Mom’s Recipe For Chai

To make approximately 8 fluid ounces of tea:

Ingredients:
4 fl oz water
2 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp tea*
4 fl oz milk
Spices to taste**

Combine water and tea. Let it boil until water reduces and tea color is strong.

Add milk to taste. Add tea spices at this point if desired.

Let it come to a boil, but reduce before it gets to a rolling boil. Be careful that
it doesn’t boil over. Stir to avoid forming a skin. Keep at low boil for about 2
minutes.

Remove from heat. Cover the pan for two minutes. Strain it and drink.

*My Mom uses Wagh Bakri brand, available at most Indian grocers
**Spice formulas vary, but some people use cardomom seeds, cinnamon, and ginger (cold
weather). It really depends on your taste. Ready made spice mixes are also available at your
Indian grocer.

Value Of Open Source

There is a good article on Reuters where Monty Widenius talks about Oracle and MySQL. There is a quote that caught my attention:

Widenius said that while the code could be easily copied, the main problem was the ecosystem around MySQL — companies making business from it, developing it and using it. “If it would be easy to fork (copy) it, no-one would have paid a billion dollars for it.”

It isn’t a revolutionary concept. However, it illustrates the point that the real value of Open Source projects is not the code, but the community and ecosystem around the project. Growing the community and eco-system should be the primary function of a company that “owns” an open source project, since that is where the long-term value is. This in turn drives adoption and revenues.

Massachusetts Job Losses

Massachusetts has weathered the downturn pretty well. The unemployment rate is at 9.3% right now, which is under the national unemployment rate average of 10.2%. However, the New England Economic Partnership is predicting many more job losses for the state.

The Massachusetts economy will shed tens of thousands of jobs over the next year with the unemployment rate peaking near 10 percent around summer, according to a forecast released today. – Boston.com

On the bright side, one of the economists quoted in the article believes that homes are at their most affordable since the mid-1990s.

Pension Plans and 401k

I am really shocked by this report that pension plans, for executives, are on the rise in the US. The report says that executive pensions grew an average of 19%.

Executive pensions grew even though the share prices at the firms dropped an average of 37 percent in 2008, while many companies froze employee pensions and suspended contributions to retirement plans, noted the newspaper.

In 1980, 35.9 million private-sector workers (46 percent of all private-sector workers) were covered by a pension plan. (source).

For non-executives, you are considered “lucky” if your company offers a match. According to this article, about 69% of all employers offer a 401k match.

The NYT cites that about 8 percent of companies have eliminated the 401k match during the downturn. The same article talks about what to do if your company has eliminated the 401k match.

Maxell Ads

I found these Maxell Ads on my friend Craig’s YouTube channel. Featuring Wham! with Japanese voiceover. Marketing brilliance!