Dobhal.com

It has been a while since my last post but I am back.  Long story short….I underestimated the study load in graduate school. I have missed blogging, compiling my thoughts and extracting the abstract lessons life has to offer . It has been one hell of a summer with many revelations and finding inspiration in the least likely places. So moving forward expect my weekly ramblings to begin once again.

 I am going to leave you with this snippet:

“Why do they always teach us that it’s easy and evil to do what we want and that we need discipline to restrain ourselves? It’s the hardest thing in the world–to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage. I mean, what we really want.– Ayn Rand”

 Ok now back to studying financial economics.

I came across this pretty cool mashup spotcrime to view criminal activity in your neighbourhood/city. Out of sheer curiousity, I ran a comparison between Tucson,AZ and Urbana, IL

 http://www.spotcrime.com/az/tucson

Vs,

 http://www.spotcrime.com/il/urbana

I recently moved to Urbana, IL.Am I glad I moved or what?

Even though this website seems to be strictly made for adwords (MFA). I can see an oppurtunity for a nice commercial application that caters to home buyers. For example, an application that allows you to merge the spot crime mashup with mashups for average house prices or various school districts.

I really like mashups. I see an oppurtunity for a “mix and match” mashup tool that allows you to combine various mashups to allow datamining for your personal use.

Before you know where exactly you are headed in life, you must know where you stand — sounds cliché but often ignored. Think about it—even getting directions on GPS requires two points of reference. So why is it that we ignore such a simple thing in our life? We are so focused on where we want to go but neglect to assess where we are.  You could be working hard, taking on your fair share of duties and responsibilities, and either reaping some of the rewards of your hard work or facing the consequences of poor choices. Then one day for no apparent reason the question hits you. Where am I going?

 You become aware of what you have and haven’t accomplished to date, and you unconsciously prepare to re-evaluate your life in terms of your personal goals. What have you achieved to date? What have you sacrificed on your journey so far? You are treated to a realistic look at what you have built and what you have achieved. You no longer view your place in the world, career, reputation, and standing in society with rose-colored glasses. You face the facts, and only the facts.  

During this time you may feel exposed. You may also feel burdened by your responsibilities or failures. This discomfort comes only as a result of a rush of reality into the matters. If the discomfort is great, it is only due to the fact that you may have been holding onto false images of yourself. Just as a mid/quarter-life crisis is experienced differently by different people holds different meaning for different people. It all boils down to how true we have been to ourselves. You recognize what it is exactly that you have accomplished.

Be Brave. Dare to know where you stand.

Be Bold. Take the first step to where you really want to be.

 

I found this poker play from 2006 saved away on my computer.
I kept it around as a reminder about certain principles that
 poker has taught me that can be applied to investments.

1. There will be profits and there will be losses.
2. Look for oppurtunities to maximize your gains and minimize your losses.
3. It is good to listen to your gut, but trust the numbers,probablility,whatever. Be real.
4. Patience, Patience and Patience.
5. Opportunities to profit eventually arise. The larger stack dominates the table. Be Liquid.
6. Money flows out far easily than it flows in. Sit on your stack
7. Be logical not emotional. Don’t get them mixed up.(Just like your mistress and wife)
8. Avoid Tilt. Everyone Tilts. Walk away….walk away on the first sign.

I like this play because it represents the ideal mix of gut and numbers
(and the fact that I won this hand). So here it is.

1/2 Texas Hold’em Game Table (Limit)
Table Beginners 1067501 (Real Money) — Seat 7 is the button

Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: TurtleYurtle ( $49)
Seat 2: tre4545 ( $50.25)
Seat 3: induscrede ( $46.50)
Seat 4: discostutwo ( $47.50)
Seat 5: StubbornMule ( $40)
Seat 6: scoot_scoot ( $99.13)
Seat 7: somewayj ( $40)
Seat 8: jonesie2327 ( $75.50)
Seat 9: mrkyuss ( $59.25)
Seat 10: craze530 ( $62.50)
 

jonesie2327  posts small blind (0.50)
mrkyuss  posts big blind (1)
StubbornMule  posts big blind (1)

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to induscrede [ 6d, 6s ]
craze530 calls (1)
TurtleYurtle folds.
tre4545 calls (1)
induscrede calls (1)
discostutwo folds.
StubbornMule checks.
scoot_scoot raises (2) to 2
somewayj calls (2)
jonesie2327 folds.
mrkyuss calls (1)
craze530 calls (1)
tre4545 calls (1)
induscrede calls (1)
StubbornMule folds.

** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 3s, 6h, 9s ]

mrkyuss checks.
craze530 checks.
tre4545 checks.
induscrede bets (1)
scoot_scoot raises (2) to 2
somewayj folds.
mrkyuss calls (2)
craze530 calls (2)
tre4545 folds.
induscrede raises (2) to 3
scoot_scoot raises (2) to 4
mrkyuss calls (2)
craze530 calls (2)
induscrede calls (1)

** Dealing Turn ** :  [ Jd ]

mrkyuss checks.
craze530 checks.
induscrede bets (2)
scoot_scoot raises (4) to 4
mrkyuss calls (4)
craze530 calls (4)
induscrede calls (2)

** Dealing River ** :  [ 6c ]

mrkyuss checks.
craze530 checks.
induscrede bets (2)
scoot_scoot calls (2)
mrkyuss calls (2)
craze530 folds.

** Summary **

Main Pot: $50.50 | Rake: $1
Board: [ 3s 6h 9s Jd 6c  ]
TurtleYurtle balance $49, didn’t bet (folded)
tre4545 balance $48.25, lost $2 (folded)
induscrede balance $85, bet $12, collected $50.50, net +$38.50 [ 6d 6s ] [ four of a kind, sixes — Jd,6d,6s,6h,6c ]
discostutwo balance $47.50, didn’t bet (folded)
StubbornMule balance $39, lost $1 (folded)
scoot_scoot balance $87.13, lost $12 [ Kc Kd ] [ two pairs, kings and sixes — Kc,Kd,Jd,6h,6c ]somewayj balance $38, lost $2 (folded)
jonesie2327 balance $75, lost $0.50 (folded)
mrkyuss balance $47.25, lost $12 [ Kh 3d ] [ two pairs, sixes and threes — Kh,6h,6c,3d,3s ]
craze530 balance $52.50, lost $10 (folded)

 

For the past 5 years or so, I have been trying to get a better understanding of my personal finances.

• You know the typical questions –What do I spend the most money on ?
• Who got the most of my 5,940,300.00 JPY on my credit cardand what fraction of it?
• Who do I need to boycott to actually save money?
• Is Starbucks really bad for my personal finances?

Well, these questions never got answered…even though I went through implementing various “systems” (read various self-made excel sheets and other random of-the-shelf software programs) at the beginning of every fiscal year. The problem - too much effort. All these methodologies demanded a sincere effort on my behalf. The “lazy” in me would finally give up within a month on the latest “system” and hope for a world where things like monitoring your finances would be effortless. And deep down… I always felt it was the banks responsibility to do so. So why should I take on this burden?Well today I stumbled upon mint.com. My first impression - the site was aesthetically pleasing and pretty damn convincing. Needless to say, I was registered and ready to go in 10 seconds (seriously!).  As I entered the cyber gates of this promised land…. I knew my wishes had been granted. Someone had finally done it - an automated way of tracking your expenses (and figured out a way to capitalize on).

It took me less than 40 seconds to import all my transactions from my credit card/bank. All hail the miracles of web services.  BOOM! ….I knew exactly how much I spent on fuelling my caffeine addiction at Ike’s Coffee Shop last month among many many other things. I was impressed by the auto-categorization of my expenses that allowed me to easily dig into things like my typical monthly averages were at the grocery stores and much, much, more.From an entrepreneurial perspective, the business model definitely appeals to me.  It’s free for the users and mint.com makes money on commissions/referrals when users  use their suggestions to switch vendors or try a new service to save money. (the monetization bit is an assumption - based on elementary my dear Watson). 

Another attempt at contextual advertising? You ask.
I think not. I say better than contextual. I believe this kind of advertising is best described as “Relevant advertising” (a.k.a ”Smack-on” advertising that delivers specific advertisements with an estimate of expected results ) in my books .

 Here is a screen shot illustrating what I am ranting about.   Overall verdict - I am a big fan already. I believe this dot-com will not just survive..it will thrive!

I was in the middle of cleaning out my stack of documents that I have collected over the past 9 years (part of my effort to go paperless) when I found an interesting document — a collection of snippets for aspiring entrepreneurs as they embark on their entrepreneurial journey.

Here is a snippet addressing how to pick a company name.

In baiting a mousetrap
with cheese,
always leave room
for the mouse.

-Saki

 Ok so anyone have a clue….. what the hell does that even mean? Sounds cool though

There is a new king of KISS (Keep it simple stupid) in my books, the award goes to…… Outbrain, the company behind the latest plug-in that allows people to rate blog posts (and I imagine these functions can eventually be extended to other kind of consumer ratings sites but for now… I like the focus on blogs).

From a blogger’s perspective,  I highly recommend this plug-in for fellow bloggers. It was an easy install - well under 5 seconds. (No changes/inserts required at the template levels!)

From a business / new venture perspective, I feel they nailed it. Not surprising given that one of the founders is Yaron Galai (you can read his blog here… I have always liked reading his posts).

It was a weird coincidence that I saw this on a Israeli Venture Blog - “Today we announced our new investment – Outbrain, founded by Yaron Galai and Ori Lahav. Yaron founded it last year right after selling Quigo to AOL for $350M+. ” while searching for a rating tool for this very blog on the another tab  - yes, I am the king of multi-tasking.

My immediate thought - Boy, I sure want to see how the ”exit” pans out on this new venture given the last one had an exit at $350M+. And if Yaron is reading this… I know how you feel about exits and I agree with your philosophy

My  two cents on Outbrain :

It is simple.It does exactly what its supposed to….. and the best part it builds on a network of all those blog feeds out there. Outbrain has the potential to solve the problem of information clutter in a simple way.

 I honestly like it better than Digg as “Digging” still requires a lot of effort as far as I am concerned — click on Digg, login if you aren’t logged in, submit a story…something like that….. :).  Another issue I have with Digg is that viewing the most “Dugg” articles does not necessarily mean viewing something I would enjoy. Some of the highly “Dugg” items are best described as information pollution. Lastly, Digg only relies on a strict ”yay” or “nay” a.k.a “Digg” or “Bury”….there is no middle ground. In contrast, Outbrain’s rating tool is based on the good old and familiar 5 star rating system.

At first glance, Outbrain seems to have a one click solution that combines the functionality of “Digg” and suggestion features ( seen in blog readers/aggregators such as Google reader. Outbrain offers a solution that makes ranking an article hassle free and worth that half-a-second click. I think it is particularly appealing to readers who don’t care about reading user comments or leaving comments but would be willing to contribute a simple click towards a “clutterfree web”.

Things that make me smile :

 http://www.vcwear.com/

Got to give it to them… its simply entertaining.

Those of you who know me well… know that I am an ideaholic.

Not a single day goes by without me trying to think of  an innovative way to change the way people do things or improve our quality of life and then capitalizing on it. Essentially,  I am looking for the next idea that will claim my fame as an entrepreneur/innovator. My ideas are mostly driven by my quest for the dinero. Materialism aside,  I love business. And like poker, the best guage for your success in business is the dollar amount generated at the end of the day.

 But every now and then I step out of my “selfish” shell (a condition I absolutley blame on the “only-child-syndrome”) and think about issues that matter in the “grand” scheme. Well, here is a selfless idea I thought of while trying to help a friend start her non profit .

THE IDEA:

I am sure most of you have heard of  “Adopt-A-Highway” programs in your cities. Well I started wondering - what if someone started an ”Adopt-a-Non-Profit” program. My preliminary research (a.k.a five mins of “googling”) shows that there have been a few others who have “kind-of” thought of this idea (as usual ) but never on the grand scale.

I think this model if implemented correctly has a lot of potential. Just thinking out loudly –

- A nationwide government funded program where all Non-Profits can list themselves/their chapters to gain maximum exposure (program overlooks matching and promoting member organizations so the actual non-profits can get back to their “core” issues )
- Adopting a Non-profit could be done at various levels - Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
- Adoption Levels could be determined by a formula that combines monetary contributions + volunteer time
- Non-profits would have an ability to specify their needs and find a suitable sponsor who can actually meet those needs
- All Non-profits, small and big, I imagine would get more exposure and better quality of participation on such a platform as adopting businesses would tend to compete against each other
- Last but not the least, I think this model would introduce efficiencies in administration and provide transparency to the adoption process . In other words, it should be easier to guage how charitable adopting parties are when assesed on a common platform.

While this idea won’t exactly save the world….I believe it has the potential to help those on that very mission. Maybe I am being too idealistic and all this is just food for thought.
That being said…. I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

If the name Shpigler doesn’t ring a bell…check out these  two videos. While these two videos are hillarious and extremely entertaining  one can take away some valuable lessons…enjoy!

Bottom line: It’s about confidence – in yourself and your products/services.