Blockchain 101 for Developers - Part 1

What problem does Blockchain address?
(In very simple terms) Blockchain primarily addresses aspects of record keeping across multiple, distributed peers such that trust between them is no longer an issue and no central authority is needed either.

In today’s world, each organization/ peer participating in a business network performs its own bookkeeping of facts of interest. For example, a car manufacturer would have its own data related to the cars manufactured and a car distributor/ reseller will have its own data---even through there are overlaps and they might be talking about the same asset (i.e., a specific car). Same goes for financial institutions---each bank will have its own data. Such silos definitely need either central authorities/ middle-man who everyone can trust as well as settlements and reconciliation processes to iron out conflicts.

Blockchain addresses all these problems by acting as a distributed ledger, which everyone can trust and have access to.

Bitcoin uses blockchain to record facts related to “coins” and their “transfers”; the interaction is from peer to peer and there is no central authority. But the technology itself is much more than what I have just stated.

How does blockchain do that?
Blockchain is, no pun intended, blocks chained together. Each block contains certain facts, and the entire chain is (usually) replicated across all peers and it is immutable.

For people with data structures (computer science) background, the chain can be thought of as a doubly linked list with an additional property of immutability.

Immutability? What? Why?
Immutability means that you cannot practically change a block, once it is added to the chain. This is achieved by using hash functions (one-way functions from cryptography). Each block contains a hash value generated from the facts in that block as well as the hash of the previous block. Therefore, modifications to a block is not possible unless all blocks from that point onwards are rewritten, which is not feasible as other peers also contain a copy of the entire blockchain.

Since blockchain is immutable, nobody needs to worry about fraud/ trust issues as long as no participant has more than 50% of the computational power in the network; more on that later.

In addition to immutability, blockchain also implicitly means decentralisation by employing a consensus protocol.

Consensus? On what and how?
Consensus on which block gets added next to the chain. In bitcoin, this is achieved by using some aspects of game theory and is termed as proof of work. All peers compete to add the next block to the chain and they have to solve a (useless) mathematical puzzle with each block they want to add to the chain. Solving this puzzle is a computationally intensive work and introduces a sort of randomness to who among all the peers gets to add the next block. Whoever creates a valid block broadcasts it to everyone else. In bitcoin, the peer who successfully creates a new block is said to be a miner and they are rewarded with some fresh bitcoins (said to be mined in the process).

Applying for Canadian Visit Visa from the UK

Being a non-British, I do need to apply for a visa if I plan to visit Canada. Below is an account of my experience of the overall process. Please note that below is not an immigration or application advice in any way; just an account of how I applied for my visa.

Canadian visa applications can be submitted in-person, by-post or online. I would have preferred in-person if I was living close to London, but I wasn't. The next preference was to apply online as post usually takes days and I personally don't like the (albeit slim) chances of getting mail lost.

I found out that online applications are submitted via Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) website. A lot of scanning is required if you don't have the documents scanned already. On the other hand, in-person applications probably need photocopies; they are submitted via VFS Global's Canadian Visa Application Centre (CVAC) in London. As far as I know, in-person applications can only be submitted in London. The CVAC website has a lot of information about the application process.

Step 0 - Getting Ready

One needs to gather all documents required. In my case, I found that the following should be sufficient to support my visa application:

• Invitation Letter from Canada
• Sponsorship Letter from the Current Employer
• Old and Current Passport
• Biometric Residence Permit
• Recent Payslips
• University Degree
• A few months' Bank Statement
• Photograph (although this is not really used in some cases, as stated later)

Step 1 - Online Application and Scanning Documents

If you are applying online, you'll need to generate something called a GCKey. This will be the id to login to the online application system.

Application forms are available for download as PDF. One of the things that I found that the application form needed details of all family members, including spouse, children, parents and siblings.

As I said earlier, a lot of scanning was required. The online application form has various categories and only one file (such as a PDF or JPG) is accepted. This means that for something like "Travel History", if I need to scan multiple old passports, all of them should be submitted as a single PDF. Moreover, there are restrictions on the file size too. One of the tools that I found very useful in merging scanned documents is PDF Joiner.

There are special requirements for submitting a photograph online. One needs to read the file size, resolution and other details carefully.

Step 2 - Pay and Submit Online

I submitted the application with supporting documents online. In my case, I need to pay the application fee as well as the biometrics collection fee via credit card.

The application processing times based on application centres are listed online.

Step 3 - Biometrics Collection (Surprise, Surprise)

Once I applied online, I received a message to submit biometrics collection. I found out that I did need to visit CVAC in London for this. This was a surprise for me because the whole idea behind the online application was to avoid taking time off from work just to visit the application centre. Any ways, I had to do it. The online documents that I took with me were my passport and a print-out of the biometrics collection letter. I found out that there is no need to book an appointment.

If you are planning to visit, make sure that you are not planning to visit on a public holiday/ closure date. Also, do make a note of the opening timings and the address.

At CVAC, they will take the collection letter and passport from you. They will take your fingerprints and a photograph, and return your passport after a while. This will be forwarded to the CIC authorities directly by CVAC.

Note - Security Regulations
Although there is a long list of prohibited items, I found that CVAC doesn't have an airport like security system. Coming from a different city, I did need to carry a mobile phone and keys, which didn't cause any problems at security. Previously, visiting the US embassy for a different purpose, I did find out that even taking a set of keys could be problematic, but not with CVAC.

Step 4 - Sending Your Passport

If your application is successful, you will need to send in your passport, once again via VFS Global's CVAC. I am not sure if there are multiple ways of sending the passport, but what I did was as follows: I sent my passport and additional fee (detailed next) to CVAC, who forwarded it to CIC. The additional charges cover the cost of forwarding the passport to CIC as well as the return postage. They payment this time has to be as postal order, bank draft or demand draft. Service charges for the two items can be found on CVAC's website.

Can I use John Lewis Vouchers at Waitrose online?

The answer to the question, "Can I use John Lewis vouchers at Waitrose online?" is "Yes!", and here is how you can do just that.

John Lewis vouchers are really called "John Lewis Waitrose". While the terms and conditions at the back of the voucher do not explicitly say that you can use the voucher online, they do indicate that you can use them in-store at Waitrose. But they do really work online too.

Each voucher as a 10-digit serial number written at the bottom right of the voucher. In addition to that, these vouchers have a scratch panel at the top which contains a 7-letter security code, as indicated in the picture above. Both these pieces of information are required if you want to use the voucher online. However, please be mindful of the fact that once you scratch the panel and reveal the security code, you can no longer use the voucher in-store. You must use it online only!

So, in order to use these vouchers, shop as usual on Waitrose.com and on the payment page, enter your voucher serial  numbers and the security codes before entering your credit/ debit card information. The card information is required anyhow, because Waitrose would want to know where to deduct any additional amounts from or where to refund if any refunds are claimed later on.

Enjoy shopping!

Configuring jPOS with Maven POM

jPOS is now available on GitHub. If you want to make use of the ISO8583 Java library in your Maven project, following are the dependency settings that you need to define in your POM.xml:

In other words, the groupId is org.jpos and the artifactId is jpos. The latest released version as of today is 1.9.2.

A frequently encountered error, however, is related to missing sleepycat jar when you build your maven project having jPOS as a dependency. The exact error is something like "missing com.sleepycat:je:4.1.10 artifact".

A nice solution to that is to add Oracle's maven repository in your project's list of repositories, so that the missing dependency gets resolved automatically. For this, you just need to add reference to http://download.oracle.com/maven in your POM file, as shown below:

Applying for International Driving Permit (IDP)

You can easily get an International Driving Permit (IDP) from the post office (over the counter), and the application fee is just £5.50. Read on to know the details.

If you are a UK driving licence holder and would like to drive abroad, you might be required to hold an International Driving Permit (IDP) along with your full driving licence. The exact requirements vary country by country; for example, you can drive in all European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland without on your UK driving licence, but the same is not true for several Asian countries. Here is a word on the requirement from the UK government.

So, if you have decided to apply for an International Driving Permit (IDP), this post is going to highlight the process as of Dec 2013. You can apply by post or by visiting the local crown post office in person. I personally prefer getting it over the counter to avoid postage costs and the associated delays.

Step 0: Get the application form

The application forms are available in the UK crown post offices. They are also available from the AA and the RAC website. Here is the Royal Mail page about International Driving Permits. Just visit one of the post offices which can issue an IDP.

Step 1: Fill in the application form and attach supporting documents

The application form is pretty simple to fill in. You'll need some personal details, driving licence number, the country you are visiting and the date you would like your IDP to become active. You can post date your application by 3 months. The IDP is valid for 1 year.

The required supporting documents are

• Your driving licence and the counter part
• An additional proof of identity (such as Passport or Biometric Residence Permit)
• A photo signed at the back

Step 2: Apply at the post office

Visit one of the post offices which can issue IDP, along with a filled in application form, the supporting documents and the application fee (£5.50). Provide these over the counter and they will issue you the IDP then and there.

Catching a COM+ Event in VBScript

Catching events in Visual Basic 6 was simple---the IDE provided you all the tools to define event handlers in a very easy and intuitive way. Similar approach was carried over to .NET based languages. But what if you are going to use a COM object in VBScript, where you don't have an IDE to help you at all?

Difference between CreateObject and WScript.CreateObject

The first point to note is that you need to use WScript.CreateObject to create your COM object in VBScript, if you want to attach a handler for events raised by the object. WScript.CreateObject takes an additional parameter---a prefix for your VBScript functions which will be called when the event is raised:

Set obj = WScript.CreateObject(ProgID [,strPrefix])

where strPrefix is the starting prefix of the function names which will act as the event handlers for the object created.

Event Handler - Practical Example

Let's say that I have a prog id of "Math.SimpleCalculator" and the event raised by the corresponding object is CalculationComplete. The VBSCript client which can create this object and receive the raised event will be declared as follows:

Set obj = WScript.CreateObject ( "Math.SimpleCalculator", "MyObj_")

Function MyObj_CalculationComplete ()
   MsgBox "Calculation is complete!"
EndFunction

call obj.doSomething()
call WScript.Sleep (1000)

Remittances to Pakistan by Pakistani Expats

Do you know what's the biggest export of Pakistan? It's still Textile, amounting to 1.1 billion USD in a single month (stats from Aug 2013). But you might be surprised to know that this export is now matched by the remittances sent in by Pakistanis from abroad to their families back home. The figure is more than a billion dollars in a single month!

Remittances from Pakistani Expats in Sep-2013

The data about remittances is publicly available from the State Bank of Pakistan. Below, we analyse some of the data from September 2013:

Source: State Bank of Pakistan (Home Remittances Sep-2013)

The above figures are in millions of dollars, remitted by Pakistanis in a single month, broken down by countries.

As you can see, the largest remittances come from four countries: Kingdom of Saudia Arabia, the UAE, the UK and the USA. Amount of money remitted from KSA to Pakistan in a single month is 373 million US dollars, followed by the UAE at 276 million USD. Being Pakistanis, we also know that besides Gulf countries, a large number of Pakistanis live in the UK and the US.

Year on year increase in remittances

The following graph shows yearly increase in the last 10 years. Mind that the figures are in USD, and hence, these remittances further strengthen the economy in the backdrop of Rupee losing against Dollar:

Source: World Bank Migration & Remittances Data

Why have the remittances gone up?

A working paper by IMF (International Monetary Fund), published in 2011 studies the factors behind this trend of remittances.

The hypothesis presented in the IMF paper are interesting, especially considering the fact that the world economy hasn't been doing really well in general during the last 10 years. The working paper from IMF narrows down everything to the number of migrants moving out of Pakistan and their general skill-level. 

And once again, being Pakistanis, we know that the large outflux of skilled migrants is actually due to the law and order situation in Pakistan. While these migrants are helping a lot to the economy, the "brain drain" impact can't be ignored.

What method do you use for remittance?

Are you a Pakistani living abroad? I am sure you send money back home. What's the method that you use? Do you think you are getting the best rates with minimal transaction fee?

Google Nexus Sound Mute Problem

So, my Google Nexus 4 suddenly went mute. I did a quick check to find out that it's only video and applications which have their volume stuck at 0; the phone itself was ringing fine; even the alarm function was working. This relieved me because it meant that the speaker itself wasn't faulty.

As with all software problem, a complete reboot came to mind. Unfortunately, that didn't help either. I even tried rebooting it to Safe Mode but with no luck---games, videos stored on the phone and Youtube all seemed to be completely silent.

The next idea was to check the phone with headphones, and to my surprise, things were fine if I plugged in a headphone. It was just the speaker which wasn't being used!

Some interesting articles on the web told me about similar situations where the audio which previously worked fine had stopped working; although all of these cases were a little di
fferent from what I was facing:

Similar Android Problems

Android Bug: Volume for "media" stuck muted until device is rebooted is a bug reported for Android 4.2.1, which seems to remain unfixed till June 2013 (from the comments in the bug report). Interestingly, this one is an Android bug and effects all phones, including Galaxy SIII. The problem here seems to go away if the device is rebooted but that was not the case with me.

Another problem reported on Google forums is a sound problem which affects both speakers and headphones. You can see in the comments that people have different variations to this and no solution has been posted by anyone.

Many people suggest that if you face this problem, you have a third party application which is not letting your phone restore the volume. If reboot doesn't work, perhaps you should uninstall any recently added mobile phone applications?

What finally worked for me!

And then I came to know about SoundAbout. This nifty application allows you to redirect your sound forcefully to one of the many audio output devices associated with your phone: external speaker, wired headphone, HDMI, Bluetooth, etc. There is a PRO version too, but the basic, free version was good enough to fix the issue for me.


The screenshot from Sound About on the right shows you the relevant screen in the application. By default, things are set to let the application to decide where to send the sound output. I changed it to "Speaker" and then played videos---Voila! Everything was back to normal! I changed the settings back to "Let App Decide" and things were still normal. I uninstalled Sound About, and yet the phone was still behaving as normal.

Is Coding the new Latin?

When New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced in 2011 that learning to program a computer was one of his new year resolutions for 2012, people started wondering if Coding is the new Latin.

Is it really important to learn to code, even though you don't intend to pursuit a career in computer programming?

Some people agree, while others think that it's just a hype. I somewhat tend to agree with the former group. Even though learning to code might not help you directly in your career, it will improve how you think about problems and make you a better computer user, if nothing else.

Whether you agree or not, it's true that some of the most influential (and rich) people in the recent history had something to do with software development. Below is a video prepared by code.org which features Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and several others. The theme is "Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn to code."

With the advent of Web 2.0, interactive e-learning has become fun and immersive. The best part is being able to learn programming right from within your web browsers! Below is a quick round-up of extra ordinary resources for learning and polishing your programming skills.

The criteria used here is that only sites with free courses, which are either interactive or provide an instructor lead sessions are included.

Introduction to Programming

Code Academy: This is perhaps the most famous of "learn to code" web sites. The main page of this web site starts interactively, and before you know it, you start programming! This is a good resources for coding in general but more importantly, there are several "track" courses such as those for learning JQuery, JavaScript, PHP, Python and Ruby. The non-track courses cover a diverse set of topics such as CSS Selectors and Evernote API.

Code Academy is a nice resource if you already know programming and would like to teach others!

Code School: Code School is really meant for people who already know the basics of programming and want to take the next step by building expertise in web technologies. There are courses available on Git, Backbone.js, SASS, Rails, JQuery and several others.

Learn Street: Like Code School, Learn Street also focuses on JavaScript, Python and Ruby.

Improving your programming skills

Code Learn: If you have done web development in the past, you would know that Ruby on Rails is getting popularity day by day. The aim of Code Learn is to teach you Ruby on Rails.

AppShed: With smart phones, "mobile application development" has made a number of people rich. The aim of AppShed is to teach you mobile application development.

Learn X in Y minutes: This is a community driven site, which provides an extremely quick overview of different programming languages. This could be very useful to get a quick grasp of common construct in a new language.

The Boss in Leeds (or why politicians love industrialists)

So, The Boss visited Leeds this week. Bruce Springsteen was the first one to play in the newly completed £60m Leeds Arena. Previously, he is said to have visited the city in 1985 where the concert was held in Roundhay Park.

Bruce Springsteen - Leeds Arena - 24th July 2013 by Bradford Timeline

In another side news, some traffic warden issued parking tickets to the lorries carrying equipment for Bruce Springsteen's performance at the arena. Leeds City Council felt very embarrassed about it, and cancelled the tickets afterwards. This is what Leeds City Council had to say about the cancellation of the fine:

We accept this is a little embarrassing but the attendant was doing his job - if a little too efficiently," said a council spokesman. "When you prepare a city to open and host a huge, state-of-the-art new venue, you're bound to get the odd teething trouble ... Having considered the special circumstances, [Bruce's] tickets were quickly cancelled.

I wonder what's so embarrassing about it, and why weren't their clear instructions about it in the first place? If I am a ticket warden and my duty is to issue tickets, why would my boss be embarrassed about issuing tickets?

And when I wonder, my mind wanders...

Why is it that politicians are so much "in awe" of industrialists and capitalists? If a political figure is representing a common man, and they all surely claim to do so, why he/ she be so humble and flexible for those who are clearly not common?

(Comic) Does money give corporations more access to government? [yes] by mysticpolitics

Well, it surely has something to do with money. But not all politicians are corrupt; may be not entirely corrupt. But their love for industry and capital is ubiquitous.


So, this is what finally makes sense to me: A politician, even a genuine well-wisher-of-common-man type, wants to decide the fate of people; that's why he/ she is in politics in the first place. To do so, they require money. And the money comes from "big shots." The collective tax collected from common man must be peanuts as compared to sales and other corporation taxes collected by the government. So, modernisation is in the favour of politicians---it empowers them with more money to make decisions about the life of others; they will always like to do so, even if the common man is better off without the "modernisation" that they want to impose.

Visiting US Embassy in London

I was recently invited to attend a conference in the US. But being on a Tier 1 visa in the UK means that I needed to apply for a visa first. This also meant appearing for an in-person interview at the US Embassy in London, which is currently mandatory for people from certain nationalities, including Pakistan.

The following hints might help you if you are a non-British UK resident and need to apply for the US visa in non-immigrant category. Please note that these are based on my personal experience of applying for the visa, and are in no way intended to be an authoritative guide/ recommendation of any sort.

Step 0: Choosing the right visa category

Well, the first step in the process is to know which visa category you need to apply for. Most people who would be reading it would be interested only in a non-immigrant visa, and for this category, here is a direct link to all available sub-categories on the US Embassy's website. For attending a business conference, for example, you need a B-1 visa.

Step 1a: Fill-in DS-160

In fact, at this stage you can do two things in parallel: one is to get the appointment for your interview and the other one is to fill in the online application form. I needed to fill-in DS-160, which might be applicable in most of the non-immigrant visa cases. If you have to fill in this form, there are a number of things that you'll need. The following are some of the things you need:

• A scanned photograph for the visa
• The date and place of birth of your parents
• Your employment history for past 5 years
• Your education history
• Your spouse's particulars
• etc.

Here is a link to common questions related to DS-160 that might be worth reading before you begin. It will take a long time to fill-in the and submit the form. Once done, the website will present you with a confirmation page; you must take a print out of that confirmation page and keep that with you for your interview. You don't need a print out of your entire application, though.

Step 1b: Schedule an Appointment (and pay the fee)

If you need to appear for an in-person interview, you'll have to schedule an appointment first. The earlier you do that, the better. However, make sure that you'll have all the required documents (and a confirmation of submission of DS-160) before the date your interview is scheduled.

There used to be an Operator Assisted Information Service for scheduling an appointment, which is being discontinued after 26th July 2013. It's said that a web-based free of charge service will soon be available. When I scheduled the appointment, I also needed to pay the non-immigrant MRV application fee, which turned out to be $160. I assume it's the same for most non-immigrant visa categories.

Once the fee was paid and appointment booked, I received two emails. One about the confirmation of fee payment (which I did via credit card), and another as a confirmation of the appointment. It's important to keep printouts of both the appointment information and the fee acknowledgement documents with you.

Step 2: Gather all the documents

You'll need to gather all documents which support your visa application. I am not aware of an official list of documents which would be required. But at the minimum one needs to carry his/ her passport (and a proof of their clearance to live in the UK, such as the Residence Permit issued by UKBA) and some documents to support one's claim for the need to travel to the US.

In my case, I prepared a lot of things but only the following were actually asked for during the interview:

• My passport 
• UK residence permit (returned after visual inspection)
• An invitation letter from the US
• A sponsorship letter from the employer (to cover my travel expenses)
• A photograph (which was returned to me)
• My CV

Of course, I kept my educational documents and my bank statements with me as well, but the interview officer didn't ask for them.

Step 3: Visiting US Embassy in London

Now comes the fun part! Even more fun if you will need to travel to London just for attending an interview. One of the most important things to remember is that the US Embassy doesn't allow you to carry any electronic items. Please read the next step for more information on this aspect, but first I must tell you where you need to go :)

The physical address is as follows:

24 Grosvenor Square
London, W1A 2LQ
United Kingdom

Basically, you'd like to get off at the Bond Street Underground Station and walk towards Grosvenor Square as highlighted in the following map:


View Larger Map Step 4: Storing Your Electronic Items

Step 4: Gould Pharmacy (how can you not know about it)

As you might have come to know by now, the US Embassy prohibits any electronic item to be take inside the Embassy. All electronic items are prohibited, even headphones, watches, battery operated car keys, etc. What's even more interesting is that you cannot leave these items outside either---the Embassy doesn't make any arrangements to store your goods.

Now, if you are visiting the Embassy for first time, you would like to keep your mobile phone for Google maps. Or at least, you'll need your watch to make sure that you reach in time. And if you are going to visit from another city, it might be difficult for you to leave all these items at home.

And since, where there is a need, there is an entrepreneur; you need to know about Gould Pharmacy. The pharmacy is very close the Embassy, and could store one set of electronic items for a charge of £3. A backpack will need another £6 for storage---though I believe small bags are not prohibited.

The postcode for the pharmacy is W1K 6ZL. Interestingly, the pharmacy makes around £1000 a day from this business.

Step 5: Inside the Embassy

The embassy has airport style security. Once inside, they looked at my documents; gave me a token number and asked me to sit in a bit hall. I am not sure exactly how much time I had to wait; it could be more than an hour easily. When the number appeared on the screen, they took my fingerprints and looked at the passport and the residence permit. Once done, I had to wait for the second phase of the process. After another half an hour or so, the number re-appeared and then started the interview process.

As I said earlier, they only documents looked at were

• Invitation letter from the US
• Sponsorship letter from the employer (to cover my travel expenses)
• My CV

The interviewer asked a couple of question about the nature of business my company did, and another couple of questions about my education.

And then came the dreaded moment---as any Pakistani would tell you, instead of granting a visa immediately, the application typically goes into "administrative processing." So, I was given a reference number and the passport was returned to me. Fingers crossed!

Second Year in the UK

Comes March, and so does completion of another year in the UK. Like last year, I would like to rate the impact of moving to the UK in various areas on a scale of -3 to +3 where -3 indicates that something has been a complete disaster, and +3 indicates that something was so good that I "couldn't have asked for more".

Personal Level

I rated last year at +2 on a personal level. This year wouldn't have been any different if I didn't have to go through the extremely testing visa extension process. Firstly, the overall process has to be taken extremely seriously; make a mistake of not submitting an important document, and your "leave to remain" will be jeopardized. Secondly, after we had had applied, the result of the visa application remained hanging in the air for 3.5 months! Lastly, once the visa extension was granted, UKBA (or perhaps Royal Mail) managed to misplace our passports!

The rating could be worse if I don't include the opportunities life offered to the family, on the whole. This includes the volunteer work that my wife managed to do at the local city council, and the award for which got nominated.

Speaking of my own self, the only good things that happened are that I obtained my driving licence here, and then managed to buy a car--a 2008 Vauxhall Corsa.

So, the rating in this area is +1 (down from +2).

Financial Aspect

The financial standing in the previous year was -2. This year turned out to be a little better, mainly because of the various "bonuses" I got from my employer time to time. The overall impact of these, and the reimbursement of visa extension fee by the employer, made this move from -2 to 0 this year.

I am quite certain, the next year is going to be much better, in-sha-Allah.

Health and Safety

As I stated earlier, perhaps this alone was the sole reason for temporarily leaving the homeland. The previous year rating in this area was +2. This year would have been a little better, had I not been diagnosed with latent TB. Now, this is not a disease if you think like a Pakistani. Nevertheless, I was required to undergo a 3 months treatment. Once again, this should be set to +1.

Career

Several improvements happened from a career perspective. Though there is no change in the designation, I won several awards this year. Recognition was both in terms of the job responsibilities and financial rewards, which makes the rating in this area grow from 0 to +2.

Experience

Rare things have kept happening, though the frequency has reduced as I grow to understand British culture and processes. This has reduced from +3 to +1.

Overall Score

So the overall score is +1+0+1+2+1 = 5 on a scale of {-15, 15}, not better than last year but surely going to take off in 2013!

Beating Inflation in 2013

With a Retail Price Index of 3.0% in November 2012, your £100 from last year are worth only £97 this year. In other words, the money that you might have in your savings account is decreasing at the rate of 3% every year. If your bank account doesn't give you an interest of 3% or greater, you are actually getting poorer with the passage of time.

Let's look at some strategies to make your money work harder so that inflation can't eat it all up. Please note that all discussion is with reference to the options available in the retail market in the UK.

Earn £5 Extra Every Month

If you earn at least £1000 a month, your best first move is to open up a Halifax Reward Current Account. You just need to deposit £1000 a month---this could be your salary or an internet transfer from another account. You don't need to "hold" this money; spend it as you like. In fact, it makes sense to pay your bills from this account. The best part is that if you don't deposit £1000 in some particular month, you won't be penalized in any way---it's just that your account will not get the promised £5 for that month.

Best Regular Saver Account

If you can put aside some money every month, you must consider regular saver accounts. One of the best such account with an upper cap of £250 per month is the Regular Saver account offered by HSBC. This account requires you to have an HSBC current account first. The interest rate is either 4% or 6% depending on the type of current account you have with HSBC. Even if you don't get the preferential rate of 6%, you shouldn't worry as 4% is higher than the expected inflation rate of 3%.

Cash ISA Account

The cash ISA limit is £5,640 for the current tax year. If you can save more than £250 per month (i.e., you have filled your Regular Saver account to max capacity), you should consider putting the remaining savings in  a Cash ISA account. There are various options available depending on what you are looking for. Some of these do provide an interest rate greater than 3%.

Buying Gold

Finally, buying gold is an option which shouldn't be ignored. With reliable internet sellers such as Bullion by Post, you can easily buy a gold bar in a secure and convenient manner; most authentic sellers will ship next day via Special Delivery.

A tip here is to buy a gold (or even a silver) bar with the maximum weight that you can afford. A 20 gram gold bar, for example, is always cheaper than buying two 10 gram gold bars.

You should, however, consider the downsides such as keeping the bar in a secure place and the money you lose in buying and selling gold (i.e., the overhead associated with converting it into cash). Gold should be an option only if you are interested in an investment of a longer duration (more than 5 years).

Summary

If you earn more than £1000, your first step should be to open up a Halifax Reward Current Account. If you can spare some money, you can invest up till £250 per month to get an interest rate of 4%. If you have any more money, consider filling up your Cash ISA limit. And finally, if you are still left with some cash, do consider buying gold.

---

This blog post uses images from Images of Money and Digital Money World.

The Myth of Savings Account - UK Version

Now that we know Savings Accounts are a myth, at least for a weak currency like Pakistani Rupee, let's see if Pounds Sterling fare any better.

We'll compare the inflation rate in the UK with some of the most promising savings account types in the UK (taking 1 year interest into consideration). According to Money Supermarket, the market leader is Baroda MAX, which is currently giving a return of 2.5%. Compare this to 3% inflation based on RPI calculated for November 2012 by ONS, and you'll know that no savings account currently covers the rising cost of living for you.

But everyone buys different things. My shopping list, for example, doesn't include tobacco, and if the price of tobacco increases, it doesn't affect me. Thins brings me to an important question: What is your personal rate of inflation?

What is your personal rate of inflation, really?

This is a question everyone should ask himself. Fortunately for us, BBC has developed a personal inflation calculator, based on Retail Price Index (RPI), which you can use to track your own inflation. Mine is 4.7%, terrible for any money saved which is losing its power to purchase every year!

So, what really should you do with savings? As someone else suggested in the comments, perhaps, we should all buy gold?

Gold Prices in the UK

Below, there is a price chart of 1 oz of Gold in British Pound Sterling over a period of one year. As you can see the price has been fluctuating but it's not clearly gone up or down. In fact, if you just compare 20-Dec-2011 with 20-Dec-2012, the gold price of 1 oz has been £1029 and £1019, respectively. We cannot consider that a rise!




Gold, however, has its attraction. Below is a similar chart, which spans over a period of 5 years.

Gold Price Over Last 5 Years (from Bullion by Post)

hm...What's so nice about gold? Why does everyone talk about gold reserves? It certainly has no wide-spread practical use except being worn as jewellery.

So, should we put all our savings in buying gold?

The Myth of Saving Accounts

This should be an easy one. Which one is better: Rs. 100,000/- invested in a savings account in Pakistan or an equal worth of Pound Sterling lying in your drawer?

Well, the first thought that comes to one's mind is that money put in a savings account is better than the same lying in the drawer. After all, the savings account is supposed to give your some profit/ interest; isn't it?

Let's do some calculations.

Usually, the longer the term of investment, the better is the return given by the bank. Let's take the example of Bank Al Habib's Special Saver Certificate, which as of today is giving 8.75% profit for a 1 year certificate. I believe this is a pretty good rate of return.

With an investment of Rs. 100,000/-, after a year, you will have Rs. 108,750/- in your account. Let's say that you invested this money on 1st Jan 2012 and obtained the profit on 31st Dec 2012. Now, let's compare this with buying and selling British Pounds on the same dates.

On 1st Jan 2012, Rs. 100,000/- would have given you something around £712 (using Oanda.com's historical converter). Selling these 712 pounds now (as on 18-Dec) should get you Rs. 113,568/-!!

Amazing are the ways of inflation!

Misconceptions About Life in the UK

A week ago, I obtained my UK driving license. It's tough to get one. But it's not the toughest thing that I have came across since I came here 1.5 years ago.

The three biggest fallacies about life in the UK for me have been:

Fallacy 1: British speak English and their accent is what we hear on BBC.

Nothing can be far from truth than this one. British speak in all kinds of accents incomprehensible to an outsider. The truly shocking one for me is the Cockney accent, and the one that I have to live with is the Yorkshire one. Listen to some of the British (and a few other) accents by Amy Walker in the following video and you'll know what I mean.

Fallacy 2: Britain is an expensive country to live in.

Wrong! Britain is an extremely (read "prohibitively") expensive country to live in. The basic tax rate is 20%. It raises to 40% as soon as you cross (approx.) £35,000 per annum salary (which is merely a "good" salary for middle class in my opinion), and it goes up to 50% as soon as you enter the £150,000 onwards bracket.

Let's compare the price of the recently launched Kindle Fire HD in the UK and the US. Intuitively, they should be priced approximately the same; isn't it?

The price of Kindle Fire HD 7" is £159 for the 16 GB model (source: amazon.co.uk [1]). The same is available for $199 in the US (source: amazon.com [2]). It's the same company selling the same product and the difference in price is 55 US Dollars! Why!!

It's not just the Kindle; almost everything is more expensive in the UK than the US. Compare the tax system and you can readily see the difference---the lowest and highest income brackets in the US put the tax at 10% and 35% respectively; in contrast it's 20% and 50% in the UK!

Fallacy 3: If you know how to drive, you can pass your driving test after taking a few driving lessons.

It's really tough to get one. Three attempts to pass a driving test is pretty common. Leeds (Harehills) has a pass rate of just 28% [3]. 

There has been one lady who has failed the test 90 times [4]! Yes, it's not a typo, she has failed the test 90 times! I am happy that I passed in my second attempt.

--------------

[1] Kindle Fire HD on amazon.co.uk

[2] Kindle Fire HD on amazon.com

[3] UK Driving Test Pass Rates

[4] Woman fails driving theory test 90 times

Book Review: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

As a parent, have you ever wondered what could be a better solution to your child's tantrums? Do you frequently come across situations where the child asks for something and you deny it, and this keeps on repeating for 10-15 minutes until either you give in or make the child cry for another good 15 minutes till she gets distracted?

"How to Talk..." is a must read book on parenting; though it's focused more on the parents of 5-10 year olds, the advice is applicable to all sorts of dependents, in my opinion---even 25 year olds who have not started to live independently.

Look at the situation in the picture below, and compare with how the mother deals with it in a later picture in this post.

The book suggests that you deal with the situation of conflicting desires between you and your child by helping children deal with their feelings. The first step is to listen quietly and attentively to your child's concern, and thus, acknowledge their feelings. If a child is feeling hurt, he/ she _is_ hurt; denying this feeling is not a good strategy. In fact, you should give a name to their feeling so that they can understand themselves better. Without utter denial, assure the child that you understand how they feel and then follow up with other strategies.

The book is based around a set of strategies for dealing with 5 different areas: 

1. Helping Children Deal with Their Feelings
2. Engaging a Child's Cooperation
3. What to do Instead of Punishment
4. Encouraging Autonomy
5. Freeing up Children from Playing Roles

It serves you by providing lots of "case-study" sort of situations and a good collection of cartoons to help you absorb the material. Though definitely it's not without flaws, these strategies are better than making up your own--which could be several years from now (and thus, would apply only to your grandchildren).

---

[1] The book on amazon.com

Do you suffer from anxiety? Have you ever given it a thought?

Sad 3D Man

Have you ever tried to avoid a situation and wished that you had another way of dealing with it? Is it a recurring theme in your life with respect to some particular set of situations? If yes, you are not alone! Many people suffer from anxiety, perhaps without knowing it. No, really, it's very common.

The most common form of anxiety is the fear of snakes followed closely by the fear of public speaking. Do your tremble while giving a public speech? Do you feel bad about being under a spot light? Does talking to unfamiliar people make you nervous? Does that affect the quality of life you are living?

If you have never given it a thought, perhaps, it's the right time to stop avoidance and start to look for a better solution.

Stress Meter

But first of all, it's important to differentiate between depression and anxiety (as well as various other psychological disorders).

Depression takes away your motivation, and you feel low in general. Anxiety on the other hand is usually related to some situation in particular where you try to avoid it needlessly (e.g., fear of heights or meeting new people, etc.) While depression degrades your quality of life in general, anxiety stops you from realising your true potential. If you have anxiety, won't you like to conquer it?

Some psychological disorders are better left to be treated clinically while others benefit tremendously from self-help.

Overcoming anxiety for dummies is a nice to read book which could help you in determining the exact nature of anxiety. A lot of ground is covered, yet the book is an easy read. Once the type of anxiety is unearthed, the book provides some strategies to deal with it. One of the most highly cited behavioural therapy to deal with anxiety is "gradual exposure". After making a list of things that induce anxiety, you start from the one which has the lowest fear factor associated. Make yourself exposed to that thing consciously. Gradually, the fear will pass away and it will give you an opportunity to move to the next level.

While the book provides good strategies to deal with anxiety, I believe that once you have identified the nature of anxiety, you would like instructions/ suggestions specific to you. Since this is a general book on anxiety, a lot of material will automatically become irrelevant to you---just skip what is not relevant or too basic.

---

Note: Sad 3D Man and Stress Meter images attributed to FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sending Money to Pakistan from the UK

If you regularly remit money from the UK to Pakistan, I highly recommend using HBL eRemit service. Below is a review of the options available to you; I recommend trying both HBL eRemit and United Bank UK. Please post your experiences here.

Pound Coins by Images_of_Money

HBL eRemit: This the best service, even better if you are an HBL UK customer; however, being HBL UK customer is not mandatory. You can register online. HBL will post you your password via mail. Once received, you can add any UK debit card and use that to send money to any bank account in Pakistan.


The charges are GBP 5 per transaction (it's free if you use HBL UK debit card). The time taken for the complete transfer is dependent on the location of the branch where you are sending the money---remote branches take time; branches in metropolitans get money faster.

United Bank UK: Formerly, known as United National Bank UK was a joint venture between UBL and National Bank of Pakistan. It seems that UBL has now completely taken over. Though their service is free of charge, I faced problems during sign up. It could have been great if there IT staff was able to assist. Do give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Western Union: This should be your last preference, given the above two. Any ways, if time is of essence to you, Western Union is the best. Money transfer takes a day or two at maximum. However, please note that the money is received in cash. I, for one, dread this due to the law and order situation of Pakistan (and specially of Karachi). As of today, Western Union doesn't offer direct transfers to bank accounts in Pakistan.

No Resource to Public Funds

If your UK visa says "No resource to public funds", it means that you don't have access to some of the  funded state benefits. The visa papers don't tell you what these funds are. When you think of it "Job Seeker Allowance" comes to mind as one you are not entitled to. Another one could be "Child Benefit." But what others are there?

Well, there are several. In fact, there is an official list which is part of the Immigration Law. These prohibited public funds are [1]:

1. Attendance allowance
2. Carers allowance
3. Child benefit
4. Child tax credit
5. Council tax benefit
6. Disability living allowance
7. Housing and homelessness assistance  
8. Housing benefit
9. Income-based jobseeker’s allowance
10. Income related employment & support allowance – ESA (IR)
11. Income support
12. Severe disablement allowance
13. Social fund payment
14. State pension credit
15. Working tax credit

The list of course doesn't include compulsory free schooling (age 5 and above) as well as NHS treatment.

---

[1] UKBA - Guidance - Public Funds v6.0 [pdf] (dated 24-Feb-2012)