As a result of protests, launched by the ethnic Gujjar community against the Rajastthan government, I had received travel alerts from our security department prior to my departure to India. The bulletin concluded that travel may proceed, but that extra security precautions against the risk of terrorism should be exercised - avoiding the usual situations, places, buildings, etc.

The main issue that might impact my travel would be the severe traffic disruption expected in the capital New Delhi and the adjoinging National Capital Region (NCR). As a result of the protests, many businesses have decided to remain closed or provide additional security arrangements for their staff. An estimated 45,000 police personnel have been deployed in New Delhi and NCR regions to contain any outbreak of violence and minimise traffic disruptions.

When I landed in Delhi the routes had been reopened, trains were running again, and I didn't notice any special security measures. And we had enough time to check this out at Indira Ghandi Airport, because there were no immigration officers present to process non-Indian nationals. Diplomats were served with utmost respect, Indians were treated as usual, resulting in some shouting of self-pronounced celebrities - and foreigners were completely ignored. It took something like an quarter of an hour before an officer showed up. Now I wonder whether this was related to the protests, or just the normal complacent Indian bureaucracy.

According to Saturday's Hindustan Times, 39 have been killed during the riots.

Outside temperature in Delhi on Saturday is HOT, it feeled like 130s, but that may be an exaggerated effect resulting from the unusual high humidity. Thunderstorm during the early evening.

The two key topics headlining The Economic Times: Fuel price rise, and economy growth. The 8.5% GDP growth are impressive, and primarily fueled by an investment rate (the proportion of GDP that goes to capital formation) growing to 37.5%. Wow! But there's also a tiny remark to an article on page 13, dealing with the 8.1% inflation rate. And suddenly, the growth of the Indian economy is dramatically less impressive. According to the Hindustan Times, ""Actual estimates that follow with a time lag have been turning out to be much higher. This means the inflation rate might have already crossed 9 per cent."

Interestingly enough is the one-page ad positioned on page 12. The question is, which of the many issues in Indian politics stimulated that promise of the Congress Party. The lost elections in Karnatka? The riots in the capital? The increase in GDP growth in the agricultural sectors (vs a significant decline in the manufacturing sector)? Indian politics is always interesting to watch, if you're not directly involved.

The other noteworthy impression is related to education: All papers are full of ads from educational institutes, editorials on improvements in the educational sector, appraisals for all sorts of educational award winners. Compared to my last visit, this advancement, and the perceivable infrastructure improvements, seem to be the single most significant changes in India. Good to see that they're moving forward.

This Sunday morning the pre-Monsoon rains started: Nothing to be done outside this morning. The remains of the day: Work.

In my professional environment I'm confronted with an ongoing discussion about the negative impact of subsidies, which ultimately nourish an ill-born baby that wouldn't have any chance to survive on free markets. Agreed. But how about strategic intentions? What if the small subsidy is required for achieving a bigger, profitable, goal? Wouldn't it make sense to throw a few hundred grand at a small operation that is set-up to protect a multi-million dollar business? I think the whole argument is completely wrong. The real mistake is the organizational set-up, not the funding model. If that small, subsidized, entity would be part of the bigger business, then everybody would accept its cost simply as Cost of Sales, and nobody would argue about subsidization.

A few days ago a group of frequent global travelers discussed the results of applying yield management systems on complex multi-tenant networks. The key topic: What do you need to do for getting the best deal on intercontinental flights? Some interesting tactics evolved for beating the airline yield systems, which sit on top of the global reservation systems, e.G. Amadeus. For example: It depends when you book - there seems to be a narrow window, maybe two weeks before the actual departure time, which gives you the best price. It also makes a difference in which country you book - I had given an example in a different thread some months ago. And sometimes you need to combine all three tactics: Comparing two return flights departing from the USA. One destination is in continental Europe, the other in India with a four hour lay-over in continental Europe. The business class ticket for the flight to India was only two thirds of the ticket cost for Europe. And from historic experience I remember that the cost for the return flight from Europe to India alone was nearly the same as the flight from the USA to Europe. How can that be?

It's the strategic intent: The airline offering this - obviously subsidized - ticket price seems to apply strategic thinking to their pricing model:

• They have to defend an extremely strong market position concerning the routes between India and their home country.
• They try to expand their market position in the USA, both through acquisitions and natural growth resulting from the new Open Skies agreement.
• And some clever guy combined the two objectives, making sure that the exploding travel between the USA and India (think Offshore!) is channeled into the right pipeline.

Clever. Now is that subsidy having a negative impact? Certainly, because people like myself will check tariffs to India when I have to go to Europe next time. But it also serves the strategic intent, and, as always, this is about utilization. In tough times like nowadays you have to maintain the minimum utilization for your operating equipment, or work force. This has nothing to do with subsidization, it's the simple application of economic principles. If that airline wouldn't go ahead with the minimum pricing principle, for recovering their operations cost, they would need to shut down routes and ultimately loose market share - which took them more then 50 years to win.

While everybody else seems to be focused on the IT analysts' newest hype, cloud-computing, I continue to get surprised by real-world experience that doesn't require computers, but sometimes also happens in the clouds. One fine example occurred during a recent return-flight from Europe back home. caused by an unanticipated upgrade into Lufthansa's First Class.

In general I try to avoid most US airlines, mostly because of their unbelievable bad food - if any at all - and their crappy equipment. I guess anybody who ever had the pleasure to compare the business classes of United, Delta with Air France, Lufthansa, or Singapore Airlines, knows exactly what I'm talking about. But lying First is yet another story:

It all starts with an extremely well prepared personalized service. Both, the head of the cabin crew, and my personal assistant (Kerstin) introduced themselves, addressing me by name. While Kerstin was checking in on my personal requirements - which Champagne would you like as an aperitif, and when do you want me to prepare your lunch - I exchanged traveler stories with the Purserette.

Interesting side note: She had to get-up an hour earlier than me, at 3 a.m., for getting onto this flight. I guess it was because she had to do some prep-work (flight briefing) already before her connecting flight. And that briefing practice obviously was the reason why she had all my background information. Cool, sometimes computers do help.

Aside from the extremely good services, which would be surpassed by any restaurant on the ground, the eating experience was absolutely delicious. It started with a Sherry tasting - incredible to imagine at 40,000 feet. Kerstin and I had a little discussion about the first course, because she insisted that the first course was a Sherry, while I was convinced that it was a Port. I had never seen a dark red Sherry, dominated by plum flavors and a touch of Vanilla, but by new assistant had the better argument: She brought me the bottle, which was labeled as a Sherry. Now, Mr. Del Monego: I'd like to have a few bottles of that pale Fino which turns out to become red once it leaves the bottle. :-)

I ordered my lunch an hour later, after the main service, because I wanted to complete some of my work first. That luncheon experience was the highlight of the whole flight. Absolutely perfectly prepared fish, great side dishes, and so on. And did I mention already the great service? Everything was absolutely perfect, and this was a great experience.

Oh, one final thought: When I entered the cabin, my first impression was to enter an audition for a Helmut Newton shooting. I wish it was not only Singapore Airlines who had these gorgeous ladies working in all classes, not only in First.

The e-book is worthwhile reading for addicts like me :-)

This was definitely the best exhibit I've seen at a computer trade show for quite some time. Oh man, have a look at this bike!

In Orlando I had been too busy to for more in-depth research, but I hope CA has the same staff in Berlin, so that I could dig deeper into this.

While (again) trying to fix my own VPN issues, and spending hours with remote support engineers,  I was musing about real Hi-Fi. I'm not talking about 5.1, or 7.1 artificial channel modulation. I'm talking about a perfect 1:1 replication of Eva Cassidy, standing 10 ft away from you on stage in a small Denver Club, or Vladimir Ashkenasi playing on the huge stage at the Met.

Here's an impression of the necessary equipment, to be replaced from the original sound room:

I was considering a Media Center, but based on my experiences during the last two weeks I think I might fall-back to the traditional analogue stuff again. Maybe I'm just too demanding. Or, maybe, these software guys just haven't gotten their act together yet.

But then there's the next issue: Where would I find a retailer with sufficient experience to meet my demanding quality requirements? Haven't seen anybody qualifying yet on the Eastside, and, no, this cannot be decided online. Any hints are highly appreciated.

When I was visiting France a few weeks ago I was asked to help a friend troubleshoot his network. Since he is working with IBM I thought that wouldn't be a big deal, since these guys typically don't have a clue anyway. But he challenged me beyond the usual, asking me why his iPhone would be able to connect to his wireless bridge, and his laptop wouldn't be able to find any network at all.

It was a serious challenge, as always not caused by one problem alone: First there was a configuration mismatch between his bridged NAP, and France Telecom's router, and that was added to an issue with the proprietary VPN tool that's enforced on his business laptop. Funny enough: I had exactly the same issue - different software, hardware, and configurations, though - with my business machine. It took me an evening and two bottles of Pinot Noir to re-establish the french connection, and it took an escalation engineer in Utah, plus an escalation team in India, working two business days on solving my issue. It's interesting to know where the differences (approach and resolution) originated from:

• The layman applied a combination of knowledge, experience, an intuition, for solving the problem. Not professional, but effective.
• The pro's simply followed their escalation procedures in the manuals; at some point of time I had the impression they didn't even know what they're doing. Took significantly longer, but somebody must think it's more efficient.

Dear Jürgen, next time you're running into trouble you'd better call these guys, since your iPhone may not work when you try to call the Maze:

I'm considering buying some shares. Must be a profitable business.

I haven't slept for two days and was looking for more pleasure to come; I'm not sure about my real intentions. Maybe it was more about relieve, than pleasure.

When I entered the parlor this morning, secretly hidden in the business district of the Redmond town center, I was immediately overwhelmed by that aggregation of beauty: Cute girls all over the place. Some of them looked somehow professional, if you know what I mean, but overall, the place provided an extremely pleasant atmosphere.

One of the beauties, a Caucasian reddish belle, took me by the hands and let me to the divan. While I had to lay down, heads-down, completely in her soft hands, she asked me if I'm going for a similar treatment as my wife, or if I'd be interested in a different experience. Knowing how they had handled the desires of my wife, I asked them for a new, and different experience.

Matty, the reddish girl, took my head in both hands, and started working on me, focusing on my oral senses. I clearly had the impression that she didn't only execute her professional duties, but really liked the experience of treating me as her client, even using me as her partner. It was only after the first five or six shots that I started to loose my senses. I could hardly breathe and felt like in heaven. She provided me with some explanation of the sensations, but I had already departed this universe and didn't really understand what she was after. Actually, I didn't really care at all.

I had completely lost control. Time passed by without me being aware of it. Another blonde beauty appeared on the scene, assisting Matty. With the two girls being all over me I could hardly hold myself back. Matty teached her blonde mate on how to optimize the treatment of a partner, using my body as an example - I liked that part. She went into each and every single detail on how to touch, stroke, press, or release, stimulate, or calm the different nerves and senses. She explained the most difficult positions, with a calm tone that was completely inappropriate for the delicate situation. Resting in a position that didn't allow me to move, or even interact, I was condemned to listen to the two girls in complete disbelieve. And I rapidly started to learn about the new techniques they were sharing amongst each other, and with me.

Two hours later I was done, completely wasted. Don't know how the girls felt after that intense interaction. Matty looked at me, tired, and asked me how I'd feel. I could hardly respond. Actually, I couldn't speak at all. It was just overwhelming.

I'm looking forward to my next dentist appointment. And, Matty: I'm going to teach you the song about the ducks - promised.

It's about foresight: If you speed on a race track, you'll normally make sure that you see through, at least, to the next corner, if possible even behind the next one. Then you position yourself for achieving the optimal result. If you can't see anything, because it's foggy, or because your blind sighted, you're likely committing suicide if you apply such practices. Some corporations seem to think they can handle that issue differently, ignoring a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower:

Plans are nothing, planning is everything.

Today, Saturday, was another interesting experience in working in the USA: I was asked to budget travel expenses - for me and my team. An insane amount of work - best to use my crystal ball. Without any tools, and without any historical data, this is not planning, it's only guesswork. And beyond that nonsense: nobody asked me to budget the other expense lines, and I now wonder how they are going to handle that.

But wait, no worries: Since some of my friends work in the finance department, I know that my data input is completely irrelevant anyway. Finance will simply take last year's budget (which they have access too), and cut it by x%.

The American society produces an incredible amount of waste. And worst: They don't seem to care. Nobody questions, or even challenges, stupid processes like this. My lunch with our "finance business partner" was interesting too. She admitted that even in her department a lot of people don't know what they do, or why they're doing certain things. That's kind of scary.

I guess I'll need to wait for Google to come-up with some serious financial planning tools that work similar to the stuff I'd been using thirty years ago.

My most important learning: Don't care what others tell you about priorities. Number one is always to control your financial stuff. Forget about the rest for the moment. I wouldn't fire anybody for wrong doing other things, but I've fired a lot of people for screwing-up finance. This is not a positive hygiene factor, like people, it's a basic.