What is News Worthy

  • Is Musk the new Murdoch?
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  • FTX & Bankman-Fried: Is Silicon Valley Responsible?
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  • Google Search Result: A cluttered Maze
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  • Stanford Hospital Acquires Fremont based Washington Hospital - Obamacare effect?
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  • Bond King is Back and Has a message to Powell: STOP RAISING RATES!
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  • Average selling price of GM has reached BMW, Benz Territory- Legalizing Cannabis effect or just another bubble market?

Silicon Valley Vibes!

  • Tesla & SpaceX didn’t listen to WS and Pundits …Should Twitter & Musk Now?
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  • Would you allow Siri to drive you around?
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  • Finally Adobe is Discounting its products and services
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  • SalesForce departure….is it voluntary or…?
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  • Dot Com burst brought Java Programmers to earth…..are we there yet?
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  • Contract Workers: Secret for Google & Apple not reducing headcounts?

FANG News:

  • Not A Royalty …Just the Benefits, Please! Harry, Megan & Netflix
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  • Where is Bezos….enough Romance & Honeymooning..Amazon shareholders need you!
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  • Is Google missing Eric Schmidt?
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  • World minus USA wedded to WhatsApp more than any other platform.. should FB reap the benefits soon?
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  • When Microsoft drops its subscription fees will it feel the pain? As the new generation does not know Office, Really!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

CNN Headline What????

Flipping through the channels and stumbled into our favorite CNN Headline News - 20 something years back when Ted Turner introduced the concept of Live news round the clock and update every half hour - Finance, Sports, Weather- very innovative from the daily dose of 30 minute anchored Network news.

So when I saw a News Break flash on the CNN Headline News- my immediate reaction was may be there is a breaking News- NO - it was just a regular News "Break" for 30 seconds- and back to "REGULAR" program on HeadLine News...Whata concept - NewsBreak on Headline News- Leave anything to Time Warner and they know how to commercialise it and let people forget why they tuned to the channel in the first place- lets see how Ted Turners concept was trashed into a half-baked annoya-tainment( entertainment in the form of annoying nuisance!)

- from news every 30 minutes round the clock it became news every 15minutes round the clock ..mmmm....now try breaking 15 minutes into World news, local news,finance,sports,weather,traffic- mmm...really 3 lines of news in every segment repeated every 15 minutes- started getting stale slowly

- next bravery came in the form of introducing Local News segment given to the local Cable station- wow that takes close to 7-8 minutes in a 30 minute segment - and try breaking it to 12 minute Headline News segment- there goes any meaningful repeatable News format initially - Brilliantly formed by Mr Turner

- then came entertainment in the Form of Nancy Grace- who likes to do some detective work on her own - making the concept of reporting a thing of the past ( remember that poor mother of a child who commited suicide when Grace tried to gracefully accuse her of kllling her own kid??)

- and then Mr.G!! Dont even know what this one is all about- a sick form of commedy ?


Well - my sincere request to the Management of Time Warner-Dear Mr Parsons please change the channel name to something else if you want to go down the path your News staff are taking HEadLine News- because the Road your staff is taking is not even close to being News - let alone HeadLine News.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Waterfall Grille?

Interesting that Buick and Chevy are trying to create a eyecatching standard Grille- Hopefully it will be for the long run!

May be for the first time a car company is actually advertising based on the Grille of the car- see my privious write-up on possible rationale behind keeping the look the same for generations to retain its glamour. I saw a print ad for Buick Lucerne - may be the comback model for the old aged Buick- and they even have given it a name- Water Fall Grille. The Grille in itself has a unique shape - may be not that attractive and if you have a name for it and explained why it looks the way it does - mmmm..not bad for a first step in the right direction.

Also of notable mention is a silver ribbon across many of the new Chevy models- actually spreading from the standard front ribbon from the checy trucks to the back ribbon of a couple of newer models- may be intentional to retain a lasting imagery that can be carried over model year after model year?

Looks like GM is serious about this turn around strategy they are implementing this time around! Bravo and Good Luck GM!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

More means to communicate!

Thank God there is no pager anymore! VOIP, Skype, Cell, IM, blackberry data-line,landline, office line,efax - all for one person and we are not done yet? Growing up had more time and more people to talk to- with a good attitude too. However it was tough to find a phone or a calling card to use cheaply. As I get older I find I have more means to communicate and less people willing to listen to!

Monday, April 9, 2007

Fair & Reasonable - Thank you Nokia!

I walked into the new ATT Wireless shop and started browsing at the new offerings from Nokia in the cell phone market. Finally I picked up the Blackberry look alike and walked upto the sales person to pay. I was told to write my name in the sheet and wait my turn. Fair enough I wrote my name waited my turn. Finally a Sales Person called my name and I walked up to the counter. I told the sales person the model that I was interested in. The model was brought and activated to work with my number. I took out my wallet and pulled out a $10.00 bill and laid on top of the counter as I picked up the phone from the counter. The sales person stared me down and grabbed the phone from my hand as he started asking what the hell was that all about? I told the sales person that I thought $10.00 was a Fair and Reasonable rate for the phone as I started pulling out the press statement from Nokia on their recent Qualcom dispute and how Nokia was handling the situation by paying a unilateral fair and reasonable price for using Qualcom's technology in their phones. Well needless to say - it didnt work for me as the sales person said that I might want to try it with a good set of lawyers on my side! Is this just an exception or a pattern that we can expect from EuroZone companies against American companies in the years to come? With what is happening with Microsoft & Apple and other Eurosone interventions it is very possible this might be the beginning of a trend.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Fear of Tomorrow!

In one of my meetings with my start-up Advisor we were discusing what motivates people and makes certain people take the plunge into the Start-up world. We came up with may be a handful of compelling reasons that might qualify as traits for a successful start-up experience...but One point that stuck to my mind is about Tomorrow and Lack of Fear for Tomorrow. At first it appeared very flimpsy and superfluous - but the more and more I thought about it I started seeing why those butterflies in the stomach can be very useful at times but can also handicap a person's ability to take risk. Fear inhibits creativity even though it has the ability to bring seriousness to any activity.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Picking those flyers!

As I was walking out of an electronics shop - I picked up those pamplets & University catalogues. I dropped them in my back seat near the old ones I had picked up previously. As I started the car I realized that I have been doing this for the past 10 years or so - some times I browse through the schedules and course outlines from basic guitar to Learning chinese to ball room dancing & Architecture- but most of the time just throw them only to be replaced by the latest edition. I have never gone past the browsing stage- not even try to see where the nearest classes are- but without fail I pick them up every time I see them no matter where and what time. I turned the car and parked and got out of the car. I picked up those catalogues/books including the old ones. Walked back to the store and put them back where they belonged- Hopefully this time they will not sit in the back seat of a car.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Modern Mail- Pleaze stop them!

US Mail delivers once a day - and some times even on Saturday; I can pick them up when I want and decide to read when ever! The sender doesnt expect an immediate reply!

Fed EX: If some one is willing to pay they can be there when you want it and how you want it. Still you can read when you want it and there is no rush to reply. Nobody gets hurt by not replying.

Phone Mail: If someone calls you can choose to ignore the call and the message- still can decide to call them when you want to . People expect you to respond some time but never immediate!

eMail/IM : what is wrong with this world - every one wants every one to read and reply IMMEDIATELY! Every one wants to have 10 different emails- each flowing real time and aimlessly knowick on people's life to tell them that they have a mail from viagra ads to from some one near and dear. From outlook to Blackberry every one wants to see the mail and respond NOW! Why? Imagine your postman knocking every ten minutes to tell you you have a mail and keeps reminding you that the sender is expecting a reply!

What is wrong with every day mail and everyday email? Do we need it in our phone & in our lap top & in our PDA and may be tomorrow in our fridge & microwave? WHY ??

Once every 100 Years or so....Re-inventing America!

Its exactly 100 Years ago that Ford Motor company & Henry Ford revolutionized the way cars were manufactured and how cars became an integral part of every day America. Also what is amazing is how the cost of car was slashed in half in 1909 and again slashed in half in 1924- Sharing of wealth with workers in the form of $5 a day and attracting the best of breed talent - set the tone for the Industrilization and eventual global dominance of the American Automotive Industry- which spread like wild fire into other Industries. This so called Innovation engine keeps re-inventing itself one Industry after another.

The back drop for Mr Kerkorian and his Investment firm Tracinda couldnt have been better. A time when America is in a stateless war with a terrorism, witheroding global dominance in both economy & popular culture - the American car companies after 100 plus years of global dominance have started faltering and imploding the last decade or so. Japanese cars - what started off as a cheap alternative to American cars are threatening to overtake the great American cars and may take othe manufacturing industries with it.

Mr Kerkorian's failed attempt to give a shock treatment to General Motors if giving him and Chrysler another chance to make America a dominant force again. This move by Tracinda corp with the labor participation will re-ignite the American Automotive Industy in the form of renewed enthusiam and innovation with participative labor and management force. With GM well on its way to reviving its financials and image with consumers with renewed branding in the like of Cadillac and Buick - its will be only a few months befor Ford starts delivering as well.

It is a welcome sign that UAW has endorsed Tracinda corporation's ESOP - a significan move as most of the current trouble can be attribuited to the split in the management & labor force in the form of legacy cost issues and labor pool during forced lay offs. This might be the begining of a new eara where the old and once dominant Manufacturing industrieas will take a leaf from the newer world of Technology - sharing wealth through equity participation making productivity and innovation sky rocket.

Given Mr Kerkorian's track record this is one for the history - as THIS IS THE NEW BEGINNING FOR THE RENEWAL OF AMERICAN AUTOMOTIVE & MANUFACTIRUNG DOMINANCE!! Thank you Mr York for fulfilling Mr K's and my dream to come true!

SOX Impact on Earnings!

Q2 earnings are around the corner- Starting next week we will see a parade of companies reporting their March ending period's performance.

In the past several years we have seen most of the S&P 500 companies and almost all Bell weather companies report their numbers during the 2nd and 3rd week of the month after the period. Options expiry being on the third Friday usually works well for those speculative investorys trying to make a buck or two before Options expiry!

Well, Well, if last quarter - if it was not just a year end event, was any indication- gone are those days. No option play for the earnings season with a 24 hrs expiry options anymore.

We have started seeing companies reporting period spreading past the usual two week window and slipping into the 4th & 5th week after the quarter ends- well past the 3rd Friday.

May be SOX reporting & compliance requlations are making it tough on companies to report quickly - or its just a temporary phenomenon till the programs and reportings are updated to reflect the new regulations.

Till then - if you want to play the Options before earnings season - got to go a lot longer and may be a bit deeper in the pocket too!

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Ted Turner - We Really need a NEWS Channel!

I never thought I would turn to Fox News to get news these days! What ever happened to Ted Turner's dream of 24 hour live news round the clock?

It was trending towards that when he has still in charge of the News Network Management and not managing the news production!

What was news worthy a couple of years agao is not news worthy anymore- Lets take a look at where we are today-

CNN/CNN Headline News: Time Warner is trying to make a non-biased news channel into another Sex in the City or a News of the HBO world- Nancy Disgrace/G! dont even know why in the world we call this channel 24 hr news channel- What are we trying to see? Sitcom style production?

Anderson360 - and other productions on CNN - they call it live : good thing most of the time they are not time sensitive so it really doesnt matter whether it is rerun or live! Mr Dobbs - the bad luck streak is still running from his dot com bust days- please stick to your expertise and may be we will come back! Yes immigration & border crossing is important - but every day ? every show? to a point most of the time it looks like reruns.

MSNBC: Might as well call it the contemporary History Channel. From Microsoft to NBC/GE ownership didnt quite do any good. Is there any news content here?

FOX: the no spin news channel from the FOX knows how to sensationalise news- 60seconds clip and everything Republican - they know how to make a lost election a hopeful recount! Where did they round up all the characters- from Greta to No spin hero Bill? Interestingly enough this seems to be the only channel that even has a news reel once in a while.

CNBC: YEs Financial reporting channel - used to be independent prior to GE-NBE/WSJ take over. Now its not about reporting - its more editorial type of broadcast- PLEASE we dont need to have the same WSJ/Barrons opinion pushed every hour in the tube as well. All the programs that we have in CNBC is moving towards stock picking and sensationalism- what ever happened to Bloomberg style unbiased 'REPORTING' on financial NEWS happening in Wall street and around the globe? Oh well - somebody has to pay the bill - may be more shows like Kramer and Kudlow will do it.

What is the story behind all this- Hey may be the 24 hour news networks have had their hey days like the Dot com boom- Now we better turn back to 6 O'clock news to the network channels and the morning programs from the usual 3 networks for a clean news and some editorial with some class!

Or we just pray that Mr Turner gets pissed off and comes back and starts the News Channel all over again!!!!!
Slowing to Smell....!

After going through several blogs I came to the conclusion that it is very difficult to write about your day to day life!

Fascinating to see how creative people are and how so many people around the world are able to choose a variety of topic and pour their heart out and paint something so wonderful- full of life and color!

Need Humor! Need Depth and more than anything need perspective! I found it is easy to write about something substantial in which a person is well versed in. It made me think - I went around the last few days looking around and paying attention to everything from nature to relationships!

Now curiosity started posing a question - what is more important to writing? Chosing a topic or having the patience to research and articulate about the impressions that every day events brings to a person?

I thought I will try this every day! For 30 Days!

Impulsive and spontaneous
!

No research - just type as the feelings flow and as the words can portray! Thanks to the Blackberry - now I can try doing that the moment the urge happens without waiting!

As I was deciding on this I found myself in a shop - decided to pull my Blackberry and type what I saw around me...so begins my first piece.

PS. Since Blog has major restricitons on how many posting and what kind of flexibility one can have using the standard template I will try to find a work around using a couple of gadgets to display a couple of days posting at any given time till I figure out a way to display the history!

To avoid dilution of this site I have moved the experiment to another blog under

http://dailylifesigns.blogspot.com

The following is a sample on content with no photos- the Daily Life Signs posting will be more of a pictorial experience!






Walking around a woman's shop!

Looking at the colors in a woman's shop is like peeking into a kaleidoscope. However, one doesn't have to change to feel the vibrant mood.

Amazing styles and fascinating fashion! Trying to coordinate gives the several option that is needed to meet the day to day lifestyles of varying moods and differing ages.

Age appropriate colors! Shades for fading moods!

Bold red!

Sober red!

Flashy red!

Bland red!

Blood Red!

Romantic Red!

Decisions! Decisions! and Decisions!

Deciding the color at the time of shopping gives the option to choose and refine to the various rainbow moods that a person possibly can go through in a fast paced connected world!

Sizes and fits to match every form and need.

Having a choice helps in refinement!

And helps!

In Decisions! Decisions and Decisions!

Startup Wisdom!

May be there is a reason they want a Money Man to run the venture- but the following tip will save a buck or two! This will list a couple of grey hairs to keep!

  • Success is contageous- start it immediately!
  • Share the Vision but not Leadership!
  • Smart money is great - but Lucky Money is even better. Get some!
  • Being passionate is essential - but only after motivation to make money.
  • Establish the TRUE Pecking Order!
  • Let Sales be part of your core strategy- everything else can be bought!
  • If you havent done Selling START DOING IT NOW!

Building your 2nd Million!

Skip the first million and go straight to the second- as the first one is the most difficult one to bring home! The second one can be as tough as the first one but is never tougher than the first one! You can make money - working - investing in stocks/etc - real-estate - starting a business - others Choose your area of interest first as this will help you identify the opportunity and make you easily motivated to work on the 2nd million!

Not in any particular Order!

  • First lets know the facts: 1) Your work life is 40 something years (even at conservative estimate) so lets make sure we plan that Properly
  • 2) Lets identify opportunity to make money with out too much effort- living for Today is Good but lets not lose today's free money in the process like - benefits, tax breaks, sale,coupons,etc
  • 3) Lets not try to make ALL THE MONEY in the same way! Lets break the objective into smaller chunks and assign different ways to make them individually
  • 4) Put the 1st Million in Auto-pilot and set a 10 Years plus Time table
  • Convince yourself that you need the Money
  • Set a time line to achieve the goal.

Relationships - Learning to enjoy them!

Do we retain relationships? Expectations out of frienships vary from society to society & age group to age group. How long do we carry them? Some of them bring fond memories- and some not so pleasant! Here you can expect to see nuggets from my experiences and analysis!

Family & Friends: We spend less time with family than with friends- yet we feel more comfortable with family than friends- Why? Is it because we dont have expectations with family members but we have some on friends?

Allowing the other person to finish their train of thought builds a very long lasting relationship - as it makes you understand the other persons point of view fully & also to respond being aware making even an opposing point of view reasonable.


  • Cherry Pick your arguments - Left or Right Brained!
  • Make every encounter a transaction - this will make leaving baggages behind easy!
  • Qualify the type of relationship - however strange it might be
  • Chasing friendship is not always helpful as it leads to compromise.
  • Family circles - define it and accept it whether you like it or not!
  • Its ok to do different activities with different people!
Prof Dr Peik A Monie's Corner

  • if being number two is not enough go to a lower market
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  • proceeds from a street dog dont bark
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  • shooting the papparazi dont break cameras

DIGITAL IRIS - An inexcusable view of the photograpic world!

Let me see if I can add a few lines every week highlighting my 2 cents on photography- my experiences and desires

Things that make good photos -

- excellent and expensive set of lenses; in this digital era spend less on the body and keep investing in the high end lenses as the lenses will not lose value and the body is still under construction!

- accessories and the right tripod; never underestimate your advantage with a tripod

- plan & choose the subject and the location

- know your subject well!

- look and follow the calendars; simple things like a night with a Full moon- we dont realise that it does not happen every day - if you narrow it to the summer when the sky is still blue - I guess it becomes a couple of times a year- and if you factor n the location and your availability at that location and time...so Knowing the calendar and season helps for a good but not so common picture

- Take some luck with you!

  • Print and Enlarge Some Too
  • Delete Bad Pictures from Storage
  • Isolate Subject's color
  • Assess various profile
  • Add a subject to the frame
  • Take Nature after rain - they look better
  • Transparent Objects like flowers have creative effect with light behind them
  • If you want to enjoy the trip - leave the camera behind!
  • Define the subject for the shoot out trip
  • Take a survey trip before the real shoot out
  • Learn & Buy the Best Tripod
  • Always take a handy utility camera
  • Use Multiple exposure & shots in action oriented moments- this will help you pick the ideal snap - as even a fraction of a second makes a HUGE difference in photos.
  • Know your camers settings!
  • Understand Shutter Lag
  • Understand the camera shakes

AfterMarket Pulse- The boring Services Industry!

Keeping it inefficient is good for every one- A success story and why it will be restricted to a handful in the services Industry- A serious look at the Service Industry and my views on improving them. As a society we have accepted that everything breaks down and needs periodic maintenance. We are willing to pay both money and time to accomodate such services. What we have not done is define what is the service level that is needed for every such incident. From household appliances to industrial equipments we are forced to accept the cost and quality that the market offers. In such a sellers market room for mediocracy is enormous- giving way for opportunities. Yes predicatability is not always easy when it comes to failure or repair - or for that matter to identify what is wrong once the item is broke as it is not always possible to run the equipment ot see what is going wrong! And there are companies that can afford stupidity & those that cannot- if you want to change choose wisely!

  • Three steps: 1) Localize Failure 2) Response to Events 3) Time to Life
  • Inter-dependency at a higer level accelerates return
  • Resposiveness is rewarding - even if it is just to show on site of event!
  • Failure Prevention is difficult - yet possible
  • Know your Industry problems: Inventory, Turn time, Forecasting Failure, Estimating Cost, Finding Talent, Automation tools
  • Know your industry Practices- Swapping parts, using refurbished items, penalty
  • Define Quality of service
  • Attract talent - as service industry does not attract fresh talents
  • Innovote service packages

About Me

Seen me go through cycles driven by Age, Money, Deception, Affection, Success, Failure, Fear- etc. The current cycle puts me in a middle aged bucket with sculpted bitterness trying to tame it to embrace the sweet crime of success and affection.