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            <p>Like many others, I too enrolled for the ml-class and db-class online courses conducted by the Stanford University. My degree isn't in Software Engineering or Computer Science so there are plenty of gaps in my knowledge to be filled and Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning is one of them.</p>
            <p>As for the db-class, this was familiar territory I just enlisted to get tested. It was easy going. Stuff like XSL is old hat for me, i've been using it since 2000. Trouble was with Xquery this is something that I have never bothered to learn properly and something about which I have a rather dim view. Who in his right mind would want to use Xquery in his project? it's a great way to ensure that you create unmaintable code. There were other areas which I had fogotten bits and pieces so it proved to be a usefull class.</p>
            <p>It was at this point that my age old weakness caught up with me. I hate attending lectures, even when compulsory. I know every one says they skipped lectures at university, but in my case it really is true. There are even a couple of lecturers at the University of Colombo whose classes I was supposed to have taken but I wouldn't recognize them if I met them on the street. I completed an MBA attending just three lectures in total - and there by defeating the whole purpose of getting an MBA. An MBA will not teach you anything usefull. Most of the subjects are just plain BS, what you get out of an MBA is network of business contacts. </p>
            <p>My approach with the online courses was to go through the lectures at the last possible moment and then do the assignment. But then real life caught up with me and I couldn't finish one set on time. Then the backlog kept growing while my allergy for lectures resurfaced and kept getting stronger. As a result I haven't done the last 4-5 assignments and officially consider myself dropout.</p>
            <p>But I am a stickler for punishment so I have signed up for some of the next set of courses the Standford have made available for next semester.</p>
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Confessions of an ml-class and db-class dropout.

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            <p>Last post on the market for a while, from tommorow it's just going to be sit and watch with most of the money out of the market and safely back in the bank. Let us hope that the new Chief of the Securities Exchange Commission doesn't end up having to fight a bubble as his first task like the last one did.</p>
            <p>If we can use the market's reaction to the former chief's resignation (Mrs Sugathadasa), a safe bet would be that the market would be up tomorrow. At the CSE, retailers buy on any news good or bad. For example when DPL declared bankrupty prices shot through the roof (and no it wasn't trading below NAV). This has become a news driven market. </p>
            <p>But what's really intriguing is that no one really knows what the new chief will do. Brokers and gamblers are hoping that he would become their lapdog (that's right folks, brokers pressurizing the SEC doesn't raise eyebrows in Colombo). On the other hand investors and traders are hoping that Mr Karunaratne might turn out to be one of the rarest kind of Sri Lankans - the kind that posses a backbone.</p>
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Will the new broom sweep clean?

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            <p>It was only yesterday that I talked about how doomsday theorist are crawling out of the woodwork. It only needs one glance at the top gainers list of the Colombo Stock Exchange for the previous week to know that those fears are justified.</p>
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            <figure style="text-align:center"><a href="todays-challenge.html"><img alt="Top Gainers for the week ending Dec 02 at the CSE" height="483" src="http://images.raditha.com/blog/images/cse/speculation.png" title="Top Gainers for the week ending Dec 02" width="378"></a>
                <figcaption>Top Gainers for the week ending Dec 02 at the Colombo Stock Exchange</figcaption>
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            <p>The top 5 gainers are not just speculative counters but warrants, out of the money warrants at that! It was only a few months back that these <a href="the-bourse-a-junky-looking-for-a-quick-fix..html">junkies looking for a fix</a> lost a small fortune on Ceylon Leather Products (CLPL) warrants that expired. But there they are at it again. </p>
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Now is that a speculative bubble or what?

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            <p>It was only six weeks ago that the <a href="http://lbr.lk/fullstory.php?nid=201110261645152189">Lanka Business Review</a> had a piece by Shamindra Kulamannage on the Colombo Bourse:</p>
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Crawling Out of The Woodwork

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            <p>Sri Lankan broadband speeds have always been pathetic, the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission finally recognized this and attempted to take measures to force Broadband service providers to improve their service. It's been a while since they sent out a few press releases on that subject and been a while since I <a href="broadband-speedtest.html">last posted a speed test</a>. Let's see if things have improved.</p>
            <p><img alt="Mobitel Speed Test" class="aligncenter" src="https://www.speedtest.net/result/1624501353.png"></p>
            <p><img alt="Mobitel Speed Test - US based server" class="aligncenter" src="https://www.speedtest.net/result/1624498661.png"></p>
            <p>The test above is with a mobitel connection, popularly known as the mobitel dongle. It's supposed to have a speed of 3.6 mbps. Even if you test against the servers in Colombo - which happens to be hosted by Mobitel's parent Company Sri Lanka Telecom, you find that the speed is much lower than advertised. If you test against a server in the united states, it's fares much worse.</p>
            <p><img alt="Lanka Bell Speed Test" class="aligncenter" src="https://www.speedtest.net/result/1624622680.png"></p>
            <p><img alt="Lanka Bell Speed Test - US based server" class="aligncenter" src="https://www.speedtest.net/result/1624644315.png"></p>
            <p>The set of results is for Lanka Bell, <a href="1470.html">my preferred broadband connection</a>, over the years, they have provided bettter results than any other telco in Sri Lanka. Event the TRCSL tests confirmed that theyir speeds are the closest to the advertised speeds. Today though, they didn't fare too well. The link is supposed to be 2mbps.</p>
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Broadband speeds

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            <p>"I have repeatedly said I serve at the pleasure of the president and at my own pleasure"</p>
            <p>Thus spoke, William Donaldson, the former chairman of the United States Securities Exchange Commision on the day he handed over his resignation. Apparently Donaldson's reign was a stormy one, he resigned after strong criticism from business groups and others that policy decisions had been too agressive and inflexible (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/business/01wire-sec.html?ei=5094&amp;en=ebc3d3fff7ebc7&amp;hp=&amp;ex=1117684800&amp;partner=homepa...%C2%A0%C2%A0%3Ca%20class=&amp;pagewanted=all">New York Times June 1, 2005</a>)</p>
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Monthly Archives for 2011 12

Confessions of an ml-class and db-class dropout.

Will the new broom sweep clean?

Now is that a speculative bubble or what?

Crawling Out of The Woodwork

Broadband speeds

The SEC Chief Resigns