Thursday, April 30, 2009

Choosing a Good Password

Many passwords nowadays are being hacked for various reasons. Usually, this is due to the inability of choosing a good password. If you want to create a good password, you may wish to follow a few simple tips. If you do so, the probability of your password getting hacked will drop dramatically. Here are a few tips on how to create a password that will be a lot harder to crack:

1. Avoid first names and surnames.
2. Avoid things that might be easily associated with you like your hobbies, phone numbers etc.
3. Avoid common words in any language whether it be English or Chinese.
4. Use a combination of letters and numbers. Try to mix them.
5. Create a password that you can remember so that you will not have to write it anywhere.
6. Make your password quite long. The longer it is, the better.
7. Do not use keyboard sequences like, for example, “qwerty”.
8. Plan on changing your password from time to time.
9. If possible, have one password that you will use for all your accounts in different places. That will make it easy for you to remember all of your passwords.

I am certain that all of the above points are quite logical. Just use common sense when creating a password and you should be fine

Proofreading Tips

I have been focused on proofreading this blog recently, and I am pleased to say that I corrected a lot of errors. According to many people proofreading is tedious, and hard to do well. Yet, every blogger can benefit from some proofreading tips. That is because we want our articles to look professional. We want the respect of our visitors, and fellow bloggers. Here are some tips which might help you:

-Read a lot. I think this point is pretty obvious. The more you read, the easier proofreading becomes. This is especially true if you assume a proofreader mindset. Try to inspect every word and take your time.
-Write a lot. The more you write, the less you are going to repeat common writing errors. You can either write a lot of articles for your blog, or simply write about whatever you like for practice.
-Ask another bloggers or friend to spell check your posts. It might be even more effective than checking your own posts.

Proofreading well is tough, but in the end it is very rewarding.

What to produce - continues

As promised I am back with a suitable example for the producer’s production. Suppose a cultivator holds one acre of fertile land which he can put of the production of either wheat or paddy. Naturally he will have to incur some costs in cultivation the land and these cost may be even different for wheat and paddy. Also, he will expect to sell his output assuming that he does not need any from this acre of land for his own consumption.

The price that he will get in the market for wheat or paddy might also be different. The cultivator’s profitability is given by the difference between what he gets for his output from the market and his cost of production. Whether the cultivator produces wheat or paddy on his acre of land, he can usually change his output a little by changing his cost of production. For example, if he spends more on fertilizers, his output of wheat increases so that on the one hand his cost of production rises, on the other hand the value of the output also increases. Naturally he chooses that cost which will give him the maximum profit from the cultivation of wheat from that acre of land.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

What to produce?

I think you would have got a random idea on economics, consumers and producers. From now on we shall go in detail. We shall see what producer has to produce and how much he has to produce.

The considerations that decide for the producer which goods he should produce and in what quantities are called the considerations of supply and demand. The first condition for a good to be produced is, of course, that the productions technology, the necessary skills, the raw materials, the equipment necessary for production and land are all available to the producer.

When this condition is fulfilled we say that the production of the good is feasible. But feasibility is not enough. All goods that the producer can produce will not actually be produced. The producer will produce only goods and in that quantity which he will find most profitable. In the upcoming posts we will take a simple example to show how the producer would decide what to produce.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Who are the consumers?

The next vital role is played by the consumers. Consumers are none other than the persons for whom the producer produce. The first producers in history produced only for themselves and their families. The food they ate, the clothes they wore, the dwellings they build were goods they produced for their own use. Using such goods that meet the direct needs of people is called consumption in economics.

Production to begin with then was for the producers or their families own consumption. But men and women gradually understood the advantage of exchanging one another’s products, each specializing in his/her own line of productive activity. Thus, the weaver produced only cloth and the cultivator only paddy and they exchanged their surplus outputs, so that both could eat rice and wear clothes.

Exchange was at the beginning between goods only- cloth for rise, rice for utensils, utensil for cloth and so on. This process of exchanges called barter. It continued until man discovered the use of money. When money came into use the weaver could sell his cloth for money and use that money for buying rice and utensils- which was much easier than having to exchange only through barter.

With the user of money coming into existence people as producer could be called buyers. The market was where they would go with their money for buying goods and with their surplus goods for selling their output for money.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Who are the producers?

In an economy the most important role is done by producers or the manufacturers. Who are called as producers? Let’s have a brief discussion about the types of producers and role played by producers. There are three kinds of producers in the economy. The first kind of producers are those who produce food and other crops forest products, etc- Goods that may be called the products of nature. They are called the primary producers. Obviously, theirs were historically the first productive activities of man comprising agriculture, cattle rising, poultry farming, forestry, stone quarrying, mining and so on.

The second kind of producers are those engages in manufacture of goods on large and small scale in various industries such cotton textiles, steel, etc. they are called secondary producers. The broad difference of their activities from primary production lies in the fact that they produce what may be called man made goods. There is a third kind of productive activity in the economy apart from primary production like agriculture and secondary production like manufacture of industry.

As the primary and the secondary productive activities grew in society men found that the economy needed people who provided not physical goods only but also services like transport by road or by ship, storage of goods, banking and insurance and so on. In fact it is more sensible today to think of production not as the production of goods only bys as production of goods and services. Those who are engaged in providing services are, therefore, the tertiary producers.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Socialist Economy

Today we are going to see about socialist economy. The main characteristic of a socialist economy is the existence of public enterprise or state ownership of capital in all the important sphere of productive activity. IN the place of free operation of market forces the socialist economies depend on state planning of production and distribution. However, the importance of making economic decisions on the basis of what the buyers and sellers consider profitable called market forces of demand and supply is increasingly being realized in the socialist economies also.
This means that you earn for all of them in the country. Everyones earnings is put together and is divided equally among all citizens of the country. All are treated equal. This is all I know about the socialist economy. The best example of socialist economy is Soviet Union.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Four plans for you

I have planned to discuss about four schemes in one post this time. So have a great post.

The first one is magnum global fund.

This is an open ended growth scheme; the objective of the scheme is to provide the investors maximum growth opportunity through well researched investments in Indian equities, pcd and fcd from selected industries with high growth potential, and bonds. Magnum global is well diversified equity fund with specific focus on investment in mid cap and small cap stocks.

The next one is magnum sector funds umbrella. The main objective of this plan is to provide the investor’s maximum growth opportunity through equity investments in stocks of growth oriented sector. Magnum sector funds umbrella has four sub funds dedicated to specific sector viz. it Pharmaceuticals, FMCG, contra and emerging business fund.

The third one is the magnum sector funds umbrella IT. The objective of this plan is to invest in a balanced portfolio of InfoTech stocks which would enable the investors to be a part of the exciting developed market export potential and also the long term outsourcing story.

The last one which I am going to discus is Magnum sector funds umbrella pharma. The objective of this one is to invest in a balanced portfolio of Pharma stocks which would enable the investors to be a part of the exciting developed market export potential and also the long term outsourcing story.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Entrepreneur Skills

There are a lot of people who try to start their own business, but fail in the end. It is a sad truth that every entrepreneur should realize. Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way, as there are some things which separates successful entrepreneurs from those that fail. There are specific skills that even exceptional entrepreneurs cannot ignore if they want to succeed.
A lot of people think about starting their own business, because they don’t like that their boss constantly tells them to work harder. However, I don’t think that it is possibly to be a successful entrepreneur without hard work.

The ability to work hard is one of the most important skills for anyone wishing to start his own business. It is not always easy to work hard, because there won’t be anyone telling you what to do. You need to be able to motivate yourself to work every day. If you can do this, you are on the right track. There is also another important skill you need to have in order to be successful. It is determination.

You need to be determined to be your own boss, and determined to make a lot of money. While anyone can be determined to do that in the beginning, the key is to have that approach all the time. Being determined, having a plan, and sticking to it, are very important aspects of being an entrepreneur.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Types of economies

Before going into detail you should know clearly the types of economies. There are many types of economies. To understand their problem, goals, successes and failures, it is always helpful to distinguish clearly between the types. One kind of distinction that is often used is that between the capitalist and the socialist economies or between these two types and the type called mixed economy of which India would be a nice example. Another important distinction that is often made is between developed and developed economies.The United States of America and the United Kingdom are examples of capitalist economies. They are also examples of developed economies. The erstwhile Soviet Union and the China are both socialist economies. But while the Soviet Union is developed, china like India is still a developing economy.

I think this is enough for todays lesson. Tomorrow we shall discuss what is capitalist, socialist and mixed economy in detail. In the mean time have a nice break and join with me tomorrow. Another important thing I forgot to say, if you want me to change the genre of posts please do suggest me. I will change to the topic you wish. From this month I have planned to write about the economies around the world. My last posts about mutual funds would also be helpful. But since that is for professionals and as per the request of a reader I am posting from the basic. Whenever i get some interesting stuffs i will post that too.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

What is economy?

Today let's get to know about economy. I remember the definition that i learned in my school days for economy. Economy can be defined as a framework within which all the economic activities of a country can be described is called the economy.

It is not difficult to see the the same country may have to be described in different ways for different purposes. For example, our purpose may be to talk about the people of a country and their activities in terms of their physical environment and location. In that case our treatment will be as in a geography book.

But if we are thinking of the political life of the people and of forms of government, we would book at it from quite another viewpoint, one that we find in books on civics and political science. We shall describe economic activities later in the blog in detail.

The economic activities are those activities of the people that determine what goods will be produced in the country, how services like transport, storage, marketing, banking and insurance will be provided, and how much of what is produced will be consumed now and how much will be stored for the future. The economic activities will also determine how and among whom the goods and services that are produced in the country would be shared.