fabrication: 32 nm

Instruction set: X86, X86-64, MMX, SSE 4.2

Socket: LGA 1156

Bus: Direct Media Interface

RAM: DDR3

Chipset Support: P55, H55, H57, Q57

The Core i3 processors are dual core processors based on the Clarkdale (Westmere) architecture. They have a 32 nm fabrication and work with LGA 1156 socket motherboards. Direct Media Interface (DMI) replaces FSB in the Core i3 processors, unlike the faster Quick Path Interconnect in the Core i7 processors. They have clock speeds ranging from 2.93 to 3.06 GHz. They have 2×256 KB L2 cache and 4 MB L3 cache. They are compatible with these chipsets – P55, H55, H57, Q57. They don’t support Turbo Boost (dynamic overclocking) unlike the Core i5 and Core i7. They also have an Integrated graphics processor. They also have Hyperthreading support.

Intel Core i5

Codenamed: Lynnfield (Nehalem), Clarkdale (Westmere)

Fabrication: 45 nm, 32 nm

Instruction set: X86, X86-64, MMX, SSE 4.2

Socket: LGA 1156

Bus: Direct Media Interface

RAM: DDR3

Chipset Support: P55, H55, H57, Q57

Intel Core i5

There are two types in Core i5 – Dual core and Quad Core. The dualcore Intel Core i5 processors are similar to the Core i3s while the quadcore Core i5s are much closer to the Core i7 in terms of features.

DualCore Core i5 Processors – They are based on the Clarkdale (Westmere) architecture like the Core i3. They also have a 32 nm fabrication and work with LGA 1156 socket motherboards. Direct Media Interface (DMI) replaces FSB in the Core i5 dualcore processors. They have clock speeds ranging from 3.2 to 3.6 GHz. They have 2×256 KB L2 cache and 4 MB L3 cache. They are compatible with these chipsets – P55, H55, H57, Q57. They support Turbo Boost (dynamic overclocking). They also have an Integrated graphics processor and also include Turbo Boost (dynamic overclocking). They also have Hyperthreading support.

QuadCore Core i5 Processors – They are based on the Lynnfield (Nehalem) architecture similar to the Core i7. They have a 45 nm fabrication and work with LGA 1156 socket motherboards. Direct Media Interface (DMI) replaces FSB in the Core i5 quadcore processors. There are 2 processors with clock speeds of 2.4 and 2.66 GHz. They have 4×256 KB L2 cache and 8 MB L3 cache. They are compatible with these chipsets – P55, H55, H57, Q57. They do support Turbo Boost (dynamic overclocking). However they don’t support Hyperthreading and don’t have a Integrated Graphics Processor.

Intel Core i7

Codenamed: Bloomfield (Nehalem)

Fabrication: 45 nm

Instruction set: X86, X86-64, MMX, SSE 4.2

Socket: LGA 1366

Bus: Quick Path Interconnect

RAM: DDR3

Chipset Support: X58

Intel Core i7

They are the most powerful of the lot. They are based on the Bloomfield (Nehalem) architecture. They have a 45 nm fabrication and work with LGA 1366 socket motherboards. They have Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) which is faster than both DMI in Core i3/i5 and FSB. They are native quad cores which offer the best performance. They have 4×256 KB L2 cache and 8 MB L3 cache. They are compatible with the X58 chipset. They support Turbo Boost (dynamic overclocking) and Hyperthreading (8 virtual cores). However they don’t have an Integrated Graphics Processor.

All the three – Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 comes with Smart Cache (cache sharing between two cores) and support hardware virtualization.

Intel Core2Duo vs Intel Core i3

With everything changing so fast and getting smaller and smaller, it becomes obvious that all these processor manufacturers have to put in lot of effort and brain... (no offence) but Intel rocks!
So the question asked to me was, "what is the basic difference between a Core2Duo and the new Core i3/5/7 processors". It is quite easy to just say that Core i3... are next gen or 64bit core processors but, is it really that fast?
Indeed! In this post I have tried to explain that.
The Intel Core i3 range offers only dual core processors unlike the Core i5 and i7 which offer Quad cores as well.
Intel Core 2 Duo
Codenamed: Conroe, Allendale, Wolfdale – Core 2
Fabrication: 65 nm / 45 nm
Instruction set: X86, X86-64, MMX, SSE 4.1
Socket: LGA 775
Bus: 1333 MHz FSB
RAM: DDR2
Chipset Support: 965, P3x, G3x, P45, X48


Intel Core i3
Codenamed: Clarkdale
Fabrication: 32 nm
Instruction set: X86, X86-64, MMX, SSE 4.2
Socket: LGA 1156
Bus: Direct Media Interface
RAM: DDR3
Chipset Support: P55, H55, H57, Q57
LGA 1156, Direct Media Interface, Smart Cache
Both the Intel Core i3 and Intel Core 2 Duo processors are native dual cores; they have both processors on the same die which leads to better processing speeds. The Intel Core 2 Duo processors work on the LGA 775 socket, the new Core i3 and Core i5 processors use the LGA 1156 socket. The Core i3 processors support motherboards based on the following chipsets – P55, H55, H57, Q57.
As the Core i3 processors have a 32 nm fabrication, they are much more power efficient and run faster than Core 2 Duo processors which have a 65 / 45 nm fabrication. There are two processors in the Core i3 series – Core i3 530 (2.93 GHz) and the Core i3 540 (3.06 GHz). Both have 2 x 256 KB L2 cache and 4 MB of L3 cache. Both the Core i3 processors sport the DMI (Direct Media Interface) which is much faster than the FSB used in Core 2 Duo processors but is not as fast as Quick Path Interconnect in the Core i7.

The Core i3 processors also have a on die graphics processor which offer much better graphics performance. They also support Hyperthreading which means that each core can run 2 threads simultaneously which results in 2×2=4 virtual cores. They also have a on die memory controller which helps in much faster memory access than the Core 2 Duo processors. Also their chipsets are compatible with DDR3 RAM. The whole combination of Core i3 + DDR3 RAM offers much better performance than Core 2 Duo + DDR2 RAM. The Core i3 processors also support Smart Cache which allows cache memory sharing between the two cores reducing memory latencies.
However, unlike the Core i5 and Core i7 processors, the Core i3 processors also don’t support Turbo Boost which allows dynamic overclocking for better performance. Nevertheless, they are priced very low, which makes them a very good deal for budgetPCs

Read further:
Core i3 vs Core i5 vs Core i7