Friday, December 12, 2008

Rab ne bana di jodi

Just returned after watching Rab ne bana di jodi at the Loews Theater in Secaucus. I loved the movie. Not a moment which bored me or anything which pulled me away from the movie. Throughout the 2.5 hours, I was glued to the screen.
It's a sweet romantic drama, which will keep you attached to it from the very first frame to the last frame, when you see the YRF banner :). Aditya Chopra has written and directed a very good movie. Lyrics were terse, music was a perfect mix of eastern and western instruments and choreography was also very good. I would like to specially mention the Dance pe Chance song. So beautiful are the lyrics, that you can learn to dance (and remember the steps too) if you listen attentively to the song :) The last part is very good, when the credits are coming and Sharukh is telling about his and Tani's Japan trip. Picture postcards are coming on the left part of the screen, and Shahrukh is telling about he pictures. Really funny and humorous dialogues :)

Shahrukh has performed well and the newcomer Anushka (who is a model and just 19 years old) has also done a great job here! And she is beautiful :)


All and all, a good movie and I will say go for it! 4 stars from my side.

How to Wrap a Sari!

Recently, while watching a Hindi flick Sorry Bhai, I got a kind of reaffirmation that an Indian female (don't want to use lady, women, girl for the obvious reasons :)) looks best in a Sari! Now, don't think that I am one of those fanatics who want to create a hue and cry about dressing code! No way! I am with you in bashing those idiots. Ok, let me come to the point. So, while watching that movie (which I really loved), I was completely in awe of Chitrangada Singh.


Wow, she is beautiful,and in that black Sari (remember the party!) she was just amazing! I have noticed this that a female looks amazingly beautiful in a Sari and has a definite appeal! At times, I have found some of them more appealing in a Sari :)

For the curious sorts, here is a link, kind of illustrated steps to help you wrap a Sari!

Happy Holidays!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Venus, Moon and Jupiter shine together

Yesterday, that is on Monday night there was a rare event in the sky. Venus, Moon and Jupiter were shining together in the sky forming a smiley :)


When I saw these three shining last night, I did not knew that this event is not gonna occur again till November 18, 2052! Whoa! I am lucky! These kinds of events are rare in evening sky.

Jupiter was the brightest, followed by Venus and then Moon. Quite a show, it was. I forgot to click it though :(

Photo Courtesy: AP

Monday, December 01, 2008

An ordeal on the road!

Thanksgiving is a bad time for people who are traveling, esp on road! I remember last year also, I happened to be in States on Thanksgiving and I was traveling that time to my relatives place. It took me almost 5 hours to reach DC from City, but while returning back, the bus was late by an hour. Never mind as I was in city by 10 PM and happened to reach my apartment by 11:30, I guess.
This year, things were screwed up very bad. Really bad! Reaching DC was okay, as it took 5 hours instead of regular 4 or 4:30. Well, that's OK, seeing the volume of traffic on the NJ turnpike. It took almost 3 hours just to reach Delaware Memorial bridge, instead of regular 2! Till the time I was in NJ, traffic was horrible, bumper to bumper!
Now lets talk about the return journey. I must say that this has been my worst trip so far in my life! I left my relatives place at 2, boarded bus and then metro to reach DC by 2:50 PM. I was supposed to board the 4:15 bus, but then I thought that let's reach the bus stop early to catch 3:15 so that I can reach home early! Well, fate had some other plans for me! When I joined the line, merely 15 people were standing in front of me. After a while (around 3:30), I came to know that the 2:35 bus has not arrived yet! I was disturbed by hearing that coz I knew that if 2:45 has not reached yet, then my bus is gonna have more delay! Well, around 4:30 a bus came which was supposed to come at 2:45! The bus agent got the people who had reservation for 2:45 on the bus and said to rest of us that the next bus is coming soon! It was raining lightly and was cold. Around 5:30, the fucking agent screwed up and all of a sudden said that those who are on 4:15v reservation should come and stand in a separate line towards the end of existing line! Shit, I said. In moments, I was standing almost towards the end! I was cursing my luck as I knew that standing behind in the line only makes your chance of getting on the bus slimmer! Time was ticking by and frustration was building up inside me, but the bus was not in sight! Another bus came around 6, which was coming from City and was dropping passengers on our stop. The agent told us that this bus will be back in couple of minutes after dropping rest of the passengers at the next stop. Obviously, the bus never came back! After a lot of time passed, a bus finally arrived at 8 PM and boarded the bus! 5 hours is what I spent waiting on that bus stop in rain and cold weather along with other passengers! I was feeling hellish!
When I boarded the bus, I said never mind, I should be in City by midnight and then I will reach home by 1 or 1:30 AM. The screwing continues here as I reached City at 12:30. Ran all the way down from 34th to Port Authority for the bus to my place, only to find that the last Coach USA bus has already left and I will need to board the last bus of 1:40. Crap! I was running here and there to get a ticket as the old machines were replaced by new ones and were asking for new codes for the route and zone! I managed to get the required information and printed a ticket for myself! Now comes the other frustrating part. The third floor level was supposed to be closed at 1:00 AM and there was a notice near the short line bus inquiry window which said that my bus was supposed to leave from Gate 82 on the ground floor! I rushed to the ground floor, but was intercepted by another bus terminal official on the first floor, who told me that no NJ Transit buses will leave from Gate 82 and I should instead go to third floor. I listened to him but on this floor, no one was there to guide or give information and the notices got me confused and I again reached Gate 82! I noticed that there are only Greyhound buses leaving from that floor! I was a bit nervous about the correctness of information but then there was a guy standing besides me, who was also going to Mahwah! I thought that I am standing in the right line and so I waited. Bus was scheduled to leave at 1:40 AM. It came and left, obviously from some other gate at level 3! I kept standing, sometimes sitting at Gate 82 and then at around 3:00 AM in the morning, I finally realizes that the bus is not gonna come on this gate. At that time, I didn't knew that the bus has left from some other gate on level 3. The guy standing besides me, called his girlfriend and checked about the earliest bus to Mahwah in morning. She told him that the first bus in the morning leaves at 06:55 AM! I decided to go upstairs and wait there as at least there are chairs on that floor! I went on Level 3 and waited and kept myself wide awake for another 4 hours. Finally, the bus arrived at 07:15 AM (this one was also delayed due to some accident in Lincoln tunnel) and I reached home at 8:00 AM!

I can say that by far this has been the worst trip in my life! I left my relatives place at 1:45 PM on Sunday and reached my home at 8:00 AM on Monday! Almost 18 hours...in normal cases this should have been just 6.5 hours, including waiting time for the bus!

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Metallica on Wiki

Well, it's not a big deal. Nevertheless, I thought I will write at least some lines on it.
Today Wikipedia has featured Metallica in its Featured Article! \m/

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Happy Diwali


Wish you all a happy and enlightened Deepawali. May this festival of lights dispel all darkness and fears from your life and brighten up your and your families lives.


I will miss this festival this year also! For consecutive year, I am here in US all away from my family and friends. Miss you all. Have fun and take care.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Freezing days not far away

Winter is gonna hit pretty soon this year here. It has already started getting cold and this week, for the last 3 days we have seen the gusts gaining speed. Today was another damn windy and chilly day towards evening. It has been predicted that this is gonna be a tough and rough winter this time! Boy, I imagine how much snow I am gonna witness.
You know, for tomorrow the prediction for low is -1C!! All I can say for that is turn on the heat and hide :)

Friday, October 17, 2008

Something to write about

Yawn.. and another one just followed the first...
Can't help..it's 1:27 AM to be precise and usually I would have been in my dreams by this time, but today being a Friday night..oops it's already Saturday..I have the privilege of staying awake n rising late in the morning :)

This week has been busy..work has always kept me on tips and toes and thankfully tennis is back in daily routine..Sad part is that we are playing just for an hour now :( reason is that the lights are no more available after 7 PM. It starts getting dark at 6:30 and by the time we decide to wrap it up it's almost 7 and we have to leave the court sadly..Anyways, I got a new racket for me coz the one I had broke early this week. I know we wont be getting to play longer, but I wanted to utilize every single day we have. Come November 2nd, and Daylight saving will be off and we will not be having virtually any time to play on weekends if the lights are not on!

Today, like most of this week, I was damn busy in work. Was glued to my desk till the last minute to 5. I wanted to finish up all pending tasks before leaving office today and didn't really wanted to finish up from home. Luckily, I did what I was aiming for. After coming back to the apartment, we decided to go to Chilli's for Dinner and then head to a movie. We had two options, either Body of Lies or Max Payne.

When I reached apartment, the first thing I had to do was finish up the last 5 minutes of the last episode of Friends. What a way to end. I felt like an era has ended. For the ten seasons, I felt like I was so much involved with every character, that I can not come to terms that it has ended. I know, I am watching it all over again, but then that is with Friends. You can see it all over again and again. I was able to connect to many things in different episodes at times to different situations I have been. I will be writing another post on this whole thing, some time late next week. But, I wanna say that I love this series and this is a hell great series. So much emotion packed, that I will never forget Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross!

We hit Chilli's around 9. Food was great as has been last time. I had no drinks :) and I'm cool about that right now! Presidente Margarita was quite appealing, esp when it's on your table, but I know very well that I can control myself when I really want to. So, was clean :) The cool thing there was that most of the time, I was checking on a hot waitress who was most of the time standing by the computer where other servers were coming and keying in their orders n stuff like that. She was in my direct vision zone and I never left a chance to look at her! Man, she was hot! Had I had guts, I would have at least asked her name :( Whew!

We left at around 9:45 and reached GSP well in time for the show. Hmm, now about the movie, Body of Lies. Well, what would you expect out of a political drama-cum-thriller? I don;t expect to see sleazy bodies there, nor do I expect screwed up songs and some spicy bollywood stuff. The movie delivers what it is expect to. Perfect direction, some tight acting by two greats. But, here Leonardo DiCaprio stole the thunder from Russel Crowe. Leo as always has performed intensely and with all emotions needed for his part. Russel did not had much of screen presence, but I really noticed the perfectionism in some scenes. Last time, I had marked the details was in American Gangster. I liked the movie, but not all will like! It had some thrilling scenes and also some chilling ones...Overall, I will credit Ridley Scott for exploring a sensitive subject and he did well!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Boost your Brain

Interested in boosting your brain? Of course, you will be. So don't stay back and jump on here to learn 120 ways to boost your brain.
Thanks to StumbleUpon!

Website Finds of the Week!

Fun Website
Scrabble Yippee
Photo

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Skwee-mish

I think I am squeamish when it comes to food. I have found myself often in situations where I have to starve myself due to the appearance of the food. No matter, it is tasty or someone is asking me again and again to try some stuff, my mind does not allows me to go for it. I know this is not good for me. I should have a knack for tasting things and trying out. But then, I am often lamed by my taste buds who reject new things coming my way. Rarely, I have appreciated a new delicacy.

For many weeks, all I had in lunch here was Cheese Pizza :) Being a non-vegetarian does not gives you full liberty to try and eat stuff here in US. Obviously precondition is your religious beliefs, which in my case places restriction. Here, you have to specifically ask for no-meat to mean that you don't want beef. Once I was with my friends in Woodbury Premium Outlets, up in NY state and feeling the hunger in stomachs we went to food court. I wanted to go for egg roll,which I did not had for a long time. I ordered it on a Chinese joint and then waited for my order. Thankfully, one of the staffers from the joint came to me and said that the egg roll will contain beef! I was taken back and at the same time was thankful to him for letting me know! He would have seen an Indian ordering something which hsa beef :)

Taste buds wake up and accept new things coming your way. At least try!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Delhi Bomb Blasts 2008


Delhi was hit by a serial bomb blasts on 9/13 when 5 blasts took place in different parts of city. The target areas where prime markets and a public park. The terrorists chose a weekend as the number of people outside in the markets is obviously more on such days. The blasts took place in Karol Bagh, GK M-block market, Central Park in C.P. and Barahkhamba road again in C.P. Around 3o are dead and 100 injured. 3-4 live bombs were found in the following raids. One was found near India gate (which draws huge crowds on weekends during evening hours), Regal Cinema (a popular theater in C.P.) and then one in Central Park. Bomb disposal squads of NSG were in action and detonated all live bombs. A 10 year old balloon seller, who has become prime witness to one of the bombing locations had seen tow men in black clothes, getting down from an auto-rickshaw and putting a black polythene bag in a dustbin. All bombs were put in trash cans at the bombing locations. A terrorist Outfit named Indian Mujaheddin has claimed responsibility in an email which was sent to many media organizations, 5 minutes before the blasts actually took place. The email was traced back to Mumbai.

This whole episode is connected to Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts which took place earlier this year. The same outfit was behind those blasts. In the email released before Ahmedabad bomb blasts, the group has shown their dirty face and the venom against India and the Hindus in particular.

Abdul Subhan Quereshi, the alleged mastermind behind Delhi bomb blasts as well as Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts, it the current most wanted man in India. He is still not traceable by police or security agencies and he is continuing to mock security establishments and threatening more bloodshed!
He presents the ugly face of Islamic terrorism, where again and again educated people are surfacing as masterminds and executors of heinous act of slaughter. Such people let me think the strong brain washout centers which the Islamic terrorists are running. How they do it and how long they take to washout an educated civilian before he becomes a hard-core terrorism expert? If they can get an educated person to do such things, how easy it would be for them to do the same to an illiterate fell coming from a village? Again these things throw a challenge to the world as to completely track and destroy every single center and immediately terminate every single human being associated with such centers, where such insane teachings are imparted and people are trained to become beasts who are zombies. We all know how strong the terror network has become and every day, its proved in our face like a slap that they are getting better and more gruesome and obviously we are showing again and again that we are helpless!

Why can't we come up with solutions and master plans for hunting down the terrorists like we come up for city development? Why is it so hard for the central government and state governments to launch an offensive drive country wide against such inhuman bastards? I do understand that terminating the current breed of terrorists won't do good and so some people might question my offensive statements. But at the core of heart, I guess most of us know that offense is the only thing left with us at this hour. This is the reason, I had said in last para that we have to track and demolish every such institution where such immoral and heinous teachings are imparted! Unless and until the source is cut off, we will not be completely safe. The time is ripe for all political parties to come together and join hands so that their state governments can work in tandem with the center in launching a drive which will make sure that Islamic terrorism is eradicated from it's roots. If we don't start it now, we will be too late for sure.

Intelligence Bureau, the Indian Army, RAW, CBI, CID, STF and every police unit of this country has to come together and share information and launch drives if we want to put an end to this fight in our country. Those bloody bastards can't hide in our country unless we let them. We have enough resources to track every damn bastard and show doors to hell. We can do it, all we need is a day when we decide it is time! And I don't know how many more cities we are waiting to blast before we actually do anything? How many more dead bodies?

I was thinking about the steps which we need to take at the earliest. Some of my thoughts are here under:
1. We need to step up security everywhere in our country. The first in these should be more secure checking of every person leaving or entering our borders, which should span our international land borders (esp the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh borders), Airports, docks and for sure the entry-exit routes through water (which will include the whole coastal line).
2. We need to install more numbers of high-clarity close circuit cameras at all strategic locations mentioned above and need to have the supporting back-end infrastructure. I am pretty sure our government has enough money to support such installations. If not, cut the fuel bills of the politicians in offices for a week. I am sure, that will bring in so much revenue that it will cover one month bill of such installations and the man-power behind that. (Well, I may be wrong in the estimates, but then this is the initial draft).
3. The next step should be stepped up security at all public places in each and every city. This should include railway stations, bus terminals, multiplexes, theaters (the owners should be responsible for this as a community service effort), shopping malls (again the owners should be responsible), public parks, government offices and buildings.
4. This whole information (the surveillance and other digital information) should be hosted on a distributed network where all government security agencies can have access to without much red-tape. Obviously, we are talking about READ access here and not the write access. The subsequent action by a non-owner of the information has to be shared with the owner. This will make sure that the credit is made to both the owner of information and the information grabber. And secondly, this will make sure an efficient and timely execution.
5. This whole computerized infrastructure will not be hard to build, operate and maintain as we have NIC for our help. They already have offices in every state capital and so building such a network won't be so tough. On a side note, some more jobs will also be created!
6. The next step should be hiring more computer security experts and training officers in cyberspace crimes and computer security. If the terrorists want to use technology as their helping hand, let's tell them who is more of an expert. A team should come up which has all computer experts, who can track information flowing on web, the hosting parties, the emails, the phone calls and related stuff. This organization should be under purview of some central agency (CBI can have a department under them, if they don't have one already). Again the base will be the distributed network where all state agencies are pouring information for one-another.

This will be an example of community effort towards a good cause. A front-end website will be of great use, where the interested citizens and of course the media can keep track of things which are safe to broadcast.

Well this is just an initial draft of a master plan which I have in my mind. I will be brainstorming on more such ideas and ways which we can have in place and which are completely feasible.

Every single citizen of this country has to know that the terrorists are not killing only a single religion when they preach their fabricated statements of hate towards other religion. It's humanity they hate and not non-Islamic religions. And it's all due to some of the insane people who are bringing more people with them and killing them morally before they actually die. We as citizens have to know that we have to cooperate and come together if we want this all to stop. You may never know when you or someone of your family and known ones become a target to their fanaticism.

The bottom line is United we Stand, divided we fall

Rock on and A Wednesday ...

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Back with a Bang!

Prison Break returned on Fox with its 2 hour special first episode of Season 4 on Fox. Of all the current thrillers going on TV right now, this one is the best in my opinion. Wentworth Miller is as always...tight acting and yes Sarah is back!!! Yippe... Thanks a lot to the writers and producers who got her back. Sarah Wayne Callies is so cute that had she been taken out of the series, half of the excitement for the series would have died down.
Keep Watching ...

Google Chrome


Google launched Beta version of its own web browser named Chrome today. It's available for download and use, currently only for Windows users. They will be unveiling the Mac and Linux versions pretty soon as listed on their website.
Google has announced the launch on Sep 1 on the Official Google Blog. The project is Open-Source and Google has credited Apple's Webkit and Mozilla Firefox for some of the components and ideas. Chrome is based on Google's V8 engine, which is Google's open source JavaScript engine.
They have come up with a comic introduction for the inception and features of Google Chrome, which is worth read! Do read it here for two reasons, you will get to know about the ideas behind the browser, technical as well as non-technical. Then the best thing I liked was the thought and presentation! God, I never had thought that someone will introduce some tech app through a comic. What a brilliant thought it is! Whoever thought of the comic deserves accolades. It keeps you with itself and you keep on reading all pages. I don't remember when was the last time that I was reading about some product's brainchild and technical details. Whew, Well done Google! Another innovative idea, I will say!

Hiccups
I tried to install the browser and it was smooth. A 474 KB exe was downloaded in a snap and installation also was fast like other Google Apps. But, but but the pages failed to load and the browser threw an application error :(


I am gonna reinstall it and try again after some time.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Medal number 2 for India \m/

Time for some more celebrations. Sushil Kumar has won a Bronze Medal in Men's Freestyle Wrestling (60-66 Kg).
Congrats Sushil and thanks a lot for bringing some more laurels to our motherland.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Finally, one for Shawn!



Shawn Johnson hasn't been that lucky so far. She missed Gold on three occasions once to her friend Nastia. She was touted as a favorite and must-watch for apart from Michael Phelps. Nevertheless, she managed to keep her cheered and was always smiling, no matter how much she would have felt at inside for loosing by close margins.

18th was a different day and she won the Gold in Balance Beam outpacing her fellow team-mate and friend Nastia. I was really happy for her! She deserved more than that. I would really love to see her and Nastia back in 2012 Olympics.

All the best to Shawn and Nastia!

Friday, August 15, 2008

It's that time of the year!

Phew, it came and went. Yesterday was my birthday. I grew an year older and became more mature and seen some more of the world. Had one more year of my share of happiness, sadness, agony, ecstasy, expectation, despairment, thoughts and what not. More things went away and some things came along. More things were archived in my head and some things became just part of memories; good or bad is something I will think of later.
It's really amazing that the feeling starts building up few days before and when the day actually comes, you feel great. Something happens on the day, which can't be explained, which makes you happy and keeps you tuned up the whole day. Towards the end of the day you start getting a sinking feeling that it's soon gonna be over.
Yesterday, the day started off well. I got few calls from my friends and family and then scraps were pouring in throughout the day. Had to come to office so nothing much happened in the day. Late evening, Manish and Pooja hosted a small party at their apartment and rest of the folks came over to preside the cake cutting :) So towards the end of the day, it turned up quite well. I felt good coz earlier in the day, It was just another day for me with nothing much happening. Nevertheless, in the end it was all good with cake and red wine (my fav).
This was followed up by watching Olympics. Two great events were lined up. 200 m IM for men, where Michael Phelps was gunning for his 6th gold and then there was Woman's All around gymnastics final where USA was having two hot favorites in Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Believe me, watching Phelps in action is a treat in itself. The guy is really like a torpedo in water. He starts smoothly and slowly and by the time he has to turn back he is the fastest. He starts building a lead as soon as he starts his second lap and by the time he crosses the half-mark of the penultimate lap, he maintains a full body length distance from his next closest opponent. He made another WR yesterday and won the Gold Medal in that event.
At National Indoor stadium, US was going to test it's luck with Nastia and Shawn. Both of them started pretty well. Shawn faltered a bit at the uneven bars and was low on points. But on vault she was splendid. Nastia on the other hand was great at uneven bars but the judges were not much appeased in giving her points. But then she was absolutely amazing at balance beam with a perfect execution. Both of them scored equal points on floor where they dominated the rest opponents. In the end, Nastia edged past Shawn by a mere 0.6. But the US national anthem played in the National Indoor Stadium at last. Nastia bagged Gold and Shawn had to do with Silver. It was really an amazing performance to watch. I must mention Ksenia Semenova of Russia who was so beautiful at uneven bars and deserved the highest points in that event but somehow the judges disagreed and gave Yilin Yang (China) most points, despite not so impressive performance. Anyways, end is all that matters.
So, this is how this birthday of mine went by. Tried to call somebody as promised but wasn't able to talk. Later I thought that maybe I was not supposed to call and talk. Was kind of a signal.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Pool Shark continues his dominance



Michael Phelps of US has made history with being the Olympian with most medals ever. Phelps has 11 golds so far and he is eying another 3. He is literally destroying every race he is entering.
So far in this Olympics, he has participated in 5 swimming events and he has won Gold in all of them. What makes this whole thing more spectacular is that he kept on making World Record in all of them. 3 more events are to go and he is eying to break Mark Spitz's current world record of 7 Golds in a single meet!
I pray to God that he does it! Good Luck Michael!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Chinese Gymnasts Debate!

You must have came across the news about the possible fake staged by Chinese authorities regarding their women gymnast team. It's been widely discussed and debated as to whether the Chinese gymnasts fulfill the age criteria imposed by IOC? IOC states the minimum age to be 16 years for competing in any event. This restriction is in place to ensure that younger children do not burn out in wake of pressure and preparations. It seems China thinks otherwise.
When I watched the Chinese gymnasts, I came on the side of the people who think that Chinese gymnasts are under-age. The US team coach, Bela Karolyi commented that some of the Chinese gymnasts are still having baby teeth and may be watching Dora, The Explorer :) I think he is right. China has produced passports for all these athletes which has their ages as 16 years old. Passport is the only document which has been ratified by IOC as the Identification and age-proof.
Check out the video posted on Yahoo which covers this debate and has a forensic expert trying to guess the age of Chinese athletes!

Let's start covering Olympics!

Well, this post forward my posts will center around Olympics. And yes Kudos to Abhinav Bindra from bringing honors to the country!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Worst movie so far of the year

It's again a proven fact for me. Never go for movies which have a lot of hype around them! I went for Singh is King on Sunday night. Believe me, I am clueless how and why people are enjoying this movie back in India! The movie is such a waste and I can say insane.
Let's start from Direction. Well, there was no direction at all. It looks like the director let loose everyone esp the editing staff to do whatever they feel like. And the editing staff made much of this gift and acted like drunkards! At one moment, you are at a place and the very next you are taken to a totally different situation as if there's no gradual shift between scenes. I don't know who is the lyricist and I don't even want to know! A complete shit in terms of lyrics! Abusive words are the prominent show of the first song in the movie. It looks like Hindi movies are slowly and slowly demeaning the Indian cinema. It's alright to have some stuff for the sake of some people's ART. But when the mukhda of a song is an abusive word, what do you say! Some of the scenes are a total mess, without logic without any thought! This irritates me more when I think that Bollywood is churning sensible movies like Taare Zameen Par and then you see a crap like this. Well, there should be no difference of opinion that Katrina doesn't knows acting. All she can manage is her smile. She proved this again here. Akshay, I don't know what he saw in this movie before signing this one! May be he knew that this is what Indian Cine goers are waiting for and that's something which is making this movie hit! It was disappointing to hear that this movie is doing good in India. Makes me sad to think how and why people are loving such stuff.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Cricket

I got a chance to play cricket today morning. I guess I had not played since Apr 2006. There was not much of a gathering, only 9 people were there. Nevertheless, it was so fun playing with others and that too in US.
Thanks to Manish :) who asked me. We will be meeting again next Saturday and we will be almost 15 then. Waiting for next Saturday :)

Monday, July 28, 2008

Cuil


Cuil (pronounced "cool"), a new search engine was opened to public today morning. This company has been founded by some ex-Google employees. Anna Paterson, her husband Tom Costello, who worked for IBM being at the helm of things.
Ms. Paterson and Mr. Costello have a history with search engines. They founded a search engine in 90s called Xift. Anna then wrote a search engine used for internet archives which was ultimately sold to Google. She was with Google with one of the product groups which is involved with rankings - one of the most important part of a search engine. Ms. Paterson has claimed that Cuil has searched 120 billion pages with only 140 servers, thanks to the new algorithm in place which was kind of designed by Tom. Cuil has raised $33 mn in all till date and has spent only $7 mn. Cuil has an index which is three times of Google's index as claimed by Ms. Paterson.


So, how does it fare in the game? Well, for me it was not great. OK, the presentation is new, which kind of appeals with a newspaper/magazine layout where you can read something about the link before actually opening it. And then there are pictures also along with those text snapshots from those web pages, which sometimes has nothing to do with the actual site! The search results are not that impressive. Maybe Cuil needs a bit of in-field work out before going for big claims. No matter how good you are your theories, you need to go in the field to have a feel of the real thing. I say that because, in the morning I was trying to search for "Web 2.0" as a test string on Cuil and all I was getting on the first page were companies who develop applications for Web 2.0. There was only one link, which was pointing me somewhere where I could have known about what the term means and that link was not under direct focus of the eye. That particular link was placed under the category's box! A place where your eye won't go in first look. I kept trying with the term till late afternoon and I was getting same sort of results. The same query string on Google, Yahoo returned me more meaningful links where I can learn about Web 2.0. Only a few hours ago, the result set changed on Cuil and now the first link there is Wikipedia article about Web 2.0 (which was not even present till 3 pages in the morning). The O'Reilly link which was present under Category box in the morning has also shifted towards left. Nevertheless, 80 percent of links on page 1 are more of commercial nature. Well, I hope the results will improve with days.


The Explore by Categories feature is a nice one which is kind of helpful with many search strings. But this is also giving an unrelated set of links for a lot of query strings. An example is, I searched for "New Delhi" and under Categories box, I get "Chief ministers of Jharkhand"!!

Nevertheless, a nice attempt and hopefully Cuil, if not merged with some search giant, can be a nice companion to Google but not a competitor in near future! Here's NY Time's article on Cuil.

Google did not commented on Cuil's launch (even after some of it's top ranking employees have started it) but they posted a blog on their official site which commented that Google always knew that web was big. They kind of thwarted Cuil's attempt to say that they have a larger index than Google by saying that there are infinite number of unique web pages and they don't know the exact number nor had the time to look for it as it all depends upon how you define what is a useful page. Their comment really impressed me. And after all, it's out there, you can go on and see for yourself.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Fighting for being Lesbian???

The world is indeed full of strange people and strange places. I have often came across people or have heard of some who have an interest in trying to be in limelight without giving a thought. What I mean to say is that, there are people out there who will stand up for something funny, pointless issue and try to gather people's attention towards them. All such acts often draw attention but almost every time the people behind such things become point of ridicule! At least from my perspective.

Today I came across of one such act. Lesbos is a Greek island located in northeastern Aegean sea. I had never heard of this place before and I would not have heard in future also but thanks to those three residents of this island who filed a court case to ban the use of word Lesbian to describe Gay women. The residents argued that using the term in reference to Gay women insulted their identity. Nevertheless, the Athens court ruled against them saying that there was no justification for their contention.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Jaane Tu..ya Jaane na!

Yesterday (Sat,7/12) I went for the latest Bollywood flick Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. SL had suggested this one to me last week and again yesterday morning when we were chatting. He had said that it's a cool movie. It was time since I watched any youthful movie so I decided to give it a try.
Me, Amit and Sonal went to AMC Lowes in Secaucus, which being a nice theater, thankfully screens Hindi movies :)
Well, I loved the movie. It was energetic, youthful and light. Even though it was based on old-formula of Bollywood and has nothing new from the perspective of storyline, nonetheless movie appealed all due to the exuberance of the characters, who represented young gen. Had it been some hit stars of Bollywood, I am damn sure this movie would have had no takers. But with the cast movie had, it was taken well by young India. College going and those who have just passed college can easily connect to the love triangles and remember the triangles, quadrangles or vicious circles which formed in college days :) Made me remember my days for sure!
Imran Khan, who debuted with this movie did justice to his role. Genelia has seriously problem in speaking Hindi. Her dialogue delivery doesn't seems natural, rather mechanical! I was more attracted to Sugandha Garg (Shaleen) :P in the movie! A R Rahman's music was a bit different from what his usual style is! Had I not seen that its he who is the music director, I would have not known about that. The music seemed more like others and was missing the usual Rahman's style.
Overall, a light movie which can be watched once. Don't expect great story and all. Just go and let you travel back in time to your college days, to your friends, yo your crushes and affairs :)

Monday, July 07, 2008

Top 10 views of Earth

This should have been posted by me two months earlier! Nevertheless, better late than never :)

CNET had posted a slide show of what they have said as 10 best shots of Earth from Space. The images were released by NASA. Have a look here! I loved the one where they are showing different layers of Earth's atmosphere, the most.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Nadal did it!

WOW, what a match it was. Truly unbelievable, the way it was turning sides must have made every spectator's heart pound and race! This match goes down the history as the longest match in Wimbledon history in terms of time elapsed.
Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7 in Wimbledon 2008 finals. Nadal had 3 championship points in the match before he actually converted the 4th championship point in a win for him. Federer was almost in tears after the match and said that it hurts. He has said that he will return next year. On the other side, Nadal was short of words as this was really a Dream-come-true for him.

Spain is all over the news in Sports after they won Euro 2008 last sunday and now Nadal brings home some more honors.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Tour de France


The 95th Tour de France will run from Saturday July 5th to Sunday July 27th 2008. It will be made of 21 stages and covers a total distance of 3,500 kilometres.

These 21 phases have the following profiles:
10 flat stages,
5 mountain stages,
4 medium mountain stages,
2 individual time-trial stages.

Distinctive aspects of the race:
4 mountain finishes,
2 rest days,
82 kilometres of individual time-trial,
17 category 1, category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed.

Google is covering Tour de France 2008 with a 360 degree view of the entire tour route. You can actually travel the entire route on the map and see the photographs of the different stages. Go here.

To know more about he history of Tour de France, read this article on Wikipedia.

Updates
Romain Feillu (France) leads the standings after the 3rd stage results were declared.


Thursday, July 03, 2008

Google - Yahoo! Advertising Partnership

Following the partnership reached between Google and Yahoo! over advertising where Yahoo will have Google Ad words advertisements along side the search results on it's pages, Justice department's anti-trust division has started looking into this deal as a possible anti competitive strategy. Subpoena has been issued in this regard to the concerned companies. The NYT article can be read here.

In an another development around Microsoft's bid for Yahoo!, Yahoo! has released a letter to its shareholders saying that why an advertising deal with Google is a better alternative than Microsoft's bid for the search business of Yahoo. The transcript of the letter can be found here. To read the NYT article, click here

World Internet Statistics

While browsing web for something related to YouTube vs Viacom legal showdown, I came across this site which records Internet usage world-wide. The data is collected through varied sources, which includes ITU, Nielsen/Net ratings, NICs and other reliable sources.
The site has this whole data pretty well structured and grouped. You can find amny different charts and comparisons.
As of March 2008, there were more than 1.4 bn internet users world-wide. India had reportedly 60 mn internet users as of March 2008 which makes 13.0% of Asian users. India comes on third spot in Asia, China and Japan leading the pack there. In India the internet penetration is only 5.3 %. Nevertheless, user growth in India has been 1,100 % over 2000-2007 which is more than China's 833.3%.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Bill says good-bye!

Bill Gates bid adieu to Microsoft on June 27 as a full-time employee. He is moving on to devote time to his philanthropic causes through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The company he founded and steered to the top slot in the IT industry will surely miss him. No matter how many rumors, bad words g o around about Bill and Microsoft, everyone of one us must acknowledge the fact that it was Microsoft in first place which led the computer revolution and helped in bringing the PC to every home. I am no big fan of Microsoft, when it comes to practice but then I do acknowledge the efforts and innovations.
The Microsoft website is featuring Bill's farewell on their homepage. And check here for more on Bill. And here is the article from Reuters

Thursday, June 26, 2008

GMAT cheat sheet?

I came across an article on BusinessWeek which covers the story around a recent court order on closure of a website which apparently provided prospective GMAT takers live questions before their exams.
GMAC sued the owner of the now defunct website, scoretop.com A Virginia court has granted GMAC, a $2.3 mn judgment against the operator of the site, Lei Shi, who is now absconding and reported to be back in China.

GMAC currently has the hard drive used by the website in its possession and has sent out a message that students who used the $30 service on the website for getting live questions, will be revoked of their scores and will be barred from taking the exam again. GMAC has gone to the extent that they have hinted that the name of such students will be even sent out to the business schools so that they can act upon them. Obviously a great discussion has started around this issue and a lot of students who may have used the service knowingly or unknowingly are facing the axe!

To read the whole story go here. There is an interesting discussion going on the same website, where some freaks have gone to an extent saying that all Asians are cheats and have raised questions over intelligence of Asian students. Apart from such sick comments, there are people who have raised good questions over this whole issue. Do go through the comments.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Boston Again

Last Saturday, I went to Boston. This was my second trip to the city I loved most in US till now. I don't know the exact reason but somehow I feel this is the best city to be in on the east coast. One thing that attributed this liking was the fact that there were so many young people in the city, thanks to MIT, Harvard, Boston College. The student community is so strong and vibrant up there. Especially when you go in Cambridge and start strolling around the place, you will see youngsters all around there.
This time I went around Harvard and felt so great about the whole neighborhood. Not only, inside the campus boundaries but all around the campus students were there. It felt great and I was having a constant urge to join some university here and start my higher studies right away. I had the same feeling when I was inside MIT. Man, I can't tell you how much I wanted to be inside some lecture room, hearing some professor and finishing assignments and being awake all night, chatting with room mate and friends. Damn, I miss so much the good old college days.
Apart from this, I also happened to see the ongoing shooting of a Bruce Willis action flick scheduled to release sometime next year. The movie is "The Surrogates" . The shooting was going on in the Financial District and I saw the whole set. When the movie comes, I am gonna see it and try to figure out the scene which must have been getting shot down there :)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Hold your breath....here comes the Killer



The countdown begins again. After speculating hell lot about the latest iPhone and what's gonna be the price and all, Apple finally disclosed the sturdy, feature packed and smart iPhone on Monday this week.
The way iPhone knocked the cellphone market when it was launched last year is gonna happen again. Other devices in the market will be killed again. This time this whole thing is gonna be more grand with more people queuing up Apple Stores on July 11.
Much more is being written and spoken about this beautiful device this time, reasons are many. Apple has slashed the price by almost 200 USD and iPhone now starts at remarkable $199. At this price, gadget lovers who were reluctant last time due to high-price will not like to miss this chance to own one. Apart from price, iPhone now has an embedded fully functional GPS device. That's a feature many will be looking ahead for. And then, there's 3G to make sure that the internet surfing capabilities are utilized efficiently. The phone still has two-year contract with AT&T in USA.
What I loved about this whole thing, Apple had cut production of the earlier version of iPhone a long ago to make sure that all pieces of iPhone v1 are consumed completely from the market.
After the price was disclosed, people are talking everywhere about iPhone. Even in my office, we talk about this near coffee machine :)
Check out new features here

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Juno

I saw this movie back in India and I really loved this simple n sweet movie. A simple storyline but presented in a beautiful way which won many hearts. The soundtrack for the move was also so well done. You will love all the songs for sure.
Here's "All I want is you" from Juno:



And after that, watch this for some really cool lines from the movie :)

Sunday, June 01, 2008

4 minutes

One of the latest hits on charts now a days here is 4 minutes by Madonna ft Justin Timberlake. I had listened this song many times and liked it too. However, I didn't saw the video for this one. Today when I was browsing YouTube for another song from Justin, I came across the vid for 4 minutes. Actually not the vid, but the Video on Trial episode for this vid. Man, the way they busted this very video made me laugh.

You'll love the way they have made fun of this :D

Saturday, May 31, 2008

The French Connection!

I was in New York again today. Went there with Ashish as he hasn't been there till now. He had asked me to come with him today. The weather was good, thunderstorm were predicted in the later part of day and it was mostly cloudy. Even then, I decided to go. When we left home, it was drizzling but we were like "lets' go.
So, what made me name this post like this? Well, I was waiting at the Staten Island Ferry Complex for the ferry when a French chick sitting on the bench beside us came over and asked for a cigarette. I told her that I don't smoke and she left. She seemed desperate for it as she asked 3 more people standing there before she got one from a Chinese fella who sat on the bench next to her's. Actually this girl was accompanied by another friend of hers, she also being a girl. This friend was not all interested in smoking and so was busy looking inside her bag. Well, both of them were beautiful n hot. But the other one, who was not interested in smoking was more hot in a way :)
Soon she was done with her smoke and then they were talking again in French between themselves. Few minutes later she (the one who smoked) came over to me and asked me as to "Do I speak English?" I answered her in affirmative. Then she asked me what place in NY she can see. First of all, honestly I was startled, by the fact that a good looking girl is talking to me. Not that none has talked me before. A many had and day in and day out I talk to a number of them here and there at work and outside. But for this one I was not expecting for some reason. So here we go back, well I told her that she can go to Times Square, Central Park, roam around 34th. At that point her friend too came over and joined. She said that they were looking for some nice place where they can have fun. A part of my mind was stunned and thought exactly what they were looking for and asking. At this I took a step back (which I feel sorry for now :( thinking of them) and said that they can go to Central Park and sit there in peace and spend some time if they are looking for a cool place away from hustles. But she insisted that they wanna go to a "nice place". She then said that where can she get drinks. I told her that why not try in Times square as there as some bars, I know, and then they can have good time spent there. After this she inquired where we are from and what are we doing here. Well, we exchanged our origins and purpose of being there. At that time, I asked them as to where they are coming from and they told that they are from France. Some talks here and there and then greetings exchanged and they left.
I sat there thinking of them and waiting for the ferry and looking again for them but they were not there to my sorrow.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Icons!


I came across a slide show on Discovery website regarding early days of the three icons of the computer industry, viz. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Bill Gates.
Have a look to know about their early days. And yes, there's a mugshot too. Guess whose?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The All Time Hits!


In India, everyone of us have grown up with those utterly butterly delicious Amul advertisements. Be it in print or on tv. I always used to love those ads. The print ads still continue to come on the billboards. They have a knack of coming beautifully on the current affairs which make me love the creators and the ideas more and more.

So, here it goes for all the lovers of the utterly butterly ads. Check out & Enjoy!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Strike!

Strikes were so common back in India for me. Everyday someone somewhere in the city was on strike for some reason. At times, I had faced hardship due to them in a way or another.
When I came to USA, one of the many things I thought don't happen here was a strike! But I was proved wrong today. And what a day they chose to call a strike. This is a long weekend here as we have a holiday on Monday for Memorial Day. I was supposed to leave for Virginia today afternoon. In the morning, I thought I would take a Shortline bus to my office as I had some luggage and going with Manish can be troublesome as Ashish and Harpreet will also be carrying their stuff to office. So much fitting in the car's trunk would not have been a certain problem but I didn't wanted to give it a chance. So, there I was waiting for 8:47am bus, but it didn't came. Harpreet had joined me at the bus stop as he had decided to take the bus today for office. We waited till 9:00am when a fellow standing there and waiting for the bus like us inquired as to "how long have we been waiting there?". We said that its more than 15 minutes to which he replied that it may be a strike as he heard somewhere in the morning on tv or radio. He was not sure but we were. It was indeed a strike as no bus had passed from the other side also and we were waiting for almost half an hour. So we decided to go back. We came to office with Manish without any hassles for the luggage we all were having.
Anyways, I checked on their website, and they had the strike information on the schedules page. I had only one alternative now and that was to take a train. But to my misery, there was a train from Ramsey station at 12:07pm which reached NY at 1:10pm and after that at 1:07 which reached NY at 2:10pm. Well, my bus from NY to DC was to leave at 2:00pm and in no way I would be able to make it if I was supposed to board the 1:07 train. I could not leave office at 11:30 to make for the 12:07 train as I had came out out weekly meeting and I had some things to work on prioirty. So I decided to call it off and informed my relatives that I would be taking the bus on Saturday morning now. I hate this stuff, when I am all in mood and something crap happens.
Now I am just sitting idle in home, doing nothing but writing this blog and watching Prison Break.
Happy Weekend to you all!

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Another Lawsuit against MS

Well, well well MS seems to being better at facing lawsuits. I'm not pretty sure but is it a part of their marketing strategy? I know, it's not but then I don't know how they are handling it and managing it so beautifully.
Back in March, a lawsuit was filed agains Microsoft and guess who's to blame this time? Dude, it's pretty simple. Comeon, yeah its their so hyped baby, all thanks to Vista.

The plaintiffs, Dianne Kelley and Kenneth Hansen, bought PCs in late 2006, before Vista’s release, and contend that Microsoft’s “Windows Vista Capable” stickers were misleading when affixed to machines that turned out to be incapable of running the versions of Vista that offered the features Microsoft was marketing as distinctive Vista benefits.

What's intersting that a whole pack of internal company documents, emails and communications have been unearthed. Many of these documents concern senior executives and the way they are unhappy with Vista in one or another way. At times, peopl inside MS who had a sying felt that things are not good with Vista thing at all.

Check out the New York Times article here.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Happy Birthday Spam!

30 years ago, on May 3, 1978 Spam was born on Arpanet. Gary Thuerk, a marketer at Digital Equipment Corporation, sent an email to 393 users of Arpanet, the US government run computer network which eventually became Internet. Gary had sent an sales email for latest series of DEC computers that were going to be launched. The email contained venues for product display in California.

You can see the original email verbatim here.

An exhaustive story on Spam is posted on New Scientist Tech.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Google does it again!


One of the reasons I love Google so much is coz of their concept to mix fun and work so beautifully. Being in the Software Industry and an inquisitive and informed individual, I have heard of lot many companies who claim that they have a fun place to work. But one thing I doubt is how do they define Fun?
Take the case of Goolge, it always tries to beat the rest with its silly pranks and funny ideas.

This Year on April fool's day, Google had a prank on almost all of its products :) I dint noted all of them that day as I dint accessed much of the internet that day. One thing I saw was Virgile. This particular thing was done so beautifully with blogs/videos by top executives. Sir Richard Branson had a blog on Google Blog about the new venture with Google and then Sergei Brin had a video about the venture with Virgin. Hereis the logo of the venture they floated :)

Monday, February 11, 2008

Not Just Another Sunday!

After so many lonely and boring weekends, I had something to cheer on this Sunday. I dint wasted the day alone.

I went to the college to meet Akshay near 1 PM and has a long chat with him in front of the new tuck shop (Its named A to Z now). They have placed bences in front of that SAC building on the footpath. [ Can you visualize that :) ]
Many new faces and some old ones. Some other guys also came to meet me who recognized me sitting there. And the best part, the safai wale bhaiya who used to clean our block did recognized me in one shot! For me that was more rewarding than some teacher recognizing me for licking his boots! Coz that's what I would say a humane relation which must have had some sweetness in terms of true respect! So I did see BG also on the college gate only (ATM wala gate). The funny part is that guards are still troublesome. I had to do some talking before the guy let me in. But once I was in, everything was like known to me. Akshay is doing good in studies. He is not that 9 pointer but he is godd at what's he doing and he is committed. We talked about a lot of stuff ranging from studies to fake professors to girls to US and blah blah. I felt so good after talking to him. Felt like old days. However, I couldn't roam in the campus as I was not much in mood to waste more time of his :)

I left at around 2:20 and then thronged Shipra Mall to walk down. Nothing interseting so I just wkinda walked all over the place and decided to head back home.

In the evening, some old friends met up at Lomash n Soma's place and have a good chat for some time. It was as the newly wed couple was wished and we gave the gifts to them.

Bakc home, I started Apocalypse Now but slept in between due to lingering back pain. Overall a Good Sunday.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

This is the end

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land
Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

Sunday, February 03, 2008

What a country we live in!

No country in the world you will see or hear about which places restrictions on movement of its citizens across different states in search of a better living, studies, employment, travel, leisure, business or whatever. There are excpetions but they are in exceptional scenarios. One I know is China, which used to place restrictions on movement towards Tibet, which it controls.
Come to India and here politicians, who think they are nothing less than God are preparing to place restrictions on who lives and who leaves a particular city or for that matter state. Yes, I am talking of a Maharashtra politician who thinks Maharashtra is only for people of Maharashtra origin and people belonging to other states in India have no right to enter the capital Mumbai or any other part of Maharashtra. What made him issue such a statement? He knows the answer to this question and no one else. And which group of people irked him to made such a statement? It's people of Bihar, who else it can be. People all over the country hate in a way or other Biharis. The word Bihari is used a slang in most places and Biharis who make their presence in all most all states and cities throughout India and looked down upon. It doesn't matters whether that guy from Bihar is pulling a rickshaw, driving autorickshaw or taxi, is a daily-wage labour, is plumber, electrician or doing your household chores or is a software engineer or is a senior manager in some organization or is an IAS officer or is a diplomat or a senior official in central government; everyone is made a part of abusive talk between non-biharis. All Biharis as talked about and taunted in a way or other. The politician I talked about is Raj Thackrey who feels he will decide who lives where and would really love to re-write the constitution to place a ban on people of Bihar entering Maharashtra. That guy even made an obscene comment on a holy festival, Chhath which is celebrated in Bihar and Western UP. No one takes action against him! I see no reason for not taking any action against that man. We have provisions under Indian Penal Code to register a case against anyone who hurts or tries to hurt religious sentiments of any particular section of society. But since the offender is from a state other than Bihar, media wont cover it much and nobody cares until it is someone from Bihar!
This country and its people really are going awry. I dont want to live in such a country where the fellow country men insult you, abuse you and make fun of you all because you come from a state which is Poor and yet produces finest talent and laborious people for the whole country.
Welcome to a shining India which has started practising Racism in a new flavour!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Apple Macbook Air


Another technological marvel from Apple. They keep on proving again and again that they are the undsiputablew leaders when it comes to desgining products. Product after product, they keep the competitors on their toes, who fail to emulate Apple's innovation.

Steve Jobs unveiled World's thinnest laptop at Macworld 2008. They have named it Macbook Air. Whats more intersting than the sleekness of this product is the revolutionary multi-touch trackpad interface. The tested and applauded interface of iPhone and iPod touch comes to Macbook Air. You can have a look on the trackpad here.

The thickness of this laptop varies from 0.16 inches at its thinnest point to 0.76 inches at its thickest point! Apple has had to shed some features to make this ultra thin. There's no optical drive, Ethernet jack in here. Its built for the wireless world. Thought not for masses as it is priced at $1799 (base model). Having no optical drive does not mean you can't install any sofwatre or play your favourite movie from your DVD/CD. There's remote disc software which enables you to play your DVD/CD on your PC/Mac and transfer the content onto you Macbook Air. Check out details here.


Keep going Apple!

Monday, January 14, 2008

WWF Study on Glaciers and their retreat

Here's a report on Glaciers, Glacier retreat and its subsequent impact in the Nepal, India and China by WWF.

For more intersting articles of similar nature on related topics you hit websites of WWF India or WWF.


PS: This is a pdf document so make sure you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your machine. If not you can download it from here.

Sacred Ganges at the verge of extinction?


The Ganges, better known to us Indians as Ganga maa is on the verge of extinction. I had started collecting facts about Global Warming efforts in India and suddenly my current interest shifted to our sacred river.

It has been known for long that the Ganges is reeling under the pressure of pollution. Pollution was attributed to be one of the prime reason for the changing course at many places and receding water levels. The government still fails to launch a national intensive program to clean-up the river. The river depends on the disconnected efforts of a lot of NGOs and public bodies. Thought the river traverses 4 different states before it leaves Indian border, we have not seen any joint effort towards cleaning up the river. The river which holds a sacred place in the heart of Hindus lacks attention in this regard from the central governement. Even if there is something which the central government is doing, its not worthy and visible.

I came across a report by WWF which enlists The Ganges among the the world's top 10 rivers at risk. Another report published in Washington Post points out the receding glacial sources as the reason behind the progressing extinction. This all is attributed to global warming which is in all responsible for increasing average temperatures across the world and leading to receding glacial levels, which actually feed the large rivers. It has been evident that the Gangotri glacier in upper himalayas has been the source of 70% water for Ganges during summer. Faster melting levels mean flash floods in near future and an extinct river in the long run.

These events will have an impact on economic conditions also. That is evident from the fact that The Ganges is so interspersed with millions of lives in the region it passes through!

Who will save The Ganges is the biggest question. In a fastly developing country, the government has ironically little time for climatic issues and global warming. Nothing can be seen as being done by the central government, so how can I and others blame private enterpreneurs for overlooking all this?

Sunday, January 13, 2008

An interesting Story!


I just read an article on wired about iPhone's impact on the wireless industry. Do read this.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Dont kill the Car!


Finally, it's out. The much awaited and much hyped people's car Nano by Tata Motors is here.

There's much criticism going on around this car. Environmentalist all around the world are saying a lot against the car. They are concerned that the car, if succesfull will add to world's woes in fighting against global warming. However, there is a lot of admiration and praises too!

I am not sure which group you fall in. But I have for sure all praise for this achievement by Tatas. Why dont you read this before being a critique of the car?

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Wicked Games

I heard this song in Pacific Mall (GZB) for the first time. We were there on a birthday treat in Jan 2006. It was her treat!
When we were leaving the place, this song started playing and I loved the rhythm and the voice. Joy, a batchmate had heard this song earlier and he told me that it's by Chris Isack
What an occasion it was for me to hear this song. In that crowd, it was only me who could understand why I was loving this song so much at that point of time. She was around!

The world was on fire
No one could save me but you.
Strange what desire will make foolish people do
I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you
And I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you

No, I don't want to fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]
No, I don't want to fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]
With you
With you

What a wicked game you play
To make me feel this way
What a wicked thing to do
To let me dream of you
What a wicked thing to say
You never felt this way
What a wicked thing to do
To make me dream of you
And I don't wanna fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]
And I don't want to fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]

{World was on fire
No one could save me but you
Strange what desire will make foolish people do
I never dreamed that I'd love somebody like you
I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you

No I don't wanna fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart
No I don't wanna fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]
With you
With you

Nobody loves no one

Friday, January 04, 2008

Mumbai Molestation!

Mumbai was considered a safe place for women till new year's day.
On new year's day two NRI women were molested by a mob of at least 50 people. The incident took place just outside a 5 star hotel which they have just left after partying. The women were accompanied by their husbands. I need not and I wont recount the story. Everyone must be knowing this unfortunate incident. What irked me is the comment made by police chief of Mumbai. He said "This is a small incident. Such incidents keep on happening. Why make such a hue and cry?" When the police chief of a metropolitan thinks that molestation is just normal, how safe are women in that city? For that matter how safe anyone can feel? I hope if something similar happnes to his family members, maybe then he will understand the gravity of the incident. His remark would have painted a tarnished image of Mumbai in particular in foreign tourist's eyes.
I dont know where India is going with all this. We are developing at a fast pace as a country. But I guess, the morality is declining at that pace!
 
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