investment ideas - high tech stocks

i have been toying with the idea of investing some money in the US stock markets again after a lapse of about 4 years. i am a high tech stock junky and usually look for very high growth stories - tech companies that have great ideas but are generally undervalued by the market. generally i would be willing to commit a significant portion of a portfolio to a couple of stocks if i had the belief that it would one day come true [out of all the investments i have made - this has come true on 2 - DELL and Net Silicon].

a fund i think that does a lot of decent due diligence is First Hand funds

Anyway looking for the next great story - incidentally there was a company I came across that should be very interesting if they go or an ipo - Globalive Communications Corp

Looking for ideas if anyone wants to share - probably going to be investing in bits and drabs and creating a seperate blog along the way...

kewl image

I think credit goes to 9A design - however very nicely done...

the scum of my heart

“Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart.” William Shakes-his-beard

The scum of my heart at the moment (other than my wife) is the cricket world cup finals. What anticipation. I am trying desperately to be objective about the result without succumbing to the hoopla that surrounds us. But how could i come up with anything other than a Sri Lanka win.

A friend and colleague said that it would all depend on whether we won the toss i.e. if we bat first. the logic being that the batters need to get a decent total for the bowlers to work their magic. There is much truth in this sentiment, however I think we can rule the day as long as we can get the better of their bowlers - no this not a Ranjit Fernandoism. Look at the table below:

Australia bowling averages
Player	Matches	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	Ave	Econ	SR
SR Clark	1	8	1	19	1	19	2.37	48
BJ Hodge	5	6	0	17	1	17	2.83	36
NW Bracken	9	65.4	9	224	15	14.93	3.41	26.2
GB Hogg	10	79.5	6	313	20	15.65	3.92	23.9
GD McGrath	10	73.5	5	326	25	13.04	4.41	17.7
SR Watson	7	37.3	2	168	3	56	4.48	75
MJ Clarke	10	12	0	63	0	-	5.25	-
SW Tait	10	78.3	1	425	23	18.47	5.41	20.4
A Symonds	8	20.2	1	129	2	64.5	6.34	61

what is most tantamount is controlling Bracken, Hogg, McGrath and Hodge if they bring him on. I think the Aussie power plays are going to be absolutely crucial. Shaun Tait imho is not going to be such a problem unless he takes a number of wickets..

As for us - we have got to play as if the world depended on it - and from all that we read and hear it does. However it would be great if they could just play the kind of cricket that has made us the scum of world's heart - entertaining spirited and endearing.

the "air" attack - the need for sams

the lights went out last night - somewhere around 22:30. I was just nodding off to sleep and trying to think of how i would open my presentation for the conference I was presenting at this morning. anyway i woke up this morning to hear that the lights had been turned off as a precautionary measure as some aircraft had been spotted over Puttalam ( by the way there is a landing strip in Palavi [thanks to cerno for the link]about 6 km south of Puttalam) - i really didn't give more thought to the matter until i read about the airport being closed down for 45 minutes as a precautionary measure - now this was concerning.

My friend A called me shortly after i gave my presentation and told me how another friend of his had boarded his flight from Dubai and then been told they would not be flying to Colombo. What the airline mean? What are the implications of a carrier like Emirates pulling out or imposing flight only during the day on Colombo? Now this is even more concerning.

My greatest concern however is the solution to the ltte's air threat- surface to air missiles (SAMs). it seems like we can't even learn from the not-so-distant past - 2000/2001 to be precise. surely the defence-types can remember how our troop-carrying aircraft were being swatted out of the sky by sams being shot by the ltte. isn't this what the gosl should be doing? how difficult would be to train our foces in this technology? hell ask the karuna faction how to do it.

we won

we won we won we won we beat the kiwis. we are in the final. just going to relish in moment for now and save the analysis for later. hats off to " the boys" and much respect to the skipper - great captaincy.

petrol station scam - the changing tide ...

You must read the comments on this Times On-line article
what stands out to me most is the changing sentiment against the ltte by the Tamils themselves - i am being highly presumptuous in interpreting certain names. The overwhelming angst against the ltte is quite substantial.

I guess this gets to people in two fundamental ways:

1. touching their own wallets (or the possibility to be robbed) in their own neighbourhood to fund a war they are not involved with. No one likes getting robbed but getting robbed for a cause far away i.e. not even supporting the local economy is even worse.
2. the more frightening - credit card fraud. this itself is getting even scarier. most people (of a certain income level) in most locations around the world now carry a credit or debit card. for the vast majority of transactions in the UK i would probably use a credit card - buying a tube ticket, paying for groceries, shopping, dining out, hotels etc. we are constantly on the vigil against on-line credit card fraud but when it happens at the petrol station - then it becomes real. you can see it, you may know the guy who stole from you, did he have access to all of your credit - it is really scary.

the dog wonders if this is the proverbial straw that'll be the undoing of the funding pipeline. mind you the ltte are still meant to indirectly control some 10% of all petrol stations in and around london...

forgetful

i am getting forgetful. not entirely sure why - but i am forgetting to keep track of things i shouldn't. today i forgot that i had this conference call scheduled for the morning but i even forgot to look at my diary.

i am usually pretty good at remembering things - or at least i rely on a bunch of tools to keep me up to date. i use ms outlook pretty extensively, including alarms for my appointments and a synchronization with my o2. I used to synchronize my n80 as well but for the life of me i cannot get my new laptop to recognize the phone. i also have use an excel tool that has my to do's and to receives and some calendaring tools as well. on top of all of this i also write things down especially action items in meetings. writing all this down i recognise the complexity and probably need to simplify this dramatically. i guess what ever system you do have you just need to practice it religiously...

our loss to Australia

my take on the loss - so be it. in my humble opinion (IMHO) we lost because we couldn't execute the given strategy - yes yes please bear with me...

resting the bowlers I believe was designed to get our batting kick-started. I think the coach and captain probably wanted to see if we could get our batting line-up firing on all cylinders at a match. all the matches up to now(and including the Oz match) we have had a pair of batters who have been able to see the game to a face-saving total that could be defended by the superior bowling. what would happen if the master-bowlers were not there? you would then need a total well in the region of 270-300 to defend against.

I reckon the game plan had been to have Upul and Sanath get to at least 50, get Mahela and Chamara to about 150 and then Russell Arnold and Dilshan to about 250. the tail were to bring home the last 25-50 runs. the bowlers were meant to bowl as tight a line as possible and step up to the plate on this pitch.

I guess we failed to execute - but what do I know...

the beautiful east

i am very proud of being a humble farmer from the eastern part of Sri Lanka. the pictures above were taken just around some of our paddy fields ...I still can't believe the sky did that

Why?

Why did Cho Seung-Hui want to kill so many innocent fellow students? I presume it was anger of some dimension. but what makes someone so angry they feel the need to kill - and kill randomly those one associates with?

On the question of why - why is driving in Sri Lanka so testosterone-based? you often get the sensation that people (of both sexes) measure themselves by how aggressive they are behind the wheel of a vehicle. My friend Nirm used to tell me to just let them go in fact even be more polite - this often confuses them.

the new year - new thoughts or more of the tired old thinking

suba aluth aurudu wewa

I remember learning this phrase for the for first time and being quite tickled that I could say it. until then it was quite a tongue twister for me..anyway lets see what the new year has on offer for us.


as we begin this new year what do you think will be the catalysts for change (hopefully for the better)? will peace break out? will we win the world cup? will the politician stop being guided by horoscopes and act with their conscience? will a leader emerge that can see beyond a vote? will traffic improve? will someone suddenly take education of our youth seriously? so much yet so little being done...

What has happend to humanity?

The Washington Post did a fantastic check of what we have become - or at least a check of our attitude towards beauty. They got Joshua Bell to play on his Stradivarius at the L'Enfant Metro station.

For those who do not know Joshua Bell is an absolutely amazing violinist. He seems to live thru the music when he is playing - absorbing the notes and transmitting them thru to produce a visual and aural feast. You feel his personification of whatever he is playing and that his true brilliance. I got to catch him playing with the Austin Symphony Orchestra about 15 years ago and still remember the performance.

Anyway please read the following article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Has a lot to say about who we are..

the new essel cricket league debate

a good friend of mine, MF, sent me this about the proposed cricket league in India:

Essel Group comes up with a new initiative

Business mogul announces break-away cricket league

Cricinfo staff

April 3, 2007

Subhash Chandra, who heads the Essel Group, owners of the Zee brand, has announced a breakaway cricket series called the Indian Cricket League (ICL). The Essel Group will invest Rs 100 crore (US$ 23 million approx) in the project, which will run parallel to the leagues and tournaments of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

The ICL will have six teams with two Indian internationals, four overseas players and eight juniors in each side, though Chandra didn't name those players, if any, who'd already signed up. At the end of the third year, there will be 16 teams in the ICL. Chandra, while announcing this initiative in Delhi, said this initiative was not in conflict with the BCCI but would be complementary to them.

Stating that the Indian board's selection process has failed to create "a reserve pipeline of players", Chandra added that the idea behind the league is to create an "ideal pool with killing instinct". The BCCI, he said, would be free to draw from the talent pool.

"We feel that despite cricket being a passion, a religion in this country and despite it having great commercial players, BCCI has only six A-grade players signed up," he said. "Therefore, there is need for some united effort to create a talent pool. And this will be done by a three pronged strategy -discovery, diligence and display."

To achieve its objectives, Zee plans to set up cricket academies equipped with state-of-the-art facilities across the country. Sports medicine would be introduced to ensure players' fitness and a full-fledged record maintained of their behaviour pattern, diet-plan and game statistics. The group will also appoint talent scouts in all 35 states to hunt for young players to play in the ICL.

The finer points of ICL:

- 6 teams or clubs to play in the opening year
- Talks on with BCCI for gaining access to stadiums
- Executive Board of the league under installation
- Pool of referees and umpires to be created
- Rules committee to form regulations for ICL
- Ombudsman to look into grievances of players
- League to begin with Twenty20 format and move to ODI format
- League to be a joint venture between Essel Group and ILFS Group
- Each team to have a mentor, media manager, psychologist, physio
- Prize money for the winner- US$ 1 million
- League teams to compete with teams internationally
- Number of teams to be increased from 6 to 16 in three years

© Cricinfo

His initial take on it was:

have been suggesting this for ages - that the subcontinent 4 (ind, Pak, Bdesh, SL) should create their own internal domestic cricket league in the mould of the UK Footbal Premier League...The reason being that the current domestic cricket structures in all 4 countries are in shambles - they do not propely serve their national purpose of discovering and training new talent, nor do they attract a great amount of viewers or money or TV..........I always thought an enterprising businessman a-la Kerry Packer (he who transformed cricket in the 1970s with TV and coloured clothing and made it far more commercially, and TV, friendly ) or Bernie Ecclestone (who did the same for F1) could do the same for cricket in the subcontinet.....

...After all, with a domestic base of 1.5bn+ people, cricket already a religion, and an established roster of sponsors. ...And think of the excitment of club cricket, like Mumbai CC taking on Colombo Colts esp if the League decides to allow free and full international trade in players...you could see the emergence of 'superclubs' like Man U or Real Madrid...It would be a huge monepsinners - cricket is to the subcontinet what football is to Europe - so, given the right organisation and capital, I cannot think of a reason why domestic club cricket in the Subcontinent cannot be as commercially successful as European football??

My reply was:

Great idea – but there are a few flaws to it and I think there are some phenomenal barriers to entry.

Funnily enough it is India who has most to gain from something like this. But before I get to that, I think what needs to be set up first is not exactly what the Essel group has in mind – it should probably be more on the lines of the US Major League Baseball or national Hockey League. You basically set up Super-teams based around a large city's capture market around a large stadium. Very important is the prevalence of a competitive TV market affiliated to a national broadcaster. You could even have a couple of teams per large city such as Mumbai, Karachi, Delhi, Dhaka etc.. Funnily enough there should also be a cricket season – a defined length of play of the game within the year to sustain a heightened sense of anticipation and build up – aka the beautiful game in the UK, F1, baseball, American football etc. There should be other games in the off-season but these need to be very much secondary sports – what basketball originally was to US Football.

So what are the barriers to entry:

1. the cricket season. There actually is none any more. The game is so global and the ICC runs the national teams like a league with both the test and the ODIs. Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is open season and Winter means the tropical countries and those in the Southern Hemisphere get the visitors. It is a year round sport at the highest levels.
2. building the teams/infrastructure. The mix of economic ingredients for local teams to succeed is just not there. There is still no TV station dedicated to just a city anywhere in the subcontinent. The investment in the stadiums has also been done at a national government level and they would need to be involved in how it was given out.
3. India should have a pool of talent 50x ours. There is a clear need for the Indians to identify and nurture talent early at develop it. There current selection process I think has failed them successively and needs to be revamped and what Essel proposes makes sense as a complimentary service to the BCCI. PCB has there own process and it seems to work but they could definitely do with much more transparency – but this in a country run by a Dictator, Bangladesh need to nurture their existing talent in the team. In Sri Lanka funnily enough we have a fairly good colloquial system – it works inspite of the BCCSL – probably has to do with how small we really are and the fact that school matches and club matches are well attended and put in to the newspapers.

And he replied:

Yeah I agree - My point was general - in the sense that a country (India) with the passion, population base and wealth should be able to support a commercialy successful, TV focused cricket league. All the points you raised are valid - and see more such points in the cricinfo debate - but, just like the Kerry Packer Wordl Series in 1970s, this could be the big catalyst which creates a true profesional sports league in India (and hopefully by extension, draws in its subcontinental neighbours).....either because its succesful in its own right, or because it forces the existing system to change. As for whether it can work within existing ICC rules and schedules - my point is exactly that India can call the tunes at the ICC, and force them to change (which would be a change for the better, cos all these ridiculous and meaningless cricket tournaments can be gotten rid of, leaving just a core bunch of meaningful International competitions).

On your final point - i disagree. I think that ALL the subcontintental first-class systems for finding and nurturing talent are broken and pathetic....Because SL are doing well now, everyone is saying our system is good....Just 12 months ago, at the beginning of our Test Series in UK (not the end, when we did very well against expectations), when we succumned to humuliating defeats, every pundit, both local and foreign, was waxing lyrical how its because our system does not produce the right kind of talent, at the right time, playing on the right surfaces, yadi yadi yada.

At the moment - its Indian and Paks' turn....4yrs ago, when India went to the semi's, everyone was gushing on how great the domestic Indian Ranji trophy is at producing talent. Now everyone says its broken. yes, BCCI power struggles between Dalmiya, Pawar, Ganguly, etc are pretty bad - but nothing compared to SL genius in that dept with our local hero Sumithipala dishing his thug lovin'....Honestly, when i arrived in SL last June, I was worried that SL Cricket wouldnt even have the organisational skills to field a team for the World Cup this year! The fact that our guys are doing well, and gelling as a team, is probably due to alot of luck and personalities.

The reality is ALL the subcontinetnal systems are not working - because they are essentially State Owned Enterprises in monopoly industry, which are run according to political objectives - and therefore suffer from the usual various rent-seeking / incentive-compabitibiity issues inherent in such structures. England and Aus Boards are also state-owned, but they are far more professional, run by a salaried, professional cadre. Its really like comparing the English Central Bank with a banana-republic version (of course, SL CB is much better than that!). Which is why a commercially focused, privately owned, sports league hopefully can provide the competition to change some of this

And my reply was:

Agree – with the need to build proper talent acquisition systems in the sub-continent and with the need to professionalize the management. I have unfortunately seen how Sri Lankan Football has been run as a personal fiefdom and what this has done for the country in the sport.

A game of faith

There is an amazing sensation in the air - that of expectation. Do you really think the unthinkable? What's the question no one wants to ask without putting a hex on our chances? Could Sri Lanka do it again? Can we win the world cup in 2007?

In 1996 I insisted on watching the World Cup by myself - as we started winning I did not want to jinx the team by changing any of my habits. Also it was a fairly rough period for me personally with the death of my grandfather and his two brothers - all of whom I was exceptionally fond of and very close to Olddaddy. I digress - I guess we have this sense of participation in the action by hoping against hope that whatever we have done will not have a negative impact on an event. This must be one of the origins of how superstitions originate, but also I guess it has a lot to do with our own faith - please God do good by us by allowing us to win...

Its 2007 and I feel older but no wiser. Sri Lanka are in form and really coming together. The ingredients in both the batting and bowling are all there, but this time we also have a real sense of arrival as a team. It feels like the Master Chef in Tom Moody has picked out what flavours work best for each game and decides to bring them out at each point. Each game has us Sri Lankan salivating with anticipation of who will be the star...a real testament to the team.

Anyway waiting for the England match tonight...