INOX muchos kettle cooked rock salt flavoured "pirates of kettle island" chips

I passed by a rack in a supermarket showing a differently packed, cooked and flavoured potato chips saying it is kettle cooked so ventured to try it out. It is the rock sea salt flavored chips.

So what is kettle cooked chips?
It is cooked in batches, when a new batch is added, the temperature of the oil is lowered so it took longer to cook and result in irregular shapes and has a thicker texture.















So how is it?
The texture is indeed thick and it is too thick and hard.
It doesn't taste good.
and the packing need a lot of improvement in the sealing process to keep the chips inside fresh.
The packaging failed in maintaining the freshness of the chips in question.

It is not at all worthy of your mouth to taste this chips, as it is not good at all. You can get far better at this price.

Yahoo was hacked!

Yahoo reported Thursday that at least 500 million users accounts and information are compromised.

Who did Yahoo blame after that?
State-sponsored hackers. Okay so they know who hacked it and even who has sponsored it in such a short period of time?

As you all know Yahoo agreed to sell its core business to Verizon for $4.8 billions in July this year.
And anonymous sources in Yahoo said it learned of the breach of the users accounts in July so there is a possibility that Yahoo in order to ensure the deal goes through put all those users whose accounts information have been compromised at risk. That's not good.

Further, Yahoo reported that the intrusion apparently began in 2014. So all these times till now, the company remained silent spectator?

As shown in recent dropbox case, it is better not to store any sensitive information in any online services. These companies would lie and pretend not to know without one bit of concern.

It is a must to change password, security questions immediately, sensitive emails immediately and one must also change it regularly and by regularly means in a matter of month and not years.

Kinder Joy for girls with surprise toy gift inside

Kinder Joy for girls with surprise toy gift inside

plus milk rich chocolates.

Kinder Joy from Ferrero

Its Golden Rules

1. Milk of high quality

2. No Colorings

3. No Preservatives

4. Selected raw materials

5. High Hygiene standardized production process

-------------------

Ingredients:

-------------------

Sugar, 

Edible Vegetable Oils,

Fats 

Skimmed Cow Milk Powder (19.5%), 

Toasted Wheat Germ, 

Low Fat Cocoa Powder (4%), 

Wheat Starch, 

Powdered Barley Malt Extract,

Emulsifier (Lecithin – INS 322), 

Whey Protein, 

Raising Agent (INS 500ii, INS 503ii), 

Salt

Allergen Information: Contains Milk, Gluten, Soy

Made on equipment that also processes Hazelnuts

Ballon d'Or back to its root

World football governing body FIFA and French publication magazine France Football has parted ways so the FIFA  Ballon d'Or trophy will end. Both parties will award their own trophies for best player in the world. So now we will have two awards for best player, namely FIFA World Best Player and Ballon d'Or.

So the Ballon d'Or will be back to its core rules before they merged the award with FIFA world best player.
Ballon d'Or will be awarded by France Football by the end of the calendar year in December.
There will be 30 candidate shortlist instead of 23.
Only Journalists from all over the world will vote for a winner from the shortlist.
National team captains and coaches wouldn't vote.

Implications:
Journalists wouldn't have to consider the feeling of players and team mates.
As we all know, national team coaches and captains usually vote not for the best players in their opinions but for the players from their own team or country if they are in the shortlist.

So Ballon d'Or will now seem more fair.

Color may vary or multi-color tricks of online sellers

When one is shopping offline, one see a product, like it and so one bought it, it is as simple as that. You get what you see but while shopping online, it is not always what you see is what you will get in the end. You will end up with having to return the products concerned because it isn't the same color as shown in the picture or the quality doesn't look the same. And you need a valid reason to return it also. There is usually something written some where in the description which you didn't notice then they can opt not to accept a return.
A complete waste of your precious time.

Why online sellers put the "colors may vary" or "multi-color"?
They do this so that they can dump the color or variant which isn't selling well to you and that's the most likely reason.
Is it the difficult or make more sense to post different product listing for different colors or give the buyer the option to choose colors or variants? No, it isn't difficult at all, there are system in place already to allow seller to give that option but why they don't provide that option is pretty obvious now isn't?

Amazon india sellers selling more than MRP

Indian eCommerce has become predominantly a marketplace eCommerce model. However this has become an opportunity for sellers on those platform to fleece unsuspecting buyers.

As we all know the maximum retail price in India or MRP is actually the maximum retail price the products can be sold and that is inclusive of all taxes. And it is public knowledge it is already marked up prices. 

But online sellers marked up the marked up prices and that's means they are selling way above the MRP of the products and usually they took note to remove the price tags or scratched it out and marked it out with a marker so the customers won't know about the inflated price they are paying for it. Even when they show picture of the products, they took note to mask out the MRP price portion. Why hide something like that if you are selling at MRP or less than MRP?

Let's take one example,

At amazon India, Sukhson India Baby Potty 1234 (links: http://www.amazon.in/Sukhson-India-Baby-Potty-1234/dp/B01AT58408) is selling 450 bucks and showing a discount of 36% from selling price of 700 bucks.

Good price and discount, one would think and then buy this product.

And they found this price tag on the products, It must be because of price inflation in the economy.

The seller obviously forgot about removing that tags since not a lot complained about it.

Likewise, online marketplace are filled with products with inflated selling price. 

It is advisable to check the pricing from different sources but remember that sometimes one product is sold by same party in different marketplaces.

So one would be interested to ask one questions, is preventing big foreign corporate in selling online doing good service to the common people?

More competition is better for customers but not so good for the local sellers who are mostly used to charge customer higher prices at every opportunity.

Brick and mortar sellers are moving to sell online themselves too and charging higher price no wonder they don't want others bigger players to sell at a fair discounted price. And we are seeing roadside products selling at a premium online. They are doing good business.

cloudtail is basically like amazon themselves and they mostly sold at a reasonable prices but their wings have been clipped by the authorities because the customers are getting products at fairer prices and the sellers who wanted to sell the same products at a higher price cannot sell their wares online.

So customers or sellers comprise the majority of the population of the country?

Should a country be run according to the whims and fancies of the minority group?

It is time for online marketplaces to put a system in place to prevent abuse but they are receiving commissions from sellers.

Happy Moon Festival 2016

Happy Moon Festival 2016
Happy Mid Autumn Festival 2016

Hot Wheels 2016 HW Digital Circuit D Muscle Year of the Monkey

D Muscle

Year of the Monkey



Collection: 029 / 250

Year: 2016

Series: HW Digital Circuit

Color: White

Black & Red stripes, '16', Red Monkey logo on tops & sides

Base Color: Red / Plastic

Window: Tinted (Black)

Interior Color: Red

Wheels: Black OH5 w/ Chrome rims

Toy#: DHP60

Country: Malaysia

Base code(s): H42

Hot Wheels 2016 Need for Speed NIghtBurnerz Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)

Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)



Collection: 083 / 250

Year: 2016

Series: Night Burnerz 3/10

Color: Red

Design: White "HOT WHEELS" in Japanese, Speedhunters, Greddy, NGK, Yokohama, Number "0" tampo on side

Base Color/Type: Grey / Plastic

Window: Grey Tint

Interior Color: Black

Wheel Type: Grey 10SP

Toy#: DHP63

Country: Malaysia

Base code(s): J18



Music Credit: It's Happening by Huma-Huma

from youtube free music library

Hot Wheels 2016 HW Exotics Porsche Carrera GT

Porsche Carrera GT

Collection: 74 / 250

Year: 2016

Series: HW Exotics 4/10

Color: Yellow

Toy#: DHX20

Country: Malaysia

Hot Wheels 2016 Super Treasure Hunt HW Exotics 2017 Ford GT

Collection: 073 / 250

Year: 2016

Series: HW Exotics 3/10

Color: Spectraflame Blue

Detailed headlight & front emblem,

TH Logo On The Engine Bay

Base color: Grey / Plastic

Window color: Tinted (Black)

Interior color:Black

Wheel type: Grey RR10SP

Country: Malaysia

Base code(s): Super Treasure Hunt

Nissin Cup Noodles Mazedaar Masala 70gms

After having tasted Nissin Cup Noodles Italiano and Manchow, I ventured to taste out the Nissin Cup Noodles Mazedaar Masala without any expectation.


the Mazedaar Masala Manchester United branded Cup Noodles




other side view


top


open the lid and there the fork and noodles are


take the fork out of it obviously


pour hot water upto that level


close the lid and wait at least 3 mins


after 3 mins


look good with nice aroma

This Nissin Cup Noodles Mazedaar Masala according to my own taste tasted better, however it is still quite hot and spicy not surprising since it is masala flavoured. Despite that I finished everything in it. This will be my Cup of noodles for a light snack while watching football.

Nissin Cup Noodles Veggi Italiano 70gms

Nissin has recently released the Cup Noodles with Manchester players being pasted on the cup noodles, let us see how the ITALIANO flavor is,


Manchester United players on front of the cup


side view


top view


open lid around half way and take out fork


this is how it looked like pre-hot water treated


hot water poured upto that level line. Close the lid and wait for at least 3 mins


it is ready


mixed it up.

It has pizza like flavour, and quite hot and spicy for this cup noodles also. Not my cup of noodles again.

Barcelona to sue Santos over Barbosa transfer deal

Barcelona and Santos FC signed a transfer agreement back in 2013 to give Barcelona the right of first refusal over Santos striker Gabriel Barbosa and Santos need to give Barcelona 3 days to respond to any offer from other clubs to buy the player.
Santos did inform Barcelona of their intention to sell the player to Inter Milan for 29.5 million euro 2 days before the transfer window closed in Spain.
With such little time of intimation and so close to end of transfer window, there is not much time to negotiate with club and player so it is obvious that Santos does not intend to sell the player to Barcelona but it did its part of the agreement. It is Santos way of paying back to Barcelona in relation to the Neymar deal.
Currently Barcelona is considering whether to report to FIFA or take the case to the court.
It might be prudent to just settle the matter amicably so that it would not affect any future dealing. It is important to maintain good relations with other clubs.

Found Hot Wheels imitation being sold online!

Hot Wheels is well known for its die cast cars and a lot of people collect them as a hobby. I recently come across a product branded as Hot Speed. It has the flame over the words, Hot Speed and even the box packaging style is more or less the same as Hot Wheels
Check out the product listing online,



A closer look



This listing is there in the online marketplace paytm, an Indian eCommerce company in which Mr Jack Ma of alibaba fame companies has an investment in it. Okay that explains it all. xD

Messi is injured!

Lionel Messi made his comeback with the Argentina national team in a world qualifier match against Uruguay where he scored the only winning goal and crucially he sustained an injury during the match, he went back to Barcelona with the Argentina coach not going to risk him in the other qualifier against Venezuela. On further test, it was confirmed by Barcelona that Messi has sustained a hamstring injury and is expected to miss the next La Liga match against Alaves. Fans can only hope it is not very serious and he would be able to recover and continue his good form. It also give Enrique a chance to test out their new signing Paco Alcacer while Messi recovers from his injury.

Update: it is learned that Messi's injury is not very serious and he would just miss out the next La Liga match against Alaves and would return in the champions league match against Celtic.

Nissin Cup Noodles Veggi Manchow 70gms

What happened when one add Manchester United to noodles, it becomes ManChow. The Nissin Cup Noodles Veggi Manchow is in store for quite sometime now but didn't venture to try it then. At last got one to taste it out,



Manu fans admire the package.



Another view.



The instructions on top.



Open lid halfway and take out that foldable fork obviously.



Make sure you remove those dried chillies before pouring the  hot water inside if you don't want it to be too hot and spicy.



Pour hot water upto that mark line, may be it is that line.



After 3 mins, it is done.

The quantity is only good enough for a light snack, and it turned out to be too hot and spicy for me so it isn't going to be my cup of noodles.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child available at discount!

Harry Potter's fans who have been waiting to buy the newly released books of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts I & II (Special Rehearsal Edition) need not wait any further as the same hardcover version is available at a discount, before you click buy, go to your local brick and mortar store and check the price, if the price is higher than save your pocket money and buy it online. Amazingly the kindle version online is priced higher which I cannot understand, isn't it supposed to be cheaper for digital version? As there is no printing cost? Enlightened me if you know the answer.

When is the OnePlus 3 soft gold coming to Indian market?

OnePlus 3 Graphite color version has already been launched in India and is deemed to be selling well when one take a look at import information.

As we all know the OnePlus 3 Soft gold version which quite a lot of people think to be a lot more better looking has been launched in the following countries already,
US - July 26, 12:00 pm US Eastern time
EU - August 1, 12:00 pm CEST
HK - August 1, 6:00 pm Hong Kong time
CA - August 1, 6:00 am Canada Eastern time

Carl Pei, the co-founder of OnePlus has said that it would launch in India soon. But it is already 1 month and still no sign of it.
So how soon is "soon" in OnePlus dictionary?

They are still importing the graphite colored version so far as recently as on 29 August 2016.
Since it still sells, there is no need to hurry to bring in the soft gold version which have demand in the countries that it has been launched.
So they can dump the graphite version here as people impatient to wait longer went and buy the graphite one, as in any case one would put a cover on it.

After demand in other market has saturated, and extra graphite colored stock has been cleared out, India would get it eventually. Thats how OnePlus currently viewed prospective Indian customers.

UPDATE: OnePlus has announced that it will be releasing the soft gold variant of the OnePlus 3 in the first week of October 2016 so everyone hold your horses, and wait for 1 month to get the soft gold version if you like that color better.

Dropbox was hacked and they didn't know until now?

Cloud based data storage company Dropbox said that user ids and passwords of around 68million users has been stolen 4 years ago and only when it was leaked on the internet, they came to know about it. They didn't even know someone has managed to steal account information of so many users, this show the kind of security that they have.
Is it done by insider?

The company added that it has no indication that any of those accounts were improperly entered. It doesn't even know it was taken or their own company system has been compromised then how do they know those accounts are not improperly accessed?

People stored all sorts of information in their dropbox thinking it is secure, safe and convenient. What has happened should make people realized that they should never trust their personal data and files with any other person or company.

If one indeed has to use dropbox or similar services, then one has to encrypt those files before you put it in these kind of cloud services.

Dropbox users of those affected account are notified of the need to reset their password to login again. The compromised account information can no longer be used to login to their account.

It would be prudent for everyone who has account there to simply change their passwords.

Real Madrid transfer policy has become prudent?

Real Madrid has only signed one player Alvaro Morato from Juventus for 30m euros so far despite an impending transfer ban. One would expect them to spend to buy players to cover for the transfer ban. Instead more players left the team,  they sold Jese to PSG for 25m euros; Denis Cherysev to Villarreal for 7m euros; Alvaro Medran to Valencia for 1.5m euros; and Omar Mascarell left for Eintracht Frankfurt for 1m euros, while Borja Mayoral went on loan to Wolfsburg for a fee of 3m euros. They have net transfer income. Not simply signing players to match rival teams like Barcelona is a good sign.

Many would be thinking if they would be in trouble if there are major injuries to key players but if one takes a look at the team currently, it has sufficient backup as their benches are pretty strong.

Barcelona's La Masia in decline?

Barcelona in recent times has to rely on buying talented and established players to bring the club forward, this is in part due to the decline in La Masia youth players talent and readiness to step up into the first team and make an impact.

At one point of time, when almost all first team players were promoted from the La Masia football academy, it shows it cannot be repeated and that is a mere coincidence when they have such a talented crop of young players in that particular generation, they still need player with inherent football talents and trained them to fit into Barcelona footballing philosophy. Thats one reason.

Thanks to the success that a team filled with mostly La Masia graduates dominated club football for a period of years, every aspiring youngster whose parents has the means would want to be trained at La Masia, so they are accepting young players who may not have been talented and good enough to be part of the Barcelona club, the club La Masia academy main objective is to select players who can rise up and play for the first team with the training. And training is one thing, they need to have the necessary qualities to be able to make it. So why the club accept such players?

Even though even seemingly talented players do not always reach their potentials.