If you planning to buy a computer component or thinking of assembling your own PC, here is a Website which can be quite handy!

Delta Peripherals in Chennai has a cool Web page which lists down the computer component prices in India (Chennai). I have been tracking this for sometime and it appears to be kept upto date. You can use this list to plan your purchases. It also ensures that your friendly neighbourhood computer dealer cannot fleece you!

Here is a cartoon which illustrates teamwork. No wonder about the saying, “a picture is worth 1000 words”! I got this as an email forward.

SiCKO is a documentary film by Michael moore which looks at the American healthcare system. I think this is the best documentary moore has produced. While other documentaries are drowned in “anger” (Fahrenheit 9/11), in this one you see a much subdued Michael moore. It is a comedy which makes you laugh at the misfortunes of other human beings.  It is emotionally charged and will make a lot of people to “think”.

Now why is this interesting to me if it is based on american health system and americans?  The problem is that we are (in india) slowly adapting American ways here. 5-10 years down the lane we might see insurance/hospital/doctor mafia formation in the health sector. You could already sense the problems in the so called “network hospital”  and “cashless hospitalization”. 

In the movie Michael looks at healthcare systems in other countries such as UK, France and Cuba. I have some experience with NHS in UK. It may not be perfect (for some operations, waiting time is long),  but people do have a “choice”. In UK, private hospitals co-exist with NHS just like in India.

The “terror” detainees at Guantanamo bay military base enjoys free healthcare. So this guy takes a couple of sick people to Guantanamo bay asking for medical help! In another interesting scene a drug which costs $120 in US is bought for 5 cents in cuba!

I have a feeling that Michael moore may get a bigger place in American history after 50 or 100 years. He may be one sided, but surely his documentary raises a lot of valid points.

SiCKO is a must see movie and is scheduled for release on 29th June 2007. Check out the following trailer,

Last week I visited an electrical shop to buy a new table fan. While at the cash counter, I noticed a rather unique credit policy written in big red letters and placed on top of the computer at the counter. It said - “credit will only be given to people over 85 years of age“. I wondered if there is somebody over 85 in my family whom I can bring to the shop. But then I noticed the fine print!

In case you can’t read it - It says “only if accompanied by both parents!”.

It was not long ago that Indian Railways started online reservation of railway tickets. Earlier booking a ticket was a tedious chore. You had to stand in the queue for hours and it was not easy to know whether there is ticket available or not! All that changed with the arrival of online reservation.

Unfortunately, the online reservation service has its own evils. First, you end up paying a lot of “transaction charge”, “service charge” and “reservation charge” for your ticket. Here is an example,

Suppose you try to book a ticket from Trivandrum to Ernakulam. Ticket price is Rs. 110.  On top of it there is something called “reservation charges” which is Rs. 20.  Now on top of it there is a Rs.15 service charge!  And then add Rs.10 as “bank transfer fee” and an additional service charge of Rs. 1 !!!  So the total now comes out to be Rs.156.  That means you end paying 40% extra for using the online reservation facility.

Remember, Railways is earning a lot through advertisements on its Web page. In fact, it is very difficult to find the login fields among all the ads on the home page as you can see below.  Interestingly irctc.co.in has an Alexa rank of about 2000! So it is an advertising gold mine!

Now the most funny part of the online reservation site is something called the Shubh Yathra. It is similar to a “frequent flyer” programme. But unfortunately it applies only to upper class travel (even 3 tier AC is excluded!!) and there is an annual fee of Rs. 500! Look at the following equation to see what you get,

Assume you get Shubh Yathra membership card for Rs. 500. Now you get points only for your own personal tickets. Assume that you spend Rs. 10,000 for tickets (excluding family members). That means you earn 4*10,000/100 = 400 points. This translates to a bonus of Rs. 400.  Now remember you have already paid Rs. 500 as subscription fee. So the net profit out of Shubh Yathra for you is = (-100 rupees).  Aaha, you are paying them money ?  Funny indeed!

I am so addicted to setting up domains, blogs and other stuff that I created another blog! The idea is to keep this blog as a personal blog and move all the technical stuff and programming stuff to the new blog. So naturally posting frequency on this blog will come down.

Check out my new technology/programming blog. You can subscribe it here.

Looking at it again, I think I am beginning to get a kick out of creating all the “About” pages. It is amazing how much an “ego” booster it can be