আড্ডা . raja mukherjee . com

...random musing

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Market turning negative. Internals has been deteriorating for a while. Great analysis by Erin Heim in the DecisionPoint blog.

Indicators in all time frames are quite bearish. There is fear regarding the possible outcomes of the FOMC policy meeting that should keep things in a holding pattern for at least another day. After that, it's anyone's guess as to how the market will react to any news, whether it is technically positive or negative. This instability is the not the best foundation for a renewed rally, instead it could be the excuse the market needs to start a correction. 

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Carry E-Z in DFW

Tips for the fellow International travelers. If you don’t have any checked in bag, look for Green Carry E-Z sign at the immigration hall. It will bypass all the luggage / custom area and get you out faster than Global Entry. You get out between the Hyatt and D1-D22 entrance in Departure level, right next to the Curb Side check-in. It took me only 3 minutes to clear custom and immigration in my last trip (from Kualalumpur via Hong Kong).

Here's the original announcement from July

Carry E-Z© lines are now open at DFW! International customers traveling without checked bags may clear the Customs arrival area in one step and move directly to the landside concourse, bypassing the baggage claim process.

This post has been expanded from a Facebook Status on September 12, 2014 at 03:32PM

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Homeward bound. On board AA 138, little over 8K miles and 16 hours is all that left

via Facebook Status September 12, 2014 at 12:22AM http://ift.tt/1qpYiaF

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Facebook Check-in September 11, 2014 at 04:11AM

Yeah, made it. Let’s call Leo and have some good street food - at JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong

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Facebook Status September 10, 2014 at 10:16PM

Captain just informed that one of the “doors has developed a slight hole and losing pressure”. Heading back to the gate to have it check by “engineers standing by”. Looks like, me and the 90+ years old grandpa (impressively fit) next to me are the two most relaxed people on this flight. It’s all good, part of your travel experience.

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Facebook Check-in September 10, 2014 at 08:43PM

Let’s get to Hong Kong - at Cathay Pacific First and Business Class Lounge

Image Credit: loungindex.com

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Facebook Check-in September 10, 2014 at 05:05PM

Woke up at 4:30 am to learn that my flight from Kualalumpur to Hong Kong is cancelled and can’t get to Hong Kong on time for DFW flight. An hour on the phone with CWT to change flights and find a hotel in Hong Kong for overnight. I need that double expresso NOW. - at Hilton Kuala Lumpur

Image Credit: hilton.com

BTW: My room was exactly like this picture :-)

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No one likes the Dalai Lama anymore

Take the United Kingdom. You'd think the British government would be too proud to take orders from East Asia. You'd be right if you're thinking about May 2013, when Prime Minister David Cameron met with the Dalai Lama, even after Beijing warned him not to. But then, China cut off diplomatic relations, and Cameron's administration spent a year working to get back in Beijing's good graces. Part of the healing involved William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, promising that the British government was "fully aware of the sensitivity of Tibet-related issues" and would "properly handle such issues on the basis of respecting China's concerns."

And then...

The current Dalai Lama, whose religious name is Tenzin Gyatso, is the 14th reincarnation. He was identified in 1950, and Beijing has announced that it has the authority to discover/appoint the 15th Dalai Lama after his death.

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Russian bank hires two former U.S. senators

If you are still scratching your head and trying to figure out what Eric Cantor going to do for Moelis & Co. (here, and here), this one is easy...it's clearly stated :-)

In a filing submitted Friday and effective that day, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former Senator John Breaux, D-La., are listed as the main lobbyists under the Gazprombank account for the firm Squire Patton Boggs, lobbying on “banking laws and regulations including applicable sanctions.”

Guess what...

Gazprombank GPB (OJSC) is a subsidiary of Gazprombank, Russia’s third largest bank. On July 16th, the U.S. Treasury Department added it to a list of Russian firms barred from debt financing with U.S. institutions.

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Facebook app user? Beware big bills as videos - Money Saving Expert

If you've experienced higher than usual bills, check your Facebook settings as it could be down to its video auto-play

Not only it's costing people money, it's plain annoying. Many of the established mainstream site does it as well, even in their Browser version of the web site.

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I will miss Oliver in Comedy central. HBO kindly putting some of his long segments and what a start Oliver had there. This is one of his most popular one being linked from all sorts of publications. It's really witty expose for most Americans and well worth 13 minutes of your time.   

No matter how bad FIFA is, they produce a great product that we all love. I know I shouldn't, I know...can't help, I am also excited that the World cup is finally here and it's going to be a terrific month. 

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CNBC's Brian A. Shactman wrote an interesting article regrading Adidas's plan to make Messi a global brand and yes you heard it including US, and here's the problem with that plan and I agree...

"Americans like winners ... winners who are brash, noticeable and charming. Messi is quiet, humble and unassuming."

But that's what make Leo great.

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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw

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No matter how you feel about this case, Swartz's passing is a big loss to the Internet community. He had so much potential, sad to see him go. He was only 26.

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Book Review: Worth Dying For by Lee Child

Worth Dying For by Lee Child

If you are a regular Jack Reacher fan, as I have somewhat become, perhaps a little disappointment is in the order. Any expectation of character growth over time, like Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, will continue to meet with disappointment. Jack is stuck, becoming somewhat macho and at times resolving to fist fights over brain or fire power. In last couple of books Child's plots are getting more dramatic, not sure if he is writing for studios or showing sign of fatigue with the character. And I for one stopped expecting anything different.

Nonetheless, still a page turner. No matter how you feel about the plot, you will finish the book very quickly, which is what I mostly need for my long flights.

Disclaimer: The link above embeds my amazon associate id, please feel free to NOT use it.

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Back in 1997, one of the reporters, Robert McMillan, was working for another publication when he emailed Postel about upcoming changes to the internet’s naming system. Postel responded, but only to berate McMillan for using a digital signature with his email message. The signature, he said, was just a pointless way of clogging up internet bandwidth. He never did answer McMillan’s question.

Now this makes me smile...also in 1997, after years of developing applications, I was just getting started to focus on helping customers improve performance of their application(s). A wise man, then in his late fifties, let's call him MC (I don't have permission to publish his real name), who practiced the very craft for years, pulled me aside and told me, "the only way to improve performance is to do-less-things, whether it is less number of hops, reduced DB access, less disk access, jam more data into the pipe, whatever it may be, just do less...look for waste, and there are always waste. BUT never forget the cost aspect of the change. That's the pudding. If you can remember that, you would do well in this business". And my friend I never forgot that...THANK YOU.

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While all the attention was on Felix Baumgartner's history making jump, the very same day General Chuck Yeager reenacts his original history making flight, at the age of 89 !!! 89!!! WOW...