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Full time cop and part time suburban Rambo, Detective John McClane aka Bruce Willis has donned his shredded vest once more for another session of fisticuffs with the bad dudes in the fourth Die hard installment, “Live free or die hard” The old school / new school plot revolves around our favorite jaded law enforcer dukeing off against a terrorist organization intent on bringing down the entire internet. Crikey, we can’t have that John! We’re strongly suspecting the subsequent battle will see our hairless hero in more sticky situation than you’d find in your average Japanese game show! A trailer has finally landed replete with the usual quota of explosions, bullets and flying car’s that we’ve come to love and associate with the franchise

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Dell

Dell’sdirect sales business model growth has slowed significantly over recent years.The company is now building a new strategic plan with an indirect sales modeland has been investing significant dollars in software, services and other IP.The challenge for Dell will be for dell to maintain its existing profit marginswhy directing resources to new products and services. To ’stop the bleeding’dell is cutting costs and headcount (by 10%). However, by adding new servicessurely the company’s high profit margins in hardware will be impacted, evenwith the reduction in expenses. This will have obvious impact on the company’soverall earnings growth.


Dell’s Profit Margins:
Gross Margin - 17.3%
Pre-Tax Margin - 6.1 %
Net Profit Margin - 4.5 %
5Yr Gross Margin (5-Year Avg.)- 17.8%
5Yr PreTax Margin (5-Year Avg.)- 8.0 %
5Yr Net Profit Margin (5-YearAvg.) - 5.9%


HOW WILL A SHIFT IN THE PRODUCTSOR SERVICES YOUR COMPANY PROVIDES EFFECT YOUR PROFIT MARGIN? HOW WILL THESECHANGES EFFECT SHAREHOLDER VALUE?
Gartner research provides the following‘recommendations’ to Dell and Dell’s End-users:


Recommendations toDell:

Cost improvements alone will not be enough for thecompany to improve growth significantly. Dell needs to continue efforts toimprove its service and support offerings, partner relationships, and investin hardware and software that is unique to the company. It also needs to marketthose capabilities effectively once they are enhanced. In combination withthose steps, Dell will need to seek cost gains where possible, to see sustainedbenefits to its business.

Recommendations toDell End-users:

Continue to treat Dell as a reliable provider ofcost-competitive computer technology. However, expect Dell to approach youabout broader service and solution engagements. Be cautious about these engagementsuntil Dell establishes a track record of success.
Dell’sEarnings Report Reflects Shift in Strategy. [Gartner]
Profit Margin Notes (see TheBottom Line on Margins, [Investopedia] for more information):
Gross Profit Margin- or gross margin for short - tells us the profit a company makes on its costof sales, or cost of goods sold. In other words, it indicates how efficientlymanagement uses labor and supplies in the production process. GrossProfit Margin = (Sales - Cost of Goods Sold)/Sales
Operating Profit Margin- By comparing earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to sales, operatingprofit margins show how successful a company’s management has been in generatingincome from the operation of the business. Operating Profit Margin= EBIT/Sales

New iphone features

John Gruber remarked on the lack of a clipboard on the iPhone and I found myself missing that feature this afternoon. Steven Johnson suggested a double-click of the Home button as a shortcut to the phone favorites screen to shorten initiation times for frequent calls. Both of these observations beg the question: how are new capabilities going to get added to the iPhone? A bunch of you are either interaction/interface designers or otherwise clever folks...how would you add a feature like a clipboard to the iPhone?

Here's where interaction on the iPhone stands right now. Pressing, holding, flipping physical buttons (home, power, silent, volume). Tapping buttons on the screen to active them. Tapping the screen to zoom in/out. Tap the screen with two fingers to zoom with Google Maps. Pinch and expand on screen to zoom in/out. Swipe screen to scroll up/down and side to side. Swipe screen to flip album covers in iPod mode. Touch and hold screen to bring up magnifying loupe and drag to move cursor. Flip unit to reorient screen from portrait to landscape and vice versa. Swipe message to delete. Swipe screen to unlock. There are probably more that I'm forgetting.

How do you add to that while keeping the interface intuitive, uncluttered (both the physical device and onscreen), and usable? Add a button to the device? Add buttons onscreen...a menu button perhaps? Double and triple pressing of physical buttons? New touchscreen gestures? Physical gestures like shaking the entire phone to left or right? Voice activated features? A combination of some/all of those?

first third party native iphone application available now

Google Code is hosting the first third-party native application ever for the iPhone. A real full-fledged iPhone application with a graphic user interface and its own icon in the iPhone home screen. Yes, this is not a Web 2.0 app but the real thing, as you can see in the picture.

The application is MobileTerminal, "a terminal emulator application for the iPhone. MobileTerminal.app is NOT an SSH client, nor Telnet for that matter. It can however be used to execute a console ssh-client application."
While most iPhone users won't find a terminal emulator exciting, there are plenty of reasons to get thrilled about this development. First and foremost, this is the first iPhone native graphical application done without an official SDK from Apple (there are others, but they are low-level.) This means that hackers are steady at work trying to do useful stuff with the JesusPhone beyond unlocking it and that more applications will follow.
Second, if Google Code is hosting this it probably means either that 1) Apple is giving the nod to this kind of development, 2) they are going to release an SDK or 3) Apple will realize the need for people to access the iPhone as a development platform to do really cool stuff with it. All three options are good for me.
And finally, and most important, we can only hope that someone develops ScummVM and MAME, two game emulation platforms, soon. I want unlimited classic arcade games and Monkey Island in my iPhone.

HP Laptop Customer Service, the ultimate oxymoron
Dear Bill & Dave,
First let me say for the past 30 years, I've loved the company you created. Working there was a wonderful experience, and in those days the HP Way was something to be proud of. But I have to tell you, things are seriously broken. It's not in the hand-held group. Ken Dobbie there is doing a great job. He solved my iPAQ issues professionally, quickly and successfully, winning me back as a fan of the iPAQ. From the time he heard of my problems to the time he solved them was exactly 24 hours. That is responsiveness the HP Way.
Then there are the laptop folks. You need to know that I've been buying HP printers, ink, paper, handhelds and laptops ever since I worked there. As it happens, I bought this HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop because we were working for HP and they wanted us to use their products. I can only imagine how you guys would have reacted if I'd told you that the the report you commissioned from me would be three weeks late because the product that you designed, produced and sold me didn't work. The good news is, I'm no longer working on the HP account, so I guess it doesn't matter. But you really would be appalled by how they respond to loyal customers these days. First they told me via email it would be back on July 27th. They lied. On July 27th as I waited in the office until dark thinking that maybe FedEx would come, they emailed me to say that it would ship August 3rd. On the 3rd, I once again made arrangements to ensure that if Fed Ex were to deliver the laptop, someone would be there to sign for it, only to find out that no, they lied again. It hadn't been shipped at all. And in fact, due to screw ups in logistics, no one seems to be able to tell me when it WILL be returned. The obvious truth is that they bought bad parts, should have recalled them or at least ordered more replacements, and when they started to fail in large numbers, got overwhelmed in support and are now in utter chaos. I know that this is NOT the HP WAY you had in mind. And it probably isn't the HP that Mark Hurd envisioned either. But its a bit hard to say that he inherited these guys.... The problem is that this does seem to be the new HP Way. I"m clearly not the only one with this kind of problem. I know what you would have done. You would have taken a new working laptop, put my old hard drive in the new machine and sent it back to me. Their latest email to me indicates that someone will contact me in the next three working days to let me know what is up. Of course by that time I will have bought a new Dell laptop and HP will have lost a die-hard fan of some 30 years. Sorry Bill and Dave.

Anniyan Cast & Crew :
Cast: Vikram, Sada, Prakash Raj, Nedumudi Venu Direction: Shankar Anniyan Music Composer : Harris Jayraj
Banner: Oscar Films / Oscar V Ravichandran

Director Shankar's previous movie 'Boys' struggled so much to even enter the box office. The film’s criticism that it was vulgar affected the box office. Oscar films Ravichandran too suffered a setback with his films Jay Jay and Thendral. So, Shankar and Oscar Ravichandran eagerly awaiting the box office results of Tamil cinema Anniyan. Anniyan travel bills alone has crossed Rs 22 lakhs. The films total budget is estimated to be Rs 26 crore. IDBI has funded the film to the tune of Rs 8.50 crores. According to Director Shankar the story line of Anniyan is , "When we travel around the International Countries, We would wonder about their economical status, Cleanliness, Life Style, etc., We also would feel that why our country has not grown like them..." The thought of this kind landed in the story of "Anniyan". Vikram's Character is very new. It would be shocking, action story, beautiful love, a very different Vikram, and bright Sadha. Anniyan crew painted 350 houses beautifully in Thenkasi for a song, shot a song in Malaysian Airport for the First Time . Anniyan team conducted a Carnatic Cutcheri with the help of Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, Arun and other numerous carnatic musicians. Almost people would feel the Thiruvaiaru Cutcheri Festival while viewing that song. Who says Shankar can’t give his best outside A.R.Rahman’s music fold? Along with Harris Jayaraj, he has made a whole lot of young gifted singers like Nakul, Melvin, G.V.Prakash, Harini, Leslie Louis, Andrea, Jassie Gift and veterans like Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, KK and Vasundhara Das. “Kannum Kannum Nokia…, Nee Kolai Kollum Mafia…, Cappacino Coffee..a O’ Sofia…” sung by Leslie Lewis, Andrea and Vasundhara Das.The Jassie Gift, KK, Shreya Ghosal number “Andan Kakka Kondaikari…” is a typical folk ‘gana’ number. The highlight of the album is “Iyengar Veetu Azhage…” sung by Hariharan and Harini. Shankar Mahedevan and Harini’s soft classical number “Kumari….” is another melodious number.

Let see whether Anniyan Team will deliver a block buster of the year or just an ordinary film.

Shankar's Aparichitudu Review :
(by : Manohar Chimmani - Tollywood Director )
We expect big films from Shankar. Yes. That is his brand image. With the latest Aparichitudu, Shankar tries to explain Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) in the simplest of terms. And succeeds to a maximum possible extent. From Gentleman to Boys, director Shankar's track record at the box-office is impeccable. If Gentleman, Bharateeyudu and Oke Okkadu were about corruption in society, Aparichitudu is about how procrastination is plunging our society into an irredeemable abyss. Starring Vikram, Sada, Prakash Raj and Vivek, Aparichitudu is seen through the eyes of a Brahmin lawyer, who asks us to take a look at what procrastination has done to our country. -

Shankar's Aparichitudu starring Vikram and Sada is gearing up to release on 17th of June in both Andhra and Tamilnadu. The film, reportedly made on a whopping budget of about 25 crores registering the film as one of the costliest south Indian movie made, is opening with high expectations. In Telugu, the film is releasing with about 150 prints. Worldwide the film will release with 404 prints. High expectations are due to the crazy combination of Shankar and Vikram. Harris Jayaraj composed music for this film. The film secured a clean U certificate from the censor and also, as media sources reported, preview was shown yesterday and the report is very promising. Vikram comes in different getups in this film. Shankar wanted the film to release on 17th for sentimental reasons. His Indian released on June 17th few years ago. Vikram is captivating the audience with his mindblowing performances in variety roles starting from Sethu (Telugu Seshu). Then followed Kasi (Telugu Srinu Vasanth Laxmi), Dhil (Telugu Sriram), Gemini (Telugu Gemini), Samurai (dubbed Samurai), Pitamagan (dubbed Sivaputrudu). Now it is Aparichitudu (Anniyan). The tag line of the film itself is very different. It reads "He who comes from hell is not afraid of hot ashes". In this film Vikram is playing Ramanujam, a lawyer by profession. As told by the director, this lawyer will start a process to change the attitude of the society which is in deep slumber. Prakashraj is doing a key role, who also appears in variety getups. Sada is the heroine playing the role of Nandini.

Excited.This is one word that explains the feeling when one gets while seeing this poster of the movie “Sivaji”
I cant imagine a bigger platform for movie hype than this since the day Edison invented moving pictures! Rajini in the lead, with Shankar mastering the direction. AVM is producing it. Adding catalyst to the hype is A.R.Rehman’s music. Frankly, it doesn’t matter if Aishwarya agrees to work in this movie or not! This is already big and we don’t need her to make it bigger. And also, my favorite comedy “thalaivar” vivek is in it :-)

This one picture speaks for itself.
This photo is taken while shooting near Chennai central railway station. Shankar managed keep all other shooting spots a secret, but not this one! :-)
To see Rajini back in to the 80’s look is going to be a treat. I can track back those good old days when Rajini was a real style-icon. He still is a icon today in 2006 but I don’t think the word “style” can be attached to him anymore as age catches up with time. But hey who am I to say, take a second look at the photo and I would love to contradict myself.
I can’t wait for the release of Sivaji. It is going to be a commercial hit, no one can argue about it.
The first day first show madness will be bigger than ever now…
The sound of crazy fans whistling is sure not to allow any one in listen to any dialogues for the first week in theatres…
End of every show you would see tones of torn papers that were thrown by the fans while the show was running…
Milk prices will suddenly shoot up due to demand by rajini fans to perform “milk poojas and abhishegams” for their “god alias thalaivar”
I wonder if they will post pone school/college exams this time around…
Sponsors in the form on “tiger biscuit” and “coca-cola” will carry Sivaji logos on their products…
You would see more posters behind auto-rickshaw’s than you see on the city streets…
There will be Sivaji t-shirts worn by college students all over the city like crazy…
Suddenly everyone will talk about “rasigar manram” shows (fan-club shows) (I doubt if there is such a thing)
There will be traffic jams in front every theatre during show start and end times…
“only” positive reviews in SUN TV and in every other television and magazines…
Vijay/Ajith and other young heroes will suddenly start calling Rajini as “thalaivar” to get publicity for them…
This is how things were and are and things will be. I personally want them to stay that way. :-)
I will surely be trying to get a ticket through my “high-handed” and influential friends to get a ticket in the first week!