Fuji

Fuji was on the maps of formula 1 racing track this season. Its an amazing circuit, enabling teams to play with different strategies, allowing lot of overtaking opportunities and most importantly it is a beautiful place. Last time when I visited Japan, I could see the Fuji mountain from my office and the view was breathtaking. Anyhow, the race this Sunday was pretty eventful, as expected rains made the event very exciting. And more importantly it gave an insight to the teams on how to optimize their strategies and reduce other factors that play a part. Grossly Fuji track can be categorized into two sectors (Though there are more)

1) Straight Long sector : This is straight long sector and if a car has high speed then overtaking is easy. But for high speed a car need to have low down force.

2) Curvilinear Sector : This is how I define this sector. This sector has lot of curves and needs a high grip for a higher speed. A higher grip demands high down force. Thus, teams are left with two gross strategies , that is either to have low down force or a high down force. But since Fuji is known for rains, there is another factor that comes into the play.

On a typical rainy day, the cars on the long straight sector will have higher speeds and therefore will make a cloud of mist behind them, reducing the visibility of the driver behind them. This phenomena deters the driver from overtaking since he cannot see anything infront of him and he has not choice but to maintain certain distance from the driver infront, else he runs into a risk of collision. On the other hand, on curves specially steep curves, cars will have slower speeds and therefore will not generate watery mist. Making the visibility better and thus overtaking easier, provided the car has a high down force. To explains is in more detail I am posting a picture .... hope it explains. Ferrari's did adopt the strategy of high down force, they were able to compete for podium inspite of making some couple of additional stops as compared to other teams.

Habits

Habits are easier to form and difficult to break. Infact people form habits in big corporations and gradually those habits make the corporation. It is important therefore not only to check one's own habits but also of peers, subordinates etc. Normally it is not a big problem when you are working with the people within a region, because normally all the norms are agreed and accepted within the region. You see people around you drinking coffee throughout the day and you also start drinking coffee throughout the day :)

Problems might arise when people start increasingly interacting with people of different regions and nationality. It is hard to define who is following the right habit, because everyone thinks himself righteous. Therefore, in these kind of environment it is a good practice to develop standard methods or practices, best known methods and get them adopted everywhere. One has to have solid reasons when proposing a method and if accepted then it makes life easier for everyone. Also it developed the firm into a closer knitted firm where all the teams play at the level field and communication becomes much easier.

Anyhow, personally I tend to develop numerous habits, some I can list others I cannot :D And here goes the list

1) Drink lot of coffee
2) Give up on my regular exercise
3) Sleep for half an hour more after my alarm rings, although I might not be sleepy
4) Postpone my laundry, iron, haircut, gas fill, grocery
5) Work at home lying on bed, knowingly its not good for my eyes
6) Forget to brush before going to bed.

And lastly I formed this habit of not writing blogs and probably thats a reason why it took such a long time.

Riding against the waves

I believe that stock market is nothing but response of brokers' perception regarding the past, the current and the future economic market. The point I want to make here is that when there is a huge drop in the market people tend to think coherently or atleast their perception matches, that leads to a drop. And now a days we can see this on a global scale, where perceptions are pretty much aligned. As a result we normally see that an event in one part of the world can trigger chain of events globally. Stock market is a very good example, where we often see that in case of notable global events stock market more or less behave coherently. (Atleast in extreme market situations).
But there are always fliers or exceptions, where perceptions tends not to appear aligned to the majority. And any deviations from majority comes to attention.
Its like a wise man among fools, where the wise man thinks of others as fools and others think of wise man as a fool :) Pretty interesting, and it happens with me also, when at times I feel like I am not a fool when actually I am.

Anyhow, today globally bears are riding high everywhere except in KL, its upto you to decide who is who :)

F1 and I

To some F1 is quite boring, cars going round and round and round, for some 70 laps. Overtaking is rare, accidents that interests some are rare and most of the time either Ferrari or McLaren wins.

To me its quite interesting, moreover when I think of my job I can very well relate it to that of Formula1 driver. So let me try to point out how Formula1 driver's job is similar to mine.

1) They keep traveling around the world, so do I (I don't stay at a place for more than 1 month).
2) Every circuit has its own properties with different competitive challenges, similarly every client for me is different, their culture, procedures, etc, and everywhere I have a different problem to face.
3) Every year a new car is released that a driver drives. We also release a new product with cool features every year, in fact more than once a year, that we drive.
4) Lot of testing is done by the driver with respect to tyre, aerodynamics, mechanics etc. I also have to do lot of testing in order to collect data for further development of software, equipment, new features etc.
5) A lot of data from everyrace which helps to improve for the next race. For me also lot of data from every client which helps in better success at other sites.
6) Team keep developing cool features like a new aerodynamic wing or a new software to control transmission etc and the driver has to maximize its use. No different for me, we always have new technologies, I have to make sure to find the right use for it.
7) Driver do roadshows to demonstrate and attract fans :) , We also have to do demo's and present technical papers, presentation etc to attract clients .....
8) For any new car the most annoying thing for the driver is the reliability, and more than often I curse our software engineers and tech supports for all our reliability problems :)
9) In a race every team needs to show the best performance in limited amount of time, similarly in a competitive situation every company needs to show the best performance in limited amount of time.
10) Driver needs to wear special gears so do we need to wear special gears, though we don't have any sponsor logo's

I feel like I am Kimi Raikkonen now ;)

Why Malaysian stock market is the odd one out ?

I have been observing from the past few months that KLSE (Malaysian stock market) behaves quite differently than other stock markets. Will appreciate if anyone can explain that

Today's quick-pick (Look at KLSE)

What happend at Monaco

Monaco is the only full street track and is always fun to watch formula 1 over here, specially if it is raining. It didn't rain but the race was quite amazing. McLarens were unmatched, Ferrari's were no where in the sight by the end of the race. And I was wondering why. Being a Ferrari fan that is something I dont like to see :)

Anyhow, as per car development was concerned, Ferrari's improved their rear wheel cooling system and McLarens their front aerodynamics.

Now what does that mean for the Monaco race.

1) Rear Wheel cooling efficiency : It is difficult to cool rear wheel when there are excessive decelerations and if the rear wheels are not cooled properly then the braking system does not work properly and it is difficult to have high level of decelerations, which means it is difficult to have high speeds. But at Monaco, where one does not need high speed, so why Ferrari wants to prioritize the rear wheel cooling system ?

2) Downforce : McLarens improved their front wing to increase the downforce so that at steep turns their cars have better control. Seems perfect for Monaco.

Does that mean that Ferrari's don't want to win the Monaco or does not care about the Monaco's race. Not quite right. What I think is that Monaco is a track with lot of uncertainty in terms of weather, crashes, pole position etc. So putting time and resources for this kind of race is not justified, when one already has a good car. In-spite it is to have a long term vision and do the needful that matters the most in other races. So for the next 4 or 5 races, where the straight line speed and a high level of declaration matters the most, Ferrari's have rightly developed their cooling system and collected data for further improvement.
Moreover, with the current engine regulation teams need to make sure they don't overburn, specially if there are realiability issues. And so is the case with Ferrari's where they need to make sure that they keep the cars cool :)

I am really looking forward for Ferrari's to be at the front. Let see

Jet Lag - Interesting research

Some interesting research/discoveries about jet lag

• Viagra !! You heard it right, viagra can help fight jet lag. (Though they have not mentioned whether it should be taken before boarding, during the flight or after landing. Its on reader's discretion I guess :) (details)
• Light your knees (details)
  
  

Good Luck

Fly smart and stay ahead of Jet Lag

The topic is from a recent article from economic times, the link for which is below
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2070275.cms

It mentions some opinions which do not match with my opinion and findings (based on views of my friends from different countries)
The article mentions following points about jet lag management.

1) ET quotes : Interestingly, flying westwards usually causes less jet lag than flying eastwards. “It has been observed that people who travel against the time zone, as in from Europe or US to India, or India to China, the intensity of a jet lag related problem is higher,” says TK Banerjee, head, National Neuroscience Centre, Kolkata.

My opinion : When someone travel from one time zone to another, mostly he has some business/work related activities that he wants to accomplish, in such scenarios the person more than often is so busy with his business/work related activities that he does not feel the pinch of jet lag.
So a Indian going to west for business/work related activities does not feel the effect of jet lag and that holds true for a American/European going to East for Business/work related activities. So in summary a person going to foreign country does not feel the pinch of jet lag primarily because of
- Involvement with business/work related activities throughout the day and evening
- Excitement of going to a foreign country

I have felt this myself, ie if I go from one place to another in different time zone (irrespective of eastward or westward) and if I am busy, I don't have any jet lags. But if my schedule is not so tight then I can have jet lag, which can last as long as for two weeks.

2) ET quotes : If possible, medicos suggest arriving at the destination by late afternoon and avoiding early morning landings. This will ensure that the person can reach his/her place of stay and sleep.

My opinion : One definitely wants to avoid early morning landings since there might be meetings/appointments etc in the morning or during the afternoon, and flight delays/flight exertion can be a spoil sport. But late afternoon a day before is definitely a NO NO. Typically after we land, we spend next 2-5 hours, getting out of airport, reaching destination and checking in/settling in, meals etc., and then there is a strong desire to sleep, primarily because of exertion. So if someone lands in the afternoon, by evening he is fast asleep and then the night becomes difficult. So the ideal time would be evening, so that one can go to sleep just after dinner and wake up next morning, go for meetings/work etc.

3) ET quotes : “A week before the trip, the person should try to advance the sleeping time from say 11 pm to 8 pm in a phased manner. The person should also go out in the sun early in the morning and avoid bright light exposure in the evening,” Mr Ramasubban says. It is better to avoid sleeping pills during the flight.

My Opinion : Does not work. I personally have tried this, it depends a lot on what you do during the flight. Sometimes and for some people it is difficult to sleep during the flights, no matter how much tired or sleepy they are. So as soon as these people land the first thing that they do is to sleep. Typically even if a person is able to sleep during the trip, assuming he is on economy class, he is so exerted that he can easily take another 6-8 hours of sleep.
So the best thing to do, if you are reaching in the evening, is not to worry about what to do during the flight, stay relaxed, watch movie, play games, read novels, sleep etc.

But if you are reaching during the afternoon or morning, then good luck :)

4) ET quotes : Though several over-the-counter drugs may be available in foreign countries for jet lag, it is advisable to avoid them. However, one particular drug — melatonin — is prescribed across the globe to treat jet lag.

My opinion : I am not sure about drugs, since I have never used. But my friends tell me that it helps. So again good luck.

Some of the things that helps

- If possible for for a flat bed business class. You dont have to worry even if you are reaching in the morning :)
- If possible go for an airline which has least traffic, you might be lucky to get the 3-4 seats empty where you can stretch yourself.
- Prefer an airline with personal TV, so that you can manage your time effectively.
- Lastly and most importantly stay relaxed.
- For long flights of more than 15 hours, if possible take a break of 5-6 hours at transit station and have a nap/sleep/shower.

Well these are again primarily based on my views and my travel frequency across time zone difference of more than 8 hours is once per month, on an average and I am doing this from last 1 year.

Still I suffer from jet lags !!

Best Deal

We all purchase commodities, and for some of those we prefer to have the best deal possible. Typically these kind of commodities are expensive commodities (again definition of expensive changes from person to person), which we buy once in a while or may be once in life time. As a human nature, once wants best deal atleast for these kind of commodities. (Best deal might least price with best quality, best post sales service etc or a combination of these).

At times we ourself don't know or don't understand how to define best deal. We might consider few factors (factors defining the best deal) while making a decision, which actually might not be the factors for the best deal provided we knew or have considered other factors, or else even if we wanted to consider other factors we might not have sufficient information about other factor which could have helped in our deal decision.

For example, suppose I want to buy an 160GB 2.5" external hard disk. The factors that I would consider

• Price
• User reviews
• Warranty (is warranty covered all over the world, duration of warranty etc)
• Post sales support
• Compatibility (with laptop/PC etc)
• Time (is the best period of buy or should I wait few more days)
• Companies/Brands/Models
• Ease of use
• etc

So depending on person, different factors might have different weightage. I personally would give higher weightage to Brand, Price, Warranty, Time, with first having highest weightage.

So if someone can help me to educate on a particular product then it would be of great help. For certain products there are sites which provide such kind of information, but more often than not they don't cover all the factors, mostly it is the price comparison that is done, moreover they don't cover whole range of products. So if a site is made where you can define the factors that you want to consider and the weightage can be assigned to each factor and depending on that the site does some kind of optimization to find the product, I guess this kind of site would be a big success and will be of great help.

In today's world, the key to success is product differentiation and customization with prodviding highest value to the customers.

Semiconductor Devices

When I was in Taiwan, I was told that one can find the cheapest external hard disk there. Space is something which is never enough in today's world. So I went with one of my friends to get a small 2.5" one. I was surprised to find that in a months time the prices 160GB external hard disk has fallen by 30USD, one month before it was priced at 160USD and I bought it at 130USD, including the SATA casing. And so was the case with flash drives. I know that the technology nodes are going down, but thats once in a year, whats the reason for such a huge decline in prices ?

Some facts about the semiconductor industry :

• Profit margins of Toshiba and Samsung, flash device makers, have fallen from 15% to 7% in a period of one year. So in 2007 they were operating at much lower margins so obviously in order to maintain the same or more profit margins then they need to produce more. As a result equipment vendors witnessed thier revenues more than expected.
• Sandisk and Toshiba have built up one of the large ts manufacturing plant in Japan.
• Taiwan, Singapore, Japan have seen huge investments.
• Globalization is taking place at an ever faster pace. That is different companies are sharing their products and technologies, which reduces the cycle time between R&D and product roll out. As a result we have seen across the last few years that every year on an average the technology node goes down. I remember when I first joined this industry, production was for 90nm, after one year all the major players had shifted to 65nm. And soon 45 nm will the the fag.

In semiconductor industry, product manufacturers have to rely heavily on demand forecasts, because it takes 2-3 months to roll out a product. Small errors in demand forecasts can lead to huge inventory buildups and the simple theory of demand and supply can lead to huge price discounts.

Intriguingly what will happen if this trend goes on ?