Should one feel angry when a self-righteous nincompoop insults you?

I was torn between feeling angry and using obscenities... and trying to sound like a weathered veteran trying to advise a young hot-blooded person in a sweet manner..

The B Planners

CB and me have been part of a team which also includes Jiten Patel.. and we have been thulping quite a few Business plan contests in the recent past.. :)

We have in the last one week qualified for the finals of a business plan contest at NITK Surathkal - E Pitch and also the India Innovation Pioneers Challenge 2007-08 :)

Wish us luck!

Reunion Ahoy!

Had one heck of a day at my alma mater.. TVS school, Tumkur. Met people whom I had not met in 8-9 years! (thats nearly half my life!)

Going back to school.. seeing all those once familiar places.. talking to all those chaps whom you grew up with.. Playing in that field which you did every evening in school.. climbing those mountains and traversing those fields with those people whom you grew up with.. All those akka's* and sir's.. All the memories flooding back.. talking about life as if we are veterans.. answering tons of questions from juniors... those gasps or whispers when the junior _most_ realise who you are.. those smiles.. those days.

School was fun. Then. Now. Forever.

A few pics of the reunion after the jump.

* Its the norm at school to address all lady teachers as "Akka". Somehow the same thing did not catch up with the "Anna" and we stuck to "Sir".. Akka and Anna mean elder sister and brother respectively, in Kannada.

PS: Pics not taken by me. I had handed the camera to a teacher of mine who was slisha vetti.. :)

Of Google, Digital Cameras and Mesothelioma

I am currently reading this book called "The Google Story".. Its a very interesting read.. especially for entrepreneurs - is my opinion.


Here is something very interesting and revealing (if I may call that), that I came across in the book..where the Google Ad keyword auctioning was being described..

Ms. P is an executive who is a portfolio manager.. not of your sorts. She deals with search keywords and phrases rather than stocks and bonds, but nonetheless hoping to maximize her company's investment in online advertising. She juggled bids, for example, on the term "digital camera" and its plural, "digital cameras" - with the cost of a click on the second averaging $1.08 compared to about 75 cents for the first.

Now, guess the reason as to why this could have happened? The singular of the word being priced 25% lower than the plural?

The reason for the disparity, it turns out (as Ms. P says), was that customers who typed in the plural were more likely to end up as buyers. These sort of nuances were learned with experience and they separated the successful bidders from the rest of the crowd.

Brilliant isnt it? I just thought about what I would do.. If I wanted to find out how a DigiCam worked, I am more probable to type the singular, while if I were to buy a cam, I am more likely to type out the plural so that I can check out the variety and options!__________________

Another interesting snippet from the same book..

In Google's nonstop auction, the minimum bid for a search term was five cents. One of the most expensive search terms was "mesothelioma", a type of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Top bids for the word hovered above $30 (!!) per click.

To put things in perspective - the digicams keyword sold at around $1 - Digicams is surely a very popular search term, a popular buy and it still sells at $1 while this vague, never-heard-before term sells at approximately 30 times that value!
Now, take a wild wild guess as to why that might be?

It turns out that these bids came from lawyers aggressively vying for the chance to land a lucrative client (and sue the company where (s)he worked for health violations at work places) :)

Very clever people!

____________________________________
On an aside, I am going home today afty. Want to catch up with all my long lost school friends at my School Reunion in Tumkur. I studied in TVS School, Tumkur. Will get back with a couple of pictures!

A Reputation!

Going by the reactions that the two people who came to know the existence of this (new) blog,.. My reputation precedes me. I sure have an uphill task!

Vettiness

There are times during the final year when the wing collectively feels absolutely jobless and thats when wing cricket happens.

In one of the recent wing cricket matches, our very own Jorge-Cham-would-be-jealous-of-PhD-boy Bhaand decided to bat..!


And then to bowl!

And finally to Dance!! :)

Urge

Lately, I have this urge to do something big. Something dramatic. Something path breaking. Something sensational.

I dont expect (m)any people to read this blog.. but if you do, and if you have any suggestions.. please drop me an email or add a comment!

Yello!

After all those years and all those comments on the One Post Phenomenon (aptly named so by the Guru ), I decided. I must blog. :)

Ergo - This blog.

I hope to keep it updated regularly. (Hopefully not as regularly as I have been swimming this semester!)