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Two things are certain in the technology sector: Steve Jobs will always wear a black turtleneck and jeans during press conferences and Cisco will impress Wall Street with their quarterly numbers. The recent numbers continue the trend. Revenues were USD 8.2 billion, up 25% year over year (includes revenue from their recent acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta). Cash flow was USD 2.3b, margins were 64.8%, cash and investments is USD 19.5b and headcount was 51,840. Being on the ground in India, the picture for Cisco seems even rosier. They just recently announced a hugh expansion to their Bangalore campus. Granted almost every tech company has talked about expanding under the much touted SEZ program, the Cisco expansion is real as they have the land and are just looking to expand and not deal with the government red tape and so called economic incentives. During the recent flurry of press releases in India talking about the Indian expansion, the head of Cisco India was never quoted about it. He was from the sales group but I figured he would have played some role in the expansion but it seems after 3 years, Rangu Salgame has left Cisco. David Caspari, VP from Asia Pacific, will be the interim head of Cisco India.

A. I can’t believe it B. It was so sudden and shocking C. They seemed like a perfect match D. None of the above If your response to the news that Britney and K-Fed are splitting was letter D, then you are inline with about 96.7% of the population. Britney Spears filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences” and asking for both legal and physical custody of their two children with K-Fed getting reasonable visitation rights. Britney is also asking the judge to make each party pay their own attorney’s fees, which means Britney will have the dream team of attorney’s and K-Fed is gonna have half a hot dog because he couldn’t afford the rest. He’ll probably get to keep the silver Ferrari 360 Spyder but won’t have a nickel for gas or insurance, so he’s back to square one – no money and no talent.

This past weekend was the wedding of Indian Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel’s daughter, Avni. I read about it in the newspapers a couple days ago talking about how large the event was going to be, but really had no idea how large. I happened to be at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel doing some shopping when I noticed a Bentley Continental Flying Spur (such an appropriate car for the Aviation Minister) and then saw a flurry of high end cars. I have never seen so many Benz’s in one location (except maybe Newport Beach), there had to be at least 50-60 E-class Benzo’s, not to mention all the Beamer’s, Audi’s and Landcruiser’s. I also happened to be walking around Nepeansea Road on Sunday and stumbled upon his entourage as they were entering his spacious bungalow. For those familiar with the area his bungalow is right on the sea in front of the Petit Hall complex. I’m quite sure an amazing view. I happened to get a quick 5 second video clip of the red Benz driving into the bungalow gate, in front of the Benz was the Flying Spur which i could only manage a picture of.
Pics
Video Clip

UPDATE: According to several people the Flying Spur is Praful Patel’s, but the house on Nepeansea Road belongs to Vijay Mallya of the UB Group, whose brands include Kingfisher.

As I write this blog entry it’s about 11:30pm Thursday night in Bombay which means it’s about 10a Thursday morning in Los Angeles. The OC a TV show on Fox premieres season 4 tonight at 9p LA time. However, due to BitTorrent technology I was able to download the show and watch it before the season premiere. I’ll admit I used to love watching the OC during season 1, then during season 2 and 3 I got pulled in a million different ways as did their storyline. One of the main reasons I liked the show is they filmed it on a sound stage in Manhattan Beach and some of the outdoor shots were of the Redondo Beach Pier. In the season 4 premiere they have also invaded Hermosa Beach with several shots of the pier, you can see the green awnings of Patrick Malloy’s.