04/28/2009

Posted by Arun Kumar Courtalingam

Domain tips of the day

APR:
APR stands for Annual Percentage Rate. APR is a measure of interest paid for credit received (or earned on principal invested) that does not take into account the effect of compounding. Unlike APR, APY or annual percentage yield, does account for compounding. For example, on a loan at a rate of 1% per month, the APR will be 12*1% = 12%, but the APY will be (1+1%)^12–1 = 12.68%. At 2% per month, APR is 24%, and APY is 26.82%. The higher periodic rate and the more periods in a year, the larger the gap between APR and APY. APY is more economically meaningful than APR. Nevertheless, federal law requires banks, credit card issuers, and other consumer finance entities to disclose APR to the borrower. On the other hand, the higher APY figure is always reported rather than APR when depository institutions advertise rates on savings products such as certificates of deposit and money market accounts.

Reverse Mortgage:
A reverse mortgage is a way for senior citizen homeowners to borrow money against the equity in their home without selling the home. Unlike a regular mortgage, the reverse mortgage requires no payment of principal or interest until the borrower dies, no longer owns the home, or does not occupy it as a principle residence for at least 12 months. At that point, the reverse mortgage matures, and must be repaid. In the United States, the home must be owned free and clear or have only a small mortgage balance to be eligible for a reverse mortgage. Everyone on the title must be age 62 or older to obtain a reverse mortgage. The reverse mortgage has no income requirements, and the money is available tax-free, as a lump sum, line of credit, or monthly payment. The FHA is the largest reverse mortgage originator, and Fannie Mae is the best-known private reverse mortgage originator. Detailed information and a loan calculator can be found on the website of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.

Private Banking:
Private Banking is a term for banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks to private individuals investing sizable assets. The term “private” refers to the customer service being rendered on a more personal basis than in mass-market retail banking, usually via dedicated bank advisers. It should not be confused with a private bank, which is simply a non-incorporated banking institution.

Technical tips of the day

Mainframe tip:
Using FILEAID we can determine the compile date of a loadlib member.
1. Go to FILE-AID 3.1 option
2. In the Library Utility type in the loadlib dataset name
3. Type ‘A’ next to the member name
4. TDATE is the compile date

Internet explorer tips:
If you want to clear the list of entries that shows up in the drop down list of the address bar,
1.    Go to Tools / Internet Options
2.    Click on the Content tab
3.    Click on the AutoComplete button
4.    Click on Clear Forms
You can have Internet Explorer automatically clear your Temporary Internet Cache files every time you close the program.
1.    Go to Tools / Internet Options
2.    Click on the Advanced button
3.    Scroll down almost to the bottom and check Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed

Few Microsoft Outlook Shortcuts:
Description                                        Key
Send message                                   Ctrl + Enter or Alt + S
Mark a mail as unread                    Ctrl + U
Check names                                     Ctrl + K
Launch Spell checker                      F7
Reply to sender                                Ctrl + R
Reply to all                                          Ctrl + Shift + R
Forward message                            Ctrl + F

Quotes of the day
” Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new”
-Albert Einstein

” Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”
-Thomas Edison

Interesting facts
Ø  The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even while the keypad is locked
Ø  The first domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com
Ø  While it took the radio 38 years, and the television a short 13 years, it took the World Wide Web only 4 years to reach 50 million users
Ø  The world’s first computer, called the Z1, was invented by Konrad Zuse in 1936. His next invention, the Z2 was finished in 1939 and was the first fully functioning electro-mechanical computer
Ø  The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute, less than half the normal rate of 20

04/27/2009

Posted by Krishnakumar Rajagopal

Domain Tip of the Day

Reserve Currency
Certain currencies of the world have been used throughout history as a means of international exchange. A currency that is held by many governments and institutions, and used by them to pay off international debts or influence their exchange rates, is known as a reserve currency. For many years, and especially since World War II, the U.S. Dollar has been the most widely used reserve currency, due to its reputation for stability, among other reasons. Many commodities which are used worldwide, such as gold and oil, are priced in U.S. Dollars, making it a good practice for countries to keep dollars on hand to purchase these commodities.

Any currency that is widely recognized and trusted can serve as a reserve currency. The idea of reserve currency has existed in one form or another for centuries. However, the modern international banking system has cemented the need for one much more so than older economic structures. Central banks around the world may hold funds in a variety of currencies in reserve, in addition to their own. They do this mainly to store value, as much as a backup for their own currency as for strategic reasons, should any contingency arise. Any of the foreign currencies used in such a manner could be thought of as a reserve currency.

Traditionally, the U.S. Dollar has been the preferred reserve currency of the world. Roughly two thirds of worldwide currency reserves are held in dollars. More recently, the Euro has seen increased use as a reserve currency. This is perhaps partly because many of the currencies of the countries that now make up the European Union were used as reserve currencies before the Euro was adopted for wide use. Because of the popularity of the Euro, there is considerable debate and speculation as to whether it will eventually replace the Dollar as the world’s most preferred reserve currency.

Demonetization
Demonetization is the process of ceasing to produce and circulate particular forms of currency. This is often the case when it is determined that the currency is not longer in regular use within the country of origin. While the currency is no longer minted or printed, any of the discontinued currency that is presented is still accepted as legal tender.

Going through the process of demonetization may be helpful for a couple of reasons. The most common is the replacement of one form of currency with another. For example, some countries have chosen to replace their smaller banknotes with coins of the same value. Even though the banknotes are no longer printed, merchants can still accept them as legal currency and deposit the worth of the banknote into a bank account. Over time, the banknotes are exchanged for the newer coins and the demonetization process is considered complete.

Another reason for withdrawing currency is to completely revamp the value and type of currencies used within the country. This is often due to matters involving the rate of exchange of currency with other countries. At other times, this wholesale change has been due to a desire to streamline the currency in order to make the use of the money easier for all concerned. In both scenarios, the older coins and notes usually are declared to no longer be legal tender after a certain date. However, the older money can be redeemed for an equivalent amount of the newer forms of currency.

Technical tip of the day
1) Easytrieve to Cobol call can be done just like a normal Cobol to Cobol call. its done as shown in the below example.
(E.g.):CALLPGM is the is the Cobol load module. The Change to the JCL would be to include the STEPLIB to mention the location of the Cobol load.

FILE FILENAME
IN-NAME      1    40 A

L0600-NAME-P                        W  105  A
L0600-NAME       L0600-NAME-P           40  A
L0600-LAST-NAME  L0600-NAME-P     +40   40  A
L0600-FIRST-NAME L0600-NAME-P     +80   25  A

JOB INPUT (FILENAME)

L0600-NAME          = IN-NAME
CALL CALLPGM USING L0600-NAME-P
Display ‘First name is ….’L0600-FIRST-NAME
Display ‘Last name is …..’L0600-LAST-NAME

2) Sort Tip
IFTHEN statements can be used in Syncsort as shown below.

//TBC1005 EXEC PGM=SORT
//*
//SORTIN   DD *
ADCDEFGH1
ADDDEFGH2
ADCDEFGH3
//*
//SORTOUT  DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSOUT   DD SYSOUT=*
//*
//SYSIN    DD *
SORT FIELDS=COPY
INREC FIELDS=(1,3,9,1)
OUTREC IFTHEN=(WHEN=(3,1,CH,EQ,C’C’),OVERLAY=(4:C’CFND’)),
IFTHEN=(WHEN=(3,1,CH,EQ,C’D’),OVERLAY=(4:C’DFND’))

Interesting Facts on Airbus A380
Ø  The A380 is 24.1 metres high – as high as an eight-storey house, 5 giraffes or 14 people standing on top of one another.
Ø  There are 320 miles of cable in an A380
Ø  Each wing of the A380 has an area of 845 square metres, enough standing room for 2,800 people, or parking space for 70 cars.
Ø  The Wright Brothers’ first flight was shorter than the A380’s wingspan.
Ø  It has a range of 8,200 nautical mile which means that it can fly non-stop from New York to Hong Kong.

Interesting Facts on Hitler
Ø  No matter how warm he feels, Hitler will never take off his coat in public
Ø  In 1923, Nazi press secretary Dr. Sedgwick tried to convince Hitler to get rid of his trademark mustache or grow it   normally. Hitler answered: “Do not worry about my mustache. If it is not the fashion now, it will be later because I wear   it!”
Ø  He was vegetarian.
Ø  He had wanted originally to be an artist or architect.

Quote for the day
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
-Albert Einstein

“Disney has the best casting. If he doesn’t like an actor he just tears him up. ”
– Alfred Hitchcock

04/24/2009

Posted by Chidambara Natarajan Gopal

Domain tips of the day –  Buyback:
A companys purchase of its own bonds (at a discount on the open market) or shares on the market. In the case of a share buyback, the company may be motivated to boost its share price and thereby reward existing shareholders.

Float:
Float is duplicate money present in the banking system during the time between a deposit being made in the recipient’s account and the money being deducted from the sender’s account. It makes up the smallest part of the money supply.

Float is most obvious in the time delay between a cheque being written and the funds to cover that cheque being deducted from the payer’s account. Once the recipient of a cheque (the payee) deposits it in their account, their bank immediately credits (increases) the payee’s account, assuming that the payer’s bank will ultimately send the funds to cover the cheque.Until the payer’s bank actually sends the funds, both the payer and the payee have the “same” money in both of their accounts. Once the payee’s bank notifies the payer’s bank (usually by presenting the cheques), the “duplicate” funds will be removed from the payer’s account and the cheques will be considered to have “cleared” the bank.

Technical tips of the day:
Browsing the Mainframe dataset directly from the job.
While viewing a job, Issue ‘ZOOM’ command in the command, place the cursor on the line number in which the dataset to be browsed and press Return key to browse the dataset

Zeke (Job scheduler) tips:
Once you are in a schedule view (viewing the scheduled jobs), the active and failed once can be brought up by issuing command “SORT STATUS” .
Automatic refresh can be setup using command AUTO. We need not press enter to get the scheduler updated. It automatically refreshes every 30 seconds.
To know the last execution details of a job, you use Zeke option 1 (EVENT) and goto OCCURS clause page and issue ACCTG in the command line.
Copy/clone a event using command ‘COPYAL’ from the Event Matser definition page of a job event.
From scheduled view screen if we want to jump to Event master definition, we need not swith back & forth, we could use EMR command.

Different types of Table searches in COBOL.
Sequential Search using the ‘SEARCH’  statement  examines each table entry starting at the beginning
Binary search using the ‘SEARCH ALL’ statement starts looking at the mid-point of the table and works its way toward the argument depending upon if its too high or too low.
A serial search can be used for unsorted tables, while a binary search is only useful if the tables is sorted.

Math tip of the day:
Very often we have to find square of a number.
Say for example finding a squar of 26.
we know Sq(25) = 625. Add 25 & 26 to the sq(25) = 25 + 26 + 625 = 676 which is the square of 26.

How this works..
(n+1)^2 = n^2 + 2n + 1
Example:
(25 + 1)^2 = 25^2 + 2 . 25 + 1
= 25^2 + 25 + 25 + 1
=  25^2 + 25 + 26

Erroneous usage in English:
“Return back” – This is frequently used in our day to day life.
Ex:          They returned back to Chennai – Incorrect (Using Return & back together is redundant)
They returned to Chennai – Correct
They came back to Chennai – Correct

Inspirational quotes of the day
“Dheivathaan agadheninum, muyaRchi than
mei varutha kooli tharum”
Meaning:  What if fate (or God) wills its failure and the object is not attained, the effort pays its own reward.
-Thiruvalluvar

People sometimes throw stones at you and you convert them into milestones”
– Sachin Tendulkar

The only way of finding a solution is to fight back, to move, to run, and to control that pressure.
– Rafael Nadal

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
– Barack Obama

Philosophical quotes:
“Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent.”
– Marlon Brando

Money is a strange business. People who haven’t got it aim it strongly. People who have are full of troubles.
-Ayrton Senna

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
-Socrates

Interesting facts:
Tamil Nadu is the only  state seen many Chief Ministers from Film Industry or People associated to Film industry. (M.G.R, Jayalalitha, V.N.Janaki, Annadurai & Karunanidhi. The first three people acted in films, the later two were associated with film industry by story & dialogue writing)

The Vandalur Zoo in Chennai is the First Zoo (1855) in India and one of the largest in South Asia.