Kapil's Korner
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Yahoo! Mail gets new avtar
Yahoo! Mail just integrated the chat avtar into their mail's main screen. So this morning when I logged in, I noticed this little thing smiling back at me.  Which I later remembered was the avtar I had created back then during my old job. Since I moved to advertising a lot of things have changed - the workplace, the workwear and the hair style. So it was time to give the avtar a change too. This is my new cool-dude look.  What would make this even more interesting is if you can see the avtar of the e-mail sender in their messages. I mean Yahoo! could atleast do this for those using the Yahoo! Mail services. It even lets you show your mood for the day or in specific to that e-mail you are sending out.
Every finger you take
I don't want to be a big man. I don't want to be famous. I don't want the media attention. Yes, I don't want this all, if the attention is going to get me into something so trivial as may have been the case for Mr.Greg Chappell ( Read full story). Come on, let's face it. There are times when you loose your cool and there is a certain mode of expression to the vent out the same. But of course you don't go out beating the press (As in the case Salman Khan beat some journalist a few years back). But something as little as showing your bloody own god-damn "middle-finger" with absolutely no mean intention. Besides let's not forget he was not on the field playing or showing this from the dressing room balcony. It could have been a sheer expression of "I care a f*** about your boos". Does media have nothing better to capture or show people. I mean, STAR NEWS actually had this as a breaking news. Is there not more to this nation, then featuring a "middle-finger" incident? I pity those who face this intense media glare and have to watch every step, or rather every finger they take.
Lottery ka naya funda
I just got this as one of the many forward received every single day. But this one really made me wake up and take notice. Read carefully. 6 * 100 * 10 * 20 * 20 == 2400000
24 lakhs in 20minutes..
clue is KBC 2!
Any guesses??
6(Rs/SMS) * 100(entries) * 10( cities ) * 20 (districts ) * 20(states) ==
6 * 400000(people trying for the 2 lakhs cash price) Imagine what if 1000 entries try out from 100 cities??
The figure simply grows by 2 more zeroes and yields a whooping 24Crores!!
And it does not stops there... 1000 entries from 100 towns is a very small number .. in practice it could be another multiple of 100 or worst case a multiple of 1000 on an average..
In that case it is 24 * 100 crores earnings in just 20 minutes on every episode! And the price money :-)) mere 2 CRORE (and from whose pocket ;-)) Smart Business by Sidharth Basu!
And the best part of this calculation is just the SMS earning!
What about the Ad money ?? A rough annual profit calculation goes like this...
2400 * (5 * 4)(episodes/month) * 12== 576000 crores
Let even 50% get dissolved in taxes and other payments, still you will be left with ( which includes even the meagre 480 crores of price money..i.e., if every episode bags 2 crore prize!! ) 2,88,000 Crores profit ( only from SMS !!!! )
Interesting isn't it. And I guess this is only one of the many we can calculate. Look around and see the number of other SMS connected programs which invite users to send in SMS to vote, send feedback, contest answers and even bid. The programs may not generate so much money through the ads for bad TRPs or even survive the intense "on air" competition, but I guess the TV channels and Mobile operators are raking in the bucks while the producer worries on how next to improve the TRP. Whoever thought of this great marketing/money-making channel really must be thrilled to know how successful this model has been. As a step forward channels are even giving away exclusive rights to particular mobile operators. For example, to participate in Kaun Banega Crorepati 2 you need to use the Airtel services only. Hows that? I would love to know the number of people who may have bought an Airtel connection only to send in answers for this "Hot Seat ka Sawaal". I mean come on, it's only Rs.200/month of investment PLUS the SMS cost giving you a chance to win the Rs.2 lakhs or a chance to be on the KBC sets. Not much for the prize money, you would say. But if you multiple the nos. we have a whooping collection out there. No wonder, you see a ALWAYS smiling Mr.Sunil Mittal. On second thoughts, it's nothing but an advanced version of the lottery system. You paid 5 bucks for the lottery ticket and contributed to that big corpus for the prize money. And now they just made things easy by charging Rs.6/sms to enter that gamble. Not bad a deal, I would say. These days anything which can be done from the comforts of your house - Banking, Shopping, Bookings etc and now even lottery purchase is accepted with a big welcome. By now are you getting those ideas on how you can tie-up with one of the mobile operators to make money for your venture.
My Bloglines Clippings
My blog feed via Feedburner just got a little more interesting now. Having spent a couple of weeks using Bloglines, I just discovered that the Clippings feature could be an interesting way to share my reads with other blog readers on Kapil's Korner. So I went straight across to Feedburner and activated the "Link Splicer". Now every time I am reading something interesting via Bloglines and I would like to share it with you all, I just have to Clip the blog post and at the end of the day it will be plugged into my blog feed something like this. I am yet to find out why there is so much junk being added to each of the links. Till then, please update your feed link for my blog, if you are already not using the Feedburner generated feed. And if you already didn't know, I added my flickr feed to feedburner.
Big Mistake
During the long Diwali break, I decided to make some cool ring tones for my cell phone. To edit the sound files I loaded an old program from Acoustica Software. To my disappointment the trial period was over. Not wanting to spend too much time to get some new freeware I just thought I would patch the software so it would work beyond the trial period also. Now this "thinking" was a big mistake. What next? Patch downloaded. Software patched. But what it unleashed is yet playing dirty on my computer. It seems the patch was a very smart one indeed and loaded a multiple of "trojans" and spyware programs on to the PC creating total havoc. Pop-ups, stupid in-the-face flash ads and all the bloody crap on the internet is displayed on my monitor. You have to keep closing the windows popping up. Bloody irritating. My dad and sister were fretting, what the hell had I done to the PC. And I actually had screwed it thanks to that stupid patch. I have already spent the last two Sundays trying to get rid of the problem and it's not been a 100% success yet. Helping me with this task is Tech Support Guys Forum. And of course while I was doing this I even went a step ahead and got rid of my expired Norton Anti-virus. This time I put in avast! anti-virus. Trust me, on the first check, I think this program is much more powerful than what Norton was. I used it for on my IBM Thinkpad a couple of months back. They have a free download for home use, so try it. Just see that I have got some more help coming at Tech Support, so I will continue working on the solution. But I guess I have learnt my lessons. - No Software cracking
- Monthly virus / spyware checks
- Not being lazy and try to find freeware programs
And yes, I finally was able to make some ring tones using Audacity. Free program with no strings attached.
Powered by Bloglines
My blogroll is now fresh, updated and features the real blogs I read regularly. I moved away from Blogrolling which needed frequent updating, every time I made changes in my RSS reader. So instead I am using Bloglines to power the blogroll. You can also read a list of my feeds right here. Do you have a blog, which I should be reading - Drop me a line and I'll see you there.
Holiday Musings
Three days of sheer holiday. Lots of free time and lots of sleep - The best highlights of any holiday. But then there is always more to than just that. Inorbit Mall
After a long long wait, we finally visited this much talked about shopping mall in the suburbs of Mumbai. And must I say, I am impressed. In Mumbai this would be one of the best malls rated to match International Standards. Wide alleys, strategically located shops, large dust-bins and a clean shopping environment is what this place has to offer. One of the key advantage is the availability of goods at every price range possible. You have the Weekender, Shoppers Stop and even the Suneet Vermas & Ritu Beris. I could go on but better still drop in there. And yes while we were there, we witnessed a supposedly Diwali holiday special program where the folk men performed some traditional dances. Didn't get to see the full show but captured a few snapshots when they cruised along the mall floors.  |  | Blink
Yes, I picked up this book and I am going to give it a good read. Have been seeing a lot of reviews and suggestions for this one. So it's here finally. Meanwhile I updated my book reviews at Allconsuming.Net. Free Style Salad
Diwali means good food, lots of mithai and bad stomachs at the end of it all. So Thursday night I decided to end the long holiday with a nice cold salad before dinner.
Diwali @ ThinkWhyNot
It's that time of the year again. A week before the cleaning starts, you are busy shopping for the best wares and want to pick up the latest gadgets only because they come at heavy discounts. And of course as you get closer to the festival you only realize that the much earned Diwali Bonus has been well spent even before it's been credited to your personal account. This year Diwali celebrations are muted at home in respect of my grand-dad. But it was time to get involved in some fun at office where we declared Monday as the "Diwali Day" and all were dressed in their best traditional suits. Lots of Mithai was eaten and later in the evening the computer literate visualizers tried their hands doing some free-hand rangoli. And Diwali can't be complete without some show of lights, so efficient Saurabh picked up a few crackers to complete the festival in the true spirit. A few snapshots from this special occassion.
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What would make this even more interesting is if you can see the avtar of the e-mail sender in their messages. I mean Yahoo! could atleast do this for those using the Yahoo! Mail services. It even lets you show your mood for the day or in specific to that e-mail you are sending out. 
