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Showing posts from January, 2006

KBC Fraud!

I had quoted two days back that KBC is pulled off air because of Amithab's illness... Now, a section of the media is reporting that this is not the only reason why Star TV pulled this off air... According to news channel India TV, Star may have been forced to scrap the show because of an alleged scam in the selection of contestants. India TV says it got a call from a KBC fan, who claimed to have proof that the selection process was dubious. Read more

KGiSL in Google!

Yes, KGiSL is featured as an advertiser in Google search engine... Just give "transcription" in google and you can see the ad in the right hand corner of the page!

Brilliant Ad!

Number Portability!

Imagine this. You are frustrated with your mobile service and want to dump it for another operator. However, you have given this number to hundreds of clients over the last few years. It’s an unnerving task to inform all of them of your new number besides getting the new number printed on new visiting cards, letterheads, et al. Assume, now, that you are allowed to retain your mobile number even after you have jumped from one service provider to the other. The magic word that can make this possible is “number portability”. Read more PS: Number Portability is already in force in the US. Already, India is the least expensive when it comes to mobile service fees, and if this is introduced (though it still remains a dream), price wars between operators will get intense.

Lifeline Over, KBC no more!

Star TV has been running re-runs of old KBC shows in the past two weeks as apparently its anchor Big B was taken ill a few months back. Now, according to this report , Star has finally decided to pull it off air. PS: Hope to see it back on air soon!

Relief for Sneha!

Madras High Court on Monday restrained Nagarajan Ravi alias Naga Ravi, a Malaysian Tamil, from giving interviews to the print and electronic media or publishing any photographs connecting with the popular filmstar Sneha. Read more

Amazing Honda Car Advertisement

This is one of the most amazing ads I've ever seen, truly a thing of beauty. Fully two minutes long, it's a Honda commercial called "Cog," the most elaborate Rube Goldberg device you've ever seen set to film, all made entirely of car parts. It required 606 film takes to get right. It's so perfectly filmed, you can't imagine it, you've just got to see it.

Jet buys Sahara Airlines for $500m

The most anticipated deal in the aviation industry is finally over when Jet Airways announced an all cash deal to buyout its rival Sahara Airlines for Rs. 2,300 crores ($500m). The Jet-Sahara statement Jet Airways India Ltd and Sahara Airlines Ltd are pleased to announce the execution of a share purchase agreement for acquisition by Jet AI of the entire capital of the Sahara Airlines Ltd subject to regulatory approvals. The deal, which was jointly executed on January 18, is subject to confidentiality. The following are, however, certain principle aspects of the deal: a. The agreement has been executed for an all inclusive enterprise value of around $500 million for SAL. b. The transaction is for an all-cash consideration. c. Pending confirmation of regulatory approvals, both the airlines will continue to operate independently. d. Sahara India confirms that workers shall not lose their jobs and cadres and gross emoluments will be unaffected. Upon closure of the transaction, based on req

Your Choice!

Gautam and his friends need your help dear Peak Day Blues readers... You can help the makers of Oru Murai Parthathum by giving your opinion as to which image given below will best suit the album cover (cassette/cd)... Please feel free to leave a comment as to the image u like the most... As usual, click on the pictures for a larger view... If anybody has a design of their own, you are welcome to send it across to Gautam and his team! [Image 1] [Image 2] [Image 3] [Image 4]

Free Lifetime Incoming!

Almost all major mobile telephony players are now offering free incoming for a life-time offers. Though it has come under the radar from TRAI, these offers seem to be a hit with consumers... Tata Indicom started this trend with a 2-year unlimited plan (who will forget the ad featuring Kajol and Ajay Devgan) and it was immediately followed by Reliance offering a 3 year free incoming offer... Then one day I saw a full page ad in Hindu by Airtel announcing free incoming calls for a lifetime!! Now here's a link which you should read before leaping into these offers... Link via: Sangeetha

Chennai tops list of mobile congested Indian metros

"The network is busy please dial after some time." If you are tired of hearing this oft-repeated statement, then feel relieved, as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has taken a serious note on the congestion of mobile networks and has asked 29 cellular mobile service providers (CMSPs) to decrease the congestion level in their respective network within the parameters laid down by the authority. In an interesting revelation made by the TRAI in a report, the big metros namely New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore have congestion level less than 40 percent. The notable exception is Chennai where the congestion level is an astounding 85 percent. Read more

Virtual New York with a Google-Wikipedia-GPS mashup!

A new Web site provides a virtual tour of New York City using the Google Maps application programming interface, Wikipedia and Geocoding. The site, www.virtualnyctour.com , lets users choose from 17 different trails for a "walking tour" of locations such as Soho, Ground Zero and Central Park. A map pinpoints the user's location while photos show what can be seen along that route (cars, trash bags on the sidewalk, people talking on cell phones, and, oh yeah, amazing architecture). Alongside that are historical and other summaries from Wikipedia. Via: CNET PS: I checked it out personally and it's too good!

Dirty Keyboards!

A test carried out by Pegasus Lab on account for Swedish magazine PC För alla showed that a normal PC keyboard was infected by more bacteria than a normal toilet seat. More specific it contained 33000 bacteria per square centimeter, compared to 130 on a ordinary toilet seat. The tests also showed occurrence of up to 3100 fungi per square centimeter.

Sivaji - Punch Lines

"Telephone addicha ringu, Shivaji addicha sangu" "Veeraththukku annikku oru Shivaji, simmakkuralukku oru Sivaji. Aanaal innikku ellaththukkum indha Shivaji" These are some of the punch dialogues doing the rounds of Kollywood regarding the upcoming "thalaivar" movie Sivaji. Click here to see a whole gamut of punch dilaogues contributed my "makkal"... Link via: GK

Oru Murai Parthathum - Cover

[click pic 4 big pic] Given above is the final logo that's going to appear in the CD/Cassette covers of the yet to release " Oru Murai Parthathum " pop album.... PS: Will put some audio samples from this album along with an audio interview with the makers behind it as soon as time permits!

Pongalo Pongal!

Wishing all of you a very happy & prosperous Pongal!

Oru Murai Parthathum!

Dreams do come true if you have the passion to pursue it! Gautam K, a good friend and a colleague of mine has done exactly this. He has composed and produced a Tamil Music Album titled " Oru Murai Parthathum " He is planning to release the album tentatively by January last week or February first week... More updates will follow! [click pic for big pic]

Reliance's Retail Saga!

Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL’s) much-anticipated splash in the supermarkets segment with large format stores will finally happen in September, 2006, according to sources in the know. The plan, yet to be announced officially, is to start rolling out 1,500 supermarkets and 1,000 hypermarkets in phases in important towns across the country. RIL has a record of pulling off gargantuan projects of similar scale and size. Reliance Infocomm was conceptualised by Mukesh Ambani’s core team and before that the team had another feather in its cap when it unveiled the Jamnagar Refinery, which has attained a capacity of 32 million tonnes per annum. Continue reading Reliance's Retail Saga

RC's two horns

"I am sorry to paste my original picture here." This is basically a reply for an anonymous son of an anonymous father (Hehehehe) Hello! what happened to your head? Have you ever thought for a second? You are publishing a picture "RC's two horns" on behalf of your blog (with some comments?) First of all, check your face?? Second, from where do this discrimination of man and animal comes? Do humans have two big horns? Sometimes back you said that you have a policy where you will not publish your original pictures. It sounds like your hatred towards yourself or any of your body part can be published. (oops ... I forgot that this is my blog) I hope you are an animal... Your picture itself shows you definitely have two horns... How immature you are? Did you ever think about aftereffects of this picture? I really wonder how your friends have given you the right to publish this picture with such a scary horn.

Zaheer Khan's Love Affair :)

This video is very funny (atleast to all cricket lovers) and what a great cameraman who caught this. The clip is from the TVS CUp Series b/w. india and pakistan. There's this girl who's holding an "i ♥ u zaheer" banner and the camera man spotted zaheer in the dressing room and it goes on.

Oh ho! The big blue in trouble!

IBM said on Thursday that U.S. securities regulators were formally investigating the world's biggest computer services company's first-quarter earnings report and expensing of stock options. The disclosure, which sent the company's shares down as much as 1.3 percent, follows an informal investigation that IBM revealed in June. The stepped-up investigation gives the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the power to subpoena documents, e-mails and individuals. First-quarter 2005 profit fell short of the average analyst estimate by 5 cents per share, a big miss for IBM. But many analysts eventually concluded the miss was 9 cents per share, or nearly double the apparent shortfall, once they understood IBM's accounting for stock options. Read more

Wonder Kitten!

Cy, short for Cyclopes, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose, is shown in this photo provided by its owner in Redmond, Oregon, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy.

Valaiyodi - Tamil Browser

A Tamil internet browser, "Valaiyodi," that promises to help rural people understand the hundreds of millions of Web pages, has been developed by R. Duraipandian, software engineer, Panacea Dream Weavers Software (Chennai). Distributed free-of-cost, "Valaiyodi" is designed to translate English data on Web sites into Tamil. However Duraipandian warns that the translation would be only 70 percent accurate, and that his company is in the process of making the browser more accurate. Read more about Valaiyodi Via: Subbiah

DTH Hotting up in India!

With the launch of Insat 4A, providers of direct-to-home (DTH) satellite services are planning to offer scores of value-adds to garner a bigger share of the rapidly growing subscriber base.The newest communication satellite Insat 4A with 12 KU band transponders is all set to stoke the competition by providing technical base for the new service providers.Dish TV, India’s first DTH satellite service from the house of Zee Network, is already offering movie-on-demand services and is also planning to provide digital video recorder services. “Besides new value-added services, we are also planning to increase the number of channels to 200 by the year end from 135 currently,” said Sunil Khanna, head of Dish TV. DD Direct Plus, another KU band broadcaster, is planning to increase the number of free-to-air channels from 33 currently to 52 by May. It has already entered into an agreement with Mirc Electronics to launch DTH-enabled televisions with in-built set top boxes under the Igo brand.To com

Concept To Reality

America’s premier auto show – the North American International Auto Show in Detroit – is taking place this week. And no doubt, the most anticipated cars introduced at the show aren’t for sale – they’re concept cars. PS: You can check CarIndia.BlogSpot.com for more updates and videos on Detroit Auto Show

More Investments

India continues to draw interest and investment from large technology companies. Intel has just announced plans to invest an additional $1 billion in India over five years while Oracle plans to add 1,400 Indian employees (to its existing roster of 8,600) over the next eight months. While Bangalore, India's IT capital, is the major focus of technology investment, Oracle plans to expand its operations to several more cities. The bulk of Indian IT work is in business process outsourcing (BPO), support, and development targeted towards North American and European customers, but companies like Oracle are also doing more and more business in India itself. For example, Oracle research recently found that adoption of grid technology came close to doubling in India over the past six months. Speaking in India, Oracle SVP of Asia-Pacific Keith Budge noted that the region provided 15 percent of Oracle's global revenue during the last accounting year and added that Oracle had signed 400 de

Nuclear Battle!

Iran threw down the gauntlet in its nuclear confrontation with the West, breaking U.N. seals at an enrichment plant with capacity to make fuel for bombs and daring the U.S. and EU to carry out sanction threats. Continue reading

Why night shift is good!

It's harder to count and think clearly right after waking from a good night's sleep than after staying up all night, according to a US study. The study by the University of Colorado at Boulder shows that people who wake up after eight hours of sound sleep have more trouble thinking than after being deprived of sleep for more than 24 hours. People who were tested had diminished short-term memory, counting skills and cognitive abilities during the groggy period after waking up known as sleep inertia, said CU-Boulder professor Kenneth Wright, the study's lead author. "For a short period, at least, the effects of sleep inertia may be as bad as or worse than being legally drunk," Wright said, noting that cognitive deficiencies after 24 hours of sleeplessness have been shown to be comparable to the effects of drunkenness. More

Angelina Jolie Pregnant!

Angelina Jolie is expecting a baby this summer with Brad Pitt. This is the first biological child for Jolie, 30, who is already the mother of son Maddox, 4, whom she adopted from Cambodia, and daughter Zahara, 1, adopted from Ethiopia in July. Pitt, 42, who recently took steps to adopt Maddox and Zahara, including changing their names to Jolie-Pitt, has talked of wanting a family for years. He has no children from his 4-year marriage to Jennifer Aniston. Read more

Fidelity's ELSS

PS: You would have seen a full page ad in yesterday's Hindu about Fidelity Investments in the last page... Well, here are some more details about them...People who are interested in saving tax, please read Fidelity Fund Management Private Limited today launched Fidelity Tax Advantage Fund - an open ended Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS). The fund aims to generate long-term capital growth from a diversified portfolio of predominantly equity and equity related securities. Ashu Suyash, Country Head of Fidelity’s Asset Management Company in India said: “Less than a year ago, Fidelity took its first step in India with the launch of the Fidelity Equity Fund and the confidence that investors have reposed in us is indeed gratifying. But we are well aware that to become a significant player, our suite of products has to answer the differing and distinctive needs of investors. With our ELSS offering, the Fidelity Tax Advantage Fund, we are embarking on a category building journey and hope

Blogging 2.0

For those who follow my blog regularly, you would have noticed that am putting in some extra features these days. It started off with my first podcast which really didn't come well and then the last 3 posts preceding this are Videoblogs... I hope to add more such advanced features as and when the blogging technology evolves... Till then, enjoy the show!!

India 'loses 10m female births'

More than 10m female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years, according to medical research. Researchers in India and Canada for the Lancet journal said prenatal selection and selective abortion was causing the loss of 500,000 girls a year. Their research was based on a national survey of 1.1m households in 1998. The researchers said the "girl deficit" was more common among educated women but did not vary according to religion. Read more PS: Me thinks if this trend goes, guys will find it tough to get married! Seriusly!

Gandhiji's 4th Monkey!

If You Love Someone . .

Here are times in life.. When the person you will love, For the rest of your life. Walks into your life. Sometimes, just sometimes.. You hurt that person, You push them away. Not meaning to, But you do. Because you do this.. You lose that person, They walk away. At times.. You are afraid, To go on, after this. But what choice do you have..? All you can do... Is hope that one day, If that person really was the one. You will meet again. And if, just by chance.. You get that second chance, Remember the past. Learn from your mistakes, And never let them happen again. And by doing this.. You will find out, That a lifetime of happiness awaits. If kisses were water, I'd give u a sea, If hugs were leaves, I'd give u a tree, If spaces were love, I'd give eternity, And if u are true and sincere to me, I'll keep all my love just for thee. And every morning when you open your eyes, Tell yourself that it is special. Every day, every minute, Every second is a gift from God. You'v

Something every girl needs to know

May you never have to use it however a fact you should know. I was talking with a lawyer friend of mine. We were discussing the law and women`s rights. She told me about this incident in Pune - a young girl was raped by a man posing as a plain clothes officer; he asked her to come to the police station when she and her male friend didn't have a driver`s license to show. He sent the boy off to get his license and asked the girl to accompany him to the police station. Took her instead to an isolated area where the horrendous crime was committed. Infact, the law clearly states that between 6 pm and 6am, a woman has the right to REFUSE to go to the Police Station, even if an arrest warrant has been issued against her. It is a procedural issue that a woman can be arrested between 6pm and 6 am, ONLY if she is arrested by a woman officer and taken to an ALL WOMEN police station. And if she is arrested by a male officer, it has to be proven that a woman officer was on duty at the time of a

Say Cheese Smart Kid!

Taken on a dimly lit room with a Nokia 7610!

Smart Kid!

A first-grade teacher, Ms Neelam (Age 28) was having trouble with one of her students. The teacher asked,"Boy. what is your problem?" Boy answered, "I'm too smart for the first-grade. My sister is in the third-grade and I'm smarter than she is! I think I should be in the third-grade too!" Ms Neelam had enough. She took Boy to the principal's office. While Boy waited in the outer office, the teacher explained to the principal what the situation was. The principal told Ms Neelam he would give the boy a test and if he failed to answer any of his questions he was to go back to the first-grade and behave. She agreed. Boy was brought in and the conditions were explained to him and he agreed to take the test. Principal: "What is 3 x 3?" Boy.: "9". Principal: "What is 6 x 6?" Boy.: "36". And so it went with every question the principal thought a third-grade should know. The principal looks at Ms Neelam and tells her, "

Boom Boom for the Sensex

If you are someone who follows the stock market closely, by now you would have noticed that the Sensex is at its all time high. Two days back it created history by hitting the 9500 mark for the first time and yesterday it closed at another high of 9648. It's happy days for FII, stock brokers and small-time investors, but I sincerely hope that there's no Harshad Mehta or Ketan Parekh in the making in this bull market.

The spam called Airtel

Spamming thru e-mail is passe, now it's spammng ur cell phones... "Koothapur, Pathur oorgalukku vandachu Airtel! 400kkum athigamaana oorgalil prachinai illadha sirandha coverage!" "PLAY & WIN 1KG of GOLD. Just call 6060 and be lucky!" These are some of the spam messages that Airtel regularly sends out to its customers. One can expect at least 6 or 7 message on average per day. And irrtatingly enough, it will come at all the wrong times... When you are sleeping, wen u r attending a meeting etc. I have a honest request for Airtel, please don't spam the customers and test their patience... I mean, it doesn't make a difference to me if you announce that you have network coverage in some remote town/village when at times I myself living in a city is not getting full coverage.... I doesn't make any sense when I lose Rs. 10/min calling your so called "lucky win" numbers... I still remember that during this New Year's Eve, the Airtel networ

We are Hiring!

And we are coming to a city near you this Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006.... Cities covered: Trichy, Palakkad, Trissur, Ernakulam, Kottayam!

Salman Khan's B'day Bash

SRK lived up to his promise during Salman Khan’s 40th birthday bash in Goa. Salman, who recently underwent a hair procedure turned up sporting a Feroz Khan look. His sister Arpita had drawn up a guest list of 50 people and most of Sohail Khan’s friends were present (like Dino Morea and Yash Tonk). But it was Shah Rukh who stole the show. He had promised Salman that he would make it, especially since he missed out on Salman’s birthday party on December 27 — and King Khan didn’t disappoint. The holiday is over now for the extended Khan-daan who are all back to the grind in Mumbai. Courtesy: DNA

Phone Tapping Issue

I was reading about the much publicized telephone tapping of Samajvadi Party leaders, Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh by a private detective agency in Delhi, allegedly forging duplicate certificates of police officials. Samajvadi members are paranoia about this issue and are now seeking support from all non-Congress CMs of state, including Jayalalithaa. I noticed an interesting bit of news this now hyped-up news: "Mr. Mulayam Singh defended Mr. Amar Singh's conversations with some film actresses, saying he had the right to privacy". :-) I wonder which "film actresses" were they talking about. My personal view on this issue is that once you become a public figure, either a politician or a film star, you are answerable to the public and there's no such thing like a private life. So, better be prepared!

My first Podcast

Powered by Castpost That's my sound that you can hear.... But don't know what happened, it's coming very fast as if somebody has pressed the fastforward button... Suggestions/Comments welcome

Volkswagen launches GX3!

In a world premiere at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Volkswagen presents the GX3 - a completely new type of motorcycle. The GX3 was conceived by the Moonraker team and VW's Design Center in California... Click here to read more about GX3

Guess what it means!

Google had a strange logo in its homepage today... They had this logo which in Braille means Google. Yes, it was in rememberance for the man who made blind people read, Louis Braille - his birth anniversary!

Google PC!

Los Angeles Times reports that Google is planning to come up with a PC of its own without the industry-standard Windows OS. Yipeee!! And the icing on the cake is it will cost only a few hundred dollars.... Excerpts from the report "Google will unveil its own low-price personal computer or other device that connects to the Internet. Sources say Google has been in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., among other retailers, to sell a Google PC. The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap — perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars. Bear Stearns analysts speculated in a research report last month that consumers would soon see something called "Google Cubes" — a small hardware box that could allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets. Larry Page, Google's co-founder and president of products, will give a keynote address Frida

CEO of the Year!

By bringing Silicon Valley zeal to a moribund Midwest tech giant, Motorola Chief Executive Ed Zander has helped spark a turnaround in the company. Sales have surged nearly 60% to around $37 billion, and Motorola shares are up 37% this year. The company’s ultra-sleek Razr phone has become a “gotta have” tech gadget. For all that and more, Zander has been named MarketWatch CEO of the Year for 2005. Read more about CEO of the Year

Exercise for ur brain! (if such thing is there)

Exercising your brain is just as important as exercising your muscles. As we grow older, it's important that we keep mentally alert. You know what they say: If you don't use it, you will lose it... So, below is a very private way to gauge your loss or non-loss of intelligence. So take the following test presented here and determine if you are losing it or are still a MENSA candidate. 1. What do you put in a toaster? A: The answer is bread. If you said "toast", then give up now and go do something else. Try not to hurt yourself. If you said "bread", go to question 2. 2. Say "silk" five times. Now spell "silk". What do cows drink? A: Cows drink water. If you said "milk", please do not attempt the next question. Your brain is obviously overstressed and may even overheat. It may be that you need to content yourself with reading something more appropriate such as "Children's World". If you said "water"

Ever thought how do u dream??

Our dreams combine verbal, visual and emotional stimuli into a sometimes broken, nonsensical but often entertaining story line. We can sometimes even solve problems in our sleep. Or can we? Many experts disagree on exactly what the purpose of our dreams might be. Are they strictly random brain impulses, or are our brains actually working through issues from our daily life while we sleep -- as a sort of coping mechanism? Should we even bother to interpret our dreams? Many say yes, that we have a great deal to learn from our dreams. In this article, we'll talk about the major dream theories, from Freud's view to the hypotheses that claim we can control our dreams. We'll find out what scientists say is happening in our brains when we dream and why we have trouble remembering these night-time story lines. We'll talk about how you can try to control your dreams -- both what you're dreaming about and what you do once you're having the dream. We'll also find out wh

Stuck!

I am currently playing Call of Duty - United Offensive. I am stuck at a place for the past two weeks. Since I don't like to use cheats and finish off the play, can some1 help me out here??

Biggest Discoveries of 2005

We live in a technological age, for sure, but 2005 will go down as a particularly abundant year for scientific discoveries. The Year of the Rooster marked the discovery of the first dinosaur tissue, the solar system's 10th planet and a mechanical hand controlled by thought alone. It was an especially big year for space scientists, who peered beneath the gloom of a Saturnian moon, detected the first Earthlike alien planet and smashed into a speeding comet. Read more about this

Mobile Wars!!

It started off with Tata Indicom announcing free incoming for 2 years without recharing. The hullaboo it created along with Ajay Devgan and Kajol in their ad was more than enough to create a war of sorts in the Indian mobile industry. Reliance Infocomm soon followed suite by announcing 3 years of unlimited incoming without the need to recharge. Not to be left behind, Airtel last week announced that one can get lifetime free incoming with just one recharge.... My oh my, it's really hotting up! To add more flavor to this mobile dhamaka, Airtel on Jan 1 announced that anyone can make a call to any landline or mobile anywhere in India thru their phones at just Re. 1 per minute, calling it, One India/One Talktime or something. This is definitely going to throw open more price cuts in this already "priceless" market.