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Logos and more

Time Warner Digital VOIP Phone - International Calling Plan

Image I have been a fairly early adopter of VOIP offerings in the marketplace having signed up with Vonage back in 2002. Most of my experience with them has been good with the occaisional echo problems. I recently moved to a new location and was very surprised with the International calling plan that Time Warner cable offered me if I signed up for their Digital phone service. I was spending over $50 making calls to India and with Reliance, I would get about 500 minutes of talk time. Time Warner was offering 3000, yes THREE THOUSAND minutes of calling time to India for only $20. Of course I had to pay a higher cost for the unlimited long distance calling ($40/month) but overall it works out cheaper.

This was not a promotional offer or anything of that nature. So far the experience has been very good. I get through to Indian on the very first try. I have not head issues with echo or packet loss.  There are no separate rates for land lines vs cell phones. At this point, I have nothing to complain. The cable modem/VOIP adapter has a built inbattery backup whichis great should you lose power or want to move things around.

Cancelling my service with Vonage was another challenge. They threw all kinds of freebies at my, 1 month free, 2 months free, 3 months free, 1 year unlimited at 14.95 a month.

Does anyone have any experiences with this?  

 

Commercials in Bollywood DVDs

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I watch a lot of Hindi movies on DVDs and I am forced to see the commercials, trailors etc before I can watch the movie. These companies include Eros Entertainment, DEI, WEG, SPARK among others. Most of the DVDs have been programmed so that its not even possible to use the next or fast-forward button. As a consumer who has paid full-price for the DVD, it should be against the law to force us to watch these commercials. If you look at some of the channels on cable like HBO and Showtime, they do not show any commercials. Even the Hollywood DVDs only force us to see the FBI warning.

Does anyone out there know if there are specific laws against forcing us to watch these ads?  

 

 

Sound Logo or Sound Branding

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I am personally intrigued by logos and as you can see, a large part of my site is dedicated to discovering the design and history of logos. To me, logos were always a visual thing and I guess I never paid attention to the concept of sound logos (though sound branding seems more appropriate).

Looking back, my first recollection of a sound logo was the little piece of music that accompanied the Intel Logo. Whenever you see any commerical for a computer, it would always be accompanied by the Intel logo and a little sound theme at the end.  

Starting November 1st, 2007, Mercedes-Benz will be introducing a new sound logo that will accompany its commercials.  The Mercedes-Benz sound logo is based on an original recording of an English boys choir from the 1990s. Sound engineers extracted a choir boy€™s solo vocal from the recording and adapted it for use in the sound logo. The logo was developed in cooperation with Jung von Matt, Mercedes-Benz€™ lead agency.

Benz Sound Logo - You can listen to the Benz sound logo at the end of the commerical on YouTube.

Intel Sound Logo - You can listen to the Intel sound logo here on YouTube.

Sound branding is also called audio branding, sonic branding, acoustic branding or sonic mnemonics.

Can Boston have 3 titles by the Summer?

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Winning a "World Championship" title in the United States Professional sports leagues is pretty tough. The leagues are extremely competitive and its hard for clubs to get repeats or even three-peats, but some of the clubs actually do. The Bulls, Patriots, Lakers and the Yankees are some of the clubs that come to mind in the recent 10 years.

Its very rare to have two teams from the same city hold the title of World Champions at the same time. At this time, the NFL title is with the Indianapolis Colts, the NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs and the MLB title with the St Louis Cardinals. Three very different locations and none of them even major US cities.  

This is possibly the first time, I can see three teams from the same city holding the title of "World Champions" at the start of summer. That city would be Boston.

1. The Boston Red Sox are in the World Series once again playing the Colorado Rockies and stand a great chance of winning the MLB tilte of World Champions.

2. The New England Patriots are clearly the hottest team in the NFL. They are one two unbeaten teams (the Colts being the other team). They are currently scoring at an average of over 40 points/game (which is very tough in the NFL). Some are even predicting that this is the Greatest Offense of all time. The combination of Brady and Moss is just lethal. They do stand a great chance of winning the title if they can maintain this pace and remain healthy.

3. The Boston Celtics have a rich history of winning NBA titles, but the team has not done very well in the past two decades. In the off-season, the Celtics made some blockbuster deals getting Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and James Posey. The Celtics have the least chance of the three teams but two out of three ain't bad.

Lets see what happens. Check back in June.

 

Brand Name Logos - History and Design

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Most peope are fascinated by Brand Name products? Have you ever wondered how some of these brand logsos came about.  Well, I did have those questions and in my quest for this information, I have found some interesting information on the orgins of various brand logos.  Did you know how much the Nike Swoosh cost to develop?  Is there something in the Fedex Logo, look closely. There are over 100 brand name logo origins on this site.

I hope you find this section of the website interesting. You can start by clicking the links below