I watch a lot of Hindi movies on DVDs and I am forced to see the commercials, trailors etc before I can watch the movie. These companies include Eros Entertainment, DEI, WEG, SPARK among others. Most of the DVDs have been programmed so that its not even possible to use the next or fast-forward button. As a consumer who has paid full-price for the DVD, it should be against the law to force us to watch these commercials. If you look at some of the channels on cable like HBO and Showtime, they do not show any commercials. Even the Hollywood DVDs only force us to see the FBI warning. Does anyone out there know if there are specific laws against forcing us to watch these ads?

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I am personally intrigued by logos and as you can see, a large part of my site is dedicated to discovering the design and history of logos. To me, logos were always a visual thing and I guess I never paid attention to the concept of sound logos (though sound branding seems more appropriate). Looking back, my first recollection of a sound logo was the little piece of music that accompanied the Intel Logo. Whenever you see any commerical for a computer, it would always be accompanied by the Intel logo and a little sound theme at the end.

Starting November 1st, 2007, Mercedes-Benz will be introducing a new sound logo that will accompany its commercials.  The Mercedes-Benz sound logo is based on an original recording of an English boys choir from the 1990s. Sound engineers extracted a choir boy’s solo vocal from the recording and adapted it for use in the sound logo. The logo was developed in cooperation with Jung von Matt, Mercedes-Benz’ lead agency.

Benz Sound Logo - You can listen to the Benz sound logo at the end of the commerical on YouTube.

Intel Sound Logo - You can listen to the Intel sound logo here on YouTube.

Sound branding is also called audio branding, sonic branding, acoustic branding or sonic mnemonics.

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Winning a "World Championship" title in the United States Professional sports leagues is pretty tough. The leagues are extremely competitive and its hard for clubs to get repeats or even three-peats, but some of the clubs actually do. The Bulls, Patriots, Lakers and the Yankees are some of the clubs that come to mind in the recent 10 years. Its very rare to have two teams from the same city hold the title of World Champions at the same time. At this time, the NFL title is with the Indianapolis Colts, the NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs and the MLB title with the St Louis Cardinals. Three very different locations and none of them even major US cities.

This is possibly the first time, I can see three teams from the same city holding the title of "World Champions" at the start of summer. That city would be Boston.

1. The Boston Red Sox are in the World Series once again playing the Colorado Rockies and stand a great chance of winning the MLB tilte of World Champions.

2. The New England Patriots are clearly the hottest team in the NFL. They are one two unbeaten teams (the Colts being the other team). They are currently scoring at an average of over 40 points/game (which is very tough in the NFL). Some are even predicting that this is the Greatest Offense of all time. The combination of Brady and Moss is just lethal. They do stand a great chance of winning the title if they can maintain this pace and remain healthy.

3. The Boston Celtics have a rich history of winning NBA titles, but the team has not done very well in the past two decades. In the off-season, the Celtics made some blockbuster deals getting Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and James Posey. The Celtics have the least chance of the three teams but two out of three ain't bad.

Lets see what happens. Check back in June.

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The 6th season of the Apprentice concluded yesterday and in my opinion, Stenfani was a deserving winner of the title. Clearly, she was the best among the Final Four, but there were better candidates who did not make the Final Four. Anyway, I digress. The Apprentice has certainly been one of the most popular shows on television especially in its first three season. It used to be typically on NBC, on Thursday nights, which in the US is the most contested TV slot.

Over time, the show has got pushed around and ended up on Sunday night at 9 PM. Middway through the season, it moved to 10 PM on Sunday night. Even the "Grand Finale" did not get a better time slot. Trump did not talk about the next season, which he typically does. It makes me wonder if the show is finally over. Donald Trump, You're fired?? Too bad, it was one of the few shows that I watched besides American Idol and with Sanjaya gone, there is nothing for me to watch. Thank God the NBA playoffs have begun......Go Lakers!!!

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The History of Famous Logos is a popular section of this website. I have added a new section of logo parodies to complement that section. In thi section of the site you will find funny versions of some of the famous corporate logos such as  Starbucks Logo  IBM Logo  Enron Logo  I hope you will find these funny logos amusing and entertaining.

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Most peope are fascinated by Brand Name products? Have you ever wondered how some of these brand logsos came about.  Well, I did have those questions and in my quest for this information, I have found some interesting information on the orgins of various brand logos.  Did you know how much the Nike Swoosh cost to develop?  Is there something in the Fedex Logo, look closely. There are over 100 brand name logo origins on this site. I hope you find this section of the website interesting. You can start by clicking the links below

•  World Famous Logos
•  NFL Logos
•  NBA Logos
•  Car Logos
•  Last but not the least, take a look at some Logo Parodies

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As you have probably figured out already, I do have an interest in logos and their history. I have learnt so much about these companies that I thought I would share of interesting trivia about these logos.

•  Did you know that the Nike Logo was designed for about $35 only. Its ironic that the price of the shoes is more than cost of the logo.
•  Have you seen the arrow in the Fedex Logo? This is not a trick question. If you do not see the arrow in the logo on your left, click on the link to figure out how you can see the arrow.  
1.   The 4 rings in the Audi logo have nothing to do with the Olympics. They represent the union of 4 car manufacturing companies that came together to form Audi. 
2.  There are 22 stars in the Paramount Pictures logo. 
3.   The player in the NBA logo is a former NBA player, Jerry West.  

If you have any more trivia, please add it using the comments links below. I will update this article periodically.

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The Indian Consulates and government organizations in general are a pain to deal with. The processes are too slow and one never knows what is going on till the finished product comes out of the process.  I was pleasantly surprised with my experience with the SFO Indian Consulate over the past year. I had a baby boy last year and we wanted to visit India with him so I had to apply for a PIO (Persons of India Origin) card for him. I sent the forms and all the paperwork and the PIO card arrived in less thatn 2 weeks. The original timeline was much longer.

A couple of weeks ago, I had applied for a new passport for my wife and I decided to check ths status of the application. I had two options

•  Via Phone - Call between 2 and 4 everyday or
•  Via Email - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I decided to send an email expecting a response in 3-4 days but was surprised to get a response in about 10 minutes. I thought it must be an auto-response. When I opened the email, all the details were listed. Kudos to the consulate for improving their services. I had a bad time when I went there personally a few years ago. Hopefully that aspect has also changed. Two Thumbs up for the SFO Indian Consulate. !!

If you have anything to share, please leave a comment.

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The 79th Annual Academy Awards were held here in Los Angeles last night. The "Oscars" are one of the biggest events anywhere in the world and when it happens in your town, there is a certain added excitement. I guess most of my excitement disappeared when I heard that Ellen Degeneres was the host. Is it just me or are there others that don't find her so funny. Bring back Chris Rock anyday. I guess some of the interest came back when I saw that Deepa Mehta's water was on of the films nominated in the Foreign Language Film category. Unfortunately it did not win the award and I was a tad disappointed. Its probably a bit ironic that India being the largest movie churner has never won an Academy Award. I guess Rajanikanth flinging a cigarette in the air, lighting in the air with a gun and dropping it in his mouth or Govinda gyrating his hips (Main to raste pe jaa rahaa tha) is not award winning material.  What does the academy know, right?

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Dinesh.com is currently being upgraded from Mambo to Joomla. With Joomla clearly becoming the more dominant version of the CMS, it was time for me to upgrade to Joomla. Most of the site should be back to normal and all the content and functionality should be available. I am still working on some aspects of the site. Please let me know if you encounter any problems. At the end of the upgrade, there will be a few new features added to the site.

Thank you for your patience during the upgrade.

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