Sibling support for our kids in the future….

Sibling support for our kids in the future….

In the past generation, there were several children in a family. The number of children in a family was close to 10 about 70 years ago. Slowly it reduced to 4 or 5 children 40 years ago. Today we normally see couple have one or two per family and rarely three children. It may be due to several good reasons. But think of the sibling support that we get. Our brothers and sisters do not think twice to come to our rescue in case we need them. The coming generation may not have that kind of support from siblings.

What do we do?

One easy and good way to overcome this is to have our children considering the cousins as close family members. To make it happen

o We should take every opportunity to meet and spend time together
o We can have parties with our cousins as we do with out friends/colleagues that will bring the next generation closure
o Let them mix well and get comfortable with each other
o We should also instill the bonding in their mind
o We can also make the older kids realize that they consider themselves responsible for their younger cousins.

It is not difficult to do so. We require little more communication and get-together with our cousins. More importantly, we should remove the notion of “relatives means problems….”. As you all agree, days are gone where we keep complaining about our relatives with ego. We already have very friendly relationship with each other why not we give the same feelings to our kids about their cousins.

Ok, where is the party tonight :-) ?

If you agree, disagree or have comments please feel free to post your comments in this blog that would help bring a healthy discussion.

Your Asset Information Recording -- YAIR

Your Asset Information Recording -- YAIR

 

A casual discussion with a financial advisor made us realize how much we ignore on our own asset details. If it is not documented and given to the right person, it is as good as lost, when we are not around.

 

“Jeevan ke saath bhi; jeevan ke baad bhi (While you live and after you live)” – well said. It is a Life Insurance Corporation’s slogan. But makes us think. It is a good idea to list out all the information on the asset and leave a copy with trustworthy persons. We are not talking about the will/estate planning. That is different. Don’t tell me, my wife/husband knows everything. We travel together most of the time. If both of us are not there, no one will know what we havehave and where.

 

With the information compiled and kept in the hands of others, in case of any unexpected event we will at least know, oops! they will at least know where and what is available. We need not have the value of the asset in the document. But at least keep the necessary information that would help them accessing it. With this action you take today, our dependents (mostly our children) will not suffer.

 

Encourage your parents to do the same. It is the hard earned money.

 

For example, we can mention the following:

 

1. Name of account holders: Mr. Raja & Mrs. Rani 
1. Account Bank: 
2. Account Number: 
3. Branch/Address of bank:
2. Life Insurance: 

1. Name: 
2. Policy No: 
3. Start date and maturity date: 
4. Beneficiary: 
5. Procedure to claim – claim form attached 
2. Property: 

1. Address 
2. Land details 
3. Owners: 
4. Location:
5. Document copy attached 
6. Important note: It was purchased with power of attorney 
3. Stock holding information

1. Name and account number
4. Details of credit card 

1. Most of the credit cards provide life insurance. Get the details on them and document. Attach the claim form and procedure. Why not?

Prepare the list with all the details. It should contain copies of all the supporting documents and a summary at the top.

 

You have to do the following right away:

 

1. If your bank account is not a joint account, make them a joint account immediately. Without that we have to go through the procedure before getting access to that. 
2. Provide beneficiary/nominee to all the accounts. If minor is the beneficiary there should be a way out for mentioning guardian 
3. Compile assets information (AI) and make at least 3 copies and keep one for your reference and give to two people who will know about you all the time 
4. Any change on the info on assets, update the info on assets info record (AIR) 

Label your thoughts

Labeling is a good way to control your own thoughts. In short, label your thought as GOOD, BAD, GROWTH, DREAM and so on. For instance, when negative thought comes to your mind, label it as BAD and change your thinking. Similarly when you have free time while waiting for someone or something, bring the GROWTH thought from your thought list and it will help you to think about your GROWTH or DREAM.

More details can be found at: http://www.swamij.com/witnessing.htm

It is a good website.

Connectivity -- it is important

The following news shows how important the connectivity is.

LSE suspends trade on technical glitch
26 Nov 2009, 1731 hrs IST, AGENCIES

SOURCE: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5272009.cms?prtpage=1

LONDON: The London Stock Exchange PLC has halted electronic trading because of technical issues.

The LSE says the break to trading on Thursday is due to connectivity issues, but it hasn't yet determined the root cause of the problem.

The exchange has placed all order-driven securities in to an auction call period, which allows customers to continue to place orders into the exchange's order book. The exchange says it will give customers 30 minutes notice before ending the auction period, once it sorts out the technical issue.
Trading went offline at 10.33 GMT, freezing the FTSE 100 at 5,264.97.
The auction call period is usually used to set prices at the start and end of the daily trading session.

Solar Centric

We are under utilizing solar power. It is high time our Governments encourage solar powered products and services. VCs should reach out to the startups that are inclined towards the solar based products. That is one way of giving back to society. It would help cleaning the guilty feeling that everyone is carrying :-).

Japan is doing the right thing in a big way. They are planning to position a solar station in space and bring the solar power to earth using laser beams. That would be about 6 times cheaper than the current cost. We wish them good luck on the project which will contribute to the good climate and will help every living thing.

More details of Japan's initiative: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091108/sc_afp/japanspaceenergysolartechnology

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Gri Vidi
http://blogofgri.blogspot.com/
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Campus Wireless Network

Introduction

It is not just a trend any more to have wireless network in an entire campus but also a productive tool that every campus would like to have for easy access of information from any part of the campus. The campus wireless provides the mobility and accessibility to the information. The campus wireless got propelled by the security assurance and affordability. The user community is convinced that wireless network has the wired network equivalent security.

Typical requirement of Campus wireless

This can be generally categorized as:

1. Building to building wireless connectivity
2. WiFi for the entire or portion of the buildings
3. WiFi for Open space (such as ground, corridor, garden and so on) of the campus
4. Wireless users management

Proposed solution for connectivity among buildings

The building to building wireless connectivity can be achieved with the combination of

1. point-to-point wireless connection
2. point-to-multipoint wireless connection

If there are 10 buildings in a given campus and if all of them need to be interconnected, one can adopt the following options.

1. Connect most of them in point-to-multipoint mode and have 2 or 3 in point to point mode as shown in the diagram below
2. Create 2 sets of point-to-multipoint mode

Getting broadband Internet from other location

1. One can wirelessly bring the Internet from the nearest ISP. Let us say that Internet is available at a distance of 3 KM from your premises, keep one wireless unit at the point of Internet and another one at your complex. This point to point connectivity would help getting Internet bandwidth for your complex and if needed other neighboring complex too.
2. The point to point wireless connectivity is done using the following.

i. Keeping wireless units and antenna on the top of the building at both the ends

ii. Using Government de-licensed frequency (means Government has permitted anyone to use it freely) equipment

iii. Bring the line of sight (which is a must) by keeping a pole or as mast at both ends, if required.

Advantages of wireless solution

1. No cabling to individual rooms and floors and hence easy installation and flexible service.
2. IEEE standard based and hence guaranteed
1. Interoperability
2. Security
3. Mobility -- Internet at any part of your home and premises in the complex

1. Using laptop one can access Internet from anywhere.
2. Within complex, recreation hall, park area, etc.

Wireless Internet – Campus/Housing complex

Wireless units will be placed around the campus/complex wherever the coverage is needed.

Wireless Internet – Wireless Internet for multi-storied building

For multi-storied blocks, place the units outside the building and provide coverage. The wireless units are kept on a pole surrounding the buildings.

In case if out door installation is not desired, wireless Internet can be provided using indoor installations; ceiling mounting or wall mounting.

Security Features

When it comes to wireless, people are generally concerned about the security. Using the following security features can guarantee that security is not a problem at all.

• Access Control List using MAC address
• Turning off broadcast of SSID
• Authentication based on IEEE 802.1x
• Multiple SSID support
• Data integrity using encryption

Approach

Understand the requirement and budget for the project.

Survey by professionals to understand the number of units (Bill of Equipment) required to full-fill the requirement.

Once finalized, all required is time to install and commissioning.

Typical equipment and infrastructure requirement

1. Wireless units and antenna
2. Poles at strategic locations to install wireless units
3. CAT-5 cables to run from Internet point to wireless units. This may also be avoided but more wireless units required
4. Laptop typically will have wireless facility. If not, wireless clients cards are available for laptop and desktop.

STARTUP – is it not your cup of tea?

I do not want to write a long story as most of the readers do know the following points. I wanted to summarize and ask you the questions you have been asking silently. I made bullet points to make it simple and quick. What do you think about theses points? Comments are welcome. 

General reasons for not being a part of a Startup

1. Don’t come out of comfort zone
2. Fear of uncertainty
3. Salary dependent life
4. Afraid of loosing wealth or salary

All are good points. But think for a moment…................

Why should not you attempt a startup?

1. Comfort zone -- if you want to achieve something in life you got to come out comfort zone and risk. If not like Richard Branson, you can at least take a calculated risk. We all know “no pain no gain!”.
2. Time and age will not wait for you. So if you do not start now, when will you start?
3. Dependency on salary – Nothing can be done about this unless you change your financial status. Need to think and plan your life. Start-up or not -- the dependency should be completely erased. Savings, liability-less purchase and increasing your income are something you need to concentrate. I can suggest RICH DAD and POOR DAD authored by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter.
4. When you can advise your younger brother/sister, children, and friends for taking risk in life and being bold, why can’t you heed your own advice?
5. Come out of the default -- job. Job is something anytime you can take it. If you have already proven in your career; then do you see any charm there?
6. If you are not startup kind, at the least join hands with a start-up as a core team member. That will give you a good starting point.

What do you think about theses points? Comments are welcome. 

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