Virgle by Virgin and Google
April 17, 2008 at 3:34 am | In internet, nivash | Leave a CommentTags: april fool, google
Virgle – The Adventure of Many Lifetimes – Yet another hotshot Aprils Fools’ Day prank by Google! I knew they were up to fooling people the moment I started reading the pages but believe me, someone who doesn’t know about Google’s April Fools’ Day pranks would definitely fall into the prank.
They even made an Application Form for people who are interested in the project (Dhuh!) and this is what it shows when you click on the Submit button after filling up the form:
Okay, let’s just get this over with quickly, like ripping off a medical adhesive: you did not do well on this test. You are not, by all available evidence, well suited to be a Virgle Pioneer, or any sort space explorer, really, or for that matter, any profession which requires leaving behind your creature comforts, your nice warm bed, your lovely wardrobe, your gourmet meals, your high-end home theater, your friends and family — oh man, what have we gotten ourselves into here? We’re kind of freaking out ourselves, actually. Help! We changed our minds! We don’t want to go! [Clicks heels.] There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home! There’s no place like — [ Long silence. ] Hello. Still there? We’re sorry about that unpleasantness with our previous reviewer. We can assure you, you tested just fine and would make a fine Pioneer; all you have to do is submit your video here.
LOL! You should take a look at how Richard Branson, Larry Page and Sergey Brin talk so nicely and seriously about “Project Virgle” in the video.
India’s Savers Turn to Investing
April 15, 2008 at 5:20 am | In business, insurance, nivash | Leave a CommentTags: investment, market, Mutual Funds, shares
Its time to turn around the stock market and earn a piece of money from share market.Read this story of a guy in BHOPAL, India —– Twenty-six-year-old science graduate Kranti Pawar is the son of a farmer and makes a living by hiring out a machine that digs irrigation channels. Business is booming, he says, and so are his material aspirations. He wants an air-conditioned car and a flat-screen plasma TV soon. But his bank account is not up to the task.
So in January, he invested the equivalent of about $1,000 in mutual funds for the first time, joining a new trend in an Indian middle class that has traditionally put its money in safe but slowly expanding bank accounts. Better, many people are saying now, to go for mutual funds, which have produced returns as high as 35 percent over the past two years.
But within a month of his investment, the long-climbing Indian stock market started going south, reflecting slumps around the world.
“My father said I should be content with what I get” from savings accounts, said Pawar, recalling his parent’s dictate against mutual funds. But he was young and willing to take risks to get rich. So far, it hasn’t paid off. Since January, the Indian stock market has fallen by about 23 percent, and equity mutual funds are down about 28 percent.
“As the proverb goes,” he observed, ” ‘As soon as I shaved my head, it hailed.’ I am a little worried, but I am not getting out because India is bound to grow and this fall is temporary.” He is staying in even though he has to duck his father’s frequent “I told you so.”
Pawar is among hundreds of thousands of Indians who are nervously watching their investments after giving in to the fast-buck lure of equity mutual funds, a nascent Indian industry that grew by 45 percent last year, or about 40 million accounts.
For five years, the funds did well, helped along by an economy growing at nearly 8 percent a year, more jobs, higher incomes, falling interest rates paid by bank accounts, a dizzying climb of capital markets and a nation where two-thirds of the population is younger than 35.
India’s total assets under management grew 772 percent between 2004 and 2007 but dipped about 3 percent in the past three months.
There have been few panic withdrawals so far, but the number of new investors has slowed. Mutual fund companies are rushing to counsel nervous investors against selling and telling them to learn to live with risk.
Indians have traditionally been good at saving. A 2007 joint study by the National Council for Applied Economic Research and the insurance company Max New York Life found that about 81 percent of Indian households did so regularly, with more than half keeping their surplus income in bank accounts and a third simply stashing cash savings at home.
“Traditionally, you were looked down upon in India if you wanted to get rich quick. But that mind-set is now changing,” said A.P. Kurian, chairman of the Association of Mutual Funds in India. “Indians now want to climb the ladder of life quickly, and there is nothing wrong with it. This is the way the world lives.”
A report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. says India’s asset management industry is growing faster than those of developed economies such as the United States and Britain and emerging markets such as Brazil.
“It is hard to ignore the phenomenon of mutual funds with so many TV programs and newspaper columns on the subject. There is an explosion of interest, and this is just the beginning,” said Awadesh Singh, regional manager for Ski Retail Capital in the central Indian city of Bhopal. His customers, who include the new investor Pawar, get message alerts on their cellphones every two weeks about the value of their investments.
India’s first mutual fund company, the government-guaranteed Unit Trust of India (UTI), started in 1963. But it was only in 1993 that the government here allowed private companies into the industry. In 1996, officials drafted a strict and elaborate regulatory mechanism that governs the industry, including requirements for full disclosure of net asset worth and detailed offering documents.
But the real boom began only five years ago, when the industry launched an all-out campaign to wean the Indian middle class away from conservative, risk-averse savings. Between 2004 and 2007, television advertisements for mutual fund companies grew fivefold, according to TAM Media Research. The ads are governed by a long list of rules that include disclosure of risk factors and a ban on the use of celebrity promoters.
“In 2004, the mutual funds phenomenon was restricted to the top 10 Indian cities, but now it has expanded its presence and penetration in the markets of 30 Indian cities,” said Ashu Suyash, country head for Fidelity Fund Management, which started its Indian mutual funds division in 2005 and now has 1.5 million investors. “Mutual funds are now replacing investments in government bonds and deposits that were earlier considered safe.”
Although the markets have now steadied somewhat, the slowdown remains a challenge for people like Pawar. He is watching the slump anxiously. He recently sent an instruction to his agent: “Don’t send me bad news text message alerts every fortnight. Send me a message only when there is good news again.”
Be honest with life insurance companies
April 15, 2008 at 5:06 am | In insurance, nivash | Leave a CommentTags: insurance, life insurance
insured hides a fact which is material to the assumption of risk by the insurers, and it comes to light at a later date, the life insurance company may cancel the policy or reject the claim, depending on the circumstances.
Bharti Airtel and Google join hands for Gphone Mobile Operating System
April 15, 2008 at 4:07 am | In internet, nivash, technology | 5 CommentsTags: Airtel, google, Gphone, gphone in india
Gphone will be soon in INDIA.Gonna beat all the mobile service soon.
Bharti Airtel and Google Inc’s join hands to work on Google Phone (Gphone). This initiative is expected to be announced soon by search giant Google with handsets that will operate the system.
It has come to be known that the much-talked about GPhone is in actual fact a operating system for mobile phones and not a mobile phone as previously thought.
Mobile companies like Samsung and Motorola are likely to give orders for handsets specially pre-loaded with the Gphone OS. Google said that Finnish giant Nokia is not their partner in this.
The Gphone that will power Google’s mobile operating system has been is built on open source Linux technology.
With the introduction of GPhone, it is expected that the users may start using cheaper alternatives with ease that will be able to operate various other applications for connectivity and content.
In this aggressive business the attention is now moving to application-rich content accessed via mobile phones. Now, independent software developers will work with Google and together they plan to engage in recreation of tempting their customers.
Pay your ICICI Prudential Life Premium via Airtel Mobile Phone
April 15, 2008 at 4:01 am | In insurance, nivash | Leave a CommentTags: Airtel, ICICI insurance premium, ICICI prudential
A right move by ICICI Prudential .Now you can pay your premium by your Airtel phones.Cool facility for the customers.ICICI is very good in customer satisfaction.
ICICI has now made payments for its ICICI prudential customers easy. Customers can now pay their premiums through their mobile phones from wherever they are and at any time.
The company has joined hands with the mChek, a Visa certified secure and simple system which helps the customers to pay their premium payments by sending a text message of the card number to the company, which then processes the payment.
This is the first life insurance company in India which allows its policy holders to make their payments via mobile phones. Initially this service has been made available only to Airtel users across the country.
Anita Pai, Executive Vice President, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance commented, “At ICICI Prudential customer-first is one of our core philosophies, which guides us to introduce innovative, yet simple products and services that meet the customer needs and delight them by increasing their convenience.”
She further added, “Our partnership with mChek is yet another step in the direction of making customer interactions convenient and effortless. Through the launch of this unique service we are pleased to set another new trend in the life insurance segment.”
Sanjay Swamy, CEO, mChek stated, “mChek was conceived with the objective of providing Anytime Anywhere convenience in payments, to mobile phone users. We are pleased to extend our service portfolio to include insurance premiums by working with an industry leader like ICICI Prudential Life.”
Visa and Mastercards are accepted by this service. All transaction application meets stringent, international standards of security and customers are safe by their unique mChek PIN.
Also, encrypted end-to-end with 3DES encryption ensures banking-grade security from the convenience of a mobile phone.
what do you think of the facility.weather it is an usefull or useless.
Buy a LG Mobile Phone and get Free Insurance for Your Handset
April 15, 2008 at 3:54 am | In insurance, nivash | Leave a CommentTags: free insurance, LG mobile phone, mobile phone, nokia
There is a special offer for the LG buyers .Found to be a 
If you are planning to buy a LG mobile in the near future, then you will be happy to find out that there will be a free insurance scheme that you can avail of for mobile theft. LG Electronics has joined hands with United India Insurance Co. Ltd and is now offering its in India a Mobile Theft Insurance Plan without having to pay anything additional.
Any LG GSM phones purchased on or after 1st April 2008 can avail of the additional insurance scheme. There have been several requests by mobile users and finally their requests are answered by LG.
Anil Arora, Business Group Head, LGEIL said, “Loss of mobile due to theft is a major concern for handset buyers. Customers stretch their budget to purchase latest handsets, and cannot afford to lose them. LG Mobile Theft Insurance plan would provide a perfect solution to this. We not only guarantee for providing the best phones in the market but also guarantee to safeguard customer’s interest in case of mobile theft.”
To avail the free insurance scheme, the mobile user has to follow a few simple steps:
It is always advisable that the mobile user blocks the SIM card from the mobile network provider and to add in documents of proof, the mobile user also has to lodge a FIR within 24 hours of the theft. Certain LG GSM mobile phones feature LG’s Anti Theft Mobile Tracker (ATMT) and this enables one to track their stolen mobile phone, as soon as another SIM card is inserted.
However if the ATMT fails to track the handset, then LG will pay back the current market value of the phone and the claim settlement will be done directly by the insurace company within 15 days of receipt of the claim as per the insurance.
How to Successfully Market Yourself as a Car Insurance Agent
April 15, 2008 at 2:24 am | In insurance, nivash | Leave a CommentTags: insurance
I wonder some times how this guys being a insurance agent and earning a hell a lot of money.After reading this article in the net i found it great easy to make money using the insurance companies that too in part time.
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April 14, 2008 Becoming a successful car insurance agent has a lot to do with the marketing plan that you have in place. If this is something that you take seriously, you will find that your business is growing at a higher pace than ever before. Of course, if you think that marketing is for the birds, you will find it difficult to get your business off the ground. The question is: how can you successfully market yourself as a car insurance agent? Believe it or not, this is not as hard as some agents make it out to be. The first thing that you need to do is take a strong look at what you have done in the past. This will give you an idea of if what you have been doing is working, and what you can change in the future. With the help of the internet, any car insurance agent should be able to implement a successful marketing plan. First things first, you can set up a website with which potential consumers can find information on you, your services, and how to get in touch. This will go a long way in increasing the number of people that you reach. Additionally, you can also market your car insurance services by purchasing leads online. This is not marketing in a traditional sense, but once you purchase leads you will then be able to turn your attention more towards the marketing side of things. More and more agents are buying leads because it allows them to skip over the difficult task of locating them on their own. The better you are at marketing yourself, the more car insurance policies you will sell. For a limited time, QuotesAuction.com is offering $200 worth of free leads to agents who setup and activate an account. Go to https://www.quotesauction.com/sign-up.htmto learn more. |
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“Compulsory car insurance good idea – Clark”-Quite late
April 14, 2008 at 5:07 pm | In insurance, nivash | Leave a CommentTags: car insurance vechicle insurance, insurance
Some countries made the Car and vechicle insurance a must when buying a car quite a long back time.But some country it is now only coming into prevelance.Prime Minister Helen Clark says compulsory third-party insurance for all drivers is a good idea.
The Government will decide before the election whether to introduce compulsory third-party insurance in a bid to crackdown on boyracers.
It announced last year it was putting together a discussion paper to gauge public opinion on the issue.
Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven yesterday said that paper would be out in the next few weeks.
The consultation would be completed in time to allow Cabinet to make a decision before the election.
Helen Clark today said the idea was a good one, but it needed to be tested against the public’s views.
“I’m personally inclined to think that idea has a lot of merit, but it’s got to be properly explored,” she said on NewstalkZB.
Insurance companies have criticised the proposal, saying it would be hard to enforce as the worst drivers had already been refused insurance and many drove without a license.
But Mr Duynhoven yesterday said he had been getting extremely positive feedback over the idea.
“I’ve had just a large number of people phoning in, writing in, just bowling up to me in the street,” he told NZPA.
“These are people I’ve never seen or met before coming up to me and saying ‘we’ve got to do that’.
“So it’s got very good feedback. But we want to get people’s ideas formally, of course.
New Zealand was one of the only developed countries not to have such legislation and he was confident of convincing his Cabinet colleagues of its merits, he said.
The cost of uninsured motorists was between $53 million and $85m a year.
Under a compulsory scheme, young, novice and accident prone drivers paid higher premiums.
Steeper premiums on higher performance vehicles could encourage drivers to opt for less powerful vehicles, Mr Duynhoven said.
He expected the discussion document to be out in the “next few weeks”.
Gen Re’s CEO Resigns-Hot news of today
April 14, 2008 at 4:54 pm | In business, nivash | Leave a CommentTags: business
April 14, 2008 11:17 a.m.
Joseph Brandon , chairman and chief executive of General Re Corp. , the reinsurance subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., resigned effective Monday in the wake of federal pressure involving a fraud case.
Gen Re President Franklin “Tad” Montross will assume Mr. Brandon’s titles.
Federal prosecutors have been pressuring Berkshire to replace Brandon following criminal-fraud convictions of four former General Re executives earlier this year, people familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal last week. His removal was seen as part of an effort to conclude the government’s investigation into General Re.
With the aid of trial testimony from two other ex-General Re executives who had pleaded guilty early on in the investigation, the federal government secured convictions against all those charged after arguing that a sham deal between General Re and American International Group Inc., the insurance giant that had been General Re’s biggest client, had improperly burnished AIG’s earnings, thereby boosting its stock price.
Berkshire bought General Re, which is in the business of insuring the risk of other insurers, a decade ago and inherited its management. Brandon led General Re since 2001 and was chief financial officer before that. The unit generated more than $6 billion in revenue last year, 5% of Berkshire’s revenue.
Mr. Brandon’s status at the company has been uncertain since 2005, when he received formal notice by federal securities regulators that they were looking into whether he violated securities laws. Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor prosecutors have charged Mr. Brandon with any wrongdoing. He has cooperated with the government without seeking immunity from prosecution, two people familiar with the situation told the Journal.
–Amir Efrati and Karen Richardson contributed to this article.
What do you think of his resignation.Does it cause any changes in the share market regarding the shares of the company.
Of Dirty Jokes and a Nagging Conscience
April 14, 2008 at 4:44 pm | In nivash | Leave a CommentTags: joke, laughig gas
1993 was the year of Jurassic Park, experimental cloning, the Latur earthquake and news involving Michael Jackson, some little boys and absolutely no music.
1993 was also the year I heard my first dirty joke. That’s a bizarre snippet of statistic though, since I’m yet to meet someone who remembers exactly how or when he heard his first dirty joke. Dirty jokes have a way of virally working their way into your system. You never know when you caught them first or how you got so full of them but they’re all over you before you know it.
Especially when you’re eleven and extremely impressionable!
Despite possessing a mind which used to get rebellious on the double, I had always been a fairly obedient child. They’d tell me to look both ways before crossing the road and I’d look both ways while crossing the road! They’d also make it a point to ask me to stop burping at the table and I’d stop burping at the table! On the whole, I had been the least of hassles as I grew up.
I had always had an overwhelming sense of taboo on account of an overtly functional and often paranoid conscience. One fine morning in 1993, a narrative sequence with questionable undertones made it through my taboo filter under the guise of an innocent story and before I knew it, I was beginning to feel funny as a reaction to what I’d heard.
Hearing my first dirty joke… laughing at it…
It actually happened when I was sitting with The Gang for lunch. One of them had proudly proclaimed how he had extended his tastes to Indian authors and had started off with Khushwant Singh and how his life had changed overnight.
I had heard quite a bit mentioned about the great man and had considerable reason to believe that he was one of the main proponents of Indo-Anglican literature and was braving ahead with the baton of the English Novel in India. A pair of innocent ears perked up on either side of my head. Reviews of literary geniuses were always welcome!
“He is a master of humor!” started The Much-Improved Reader.
“Tell us more!” I heard my innocent lips and mouth sync out those words.
“So he uses words beautifully! He knows how to weave stories around simple words and they hit you right at the end!”
“Oh! So that’s like O’Henry? Or Somerset Maugham?”
“Yes! Yes!” he hushed me impatiently, “All that and more!”
I waited eagerly! We were talking partition literature here! Train to Pakistan! Maybe a dozen more on that country-rending event!
“So there’s this story about a man who’s trying to get into a bus, you know! And then he’s using a walking stick and he slips, you know! And there is another man with 12 kids, you know! And both miss the bus, you know! And the man with children tells the other man to put some rubber at the end of the stick, you know! For grip, you know! And well…”
And he continued narrating the masterpiece in his unique personal style which involved a whole deal of ‘you knows’ substituting the commas.
And I listened, munching on every word, till the recounting came to an end with a punchline and before I knew it, I was smiling for I’d heard something fairly naughty!
I hated myself! How could I ever fall to such levels where I could laugh at things which were not supposed to be talked about?
The Conscience took me to court for the rest of the day.
“Yerr honor! I would like to present before you the principal accused in this case!”
I looked around myself, as if rudely awoken from a dream, and found only three people in the room: His honor, The Conscience and Me.
The principal accused? Surely he couldn’t be talking about me!
The Conscience continued. He had no reason to stop.
“The accused has never had a criminal record in my books except for some secretly stolen cookies and an equal number of secretly stolen moments with a lady of his age whose hair seems to be a matter of prime obsession with him!”
I couldn’t believe my ears! I had no clue The Conscience had issues with my harmless games with The Childhood Sweetheart.
“The accused has been charged with extraction of unwholesome pleasure from the consumption of an addictive substance, namely a dirty joke, in the current case of offence. Yerr Honor! With your permission, I would like to interrogate the said accused!”
“Permission Granted!”
I looked around in disbelief. I had no clue whatsoever about the identity of this permission-granting judge.
“Where were you at five minutes past noon today?”
“Err… The Football Field!” I mumbled.
“And would you care to describe the nature of activity you were indulging in at that point of time!”
“We were talking!”
“What was the subject of discussion?”
This was getting uncomfortable in hindsight.
“Literature!”
“What kind of literature?”
“Indian… err… Indo-Anglican!”
“Which author in particular?”
“Khushwant Singh!”
“Did you get excited at the mention of Khushwant Singh?”
“I guess.”
“This is a court of law! Not a game of dumb charades! Quit guessing! Did you or did you not get excited?”
“Yes, I got excited.”
“And did your ears stand up?”
“Yes.”
“Where were you at that time?”
What did he expect me to say? Where was I? Attached to my ears? Where else?
“In the field!”
“And what did the discussion comprise of thematically?”
I felt cornered. “Partition?”
“Are you sure? Wasn’t it something different?”
“Uhh… Buses… Public Transport!” I had to wiggle out of this one.
“Was that the central theme of the discussion?”
“Yes!” I said confidently. I needed to take a stand to wiggle out of this one.
“OK! Let me ask you another question! Was there a one-way narration in progress?”
“Yes!”
“And did you happen to laugh at the end of this narration?”
This was getting tricky again.
“I might have smiled! I usually do! It’s pleasant!”
“Did you or did you not laugh at the end of this narration?”
“I did!”
“Was it because you found it funny!”
No! It was heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, blood-curdling! That’s why I laughed! What a NUT!
“Yes!”
“Would you say the part on which you laughed had potential for innuendo?”
I was getting cornered once again.
“I don’t know! I couldn’t be sure!”
“Very well! I’m going to tell you a joke and you shall tell me whether you’ve heard it before.”
And he proceeded to recount the joke word for word.
And like a giggly fourteen year old who has recently heard his first dirty joke, I felt the urge to snigger starting to overcome me.
I bit my cheeks! I was in a court of law and every giggle would be taken as evidence against me!
The Conscience reached the punchline and despite my efforts, I let out a chuckle!
“Ah! You laugh! Yerr Honor! He laughs!”
Of course I laugh! What was I? Some horror movie freak?
“Did you find this funny?”
I couldn’t help it. “Yes!”
“And what, in your opinion, is funny about two people entering a bus?”
This was getting tougher. He knew he had me so he continued!
“Would you say that you find the innuendo towards the end amusing?”
“Yes!”
“And have you heard this joke before?”
“Yes, I have!”
“Were you present when you heard it?”
No, I wasn’t! I was doing telepathy! Seriously, The Conscience was taking the Prosecutor role a bit too seriously for his own good!
“Yes!” I replied dutifully.
“Yerr Honor!” he started, turning to the judge dramatically and gesturing as if shutting an open case, “We have our man!”
A conscience on the rampage is worse than a long-term suspicious nagging wife laying hands on incriminating evidence.
Dont just laugh and leave coment something about this.
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