AlPhA KaPpA DeLtA PhI

News hungry media barons are working around the clock to make news and deliver them to easily distracted viewers. This is a good and a bad trend that we are witnessing in today’s world.

On the positive side, news is readily available to anyone at a glance. Large sized captions and and even larger pictures are hard to miss. Sensationalized news essentially means that the news is interpreted and published for the reader. This is a break from the past where news was simply a report and not an opinion on it. For viewers who agree with a newspaper or a magazine’s view point this is easiest and quickest way to get access to news. In other words, the media is simply catering to that group of readers or viewers. The supply meets demand and that is good economics.

On the other negative side, for the other group of viewers there is only a biased opinion to look at and this does not give the whole picture. These people prefer news to be simply what it was meant for and not opinionated. The larger issue is that the truth behind a story is lost in the process of commercializing it and fear that the media publishes what is news worthy and not what is news, looms large. Men who control the media become powerful and this leads to compromises on ethical values and rise in nepotism.

After looking at both sides of the issue, it would be a fair conclusion to say that media is guilty of sensationalizing news for benefits, commercial and personal. This trend can be dangerous and may eventually affect the media. If the reader does not agree with the opinions and simply wishes to stop subscribing to it, it is a loss that the media could do without.

E-commerce is very much in vogue these days. A lot of new companies are mushrooming around the world, pinning their hopes on this market. Their strategy is simple. Promote your site actively on sites generating traffic and get customers to take a look at your offerings. Once you have your customers, they will leave a big bag full of goods, because on-line shopping is easier than manual shopping.

Popular items include chariots de golf, gift items, toys, cds and books. Some times even tables and cushions, or tablier de cuisine, as the French would say it, are popular. If you are an entrepreneur, an e-commerce site would be your best bet.

For many, this trend may seem like the dot-com boom, but the similarity ends there.

Thomas Freidman’s The World is Flat made the case for globalisation, rewriting the rules of competition by focusing on Silicon Valley entrepreneurs such as PV Kannan, co-founder and CEO, 24/7 Customer, who set up the first BPO outsourcing operations in India.

In an interview, the California-based entrepreneur shed light on how his firm helps companies deal with customers in the age of Twitter. According to him, companies can use predictive sales software based on advanced mathematical models with online chat to convert people trawling through websites into serious buyers. Excerpts:

Companies are sifting through gobs of digital data that customers feed networks while working, chatting and shopping online to build businesses. How does 24/7 Customer use data and mathematical models to help customers increase sales?

On any given day, big companies receive millions of hits on their websites and the conversions are still fairly low. Visitors come for different purposes, to buy products, or get answers about a purchased product. Can we predict the intention of a visitor to a website? That is the layer that we are peeling with data and mathematical models.

We see a message in a click. If a customer spends two minutes looking at a luxury watch or life insurance rates and lives in a rich neighbourhood or zip code, it signifies something. 24/7 Customer is also working on predictive customer service, doing data modelling on customer behaviour, so firms know the issues a customer is likely to have, say, within the first 72 hours of purchasing a product.

One of our business units, 24/7 Innovation Labs, has created models that enable real-time prediction of customer behaviour. It used statisticians to develop advanced mathematical models to predict how visitors to the Adobe Systems website would shop.

They mined data on website traffic, product average order value and online behaviour, which helped to create models that predict who will need assistance, when they will need assistance and then trigger an intervention with a chat for those customers that need help. It offers a way of converting browsers into buyers. Adobe has been using SalesNextT for a year with great results.

We have 14 customers, who use what we call our modelling software; some of those clients also use our online and call centre services.

It is labelled the next-generation gadget, which will bridge the gap between smart phones and laptops. The iPad, a sleek, 9.7-inch touch-screen tablet launched in San Francisco on Wednesday, is Apple’s biggest bet on a new product since the iPhone.

According to Apple distributors in India, the granite tile gadget will be available in the country by March or April and cost the same as in the US — $500 (Rs 23, 000) plus 16 percent tax, taking the price to about Rs 27, 000 for the 16GB version. Higher-capacity models will sell for $599 (Rs 28, 000) and $699 (Rs 32, 500), excluding taxes.

“We will start getting shipments in three weeks,” said an official with an Apple distributor in India. But shop owners at Heera Panna are already fielding calls from potential buyers. “We have received about 10 calls inquiring about the product. We expect the iPad’s sales to soar once it is available,” said Shailesh Jain of Saba Collections.

Manish Bhasin, owner of Jain Shaab, said, “People usually like to get their hands on the gadget in the first few days and some are even willing to pay double the price.”

Water with high levels of calcium and magnesium is termed “hard water”. Groundwater is usually hard water since it contains dissolved minerals from the soil and rock it passes through before reaching your well. Hard water poses problems to home appliances and household chores. The calcium and magnesium in the water deposit and form scale in household plumbing and appliances. As well, the minerals in the hard water reduce the effectiveness of household soaps and detergents. As a result, more cleansing product is needed, scum is formed from the reaction of soap with calcium and magnesium, and clothing that goes through the laundry loses some of its brightness to the scum.

To solve the problems caused by hard water, water softeners are often used. Most of these use some form of salt. Water softeners remove calcium and magnesium from the water by ion exchange with sodium. Sodium chloride, or table salt, is added to the water softener to provide the source of sodium ions. Check out water softeners for more info …

Followed by the negative feedback from the first set of viewers, the vulgarity shown by Reema in Selvaraghavan’s Magnum opus “Aayirathil Oruvan”  is now re-edited to make it suite for all class of audience.

Reema  expected Aayiraththil Oruvan as  a break in her career but the scenes related to her skin show especially at Kohler faucet was now removed, so the ravishing Reema is upset.

Without accepting any other offer for nearly two years Remma has completed this mega movie, but all her time and energy is now considered as futile.

When we asked selva about this, the veteran director says its not in his hands once the film was released,  its all up to the hands of distributors.

It is really a sad news that will sure hurt the creators like selva and bold reema who has put such an effort for this historical fantasy movie.