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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
Did you pay your taxes?
Then the Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa should thank you!
An RTI reply has revealed that Yeddyurappa has spent a staggering Rs 1.7 crore to renovate his bungalow, Rs 35 lakh of which went into redoing his bedroom.
On one hand, I find it amazing that such level of information can be procured in this country…andthe ones procuring it are people such as you and me – fed up of living in the “chalta hain” scheme of things!
And on the other, I find it unfortunate that this very chief minister will come back to power, if you will, because he will distribute rice at Rs 2 per kg!
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I travel 38 kms one-way to work! And I am blessed because the road to office is awesome..and it hardly takes me 45 minutes to cover it. However, if a certain 7km stretch of the road (which I avoid…infact everyone except the trucks avoid) was to be repaired…the same distance would reduce to 32kms and under 40 mins.
Yah…its not a lot…6kms or 5mins…but if you cover this over the number of vehicles that travel this route everyday, you will wonder why no one bothers to just repair the road! A few lacs…and god knows how much will be saved in time, effort and money!
I did write to the Department of Roads, Haryana and was told that this road falls under the Highway department. I wrote to them…and never got a response!
And to think of it…I am friggin complaining about my life…when I am aware of several others who spend twice as much time on the road…covering half the distance I travel!
I know everything about you – Google!
Not that we didn’t know it…but its fascinating…and equally scary…to see how much of data has google stored through that one single username password of yours..! Gmail, Orkut, Reader, Search, Youtube, Alerts, GTalk…we dont realize how much of time we spend on Google products everyday and how all of those actions are being stored
Google released its DashBoard feature this week, which helps users with Google accounts to shit in their pants looking at the amount of information that lies with the company.
For starters, I have:
- over 18,000 received emails,
- over 7,000 sent mails and
- over 5,o00 chat conversations
saved in my GMail account!!! Holy friggin shit…!
And oh…in the month of October, i executed more than 10,700 google search queries…ALL of which are stored…!
It is scary…and also jaw-dropping…to realize that a single entity knows so much about possibly every young individual in this world!! EVERYTHING!
Phew!
8% of Internet Users Account for 85% of all Clicks
Am not surprised at this statistic…! Released by Comscore this Wednesday, the “Natural Born Clickers” research has some rather interesting revelations about the Internet and especially the clicks happening all across!
While the statistics are only regarding image ads (and not search ads, which will surely throw up numbers different, maybe drastically different), it still is fascinating to think how the industry today is so centered around clicks and you friggin find out that only 8% of the audience you are catering to, is doing most of the talking! As rightly questioned in the report too…what about the remaining audience, who rarely click, but are still surfing the net and spending a whole lot of time on it.
I realize that there will always be this section which somehow adjusts to the ads around them. They ‘zone off’ the ads! I belong to that category…as long as the ad is advertising for something else but ‘showing’ something else (if you know what I mean!). But there will be a section of the population, and I reckon a good share, that will see the ad but never click…for whatever reason. But the ad has surely had some effect on them…however minuscule in nature! How do you quantify that!
Google ofcourse has a remedy, as is does for a whole lot of things in this world except for premature ejaculation! They recently released the “View Through” conversions on the Google Banner network (not yet for text ads). Basically works through a cookie for a period of 30 days…so if I have seen an ad and then ultimately do make a conversion sometime later within 30 days…its counted as happening because of the ad!
Not 100% perfect….one can guess multiple flaws in this metric…but a start nonetheless.
In the Internet space, unlike offline media, there is so much of stuff happening, fighting for the user attention. And the switching costs for the user are zero, almost always, unless playing Farmville on FB! So I always thought that clicks is a good way of measuring intent! Definitely better than impressions! But then if clicks are also not working (in the sense, you are eliminating a huge chunk of the audience), what would be a good way to measure ad effectiveness? And thereby cost it?
What would it be?
Start A New Life
Our latest creation…please share if you like it…!
Letter to Air India
To whosoever it may concern at AI, (Bad start…because it really will not concern anyone at AI…it never will)
Recall the incident wherein one of your Airhostesses on the Sharjah-Lucknow flight had reportedly leveled molestation charges against two pilots. Today, you have gone ahead and chargesheeted her.
“Komal Singh has been chargesheeted for speaking to the media against company policies. She has also been accused of insubordination, disobeying seniors,” said a senior official working with the airline, wishing anonymity.
A lot of people are crying foul here and accusing you of gender-bias. But I don’t think you…I don’t think you guys even thought that this would amount to gender-bias, because quite frankly thinking that far requires brains. So no, its not gender-bias! I would be writing this letter even if the person levying the charges would have been a guy!
I simply have 2 questions:
1. Imagine that the undergoing case would actually have resulted in the charges being proven true. Would you still have gone ahead with the chargesheet?
2. Imagine that the air-hostess had not jumped up and down infront of the media and simply reported the matter to her seniors. Would you have still taken this charge as seriously?
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I have another question, this time for my lawyer friends. Can the public chargesheet Air India and Indian Airlines for running this setup the way it is run. Where money continues to be lost every year, and not because it is offering any ‘social service’ to the nation by operating at subsidized rates, but simply because of the public sector hangover where accountability is not a standard to live up to. A company whose losses are being funded by the population! I think that crime enough for a chargesheet, no?
Which Religion Should You Follow
Hemant Mehta wonderfully creates a flowchart to determine which Religion should one follow! While I wish there didnt exist a need for religion to exist alltogether, the flowchart is nonetheless quite a nice attempt.
Where do you lie?
Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7
Unfortunately, it isn’t straightforward if you wish to upgrade to Windows 7, and are currently running on Windows XP (which almost the entire world is!). The biggest difference (from a Windows Vista user currently) being that all your programs will have to be re-installed! Yup…all…! Thats your Office, iTunes, Picasa, GTalk, Skype…everything…!!
Thats quite a pain…and unfortunately no way to get out of it.
However, Windows has been kind enough to come up a step-by-step tutorial to help current XP users migrate to Windows 7. It basically uses the Windows Easy Transfer, which creates a backup of all your files and settings (kind of the File and Settings Transfer Wizard, but this time compatible with Windows 7).
Here is the step-by-step tutorial (Right Click and Save-Link-As)
Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7
The web-version of the tutorial can be found here
Main nahi maanta…!! boohooohoooo
Recall your younger days playing cricket…when the smarter guys used to bowl you out…and you started sobbing and went “yeh meri ball…main ghar jaa raha hoon…mujhe nahi khelna” (this is my ball…am going home and not playing anymore)
well…it seems some really old guys also suffer from the same
BJP Blames EVMs for assembly elections loss
BJP Concedes defeat in Maharashta; Blames MNS
such babies…! and such joy to see them defeated!
ISB, Anil Kumar and McKinsey
In yet another instance of financial fraud that have emerged like Akshay Kumar’s Films in the last year, Galleon Group’s billionaire founder, Raj Rajaratnam, was charged Friday in a sweeping, $17 million insider-trading case (btw notice how amazingly fast a concept like wikipedia updates on even biographies!)
I have never heard of this dude, but apparently he is a billionaire! So strange that he would do this for 17 mil…! So either its a false case or the hole is deeper than visible!
Also arrested in the case is Anil Kumar, Director at Mckinsey. Now a director at Mckinsey is pretty big…its a senior partner level…something that is achieved only by nomination and election. So this could be a big dent to the company (woohoo!!)…imagien clients resting seriously confidential data in consultants hands, only to realize that the same information is being used for personal gain! Well, honestly, this shit happens all the time, but being caught is not cool. Especially when you are Director Mckinsey
Unfortunately, Anil also happens to the Board Director at ISB. Which SUCKS, because this dude’s working will impact the rather fragile branding perception that ISB is going through this year. Its rapid rise in the first 6 years brought with it a lot of critics…people who love to lap onto the fact that ISB has been now involved in 2 financial scams…starting with Dean Rao and Satyam and now this!
ISB has started its band-aid solution by asking Anil to step down, but the damage might have been done! Especially when it comes to people commenting on whether “this is what ISB teaches its students!”
It hurts! But such is the price you pay for being in the limelight!
The Power of Perception
I have hated advertisers for the longest time ever…partly because I think they do a good job…and partly because they don’t (mostly) know when to stop! While the other has been (somewhat) taken care of by the “Do Not Disturb” act…its the first one that I speak about today.
You will rarely find people with a science (education) background in advertising. Before you jump onto why, I think the rationale is more fundamental (and nothing at all to do with capability, as you might have imagined!). The 2 fields are opposite to each other, in principle.
Science, as a concept, relies on the real world. Its premise is that value can only be created by ‘creating’ something. Actually building it. Something that requires raw materials, labor, operations etc.
Advertising on the other hand, relies on perception value. Its premise is that value can be created by simply altering perception. You can actually create something out of nothing.
And there is no better explanation for this statement, than the video below. Absolutely Brilliant!
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