srini's blog

Plan to charge businesses for e-mail triggers outcry

2006-02-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

Marketers say AOL's effort to certify messages and reduce spam amounts to e-mail taxation.
America Online's plan to start charging businesses to send commercial e-mail messages is creating an uproar among some marketers, a newspaper reported Monday.

Some marketers argue AOL's plan to implement a certified e-mail system, which could charge advertisers $2 to $3 per 1,000 messages, is a form of e-mail taxation, USA Today said.

Quick VoteShould businesses be charged for sending mass e-mail messages?
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Last October, AOL and Yahoo! both agreed to deploy a certified e-mail system designed by technology firm Goodmail Systems.

AOL is testing the program and plans to implement it within the next month or two, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham told CNNMoney.com.

Yahoo! (Research), which said when it signed up with Goodmail that it would work with the company to certify messages containing bank statements, receipts and other "transactional" messages, is also expected to implement the system in coming months.

The certified e-mail system is designed to ensure users that messages arriving in their inbox are from a legitimate sender. Each message sent through Goodmail is embedded with a security token that must be detected before the message can be delivered to a user's inbox and identified as certified mail.

Goodmail negotiates the market rate it charges commercial e-mailers based on the volume of messages to be sent, and AOL receives a share of that revenue, according to AOL's Graham.

But some marketers say the system is merely designed to generate a new revenue stream for AOL, the Internet division of Time Warner. (CNNMoney.com is also a unit of Time Warner Inc.)

"It's taxation of the good guys with cash, and it does nothing to help the good guys who can't afford the cost or to deter the bad guys who spam anyway," Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path, an e-mail services company, was quoted as saying in USA Today.

Graham dismissed those claims as "competitive chatter" and said that any revenue generated from the certified e-mail system is "modest" and will be used to beef up the company's anti-spam efforts.

"This is an optional system, it's purely voluntary," he told CNNMoney.com. "The program benefits consumers as well as e-mailers."

Real estate deals: The American model

2006-01-26T14:31:00.000-08:00

Unlike in India, many parties are involved in realty deals in the U.S. — the closing agent, title company, attorney, real estate agent, lender, appraiser, surveyor, pest (termite) and building inspection company and insurance agent. TRANSACTION RULE: Each new property buyer in the U.S. has to take a completely new policy regardless of how recently the seller had taken a title insurance. We were recently in the U.S. seeing our son, like other young Indian professionals, acquire a house of his own in California. I had also the opportunity to go through a very useful book, Your Real Estate Closing by Sandy Gadow ( @ Amazon ). Like in India, there was a boom in real estate prices in the U.S. also but it has now reached a plateau. A transaction can take, on an average, about 8-10 weeks for completion. In the U.S. investment in property, considered as the largest financial commitment for the majority, is treated with seriousness and with respect for law. Unlike in India, many parties are involved in such transactions- the closing agent, title company, attorney, real estate agent, lender, appraiser, surveyor, pest (termite) and building inspection company and insurance agent. The concerned parties take precaution at every stage and experts are engaged to handle various functions, like inspection of property and documents and insurance against possible and potential defects in title. One such protection, which can be considered as the most vital, is title insurance.

Title Insurance

This system is something unique. Title Insurance (TI) is a guarantee that the buyer gets what he pays for in a transaction for real estate. It guarantees that the real ownership of the property in concern is exactly as stated in recorded documents. It does not, however, cover personal property like furniture, curtains and refrigerator.TI protects against all imponderables like incompetent past action, clerical errors, an insane or minor person having signed an earlier deed, undisclosed heirs, incorrect interpretation of wills, signing by someone without authority, or any possible forgery in the entire past chain of title signatures. In sum, it insures against claims made by third parties against the title. In the U.S., marital status not correctly stated, can also lead to problems.In India we do not have this system and it is hoped that with the entry of new players in the general insurance field (including foreign entities) this coverage may be available soon.The protection provided by an owner's policy continues until he has an interest in it. When he dies his heirs or devisees (beneficiaries to whom the property is willed) remain protected. However, the policy is not assignable or transferable to subsequent purchases of the property. Each new buyer has to take a completely new policy regardless of how recently the seller had a title search conducted and had taken a title insurance.The insurer may list certain exceptions, that is, things that will not be covered and the purchaser has to find out ways to deal with them. There could also be some easements attached to the transaction, that is, the right of one person to make limited use of another's property, for example the right to cross it or maintain a road or right-of - way or the right to install and maintain public utility services. In such cases the insurer is asked to draw the relevant `plot-map'. The TI policy availed of by my son, is `forever', even after he relinquishes his title, but he cannot assign or transfer the policy to anyone else. The policy insures `i) any one who inherits his title after his death, ii) his spouse who receives the title because of the dissolution of his marriage (typical U.S. prescience); iii) the trustee or successor trustee of a trust to whom the title is transferred after the policy date; and iv) the beneficiaries of the trust upon his death. The premium paid on the policy was just three percent of the insured value.Termite inspectionAnother vital element in sale closing is termite inspection. The parties to a sale transaction in the U.S. will include expert termite inspectors also. It is essential as wood is one of the main building materials there. Even a relatively new house can cause termite problem.Earlier inspection for termite was confined to the ground floor of a building and its underside. However the process, presently, is more comprehensive; it involves checking for signs of wood damage throughout a building, no matter what the cause.Inspectors will look for signs of fungus, dry rot, faulty grade levels, earth-wood contacts, water leaks, scattered wood scraps and cellulose debris in the subsoil, and excessive moisture conditions, evidence of subterranean termites, dry wood and damp wood termites and other wood destroying pests such as certain varieties of beetles. The inspection report would advise two types of action to be taken, namely, corrective work to remedy current infestation and preventive work to prevent future or threatened infestation.Like in India inspectors can take their clients for a ride. A few will not take up inspection unless they are also assigned the job of termite control. When there is more than one way to remedy a problem, some not expensive and others expensive, an unscrupulous inspector may recommend the costlier option. Ms. Gadow cites in her book two revealing instances — an inspector calling for $4,000 worth of work to be done, later satisfactorily completed in another way for just $5.It is to be noted that neither termite inspection nor clearance of the inspection is required by law. Pest control companies that undertake termite inspection are licensed and regulated by a State Structural Pest Control Board. The Inspection Reports are filed with the Board and the copy filed on any building in the preceding two years, are made available to the public.

San Francisco, California

2006-01-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth-largest city in the state of California, in the United States.
The city is a focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, and forms part of the greater San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area (CSA), whose population is over 7 million. U.S. census data show that San Francisco has the highest population density of any major U.S. city aside from New York City.
The first Europeans to settle in San Francisco were the Spanish, in 1776. With the advent of the California gold rush in 1848 the city entered a period of rapid growth.
The best-known, as well as biggest, park is Golden Gate Park which is 174 acres larger than New York's Central Park. Another notable park is The Presidio at the south edge of the Golden Gate. The Presidio is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz, and many other large local parks. Buena Vista Park located in the Haight-Ashbury, is the city's oldest, established in 1867, nearby Alamo Square is famous for its views of the city and the famous Victorian houses known as the Painted Ladies. A large fresh-water lake, Lake Merced, is located in the south west corner of the city near San Francisco State University and Fort Funston.
Sister cities
San Francisco has fourteen sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI):
Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Assisi, Umbria, Italy
Caracas, Venezuela
Cork, Ireland
Haifa, Israel
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Manila, Philippines
Osaka, Japan
Seoul, South Korea
Paris, France
Shanghai, People's Republic of China
Sydney, Australia
Taipei, Taiwan
Thessaloniki, Greece
Zürich, Switzerland

SeaWorld

2006-01-14T00:45:00.000-08:00

Sea World, San Diego

SeaWorld is a chain of theme parks in the United States, with operations in Orlando, Florida, San Diego, California, San Antonio, Texas, and previously Cleveland, Ohio. The parks feature killer whale, sea lion, and dolphin shows and zoological displays featuring various other marine animals. The parks' icon is Shamu the killer whale.
SeaWorld has made many contributions to wildlife conservation. SeaWorld scientists, zoologists, trainers and rescue teams participate in research and wildlife preservation. Recently, SeaWorld teams have helped saved beached whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions and helped raise the awareness of endangered manatees.

Las Vegas

2006-01-14T00:37:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas Strip

Las Vegas is the most populous city in Nevada, United States. The city was founded in the first decade of the 20th century, and is a major vacation, shopping, and gambling destination. Las Vegas was given its name by Spaniards in the Antonio Armijo party, who used the water in the area while heading north and west along the Old Spanish Trail from Texas.

The primary drivers of the Las Vegas economy have been the confluence of tourism, gaming, and conventions which in turn feed the retail and dining industries. Several companies involved in the manufacture of electronic gaming machines, such as slot machines, are located in the Las Vegas area, draws numerous legal service industries providing bail, marriage, divorce, tax, incorporation and other legal services.

Crater Lake

2006-01-14T00:32:00.000-08:00

Crater Lake

Crator Lake

Crater Lake is a lake in the U.S. state of Oregon that is 5 by 6 miles (8 by 9.6 km) and 1958 ft (597 m) deep. It is Crater Lake National Park's most prominent feature and is famous for its deep blue color, water clarity and vertical driftwood, named Old Man of the Lake. The lake partly fills a nearly 4000 ft (1220 m) deep caldera that was formed around 6900 years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama

Mount Shasta

2006-01-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

Mount Shasta

Mount Shasta, (formerly known as Mt. Sisson until 1922) a 14,179-foot (4,322 m) stratovolcano, is the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range and the second-highest peak in California outside of the Sierra Nevada [1]. The mountain stands 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above the surrounding area and has an estimated volume of 108 mile³ (450 km³).

Me infront of Mount Shasta

The mountain consists of four separate cones buried atop one another. Shastina 12,300 ft (3,749 m) is the most obvious cone and forms a lesser summit. It has a fully intact summit crater which shows that Shastina postdates the last ice age. The rest of Shasta's surface is relatively free of glacial erosion except, paradoxically, for its south side where Sargents Ridge runs parallel to the U-shaped Avalanche Gulch (the largest glacial valley on the volcano, although it does not presently have a glacier in it). There are five named, yet tiny, glaciers clustered on the mountain's north side.
There are many buried glacial scars on the mountain that were originally excavated in glacial periods ("ice ages") of the present Wisconsinian glaciation. Most have since been filled-in with andesite lava, pyroclastic flows, and talus from lava domes.

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2006-01-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

Wedding anniversary

Deepavali

2006-01-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

On deepavali day

Diwālī or Dīpāvali (also transliterated Deepavali; Sanskrit: row of lights) is the Hindu Festival of Lights. For Jains it is one of the most important festivals, and beginning of the Jain year. It is also a significant festival for the Sikh faith.
Diwali is one of the most popular and eagerly awaited festivals of India. It is celebrated for 5 consecutive days in the Hindu month of Ashwayuja which usually corresponds to the month of October or November. Hindus, Jains and Sikh celebrate Diwali and use the occasion to celebrate life and strengthen relationships.
Celebrations focus on lights and lamps, particularly traditional diyas (as illustrated). Fireworks may also be associated with the festival in some regions.
தீபாவளி, ஐப்பசி அமாவாசை அன்று இந்துக்களால் கொண்டாடப்படும் பண்டிகையாகும்.
தீபம் என்றால் ஒளி, விளக்கு. ஆவளி என்றால் வரிசை. வரிசையாய் விளக்கேற்றி, இருள் நீக்கி, ஒளி தரும் பண்டிகையே தீபாவளி ஆகும். தீபத்தில் பரமாத்மாவும், நெருப்பில் ஜீவாத்மாவும் வாசம் செய்து அருள் தருவதாய் ஐதீகம். தீபாவளி அன்று அனைவரும் அதிகாலையில் எழுவர். இல்லத்தின் மூத்த உறுப்பினர் ஒவ்வொருவர் காலிலும் நலங்கு (மஞ்சளும் சுண்ணாம்பும் கலந்த கலவை) இட்டு மகிழ்வர் பின் எண்ணெய்க் குளியல் (கங்கா ஸ்நானம்) செய்வர். நல்லெண்ணெயில் ஓமம் மற்றும் மிளகு போட்டு காய்ச்சுவது சிலரது வழக்கம். மக்கள் புத்தாடை உடுத்தியும் பட்டாசுகள் வெடித்தும் மகிழ்வர்.
பொதுவாக தீபாவளி அன்று பாரம்பரிய உடைகளை அணியவே பெரும்பாலான தென்னிந்திய மக்கள் விரும்புகின்றனர். அன்று அநேக பெண்டிர் புடவையிலும் (குறிப்பாக பட்டுப்புடவை) ஆடவர் வேட்டியிலும் தென்படுவர். தீபாவளி அன்று ஒவ்வொரு இல்லத்திலும் மங்கள இசையான நாதஸ்வரம் ஒலிக்கும். அன்று இனிப்புகள் நிறைய செய்து ஒருவருக்கொருவர் பரிமாறிக்கொள்வர். பரிசுகள் தந்து மகிழ்வர். பெரியோரை வணங்கி வாழ்த்து பெறுவர். தீபாவளி லேகியம் (செரிமானத்திற்கு உகந்தது) அருந்துவதும் மரபு.

2006-01-06T22:17:00.000-08:00

Bigsby Bridge, big sur

Big Sur

is a section of the central California coast, typically considered to run for 90 miles (145km) from Carmel-by-the-Sea in the north to the Hearst Castle at San Simeon in the south. It is characterized by the collision of coastal mountain ranges, locally named the Santa Lucia Range, with the Pacific Ocean. Throughout much of Big Sur, this produces dramatic sea cliffs and undersea kelp forests. The steepest elevation increase from sea level in the lower 48 United States is located here, where Cone Peak stands 5,155 feet (1.57km) above the Pacific, only 3.2 miles (5.15km) from the coast. The mountains trap most of the moisture out of the clouds, often in the form of morning fogs, creating a favorable environment for forests, including the southernmost habitat of the famous coast redwood. Farther inland, in the rain shadow, the conifer forests disappear and the vegetation becomes open oak woodland, then transitions into the more familiar fire-tolerant California chaparral scrub.

List of state parks in Big Sur (north to south)

2006-01-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

golden gate bridge,san francisco

2006-01-06T22:14:00.000-08:00

pier 39 christmas tree, san francisco

2006-01-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

going back to the boat

Alcatraz Island

2006-01-06T22:10:00.000-08:00

Alcatraz prison building

Alcatraz Island is located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California. It was formerly used as a military stockade and later as a maximum security prison. Today, the island is a historic site supervised by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to tours. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

It is home to the now abandoned prison, the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools, a seabird colony, and unique views of the coastline.

Alcatraz was a military fort from 1850 to 1933. The United States Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz were acquired by the United States Department of Justice on October 12, 1933. The island became a federal prison on August, 1934. During the 29 years it was in use, the jail held such notable criminals as Al Capone; Robert Franklin Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz; and Alvin Karpis, who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate.

2006-01-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Alcatraz Island

2006-01-06T22:08:00.000-08:00

annamalai classmates

The University
The Annamalai University is a unitary, teaching and residential university. It was founded by the munificence of the farsighted and noble hearted philanthropist and patron of letters the late Hon'ble Dr. Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar of Chettinad, Kt, LL.D., D.Litt. He started several colleges and ultimately the University in 1929. Since its inception, it has progressively tried to realize the aims of the noble Founder Pro-Chancellor. After him, his illustrious son Padma Bhushan Dr. Rajah Sir Muthiah Chettiar of Chettinad, was the Pro-Chancellor from 1948 to 1984 and he sedulously nurtured the growth and development of the University. The present Pro-Chancellor Dr.M.A.M. Ramaswamy, a philanthropist and a patron of sports, is the distinguished son of Dr.Rajah Sir Muthiah Chettiar. The University has had the unique good fortune of having a succession of eminent Vice-Chancellors to guide its destinies. During the last seventy five years the University has grown rapidly and consolidated its position as a unitary and residential University with Forty eight Departments of Study and over 1664 members on its teaching staff. Annamalainagar is already a busy and full-fledged University town east of Chidambaram, the abode of Lord Nataraja. The University campus, including the colleges, hostels and playgrounds occupies an area of about thousand acres.
About Chidambaram
Lord Nataraja eternally dances the cosmic dance Rejoicing over his preferred Devotee’s Godly deed.The Raja saheb’s founding of Annamalai UniversityIn the finges of his abode.

2006-01-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

on the boat to alcatraz island

2006-01-06T22:03:00.000-08:00

pier 39, san francisco

Sand City, California

2006-01-06T21:42:00.000-08:00

sand city beach with Avinash

Sand City is a town located in Monterey County, California. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 261.
Geography

Sand City is located at 36°36'53" North, 121°51'0" West (36.614759, -121.850060)GR1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.6 km² (2.9 mi²). 1.5 km² (0.6 mi²) of it is land and 6.1 km² (2.4 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 80.55% water.

Microsoft Launches Advertising-Technology Research Center

2005-07-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

Microsoft

has brought together researchers from MSN and Microsoft Research, and tasked them with creating technology to refine the world of online advertising.
ADVERTISEMENT In a move designed to reduce Google's dominance in paid-search services, Microsoft's MSN adCenter Incubation Lab (adLab) will work out of a new laboratory in Beijing and focus on creating better advertising technology.
MSN's adCenter was launched last year to help Microsoft become more aggressive in the search market. There are adCenters already in place in Singapore and France, with a beta version in the U.S. expected to go live in June.
The recently opened Beijing lab is expected to contribute technology that can be used worldwide. Prototypes of new technologies were unveiled recently at the Microsoft main campus. They included fresh methods for advertisers to develop search-related keywords as well as new kinds of video hyperlink ads.

Their Ad Here

According to Microsoft, the prototypes hold the promise of changing online advertising in areas such as paid search, behavioral targeting, and contextual advertising.
Also shown were projects addressing areas like barcode readers, social-network mining, and large-format advertisements.
"With this long-term applied research, we will continue to help improve advertisers' return on investment by delivering rich audience-intelligence information and enabling simple and complete control over all aspects of the advertising campaigns," said Tarek Najm, general manager of adCenter at Microsoft.
Ad Driven
Search sites have been loading capability into their offerings in the past year in particular, unveiling more extensive local search, enterprise applications, context-based options, and different types of maps.
Although local search has the promise of being especially lucrative for advertising, analysts and search firms have been waiting for the gold in the supposed goldmine to appear.
"Popularity hasn't translated to revenue quite yet," said Yankee Group analyst Patrick Mahoney. "The quest for the perfect ad model is still in progress."
With Microsoft increasing its presence in the world of online advertising, that situation might soon change. If the software behemoth manages to cash in with search, it is likely that other search firms could follow.
"In features as well as strategy, companies like Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft are all pretty close to each other," he said. "They move quickly to match a competitor's innovations or strategy changes."

got from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060116/bs_nf/40942

2005-07-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

Vidhu taking Ram to Waves

2005-07-04T18:40:00.001-07:00

Meena getting wet

2005-07-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

Meena feeling the cold

2005-07-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

Sand city beach

Your Share Of The Google Buck: 78.5 Cents

2005-07-04T18:38:00.001-07:00

Those AdSense ads appearing on blogs and sites all over the Internet pay pretty generously to those publishers, but we anticipate hearing more from Google on this figure.
How Much Of The AdSense Pie Do You Receive?
The New York Times has the Google article that will ignite scores of comments, stories, and blog posts through the week. In discussing how much Google pays to online forum Digital Point for AdSense placement, the Times offered this passage:
Google.com and the company's foreign search sites contribute more to Google's bottom line than AdSense, because for every dollar the company brings in through AdSense and other places that distribute its ads, it pays roughly 78.5 cents back to sites like Digital Point that display the ads.
Digital Point merited a mention by the Times over its handling of AdSense revenue.

Google

pays the company about $10,000 per month depending on AdSense activity. The forum's owner, Shawn Hogan, shares that revenue with topic creators on his forums. In turn, those creators share revenue with message posters.
Concerns over people trying to game AdWords by including more profitable keywords in their posts haven't caused people to start discussing Viagra in connection with something like server performance. Since the revenue share isn't that big, that hasn't happened, Hogan said in the story.
Another interesting point made by Forrester blogger and analyst Charlene Li indicates how Google's AdSense could keep Google's earnings spiraling upward. With millions of sites not AdSense customers yet, Google stands to gain if it can get more of them displaying AdSense blocks.

eBay Inc.

2005-07-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

eBay Inc.

(NASDAQ: EBAY) manages an online auction and shopping website, where people buy and sell goods and services worldwide.
The first item sold was Omidyar's broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, he contacted the winning bidder and asked, "did he not understand the laser pointer was broken?" Omidyar received the following email in reply: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." (The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancee trade PEZ Candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book and confirmed by eBay.)
It officially changed its name to eBay in September 1997. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name EchoBay.com but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com.
eBay has its share of controversy, ranging from its privacy policy (eBay typically turns over user information to law enforcement without a subpoena) to well-publicized seller fraud. eBay claims that statistically fewer than 1 in 200 transactions fail.

Some expensive items sold on eBay
A 340-year-old copy of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, which survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 (£5million)
Grumman Gulfstream II jet ($4.9 million)
1909 Honus Wagner baseball card ($1.65 million)
Diamond Lake Resort, western Kentucky ($1.2 million)
Enzo Ferrari ($975,000, October 2004)[1]
Shoeless Joe Jackson's "Black Betsy" baseball bat ($577,610)
Round of golf with Tiger Woods ($425,000)
Actual portions of the 1996-2001 Jeopardy! set, including the 9-foot-high Jeopardy! logo that was etched in glass as the backdrop. That sold for approximately $100,000 and one of the contestant podiums sold for nearly $10,000 (proceeds of the set's sale went to charity)

Largest item
One of the largest items ever sold was a World War II submarine, sold by a small town in New England that decided it did not need the historical relic anymore.

Largest failed auction
One of the largest items ever to be put up to auction and not sold was a decommissioned aircraft carrier. The auction was placed by an anonymous seller from Brazil on eBay Motors.

Unusual sale items
In June 2005, Karolyne Smith sold the right to permanently tattoo an ad on her forehead to GoldenPalace.com for $10,000.
In May 2005, a Volkswagen Golf that had previously been registered to Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (who had been elected Pope Benedict XVI the previous month) was sold on eBay's German site for €188,938.88. The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com online casino, known for their outrageous eBay purchases.

Acquisitions
In May, 1999, eBay acquired the online payment service Billpoint, which it shut down after acquiring Paypal.
In 1999, eBay acquired the auction house Butterfield & Butterfield, which it sold in 2002 to Bonhams.
In 1999, eBay acquired the auction house Alando for $43 million, which changed then to eBay Germany.
In June, 2000, eBay acquired Half.com, which was later integrated with the eBay Marketplace.
In August, 2001, eBay acquired Mercado Libre, Lokau and iBazar, Latin Americas auction sites.
In July, 2002, eBay acquired PayPal, for $1.5 billion in stock.
On July 11, 2003 eBay Inc. acquired EachNet, a leading ecommerce company in China, paying approximately $150 million in cash.
On June 22, 2004, eBay acquired all outstanding shares of Baazee.com, an Indian auction site for approximately US $50 million in cash, plus acquisition costs.
On August 13, 2004, eBay took a 25% stake in craigslist.org by buying out an existing shareholder who was once a craigslist employee.
In September 2004, eBay moved forward on its acquisition of Korean rival Internet Auction Co. (IAC), buying nearly 3 million shares of the Korean online trading company for 125,000 Korean won (about US$109) per share.
In November 2004, eBay acquired Marktplaats.nl for €225 million. This was a Dutch competitor which had a 80% market share in the Netherlands, by concentrating more on small ads than actual auctions.
On December 16, 2004, eBay acquired rent.com for $30 million in cash and $385 million in ebay stock.
In May 2005, eBay acquired Gumtree, a network of UK local city classifieds sites.
In June 2005, eBay acquired Shopping.com, a online comparison site for $635 Million USD.
In August 2005, eBay bought Skype, a VoIP company, for $2.6 billion in stock and cash.

2005-06-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

We visited Yosmite National Park last week with our friends.

Here is the small intro to the park from http://www.nps.gov/yose

Yosemite National Park is located in the central Sierra Nevada of California and lies 150 miles east of San Francisco and only a six hour drive from Los Angeles. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its spectacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, and biological diversity. The 750,000-acre, 1,200 square-mile park contains thousands of lakes and ponds, 1600 miles of streams, 800 miles of hiking trails, and 350 miles of roads.

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Hema and I

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Hema and I

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Yosemite Falls long shot

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Yosemite river

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Yosemite trees with leaves shredded

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Mountains & Medows

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Sunset on a rock

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Sunset

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Lake ?? in Sunset

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Lake ??

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Single rock

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Vertical Rocks

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Mirror Lake with Half Dome

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Mirror Lake

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Trail to Mirror Lake

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Another view

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Yosemite Upper falls

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Me and Hema near lower yosemite falls

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Lower Yosemite Falls

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Half Dome

Ultra Sound Scan Images

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Hiking

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Hema & Me

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Yosemite Falls

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River by road

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river

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Falls, turning into a raging river