Goodbye 2013. Hello 2014.

As we reach the end of 2013, and get ready to welcome 2014, its that time of year when we make resolutions.

This time around I'm going to try and make my resolutions simple, measurable and realistic. Starting with having a target of achieving 80% of the resolutions. So here goes.

1. Rightsize physically to under 80 kgs.

2. Exercise regularly. Take at least 10,000 steps daily.

3. Write a novel.

4. Get pilots license.

5. Spend time with Reia's studies.

6. Be nice(r) to family and take at least 2 holidays.

7. Increase revenue at Web Access by 1.5 times.

8. Increase revenue at Absolute Access by 5 times.

9. Increase US MRR clients to 100 +

10. Experiment with mCube and live trading in the US markets.

and finally enjoying Life to the fullest. Beginning to realize we have only one to live and need to make the most of it.

Here's wishing all of you a very happy, prosperous and amazing 2014.

AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party was launched just a few months ago by Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues who had failed to make an impact as part of the "India against corruption". Frustrated at being able to do nothing as activists, they decided to take the bold step of forming their own political party, something they had tried to avoid.

The party is based on the simple premise of honesty. Its their opinion, which is shared by most Indians and unfortunately accurate, that the political system and government functioning is riddled with corruption. Their single simple goal is to reduce if not completely rid India of corruption.

I was a great fan of the AAP movement. If I was in India, I would be a proud participant and volunteer in whatever way I could help. Their first encounter with the election process was the Delhi elections. And they've done an amazing job.

The first part of any political campaign is funds to manage the campaign. The AAP movement is completely dependent on the Aam Aadmi or common man, funding them. And their success in achieving this is phenomenal. They actually had to close their donation collecting process and inform people that no more contributions were required, as they had already achieved their required targets.

The party, especially its leader Arvind Kejriwal in addition to being a nice, honest person was also brilliant. Its not coincidence that he did his engineering degree and then joined the prestigious government bureaucracy as part of the Indian Revenue Services. They reached out to the people, had meetings at local level and had not only the whole of Delhi, but the rest of the country rooting for the party.

No one gave them a chance. The political parties believed that a newcomer party with no base or cadre to speak of could not pose a threat. Even the media gave them no chance of success and they were widely reported to be a passing fancy. Until this point of time I was rooting for the party.

And then a change occurred. The AAP figured out the first rule of politics. To get votes, make all kinds of promises. And they did. Promised free water and electricity bills would be halved. I started having reservations but was still a well wisher.

And then the party did what to me was the turning point of changing from a party with good intentions to anarchist. They went around inciting the people of Delhi to not pay their electricity bills. The rationale they offered was that the electricity companies were fudging their books. Whilst they had absolutely no evidence of this, lets assume that this were true. In my mind, it doesn't change anything.

No rationale can justify breaking the law and inciting and encouraging the people to follow suit. The moment an individual takes on the role of unilaterally deciding what is good and bad, and then pass judgement as well as diktats on taking illegal actions, is the beginning of the end. Its a sad day to see that a movement with very good people with very good intentions have allowed their righteous arrogance to make completely indefensible decisions.

The results of the elections were announced earlier this month and the Aam Aadmi Party achieved what no party in Indian history has achieved. They won 28 seats of the 70  seats garnering 29%+ of the votes. They did not get a majority and were pipped to the post by the BJP, who won 31 seats as the largest party. The Congress who had a dismal performance could win just 8 seats. Since its virtually impossible that the Congress will support the BJP, there's a good chance that they may support the AAP and that Arvind Kejriwal becomes the Chief Minister. The party which has earlier said they would not take the support of either the BJP or Congress, have now done a u-turn and are seriously considering taking support from the Congress.

Whilst I wish that this does happen, as a well-wisher I would like to offer the Aam Aadmi Party some advise. Please get rid of your arrogance, admit that all illegal decisions made by the party were wrong and a result of growing pains. This will result in disillusioned supporters such as me, coming back. Alternately, you can continue to go the populist route you seem to have chosen and who knows, you could very quickly even become the Prime Minister. But then you'll be just another party like the existing parties and once again dash the hope of the Aam Aadmi.

Its the thought that counts

A few days ago I got a card in the mail. A beautifully addressed card from Freia. Unfortunately I knew that Freia couldn't have written it since she has handwriting whose saving grace is that its slightly better than mine and almost equally illegible.

The envelope has an important looking seal. Intrigued I opened the same and there was a handwritten note. Knowing Freia, I realized that this had to be some kind of a net based service and sure enough, the stamp had a web address.

bondgifts.com

They were running some free trials and I guess I got one of the free ones. They have a service where you can send a note for $5, and they'll write it, put the address on the envelope, put the stamp and mail it.

To put it in their words :

BOND is a tight team of busy, talented New Yorkers who are united in one ultimate goal: to brighten people's day by connecting with them in a simple yet powerful way.

In a world running over with emails and text messages and meetings and schedules, a lot gets accomplished—but little is felt. BOND makes it easy to bring out the best in yourself and in other people—and to make a lasting impression, whether you spend $50, thousands, or nothing at all.

At BOND , it's not just the thought that counts but the execution—a perfect mix of technology, tradition, fun, and the art of communication. Surprise someone with a personal handwritten note in the mail. Make someone's day with a cool, beautifully packaged gift to celebrate a meeting or a milestone. All in minutes, straight from your iPhone or your laptop.

What makes this service even more important is the way the notes are written. By a robotic arm using traditional ink. Just wish they'd use blue ink instead of black. Its fascinating to see the robot in action.

Whilst the card did have a novelty value, I'm not sure its something that I would subscribe to.

Its the thought that counts, when that thought is executed by you, not a robot. When the occasion demands I think, I'll continue to pen a note and take the walk to the post office.

Air-India v/s United

I just got back from an India trip on United. A couple of months ago I had made the trip on Air India. There were several similarities and several differences. It wasn't a case of 1 was better than the other. However in specific areas, there were clear differences and one was far better than the other.

In airline operations from the travelers perspective there are 6 points that make a difference.
a. Ticketing and Planning
b. Pricing
c. At the airport
d. Pre-boarding and boarding
e. Aircraft and amenities
f. In flight service

Ticketing and Planning
The United experience is significantly better than Air India. Whether its the website, the support, the options, the call-in numbers, ....
AI : 3 / 10
UA : 8 / 10


Pricing
Typically Air India beats United on most occasions in the pricing. United pricing is consistent across travel portals and its own website. Air India is inconsistent. There is sometimes as much as a 100% difference in the pricing for the same sectors across platforms and its own website is one of the most expensive. Overall however you are able to find better pricing on Air India than United on most occasions.
AI : 7 / 10
UA : 3 / 10

At the airport
The check-in at United is far more systematic and well organized than at Air India. shorter lines. Faster turn around. However the staff at Air India are probably a little nicer when people have issues or need help.
AI : 6 / 10
UA : 6 / 10


Pre-boarding and boarding
United is slightly more organized and has these class of passengers from 1 to 5. The so called preferred card holders are Class 2. Unfortunately almost everyone seems to be in Class 2, and the few who are not, are stuck especially if they have kids. Air India is inconsiderate to everybody, except the senior citizens and those with families. Both have major scope for improvements in this area.
AI : 5 / 10
UA : 4 / 10


Aircraft and amenities
Air India and United both have reasonably new, long range aircraft with a personal entertainment system. Air India seating is a little more comfortable, but United has better maintained interiors.
AI : 6 / 10
UA : 8 / 10

In-flight service
Air India has reasonably good in flight service and most of the staff are very nice, polite and helpful. The United flights staff is not as nice. Their overall attitude and behavior leaves a lot to be desired. The only saving grace is that they have no biases and are equally rude to everybody. Of course, thee are exceptions. There are a few horrible Air India flight attendants and a few exceptionally good United flight attendants.
AI : 7 / 10
UA : 5 / 10


Final scores
AI : 34 / 60
UA : 34 / 60

Coincidentally both the airlines are tied. No wonder I travel on the airline that offers the better fare.

However the changes Air India needs to make to become a really wold class airline are minor and need a string management to enforce changes, especially at a technology and implementation level. And I hope they do. I'm probably biased, but I really enjoy flying Air India a little more than United.

Bitcoin

Everyone seems to have heard about bitcoins. Yet very few seem to know how it works. And whilst I had a reasonably good understanding of it, I was surprised at how little I actually knew when I started to research the subject for this article.

It seems like my latest self discovery is that a video speaks a million words. So let's start by having a look at "What is Bitcoin?"

A great resource to learn all you ever wanted to know about bitcoins, is as is most things in life, the original source.
http://bitcoin.org/en/

And the FAQ section will very quickly answer most if not all of the questions and doubts you ever had.
http://bitcoin.org/en/faq

The best way to really learn about bitcoins is to do what Freia did. Buy bitcoins. And you'll very quickly realize that you don't even have to buy 1 bitcoin. You can buy 1/100th of a bitcoin if you so desire.

This blog would be incomplete without my thoughts on the future of bitcoins. Freia seems to be a firm believer that bitcoins is the future. And for once, I disagree with her. I think that several things will happen. The first as has already begun is that there will be several similar offerings. Digital currencies, each of which will differentiate themselves in minor ways.

The reason I think that bitcoins will not last for a significant period is the following.

1. Bitcoins are not protected
Whilst the open source community and the bitcoin fraternity claims the protection is based on the military grade cryptography, the unfortunate fact of life is that even military grade cryptography has been hacked. The problem with bitcoins being hacked is that there is no recourse. No one owns bitcoin and so there's no central authority or bank that can address the loss. Think of it as a safe deposit vault that is very safe, except that if it does get broken into, no bank is there to take responsibility or compensate you.

2. Bitcoins are not traceable
The very system that provides the system with its anonymity also provides it its flaw. In a normal banking transaction, we have a trail of which payments were made to who and when. Here, once the bitcoin is gone, its gone forever. There';s very little you can do, if the receiver decides not to honor their commitment. No credit card company you can call to stop payment.

3. No one owns bitcoin
Once again the primary advantage is also its disadvantage. The dollar is a strong currency, because the US has a vested interest in ensuring that it remains a strong currency. And hence the Federal Reserve will take actions to ensure it remains stable and valuable. The absence will expose the bitcoin to the risk of volatility. A recent drop in over 20% in a short period demonstrates this risk in the real world.

4. Bitcoin mining is unpredictable
The basis of the value of bitcoins is on the basis that the digital mining of bitcoins is predictable and becomes increasingly difficult over time.This assumption could be shown to be wrong if someone, somewhere is able to innovate a devise and / or an algorithm that is able to accelerate the process by a factor of 10, 100 or even 1,00,000. This will then generate an excess of currency concentrated in the hands of a few individuals which will make the currency extremely shaky if not worthless.

5. Regulatory Risk
The most real short term risk is probably regulatory in nature. Society works on the basis of businesses and individuals paying taxes. The bitcoin methodology actually bypasses this on many levels. It thus becomes but a matter of time before Government starts regulating bitcoin transactions, if not completely making it illegal. In either case it becomes a underground currency best used for illegal activities and not the ubiquitous digital currency its being positioned as.

As in most things, there's a good chance that I may be wrong. And since I like bitcoins and Freia has an investment in it, I hope I am.