Firefox Extensions

I hate Firefox, but i still use it ! I simply hate Firefox for the amount of RAM it eats up. It simply sucks. I have never seen any software program eating up that much amount of memory. It simply keeps sucking up memory like a vampire sucks blood from human body. On my office machine i've seen FF eating up more than 450 MB of memory. Damn it, after every few hours i have to close it, sometimes i have to kill firefox.exe as well so that i can restart the FF. It sucks in most java sites, sites which refresh quite often, it sucks in some flash sites, but still im using it.

I love its tabbed-browsing, ya ya Opera has that too but it has ads :). One more thing i simply like about Firefox is some of its extensions. Some of them are really great. I will list some of my favorites here:

1. Tab Mix Plus - This is easily the best possible extension you can find. It provides every almost every feature you would ever require relating to tabbed browsing including the session restore. Its simply awesome, though its newer version had an annoying bug - If you upgrade from tab mix plus previous version, it will restore every tab twice !! But in a fresh install of newer version this works fine. Rating : 5/5

2. Dictionary Tooltip - This is a pretty cool extension for illiterates like me, who have to check the dictionary every few minutes while reading on web. You can configure which dictionary site you want to use and you simply have to double-click the word, you want meaning off and you will see the meaning in a pop-up ! Really cool. Rating : 4.5/5

3. Performancing - This is extension which i have started using just 3-4 days ago. This one lets you blog easily ! This sits in statusbar as a simple notepad-esque icon. You click it, it opens a split window where you can type (paste) your blog entry and in one-click it will post that entry to your blogging site be it blogger, wordpress et al.. Really cool. I used this for the last post and am going to use this only from now on, though i wish it had the option of changing the font of posts too (or had default font as my favorite Verdana ;) ). It also lets you blog a link by a simply click. Rating : 4/5

4. IE TabView - This is a cool extension, which on a single click lets you change the rendering engine from Geeko (Firefox) to IE's rendering engine. Pretty useful for sites that doesn't open well in Firefox. You simply click on the firefox icon in the status bar, it will open the same page in IE. It seems a bit slow and buggy sometimes, but is pretty useful. Rating : 3.5/5

5. Paste and Go - Small and Sweet is the word which describes this extension. It just combines your two tasks "Paste" and "Go" into a single task. Very cool. Rating : 3.5/5

6. Adblock - This one is pretty good too, it lets you block almost every ad on a webpage. Simply right-click any ad/frame and just click Adblock ! Cool. It also lets you use wildcard characters. I have started using this more extensively at home, especially since when i saw my broadband MB download meter going up like a delhi's auto-rickshaw meter. I use this sometimes in office too, especially when some scantily-dressed babes suddenly appears even on harmless sites (ya that's news, mail sites et al only and none of what you perverts are thinking) - i don't want to get blamed without doing anything :D. Rating : 3.5/5

7. Search Status - This is another simple extension i have started using since this week only. It shows the Google's page rank and Alexa's (?) page rank for a webpage. A good feature is that it also shows the Related Links to that webpage ! Can be pretty useful when you need to visit some similar sites. Rating : 3/5

8. FlashGot - This is also a good extension it integrates your download manager with the Firefox. Especially useful for larger download files, where you need to download using download manager only and might require pausing and all. Rating : 2.5/5

These are some of my favorite FF extensions. IE 7 is going to be released soon, with tabbed browsing, RSS support, so-called improved security. I wonder if i would switch to IE, mainly because some of these extensions will be absent ! Maybe some of them will be there, maybe i will switch to IE or atleast use it a bit more. But for now i am hooked to Firefox.

Rumour of the week - Microsoft buying Opera !!

Man this would be something, it would be a big setback for Firefox, because even the greatest of IE critics and FF fans regards Opera as the best browswe available with most of FF features *INSPIRED* from Opera. But i don't think MS are yet so desperate especially after they have put in so much of effort in bringing up IE 7. They cant simply dump all the hard and good work done by their employees and use something new suddenly.

Btw Merry Chrismas to all :)

Nirvana

Now i have a broadband connection at home. So now after waiting for so long, i am having an ultimate PC experience ! Now i've got pretty fast PCs with a fast internet connection both at office and home. What else u need in life ? It's simply nirvana !

My Office PC configuration reads : P IV 3.2 GHz with HT, 1 Gig DDR RAM, 160 Gigs HDD, 17' inch TFT, Win XP SP2, 4.26 Mbps downlink (which gives above 30kbps download speed all the time)

My Home PC configuration reads: P IV 2.8 GHz with HT, 256 MB DDR RAM, 40 Gigs HDD, 14' inch monitor, Win XP SP2, 256 Kbps mtnl broadband (which thus far has given around 30kbps download speed)

Ya my home pc config looks pretty inferior, but its ok i can bear with it for the timebeing ;) All n all its an ultimate experience, with Win XP booting so fast supported by a high end processor and RAM, it takes less than a minute between switching on the power button and seeing my desktop with every damn thing loaded completely :)

Cost of MTNL broadband : Rs 199
Cost of 1 Gig DDR RAM: Rs 4600
Inner Happiness with all this fast digital world: PRICELESS

Ok ok this sounds a typical software engineer whose life completely revolves around computers ? Hell yeah, if i hadn't been, then i wouldn't have been writing this blog post at midnight inspite of having to wakeup early to get back to office, just to sit in front of the 17' inch TFT !

Anyway enough for now !

Happy !

This last week has had some happy moments for me. I will list them down now :)

1. I finally got a broadband connection at home (Yes finally !!). It seems like ages i have been wanting this, but now finally i have got a MTNL broadband @ home.
2. Saurav Ganguly DROPPED from the Indian team.
3. Shane Warne becomes the highest wicket taker in a calendar year surpassing Dennis Lillee.
4. Man Utd are back to goal scoring ways with 2 big victories (4-0 against Wigan and 2-0 against Aston Villa)
5. India won the test match againt SL.

Amidst all these happy news there was a real sad moment , which i expected to be listed at the top of the above listed happy news !!

Meanwhile Champions League knockout draws have been announced. They are as below:

Bayern - Milan 21/02 08/03
Benfica - Liverpool 21/02 08/03
Real Madrid - Arsenal 21/02 08/03
PSV - Lyon 21/02 08/03
Chelsea - Barcelona 22/02 07/03
Rangers - Villarreal 22/02 07/03
Bremen - Juventus 22/02 07/03
Ajax - Internazionale 22/02 14/03

And astnoishingly for the 2nd year running Champions League will see arguably the 2 best teams in Europe fighting in the 2nd round itself ! Yes, Barca and Chelsea are scheduled to meet in 2nd round again. I can't believe this !! After 2 amazing matches last year, we are again in for some footballing treat with 2 best midfielders Ronaldinho and Lampard taking the centrestage. Apart from this fixture, there are 2 other tough fixtures for me. One is Bayern v/s Milan and the other is Real Madrid v/s Arsenal. So pretty exciting matches in prospect, this is going to be an exciting Feb n March !

My probable winners:
Milan, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Lyon, Barca, Villarreal, Juventus, Inter

In the End

It starts with one thing
I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try keep that in mind
I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time
All I know
Time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but didn't even know
Wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be a memory of a time when

I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter

You don't win silver. You lose gold
-- Nike Ad

High and low

I will start with a high. After quite a while a breathtaking and pulsating cricket match took place, though I missed that game completely, except for a few glimpses of the live scores on Cricinfo. Aussies started the game as an overwhelming favorite over the Kiwis after thrashing them by 147 runs in the previous match.

Aussies lost Gilchrist early, then Katich and Ponting steadied the Aussie innings, but both of them were out in quick succession. Brad Hodge soon followed them into the pavilion. It brought together 2 of the amazing Aussie talents, Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke, both of whom are fighting for a place in the Test team to regain that elusive Baggy Green cap again. Both of them built a decent partnership with some watchful cricket to start off. But as Symonds reached his 50 off 70 deliveries things started getting difficult for the Kiwis. He somehow seemed to have developed some kind of hatred with the white cricket ball and he started hammering it all over the ground and stadium. His 2^nd fifty came of just 39 balls and if this wasn’t enough his 3^rd fifty came of a mere 16 balls! His innings finally came to an end in the 50^th over when he was bowled by Vettori for 156. But by then he had hit 11 fours and 8 sixes. 6 of those sixes were in a spell of 3 overs which costed Kiwis 61 runs. He hoisted Cairns for a hat-trick of sixes. This was simply one of THE most brutal knocks one could ever see. It reminded of the similar innings of 141no Symonds played at the 2003 World Cup against Pakistan. This innings once again proved that today’s ODI cricket is simply ruled by the sheer power of the likes of Symonds’, Dhonis, Afridis, Gilchrists, Kemps, Gayle’s et al. Somewhere in between you get a sheer quality or classy knock by Laras (rare in ODI’s these days), Dravids, Sachins, Pontings. Aussies finished with a huge score of 322 off their 50 overs with Clarke unbeaten on 82.

Kiwis started their innings with no one expecting them to give a fight, especially against the likes of Lee who balled splendidly in the last match to take 3/5 in 6 overs. But Kiwis too have their share of big hitters. Vincent started bravely taking on the pace of Lee and swing of Bracken. He blasted 71 off just 49 balls. But then the 2 newbie’s of Aussies cricket - Lewis and Clark too the centre stage reducing Kiwis for 156 for 5. Kiwis always have had a long batting lineup and this was to their rescue today. With Cairns, Oram and Mccullum always kept them in hunt, inspite of the asking rate reaching above 10 in last 10 overs. In the end Kiwis needed 24 runs off 2 overs. Lee bowled one of his most forgetful over of his life, giving away 18 runs including a waist high full-toss (no-ball) which went for four, plus some other bad deliveries. This meant that debutant and super-sub Lewis had to bowl the final over with Kiwis needing only 6 runs! But boy, didn’t he keep his nerves! Even the likes of Mcgrath will be proud of that over. This over was more than supported by an outstanding piece of fielding by Michael Clarke (who is doing his every bit possible to get back into the Test side, since being dropped from the Test side – he scored a double hundred in only state match, played 2 good knocks in both matches, picked up 2 outstanding catches in first match and now this run out) who threw the ball from the cover-point region to score a direct hit at the non-striker’s end to seal the match for the Aussies. In the end Aussies clinched the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy by winnings this thriller by 2 runs.

The moments like this fielding by Clarke, are simply the moments of brilliance or what I can also call magic which truly separates the GOOD and GREAT players/team. There’s a pretty thin line which distinguishes the GREAT team from the GOOD teams, in these crunch situations. The biggest example is the NBA matches, where in almost every match the point difference is just about 3-4 baskets or less, but still the BEST teams aided by GREAT players manages to produce those moments of magic quite often enough to stay on TOP.

Now to the low part, well m pretty disappointed to lose in the quarters of the singles TT tournament. Wish I could produce some of those moments of brilliance/magic often enough.

Back to Ground Zero

After the Ashes victory English Team must have been on cloud nine. But they have been brought to ground very painfully by the Pakistan team who just beat them 2-0 in the 3 test series. The series started with high-flying England fresh from their 2-1 Ashes victory over Australia in a confident mood to continue their unbeaten series run of over a year.

They were shown a preview of what lied in store for them in future with a series of batting collapses in the tour matches. But they started the test well led by the irrepressible Freddie Flintoff who again bowled his heart out to take some really crucial wickets, supported by some decent first innings batting performance they were on their way to another Test victory with a target of just 180 odd runs. But a miserable batting performance under some good bowling led by Shoaib Akhtar, Sami and Kaneria left them 0-1 down in the series where they SHOULD have been 1-0 up! Since then they were always doing the catching up. Good batting performance by Pieterson in both innings and Flintoff in 2nd innings helped them manage a draw in 2nd Test. While in 3rd test they squandered a 100+ runs first wkt partnership to get bowled out cheaply for 280 odd runs batting first. After that Pakistan simply made a run-riot. After losing 2-3 quick wkts M Yousuf (aka Yousuf Youhana) along with Kamran Akmal and the big Inzi led Pakistan to a gigantic score of 630 odd runs and at this time the best result possible for England was a draw. Ian Bell and Collingwood hung on for a big partnership but once Collingwood fell, England lost last 8 wkts in 43 runs to Shoaib and Kaneria to lose by an innings and 100 runs.

This big Pakistan series victory for me was marked by some inspirational batting by Inzamam and a reinvented Shoaib Akhtar. Not only Shoaib performed admirably well in his bowling (bowling with a lot of consistency throughout, mixing slower ones, yorkers et al) but his new found approach in batting was exceptional. Before this series he was looked as a tailender who can throw his bat a bit, but in this series he hung on for some match turning partnerships with Inzi in 2nd test and Yousuf in 3rd test. With both bat and ball he was simply great. This again proves that you need to give ur players some shock by dropping them, so that they don't become complacent. Yousuf too played quite well after a forgettable first test.

This surely will shut those mouths that were starting to say that England is the new number 1 team. Aussies haven't been the number team for so many years for nothing. They have build this position over a long period of time, not just overnight beating 1 or 2 teams. England are a pretty good team, but they still lack a bit of grittiness in the middle order. Collingwood and Bell did well in this test. But Pieterson and Flintoff are expected to do a bit more with the bat. In bowling it was pretty tough for the pacers on these unresponsive pitches, Flintoff bowled his heart out but still it wasn't enough. England desperately needs a quality spinner to take wickets on sub-continent tracks. They have an Indian tour coming up and neither Giles nor Udal (seeing by his no. of wickets in this series) seems not good enough to dislodge the in-form batting lineup of Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Sachin and Yuvraj (I hope he plays over Ganguly).

Let’s see how the England team gets over this huge loss. But a good team always bounces back so I expect English players will show some character and bounce back.

PS: Finally i got to play my first match in my on-going TT tournament, which turned out to be too easy with me winning by 21-1, 21-15. Now me into 3rd round of singles tournament, with a few tougher ties lying in front of me :)

Who's Afraid of Google? Everyone.

Just the other day I was reading an article on wired. This article discusses an interesting scenario. The title is named "Who's afraid of Google? Everyone", it’s an interesting article, it points out that Google is coming out with newer services everyday and is doing almost everything these days.

"It seems no one is safe: Google is doing Wi-Fi; Google is searching inside books; Google has a plan for ecommerce"

Yes its quite true, off late Google has been launching newer and newer services almost every other day latest ones being Google Analytics, Wi-Fi in San Francisco, Google Click-a-call, AdSense for bloggers, Google Base, Google Print et al. It further says that "In less than a decade, Google has gone from guerrilla startup to 800-pound gorilla". Pretty true they have become giants in just about a decade; they are a brand who almost everyone blindly believes in. That's one of the reasons they find themselves at $430 :) It says that with all these services in vary diverse areas it is taking on some of THE biggest industry giants head-on including Microsoft, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, Comcast, Verizon et al. And so far they are doing it pretty good; they have now got the market reputation to go further and further and take on all these. Most of the Google ideas have been very revolutionary and have been a boon for the end-user. But is their something to be afraid of for us?

Here's an excerpt from a discussion on Slashdot pointing out to an interesting view:

"Is it a good thing "to organize the world's information”?

It seems I'm one of the few people not excited about this idea. I fear that in the future privacy will be luxury item that very few can afford.

One SF novel I read introduced me to very interesting idea - if everything networked and you can access virtually any kind of information about the only reliable way to have privacy is to drown it in a see of misinformation and irrelevant information. Anything distinctive about you becomes a disadvantage - you can be identified by it and tracked down. So everyone will want to conform and be a Bill Smith from a large city working for large company...

A lot of information out there gets recorded about every individual person - shopping habits, library books, income, medical history, debt, family, education, political affiliations, phone calls history, traffic violations... Only right now most of this information is unorganized and not readily networked, so you can't come up with inexpensive and fast way to retrieve it. On other hand if Google achieves its goal...

You think monopolizing OS is bad? How about monopolizing access to information? How about monopolizing not letting others access your private information? It just might happen.

Google's behavior so far has been so brilliant and successful that they almost appear like aliens from a superior culture. Predicting their next move seems nearly impossible"

Well quite true that with Google and their AdSense combining in almost all of their services from Gmail, GTalk, Blogger, Analytics, Personalized Home Page, Search they have almost all of your information from mail to chat-conversations to blogging topics (or areas of interest) to your visitors (analytics) to reading habits (personalized page) to your searching habits and what not. At one end this is such a great thing that you have only relevant ads but on the other hand this also means that Google has almost all the information about you! Its just needs better organization and some thoughtful search terms to show anyone's private information? Of course it’s not as easy as I made it sound, but this surely is possible especially with the increasingly number of ways being published to retrieve some private information using Google search only.

This was just an interesting view over the current services revolution taking place.

Enough till next time I guess, meanwhile enjoy this it’s a fictional look at the future :)

Update: I guess everyone is thinking the same these days !!

Lara kya Mara

This post is dedicated to Sir Brian Charles Lara who just surpassed Allan Border's record of 11,174 runs in Test Matches. Now Brian Lara is THE leading run-scorer in the test history. He did this in only his 119th test match as opposed to Border who scored these runs in 156 test matches. A pull to fine-leg of the bowling off his tormentor Glenn Mcgrath took Lara to his 214th run in the innings and 11,175th run in his test career. He was finally dismissed for 226. His current tally after first innings at Adielade Oval stands at 11, 187 runs (121 tests). Top 10 records he has on his name in his high-profile career in first class cricket are:

1. Highest run getter in test history. (11, 187 run)
2. Highest individual score in one innings in test matches. (400no against England @ Antigua)
3. Highest individual score in first-class matches (501no for Warwickshire)
4. Only player to break the highest individual score record twice. (Broke Sir Gary Sobers record of 365 with his 375 @ Antigua. Then broke Hayden's record of 380 with his 400no @ Antigua again)
5. Highest runs scored in a single over in Test matches. (28 run [4 fours, 2 sixes] against Robin Pieterson of SA)
6. Scorer of 2nd best innings of the century rated by Wisden. (153no while chasing 308 runs to take his team to victory by 1 wkt against Aus, 1999)
7. 31 Test centuries (behind only Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Steven Waugh)
8. 8 double centuries (behind only Sir Don Bradman's 12)
9. 2 triple centuries (equal to Sir Don Bradman's record)
10. Highest runs in a Test match in losing cause (351 [221+130] against SL)

He is 36 now, but he looks good enough to break a few more records before he decides to retire. Inspite of all the criticism, playing in a weak and almost always losing team he has been performing admirably well all throughout his career with a few lean patches in between. He has never been the most consistent player around, but has always been the scorer of big innings'. He still remains the best batsman currently playing cricket for me and surely one of THE GREATEST of all times. His unique batting style of a high back-lift, those typically Caribbean cover drives, magical cuts and pulls, nimble footwork against the spinners, sweeps and his dancing down the wicked has always been a treat to watch and is one of THE FEW batsman anyone would love to watch when in full flow.

Playing for a very weak team has meant that some of his greatest innings have come for a losing cause or are some of very fighting innings when team is in pretty tough position. I will pick 5 of my favorite test innings played by Lara:

1. 153 no against Aus, 1999 (this one was simply a genius)
2. 277 against Aus, 1992-93 at Sydney (this one was his maiden test century, and on of the greatest innings played ever, infact Lara himself rates this innings as his best. He infact has named his daughter "Sydney" because of this!!)
3. 221 and 130 against SL (these were in very spin friendly conditions against Murlidharan)
4. 226 against Aus @ Adeilade in current match (Inspite of all the bad umpiring decisions and criticism of being completely out of form he arose to the occasion to score another big double hundred in what is most probably his last test match in Australia)
5. 375 against England @ Antigua (he broke Sir Gary Sobers' record with this score)

With this i sign off with the message "HAIL LARA"

Just to add something on Indian cricket:

"Thank You the Kolkatta fans for making a game of Ind v/s SA at Eden Gardens feel like an away game for Indian team by jeering players like Dravid, Sachin and Coach Greg Chappell and applauding the South Africans. Slogans like 'Dravid hai hai' for THE BEST INDIAN PLAYER by far for last few years and of course the current captain, "Ganguly dada, Chappell gadha" for the Indian coach and "Sachin hai hai" have again shown your preferences of Ganguly over the Team India"

This Ind-SA series has been completely dismal, with the team winning toss winning the match. The mantra has been simple, win the toss, field first, dismiss the team for a paltry total when the ball is swinging a bit in first innings, and then chase the small total easily. I hope just to level things India should won the toss in last match to level the series 2-2.

"Allrounder" Ganguly included in Test squad

Disclaimer: If the person reading this is by chance a bengali or a die-hard Ganguly fan then he/she can stop reading right now. The following text is completely my view or rather a view of CRICKET FAN.

Nov 22, 2005 - Rahul Dravid is selected as the captain of the Indian team and chairman of selectors Kiran More states that it is very hard for Ganguly in current form to get into the Indian team.

Nov 23, 2005 - Saurav Ganguly is *magically* selected in the Indian team for the first test against SriLanka. This time our chairman of selector Kiran More states that - "Ganguly has been chosen as a BOWLING ALLROUNDER, this will allow us to have 6 - 7 bowlers, this will give team more flexibility. He has been chosen as a BOWLING ALLROUNDER, no as a BATTING ALLROUNDER. He hasn't been selected because of any EXTERNAL PRESSURE".

Wtf ! they consider us a complete !diot or what ? just a day before u said its tough for Ganguly in current form to get in the team, the next day u r selecting him in the team and u dont even know what to call him ? a "bowling allrounder" or a "batting allrounder". whatever be he surely is none of those f**king options. A guy who has been playing international cricket for over 8 years and has never been considered remotely as an allrounder (except for that purple patch way back in Toronto), has been selected in his final days as an allrounder, when he cant score a single run in the whole Duleep Trophy Final ? Are you really f**king serious ? You think we would simply believe this ? Does this even remotely sounds true ? Surely not !

Coming to some realistic reasons behind this selection. 4th ODI b/w Ind-SA is to be played in Eden Gardens, Kolkatta which happens to be the home of their "maharaj" ganguly !! And as ganguly has not been chosen in the indian ODI team, these kolkatta people are THREATENING that they won't allow the match to happen if GANGULY IS NOT SELECTED in the team ? wtf, and these f**king people call themselves cricket fans ? They can't see indian playing well and winning ? Infact they dont care a damn about wtf india does, they just care about their f**king "maharaj". I might just be sounding too anti-bengali, but this remains a BITTER TRUTH, that all bengalis simply adore their state players, they dont care a damn about the country, and how country is performing. They will always believe that their state player is the best ! I think in inter-state matches you can think so, but while coming to international scene you have to GROW UP, and believe in the reality and believe what is the best for the country ! I am yet to meet a bengali who doesn't have Ganguly as his favorite cricketer ! Is this a coincidence ? hell no !! surely not ! They are the most biased people i have ever seen. And the best or rather the worst part is they have the guts and courage to openly say in front of the camera that THEY WON'T LET THE MATCH HAPPEN if ganguly is not selected !! This is democracy for you, few people proving right in front of the media that they are above the law or rather THE LAW in bengal ? Well their threats have worked out and ganguly is selected in the team as a fucking allrounder !! Infact the team had to be selected after Ind-SA series get over but the selection had been preponed. Kolkatta already has a pretty bad past record be it World Cup Semis against SL in '96 or against Pakistan 2-3 years back, infact if i believe right they are among the black-listed venues of ICC, where if the crowd trouble happen once more they will be permanently disallowed to host any game. But do those ppl care a damn about it ? no !! Its the INDIA whose image will be tarnished coz of it and that's none of their matter !

Now to its implications, his selection directly means that both Yuvraj and Kaif will have to sit out of the team. Inspite of the fact that Kaif was the best indian batsmen on Zimbabwe tour and has a far better recent record than Ganguly. On the other hand Yuvraj has been on top of his form off late, scoring a great half-century against SL, and following it up with a classy century against SA in the first ODI, that too when Indians were in dire straits. But all those performances have come to nought as the "Bengali Threat" prevailed over sanity. Another person to suffer because of Ganguly's selection is Zaheer Khan, he took 23 wkts in 3 Duleep Trophy matches including 9 wkts in the final to lead his team to victory. Irony, it seems that it was Zaheer Khan who dismissed Ganguly for NOUGHT in both the innings of the Duleep Trophy final, and its him who has to sit out of the team while the "bowling/batting allrounder" Ganguly, who couldn't score a run against him has been selected !!

Morpheus rightly said "Fate it seems is not without a sense of irony"

Just the time when Indian team's future was looking pretty bright the selectors have made this decision. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that as this Eden Gardens' match is over selectors or maybe Dravid-Chappel take a U-turn to either drop him or atleast not chose him in the first eleven :). That would surely be the best solution now !

Cricinfo's Dileep Premachandran states on this -> Driven by sentiment
An extract from the above article: "Given that he's no Jonty Rhodes in the field, we can safely assume that Ganguly wasn't selected for 12th-man duty. But by saying that he was selected as a batting allrounder, Kiran More has only ensured that his panel will be the butt of most cricketing jokes for some time to come. Ganguly has taken 25 wickets in his 84 Tests, and prior to taking two in two matches against South Africa last year, his last wicket had been way back in 2001, when he finished with figures of 2 for 69 at Kandy. To tag him an allrounder is almost as farcical as considering Mike Tyson a heavyweight contender."

End of Federer's streak

After 24 consecutive final victories finally the King Federer lost a tennis tournament finale. It is more than 2 years when he lost a final. His last loss dates back to Oct 2003. And after 35 consecutive wins he faced a loss this year. This record simply speaks of the dominance this man has had over the tennis arena for past 2 years. I am actually short of adjectives for him, he simply has been awesome. A never before dominance over the top ten players. He has very rarely lost to a player in top ten. And in finals he has simple thrown away his opponents. Though this year in few of finals he has lost a set or two but he has been way ahead of his opponents. If i remember correct this was his 3rd loss in 85 matches this year. Simply amazing.

This Master's Cup, the season ending tournament was looking to be a cakewalk for federer, as most of the players (only top 8 players play in this tournament) had withdrawn from it namely Rafael Nadal, Hewitt, Roddick, Safin, Agassi ! Nor that these players have great record against Federer, but atleast people HOPE that atleast they CAN beat him SOMETIME !! To start of the tournamen federer was rusty with all 3 of his round-robin matches going to decider set. But in the semis he simply CRUSHED the french open champion Gaudio 6-0, 6-0 ! It was a scoreline showing similar to a top player beating some unknown player...certainly not how you beat a top 10 player ! Everything was looking ominous for Nalbandian, all odds were against him in finale again Federer. He fought hard in first 2 sets but lost both of them in tie-breaks including the first one by a very unlucky net point for federer (which they call CHAMPION's LUCK !). He hung on and broke Federer twice to take the 3rd set 6-2. Suddenly the federer started fading, the fatigue (or maybe some injury) had him. He could barely move and had to call the trainer. Nalbandian took 9 consecutive games to lead 4-0 in the decider set after winning the 4th by 6-1. But at this point Nalbandian's eagerness/excitement to finish the match and Federer's mental toughness came into picture. Nalbandian regularly started missing the whitelines by a whisker and Federer kept his cool to break him twice and get level at 4-4 ! Federer broke Nalbandian for 3rd time in the set to server for the match at 6-5 !! It was looking like game over for Nalbandian and 24 matches winning streak of federer seemed pretty likely to be increased to 25 ! But seeing the cup, he had almost won slipping out Nalbandian forced his way back to break federer to take the set into tiebreak and then taking the tiebreak to end the Federer's winning streak of 24 finales in over 4 hrs and 30 min. This was simply a GREAT result for Nalbandian and atleast somebody showed that Federer can be beaten (be it was fatigue/injury or Nalbandian). :)

Few other big sports news:
1. Ronaldinho scored a brace to lead Barca for a THRASHING of real madrid at their home !!
2. ROY KEANE quits Man Utd.
3. Man Utd, Chelsea win and Arsenal narrowly beats Wigan to end their unbeaten run.
4. Milan lose to Fiorentina 1-3 to give Juve a 5 points lead !
5. India levels series against SA.

Well i am pretty excited coz a TT tournament is coming up at my workplace. Hoping for the best :)

The Big War

This post is about something which I (infact quite a lot of people) have been following for several months. It is about the battle for the internet supremacy between 3 giants Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO). Yes, it's the battle for "supremacy" not the "dominance", as Robert Scoble, a Microsoft geek aptly points out - "Internet is too big a thing to be dominated by one company alone, so it’s a battle for supremacy". Each of the 3 companies is rolling out pretty similar services so that they don’t fall behind in the competition. This post is not going to decide which one is better, but just a small preview of what things each of them are offering and what lies in future. I will look at each of the three one by one.

I will start off with Google, the so-called "GOD" of internet, the one whom people believe almost blindly. Google has a lot of popular services, it’s a runaway leader in search, the company which has basically revolutionized the web search and has made the Microsoft's and Yahoo's to introspect and to provide a better search. Other than this web search several other popular Google services are: Gmail, Google Desktop Search, GTalk, Google Maps/Earth, Google Personalized Homepage, Blogger etc. Each of these products has been pretty revolutionary in the sense that they have made the life of an internet user pretty easy.

It's not more than a year or so ago, when none of the free email services were ready to give away more than 4-6 MB of mailbox space, Gmail came and gave away 1GB of free space and that the mailing experience has never been this good, now almost all the mail services are giving that much space which u can hardly ever fill!! Gmail stays at somewhere over 2GB, Y! at 1GB, Hotmail at 250/25 MB. Google Desktop Search has made searching files on your hard drive ever easier and made people dump the old crappy existing Windows search. GTalk is pretty much like Skype, but it’s certainly not a messenger for me. Google Maps/Earth has made finding paths and places easier. Google Personalized Page has provided a damn easy interface to combine *almost* everything you read on the internet onto one single page and finally there is blogger which me myself is using to dump all my thoughts including this.

Coming on to Microsoft, they have their own services competing head on with all these Google services. They have MSN Search, Hotmail, MSN Desktop Search, MSN Messenger, MSN Virtual Earth, Windows live/start.com, MSN Spaces etc. While Hotmail, MSN Search and MSN Messenger have been around for ages, MSN Desktop Search, MSN Virtual Earth and Windows live seems to be *INSPIRED* by the Google counterparts. The biggest advantage that MS has is their reach to masses with around 90% of the desktop with their OS: Windows 9X/ME/2000/XP/Vista (?) and around 80+% of browser market with IE. Plus they have the cash in the bag which enables them to quickly catch up with their competitors, by either acquiring some other company doing similar work or by developing it through their own developers.

Personally I liked MSN Desktop Search more than the GDS, mainly coz it had more features with outlook integration et al, plus it was far more customizable then GDS, but GDS 2 has come up with all those features + something called sidebar and negated that part. But I still use MSN Desktop Search, coz it provides tabbed-browsing to whatever little browsing I do in IE. MSN Virtual Earth seems to be lacking in the quantity of maps as compared to G Earth, but the resolution and clarity seems to be a more than G Earth. Windows live.com (still in beta) has similar features compared to Google Personalized Page, but their plus point can be adding Hotmail (already there) and MSN Messenger (to-be-added with Messenger Live). If all of these are combined then I guess this will be great for the user, as it will combine almost around 80+% of internet usage/surfing to one single page ranging from Mail, messenger, Dilbert, weather forecasts, blogs, news, Slashdot, to several other RSS/ATOM feeds. As for their old services, MSN search hardly stands in front of Google, but hotmail and MSN messenger are quite popular if not the most popular. The UI of both stands out as compared to others, but mailbox size is still something where hotmail lags behind as compared to its competitors, while MSN lags in the latest "call to computer" feature given by Gtalk and Y!.

Now on to Yahoo!, they have their corresponding services like Yahoo! search, Yahoo! Mail, Y! Desktop search, Y! Messenger, Y! Maps and My Yahoo! etc. Most of these Y! Services have been around for a while including My Yahoo! but except for Y! Mail, Messenger and Search, none of them are as popular as compared to their counterparts. But Yahoo's main business exists in their mail and messenger only. Personally I believe Yahoo! Mail is currently the best email service, while their messenger is pretty close to MSN in popularity (though I hate Y! with voice, as it takes at least around 5-6 times more RAM then others as well as its older versions even in idle state).

Few of the recent advancements i have read regarding this are:

1. Yahoo and MSN planning to combine their messenger service.

2. Both Google and Microsoft bidding to acquire internet giant AOL (with Yahoo! opting out of the bid just 2 days ago)

3. Yahoo! coming up with a revolutionary web-mail interface just like mail clients like MS Outlook.

4. Google offering *free* wireless internet in Mountain View, CA.

5. Microsoft just realizing that one can get more money from ad-revenue (like Google does) than licensing!

6. All 3 giants merging with one or other company for book and video searches.

7. Google giving away $1 to publishers for every Firefox with Google Toolbar download, and also giving away money for every ad-click to users enabling Google-AdSense on their blogs.

First few points look pretty revolutionary, imagine if Yahoo! and MSN combine their messenger service not only this would provide the user ease of logging in to both the service through single client, but will also mean that they have THE largest share in the messenger market. And if Microsoft manages to successfully acquire AOL (which looks highly likely, considering the cash they have) then *almost all* of the messenger market will be in their hand, and GTalk will find it really hard then to battle Microsoft in this field then.

AOL acquisition is another major thing with around 10% of Goggle’s ad-revenue coming from AOL, if Google manages to get AOL, then they will get foothold as an ISP too, plus a lot of ad-revenue. As according to point 4, they are already trying to be an ISP for increased reach and ad-revenue. But if Microsoft manages to get AOL it will be a big setback for Google, not only they will lose out on ad-revenue and messenger users, but it will give a big user base to Microsoft to publicize their products, and might just help them combine with Time-Warner for the video search.

The new Yahoo! web-mail interface (which is in beta) looks really cool, I haven't used it yet but it looks real promising and might just make the web-mail experience as was never before.

All in all this looks a pretty exciting war between the 3 big wigs of the internet. And as a neutral we are in for some pretty good times as this competition is going to lead us to really improved and revolutionary services as never before. So i will simply sit back and enjoy the war for supremacy between the three and enjoy more and more features and new services.

:)

Keep the competition alive!!

True ?

Just read the today's fortune @ orkut, it read like this !!

The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do

So, i guess for me this simply tells that i should do SOME WORK :)

so now back to work !

On@TCC

Finished reading On@TCC couple of days ago in 6 hrs straight. Considering i am just as good a reader as Glenn Mcgrath is a batsman [:)], this was a big achievement !! This also tells that book was really interesting, and surely will never bore u.

The story of the book has been told in a typical Chetan Bhagat's style with his so-called "dark humour". His style of throwing in some really funny one-liners in any kind of situation is really great ! One thing i must say about Chetan is that he literally seems an expert on girls, maybe someday he would give ppl like me some tips :D. And some of his comments about "boss" were really good :), i guess EVERY working person will agree with the "boss" feeling, 'coz there are only 2 types of boss in the world: bad and worse. The "good" ones cease to exist. Well the boss taking credit of or naming someone's else work in his name is a pretty common thing i guess and has happened with me too. Also all the "buzzwords or jargons" the boss speaks is pretty true. The book sounds a WARNING to all the guys getting bald: "Beware, its going to be difficult for you to find ur gal, even if u get into microsoft" :). All n all the whole story is filled with witty lines. Some of them which i really liked are:

• Threesome with blondes and hitting the boss are the top indian male fantasy.
• Few people in this world get to hit their boss, but those who do will tell you it is better than sex.
• He clicked his pen shut with a swagger, as proud as da Vinci finishing the MonaLisa
• Girls like Esha hardly eat anything, but still jump around asking for treats.
• One thing guys do know is when to shutup.
• Girls' handbags have enough to make a survival kit for Antarctica.
• Copier decaptivates man, duplicates document.
• It is way more elegant to cry sitting down than standing up.

Though the end of the story is a typical Hindi movie ishtyle. A fairytale ending with all good things happening - "a successful love story", "their revenge with their boss", "saving the call center" and all, but is life a fairytale always ?? But still i will recommend this book, for all the entertainment it gave throughout. Didn't someone said "Enjoy the journey more, than the destination" (or something like that). So enjoy the book, inspite of a filmi ending :)

A Good News: I bought my new cell: nokia 6230i :)))

Over for now.

Few Quotes !

Few Quotes I just read. Ya they are a bit funny, but i guess quite true as well ? Most of them are typically true for a software engg environment of ours :))

1. Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
2. If you can stay calm, while all around you is chaos... then you probably haven't completely understood the seriousness of the situation.
3. Doing a job RIGHT the first time gets the job done. Doing the job WRONG fourteen times gives you job security.
4. A person who smiles in the face of adversity... probably has a scapegoat.
5. TEAMWORK...means never having to take all the blame yourself.
6. Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups. (Morale of this quote: don't argue too much in the meetings with the management !!!)
7. When the going gets tough, the tough take a coffee break. (perfectly true for any software engg.)
8. Succeed in spite of management.

Now my favorite one:
9. Aim Low, Reach Your Goals, Avoid Disappointment.
I heard this one in a refined version (Promise Less, Deliver More) in my induction training at HCL Tech...and i guess u will realize how true this is after some time :)

The New Reign

The Dravid Reign is just 2 matches old. And i know its TOO early to say anything, but still i firmly believe that to declare Dravid as captain for 2 whole series in advance is a step in right direction. Atleast the guy will have some confidence, some breathing space so that now he can concentrate on making strategies for the series in hand unless otherwise where Ganguly's return would always have been on his mind ! The team for the rest of the ODIs is yet to be decided and Ganguly's return to the team or rather Ganguly's future completely depends upon today's meeting. Now leaving Ganguly aside for now and talking about the new reign.

In the 2 matches played India has completely outplayed SriLanka, yes people might say that it's there home game and all, but i can't remember when did india dominated SL after Jayasuriya burst onto the scene. Whatever might be the reason in last 2 matches there seems to be a newly found self-belief. Some amazing performances from Sachin, Pathan, Dravid and Harbhajan led india to win in the first match and then again in 2nd match Pathan and Sachin took india to another easy victory.

First biggest plus point i see in these 2 matches is the new look Sachin, for past few years he has just been ambling along for his runs, with most of his attacking shots being pushed onto the backseat. But in these 2 matches he has danced down the track repeatedly to spinners (including Murali), much to my (and others) delight. Seems like the good ol' Sachin is back amongst us, yes again its too early to draw an conclusion but well the good signs are here for all of us :) He is just back from the surgery and a long lay-off, maybe he would have realised in this break that he doesnt have enough cricket left in him, maybe just 1 or 2 years (with all these injuries just round the corner), so i guess he has realised that he now should play his own natural game and just go out there and ENJOY !! And if he can really go out on the field just to Enjoy, then i am very much sure india are going to see some more of these scintillating innings from the little-master. He has got all the fame/records/ and everything what anyother cricketer can only dream off, so i dont think there's much left for him to achieve (except for a World Cup win maybe), so he can really go out an ENJOY himself. This would not only be beneficial for him but also for the team. Also Indian team now has atleast few people who can play the big anchor role notably Dravid and Kaif.

The other big plus point of these 2 matches has been Irfan Pathan, the way he batted in the first game and then his new ball spell in 2nd match has just turned the game for indian team. I firmly believe Chappell and Dravid together can bring this consistency in him, and he can really be a great asset to the team in the near future, with the World Cup just round the corner.

The other big plus to me has been the bowling of Harbhajan Singh, i dont remember Harbhajan bowling too many crucial spells apart from series against Aus in '01. Few good spells here and there were all he did. But in these 2 matches he has looked pretty good, especially in first match when he picked up wickets when the dangerous Jayasuriya and Sangakkara were going berserk.

Dravid himself led the team from front in the first match..with a breathtaking 85 notout off just 63 balls. And has made some good decisions while fielding (ya ya i know when someone's winning all decisions looks great). But the best thing i liked about Dravid in these matches was his post-match statement - his humbleness. He simply said that its just one match, this was a match where almost everything when perfect and which is rare and we have to concentrate on future matches. And his best reply was when he was asked "If Irfan pathan is next Andrew Flintoff ?", he answered "Well he's just a bowler who can bat a BIT". That's a perfect reply to keep a person down-to-earth, especially with media like ours around who can simply put anyone on cloud 9 after just 1 good performance. Infact Irfan himself has been through this.

Anyway enough for now.

Just as i finish this off i see the news that GANGULY HAS NOT BEEN INCLUDED IN THE TEAM !!

Hurray...for a change THUMBS UP TO INDIAN SELECTORS...

with this positive mood i head to see Catherine..ooops i mean "The Legend of Zorro"

:)

Chelsea Rocks !!

Writing after quite a long gap. Have been a bit busy with new office plus have been more than a bit lazy to write down something :). Anyway now i am writing down something !

Last night i watched the champions Chelsea playing Bolton Wanderers at home. And after just 4 minutes they found themselves in an unusual territory of being a goal down ! That was just their 3rd goal coneceded in 8 matches. They kept fighting n fighting but the half time scoreline somehow remained 0-1 though they were always threatening to come on level terms. Then after half-time their mastermind coach Jose Mourinho played a big gamble as he substitued a defender for a striker !! It wasn't a do-or-die situation for them, and they were down by only 1 goal...but this move literally showed Chelsea's intent and what they were after in the coming half. What followed in the 2nd half was a COMPLETE RIOT ! They literally run riot in the 2nd half. After few chances to Drogba to start off. They got a free-kick around 30 yards out. In Frank Lampard they have got a man who is at the top of the world, filled with complete confidence in whatever he does, scoring goals at will for both Chelsea and England and literally pulling both of them to top. And once again he produced a superb free-kick which Bolton keeper could only parry out in front of Drogba, who smashed it home for the equaliser in the 52nd minute. They had couple of more chances to take the lead before in the 55th minute Drogba passed to Lampard in front of goal, who blasted the ball into the net for the Chelsea lead, few more chances missed then in 59th minute Bolton were down to 10 men for a deliberate hand ball just outside the penalty area. Frank Lampard again rose to the occasion to fire home his 2nd and 3rd Chelsea goal from a superbly taken free-kick.

We were less than just 15 minutes into the half and Mourinho's gamble has paid off in a big way so he substitued a striker Joe Cole for a defender. Two minutes later the mayhem was completed when Drogba fired the 4th Chelsea goal from the Lampard corner. Gudjohnsen completed the riot with a 5th in the 74th minute.

But literally in space of 9 minutes of complete mayhem Chelsea have shown the whole of England that THEY ARE THE CHAMPIONS. It was their 9th win of 9 matches with just 3 goals conceded. Currently Chelsea have the same aura around them as the Man United of past used to have, scoring goals at will. Mourinho has a strength of around 15-20 all high class players, so he can easily switch between them for the big results, which all other league sides lack. In Lampard they have a real influential player who currently is doing the same job for Chelsea and England, what Gerrard is used to doing for Liverpool. Its just 9 matches into the season and they have opened up an 8 points gap at the top. I tell you, the league title is dead and buried, Chelsea are not going to slip up. Apart from Lampard, players like Joe Cole, Drogba (in super form after a dismal last season), Robben, Makelele, Duff.....they have some truly world class players. They have had all kinds of victories this season starting from a scrappy 93rd minute goal against the promoted Wigan Athletic in their first league game to 4-0 thrashing of second placed Charlton, to 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool at Anfield to this 5-1
riot of Bolton after being down by a goal at half-time. Time and again they have proved they are the champions by coming out on top through all kinds of situations.

On the other front Man Utd had a good 3-1 win over Sunderland, but this was a diff kind of Utd win. Normally for last 2 seasons you would see Man Utd dominating most of the match and then missing chances, just to get a draw, hard-fought victory or even lose sometimes. But this time it was totally opposite, they were behind all the time against Sunderland. But just a few moments of brilliance- first from the unstoppable Wayne Rooney in first half, then from Nistelrooy in 2nd half, then when the score was 2-1 Van der Sar produced a great save to keep the score 2-1, which was increased to 3-1 by the debutant 18yr old striker Rossi. And these 3 goals were almost the no. of chances Man Utd created in the whole match !

A completely different kind of victory but neverthless a much needed win for Utd. I guess Man Utd and Chelsea have switched positions in last 2 seasons. Man Utd are the one following and scrapping to victories, while Chelsea are leading and blasting opponents to win matches !

Onto some other big stories..
1. Fernando Alonso takes Renault to the world constructor's championship with his 7th win of the season and sings "WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS" :))))
2. Ronaldo scored a hattrick to give Real a victory, while a Ronaldinho double could just earn Barca a draw :( Barca defense is really struggling this season.
3. Aussies more or less on course for a victory over World XI with around 325 more runs needed with just 8 world XI wkts in hand. Warney n Macgill due to create a mayhem on 4th and 5th day :) But i believe they still need to change something for future like Hussey in for Katich !!

That's it from today sports round up :)))

Last day in my first company

Today was my last day in my first company. Finally feeling pretty happy and relieved. Gotta get one more sign on the clearance form and booom i am off :). This whole one week or a bit more has been one hell of a busy week...attending parties.....giving parties...getting clearance signatures.....+ few other blah-2 things......

Well this last day was unlike the usual last days that generally happen coz today there was also an "ice-breaking" session in our group !! All in all it was a great day, real fun, some INTERESTING moments.

First of all there was an intro round, there were few interesting ways in which ppl gave their intros...but the most popular way seemed to be some kinda thinking posture or some sudden feeling of elation...well me borrowed the "pehchaan Kon ??" from the bar-girl waala boy frm GILC :D

Then there was a round where u had to show some kinda depression...well this was a pretty boring round !! Almost everyone doing the same thing, in same way...some of them were so depressed that we could hardly hear them :)). Apart from 2 songs sung in that round it was pretty tp, interestingly one of 'em was sung by our GPM.

Then there were few funny rounds like someone having to enact as elephant trunk with ppl on his sides enacting has elephant ears, one round with ppl enacting as boats n all......the current elephant had to chose the next bakra [aka elephant] and when sanjayku san was selected as the elephant i somehow knew me will have to become the next :), but well wasnt this supposed to be my last day ? yes, so there came a twist from our GPM...he changed the elephant script to shooting script !! And i had to enact a person dying after being shot :o, with 2 ppl on my side weeping :)). So i was officially dead now :D

Then came a round a group of ppl had to make some given scene, and others had to guess that from our depiction of that scene...well my laziness in shaving made me a pick-pocketer :o, anyway that was fun....picking the pocket of a PM :D

Then came the finale round, and it had points...well the best thing about having points is that it turns on the competitive spirit. In this round one of the team members had to enact a situation or anything given on the chit and the rest of the team had to guess that and then become part of that situation..a bit like dumb-c only but with some twist :) ...Our team started in the worst possible manner, with our team member reading something else on the chit, and enacting tht ! On the other hand Alok san and Mihir san's team did outstandingly in the first round !! After the first round, in which 4 ppl had turned up for each team, our team was last..., then came the 2nd round and luckily most teams did badly in this round and me, who had to enact the situation got an easy one, which we actually did pretty well to get the bonus points also to get right back in the game. Then came the 3rd and last round, it had so many points that it could turn the tables 180 deg...n well that's wat happened sasan san lead his team like a TM and enacted the final clue brilliantly and all his team members did really well to earn the bonus points which virtually won them the game. If either of Mihir san's team or my team had to win they had to take bonus points...Mihir san's team scored but failed to get the bonus points...so our team was last....bonus points, we win, else we lose....and somehow
at the last moment at this crunch time my PL who was originally supposed to act the final clue, threw the responsibilty on me :o, anyway i went there and saw the topic...and was amazed ! wasn't this my final day ? yes !! the topic was "employee firing his BOSS" !! well-2 i wonder if it was specifically chosen for me :)), anyway i think i enacted it pretty well, even my PL guessed it perfectly correct, + other team members also got quite well into the scene...but alas....the performance ended, our GPM glanced at the scoreboard for a minute or so and said most of them could exactly guess the situation correctly, so we got a ZERO !? :o :o :o, common even if some of them got wrong still we would have got MORE than SOME points, but ZERO ?? again was it delibrate/biasing or something ? [fingers crossed] wtf why would i care ? anyway the surprise score left us on 3rd position. still that was fun :)

Then it was followed by a senti speech by our GPM, over the group and all..but i am sorry [sorry to Mihir san only] that it failed to evoke many emotions in me...anyway won't go into the reasons.....Though i believe that speech surely would have served some purpose, atleast it will effect the new freshers that have joined the group :)

PS: i wrote after a long time, was TOO-TOO busy to write :)
PPS: saw skeleton key yesterday...kinda fine....nothing exceptional....but u can see it once for sure :)
PPPS: would be entering a new world in the new week !!