JVC Camcorders suck !

JVC Camcorders. The name does sound good, right ? Sounds like a good company that makes fantastic electronic products. Why would their camcorders be any worse ?


Well, it turns out that JVC camcorders suffer from a terrible and dreaded problem called Condensation problem. It basically has a moisture sensor inside the tape mechanism and this sensor keeps giving false readings. When this happens, the camera will just refuse to function. A message reading “CONDENSATION - OPERATION PAUSED - PLEASE WAIT” blinks on the LCD screen in a stupid font, and the camera will not operate, except to eject its tape.

Numerous people have experienced the Condensation defect on their JVC camcorders, mostly 12 months after you buy it and right after the warranty expires. Despite Google being flooded with this problem, JVC says its not a recognized issue and refuses to fix it. Its not a recognized issue because they have your money in the bank and no longer need you. Whoever came up with the concept of repeat business and word of mouth advertising must have never set foot at JVC.

It turns out that there is a stupid black sensor right under the cassette casing that reports this to the brain of the camcorder and at this point, the camcorder refuses to do anything else. And why it was designed so, because JVC wants to protect the parts from the condensation. And in the process, making the camcorder a complete lemon.

I hit the same issue after 2 years and barely 20-30 hours of usage. But I decided that Im not paying another penny to JVC to get this fixed. Suggestions on the web about applying after shave lotion on the black sensor with a Qtip were useless for me and did not work. So I took it to a local whiz in Bangalore and gave him complete ownership of the camcorder since it was pretty much useless. It turns out that if you short circuit the sensor, the problem still remains. Instead, this guy added a small resistor to the sensor so that it always reports the same values to the camera brains.

And guess what, Rs 1500 (USD $30) later, its fixed and working great now. And to think that JVC wanted me to pay $100 to even look at the problem outside the warranty.

Moral of the Story: Avoid JVC camcorders. Any company that does not recogonize the customer issues does not deserve your hard earned money.

Why the stock market is good. And bad !

One quick at the picture below tells you exactly why the markets are a great way to make money. But then another glance tells you why they are a great way to lose money too !!!

The picture shows that the one sure shot way to make money is not to panic when the markets turn bad. Time, time and more time is the only way the markets make money for you. If you had entered the market in 1999 and then exited sometime in 2003, you could conceivably argue that you lost a lot of money even after being invested for 5 years. But if the same person entered the markets two years earlier or exited two years later, there was a lot of money to be made.

Moral of the story ? If you want to make money in investments, follow these simple and time tested rules :

1. Start investing early in your career. I cannot stress this enough.

2. Investing is a long-term proposition. Its not for the people who look at the charts everyday and perspire based on how it is moving.

3. Don't let your emotions overpower your sense of reason. Markers are inherently volatile and that is the reason they are good in the long term.

4. The most important point that you can make out by looking at the chart. It is not the "market timing" but time in the market that matters. No one know how the markets will move, so do not try to time your entry and exits. Stay invested for long periods and you will reap rewards.

5. Investing is a complex exercise only because we insist on making it so. Its actually very simple if you understand what you want and reset your expectations.

Investing abroad with MF's

Investing abroad without restrictions, its been a long time coming for Indians. And now its possible not just to invest abroad, but actually do it with the convenience of a mutual fund !

To provide some history, Principal Global Opportunities fund was launched in 2004 with the objective of investing abroad. But till last year, the government permitted funds to invest only in those foreign companies which had a 10 per cent stake in an Indian company. So the whole diversification factor was restricted to less than 50 companies. Which in turn made the fund a complete dud.

But such a restriction no longer exists and mutual funds are allowed to freely invest abroad. Because of this, the fund has now repositioned itself and instead of investing directly into stocks abroad, the fund invests most of its corpus in PGIF Emerging Markets Equity Fund. Rather than tracking equities in so many markets, the fund house has decided to invest through this fund as it already possesses the expertise to invest in these markets. This means that the fund's portfolio has dominant exposure to countries like South Korea, Brazil, Russia, China and Taiwan.

Do note that these emerging markets generally offer great return potential, but also happen to be very volatile. So if you have already invested in India and want to spread your risks, this is a great way to do it. And on top of the convenience, the charges for the fund are less as their overheads are less. All in all, a great way to diversify your portfolio.

Gold EFT's arrive in India...

Investing in Gold is finally easy in India. I have never been a fan of buying gold biscuits just to invest in gold as there are too many overheads with the storage and protection. Now with the Gold ETF's coming into India, you can just buy the mutual funds on the market and rest assured that part of your portfolio is invested in Gold. Gold is a lucrative investment class and it returned a whopping 16 per cent last year (Do not compare to the stock market returns as the asset class is different with less inherent risks).

The UTI Gold Exchange Traded Fund (NFO in March first week) is a passively managed, open-ended Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). The scheme will be invested in gold bullion and will reflect the international price of gold in the market. And if you like Variety, Benchmark AMC introduced a similar fund in Feb.

Every unit of the Gold ETF's will approximately represent one gram of pure gold. Units can be bought or sold on the NSE once the scheme is listed and the fund will be credited to the investors' demat accounts.

Makes life Easy and our portfolio more resilient to the market swings !!!

Induction cooking !!!

Cooking food at home has just gotten safer and easier, thanks to the help of an induction cooktop that controls and intensifies heat using electromagnetism.

Traditional electric cooktops use some form of electric resistance to create heat, which is transferred to the saucepan and its contents. Induction cooking is based on magnetic fields: each ‘element’ generates a magnetic field that induces heat in steel cookware placed on top of it. In essence, the pot becomes the element that cooks the food, so the cooktop surface doesn’t get as hot as other cooktops. Induction cooktops have the same instant control as gas and are the fastest of all cooktop types to heat and cook food.

Look at this half made egg to realize the power of this technology:



Even better is this photo of the ice cubes outside the pan remaining unchanged as the water in the pan boils.

Amazing, right ?

This technology is virtually idiot proof. There is no risk of fire if food or grease overflows from the pan, no risk of burns from touching the cooktop surface, and no worry about dangerous fumes from gas or other cooking fuels. The ceramic glass surface can be cleaned by simply wiping off the surface with a damp towel.

Im so exited that I want to go out now and buy it. Where it is available in Bangalore, I have no idea !!!

Update : I have since figured out that you can either buy it in many major shops for Rs 2700 onwards or you could go to the grey markey in Majestic and get the same for Rs 1700 or less.

Recharge AA battery on USB !

I just love this technology. Combine the biggest headache in power, ie running out of batteries and combine it with the simplest form of charging and bingo, you have a USBCell !!!

Released as a teaser to the IT press over a week ago with the tagline ‘Time to recharge the battery market’, the details are finally out and they are oh so logical yet very cool.

Produced by Moixa Energy, USBCELL batteries are simply batteries that recharge from any USB port. They require no separate recharging devices, cradles or cables and can be used exactly like a normal battery. The design itself is rather like a typical memory stick with its flip top lid and they could be set to deliver the same killer blow to the battery market that memory sticks did to floppy discs.

• Battery Chemistry
• NiMH - Nickel Metal Hyrdride
• Technical Specifications
• 90%+ Charged after 5 Hours by powered USB
• Also rechargeable by approved NiMH charger at 250ma for 7 Hours

Amazing use of the mind, is it not ?

Buying a Digital Camera...

I have been asked many times as to what is a good digital camera to buy. Here is my 2c's.

Digital camera's have come a long long way in the last few years. So you really cannot go too wrong with any of the Canon's, Sony, Kodak, Fuji or Olympus. The newer ones with over 5MP offer decent quality both in terms of picture and printing. More megapixels does not mean better quality. I have seen pictures from the Canon 5 MP A5xx series and they are as good as you can get. Sure, you can pay a lot more and get tons more megapixels, but what use are they going to be ? Are you ever going to blow up your pictures to more than 8x11 ? Probably not, and if you need to, then you better get a professional to take the picture.

My advise, do not blow up money on the advanced features you will never understand nor on Megapixels that you will never have use for. Go for a simple camera that works great in automatic mode.

Having said that, here are a few basic things to look out for:

1. 5MP / 6MP is the value for money as of today in terms of money paid per MP. 6MP should suffice almost everybody, but the most demanding users.

2. Never go for a digital camera that uses proprietary batteries unless it is too good. Look out for camera's which use AA, so that you can use NI-MH rechargeables all the time and if you are ever in a corner and need immediate power, you can buy a few AA's from any grocery shop to keep you going.

3. If possible, go for camera's that use a standard USB port. These non-standard cables are always a pain and if they go bad, you have to get it from the company for a high cost.

4. Given a choice, go for a camera that performs better in auto mode in low light conditions. You will find it very useful.

5. Never give a damn to the digital zoom numbers. Anything in the 4x optical zoom is okay for most people. If you move into the 10x optical zoom and more, the camera tends to get bulkier. Its a toss up between size (which will hit you every time) and zoom over 4x (which you will use rarely).

6. If the camera has video recording, make sure it can record sound too. Not that the video recording is anything useful at 640x480, but just make sure in case you need it.

7. This is the most silliest suggestion I will give. Never ever buy a camera where the lens cap is separate and cannot be attached to the body via a cable. Best if to go for camera's with in-built lens cap. You will lose it soon enough !!!

I have a Fuji 5MP camera that I got a few years back and never have had any complaints. But I personally think that the Canon A540 is a great camera. If you want to step up, the Canon A630 is amazing too. I have seen snaps from both of them and they rock.

Had to start somewhere...

I have been thinking of sharing my thoughts on two of the things that continue to fascinate me.

One is Indian mutual funds. I have been dealing with mutual funds in India for many years now. This hardly makes me a expert, but then they say that experience is the best teacher. I have learnt finance the hard way, falling on my face many many times before I learnt to walk. I would share my thoughts on the ongoing happenings in the mutual fund industry in India.

Two is technology. The more I get a hold on it, the more I see it slipping away !!! But it never ceases to amaze me. I would also like to talk about my thoughts on some of the questions I come across regularly among the people I work with.

So here is a start, with the hope that it continues into something meaningful and useful...