source: uttertrivia.com
source: adobe.com/…/fastfacts.pdf
source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com
source: audiworld.com
source: wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay
source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Reebok
source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_Corporation
There are only 29 pieces of this Taj Mahal-embossed gold coin available for sale.
Want one? Well, you’ll have to fork out $1,40,000 or approximately Rs. 63 lakh for one of these limited edition solid gold coins.
Why? Firstly, because the coin weighs in at over 2lb, that’s about a kilo. And prices of gold have shot through the stratosphere; just 10gm costs Rs. 20,000 right now.
Secondly, the Taj Mahal gold coin is studded with 68 hand-set Cartier diamonds. That’s a lot of bling for packed into just one kilo.
The gold coin has been produced in France for the Franklin Mint – a private American mint that manufactures limited editions collectibles including a 550gm gold-plated miniature Mercedes, where the gold costs more than $25,000 and scarily real-looking Michelle Obama dolls (unfortunately, not gold-plated!).
The Taj Mahal coin comes in a $7,000 leather case designed by French luggage designer Goyard.
The gold coin is on sale in the US.
If your the kind of guy that likes to “figger things out” and never have to be anywhere on time, perhaps one of these ultra-geek (yet cool) watches should be on your shopping list.
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01 The One Lightmare Men’s LED WatchThe outer circle of lights represents the hours. The inner circle represents every 5 minutes. The row of 4 singles LEDs in the center of the dial is the single minutes. Add them all up, and there you have it. $169 @ WatchCo.com |
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Abacus Series 2 Men’s WatchWhat other watch indicates the time by the position of a small ball? This ball moves to and fro across the face of the watch with the flow of the wearer’s arm movements; but as soon as the ABACUS reaches a horizontal position; the ball moves as if by magic – or at least by magnetism – to the right”point in time”. $225 @ Kenmar Watches |
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Buffalo Rage Men’s WatchA casual analog men’s watch. Features a black genuine leather band , black stainless steel case with a black dial. This watch is nickel allergy free, scratch resistant mineral crystal. Water resistant to 30 meters. $98 @ Amazon |
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Storm Circuit WatchThe Circuit Watch uses a pair of tall stacked LED segments to illustrate the current time. The bars on the left show the current hour, while the bars on the right display appear to be split into two sections, one which displays tens of minutes and the other which shows individual minutes. Found @ Technabob $225 @ Storm |
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Dakota “The Matrix LI” Men’s Watch“Atop the face sits the hours, while minutes (in increments of five and a single 1-4 slot) are listed beneath; put simply, bars on the LCD are lit above the corresponding number(s) as the day whisks away” Discovered @ Engadget $70 @ Kenmar Watches |
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Fossil Starck WatchThis digital style watch displays the time in a unique fashion. In a ring shaped display, the hours are displayed as numbers while the minutes are displayed in segments. As time goes by, the segments build making a complete ring every hour. The center is completely see through and the pusher is located on the case back to create this sleek styling. $125 @ Amazon |
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Horological Machine No. 2This cool watch features an “instantaneous jump hour, concentric retrograde minutes, retrograde date and bi-hemisphere moon phase.” Uhhh ok Only $59,000 Found @ Boing Boing |
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Jean d’eve Sectora Automatic WatchThe hour and minute hands move vertically in a fascinating ballet on this watch. As soon as hand completes its cycle it springs back to starting point. From SwissTime |
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Laurinda Spear Free Time Watch“The cycle of life, with a beginning, middle & end is synchronized by the 3 rings and guide us along our path to openings where time limits are set free. Our journey through time, passes the story of our past & present, to a hopeful future” $90 @ Unica Home |
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LIP Mythic Jump Hour WatchThis men’s watch features three separate discs for hours, minutes, and seconds spin exposed on the dial lining up in the viewing window located on the left side. $395 @ Watchismo |
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Nooka ZOT V WatchThe Nooka Zot-V watch also has some nifty features: a chronograph for timing your poker games, and an alarm to get you up in the morning. The 12 dots represent hours (months in date mode) and the row below counts minutes. $265 @ Nooka |
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Ora Unica watch“The hour and minute hands are represented by a single line drawn on two circular faces, which turn one inside the other. Both faces together resemble a graphical gesture, a doodle that changes as time passes.” Found @ Yanko Design |
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OTIUM [du:z] WatchLook – clockwise – for the last slit in which the ball is in the extreme outside position: You have got the hour. As usual you can read the minute by the little sweeping hand. Check it out @ the Otium website |
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RAZOR BLOCK – 01 THE ONE / Binary LED WatchThis watch features 10 white LEDs on a round dial…enclosed in a square, frosted black polycarbonate block. The top row of LEDs apparently represent the hours and the bottom the minutes. You got me!? $169 @ LED Watch Superstore |
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Watch This – Reveal WatchThis mystifying watch reveals the current hour and minute through a looking glass while the past and the future fade to gray. It’s an analog watch that reads in digital format. $110 @ Uncommon Goods |
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Tokyo Flash Barcode IP LED WatchThe 1st two columns show the hour. In column 1 each light equals 5 hours, in column 2 each light equals 1 hour. The 2nd 2 columns show the minutes. In column 3 each light equals 10 mins, in column 4 each light equals 1 minute. $209 @ Tokyo Flash |
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Alessi “Look No Hands” WatchThe rotating disks are the basis for telling time. In the unique design, the current hour and minute appear in two distinct openings that rotate around the face of the watch, revealing only a small part of the art work at a time. $85 @ Buy.com |
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Tokyo Flash Twelve 5-9 Q Watch“Moving clockwise from the top of the display, the first two lines of LEDs indicate the hours 1-12, each lit LED indicating one hour. The third line of LEDs indicates minutes up to 50, each lit LED indicating 10 minutes. The final two lines indicate single minutes 1-9, one LED representing each single minute.” $152 @ Tokyo Flash |
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URWERK UR-202 AlTiN“Revolving Satellite Complication The UR-202 features URWERK’s patented Revolving Satellite Complication with telescopic minutes hands. The Revolving SatelliteComplication displays time using telescopic minutes hands operating through the middle of three orbiting and revolving hours satellites. The telescopic minutes hands precisely adjust their length to follow the three sectors marking the minutes: 0-14, 15-44, 45-60. Extended, they enable the UR-202 to display the time across a large, easy-to-read dial. Retracted, they allow for a very wearable and comfortably sized case.” Can’t find a price…guessing it’s a shit-load. |
In collaboration with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and as a precautionary measure, McDonald’s USA today issued a voluntary product recall of the four Shrek Forever After™ promotional glassware currently being offered in U.S. restaurants. 
To be clear, the glassware was evaluated by an independent third-party laboratory, accredited by the CPSC, and determined to be in compliance with all applicable federal and state requirements at the time of manufacture and distribution. However, in light of the CPSC’s evolving assessment of standards for consumer products, McDonald’s determined in an abundance of caution that a voluntary recall of the Shrek Forever After glassware is appropriate.
McDonald’s safety standards are among the highest in the industry.
Additionally, instructions to return the glassware and request a refund will be available by visiting the website again beginning Tuesday, June 8.
Official announcement – McDonalds Website
Beware before you take that large gulf from that large cola glass.
And don’t you forget that calories and fat the meal adds to your body.
Found this interesting and humorous comparison here
Who sells the largest number of cameras in India ?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India ? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India . That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel’s parent) are breathing easy you can’t be farther from truth.
Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple’s Iphone and Google’s Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?
The “Mahabharat” (the great Indian epic battle) is about “what is tomorrow’s personal digital device”? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – “who is my competitor?”
Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says “What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?” The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won’t compete on pure audio? “Elementary Watson”. So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as “digital.”
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question “who is my competitor for tomorrow?” The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared “internet is a fad!” and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today’s competitor. Today’s competitor is obvious. Tomorrow’s is not.
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India ? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. ( India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton ’s law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India . PC’s price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film’s competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour “tamasha” (entertainment) . Cricket season might push films out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is “I don’t remember!” For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is “alarm clock.” The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called “alarms.” What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley ). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said “Have breakfast …or… be breakfast”! That sums it up rather neatly.
— Dr. Y. L. R. Moorthi
Since the inception of IPL, it has acted as a magnet for people with big money (with or without any due credentials) and looking for a quick road to fame. Over the last 3 years, everybody joined the bandwagon of the IPL circus.
All those who did, made good money, exploiting the passion of the cricket hungry India and business of all sorts related to IPL cropped up over these years. And all of them shared the booty.
Now with the Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor spat gone sour on the Kochi team owners, that the IPL circus elephant has turned into a hydraheaded monster, all those even vaguely or remotely profited from the IPL name, no wonder, want to ditch it like a leech.
Day by day, the IPLGate is getting wider and wider and opening up new players with hidden agendas.The IT dept has gone full force into the scandal and much heavy steam is expected in the coming days. Many top notch people will find their faces scalded by this. Everybody who got money in the name of IPL is currently under the IT scanner; right from players, organizers, sponsors, team owners, fund managers, telecast & media rights owners, associated IPL brand companies.
Match-fixing and betting is another angle that is being investigated, with tons of money going into it. Being illegal, nobody wants to officially comment on it.
Even the BCCI officials and ministers are believed to be hand-in-gloves with those high profile IPL managers. Some heads have already rolled out and many more are likely.
Much heat is being generated from the politicians and are blaming the government, probably because they did not get the share of the booty. All those tainted parliamentarians, who made a killing with the earlier scandals are now raising their voices to blame those connected to IPL.
Well, in the whole deal, the game of cricket has been sullied. The perception in the minds of the people has changed, though a bit temporarily. Given the time, the fans will forget all this and clamor to cling to the stadiums and the TV screens to enjoy a good game of cricket.
The end result in this game is still awaited and will surely be a long bloody final.
Billionaire Warren Buffett shares his business lessons and wisdom.
Here are the hi-lites:
When do you decide to invest in a firm?
The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble. We want to buy them when they’re on the operating table. (Mr. Buffett bought Coke when it had its biggest fiasco after launching New Coke; he bought American Express when it went through a loss making phase in the early 60’s)
What do you look for in people when they come to sell their firms to you?
I don’t look for the usual credentials such as an MBA, a pedigree (Harvard, Wharton), or cash reserves or market cap of their firm.
What I look for is just a passion in their eyes; I think that’s the key. A person who is hungry will always do well. I prefer it when people even after selling stay on and work for the firm; they are people who can’t wait to get off their bed to get to work. Passion is everything; there is no replacement for innate interest.
Why do stock market crashes happen?
Because of human nature for greed and insecurity. The 1970s were unbelievable. The world wasn’t going to end, but businesses were being given away. Human nature has not changed. People will always behave in a manic-depressive way over time. They will offer great values to you.”
What are the things that are taught wrong in Business school and the corporate world?
I like such open ended questions, I think Business schools should refrain from teaching their wards about profit making and profit making alone, it gives a sense of 1 dimensional outlook to the young students that loss is a curse. In reality, in the corporate world, failure and loss making are inevitable. The capital market without loss is like Christianity without hell. I think they should teach the student on how to buy a business, how to value a business? Not just on how to determine the price of a business. Because price is what you pay, value is what you get.
How do you feel after donating $ 40 Billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation? You are a hero to us!
I feel nothing. I haven’t sacrificed anything in life. I have had a good life. I donated after I turned 75. I think I admire those people who sacrifice their time, share their food and home, as the people to be emulated not me. Besides, what is money before a man’s life?
What do you think are the pitfalls in donation?
I have never donated a dime to churches or other such organizations; I need to believe in something before I end up doing that. I have been observing the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation for years now and I am confident they will do a fantastic job of making use of the money. I am a big believer in Outsourcing, others believed in me as an Investor and gave their hard earned money to invest. I believe in Bill Gates, he is a better donor than me.
You seem to be so well read, tell us how it all started.
My father was a stock broker, so we had all these financial books in our library. He introduced me to those classics and I got into them. I am lucky that my father was not a fan of Playboy! Reading is the best habit you can get. Well, you can learn from teachers too, and have mentors but there are so many constraints attached- they will talk fast, talk slow, they might talk like a pro or they might be terrible communicators. Books are a different animal altogether, I love reading! The beauty about reading and learning is that the more you learn the more you want to learn.
What is the 1 biggest advice you would impart to a young investor like me?
Think for a moment that you are given a car and told this is the only car you would get for the rest of your life. Then you would make sure that you car is taken care of well, it is oiled and detailed every now and then. You would make sure that it never gets rusted, and you would garage it. Think of yourself as that car. You just get 1 body, 1 mind and 1 soul. Take care of it well. Invest in yourself that would be my advice.
So, what is your roadmap to becoming a billionaire?
Some guy called Jason Chen claims to have laid his hands on the Apple’s Next iPhone.
I dunno how far this is true, but Apple fans are the true judges.
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Runs on iPhone OS 4.0
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
Article by Pritish Nandy in TOI – source
“Many of us knew of Arthur Andersen, the global consulting firm. But when it broke up and morphed into Accenture, not many made the exact connection. The connection was made on that fateful day when the media decided to out Tiger Woods for his sexual transgressions. Suddenly all the brands he had endorsed, from Accenture to Nike, made it to the headlines of every newspaper, with eager readers panting to find out who drops him first. A golfer worth a billion dollars is not the worlds most loved person, however much he may be admired. But this columns not about celebrity hunting.Its about controversy. The power of controversy.
Nothing builds a brand quicker than controversy. The uglier the controversy,the more profitable its outcome. You can ask me why this happens in a world where we are always taught to sidestep trouble,walk the straight and narrow. The reasons simple: Controversy polarises opinion. When public opinions polarised on any issue,be it Tiger Woods or MNIK, Raj Thackeray or Mayavati, Husain or Bt Brinjal, it immediately grabs headlines. You cant help but notice it. In fact,everyone notices it and then,thanks to the net,everyone reads up everything on it. No amount of paid publicity can ever achieve the phenomenal reach controversy delivers. A broken theatre and a few torn hoardings can give an unbearably boring film screaming front page coverage for days on end,and fans a righteous cause to fight for. Yes,it was the Sena that made MNIK such a success. There was little buzz about its promotions till Saamna attacked it and SRK cleverly turned the table on them.
This brings me to the smart art of conflict management. Take an issue,any issue. Instead of spending a fortune on putting out your point of view,its much easier to design an emotionally charged controversy around it so that people can take extreme positions. Make it a clear love/hate choice and,before you know it,everyones on one side or the other. The commercial objectives will be instantly realised. Funnily,no controversy ever goes to waste. The worms in Cadbury chocolates led to Amitabh Bachchan being brought in to repair the brands image. He not only repaired the image but brought the brand back into business, stronger.
Every time consumer activists attack soft drinks,they sell more,almost as if by consumer defiance. The more we rant about transfats,the more people flock to fast food counters. Its not only the young who refuse to have health concerns forced down their throat; everyone resents being told what not to do. Any pressure exerted, be it not to see MNIK or not to drink Coke or not to eat a burger at McDonalds only helps to increase their sales. Word of mouth, an old aphorism we used in the context of movies that people saw, liked and spread the word about, no longer works. People want to make their own choice these days. A tiny movie called Thanks Maa has got rave reviews this week. Will they sell one extra ticket. Unlikely. Will the film be around in theatres long enough to reap the benefit of word of mouth publicity. Unlikely. Quality and saleability walk on divergent tracks these days.
Actually good, clean entertainment is no longer in great demand. Good, healthy,nourishing food hasnt even taken off. Brain dead cinema rules. So does wicked food. The moment you talk about wholesomeness,you drive away consumers. Good is confused with bland. It works on the same principle that Sarat Chandra (author of Devdas and Parineeta) once espoused, that the more you denigrate a woman, the more you call her immoral, the more attractive she appears to everyone else. Simple question: Would you rather spend an hour with Mother Teresa, listening to her homilies, or with Angelina Jolie risking your perfect marriage.
So lets not kid ourselves. If you have something to sell,go make such a huge controversy around it that the world stops dead in its tracks. Husains fortunes were flagging when the saffronites went for him. Tyeb, Souza, Gaitonde, even young Subodh Gupta had hijacked his best selling tag. Auction after auction saw Husain’s prices tanking. Now,post this silly controversy,hes back–right on top. Raj Thackeray followed the same strategy in politics,instigating one controversy after another,to ensure that he created a space for himself in Maharashtra politics. Its not a unique strategy. Balasaheb Thackeray, Mayavati, Jayalalitha, Mamta Banerjee, and even Sonia Gandhi used every controversy to further their political cause. Each controversy helped consolidate their presence in politics,enhanced their play. Just as Sanjay became a bigger star after Khalnayak and his stint in jail. Salman has hit a purple patch with every controversy. Saif even got a Padma Shri for riling the Bishnois.
It all goes to prove the point: If success is what you seek,go get yourself a controversy. Or else,consign your dreams to oblivion.”
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