Monthly Archives: March 2009

Seminar: Lars Ekman – EVP & President Global R&D – elan

Business, entrepreneurship, ,

From Rags to Riches and back again - 7 Year Learning Experience with eLan
History -
Deal driven
Cash Flow - Drug Delivery

Acquisitions - 22 companies in 2.5 years
Model - JV between Biotech and elan which will buy IP from elan using money from elan!

MS Tysabri Tlymphosites
reverse memory loss on cover of nature December 2000 (big achievement)

Perfect Storm brewing!
Enron, SEC investigation, Halt Trials Generic Threat, Critical WSJ Article

Share Price - $62 - $1.30 (Market cap 24 B to 400 mill) had 4B debt (looks okay for 24B company, but not for 400 mill company)

Recovery
New management
Debt Reduction - 2.4B from asset divesture, 1.2B LT convertible Debt
Headcount reduction - 5400 to 1800
Cost Reductions

Tysabri got FDA approval. filed MAA

New Challenges
Cox2 Congressional Hearings. Two adverse events.

Share Price: 29-3 11.5 - 2.6 Billion

New Trials
Approval by EV and VS
AD - phase 3
Market Cap 11 B

Lessons Learned:
1. Maximum Transparency - dispense all bad news at once
2. Delineate Facts from opinions
3. Select Data Setets? (Monitoring Board w/ease)
4. Don't look back - Address next 3 steps.
5. Don't look down

Date: 11/16/2007

opml to csv converter

Programming, ruby, software, webdev, , , , , ,

This is a first step in being able to make all  my  planets    configurable from anywhere. The following ruby script parses the opml file specified on the command line and generates a comma separated file with XML feed URL and feed title. In case of nested outline elements, it just picks the elements which actually have xmlUrl attribute (this will flatten the opml hierarchy which is used by google reader - for implementing labels and bloglines - for implementing folders)

require 'csv'
require "rexml/document"
include REXML
if ARGV.length >=1
fname = ARGV[0]
else
fname = "opml.xml"
end

doc = Document.new File.new(fname)
CSV.open('csvfile.csv', 'w') do |writer|
doc.elements.each("//outline[@type='rss']") {|element|
writer < <  [element.attribute("xmlUrl").value, element.attribute("text").value]
}
end

Hridaynath Mangeshkar in Los Angeles

Misc, Security, , , ,

Had the pleasure of attending the live concert of Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar (Feb 21, 2009). It was a blast - with Panditjee's rendition of the memorable songs that he has composed and sung (in some cases). There were around 400 people attending and still it had a feel of a private mehfil with Panditjee responding to farmaish for most of the concert. He also broke into the background stories of each of the songs and the people behind the magic of them. He also showed his typical tricks like making plenty of fun of the Marathi Mandal's secretary and testing the local singer by starting out the opening lines of the duets in different scales 🙂

Here is a list of all the songs in sequence: (The video links are not the videos from the program, but just links to youtube videos of the same song)

  1. Gagan Sadan Tejomay - गगन सदन तेजोमय (Video)
  2. Tu tevha tashi - तू तेव्हा तशी (Video)
  3. Sarja Raja - सर्जा राजा (Video)
  4. Sunya Sunya Maifilit majhya - सुन्या सुन्या मैफ़िलीत माझ्या (Video)
  5. Ti Geli Tevvha Rimjhim - ती गेली तेव्हा रिमझिम पाऊस निनादत होता (Video)
  6. Jambhul Piklya Zada khali - जांभुळ पिकल्या झाडाखाली (Video)
  7. Yaara Seeli Seeli - यारा सीली सीली (Video)
  8. Gorya Dehavarati Kanti - गोर्‍या देहावरती कांती (Audio)
  9. Ne Majasi Ne Parat Matrubhumila - ने मजसी ने परत मात्रुभुमीला (Video)
  10. Valhav Re Nakhava - वल्हव रे नाखवा (Video)
  11. Daya Ghana - दया घना (Video)
  12. Runu Jhunu Re Bhramara - रूणू झूणू रूणू झूणू रे भ्रमरा (Video)
  13. Sarnar kadhi raN Prabho - सरणार कधी रण प्रभो Video
  14. Shur amhi sardar - शूर आम्ही सरदार आम्हाला Video
  15. Vedat marathe veer doudale saat - बेडात मराठे वीर दौडले सात Video
  16. kevha tari pahate - केव्हा तरी पहाटे (Video)
  17. malavoon taak deep - मालवून टाक दीप (Video)
  18. chandanyat phiratana - चांदण्यात फिरताना (Video)
  19. Mee maj harapun basale - मी मज हरपून बसले (Video)
  20. Jivalagaa - जिवलगा (Video)