Infosys

After the somewhat disappointing (??) quarterly results from Infosys, one of the irritating TV anchors on CNBC asked an equally obnoxious analyst, "Is this the end of Infosys as a bellwether stock?". I wanted to strangle both of them and tell them to cut out the rhetoric, but thinking about it now, it is a good thing.

For too long, the importance of Infosys has been wildly exaggerated and many other companies that were doing equally well (TCS comes to mind) never got their fair share of recognition. I also think that the Infosys management plays too much to the markets, which is not a good thing for the longer term. So, if the markets write it off completely and start focusing their attention elsewhere, it will give the management the freedom to take decisions that will help them in the long term.

In other news, the market touched 19000, just 4 days after it touched 18,000. People are now talking about 20000 and 25000 levels by the end of the year. I wonder if any of them recall the famous words "Irrational exuberance".

Zuma

I was checking out Zapak for some new games the other day and discovered Zuma. It has since become an addiction, I find that I've devoted many hours to this over the past few days. Check it out at your own risk:-)

Airtel broadband

Airtel has announced a 8 Mbps broadband offering. That's good news, but as I expected, they are announcing a puny 7-8 GB download limit. Essentially, this means that if you use your connection to full capacity, your monthly quota is over in a little over 2 hours. You have to wonder at the special breed of dimwits that we have in allthe Indian telecom providers.

It'll be interesting to see the kind of pricing that they will have for this speed and whether it will translate into lower pricing for the lower speed plans. I'd also like to see them change their download policy, rather than charging extra for the excess downloads, they can throttle the connection to a lower speed of 512 kbps or 1 Mbps. If that happens, I would definitely consider moving to the higher speed plans. Until then, I'm sticking to my pathetic low speed unlimited plan.

Sensex at 18000

Just when I thought that the market was ripe for a massive fall, it rises by almost a 1000 points in a single day to blow past 18000. Truly unbelievable. I think it is all part of a grand conspiracy to ensure that Mukesh Ambani becomes the richest individual in the world, even if it is only temporarily.

Thrilling climax to 2007 F1 season

The final two races of the 2006 season promised to be a thrilling end to
a hard fought season, but that evaporated in smoke along with Michael
Schumacher's engine. When the circus moved to Brazil, Alonso's title was
a formality. That did not stop Michael Schumacher from producing one of
his virtuoso performances for which he is well known for.

This year, there was no such expectation. Lewis Hamilton came into the
Chinese grand prix with a 10/17 point lead over Alonso/Kimi, expecting
to wrap things up over the weekend. He did his chances no harm by
bagging pole (albeit, as we found out later, with a much lighter car)
and built up a 9 second lead in the first stint. At that time, I thought
it was just a formality, as even if Kimi caught him, he was well ahead
of the rest of the pack and would finish 4th at worst. It all started to
go wrong after the first pit stop as the advertised rain never came down
hard enough and the track started drying up. The front runners who did
not change their tyres after the first stop started going slower and
slower and lost upto 12 seconds a lap to those who took the gamble of
going on to dry tyres. Lewis was the worst hit as he had pushed a lot in
the opening stages and his tyres were in bad shape. Kimi caught and
overtook him easily (I think, as the power went off just when this
happened) and Fernando started catching him at 6-7 seconds a lap.
Instead of bringing him in, Mclaren asked him to stay out for another
lap and by the time they came to the long back straight, Fernando was
right on his rear. Lewis kept him off and headed into the pits but went
in too fast and instead of making the right turn onto the pit lane, got
stuck in the gravel trap and that was the end of his race.

Kimi won and Fernando came 2nd and in doing so, cut Lewis's lead down to
7 and 4 points. This leaves us with a mouthwatering possibility of any
of the three being crowned champions.

Kimi needs to win and hope Fernando finishes 3rd or lower and Lewis
finishes 6th or lower to become champion. If not, he needs to finish
second and hope that Lewis finishes 8th or lower AND Fernando is 4th or
lower. IMO, this is a very slim chance as even if Ferrari are
comfortably faster and Massa covers his rear, Mclaren should be ahead of
the rest

Fernando needs to score 4 points more than Lewis. If he wins, Lewis must
be lower than 4th, if he's second, Lewis must finish 5th or lower. If
he's third, Lewis must finish 7th or lower and if he's 4th, Lewis must
finish 8th or lower for him to be champion. If he finishes 5th or lower,
he is out of the championship.

Lewis is in the best position as he doesn't need to go all out for the
win. However, one could turn that on its head and say that he has the
most pressure as it is all his to lose. In fact, Kimi and Fernando
started their mind games right at the post race press conference by
setting the expectations very low for themselves and putting all the
pressure on Lewis.

It promises to be very exciting weekend in Brazil. I wish the next two
weeks goes off very very quickly.

Commute to office

For long, I've been advising everyone who would listen that there is no
better solution to beat the traffic stress than to drop our cars and
start using public transport. I have been guilty of not following my own
advice, always justifying it with the "my office is so close, I don't
think I am contributing to the mess" argument.

I finally decided to do something about it. I decided that I will start
taking the Volvo bus to work at least once a week. I have been doing it for
the last two weeks. It's a lot more expensive than driving, very crowded
and inconvenient (with a wait time of upto 30 minutes), but I have the
satisfaction of contributing to the greater good.

And who knows, if more people start doing this, the traffic in Bangalore
may start getting better.

Fuji Grand Prix

It was an amazing race yesterday, after 2-3 processional races. Every time there is a rain race, we seem to have such drama and I wonder if Formula One should have artificial flooding of the track every weekend to make things interesting!!! Lewis won, Alonso crashed and the Ferrari drivers came from the back of the grid to finish 3rd and 6th.

Finally, it looks like Lewis Hamilton is pulling clear in the race to the World drivers championship. Kimi is in with a mathematical chance, but to gain 17 points in 2 races is virtually impossible unless Hamilton retires in both. Alonso is 5 points closer, but it's still a tough ask. Hamilton can easily play it cool, settle for 4th and still win the championship. With the kind of advantage that Ferrari and Mclaren have over the other teams, that wouldn't be too hard.