Archive for General

Reminder to all new visitors – I’ll fix the images

My blog / website got hacked a while back. I backed up and restored it, but it seems a lot of the images associated with the blog has disappeared. I will restore them soon enough. Sorry about that. – Manjul

We’re back!

Somehow in the last two weeks I got hacked due to a small oversight on my behalf. Thankfully no data was lost and we’re back online once again. Although this time I am using a full on wordpress as the front end to my site. Lets see how this works out.

I’ve forgotten how to deal with PHP code, but I am sure in a few days when I got some free time I’ll be able to customize it to my delight!

800 GET $$$$

The other night I was driving up the I-710 from Long Beach back to my residence in the valley and I happened to notice something very interesting. Twenty Two (22) 1-800-GET-SLIM/1-800-GET-THIN bill board ads on my drive up the I-710.

Either the I-710 corridor has an inordinate number of overweight obese people, or the company is basing it on the fact that its in an environmental and social justice area and the bill board viewing clients are most likely poor Hispanic residents of Los Angeles County who don’t know any better.

It does seem a bit excessive, since many of the signs are right next to each other. In fact I saw more than one instance where there were more than 2 on either side of the road in the same location. Gone are the days when bill boards had something interesting to inform the passing motorist, today the I-710 corridor seems to inform that you are a fat lazy bastard and you need to get slim by getting the lap band surgery.

I for one don’t condone it for people who are overweight and have failed in every diet to give something like this a chance, but this is Los Angeles folks, the place that started the trend called Size Zero (0). Are we going for the negative numbers now? I think this company is being irresponsible with their ad campaign. I hear their ad’s on the radio, tv and now on two sides of a freeway.  Thank god it is not one of those fancy flashing electronic billboards.

Gee GRE?

GRE, whats that? They call it “Graduate Records Examination” but in reality its more like relive your High School and SAT all over again. I am preparing for the GRE partly because I am not sure which school I am going to go to. Its a pain in the butt, but it has to be done. Ugh! Perhaps this is more of a rant than a witty blog, but why in this day and age do we have to take an exam to prove our proficiency in mastering the word list when we all know that 95% of those words will never be used in real life nor in our thesis papers. Yet we are forced to know them and use them correctly.

More thoughts, when I think of more.

2010 Consumer Electronics Show – Post Wrap Comments

This year I once again went to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. I took my lovely friend Vanessa as my date for the 3 days I was there. It was SO much fun. I don think she quite well knew what to expect. Needless to say Vanessa went hog wild!

The highlights of the 2010 CES was the fact that 3D TV’s are getting more standardized than what prototypes we saw last year. Still there is a lot of flux. The active/passive camp is going to fight it out for quite a bit. Samsung had some interesting demonstrations and I think their technology will prevail. Still the CEA group is expecting to raise the sales of new plasma/lcd tvs with 3D technology to continue capturing the market in the coming years.

I also was quite fascinated by the new wireless HDMI and wireless power transfer prototypes. I think they are quite fanciful that the bumbling village idiot will call it black magic!

On the Green Technology side, the stuff was just the same load of usual crap. However I was quite excited to see a T-8 LED fixture. I think that is has a lot of potential in the commercial energy conservation arena. I also found Ultralast with their new Green Power batteries (similar to Sanyo’s Enloop) and I look forward to testing them soon.

This years CES did not seem to have a lot of the prior years players. Not sure if the economy had something to do with it or not. Regardless it was a successful trade show and I look forward to following up with my contacts.

2009 Los Angeles International Auto Show

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the LA Auto Show Press Day by Mazda USA for their unveiling of the new Mazda 2. It was a lovely unveiling and I had a great time. However I thought I’d write in on my Press Day Experience.

I’ve been a car nut since ummm.. 1988 or so when Jeremy Clarkson came on to Top Gear and said ‘Powwerrr’ all the while doing donuts. I fell in love with Top Gear. I still consider Jeremy Clarkson, Tiff Needles and Quentin Wilson as the dads who taught me how to buy, drive and power slide cars.

Needless to say 20 or odd so years later, I get my first opportunity to go to a Press Day event at the LA Auto Show. It was quite fun. I think its the ONLY way to see an auto show, with no crowds to fight over other than camera geeks and and press geeks. Its still better since we are much more well behaved.

Press day has its fun things. Jaguar had free alcohol and coffee for the press folks and Mercedes allowed people up close and personal look into the new SLS. Too bad the exotics were missing except for Aston Martin which Galpin Motors brought to the show (didnt see them but I heard later on).

Over all it was a wonderful experience. I totally enjoyed it. I look forward to doing it again if I could again next year.

Top 40 & Commercial FM Radio

Living in Los Angeles has its benefits. It is the media capital of the world. Its a trend setter of sorts for mass media, what happens here is followed else where. The downside of living in Los Angeles is that if you listen to any sort of media especially the Radio, you are exposed to the same commercial music that has made the Grammy’s predictable since 1984.

Case and Point: Listen to AMP 97.1 and KIIS 102.7 FM any point of any day and you are bound to run into the same song playing on two stations. When 97.1 went from all talk to music, the press were told that the AMP format was to revolutionize commercial top 40 radio in the Los Angeles market. I am sorry to say those PR Folks, Industry Folks and CEO’s were wrong. It is just another manufactured crap station.

Give me back Adam Carolla & Tom Leykis. Give me back Indie103.1, give me something more than Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, or any of the American Idol Stars. I miss good ole music from creative people. I am not asking for the next Bach or Pagadini. I am asking for the LA market radio station to play more variety of music.

You probably are asking, why all this resentment. You rarely listen to the radio, you have a hard drive filled with music in your car. Yes I do, and I have it because I cant stand the same songs playing over and over again on my midday drive down the 5 to Orange County.

I’ve been a Radio DJ for 3 years. I know what I am talking about. I had a pretty popular on-demand variety show called the “Whatchamacallit Show” on KSSU AM 1580. Yes its a college radio station but it gave me quite a bit of insight into what users want. What LA needs is an Indie Radio Station and a person to fund it without questions and give me and a few more people the reins. I understand its a commercial business, but if you want to save the music, stop playing the same manufactured shit and give some airtime to bands that really have talent and deserve to be heard.

Welcome to my Blog!

Finally.. after  years of blogging (officially and unoffcially under a assumed name) I have finally decided its time to put my thoughts down for real with my identity visible. The idea behind this is not to duplicate anything I done in the past but rather as a stepping stone to some of my thoughts. It might be off the wall but hey its a blog right?