1. It is not predicted,
2. it has massive consequences usually on a global scale, and
3. in retrospect people invariable claim that they could have predicted it if they had been paying attention.

Examples of Black Swans are 9/11, the Netscape IPO, and the stock crash of October 1987.

Taken from Core Values

It seems to be the cause of one of the various strategic inflection point that  can hit a industry that Andy Gorve talks about in his book "Only The Paranoid Survive".  Seems like a good time to wrestle away control of a industry from any stong players,say like Google? Could make a good story IMO

Most of the tariff’s we see in for mobiles/fixed lines are with different costs to call “with-in” the network, outside network mobiles and then fixed land line.

This is because of a charge called the termination charge. Since we follow the “Calling Party Pays” principle, every time we connect from our operator A to a operator say H, A needs to pay H some part of the charge levied from us for the call, as rights to use a part of H’s network to access phone in H’s network. This is a strictly regulated charge since if it were a free market, very un-ethical strategies can be employed. Even now, the part of the cost that is passed on to the customer has only an upper limit and interesting strategies can be employed

This charge exists in VOIP also, as the termination charge paid to the non-VOIP network that forms that last part of the chain though which the data is routed and this is why VOIP is not as cheap as it seems to be.

Heaven for the hypochondriac’s like me

It has come up with some interesting results

Paranoid: High

Paranoid personality disorder is characterized by a distrust of others and a constant suspicion that people around you have sinister motives. People with this disorder tend to have excessive trust in their own knowledge and abilities and usually avoid close relationships. They search for hidden meanings in everything and read hostile intentions into the actions of others. They are quick to challenge the loyalties of friends and loved ones and often appear cold and distant. They usually shift blame to other people and tend to carry long grudges.

Schizoid: Moderate

People with schizoid personality disorder avoid relationships and do not show much emotion. Unlike avoidants, schizoids genuinely prefer to be alone and do not secretly wish for popularity. They tend to seek jobs that require little social contact. Their social skills are often weak and they do not show a need for attention or acceptance. They are perceived by others as humorless and distant and often are termed "loners."

Schizotypal: High

Many believe that schizotypal personality disorder represents mild schizophrenia. The disorder is characterized by odd forms of thinking and perceiving, and individuals with this disorder often seek isolation from others. They sometimes believe to have extra sensory ability or that unrelated events relate to them in some important way. They generally engage in eccentric behavior and have difficulty concentrating for long periods of time. Their speech is often over elaborate and difficult to follow.

Antisocial: Low

A common misconception is that antisocial personality disorder refers to people who have poor social skills. The opposite is often the case. Instead, antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a lack of conscience. People with this disorder are prone to criminal behavior, believing that their victims are weak and deserving of being taken advantage of. Antisocials tend to lie and steal. Often, they are careless with money and take action without thinking about consequences. They are often agressive and are much more concerned with their own needs than the needs of others.

Borderline: Low

Borderline personality disorder is characterized by mood instability and poor self-image. People with this disorder are prone to constant mood swings and bouts of anger. Often, they will take their anger out on themselves, causing injury to their own body. Suicidal threats and actions are not uncommon. Borderlines think in very black and white terms and often form intense, conflict-ridden relationships. They are quick to anger when their expectations are not met.

Histrionic: High

People with histrionic personality disorder are constant attention seekers. They need to be the center of attention all the time, often interrupting others in order to dominate the conversation. They use grandiose language to discribe everyday events and seek constant praise. They may dress provacatively or exaggerate illnesses in order to gain attention. Histrionics also tend to exaggerate friendships and relationships, believing that everyone loves them. They are often manipulative.

Narcissistic: High

Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by self-centeredness. Like histrionic disorder, people with this disorder seek attention and praise. They exaggerate their achievements, expecting others to recongize them as being superior. They tend to be choosy about picking friends, since they believe that not just anyone is worthy of being their friend. Narcissists tend to make good first impressions, yet have difficulty maintaining long-lasting relationships. They are generally uninterested in the feelings of others and may take advantage of them

Avoidant: Moderate

Avoidant personality disorder is characterized by extreme social anxiety. People with this disorder often feel inadequate, avoid social situations, and seek out jobs with little contact with others. Avoidants are fearful of being rejected and worry about embarassing themselves in front of others. They exaggerate the potential difficulties of new situations to rationalize avoiding them. Often, they will create fantasy worlds to substitute for the real one. Unlike schizoid personality disorder, avoidants yearn for social relations yet feel they are unable to obtain them. They are frequently depressed and have low self-confidence.

Dependent: High

Dependent personality disorder is characterized by a need to be taken care of. People with this disorder tend to cling to people and fear losing them. They may become suicidal when a break-up is imminent. They tend to let others make important decisions for them and often jump from relationship to relationship. Dependents often remain in abusive relationships. Over-sensitivity to disapproval is common. Dependents often feel helpless and depressed.

Obsessive-Compulsive: High

While Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder (OCDP) sounds similar in name to obsessive-compulsive anxiety disorder, the two are markedly different disorders. People with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder are overly focused on orderliness and perfection. Their need to do everything "right" often interferes with their productivity. They tend to get caught up in the details and miss the bigger picture. They set unreasonably high standards for themselves and others, and tend to be very critical of others when they do not live up to these high standards. They avoid working in teams, believing others to be too careless or incompetent. They avoid making decisions because they fear making mistakes and are rarely generous with their time or money. They often have difficulty expressing emotion.

And to think I always imagined myself to be a complete AntiSocial…..

Seriously though I think the fact that I took the test and am spending time writing about it should in itself constitute some personality disorder

I dont know whats the current situation in India, but I think the "geek-has-brilliant-idea-gets-funded-and-becomes-millionaire" story is not at all common here. But its pretty common in US and its really useful (and more importantly fun ) to learn from their experiences if you are looking at start-up’s. Anyway….A new term for me in that respect was the term Angel Investor.

Angel Investors (or simply Angels) are affluent individuals who provide capital for business start-ups, usually in exchange for an equity stake. Unlike venture capitalists, angels typically do not pool money in a professionally-managed fund. However, angel investors often organize themselves in angel networks or angel groups to share research and pool investment capital.

Intresting Idea and I also think it make a lot of sense for the startup since they can get support by puttling less at stake and while they are mature enough to more into talk to VC’s they would be in a much stronger position and also better educated in the tricks and trade from the master himself

A very interesting write up on one of them is available at the msnbc site.It seems to pretty similar to the dragon’s den show that I loved to watch while in UK, except that here the money involved is much less and also the stake they ask for in the company is also very low.

 In this respect,when can we see a Ycombinator in India, or does it exist already?

By definiton, virtual clock is a clock which doesn’t have any design object associated with it.

Virtual Clocks are generally used to constraint the IOs (Inputs & Outputs) of a block.

Consider a big design with two sub-blocks, block ‘A’ and block ‘B’. Suppose there is a timing path going from a register x_reg (clocked by ‘clk1′) (in block A) to register y_reg (clocked by ‘clk2′) (in block B).

If you are analyzing this design at the top-level, the analysis tool can associate both the clocks with some design objects and hence there is no need for virtual clocks.

Now if you are doing analysis at block-level (say Block ‘B’), and you have to tell the tool that timing path ending at y_reg register is launched by a clock "clk1". The only way to do this is to create a virtual clock.
For creating clk2 you have some design object (port/pin) available, since it exist in block ‘B’ itself. But block ‘A’ is out of the scope of the current environment, and you have to define "clk1" as virtual clock.

Yield loss is that fraction of good chips from  the total number of chips that are rejected as bad chips during testing

Defect Level is that fraction of bad chips that are passed during testing as good chips

This issue occurs because to create ideals tests or defect based tests  is very hard due to the complexity in modeling the real defects properly and also the inability to exhaustivily cover all real defects. Instead "fault models" like stuck at fault etc are develops which does not map on to real defects 100%

Hence some good chips are rejected and some bad chips are passed

Good chips   Prob of pass = high       Mostly good chips
                ———————>>
                *                 *
   Prob Of Fail *           * Prob of pass
        (Low)       *     *    (Low)
                         *
                       *   *
                     *        *     
                  *              *
                *                   *
 Bad Chips   —————–>>  Mostly Bad Chips
                      Prob Of Fail
                         High

Something that has been done to me plenty of times and unknowingly done many times too

Added this logic book to my todo….let me see when this happens

From http://www.uky.edu/~rosdatte/phi120/lesson7a.htm

MOQ – Minimum Order Quantity The minimum quantity of a product that must be sold so that the project breaks even. When NRE is high MOQ also becomes high.