• Sensex and Nifty Up More Than 35%

    I wrote a post less than three months ago that Sensex and Nifty have fallen more than 30%. It is only fair that I should write a post when the indices have gone up. This time, they have gone up by more than 35%! The unfortunate thing is that I have no idea why. But hopefully your investments are up and probably in the green zone. Of course neither indices (thankfully) have not reached their historic highs.

    ...continue reading
  • Not Saving For Kid Was a Lie

    I've said this several times before that I've not been saving anything for my kid. It is high time that I come out with the truth. I was lying. Well, sort of. Every year on my daughter's birthday, her grand parents from both sides gift her money. The money is not a small amount. It is large enough that they transfer the money to my account asking me to save up for her future. I guess they don't like my radical thoughts when it comes to saving for kid's future? Either way, they have been doing it since my daughter's first birthday in 2014.

    ...continue reading
  • Drip Irrigation Control System v4.0 – Web Server

    In the past, I explained the hardware and software parts of the system. This concluding post on my drip irrigation control system will go into the details of the web server. As you know, I wanted to build a system that I can control from anywhere. In the previous designed, I had to be near the control system to configure the drip time and duration using buttons on the board.

    ...continue reading
  • The Franklin Wind-up Saga

    In a recent post, I mentioned that Franklin has started the e-voting process. Investors in the AMC's winding-up funds have started receiving emails about e-voting details and schedule. The email mentioned that the voting was supposed to happen between June 9 and 12. I was hoping that Franklin will be able to start paying some of the investors either in June or July soon after the e-voting. But it does not seem like that will happen. In a recent news, it is known that a petition was filed in Gujarat High Court (HC) against Franklin. The HC then stayed the Franklin's e-voting process.

    ...continue reading
  • How To Make Homemade Compost

    Most of us can manage our wet wastes at home instead of disposing them at the landfills. Have you ever passed by one of those waste disposal centers that make us close our nose and car doors? Almost all of us are responsible for that. I am not aware of how many developed countries actually do manage their wastes (I am not good with statistics or numbers as such), but I firmly believe India is definitely not one of them. Our stinking drains and over-spilling garbage on roads is almost an integral part of our lives. I can't tell exactly when this realization hit me that I too am a contributor of the same and have to do something about it. 

    ...continue reading
  • Drip Irrigation Control System v4.0 – Software

    This is a continuation of my previous post on control system v4.0. In that post I wrote about the hardware. Now I will talk about the software. If you have been following my drip irrigation control system design, you know that I switched from Arduino to ESP8266. It took some time for me learn about the new board, but it is very similar to Arduino when it comes to programming it.

    ...continue reading
  • Update On Franklin Funds That Are Winding Up

    It does not seem like the problems with Franklin are going to end anytime soon. They are in news everyday for some reason or the other. The first issue I can see is that the investors will not receive any money in May. The reason? Franklin has not yet started the voting process. And until that happens I don't think they can return anything to the investors. If you recall, I was hoping Franklin will return something in May.

    ...continue reading
  • Should You Save For Kids Higher Education

    You know my stance on saving for kid's education. Those who have read my blog or know me, understand that we are unschooling our kid. Most already know that I retired early. I guess early retirement and unschooled kid is probably not a common combination? Or may be it is just my feeling. Because, in this combination, one rarely plans to setup a corpus for kid's higher education. And yet many people ask why I haven't set aside a corpus for the kid.

    ...continue reading
  • The Start of a New Series: Sustainable Living

    In the last two meet-ups I had with my readers, I understood that a few people are interested in sustainable living. For those readers I am planning to start another series called the sustainable living. Since I don't know much about the topic and it is mostly run by my better half, I will hand over the reins to her when talking about sustainable living or organic gardening. To kick things off, I asked her to write a guest post as an intro to sustainable living and how she got started. So here is that one from her. Take it over mrs reynd.

    ...continue reading
  • Drip Irrigation Control System v4.0 - Hardware

    As promised, I started upgrading my drip irrigation control system with v4.0 design and software. If you read my last update on the control system, you know that there are two things that I wanted to add to it. One was a way to access the system via internet, so I don't need to physically configure it. And the other was to add a humidity sensor. I finally worked on the first upgrade. Now my control system is accessible over the net (currently limited to my home network). However, I had to make a few hardware design changes. I replaced Arduino with ESP8266. The why and how follows.

    ...continue reading