Using Chromecast with Netflix in Australia

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Sometime in 2013 Amazon accidentally allowed people outside the US to order Google Chromecast. Without fully grasping what it did, I ordered mine and it arrived within days. Amazon realised its mistake and emailed me asking me to return it at their expense for a full refund, as it would not be supported outside the US. [Update: It is now sold in Australia.] Continue reading

Virgin, are you kidding?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Occasionally, I run the great backlink tool Majestic SEO across websites of major companies purely to see if they are likely to fall victim to one of Google’s Penguin updates. Being a quiet Friday night, I thought I would check out the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ), as it is a subsidiary of a former client, not forgetting that it was my first bank when I lived in Godzone.

So I let it rip. One of the first reports I run is the Referring Domains Report, which I sort by Trust Flow in ascending order. This lists the lowest value links first and it’s common to see a few with a value of zero. Continue reading

Photos from 14-15 August 1947 – Indian Transfer of Power ceremonies

Nehru
Reading Time: 2 minutes

My uncle, Jayantilal B. Nallawalla was commissioned by Lord Mountbatten to be his private photographer a few months before and during the Indian independence day (“Transfer of Power”) ceremonies. For the first time, his photos are being released online. As a teenager, I was privileged to communicate with Lord Mountbatten for several years and his unsolicited kindness ultimately helped me to emigrate to New Zealand.

These photos were printed in B&W from a colour film roll, so some sharpness has been lost.

Table of Contents

14 August 1947

Lord Mountbatten transferring power from Britain to India
Lord Mountbatten transferring power from Britain to India

Jawaharlal Nehru played a major role in the Indian independence struggle and became India’s first Prime Minister. Continue reading

Starbucks India doesn’t get social media

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Armaan Kapur is a 21-yo writer in New Delhi who did something that many middle-class Indians do — try to go to Starbucks India (Link to Facebook page) in Connaught Place, New Delhi. In Australia, you don’t normally admit that you drink that brand of coffee, and most of their outlets were closed down (Link to an ABC article) in 2008. So what went wrong?

Continue reading

Alphabets or letters?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

The alphabet is a collection of letters, e.g. The English/Roman/Latin alphabet contains 26 letters.
Incorrect: “Marathi uses the Devanagari script and contains 52 alphabets.”
Correct: “The Marathi alphabet uses the Devanagari script and contains 52 letters.”
Here is a typical error, in this case made by one Aditi Phadnis in the Business Standard.
2alphabets

To revert back or to reply?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Indians are again the only people who “revert back” when they intend to “reply”. Why, oh why?
To revert means to return to its previous state. Try as I might, I cannot revert back to being a baby, or a 21-year-old. 😀
Correct: I will reply to you next week.
Incorrect: I will revert next week.

Is absconding

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Only in India are criminals still absconding; everywhere else, they have absconded or are at large. Confused?
Google this phrase “is absconding” (in quotes). The writers are nearly always from India or in India. Here is a recent article that is guilty of using this phrase.
http://www.moneylife.in/article/stockguruindia-allegedly-dupes-2-lakh-investors-of-over-rs1000-crore/15461.html
The sentence is, “According to these investors, the company’s managing director is absconding.”
They should have written, “According to these investors, the company’s managing director has absconded.”
Or, “According to these investors, the company’s managing director is in hiding.”
 

Upgrading an iPhone 3GS to iPhone 5

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I have had an Apple iPhone 3GS for nearly three years and its chief annoyance to me was the camera. Any excuse to upgrade to the iPhone 5. I missed the earliest order date so I was happy to wait the estimated two weeks. As luck would have it, Optus sent me an SMS to say I could collect it on the launch date of 21 September 2012.

I got to the store around 5 pm and there were about four people ahead of me, including people who hadn’t pre-ordered. So, at least in this store there wasn’t a shortage of some models. By contrast, the Millenia Mall in Orlando had hundreds of people waiting to buy their iPhone 4 on its launch date. We just happened to be watching the spectacle, content with our 3GS.

waiting
Only four people were ahead of me at Optus World, Werribee Plaza on 21 September 2012.

 

x
Much longer queue for the Apple 4 at The Millenia Mall, Orlando, FL Apple store on 24 June 2010.

 

Continue reading

Content or discontent?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Most Indians seem to pronounce content (as in the contents of this page) as कंटेंट .
What’s wrong with that?
In the rest of the world (except, perhaps the countries next to India), कंटेंट refers to contentment, as in “I am very content with my career”.
The correct pronunciation for (page) content is कॉन्टेंट .

Colleague

In a similar vein, colleague is pronounced as कॉल्लीग, not कलीग. (You don’t pronounce college as कलेज, do you? 🙂
 

SEO and what Kogan is doing right

Reading Time: 4 minutes

If you haven’t heard of the Kogan brand or its founder, Ruslan Kogan, you will, sooner or later. Ruslan describes himself as coming from a Housing Commission flat in Melbourne (welfare housing scheme). He is totally street smart and has made a name for himself in Australia and UK as an online purveyor of  electronics (and a furniture brand). I have heard him speak at a journo junket and on TV — he is always entertaining.

At the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PeSA) conference that just ended at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on Friday, Ruslan entertained the 600+ audience on Wednesday with the story of his business journey and some valuable tips that he had learnt.

Ash Nallawalla
I presented two sessions at PeSA12

Ruslan also gave his views on SEO and CRO agencies, which were interpreted by the audience in a couple of ways. The people at my table and I took them to mean, “Don’t worry about SEO; get your online business right. Offer a differentiator and provide a value-add.” I can’t recall his exact words, but they left an impression on some that SEO wasn’t at all important and that Ruslan didn’t care much for SEO. Continue reading

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