Bill Clinton sings about being back in the White House!

No, just a prize-winning animation of that...;)

Do not miss the cartoon

Gov. Richardson endorses Obama ; Clinton tries her cheapshot!

Gov. Bill Richardson from New Mexico, tha nation's only hispanic governor, today appeared with Obama at a campaign event in Portland, thereby endorsing him. Richardson dropped out of the Democratic presidential race in January. I think this is a great win for Obama, because this is certainly going to improve his stake with the hispanic population in the country, for whom Clinton has been the favorite so far. And that's probably why Clinton should be sweating it out.

However, what surprises or annoys me the most in this thing is Clinton, who was also equally wooing Richardson's endorsement upto this point, on seeing this new endorsement, instead totally switched gears and has announced that Richardson's endorsement is not quite big a deal. Ha! You know what that sounds to me like? you see the girl you want walk away with another guy and you console yourself saying you wouldn't have dated her anyway! I think that was a total desperate cheapshot from Clinton. But hey, it's politics we're dealing with.

Nevertheless, I think this is a great move for Obama's White House race.

NME Prize Disbursement - $2.1 M dollars!!!

Got this mail today from National Magazine Exchange (NME) saying that I've won or am eligible for (was not clear) for $2.1M dollars as a sweepstake. It also said that the winner will be paid as 30 annual installments of $70,000.00.

Haha! Looks good? Just another scam. Such scams normally give an -800 number and ask you to call back, don't even think to taking it further and doing it. My letter goes straight to the trash, there is nothing called free money. Be careful.

One way to check on these numbers is to go to http://www.800notes.com and try to see if there is a match for the number you were asked to call, or you received a call from, in one of their forums and confirm that it could be a scam.

Hillary is like an inverted yield curve with liquidation threat

...says supply-side economist and television personality Larry Kudlow (CNBC: Kudlow and Company,weekdays 7 pm EST). I thought that was a pretty interesting analogy. Larry says, and I agree completely, Hillary Clinton is finished. She needs to win in both Texas and Ohio in the upcoming caucuses. Although she has a chance in TX because of the strong hispanic population there, she does not stand a chance in OH. Obama has knocked her off. All her campaign investments gone, nevertheless she gave an interesting and tough, I must admit upto now, fight for the Democratic candidate. At the Republican side, McCain seems to be sailing smooth. In the last 10 years, Democrats have won the election only 3 times. Can Obama pull it off this year?

And also goes down hopes of John Mack, Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, behind his stupidity in endorsing Clinton, although her campaigns were not pro-business. Mack's organization was hit bad by the credit market sluggishness and now will pay the price for the Clinton factor.

Cultural thing?

US President George W Bush holds hands w/ Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah while walking past some blue bonnets at his Crawford Ranch, 25th April 2005

Force India launches VJM01..for lack of better names

I was not sure if I didn't like the team name Force India, but am certain I don't like the car name VJM01 named after the sponsor Vijay Mallya, which is a repainted Spyker , although Ferrari-powered. Can't they think of something else? VJM01 ? blah blah...

However, the latest 2008 car to join the Formula One tracks was launched in Mumbai, India and I look forward to the season start already and see how this car performs, with Fisichella behind its wheels!

Autoblog posted on it too

Bored enough to do a home experiment?

Do you know what happens when molten potassium chlorate reacts with sugar? Just try putting in a tiny gummy bear inside a vial containing some of it....

Can I have a top 15?

I thought I'll take a stab at my all time favorite (so far) top-15 songs. As you'd imagine, it was much tougher exercise than I thought it would be...but I think I'm pretty accurate.

15. Sex Type Thing - Stone Temple Pilots
14. Man in the Box - Alice in Chains
13. Have a cigar - Pink Floyd
12. Walk on water - Ozzy
11. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
10. Free Falling - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
9. Mr. Crowley - Ozzy
8. Sweetest Goodbye - Maroon 5
7. Coming Undone - Korn
6. Shiver - Maroon 5
5. Evolution - Korn
4. I don't wanna stop - Ozzy
3. N.I.B - Black Sabbath
2. Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
1. Smells like Teen Spirits - Nirvana

2008 - not going to be good for 'Jobs'

Which Jobs? Well, both.

(1) Last week, I just posted on the Jobs in the Financial/Banking sector taking a hit, and Citigroup today again announced another 4200 jobs cut, and they expect reductions in work force all through this year too. They reported a record $9.x Billion Q4 loss.

(2) On the other hand, expectations were high on the other Jobs - Steve Jobs. Undoubtedly, he is one of my most admired CEOs of today's tech world. He inaugurated the Macworld 2008 Conference this week. Same day last year, he stole the show with the launch of the iPhone. This year, he disappointed the audience and analysts too. He reported around 4 M iPhone sales last year! Wow! Isin't that great? Unfortunately no, because we expected 5 M!. Their only new product that he launched this time is their Macbook Air. It sure is so thin, but nothing earth-breaking or mind-blowing. Apple stocks tumbled after the inaugural address at the conference.

2 more sections to this blog

Hello Friends,

I'm adding 2 more sections to the blog, which I hope to be continuously updating. They would be
(1) Enterprise Content Management and (2) Auto Insurance. These are certainly two of my chief areas of interest now, as I currently manage the Progressive Content Management group. As I expand my knowledge in these areas, I hope to share them, though on a more generic basis as the section-titles indicate. Continue to read, and hope you enjoy them. Thanks,

Force India?

Break through news! Indian business tycoon Vijay Mallya and his Amsterdam partners complete the successful acquisition of Spyker-Ferrari Formula One racing team. This further demonstrates the soaring interest in F1 racing in India, especially the youth, after Narain Karthikeyan drove the Jordan out in 2005.

They've been permitted to change the team name to Force India frm next season. Wow, the Indian sponsors and corporates must be celebrating that. For all Formula One fans, the 2007 season climax was a feast, with Raikonnen claiming the clown in the last couple of seconds in the season, phew! that was some excitement! To add to that, now we hear about Force India. A small step for Mallya, a giant leap for Indian sports...

My terrible horrible iPhone activating experience.....

While I'm typing this, I'm sitting here listening to some really stupid song on the phone while being on hold with AT&T to activate my iPhone. And I'm frustrated because, I had a simple problem while activating my iPhone (my home address could not be located, for some reason mysterious to me) and I got an email asking me to call an ATT number. I called them, and they said they don't assist iPhone activations!! So they asked me to call 1-800-MYIPHONE. Patience still prevailed. I called them. They said this is an ATT problem and they are going to route me to ATT. But, that's where I came from!!!!

I now understand that these are the problems that you face when two such big companies come together to offer a product or service. Who takes ownership? Who takes responsibility? Hahaha! Simple activation issue. No one knows who's supposed to fix it or find a solution to.

.....waiting......

Alright, so here I am now talking to an ATT customer service agent now...First question after introduction, "So, sir, are you activating your iPhone? " No, my Motorola Razr and I thought I'll call you instead because I like talking to ATT customer service...

Anyway, at least this guy is trying to check what went wrong and is interested in helping me out. Let's see how it goes.

In the meanwhile, I wasn't very satisfied with the iTunes activation process either for my phone. Very simple things that they could have done better or tested better -
- The social security text field had no length limit
- It mandates that I enter a home phone number! For God sake, I'm not breaking the law if I don't have a landline, do I? So I put in my work phone number instead.
- I tried to go back a few screens during the activation process, to refer to some information that I had entered, and I couldn't go forward again. I had to cancel the activation process and repeat the whole process again. Could it get better?


Ok, back to the customer service rep. I'm stil on the phone, and he's not able to help me. He's trying to figure out who he should redirect me to and is probably going to redirect me to the original number I started from.

Hahaha! as I expected, he's asking me to call the 877-800-3701 ATT number that I started from, and he's not able to transfer me there because they have high call volumes at the moment.

Me: "So, that's where I started right, and they asked me to call 1-800-MYIPHONE and they transfered me to you and you're asking me to call the first number I called again!"
ATT agent: {doesn't know what to say...silence for a few seconds and then repeats what he just said} Yes sir, that's the number you have to call, and right now they have high call volumes so you may want to try after some time
Me:{I give up...} 'orite thanks...
ATT: Thank you for calling ATT customer service sir, you have a good day
Me: Thanks, I'm already having a smashing one!


After a few minutes, here I am, calling the ATT 877 number again, and they hang up saying that they have a high call volume and ask me to call later.

So i got through. The welcome message (I didn't probably observe this before) says happily, "Welcome to the iPhone activation system" and the first agent I speak to says again that she cannot assist me and transfered me to another ATT department and the automated IVR asks me to enter my wireless cellular number. Dude, I don't have one yet as I'm trying to activate it, wasn't I clear?? But it doesn't let me go through, so I hang up, give up.

So I don't know what to do, and am sure one out of 50 or 100 might have had this kind of an activation experience, but the fact is I did and I don't like this process. So, I'm going golfing now.

No stopping Ozzy....!

Hey fella Ozzy and metal fans, I'm sure you've all been indulging in as much head-banging as I've been over the last couple of weeks, when this man, the legendary 59-year old Ozzy Osbourne released his new album after 6 years, Black Rain (Buy it on Amazon here ).
The first two songs, Not Going Away and I Don't Wanna Stop are just out of the world IMO, and pretty much among the best headbangs you can ever get. And as you may see from these two track titles and lyrics, the message is clear. There's no stopping Ozzy, and he wants to stretch it as far as he can!

All my life I've been over the top
I don't know what I'm doing,
All I know is
I Don't Wanna Stop!

Phew! Don't miss it!

Also, catch the Rolling Stone review on Black Rain - where Ozzy says, "I can't believe I'm still here, I should be dead" Yeah, the old guy can't even actually talk, and then suddenly he comes up with such a blowing album. Man, I'm so glad he's still here. There've been times I've wished he was still with Sabbath, but thinking about it, he's given a lot more smashing hits after he left Sabbath in 1979 too, and has sold 50 million individual albums worldwide. WOW, that's something! Mr. Crowley, Walk on Water, Suicide Solution (and the list continues) have always been among my top favorites for a while. However, it is sad to hear him announce his retirement from performing live at the Ozzfest (held together by his son Jack Osbourne) after this year. I missed the opportunity of my lifetime last week when Ozzfest was at Columbus, OH, which is just a couple of hours from where I live. Sadly, I couldn't make it as the stupid thing was on a weekday and I had stuff to take care of at office. I've never see him live! hmmm.......

On the funny side, I was talking to my friend Sheila about it today, and she seems to have got it all against the old guy, hahaha, and particularly disturbed about his biting the head of a live dove intentionally a few years back at the meeting with one of his records executives...So yeah, he's crazy, but also rockin' crazy! Sorry, Sheila, I've tried to and like to keep the dove away from his music..:)

Thanks for reading, that's my tribute to this legend.....

Free Running - the sport of tomorrow??

I met this guy Craig today at the Buddhist temple, who just casually mentioned about Free Running and it intrigued me that I got back home and checked it out. Man, these guys just rule Jackie Chan and the lot out of the race. Crouching Tiger is no match. They just fly like birds. Few more years, and I wouldn't be surprised if this Free Running becomes a professional sport and we see an industry behind it. I'm not sure if they're wearing any special shoes, but they just don't get hurt when they jump from roof to roof.

Here's a sample video on Free Running - watch it and enjoy the action!




And in case it interests you further, these two brothers performing Free Running are a delight to watch....they don't seem to leave any surface untouched..

Cokexplosion!

Can you make Coke explode? Watch this, it's too funny. I'm waiting to try this on someone....while I don't want to mess my house up. Maybe the parking lot? :)

My new Wimbledon favorite!

Alright, you've seen me talk stories about the Champion, Federer, here. This Wimbledon 2007, esp. after the stunning Quarterfinal match between Roddick and this 21 year old 12th seed, Richard Gasquet, this French guy becomes my new favorite. As proclaimed, his backhand is just amazing, and I believe if there's one guy who can beat Federer on grass, it has to be this guy - perfect technique and absolute elegance.


He came back from 2 sets down to beat 3rd seed Andy Roddick 8-6 on the final set, with 93 winners, majority of those coming from his flawless single-handed backhand. The only other player I've seen in recent times play such fluent, effortless single-handed backhand is obviosuly Roger Federer.

I'm all excited to see the semi-final clash at noon on Saturday between Federer and Gasquet, where for the first time I'm going to be supporting someone against Federer. Hmmmm......

Would you fall for this Jam Auction scam?

Hustlers steal money off gullible people by selling them worthless goods at first. Watch this video and reflect on whether you would be happy or not...:)



And, I think these people can't even go to jail because their customers are giving their money to them out of will. So, there's nothing illegal involved in this scam?

NDTV catches Rajnikanth for a quick interview

After watching the preview of Shivaji with TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu, Rajni was stopped to be interviewed for just a couple of minutes on NDTV. In a nutshell, Rajni says, "If I'm just a king in movies, Amitabh is an emperor, incorrect to compare the two.."

Watch the interview here

LeBron on Etch A Sketch

With the Spurs leading the Cavs 3-0 in the NBA finals, LeBron still manages to be in the spotlight. This time on Etch A Sketch. If you're not aware of this etching business, take a look at what Wikipedia has to say.
Here is a video of some guy who's gonna be on the Guiness books for doing this. This is simply amazing. Watch him etch the Cavs superstar LeBron James. I wish I had the talent to do something like that in a hundred years, however, at least I'm good at finding videos on YouTube!

A few cool quotes on friendship and love

I found these nice - hope you like 'em.

"Never explain--your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you anyway." - Elbert Hubbard

"With true friends...even water drunk together is sweet enough." - Chinese proverb

"There is no remedy for love but to love more." - Henry David Thoreau

"Love makes the time pass. Time makes love pass." - Euripides

"It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart: the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you." - Mark Twain

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa

"A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself." - Anonymous

"He was a true friend, he stabbed me in the front." - Anonymous

"Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all." - Alfred Lord Tennyson

"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals." - Benjamin Franklin