Crypto for dummies

Here is a basic primer on cryptocurrencies, as I understand it.

BLOCKCHAIN: A linked chain of validated transactions (and a transaction is the exchange/transfer of currency between two parties).

These validations are performed by multiple nodes, willing to contribute their computing resources to the currency’s network.

Wedding ceremony – the analogy:

• Thousands of people attend wedding ceremony ~ Millions, billions of “rigs” mine crypto.
• People witness and validate the wedding ~ Mining rigs witness and validate the transaction.
• People are rewarded with food for attending the event ~ Miners are rewarded with “coins”. Not surprisingly, this is the main motivation for both groups to participate in the first place 🙂

Finally, the validated transactions become an integral part of the blockchain that cannot be broken (atleast, as per the claim). Unfortunately, such claims cannot be made for marriages these days (Kacche Dhaage)!

Potential benefits:

• Decentralization : No single entity (Central banks/government) in control of the network/currency.
• Finite resources : Only N million “coins” can be mined. Thus, there is no risk of inflation due to “quantitative easing” (Uncle Ben will be missed).
• No “double spending” : Any transaction would have to happen in full public view and must be validated to be part of the blockchain. (No risk of “extra marital affairs”).

Public Key Cryptography (another analogy):

• A P.O. box is analogous to a public key.
• The physical key to the P.O. box is analogous to a private key.
• People send letters to the P.O. box of the recipient. Only the recipoent can access these letters using the “private key.
• Bonus (Common sense): Private key should be private.

Wallets:

• A wallet serves as a store for the currency. You need atleast one of these to begin your cryptocurrency journey.
• These are based on the public key cryptography framework we discussed earlier.
• Paper wallets (bitaddress.org for BTC, liteaddress.org for LTC and myetherwallet.com for ETH) are one way to go (I believe the safest!). If worried about malware on PC, one could take the offline route to generate paper wallets using the related github packages.
• Online wallets offers more convenience (but the risk of your private key(s) stored somewhere on the cloud is too hard to ignore).
• Hardware wallets are another option (basically these are USB sticks that securely save the private keys – probably secured with another master password).

Side note – Sloppy wallets : Multiple wallets strewn all over the place with small amounts deposited. Regularly monitoring their balance would alert you if someone is after your wallets!

Useful Sites:

• Blockchain.info : Find a BTC wallet’s balance based on its public key. (Yeah, if you know somebody’s public key, you know their balance! Although, without their private key, you can do nothing about it).
• Etherscan.io : Find an ETH wallet’s balance based on it’s public key.
• Whattomine.com : Identify optimal algorithms/hardware/power usage etc. from the list of available altcoins to be mined to make an “informed decision”.

Mining hardware – evolution

• CPU : The Genesis block of bitcoin was mined using a CPU by the mythical creature – Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto.
• GPU : The greedy and intelligent human brain is always on the look out for better ways of doing things. Naturally, GPUs turned out to be the next best option for mining.
• ASIC chips : Another genius popped up with the idea of building the logic behind the puzzles directly into a hardware chip. This idea let to the obsolescence of CPUs/GPUs for mining bitcoins.

If you are gold, dear Bitcoin, then we are silver, platinum, diamond, copper, iron, petroleum, uranium, strontium, calcium, … (does it end?)

– Altcoins

Naturally, as Bitcoin (BTC) started getting the limelight, few (many) other coins had to follow suit. All those coins are collectively known as altcoins. Few major altcoins are Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

The twitter profile background of Litecoin’s founder Charlie Lee depicts this emotion in a brilliant way.

Bitcoin mining is now the domain of big players (mostly sitting in China) with their multi-ASIC/multi-GPU mining farms (or forests, to be more accurate). Naturally as more and more coins are mined by more and even more participants,  the complexity keeps leaping up. Thus enthusiasts like you and me can only expect to mine altcoins.

Unseen side effects? (There’s always some…)

• GPU prices have gone through the roof. Gamers are usually happy using a single card per PC, but not the miners. (just youtube for  6, 14, 50, etc. GPU farms set up by regular individuals in thier basements).
• NVIDIA and AMD will observe lots of dark green colors on their 2017 income statements.
• Gamers pissed off by miners :). (Youtube comments on mining rig videos speak for themselves.)

To conclude,  cryptocurrency is not just another fad (was Internet just a fad?). There might be a bubble coming up, and it will most certainly pop, but cryptos are here to stay.

Cheers,

CS

PS: It’s customary these days to ask for crypto donations. In that spirit here are my wallets; feel free to donate 😉

BTC: 12AsKqfcpeASKU4DTCu8kXSiccasyurtuG

ETH: 0x2396234ac5580cFdf560BDcB0841e0d4F94697fB

LTC: LiLhdoUafkaFSGukFecXz2kdC6HgjN9YbZ

Evolution of a trader/investor

In the midst of 2007, I started trading stocks on the BSE/ NSE. As a beginner,  I was reading about a variety of trading styles viz. penny stock trading – dreaming of doubling  money in a day (bloody resurg3r3 mines and minerals!), arbitrage – trying to exploit the inefficient stock pricing across different exchanges, news/tip based trading and trying them out on real money (my own money of course) and burned my fingers at almost all of them. My biggest mistake was averaging down the cost of a few stocks with a “great story” based on friends’ tips (e.g 3duc0mp, lanc0,  etc) and ending up being an “investor” in those f*****-up companies. I still regret those decisions.

Lessons learned: 
A) Friends/colleagues are only meant for office gossip and tea time chit-chat, not for financial and/or general advice.
B) Financial news channels are only supposed to be eye candy (immediately, CNBC comes to my mind).

Luckily, I tilted towards investing side of things and did own some good company stocks. The losses, from my trading foolishness, were thus balanced out (in a way). Also, having invested in some great MFs did help in saving my bum from going bankrupt.

Cut to 2016, as I continued investing in MFs, I bought this wonderful book – Common Sense Investing in MFs (John “Jack” Bogle) and it shattered my beliefs in my MF investment skills.  Apparently, Index based MFs do a better and cheaper job of beating the benchmark indexes (“cheaper” is key here). Obviously again, I was way behind in discovering this – the investing public had already made big leaps in this battle of active v/s passive MF styles (“passive” is the new superhero).
Just imagine MERs of 20-50 basis points on index MF v/s 100-200 basis points on actively managed MFs.

I kept studying (out of FOMO) and am glad that I did so as I came across the fact that  Index ETFs (that’s right, ETFs – Exchange Traded Funds) are much cheaper and tax efficient than index MFs. Consider MERs of 8-10 basis points charged for Index ETFs! Case in point – Vanguard’s Index ETF offerings. (Vanguard was founded by John Bogle, the pioneer of Index based investing). I need to further study about the tax efficiency aspect of ETFs v/s MFs – something about Capital Gains Distribution tax; I am sure there’s more to learn there.

Meanwhile I am also exploring my first love – Trading (currencies this time). But I am approaching it with a lot of psychological preparation and discipline.

Of course none of these constitute investment advice (after all who am l to give advice). All risks you assume based on this blog-post are yours and yours alone!

Towards Trading Success…

Here is a list of content that I have found useful in my currency trading journey. I am yet to find success and still on a demo-account, but do have high hopes of being part of the elite group of disciplined, successful traders.

First book:

 

• Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas.
• This book is an essential first step in building trading psychology.

Schooling:

 

• Open an account on BabyPips, complete the free course to gain a basic idea of forex trading. Make sure you thoroughly understand the Pre-school, KG and Elementary sections – the lessons are self contained thus you do not need any extra Googling while you are at it. And do skim through the other sections as well.

Podcasts:

 

• Chat With Traders (by Aaron Fifield)
• Desire to Trade (by Etienne Crete)
• Market Life (by Adam H. Grimes)

The art of “Tape Reading“:

 

• Not a must I think, but supposedly adds a new dimension to your trading skills.
• Jigsaw Trading (free order flow analysis lessons): At-least focus on Module 1 videos.

Blogs:

 

• Reality Trader Blog – Vadym Graifer – A must read
• Your Trading Coach Blog – Lance Beggs – Another amazing one
• Traderfeed (Dr. Brett Steenbarger – psychologist and trading coach)
• SMB Training Blog (Bella, Steve and team)
• New Trader U (Steve Burns)

Some actual traders and their techniques:

 

• • Urban Forex (YouTube): Has some great videos on trading forex (This guy gets behind the psychology of trading against with the Big Boys). My personal favourites:
    • Mastering CandleStick Trading
    • Mastering Trend Lines
    • Mastering Human Trading Behaviour
    • Mastering Trade Selection
  • Trade Empowered (YouTube): I particularly follow Jason Stapleton and Jason Graystone’s videos.
    • Ratio Trading: How to Predict Market Moves : This is my absolute favourite, but many other videos are equally amazing.
  • Manesh Patel’s Trading the Fibonacci Levels
  • JAMES16 group on ForexFactory.com: Do see the section on “MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS”:
    • People recommend going through first 200 posts to understand his techniques. There are too many charts to go through – someday I will complete this.

Other recommended reads:

 

• 1. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Edwin Lefèvre)
  2. Market Wizards (Jack Schwager) – Learning from others
  3. New Market Wizards (Jack Schwager) – Learning from others
  4. One Good Trade (Mike Bellafiore of SMB) – Learning from others
  5. The Art and Science of Technical Analysis (Adam H. Grimes) – Covers many aspects of trading
  6. The Checklist Manifesto (Atul Gawande) – Unrelated but good.

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CS

CPU – 98.6

Back after along time since Khandvification; a lot has changed in life. Getting married changes your life completely – for good. You get more involved, evolved and absolved. Life becomes busier but peaceful, more intense yet restful and lazier but fruitful.

One such fruitful evening, I realized its been a long time since I fiddled with electronic circuits – opened up my laptop (i3, 4Gb – purchased back in 2011; still rock solid), decided the CPU fan needs cleaning and ended up cracking the dried up thermal insulation “paste” that apparently improves the thermal conductivity between the CPU and its heat sink (genius!)

Although I managed to re-assemble everything in place, it seemed the laptop was heating up quicker than before (which might have been an illusion considering the fact that I never bothered about the CPU temperature ever before) reaching temperatures so high, it could have had a major impact on my lineage (and even more on the motherboard).

Looking up on Google, it seemed to me that the CPU had a bad case of viral fever and the acetaminophen that could possibly cure the symptoms was in a 1.5 gm syringe (Amazon)!

And then it was time to open up it up again: clicking and snapping out the keyboard, prying open the chassis and separating out the heat sink from the CPU, I was privileged to view the most beautiful mess that I had created myself:

Then, using a bunch of coffee filters, I cleaned up the older, dried-up paste. I used an ordinary 50% rubbing alcohol solution  (ethyl alcohol, camphor, etc.) as the solvent – although the Internet recommends to use Isopropyl alcohol (>90%) or no solvent at all; but as I type this story from the same laptop and do not see any sparks flying out, I guess it’s OK (although now I realize it could have been dangerous – so all risks are yours and yours alone) . Maybe in a few months, the residual camphor reacts with the metal oxide and converts the 2 cores into 3 – who knows.

Despite using the coffee filter, the cleanup look a lot linty (aggression!!)- so used a hair dryer to blow away the lints (carefully in small bursts so as not to melt the motherboard).

Two “pea-sized” drops of fresh metal oxide paste were then injected on the CPU surface(s) and the heat-sink was set in place (no manual spreading of the paste with cards/spatulas) followed by the overall assembly, which was a breeze.

Starting up the laptop, I confess, was a bit scary – but I sailed through. And yes, it’s 98.6 now – the kid is alright.

Not much load

Three Youtube vids in parallel (maybe some load)

Khandvification – The first Milestone…

I started a new inning in Canada recently, and with a new inning comes new responsibilities. And I have assumed this new responsibility – of a COOK – with elan (oh yeah!!).

As per Sanjeev Kapoor, preparing Khandvi is an art and I am proud to announce that I have nailed it!! Here, check it out baby..

Click on them to get the “bigger picture”  (whatever can be magnified, will be magnified..)

Laying the groundwork..

Masta Khandvi is ready..

From 30 degree angle now 🙂

Public khush 🙂

I know you can see that “Babumoshai, is baar Khandvi ke chithdey udd gaye“. But beta, perfection ko improve karne mein time lagta hai na!!

Thanks for the recipe Sanjeev!! You are to cooking what Ramdev-baba is to yoga.

Om NaMo Narayananaya,

CS.

Ae “Status Quo” – Tujhya aicha gho

This status quo that has trapped me

Does not let me break free

My life, this is my question to thee

What the PHAK do you want from me?

That one little spark is what I look for

To shut the PC and walk out the door

But all I have is lack of  motivation

A lot of baggage and stupid emotion

Dear Life, show me the light, give me a rhythm

Let me choose a new algorithm

I remember quicksort has a complexity of n Log n

Damn you ‘status quo’, PHAK off until then!

Jai Maharashtra,

CS

PS: Sincere thanks to Yerwada jail, American Tourister and Wikipedia for the images!

Learning vowels the SOTY way

I was trying to figure out the inspiration behind the composition of the recent song – “Ishq waala Love” from the movie SOTY.

And then I came across motivation in the form of a fantastic spoof of the song by some creative artists on you-tube (here). Common sense tells you that some grammatical rules need to be followed while constructing the key phrases that form the song viz.

1. The phrase must consist of exactly 3 words – 2 nouns and a preposition
2. The preposition must be either a waala or a waali
3. The 2 nouns must represent related objects (physical or abstract) and may be in 2 different languages

After laying a few ground rules mentioned above one can create his/her own version of such stupidity. Below are some examples:

A
Shoe waala joota
Dog waala kutta
Pandu waala mama
Dhondu waala pajama
Highway waala khadda
Vicky donor waala Chadda

E
Dance waala pole
Dark waala hole
Scam waala crore
(Yeh dil maange more)

I
Doodh waali gaai
Neend waali chai
Colour waali holi
Support waali choli
Rubber waali choti
Silk waali langoti

O
Phone waala hello
Goa waala D’Mello
Get up waala utho
Sit down waala baitho
Disney waala Pluto
Hina waala Bhutto

U
Singham waala bhau
Bread waala pau
Gori waali Shalu
Kaala waala bhalu
Serial waala gattu
Darpok waala fattu

Note: Some/most of the rules have been broken above, but its cool.

Nowadays it doesn’t take much brain power to be a lyricist 😛

Alvida waala Bye,

CS

Finger 1ickin’ good – Really?

Every day of my life, I thank God (/evolution) for creating (/evolving) those wonderful creatures called chickens.  I am also thankful to Colonel Harland Sanders for founding KFC – a company that extended on top of God’s creation to create a product so “finger 1ickin”, that is has earned itself a place in heaven.

KFC, a name that represents yummy succulence coated in heavenly herbs and spices, has been a faithful companion since the day I first set foot on a foreign land  – Jakarta, Indonesia. My everyday lunch would comprise of 2 pieces of fried chicken, 1 rice bowl and a medium glass of coke (Dua ayam goreng, satu nasi, satu coke). It had become a routine for almost one and a half months. Nevertheless it fascinated me everyday. Once I was back in India, somehow the same package turned out to be costly so I discontinued (I later realized this to be a case of ‘Mental Accounting’ – spending money in IDR especially when you are on a business visit pinches less than spending the corresponding amount of money in INR). But any ways  KFC in India turned to be a once in a blue moon affair for me and I never regretted it. The adage – distance makes the heart grow fonder was aptly suited in this case.

But alas! A day comes in every product’s life that it gets stoned!! Probably and unfortunately, today is that day  for KFC India. While busy licking their fingers and pockets, a KFC Outlet in Thiruvananthapuram forgot that hygiene supersedes everything especially when we are talking about food. The result – a customer spots a dead worm in his “Fiery Chicken”, calls up the authorities and gets the outlet closed. The reasons given are as pathetic as the dead worm itself:

• “Faulty refrigeration” in deep freeze for months before being served
• Grilling the flesh at 70 deg C only (when the actual suitable temperature is around 160 – 170 deg)

I hope that this a one off incident and other food establishments (not only KFC) take a page (and the worms) out of the above incident and improve their facilities and processes. India is still not as tolerant as China in matters of the tummy (who might enjoy the added flavors and extra proteins :)).

Kentucky bhau is already smiling…

Keep it lickin,

CS.

Source

Ek Kolaveri, jo zindagi badal de..

Mr Singh,

We salute your spirit and your valour… Well done !

You have made the nation proud

You have assaulted the shrewdest of shrewd

You have slapped the epitome of corruption

You have attacked “the cancer” in the national administration

It was a bit mild, we would have preferred something more…

But keep it up, you inspire us; ignite our souls; motivate us to get rid of such systemic garbage

Kudos to you; May there be many more like you!

Inquililab Jindabad,

CS

The little bitches are in town…

8th of November, 2011. A historic day in our life. A day of achievement, fullfilment and a vitamin-C supplement.

It all started with a ring on the doorbell. As the ring grew louder, it pulled us out of our slumber. It was 12 in the afternoon. The three of us roomies had planned to do something concrete that day and were on a synchronised sick leave. November-december is “sick leave planning” time (just as february-march is “tax planning” time).

The bell continued to haunt us. We normally ignore door bells during the 9:00 to 18:00 frame if we happen to be around. And we ignored this one as well, to our own peril.

Within seconds, our fans slowed down; the radio – our electronic lullaby – playing in the background went mute; and we, sick.

With bad breath as our companion, we rushed down in search of the MSEB dude who was courteous enough to have attempted to warn us of the impending disaster. But we were late – the electric trip switch to our apartment was already pulled down and the enclosure locked. Could it be that Neo (“the One” from “The Matrix”) was newly recruited in MSEB? We were not too sure!

We roamed around the society looking for Neo as well as other possible offenders, but were shocked to find both missing. What bothered us more was that we were still 30 bucks short of the cut-out limit of 1200 rupees.

Thanks Mr. Murphie – When things have to go wrong, they will.

But we are software engineers – mostly reactive, rarely proactive. We jumped into fire fighting mode:

• A (that’s me) – went online to pay the dues
• B and C collected the online receipt printout from D (who was luckily not sick that day).

They managed to pay the rest of the dues (for oiling the machinery) and within 2 hours of the payment, we were back in the grid. By the way, the “rest of the dues” were collected in an official/legal manner. None of the workers in the local office were ready to help us out for a quick buck. We are proud of you Anna; I was extremely happy to witness this positive development in our system – things are definitely improving (no sarcasm here).

And no, we were definitely not ashamed for trying to bribe. You know, we were simply testing the system.

I wonder why I wonder how
That it seems that the power’s getting stronger everyday
I feel a strength, an inner fire
But I’m scared I won’t be able to control it anymore

And then, to make the rest of the day productive, we decided it was time to take action. Action against our slender,delicate roommates who were accused of sharing rental space, but not paying the dues. Of sharing our food as if it was some Shahi Langar. Of troubling us in the morning and eating up our valuable washing/cleaning time. They were members of the opposite sex who had invaded our space in the month of March and have been with us since then (don’t start salivating now).

We felt a little sad as they were the weak ones. They were our little bitches. We had planned for some fatalities as well in case things did’nt go as planned. Fortunately for us, they were also members of the other species – the bloody roaches (gotcha!!).

The combing operation had begun. With a can of LAAL Hit and a lethal WMD (my expired credit card), we set out on a rampage. There were heavy casualties on the opposite side. We continued feverishly, but they outnumbered us heavily!

There’s a time to live and a time to die,
When it’s time to meet the Maker,
There’s a time to live, but isn’t it strange
That as soon as you’re born you’re dying!!

The next day claimed its first casualty on our end (I was down with fever). Finally, both parties called for a truce and a cease fire was ordered. The bitches continue to live on, but have been restricted to within the newly drawn LOC – our Prestige FLITE induction cooker (some of them still survive and replicate inside this warm, cosy enclosure).

All is well.

Satyameva Jayate!
CS

PS: Embedded lyrics – “The Clairvoyant” (Iron Maiden)