79th Annual Academy Awards
 | The 79th Annual Academy Awards were held here in Los Angeles last night. The "Oscars" are one of the biggest events anywhere in the world and when it happens in your town, there is a certain added excitement. I guess most of my excitement disappeared when I heard that Ellen Degeneres was the host. Is it just me or are there others that don't find her so funny. Bring back Chris Rock anyday. I guess some of the interest came back when I saw that Deepa Mehta's water was on of the films nominated in the Foreign Language Film category. Unfortunately it did not win the award and I was a tad disappointed. Its probably a bit ironic that India being the largest movie churner has never won an Academy Award. I guess Rajanikanth flinging a cigarette in the air, lighting in the air with a gun and dropping it in his mouth or Govinda gyrating his hips (Main to raste pe jaa rahaa tha) is not award winning material. What does the academy know, right? |
Dinesh.com Upgrade
Dinesh.com is currently being upgraded from Mambo to Joomla. With Joomla clearly becoming the more dominant version of the CMS, it was time for me to upgrade to Joomla. Most of the site should be back to normal and all the content and functionality should be available. I am still working on some aspects of the site. Please let me know if you encounter any problems. At the end of the upgrade, there will be a few new features added to the site.
Thank you for your patience during the upgrade.
Ferrari Los Angeles
 | I guess I should not have been too surprised to find out that the term "Ferrari Los Angeles" was the third most searched term with the word Ferrari in it. With the money that people have in LA, its hard not to think that Ferrari's are popular here. Having lived in Los Angeles for the last couple of years, you spot Ferrari's drive by or parked on the street every so often. One of my most memorable days was when I saw three Ferrari's drive by within a span of 2 minutes. It had to be on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills of course. I happened to be "window shopping" there and I use the term window shopping very loosely here. :-) |
I happened to be standing outside the Bijan store and there was a Ferrari parked there. Just as I was admiring that car, another red one drove by right in front of me. Just as I was turning my head back, another one drove by. I don't think I will ever be rich enough to buy a Ferrari unless Ferrari starts mass manufacturing. I think I will be grateful if I get to sit in one of them,. Click on the read more link below to find some Ferrari show rooms in the Los Angeles area.
Rediffmail-Chotte Se Break ke baad
My wife uses Rediffmail, the mail offering from Rediff.com. I was quite surprised and shocked to see the number of hoops she has to go through get to her email. The moment she hits the home page, there is a pop-up ad that is presented. Fortunately, the popup blocker did its job, but the browser pauses and hangs while that event is handled. The days of the pop-up are long lon and I am surprised such a big site still resorts to such underhanded gimmicks.
Even if you manage to avoid the pop-up, there is another annoying blow-up ad that expands to occupy most of the screen. If you carefully manage to avoid it and hit the close button, you can sign in. Once you sign in, there are more ads waiting for you before you proceed to read your emails.
Rediff.com is one of India's leading portals and is also a publicly traded company. I wonder how much revenue they take in because people inadvertantly click these ads. A lot of techno-savvy users probably manage to avoid it, but I think a lot of the average users do click on it. I think this is a shameful tactic. With some many ads before getting to the actual email, I am tempted to say "Rediffmail dekhiye - Ek chotte se break ke baad".
Online Tutoring
 | India is known for its technology outsourcing, but did you kow that you can outsource tutoring too. I came across this interesting service of one-on-one online tutoring. From the comfort of their home, students can get tutored in Maths and Science using thier computer and internet. The concept is both interesting, very economical, and also highly effective. This service can be very useful for busy parents and their children. I had a demo of their service and it seems pretty interesting. Please visit Excellez to get more details. |
Saddam Hussein Beach in India
Saddam Hussein, was finally executed on Dec 29, 2006 in Iraq and is currently one of the most discussed topics all around the world. While reading some of the articles and other history on the man, I was rather surprised to come across the Saddam Beach in India. Yes, there is a beach name after Saddam Hussein in Kerala India. Saddam Beach is a fishing village in the Malappuram district of the Indian state of Kerala. The village is made up of a two kilometre (1¼ mi) coastal belt between Puthenkadapuram and Kettungal in Parappanangadi. The village is named after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, in an act of solidarity during the 1991 Gulf War. |
Philosopher's Page Article Count: 6
Site News Article Count: 10
My Travel Adventures Article Count: 7
I feel quite blessed to have had the opportunity to travel and live in many countries around the world. Meeting people from other countries is a wonderful experiences as it opens your mind to how different, yet how similar the rest of the world is and I think that has made me a better person. I have traveled alone, with my friends and then with my wife. Now I have a son who also loves to travel and I will cherish those moments with him. In this section of my blog, I write about some of my experiences traveling around the world and things that I liked about visiting those places. I hope my experiences are entertaining as well as englightening.