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[9 Jun 2009 | 7 Comments | ]
Oracle-Sun acquisition: marriage destined for divorce

Heart burn awaits shareholders and Larry, and disappointment awaits Sun aficionados.
Feel free to call me paranoid or skeptical. why? I really don’t see the point in Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) buying out Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA). It just does not make any straight forward business sense. Of course, as  pundits believe, Oracle  deliberately jumped into the deal to cut off IBM (NYSE: IBM) from taking over Sun, especially for the big enterprise accounts. Still many Fortune 1000 enterprises use Sun OS and hardware products, which often runs Oracle. If IBM takes over …

Business, Featured, Reviews, startup reviews »

[27 Jan 2009 | One Comment | ]
LinkedIn recommendation feature is seriously flawed

I just happened to notice that a friend of mine had given glowing LinkedIn recommendation  for his boss. Let’s call the boss as John Doe for now. I knew very well that my friend hated and despised John Doe. My friend used to joke that John Doe is an enormously insecure, self-doubting, pessimistic and sarcastic personality wrapped in Xanax. So obviously I was shocked by the glowing recommendation and prompted for a phone call. Following is how the conversation went:
[after usual pleasantry exchanges, we delved into the issue at hand]
me: …

Business, Reviews »

[5 Dec 2008 | 3 Comments | ]
Careerbuilder.com Layoffs

Apparently rumors are making rounds about significant layoff at CareerBuilder.com. In my mind, this layoff is significant than any other layoffs as it clearly demonstrates the deteriorating state of the job market. Let me put it this way, CareerBuilder knows and understands the job market really well:  it must be getting bad, otherwise why would they layoff?

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Companies must be getting weary of paying those huge listing fees, while CraigsList costs next to nothing. Hmm.. should I …

Business, Reviews, startup reviews »

[3 Dec 2008 | 2 Comments | ]
Startup Review: divorce360.com

Updated on 12/3/2008 based on feedback from Paula at Divorce360. This blog entry  focused mainly on their marriage/divorce calculator. However, their site does offer lot other tools for people going through (or contemplating) divorce. While it is not a useful site for me, it may be for you depending on your situation. I.E., do your own DD.

Approximately 1.3 million couples divorce each year. Divorce360.com was created to help people contemplating, going through or …

Business, Reviews, startup reviews »

[3 Dec 2008 | No Comment | ]
Startup Review: Wigix.com

Wigix is the new way to buy and sell on-line. It’s a socially-driven marketplace, where you can communicate with like-minded collectors and traders. Get a live pricing history for each item and negotiate prices intelligently. Social communication encourages informed buying. This is the actual business description from Wigix.com. Well, that sounds like eBay, right?
Ever since eBay alienated it’s customer base with consistent commission rate increases, numerous sites are popping up to attract the disgruntled ebay customers. Wigix’s mantra is to offer a reduced fee structure, which was the cornerstone of …

Business, Reviews »

[3 Dec 2008 | No Comment | ]
What’s wrong with Motorola? Aura costs about $2000!

when you think about Motorola as brand, what comes to your mind? A commodity phone maker or a fashion designer? Well, if you are like me, you will think of Motorola as a phone maker appealing to the mass market, at least with reasonably priced phones. Never crossed my mind in the league of Tag Heuer Meridiist. (BTW, Tag Heuer Meridiist is the maker of $6000 phones).
Motorola’s new product, Aura, priced at $2000 hits the market tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong, it is a cool phone, which looks like a …

Business, Reviews »

[3 Dec 2008 | No Comment | ]
Tivo Rocks - not only a verb, but also an epidemic

Have you heard about “Tivo Guilty“? Probably not, but you may be suffering from it if you are  a Tivo subscriber. What is Tivo Guilty? Basically it is the guilty feeling a person has after recording shows and never getting around to watch them.
Is this a new phenomena or epidemic outbreak? Apparently not, a quick googling of “Tivo Guilty” brings about half-a-million search results, dating back to 2006.
Is this “Tivo Guilty” epidemic a bad thing? May be for consumers with Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCDs) and people with pack-rat mentality. But …

Business, Reviews »

[2 Dec 2008 | No Comment | ]

Who wouldn’t want a deal these days, especially with the economy tanking and personal savings twindling? Enter Amex’s Wishlist program. Basically, you list your wish list and AMEX will make the dream come true. For example, you can get a Dell Laptop at deep discounts; gotta love it. Apparently lots of vendors have signed up for this program.
Does this model, credit card company owning the end customer, make web sites like Amazon irrelevant? Not necessarily, but would certainly have an impact on their profit margins. This is especially true for …

Business, Reviews »

[2 Dec 2008 | No Comment | ]

This morning we decided to get some images for our new website, to be powered by myGPSID’s Address IDs. Upon googling, we ended up with Getty Images. Don’t get me wrong, their images were polished and good. So I took time to register; only then you will get the price of each photo!! Anyhow, after registering, you have to go through this painful process of price estimation, answering tons of questions. When, where, how, what of the image usage. You will also need to list the countries where the images …