Chuck Norris fact of the week

Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is

Supercar photo of the week

The Ascari A10

Top speed is supposed to be 220 mph.  Oh, and just where do you go drive to check that out?

And Now For Some PAGE RANK!

Ah, it took its own sweet time getting here, but four of my blogs now have some Page Rank. 

The older Autos blog is the leader, with Page Rank = 3

The younger Autos blog and my Travel blog have Page Rank = 2 each

And my main, all-purpose blog has a Page Rank = 1

Still waiting for the baby of the group, the Technology/ Startups blog getting some love from Google.

Chuck Norris fact of the week

If Chuck Norris round-house kicks you, you will die. If Chuck Norris' misses you with the round-house kick, the wind behind the kick will tear out your pancreas

Amazing Porsche Test Drive

The Porsche Leipzig test race track is a dream destination.  I would one day love to drive it.  Just as with Nurburgring,  Laguna Seca, and any street in Monte Carlo. 

So first take a look at a video of the Porsche 996 GT3 being thrashed on the track.  Put the volume up as loud as you can!  This helps understand why Porsches generally have sub-par music systems.... the best sound track is the engine itself!

Porsche Leipzig test track

Next, for a truly great experience, go to the URL below, to get the official Porsche lesson on how to drive the Leipzig track.  Click on the "Start Driving" link just below the video.  No while the video is playing, you can choose between alternate screens - one a terrifyingly thrilling road view, that rivals any of the craziest video games;  another a view of the car;  a third of the driver handling the steering wheel, and finally of the virtuoso play of his feet upon the pedals.  Keep switching between views, to get a full view of how to drive on Leipzig!

http://www.porsche.com/microsite/onelap/flash/default.aspx?language=en&market=INTERNATIONAL&pool=international&browser=other&instance=544&variant=&section=&showintro=true&bandwidth=dsl&width=1400&height=1050&specialguest=0

Ferrari FXX Supercar - Such Sweet Music

Sometimes, I get bored of listening to music while working.  I've found a grand new distraction - turning on a 3 - 5 minute audio or video of a supercar being thrashed around a track.  It forms the perfect background to anything.

Check out the video of the Ferrari FXX, the chameleon skunk-works Ferrari that is always at the forefront of Automobile technology (never mind the Transformers).  Just listen to it.  That engine sounds amazing!

Ferrari FXX engine sound

New High - Daily Visits for this Blog!

I'm quite proud of my baby blog - Capoeirista.  Yesterday (Tuesday, September 23, 2008), this blog received 855 visits (per StatCounter). 

Well done!

New High Daily Visits for my Autos blog!

My Autos blog is also picking up steam now. Yesterday (September 22, Monday), this site (http://passionforcars-vikram-singh.blogspot.com/) received 678 visits.

Very interesting.

Car Review - 2008 Chevrolet HHR

Yoshi, a friend, rented the 2008 Chevrolet HHR this weekend, and I got to ride in it with him.  So, here's my review -

The name:  To start with, what's with the name?  HHR?  Healthy Human Resources?  Hullo, Here's Roger?  No, Chevrolet says it stands for Heritage High Roof.  Um....

The looks:  Here is my first reaction - who stretched the Chrysler PT Cruiser, and made it look a little less retro?  To be serious - it doesn't look as nice as the PT Cruiser.  But it isn't too bad.  The exterior does look plastic-ey, and the interior does too.   Which brings us to..

The interior:  The car is long enough, and has a good amount of space in the trunk area (see photo below).  But width-wise?  No, it seems really narrow.  This partly seems to be due to bad interior design.  the center column in front (you know, the one with the radio, air controls, all those pretty knobs and lights) isn't well designed.  It seems too wide, taking up leg room in a car thats already narrow, while simultaneously looking like everything there is pushed together.  Seriously, how can 6 radio buttons in a row look so spacious in an Accord or BMW, but look so crushed together in this car?  (One hint - stop putting extra chrome between buttons!)

And why are the window controls just out of reach, near my feet, at the bottom of that center column?

A nice positive - I loved the interior door handle design.  Loved it!

 

The ride:  The ride is like a lot of American cars, unfortunately - a bit like a boat.  You can get seasick while driving in a straight line at a constant speed along a highway.  It isn't as bad as the old Ford Taurus, but still, isn't this car aimed at the younger crowd?

Power-wise, the car is adequate.  Yoshi doesn't push cars, but with what we saw, the car seemed to respond when you needed a little push.  But we got the impression it doesn't like going fast on curves.

Supercar photo of the week

Ok, so this one is (so far) a total myth.  There has been a lot of talk about Mercedes coming out with a supercar to compete against the Audi R8.  Auto Motor und Sport, a German auto mag, took a gander at creating this concept for Mercedes, thank you very much. 

But I must say, I think it looks smashing!  I would buy it!

Tesla Manufacturing Plant in San Jose

Good news for motor-heads (and electric-heads?) in the bay area.  Tesla is planning a factory spread across an 89-acre plot of land in San Jose.  This factory should bring about 500 - 1,000 jobs to the area, although half of those might be relocations from current locations. 

The new factory should be set up to churn out about 300 of their new sedans a week.  This doesn't sound like a number to put the words "churn out" in front of, until you realize they are currently producing only 10 coupes a week in two locations.   That should help them finally come closer to matching demand.

There is something that could be a snag in the plans - Tesla is looking at a quarter of a billion dollars in financing from Goldman Sachs and the Department of Energy to set all this up.  They're also counting on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's tax breaks to the tune of over $15 Million.  With all the current financial turmoil, lets hope there are no snags.

And Google's Market Share Goes Up Again

So it seems the US search market is up for grabs...... NOT.

For August 2008 (per comScore), Google gobbled up 63% of the US search market.  That's a 1.1% growth over July 2008.  And 33% growth from August 2007.  Those are scary statistics, given that US searches grew by almost 20% year over year!

Monopoly on search.  Monopoly on text ads, deal with Yahoo.  For the world's sake, MicroSoft needs to do something.  It is the main competitor losing market share.  And unlike Yahoo, MicroSoft is a strong company, with pots of money. 

Microsoft Stopping Seinfeld-Gates ads

Darn.  MicroSoft is reacting too quickly, and is stopping the Jerry Seinfeld - Bill Gates ads.   And just as folks were starting to yammer on about them  (ok, not all the yammering was positive). 

Is this too quick?  I'm not fully sure... but I will miss the ads.  Even though I didn't get them,  I did enjoy watching Seinfeld in something other than endless reruns of the show,  and Bill G was funny too.  Ah well,  there goes a $300 Million experiment, and a $10 Million signing bonus.

Funny Microsoft Ad

Spy Shots and Videos - Mazda Furai

The Mazda Furai concept car is among the top reasons Mazda is going to become a force to be reckoned with in car design - it is mind-blowingly awesome! 

The Furai is the fifth 'Nagare' car, and the final one.  Furai means "sounds of the wind", and thats where the entire car's concept comes from.  Lets just say this - in design, in looks, in sound, this car captures that!  Check out the photos below, followed by the videos - yes, its a real, running car, and only has relatively minor changes needed to turn it from concept to reality!  Amazing.

And yes, it has gull-wing doors.  Sweet!

It has a 450 bhp rotary engine - I'm not sure if that will be kept in the final version of the car.  But listen to the sound in that video, just listen to that engine!  That is what driving is all about.

  

Mazda Furai concept car

Chuck Norris fact of the week

Those aren't credits that roll after Walker Texas Ranger. It is actually a list of fatalities that occurred during the making of the episode.

WebMD Acquiring Quality Health

Consolidation in the Health space continues, and now at bargain prices.  WebMD, the gorilla in the space, is acquiring MTS (Marketing Technology Solutions) and its subsidiary Quality Health for about $50 MM.  

Given that MTS had revenues of ~$21 MM in 2007, this is indeed a poor price for their shareholders. 

Why does this make sense?  Well, WebMD is far and away the leader in CPM advertising, and sponsored sites/ areas.  And Quality Health is the best at CPA for health advertisers,  or what they like to call 'performance-based marketing'.  So the theory would be that health advertisers and agencies now need only make one stop to find their advertising dollars.

Cons - by the same token, though, now advertisers and agencies suddenly find a large part of their budgets in one publisher's hands.  That will probably not be viewed in a positive light; after all, marketing 101 includes lessons on diversification for risk mitigation as well as spreading your message across more eyeballs.  You wouldn't just advertise on NBC on TV now, would you?  You would also keep some budget for comedy central, for the young crowd, for the Oxygen channel, for women, and finally for Monday Night Football... because we're in America, and not advertising on football programs gets your TV advertising license revoked.  So this should make things easier too for the other publishers, such as RightHealth, which is owned and operated by Kosmix, my employer.

The announcement took away the thunder from Steve Case's Revolution Health and Everyday Health.  Let the shake-ups continue!

Louis Monier leaves Cuil

Cuil has barely launched, and they're already airing out some dirty laundry.  Louis Monier,  their VP of Product, is departing (he is no longer on their About page). 

TechCrunch reported that he and CEO Tom Costello had different ideas about the product road map;  one would have hoped they were on the same page, given they had similar backgrounds, and that Monier was barely a year old at Cuil. 

Monier is considered one of the leading authorities on Search, having worked at Google, eBay for search, and of course having co-founded AltaVista.  So this is a blow.

Forget the botched launch.  I think Cuil has a lot of potential... potential it is not easy to see currently, since whats visible is their lack of relevancy in their search results.  But getting relevant search results takes a long time and lots of money (Kosmix knows!).  What Cuil's main claim is to index faster and cheaper than the mother-ship, Google (see the number of web pages they claim to have indexed, below their search bar, below).  And if that is true, then it has a huge amount of value.... and can potentially be the right piece of the puzzle for Microsoft to bring out the best from its acquisition of PowerSet. 

Cuil also has $33 MM in funding, so hopefully are set for a while (their last round of $25 MM was around April of 2008).  I don't know how much of their money is left, but I would guess that with ~30 employees (per Crunchbase) and being in the Search space, they're probably burning about $700K/month.  So they can weather this storm.

Restaurant Review - Restaurant Des Alpes, Interlaken

During my trip to Switzerland, we stayed a night at Interlaken.  While there, we ate dinner at Restaurant Des Alpes, which is a half open-air restaurant, with lovely views of the alps surrounding Interlaken on all sides.  It was raining and cloudy, but the views were still spectacular.  We sat under a canopy under the rain - it was amazing.

The restaurant had a company of yodelers with alpine horns, who were quite fun.   They perfectly complemented the huge tankard of beer I was handed!

On to food:  we had a veggie lasagna, which was ok.  And a Prosciutto pizza.... what a pizza!  Very soft, thin crust, very light cheese, some tomato, fresh prosciutto and a sprinkling of oregno.  The first pizza in years on which I didn't put even a drop of tabasco, or a single red pepper!  I wish I could eat it once each week.  Pizza dreams....

Good Feedback on Kosmix from my Lecture at SFSU

I talked about Kosmix, the company I work for, during my lecture at SFSU's MBA class MGMT 831: The Entrepreneurial Process, which is taught by Professor Geoffrey Desa. 

The students had some good feedback on Kosmix in their (anonymous) class feedback, which I have written down below:

• It was interesting to learn of the new search engine Kosmix.  I liked the different approach that it used in that it contained a list of related items.
• In addition to his presentation, I also enjoyed the discussion about Kosmix.  It was rather interesting to see that someone had actually developed a search engine for people who don’t have a clear vision of what they’re searching for.  I think it’s helpful to know that such a search engine exists and I would definitely support the usage of it.  For some key terms and projects, I often only pick up a few important keywords and it seems that from those keywords, I would be able to search up the related topic I’m looking for.
• Learning about Kosmix and how the idea was born was a good example of the creative process in action. An idea to offer something beyond the norm often leads to something great. I believe that Kosmix offers something the Googles and Yahoo's can't.

Feedback on my Lecture at San Francisco State's MBA Class

I got some great feedback from the class on my lecture on Creativity and Idea Generation for the class MGMT 831: The Entrepreneurial Process.  This feedback will help me refine the way I deliver a lecture the next time.  

Lets start with The Opportunities for Improvement:

1. Need to have more real-world examples - good point.  In the future, I will try to balance each concept or point I present with a real-world example, even if that reduces the number of concepts presented.
2. Presentation was rushed - I had a little less time than planned, but still tried to cover all the content I had planned on.  A good learning for next time.
3. The slides were too wordy, needed more videos, pictures, etc. - yes!  If I feel compelled to put a lot of points on paper, next time I will put them on the speaker notes instead of the main slides
4. Need to vary tone of voice more - I hadn't realized this.  Something to be said for not watching a tape of yourself  :).  I will aim for more dynamic delivery in the future.
5. "There were some technical words he used such as "bisocialization" where he could have substituted something more simple, if possible." - next time, I'll include definitions if I use new terms.

And now the good stuff, the things I should keep the same, or do more of  (the details are given below instead of just the synopsis, if you care to read them; the feedback is not attributed, but quoted near-verbatim with some trimming from the students' notes):

Positive feedback:

1. I felt that he had a lot of knowledge and was a good communicator.
2. After I listened to this speaker, I realized the significance of group discussion. The group discussion provides a working environment for group members to generate and discuss business ideas. We can draw new insights from other people, although they do not have expertise in the specific area.
3. It was helpful to learn about the different factors of creating a new concept or new idea for a business.  And ideas that helped current business sustain itself.   After coming up with an idea, it is also helpful to share those ideas and get feedback.  There may be factors that may not have been considered.  I enjoyed listening to Vikram Singh and he seemed to really enjoy presenting.
4. Mr. Singh did a good job of talking to the class, and not at us.  His examples were easy to swallow and the material he was presenting was easy to follow.  The strength of his presentation was in his speaking and involvement of the class.
5. I liked Vikram's definition of Creativity: The ability to transcend traditional ideas to create a meaningful new ideas. This approach encourages people to think more and be more creative. A lot of us think we are not creative but truth is, we all are. We can be creative by observing the products we have available in the market, and transpose them to another product that provides different value.   The presentation was interesting, and having well-prepared ppt slides gave deeper impression of the presentation and the speaker.
6. It was good to have someone who was so knowledgeable come in to speak to us.  I particularly enjoyed listening to his feedback on our team feedback regarding our business ideas.  He really emphasized the importance of teamwork and how it’s extremely beneficial to have a variety of people who think differently on the same team.  Not only did he cover the importance of a good team when starting a new business venture, but he also touched upon many important aspects of selecting a correct opportunity.  Opportunities are only available during a certain window but we must be prepared to seek out those opportunities as they unravel.  Overall, I very much enjoyed the discussion and presentation by Vikram Singh.
7. Overall, I really enjoyed our first speaker.  Vikram seemed very informed and spoke from experience.  I especially liked when he mentioned that, at times during group meetings/discussions, you have to think "outside of the box" or in ways that contradict your usual train of thought to help advance ideas as a whole.  He also seemed up to date on the most current events in regards to his field and made me wonder where he gets his information from.
8. It is great to have a guest speaker who is in the real business world come and share experiences with respect to the topic in the textbook. It helps me understand the concept more clearly. I liked that he let the class share ideas and opinions freely. And one of the most interesting and useful things I learnt is the "idea matrix". It can be applied to our project in helping screen out our business ideas.
9. It was interesting as he was very excited to share it with the class. I like how he put everything in bullet points and made it easy to understand and like a "theory".
10. I thought this was an excellent talk.  He was interesting and clearly passionate about the topic.  He provided great information.  I really enjoyed his presentation and learned a lot.
11. I really enjoyed what Mr. Singh had to share with the class. He gave us insightful information along with examples of real-life experiences that will be helpful to us all in the future. I thought his ideas on group dynamics were very interesting along with how they compare to individual participation. I also thought his ideas on the creative process gave me a better understanding on how to foster an idea into something more.
12. Very good presenter, I wish to have a copy of his slides. He knows what he's talking about and not just theory, but practical insights about business. Overall I liked his emphasis of team work that uses different skills of every individual to get things done. And I got a chance to talk with him after class and was very informative.
13. The speaker raised the discussion about the roles in 6 hats. It's very useful to find that some people placed their roles by the hat. They had a chance to think and present their ideas that they may not ever realize that they are good at. This is useful to our project because each teammate has to play various roles in the group so that our work will be on the right track. For example, cautious role is very important because people cannot always support ideas which may be good but not feasible at the same time. Also the speaker gave an idea about creativity. We know that in order for us to be creative, implementing the idea is important because it will help us see many ideas, possibilities etc.. of a particular thing or idea. In addition, we've learnt that it's important to know ourselves such as strengths & weaknesses, analyze rules of the game by understand group dynamics, assertive ideas, set structure, goal, timeline and finally don't just wing it so that the idea will be effectively. These are very useful as well since we can apply these ideas to our group project and make it successfully.
14. I think it was a good opportunity for us to have the speaker visiting in the last class. He mentioned about many theories and concepts such as the creative process and knowing yourself. Listening to what he said, I think he helped me see things in different aspects which I think are really important for the entrepreneur to obtain.

Spy Shot - Nissan GT R

Here's a spy shot of the Nissan GT R.  The Top Gear guys loved the car, and covered it in their 2008 SuperCars magazine

Revolution Health's Traffic - How to Play the Traffic Game

There was a comment on my earlier post on Revolution Health raising a good point - viz that I should check different traffic sources, and not just quote Quantcast. 

Quantcast, alexa, compete, comScore, hitwise - they all have different methodologies, and generally have different measurements for sites, even the big ones.  comScore is the one most advertising agencies prefer - but if you use comScore, be aware of what you're seeing. 

As an example, Revolution Health in comScore shows up as the third largest Health site;  this is because there are sites such as Drugstore.com, Daily Strength, and SparkPeople (which also runs SparkRecipes and SparkTeens), with a total of about 5.4 MM unique visitors, that assign their traffic over to Revolution Health.  Revolution Health represents these sites in ad deals, and in exchange gets to report their traffic in its "network". 

Revolution  Health also bought a few sites - CarePages in April 2007, and HealthTalk in December 2007.  It of course gets to report these sites under its traffic in comScore, and shows bump ups in traffic as a result of these acquisitions. 

If I were to take an impartial stand, I would (a) definitely remove 'ad representation' sites when reporting a site's traffic, and (b) put an asterisk next to traffic bumps due to acquisitions... but still include them.

Here is my take on comScore info for Revolution Health's traffic (leaving out smaller and sub-sites that don't contribute enough).  These are estimated numbers, of course!

Spy Shots - Lamborghini Murcielago Superleggera

I love spy shots.  Sometimes, even after I finally see the new car out in the open, I find myself missing the excitement generated by the spy shots - including trying to guess what the actual car's shape may be under the camouflage.

I have no such problems with the Lamborghini Murcielago Superleggera.  I was excited when all I knew about the car was its name, when I heard about the specs, and when I saw the spy shots;  and I will be just as excited when I finally see one drive by me.

Revolution Health Sale to Waterfront Media - update

Following my older blog post on Revolution Health possibly looking for exit strategies  (http://techperspectives-vikram-singh.blogspot.com/2008/09/revolution-health-up-for-sale-or-just.html),  now there is talk of them merging with Everyday Health, which belongs to Waterfront Media.  

I'm not sure how much conjecture there is in this news - the Washington Post was the only major news outlet that seemed to carry this article.   Plus, we've heard stuff like this before - layoff news from Revolution seems to come every couple of months.  And around August, there was talk of them merging with Glam,  which would have been funny.

So why might this merger make sense?  Well, to begin with, WebMD is the big bully in the online Health space.  Most Health sites need to sell display and other advertising to make money, and everyone plays second fiddle to WebMD.  With the market softening, this starts hurting even more.

Everyday Health and Revolution Health could merge, and start showing their combined traffic to potential advertisers and media agencies - this at least shows them  having traffic levels comparable to WebMD. 

At the same time, though, there is one issue - this would be the same as the old Daily Strength-Revolution deal, where Revolution signed up to have their ad sales team represent Daily Strength.   And they would get to show DS metrics under the Revolution name in comScore, if they needed to.  But if agencies thought about it, they would really be paying not for this combined set of eyeballs, but a lower number, since the sites would have a large overlap of users.  i.e. the true unique visitor traffic would need to be figured out, to ensure that advertisers and their agencies were getting the best deal.

Both sites were already doing this anyway - Waterfront Media operates a plethora of websites, including the one-dimensional-but-very-popular SouthBeachDiet.com site.

In terms of other strengths, Everyday Health is much better than Revolution at SEM, getting more traffic at lower cost.  And I like Revolution's branding and web 2.0-is look better.  So maybe there are synergies.... I just don't feel the combination will be greater than its parts.

Where does RightHealth,  my employer Kosmix's big Health property (#2 Health Information site per HitWise) end up with all these changes?  Well, for one thing, competition suddenly goes down in all aspects, if EveryRevolution is formed.  In my job, I'll fight against one less sales team and one less Business Development team  (I'm ignoring the benefits of more competitors right now, they are outweighed by the cons),  we'll get more traffic, the online Health space loses one major contributor to fragmentation....

To end this post, I'll throw out some potential names for the combined entity; pick your poison:

• EvolutionHealth  (my current favorite
• EveryHealthRevolution  (a close second)
• RevolutionDay
• EveryRevolution

If one of these is picked, I expect a royalty check.

Swimming Friday

Time constrained, so swam 1 km. 

Lecture at San Francisco State University MBA class

On Tuesday September 9th, I was an expert speaker/ guest lecturer at San Francisco State University's MBA class, for the course:

MGMT 831:  The Entrepreneurial Process

http://www.sfsu.edu/~bulletin/courses/mgmt.htm

I spoke on 'Creativity and Idea Generation',  and wove my talk in with the class's professor (Geoffrey Desa).   (slides are attached below).  The class was very interesting - I learnt one new tool, and got some great examples from the class of products and companies they considered creative. 

Another of my favorite parts of the class - we had some group discussions and role plays.  Coming from a company and surroundings immersed in tech, it was very interesting to hear the different ideas being discussed, which covered retail, gambling and the food industry, among others. 

I also demo'ed our new Kosmix site;  I loved the reactions of the class.  We also got to talk about Cuil's launch, and I could give some info as a search insider.

Finally, I thought through how I could have improved my part of the talk.  The class will also send feedback next week, which will help me further refine my part.

Overall, the experience was amazing, and I'm looking forward to next time!

Lego Camaro Photo

This is a photo of the latest Camaro... built to scale using just Lego!  Someone named "Crowkillers" built it.  Wow.

And somehow, the car looks even more aggressive in lego form.

Chuck Norris fact of the week

Google won't search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you.

Restaurant Review - Mingalaba, Burlingame

In the pursuit of excellent Burmese food, Nikhil found Mingalaba in Burlingame. 

Now Mingalaba is supposed to be a hybrid Burmese-Chinese restaurant.  What?  Well, why not?  Ok, point taken.

So is Mingalaba a good local less crowded alternative to driving all the way up to San Francisco or Alameda (yuck) for Burma Super Star?  Short answer - yep! 

Slightly longer answer - well, its not as good.  Everything is very good.  But Burma Super Star is still just that little bit better... for Burmese food.   So if you have time, patience, 30 minutes to find parking, a big group to hang out with while waiting in the cold for 2 hours for your turn at dinner, and only want Burmese food - go to Burma Super Star.  But if you want something pretty good with none of the hassle,  or if someone in your group wants some Chinese food on the side (or even some orange chicken!) then go to Mingalaba!

Plus, a name like Mingalaba also fuels the first 20 minutes of conversation.... each time you go.  Whats a Mingalaba?  What does it feed on?  Do we give restaurants Mingalabas instead of stars from now on?

Anyway, do go there.  And try the tea leaf salad.  Second only to Burma Super Star.  Try the Palatha, which is their version of Roti Paratha - and very very good.  Try their Pan-fried Okra and Shrimp (funnily a wonderful combination) .  Try it all.  And tell them I sent you.

Moving up the Google rankings!

I'm quite happy - I'm crawling up the Google ladder.  eg:  search for "Revolution Health up for sale", and my blog is the second search result.  Sweet!

Or search for "Revolution Health in trouble" - my blog is the third result. 

Wish I could bottle this formula.  Next step - getting my individual, focused blogs (Tech, Cars, Travel) to move up the rankings too.

Quotable Quote

A member of the British Parliament to then Prime Minister Disraeli - 'Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.'

'That depends, Sir,' said Disraeli, 'whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.'

Woot!

Spy Shots - Porsche Panamera

(Photos Captured by Herschel Brown)

Well, what can one think of the Porsche Panamera?  The front is unmistakably Porsche.  So is the rear.... after our hearts and minds adjusted to the Cayenne.  And the minor camouflaging isn't enough to confuse impressions of what the spoiler would look like..... unless they ended up without a spoiler.   But still, Porshe, you've just diluted your brand for me.  I can never see Lamborghini doing this!

Random thought - if there's a spoiler, and some machinery to control it (assuming that its not fixed in place, which hopefully it isn't), then how far does that cut into trunk space? 

Swimming Thursday

Swam 2 km again, but this time got some speed under me!  I finished in 43 minutes, which is 5-6 minutes of my previous times. 

If I can start swimming 2 km in 40 minutes,  I can then start thinking about swimming an hour a day - 3 km - without ruining too large a part of the day.  A good goal!

And the main point is, I still had to swim 1 out of every 5 laps one-handed (right hand still injured).  So with both hands, 40 minutes should be easily within reach.

Top 10 Hikes in the World

Rick McCharles at BestHike put together a list of the 10 best hikes in the world, per his opinion.  I think he has good hikes on the list.  However, I would definitely put Macchu Picchu (Peru) and Patagonia (Chile) up there.  But hey, no one said the list was objective.

1. West Coast Trail, BC, Canada
2. John Muir Trail, California, USA
3. Tongariro Northern Circuit, New Zealand
4. Ausangate Circuit, Peru
5. Sunshine to Assiniboine, Alberta, Canada
6. Glacier North Circle, Montana, USA
7. Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
8. Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
9. TMB (Tour de Mont Blanc), Europe
10. Overland Track, Tasmania

Oh yeah, the list is a little old.  But hikes are hikes.

Sony Vaio recall

Over 400K Sony Vaio laptops are being recalled,  due to an issue with burning up. 

Poor Sony.   This is quite bad.

Revolution Health up for Sale, or just in Trouble?

Tongues are wagging across the valley about Steve Case's Revolution Health being up for sale.  Is this true?  Or is Revolution just in a bit more trouble (after all the rumors of folks being unhappy and leaving, no health insurance for quite a while, etc. etc.). 

Either way, their traffic is dropping precipitously - see the graph below, from Quantcast.

This is quite the drop-off.  However, it could also be a function of Revolution slowing down their SEM efforts - they grew their traffic aggressively using SEM (and who doesn't today?), but early estimates held that the Revolution gurus were spending between $400K - $800k/month between October 2007 to May 2008, without getting a proportionate return.  If that was the case, then it makes sense that they ramp down their SEM activities until they can run them profitably, or at break-even.... or even at a loss that is sustainable, given their overall burn-rate.

There is, of course, another option - that Google changed their algos with respect to Revolution Health, temporarily destroying their SEM strategies.  It happens quite often,  much to the detriment of Google advertisers. 

(Its not just SEM players who get taken to task every now and then; SEO companies also get whacked when the big G changes its ranking algos - witness what happened to Answers.com last year).

By the way, on a totally separate note,  the graph above shows why I love Quantcast;  comScore, which is the metrics provider of choice for most advertisers and agencies (specially in the Health industry), shows a company's total network.  A few months earlier,  Revolution signed a deal with Daily Strength, to supply ads to DS.  comScore would probably show Daily Strength Page Views and other metrics under Revolution Health.

Tesla Roadster parked outside our office

Today, I found a red Tesla Roadster parked outside our office.  Very cool!   But the owner does need to clean the car a bit - it was quite dusty.  Thanks to John B and Shveta for taking the photos!

Its pretty, quite pretty.  But the size seems much smaller when you stand next to it.

I like the way they style the "A" in "Tesla"

  The Tesla emblem.  Ooh, I like!

And a final shot, with me showing it off.

Swimming Tuesday

Swam 2 km as usual.  Right hand still hurting, so parts swum one-handed. 

I took 29 minutes to swim the 2 km, with some breaks in between.  this distance doesn't tire me out at all any more, so I really need to step up the speed.

Leander Paes and Cara Black win US Open Mixed Doubles

Woohoo!  India has a presence in tennis again.  Leander Paes and Cara Black (form Zimbabwe) just won the US Open Mixed Doubles. 

Leander is 35 years old, so not sure how many more opportunities remain.  And perhaps this gives his old partner, Mahesh Bhupathi, impetus to win another one as well... and Mahesh is a bit younger, and stronger.

Go India and Zimbabwe!

Chuck Norris fact of the week

Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a Delta Force marathon on Satellite TV.

Car Review - 2008 Chevy Malibu

I drove with a bunch of friends to Yosemite this weekend.  The original plan was to rent a Mazda 6, but we got a free upgrade to the new 2008 Chevy Malibu, with less than 2,000 miles on it.  The best part was that there was plenty of trunk space, so the upgrade was worth it in that regard - we completely filled the trunk, and even had stuff left over for the back seats!

It had an inline 4-cylinder engine with 169 horsepower.  Now I drive a 300+hp monster of a BMW 335i, so I was expecting a disappointing drive.  However, given my lower expectations, the Malibu did well.  It had decent pick-up, nice and comfortable at top speed.  The only hitch came when the accelerator was floored while driving on the freeway;  the engine screamed loudly, the car shuddered a bit, but it took perceptible seconds before it started accelerating.  I would be cautious about overtaking in tight situations.

The car's exterior looks have changed a bit.  I like the new aggressive front grill.  But Chevy had better know what its doing - the grill looks like it would appeal more to younger folks; but I can't imagine the 20 - 30 year old set buying a Malibu over a Honda Accord, a Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, or even the Ford Fusion.  So they might completely miss their current older market segment, who might prefer a more relaxed look.

The interior is nice and relaxed, though, and very spacious, specially in terms of leg room.  I do also like that there is a single "info" button on the steering wheel, which gives you major car data, including tire pressure.  Thing to note, though - seemed our tire pressure readings were off, way off.  The interior has no major bells or whistles, but that's ok in this price range.  

Ok, on to the one major flaw - you can't drive it aggressively on turns.  The car can't maintain its grip, and skids if you aren't driving carefully.  Again, that means the Malibu is really for the 40+ age group, or at the least for the cautious and conservative type.... who like a dash of danger, delivered by the grill.

Finally, a close-up of the aggressive grill