Divvy My Ride Blog

I found these stamps at my latest visit to the local USPS Office. Usually this time of the year, one find stamps with holiday themes, but what caught my eyes were these stamps with green messages. Really cool, what you might also notice is that there were 15 unique stamps, and no repetition.

I know my holiday cards with have these on this year!

mayank

Found this very interesting article in USA today.

Carpool is a necessity and a headache for parents today. As a founder of a carpool site, I can vouch for this first hand. We thought that carpooling would be important for people commuting for work or traveling between cities. But to our surprise, the biggest demand for carpool solutions is from parents trying to solve the challenge of hauling their kids to soccer games, swimming and other group activities.

-mayank

Read more at: The carpool: a staple of modern parenting

The BASES 150K Challenge is a prestigious Competition hosted by the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students. The Product Showcase part of the competition let’s entrepreneur show a demo-able prototype product to the entire bay area, and the most powerful Silicon Valley investors.

BASES 150K Challenge

We were selected for the final round, but unfortunately we didn’t win the competition. Still it was fun participating. Here is a picture from the venue. Many thanks to Poorvi and Dinesh Patil (two close friends) for help with the final entry.

BASES Product Showcase Venue

In the business world this is a called arbitrage. When you can make profit out of selling the same products to two different markets! Frankly I would like to call this a SCAM.

Here is an example of a flight ticket between San Francisco and New Delhi on two different websites. One is the United.com website in the US and the other is the Lufthansa.com site (in US or Europe?) The flight #, times and destinations are exactly the same. Yet miraculously the price on Lufthansa is $6,939.54 and the same flight on United costs $3,715.40. The funny thing is that since both these airlines are part of the Star Alliance, they should at the least show the same price. Before you cry foul, I must also qualify that both the fares were taken within minutes of each other.

The Air Fare SCAM Game

The Dutch charge $9.80USD/Gal for gasoline (converting for liter to gallon and the currencies) and with prices that high no wonder folks bike every where.

If you are curious as to what happens in the winter, trust me they are unfazed by the snow.  See this next video

Hello All,
A good friend’ wife is suffering from Leukemia (blood cancer) and she is in desperate need of a bone marrow match.
If you are of Romanian, Eastern European descent, and haven’t had your bone marrow matched, please consider doing so.

Here is some info on bone marrow matching:

Bone marrow matching
Please register as a marrow donor for her or anybody else in need at http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/Join_Now/join_now.html It’s super easy. They ship the registration kit to your home, and you don’t even have to donate blood to be registered
Join Now – online registration for Be The Match Marrow Registry

and a Flyer from our friend,

Everyone knows that gasoline is considered a commodity whose price is determined by the vagaries of free market (aka demand and supply). At least every one is told so.

And yet all of us have been feeling the pain of the rising gas prices over the last 3 months, as prices have gushed from ~$3.00/gal to $4.35/gal. I have even switched over to biking to work twice a week just to “stick it up to the man”. Yes, there is a instability premium due to the middle east revolution/unrest. The obvious question is how much is this “premium”? I would say that the unrest in Yemen and Syria while barbaric, should not affect the crude price. Lets look at the top 15 producers of Oil. (I am not looking at top exporters of crude oil to the US, because the prices are obviously a global number).  From the CIA website

Oil Producers, CIA facts 2011

None of these places have had their oil production disrupted by the recent unrest. Right?

So the almost $30/bal ($110 vs. $80) premium we are paying seems a bit unreasonable. Now look at what happened this Thursday. Oil prices plummeted by a whopping ~8% in one single day. Yes, this is a commodity we are talking about. Did the demand drop by a astounding 8%? or did they find a giant pool of oil? neither did all the problems in the Middle East get solved. Nothing.

Oil Prices, 5th May, 2011

My take is that there is a lot of money sloshing around and people are speculating with Oil futures and prices, unfortunately you and I have to bear the cost of all this. Still there is one way to stick it to the oil Co, carpool, bike, walk and let us all use less OIL…

People always say that Beverly Hill Los Angeles is glamorous and  I would   probably agree to them, but when it comes to dazzling, nothing beats South Beach Miami.  It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the opulence (cars, home, yachts). Here is a picture from my recent trip there.

Entering South Beach, Miami, Florida

Prices of gas in Northern California have already hit an wallet draining $4.14/gal. which means that my 12 mile daily commute to work already costs me $2.75 each day!

That is why I have pledged to bike to work at least once a week and probably more when the rains stops. The bike ride to my workplace  is a roughly 30minutes (including the changeover) vs. the car commute of ~20minutes, so it is actually not that bad a deal. Plus the added benefit of free exercise. With that in mind I have also been building my biking capabilities (who knows my commute could be 20miles each way on day :D ) and recently  I hit a personal record in terms of distance 37.5miles (60km)! here are  the details of that epic bike ride.

The Epic Bike ride

ps: by the way runkeeper and runtastic pro (I like this better) are both really great apps for iphone to track physical activities.

The recent spike in the gas prices, has many of you searching for the cheapest gas station. But the ubiquity of smart-phones means that instead of searching on the internet, people are using their iphones! The gas buddies app on iphone had surged to 3rd most popular app on the app store 2 weeks ago, by the time I took the picture, it had receded to the 9th position. Still very impressive.

GadBuddy App Iphone

Our cars often reflect our choices because they are usually the 2^nd big ticket item after a house.

While some of us like to keep our cars well oiled and manicured, there are those who consider it just a mode of transport to go from point A to point B.

But not matter was it is a big personal asset!

Which is why I was so surprised when I came across an article on the web that talked a gentlemen in San Francisco who had converted his car into a black board (for just $80) for people to scribble.

Now if this was India, it would have been covered in political posters and vulgar graffiti, thank fully things are not that bad out here in the city by the bay.

Read more @ Cars as Chalkboard or check out pictures of the car at http://chalkcar.com/

Wishing a Happy and Prosperous New Year to the users of our site.

Sharing with you all a picture of the San Francisco City Sky line taken in from Sausalito, CA (Across the Bay)

A picture from the last look out on the Koke’E State Park, looking at the Na’Pali Coast

Napali Coast, Kokee State Park, Kauai, HI

We are a carpool website, but when government policies and state propositions have such a huge impact on our future, we have to pitch in with our two cents.

The most important (Anti-) Green Prop this elections is Prop 23.

Before you decide your vote, here are a few things to consider.

What is Prop 23?

• California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 requires the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Proposition 23 would suspend the law, known as A.B. 32, until the state unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters

This has happened only three times in the past 40 years, so you already know that this Prop will kill AB.32.

Who is funding Prop 23? (Majority (90%) Funding)

• Marathon Petroleum of Findlay, Ohio
• Texas oil companies :Tesoro and Valero and
• Koch Industries (TX) A petrochemical company controlled by the billionaire Koch brothers

These are the same oil companies how want to keep us addicted to oil. Their TV ad claims that AB32 will cost jobs, I say that choosing not to act will costs us the Solar and Clean Tech revolution, and the environment too. Why support a technology that is guaranteed to die in 50 years and which is controlled predominantly by the Middle East Countries?

Governor Schwarzenegger had  this to say in a recent energy forum, “they (Texas Oil) are very deceptive when they say they want to go and create more jobs in California”. “Since

when has [an] oil company ever been interested in jobs? Let’s be honest. If they really are interested in jobs, they would want to protect A.B. 32, because actually it’s green technology that is creating the most jobs right now in California, 10 times more than any other sector.”

Who is Against Prop 23.

• Silicon Valley venture capitalists, New York hedge fund managers, national environmental groups and green technology executives.
• Companies like Google, Gap and their family members.
• More than $800,000 has come from activists who work on behalf of low-income communities afflicted by pollution.
• Blue Shield of California, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Waste Management and other mainstream corporations
• And I hope You!

I don’t care if you are a republican or a democrat, facts are facts.

You can read more at

1)     “The Terminator vs. Big Oil” By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

2)     Green Politics in the NYtimes.com

I discovered one of the biggest scams perpetrated on the traveling human race today, and it is a worth a post.

So here I am trying to buy two air tix to Portland, OR.  Since the regular air fares for a trip from SFO to PDX were running a bit high, I decided to use my air-miles from United Airlines (can you already feel it coming, right? United, air miles… ). Over my many trips to India, I have managed to save a respectable 64K miles on the account. I log in to the united account, choose the option of using my miles to purchase two tixs. The price of two tickets including taxes is $634, (so I a already knew that I could fall a few miles short), but what came next took me by surprise and disgust.

The site reported that I needed 100K  miles to purchase the $634 tickets and thus I was short by 36K miles. But I still had the option of buying these 36K miles. Now let’s do some maths:

100K miles == $634 –> 36K miles ==  $288. But I would be able to use my 64K miles to save $406. Right? Not so soon…

The purchase page shows me that the price of buying 36K mile is a whopping $1200!! Seriously?

So somehow my miles are worth $6.34/1K miles and their miles are worth $33/1K miles?

i.e. United Airlines’s miles are ~5.25X better, juicier, prettier, healthier, @#$%*&ier than my miles.

You would have never seen that coming.

Yours truly

With the California state in financial ruins,  the state government has found a new way to raise money-: Rain Parking Tickets on people, a whole lot of them.

On our most recent  trip to the City of San Francisco, we began the evening with the usual routine of circling city blocks to find a suitable parking spot. We even peeked into a parking garage, but the prospect of paying a  flat rate of $15, seemed preposterous and we pulled back.

Then, Jackpot: We see a car pulling out from a parking space and we immediately maneuver our car in the spot. There were four of us, we stepped out of the car and carefully surveyed the parking place to make sure it was legit.

The sign on the meter “327 05070” said, 7AM-6PM Mon-Fri. it was 6:45pm on a Friday,  four pair of eyes read this, nod, smile and praise the good Lord. Finally!

You would think the story ends here. No …

So the evening goes by. We finish our dinner, chat over dessert, sip good coffee, admire the bustling city life, curse the Bay Area suburbs that we live-in and yearn for a life in “the city”. Finally, we return to our car at about 11:15pm, on Broadway and Columbus. Guess what?

No CAR.

You say, “What do you mean no car? Did we come to the right street?”.

Yes, off-course, Broadway and Columbus. But the whole street was empty, all the cars were gone!

Panic stricken, we ask around, and are duly informed that a few car were towed away.

We debate,  “the sign said, we could park, that is what the meter said. Isn’t it?”.

We soon realize that 4 parking spaces behind our spot, was a sign that said no parking beyond 8:00pm on Friday, else cars would be towed away.

(they fooled 4 people, shame on them)

Now, I was under the impression that such sign are always posted at the end of the parking space row.

We got towed

A cab and $15 later we arrive at the tow station, to get the reality check of the city life.

The towing fee was a cool $373.00 and we had also got a $75 parking ticket, that sums to $447 for the night.

Yes, our 4 hour parking in “the City” has just cost us $447.00.

The best part was the we couldn’t even argue with the towing company, as the City by the Bay, had out sourced the job to a 3rd party, so the tow co were just  middle men, doing their job.

We swore, what a fraud the city of SFO was and drive home.

By the way, our car got towed again in San Jose downtown two week later, for $225. This time we had parked right below 4 Big signs that said don’t park for more than a hour. Parking is a Bitch.

Our Big Blue Ball.

Earth Day

Most of Africa and portions of Europe and Asia can be seen in this photograph taken from the Apollo 11 spacecraft during its translunar coast toward the moon. Apollo 11 was already 98,000 nautical miles from Earth when this picture was made on July 17th, 1969. (NASA)

Great article from USA today. Without plagiarizing much, top city, my own San Francisco. and the worst? Houston.

http://usat.me?88398

I remember being in Houston, two years ago. No offense to the kind folk in Houston, but the airport car-rental is 4miles away from the airport, can you believe it? you probably need a rental car to get to the rental car place. Everything is unnecessarily spread out. Such a waste.

Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”, (Hard cover) (retail USD30)

Yes, you read it right. As a promotion, I will ship you a brand new hard back edition of the latest Dan Brown  book anywhere in the US (All 50 states)

What do you have to do to win it?

Review our site on your blog, in at least 100 or more words and convince one other friend of yours to do the same.  That’s it.

You don’t have to necessarily praise our site, just mention the features, what you liked, (even what you didn’t). and how it can help carpooling. If you used  DivvyMyRide.com to find a carpool and describe your experience, that would be awesome.

To win the book, you will have to send me screen shots and links to both the blogs ( your friend’ and yours)  blog and the blog must have that entry for at least a month. And off course your home address.

So hurry, what are you waiting for?

Thanks a lot,

DivvyMyRide Team

Heard this very funny segment on MarketPlace today

Marc Jaffe: As the owner of a 2010 Prius, I’m concerned about the recent problems associated with the car, but I have to say that I am thrilled with my Prius and Toyota. This fiasco has given me a whole new persona. I used to be Mr. Responsible — a guy who cared about the environment, but always lost the chicks to the dashingly dangerous sports car driver. Now, I’m the one who is dangerous and turning heads as I cruise around, a bottle of lemon-flavored water in my cup holder.

Back when a Prius was a sign of staid prudence, my wife complained that I had begun driving like an old man, as I would ease up on the gas pedal for better mileage, driving below the speed limit. Now she swoons when I walk in the door safely after a grocery run, perhaps a little surprised that I’ve come back alive from facing such peril. Who’s potentially going too fast now, baby?

read more on the marketplace site …

Marc Jaffe is a comedy writer. He lives near Cleveland, Ohio.

listen to the show here