Paying for the Rich - A Carbon Tax story

Finally i am understanding - we live for the rich to take advantage of us.

Everybody say - Lets go green.
The Question is How much green ?
Now i see every where selling has a green or a Hybrid word associated to it.

Lets come back: As my background , I have a kid who is going to be 2 yr old.To save some money from income,we decided not to send kid to daycare ( yep we need to give half of my wife income to daycare to take care of baby and day care work from 7-5 and we work from 9-6 ).For this we make a bit hard decision of working in shifts ( my wife works at night and i work at day ).

Her job is 30 kms away from the place we live ( yes we looked for jobs near, as we don't have degrees from here ( her degree is accredited to equivalent to Masters in Canada but Canadian employers never give a chance for her to attend interview. So she got option from an Australia based company). I drop her at night and go and pick her in the morning. I own a Pontiac grand AM which gives me 9.8 kmpl. We use car for transport as night its not safe for her to take public transit.Apart from this i take public transit and because of these tax additions there was a fare increase recently.

Now Carbon tax :

Gasoline: 2.41 cents per litre in 2008, rising to 7.24 cents per litre by 2012
Natural gas: 49.88 cents per GJ in 2008, rising to 149.64 cents per GJ by 2012



It added around 20 cents per day to my gas bill ( as of now ). As the gas prices were sky rocking, it has null effect, still it did its job of taking money out of me.

Canada is a cold county (kool place ) and everybody uses Gasoline/Natural gas in winter.Winter is yet to come, let me see how much more i have to pay.I am sure its going to hit me hard in winter from all places. Yes i think it was a smart move to introduce it in summer with giving a $ 100 incentive to hand.

Fine , I pay and money is gone out of me. Now the second part starts

Where this tax money goes ?

Last day i was watching a TV - a news special saying Trucks go green :- Introduction of Hybrid Trucks. Wow green!! . I started listening. Some sales people talk - We are committed to go green. I felt again WOW!!.

Me more listening.

The truck owner association president :- "We are committed to go green and we expect Gov to divert funds from carbon tax to aid buying more Green trucks"

Wow!!, What a nice way of taking my hard earned money as his business investment.

Am i a Fool ? or do we need these systems to help or overkill us ?

© yankandpaste®

Paying for the Rich - An ICBC story

Finally i am understanding - we live for the rich to take advantage of us.

Let me tell the full story

I was driving last day and my car skid and hit side of the road. I was not on high speeds or my car was not bad. But i think i was a bit fast for the climate ( it was drizzling and road became slippery ). I travel the same way for last 3 yrs and never had any problems.Why it slipped on that day ? I am not sure because i travelled on same road 8.5 hrs before. lets be back to story.

So car skid and hit the concrete barrier. Fortunately nobody got injured (yes i had my 2 year old boy in the car ) but the car got some repairs, I reported the incident to police and some towing company towed the car to ICBC.


Now the real story :
Dialed ICBC - The first made the claim and asked options. Then real understanding started. If i make a claim even its $100 its going to have subsequent insurance increase of 55% next year 45% second year and 35% third year and 4th year it will be back to my current rate. This means around $5000 extra to my budget over 3 years. I brought the car for $3500 2 years back.This means ICBC write off my car is going to give me $3500 max.


Afer i heard all maths from icbc i dialed one of my friend for a second
opanion and he revealed his story which finally end up in not claiming and fixing car himself.

Now i started thinking, what about rich ? They own cars of $35000+, a skid means $10000 min. They also pay the same insurance extra as me if they claim ( so extra $4000 ) and $6000 for free.

From where this money comes ? From mine and your insurance. Finally we pay insurance for


For making ICBC profit full
For giving free money to Rich ( last 3 yrs i paid more that $7000 as insurance to ICBC and now i have to write off my car which adds another $2000 ( after my own use deduction )


Time to think - Do we really need these systems ??


ICBC ? http://www.icbc.com/

Expect another article on Carbon tax, This is another way the working class pay for rich to remodel/expand their business.
© yankandpaste®

Twinkle, Twinkle Little star in malayalam

My translation :


Malayakam :

ചിമ്മും ചിമ്മും നക്ഷത്രം
നീ എന്തൊരു അതിശയം
മേലേ മേലേ മാനത്ത്‌
മിന്നി നടക്കും രത്നം പോല്‍

In Manglish :
Chimmum chimmum nakshatram
Nee enthoru athishayam
Maala maala manathil
Minni nadakum ratnam pool



© yankandpaste®

Complexity theory

Last day was talking a friend ( he is am immigrant from Iran ) about howz his friends etc. From him i got this complexity theory

In the place we have friends whom we have a lot to talk in common. Once we immigrate or go away from them , for first years we will dial back a lot talk to them etc. Later the frequency of communication goes less , and less and less. This time you will be building your roots ( a circle of complexities ) here and your friends will building there own roots. After some time you guys may find that there is less/ Nothing to talk because your complexities are different from your friends.


Once again :- what you share common with a friend who studied in school where you were very close with him/her and how much time you can talk now and what subjects ?



© yankandpaste®

The Home Market - My view on Vancovuer

Last few days, was browsing through mls.ca for home listings and was talking to realtors, private sellers and some friends who own houses.

The people who brought houses some year back are trying to sell and get profit.

The new people who brought houses are really struggling on the payment.I am strongly expecting the housing crash to affect Vancouver too. Reason : more people take loans through consultant, the job of consultant is to get a big money,so lot people have taken more than they can afford.They all expect the money to go up and get more money out of it.

If a home has income of 60k /annum he gets 5k per annum, in a normal scene without tax, 5 k to hand and 2.5 k for mortgage. But the fact is total money is not coming to hand, there is taxes, and then people wont consider other expenses related to home while buying (heat and hydro ). They are going very up than expected. If one person of home goes sick ? full budget to more loans.



The high pay jobs are information based and they are shifting to places where there is low pay. Now how people can expect they will get paid high for providing services to the low pay people.

Finally these people who brought houses for high money expecting somebody will buy for more money is going to end up as losers.

The finance guy was saying : "If you need i can arrange more money ". I felt he is saying "my commission is based on how much you take".

The realtor was saying " For buying a house: buy a house and them wait than waiting to buy a house" . I felt its this way, " i wanna get my money, so buy now".

What i decided is wait, and not to pay a 250k worth house 500k because somebody is saying prices are high. As there is no more high pay job opportunities no point in saying prices are up.

The fun part is last day ( march 28 - spring ) was snowing in Vancouver )
© yankandpaste®

Child like intelligence created in Second Life

Do you really think we are in a second life ?

Hindu philosophy says all around you is maya. The news is man is able to create intelligence in the virtual world called second like. so the creature in second life thinks like a 4 yr old person.

read details at :

http://itnews.com.au/News/72057,childlike-intelligence-created-in-second-life.aspx

I think we too are. there are 4-5 virtual worlds created initially and somebody was doing experiments. Then they tested the server to server communication and that how we have whites, Blacks, Asians , South Asians etc etc happened.


© yankandpaste®

2 escalators :Simple life, Its just choice

Was walking from skytrain station to work, there are 2 escalators in front of me, I came to one and found its not working, still lot people walking on it as 2 raws. Switched to the second one which is working, stood on the raw which doesn't walk, the walking raw was almost null and i found later one guy walking up on that raw.

Was wondering life is also like this :

Lot people walks on the stagnant one - and they reach up
Lot people are stagnant but they reach up because the system is moving.
Some people who walks on the moving system so they reach up in half time than rest.

Which one is good ?

I don't know, i felt all has its advantages

The walking on stagnant on says : When going gets tough the tough gets going and they are healthy because of walk.

The stagnant people : They enjoy the free moments on laziness still moves (look at me and my thoughts at that time )

The walking people on working system : They reach to half time so they can do more things in the time others reach that level


Simple life, Its just choice.

NB: escalator: a power-driven set of stairs arranged like an endless belt that ascend or descend continuously

© yankandpaste®

Nokia and Google - The next Team

Why ? Read headlines "Nokia and Google to Offer Google Search to Nokia Customers Worldwide". I know what you are going to ask - " You read about Google's Android vs Nokia " So do they compete ?

I believe most people may think so but look close :

Nokia took Trolltech ( the home of QT and KDE ). Google is a customer of QT. now Google is a customer of Nokia.

Second : Google's core is search and not Linux or Android.
Nokia's core is handsets not Maemo.

Android is only a platform for Google to reach Mobile.
Maemo is a platform for handset.
Once Nokia helps Google for more reach then why struggle with Android or Maemo ?

The new strategy is "all non core stuff be Open source".

WOW now, we have Android = Maemo = Linux.
Google happy because search reach, Nokia Happy because they can sell more handsets and

Linux - Android or Maemo does this make difference ? its all Linux man (not core stuff for their revenue stream - look at strategy ).

So expect now more with Nokia Google Team !!

Comcast introduces open-cable platform

Why its interesting for me ?

I believe the next big stuff for some years is going to be IP - Video - TV stuff.
The IP broadcasting is going to fly from here. Open standards make the game more fair.

I imagine a new level of TV channels who directly broadcast the content over IP on a subscription basis and people watching them in Home TV using IP STB.

May be google kind of web companies will come with a channel search page so that we will browse and choose the program.

What happens to cable/Telco companies ?


They are going to be pipe providers, they will provide data pipe to home. Rest all - what to watch, from where to watch etc the customer decides :-)

Going to be hot ?
Big pipe technologies - Wimax, fiber etc
HD video technologies - Full HD codecs - smarter/faster
Open standards so that every one can have a TV broadcast.
IP STB devices with open interfaces.

why it will take years ? Its a paradigm shift, cable - telcos - tv channels will show change resistance because of the money they already put in these.

© yankandpaste®

The skills you need to succeed

One of the most important changes of the last 30 years is that digital technology has transformed almost everyone into an information worker.

A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity. This isn't true at all.

In almost every job now, people use software and work with information to enable their organisation to operate more effectively.

That's true for everyone from the retail store worker who uses a handheld scanner to track inventory to the chief executive who uses business intelligence software to analyse critical market trends.

So if you look at how progress is made and where competitive advantage is created, there's no doubt that the ability to use software tools effectively is critical to succeeding in today's global knowledge economy.

A solid working knowledge of productivity software and other IT tools has become a basic foundation for success in virtually any career.

Beyond that, however, I don't think you can overemphasise the importance of having a good background in maths and science.

If you look at the most interesting things that have emerged in the last decade - whether it is cool things like portable music devices and video games or more practical things like smart phones and medical technology - they all come from the realm of science and engineering.

The power of software

Today and in the future, many of the jobs with the greatest impact will be related to software, whether it is developing software working for a company like Microsoft or helping other organisations use information technology tools to be successful.


Communication skills and the ability to work well with different types of people are very important too.

A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.

This isn't true at all.

Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.

I also place a high value on having a passion for ongoing learning. When I was pretty young, I picked up the habit of reading lots of books.

It's great to read widely about a broad range of subjects. Of course today, it's far easier to go online and find information about any topic that interests you.

Having that kind of curiosity about the world helps anyone succeed, no matter what kind of work they decide to pursue.


VIEWPOINT
By Bill Gates
Chairman, Microsoft

yankandpaste from : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7142073.stm
© yankandpaste®

The System Protector

Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam.
Dharma sansthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge.
(Gita 4:8)

my meaning :

For protecting the people adhered to the system,
For destroying the people who are against the system.
For reviving The System, Incidents will occur time by time.


© yankandpaste®

The Tower of Babel - A symbol of human achievement

Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth. - Genesis 11.

Time passed ....

British concurred the world. They spread English. English stayed as International Language ( yes I accept more people speak Mandarin and Hindi ).

Now Its time for the Second Tower of Babel and what may be Lord doing ?

Imagine ..........