Affilliate Marketing vs Google Adsense

Affiliate Marketing is usually based on a CPA (cost per action) model.

• A company (a.k.a. advertiser or merchant) runs an affiliate program either by itself or through an Affiliate network such as Linkshare or Commission Junction.
  
• The publisher promotes the advertiser's services or products through a website, email campaign, ppc campaign or a combination thereof.
• A visitor coming through a publisher is tracked. If the visit converts to a sale, the publisher earns a commission paid by the advertiser. The network tracks, authenticates and confirms payments for every successful transaction.
  
• Publisher has control on what product/service they want to promote.
• Publisher does not earn any revenue for clicks.

Adsense is a CPC (cost per click) program from Google.

• The publishers in this case signs for the program and places the Adsense advertisement panel at various strategic locations on their site.
• The adverts are auto generated by Google.
  
• The publisher can tweak but does not have control to what gets displayed.
  
• The publisher is paid for each authentic click on the advert from their site.

Google added a CPA model into Adsense in 2006 to compete directly with the affiliate networks.

Amongst the major Affilliate Networks, Linkshare offers a CPC program for specific merchants (e.g. Kayak) Commission Junction had a CPC program. They closed this and have stuck to the CPA model.

Slumdog Millionaire - Hollywood movie Bollywood views

Slumdog Millionaire (english) as seen by an Indian spectator. Remember, the movie is targeted at a western audience, so its appeal to that audience is decidedly different.

What I liked ...

The story moves at 3 levels - at the police station, at the TV studio and as the main protagonist's unfolding life story. It requires very good direction and editing for a smooth flow. This is where Boyle stands out.

• The performances of the 3 kids and the 3 teens are excellent.
• Frieda (Latika) looks good, she is shown as soft at all ages so the adult part fits in.
• Anil Kapoor was ok, Irfan and Saurabh Shukhla as good as they always are.

Overall the kids were the best actors, the small and teenage Salim and the smaller Jamal esp. stood out for me.

I liked Rahman's music. I am not too deep into understanding the tiny nuances of music. So will not judge it. I liked the instrumentals a bit more.

What I did'nt like...

For an Indian, the dialogues in English make the movie less authentic.

Hollywood comedies have scenes related to puking and worse. It probably appeals to a western sense of humour. Also they have not experienced true poverty for quite some time now. I did not find the autograph scene funny.

Dev Patel (adult Jamal Malik) is a complete miscast. Not his fault. He looks completely middle class throughout and too soft. Other points

• The call center being so dark .. looks odd.
• Policeman chasing the kids deep into the slums. When did they get so motivated?
• Missing to capture positive aspects of Mumbai. Having lived there, I should know.
• The kid dressed as Ram, looks contrived to fit in with the answer.
• The gangster's house with just one chowkidar.
  
• Mahesh Manjrekar does a poor job as one.
  

All in all it was a bit underwhelming, but ok to see once.

Dasvidaniyan - the best good bye ever

I saw 'Dasvidaniyan' recently, recommend it strongly. Vinay Pathak was outstanding, same with other players in small roles esp. Saurabh Shukla, Ranvir Shorey and Neha Dhupia. I have yet to see 'Mithya' from this team.

Rajat Kapoor's movies remind me of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies of yore. Neat stories, small budgets, middle class focussed, smooth flowing presentation and usually careful with their songs. The actors in these are usually the ones who mix their theatre backgrounds with niche movie careers, so performance is usually not an issue.

Look forward to more such productions, I like them. Not that other kind of movies are exempt, right from moronic action/comedies to pure bollywood masala, all have their place :-). But these are the ones to go see with the family

Rafa wins Aussie Open

Rafael Nadal has won the 2009 Australian Open. This puts him in a elite list of players who have 6 or more slams. Unless he breaks down due to his extremely physical game, he is good to reach the legendary level of 10 or more grand slam winners.

Only 3 players who played their entire career in the open era have reached there - Sampras, Federer and Borg. Only 3 others from earlier eras are in that list Emerson, Laver and Tilden.

At this point he is already level with Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, 1 short of McEnroe and Wilander and 2 short of Lendl, Conners and Agassi.

The next 2 years should see the fading off of Federer and the rise of newer stars, with Nadal at the center stage or just starting to falter. Flux always makes a sport interesting especially when 2-3 great sportsmen are around. (e.g. Ali, Frazier, Foreman or McEnroe, Borg, Conners)

Greatest Pace Bowler since 1970

Below is a personal view of the greatest pace bowlers since 1970

Top Level (Bowlers who were the strike bowler in an already great bowling lineup)

• Malcolm Marshall - WI
• Dennis Lillee - Aus
• Waqar Younis - Pak

Second Level (Bowlers who were the 2nd choice in a great lineup or strike bowlers in a good one)

• Joel Garner - WI
• Curtly Ambrose - WI
• Glen McGrath - Aus
• Alan Donald - SA
• Wasim Akram - Pak
• Imran Khan - Pak
• Michael Holding - WI
• Richard Hadlee - NZ

As a crude ranking for me this would be

1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Dennis Lillee (looses for not playing in India)
   
3. Waqar Younis
4. Curtly Ambrose
5. Imran Khan
6. Michael Holding
7. Richard Hadlee
8. Glen McGrath
9. Wasim Akram
10. Joel Garner
11. Alan Donald

Below this rung I would place a lot of good bowlers, some of these would be

• Kapil Dev
• Ian Botham
• Courtney Walsh
• Bob Willis
• Jeff Thompson
• Andy Roberts
• Craig McDermott
• Sean Pollock

On a side note, during Australia's phase of domination 1994 to 2008, their opponents had

• Curtly Ambrose (4 years)
• Alan Donald (8 years though the last phase he was a shadow of himself)
• Wasim Akram (5 years, 10 tests with last test 1999 against them, again a shadow of himself after 1996)
• Waqar Younis (8 years, 8 tests with the last 3 when he was almost finished)

With the exception of Ambrose (3 years at his peak) and to an extend Donald (about 4 years at his peak), there was no quality pace bowler at the peak of his prowess in any opposing team.

Now with the emergence of new quality pacers like Steyn, Ishant etc. the contest is getting more even.

Competitive tennis, cricket in 2009

This looks likely to be a more competitive year in tennis. The days of Roger Federer being invincible seem to be over. Now Andy Murray has caught up, Nadal and Djokovic did last year and with 4 contenders for the slams with a few dark horses lurking as well in Safin, Roddick, Hewitt this year has a high chance of unpredictable results.

Cricket seems to be along something similar with other teams catching up with Australia as it comes down a level.

Young people die for old men

The Mumbai terror attacks brought to mind this quote from the movie Lawrence of Arabia as said by the Feisal

'Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men – courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men – mistrust and caution. It must be so.'

There is no Jannat for the young. Just a wasted young life for the ambitions, prejudices and fantasies of old men.