Nitin Jagga

Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan

2009-06-27T19:02:00.002+05:30

Mumbai, Bombay as the britons call it or called it, the Financial Capital of India, and life in a Mumbai local train as explained by Shashank in a very witty and beautiful manner.
This one is really a hilarious outline of the deplorable conditions an average mumbaikar is in and the struggle that he has to go everyday to reach their destinations in a Mumbai metro. Something that can only be experienced and not be viewed.
http://shashank-saini.blogspot.com/2009/06/local-life.html

Manchester United Vs Liverpool | A tragedy at Old Trafford

2009-03-15T03:10:00.001+05:30

Nothing can be as heart breaking for any soccer fan to see his team going down at home. Specially when it comes to Manchester United (www.manutd.com) which is arguably the best football club in the world, loss at home just doesn’t naturally to fans. With Premier League well in sights, it was just about time to take revenge from the title rivals Liverpool (www.liverpoolfc.tv) for the 2-1 loss inflicted by them at Anfield, with the match being at Old Trafford, the fortress of Manchester United, the loss was nowhere in picture at all. The huge 7 point lead with 2 games in hand before the match started was starting to look daunting as we were approaching the business end of 2008-09 season of the premier league. And with clean sweep in sight (Winning the FIFA Club World cup, still running in FA Cup, leaders in premier league and in final 8 in ECC) today’s match was just about clearing all doubts about title rivalry. But, unfortunately there are always ifs and buts in life.

So the match kicked off and the start was auspicious when Cristiano Ronaldo helped in taking a 1-0 lead inside the first 30 minutes as never before has MUFC (read Manchester United Football Club) lost a match at Old Trafford whenever Cristiano Ronaldo (FIFA world Footballer of the year) has scored at home (49 times). Today was just not the day. It was a splendid effort by Fernando Torres, or rather an idiotic effort by Nemanja Vidic at the Centre back which reminded us all of the Euro 2008 final at Vienna, where Fernando Torres scored a goal in a similar fashion. That split the game open and from then on, it was just Liverpool written all over it. ManU was missing the services of Berbatov, Giggs and Paul Scholes from the start, though all came in at 70th minute, but by then, Liverpool had already stamped their authority. A penalty conceded by Evra just before the half time had Steven Gerrard making sure that they go into the break with a lead, a very slender one but nevertheless soothing. After the break, Nemanja Vidic made sure that his off day contributes in every bit to the loss, got sent off and the Set Piece was converted into a splendid goal by Fabio Aurelio at 79th minute to put the result of the match beyond any doubt. After that a long ball by Reina got Liverpool their 4th goal at 89th minute, and here was MUFC, completely annihilated by the merseysiders and it turned out to be a no contest really.

Now that MU have a week long break to regroup, let’s see if this side is resilient enough to come back from such a result. There is no need to panic though, as there is still a 4 point lead with 1 more game to play, but there are still tough games to follow. We still have to lock horns with Arsenal and ManCity both at Old Trafford and these games could be very decisive in terms of who wins the Premiership. Liverpool was always a competitor this year, right from the start but they were loosing all their sheen this year and this result has come at the right time for them to launch an onslaught towards the final end of the league.

One more club that would be celebrating this loss of MU would but of course be Chelsea (www.chelseafc.com) as this loss of ManU keeps them in the hunt of premiership too.

Yes, I definitely want ManU to win the premiership, but all I can say right now is that it has become very exciting. Liverpool has really shown this week what a class act they are by defeating Real Madrid (4-0) and today 4-1.

Keep your fingers crossed all the MU fans out there.

U.S. Bailout package | Nothing will work

2009-03-09T01:24:00.001+05:30

Unfortunately, we live in a world where the most prosperous nation of Sixties, United States of America, has more or less dominated the whole world economy, be it Europe, Asia through the last four to five decades. It always was a common joke in the investing community (people who invest in Stock markets of India) that if U.S. sneezes, India catches a cold. Now that the big daddy of them all, the U.S. is paralyzed, the picture is gloomy elsewhere. Economic development has come to a standstill, credit is squeezed and the whole world is paying for the Great American Greed. As things stand, every country and almost everybody having some interest in the economy looks at the U.S. with fingers crossed every day, for a magic wand that will take this world out of the grips of recession.

The bailout package announced by the Federal Reserve and finally passed by the U.S. Congress is one such effort to bring order into the broken financial system of that country. How-so-ever big it may seem in terms of billions ($787 bn), whatever it aims at, what appears is that it aims at just plugging the loopholes, that the American system has acquired over the years. AIG (the world’s largest insurer), Bear Sterns (one of the TOP 5 investment banks in America), Citigroup, GM, Ford, Chrysler all have received money from the U.S. government in forms of Aid as the U.S. government considers these companies too big to fall and the consequences huge. I would rather differ in the argument.

It’s alright for the U.S. government to rescue these companies to some extent as the thought that some order would be rescued in the Financial Markets around the world will be restored and investor confidence might be brought back again. But at what cost? Billions of dollars to rescue General Motors? Rather go ahead and buy cars from GM worth billions of dollars and distribute it freely amongst people of all the states. When did the Japanese competition started? Since 70s. What were these so called Big 3 of Detroit doing till now? Waiting for catastrophe to occur and then pull out the begging hats and go back to work again. 1979, Chrysler was rescued by the U.S. government with emergency loans and guarantees worth 4 bn $. Now, it wants government to help it out again. When will the whole world get a guarantee that such systems won’t propagate again? If we look at the way American government’s intentions of handing out the bailout package, the answer will be a very big NEVER. At one hand, these large corporate entities fly in their private jets to the Capitol hill (Washington D.C.) to demand taxpayer’s money as their birth right and on the second hand, Wall Street makes big noises when the CXOs (X includes E, F, I) when these companies are asked by the government to limit the pay of their executives.

I think America is just about promoting the systemic failure that led to the crisis and plunge of financial markets across the world. Alright, the year 2008 had only one Lehman Brothers, one AIG, one GM, one Ford, one Chrysler, but by bailing them out, who’s going to take the guarantee that next time around there’ll be none. No one will give that guarantee; in fact the system is being promoted. New AIGs and Lehman Brothers will crop up. There will be new Bear Sterns; new meril lynches to eat away into the taxpayer’s money any time they find their way of doing business was a bit inconvenient to themselves. We’ve already seen the Great American Greed consuming the big wigs of Enron, Salomon Brothers in the previous few decades, but the American Government instead of taking regulation into their hands is just playing out into the hands of the corporate bodies. This is what exactly is labelled as “Lemon Socialism” (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_socialism). The U.S. government is trying to socialize the “lemons”, i.e., the worst performing industries, read AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, and GM etc. Sooner or later, this list will become endless. Who doesn’t mind extra cash in days of crisis anyway?

“In September 2008, the US Senator from Vermont,Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders said regarding the bailout of the U.S. financial system: “This is the most extreme example that I can recall of socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor”.” (Source below)

http://sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=303313

While the capitalists will still get to take the profits provided they are back to profiting ways again, the losses have been shared by the socialist American Government and the unfortunate tax payers of America, whose money is in the hands of the “Best Brains of the world”.

32% of Noble laureates are from America, including 42 noble prizes in “Economics” since 1969 (source below) and this is the same country which has slipped into an economic downturn three times in two decades.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-countries-have-received-the-most-nobel-prizes.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/nobel_laureates.htm

What America needs to find is a way that the system can be cleansed and the bailout package is certainly not the direction to go to.

But unfortunately, the administration has put up self constraints that are the most paradoxical for any government.

No nationalisation
No losses for bondholders
No more money from Congress

These three constraints are conflicting in nature and there is very little space to achieve equilibrium between the three.

Imagine, even after nationalization, who will run these companies. The management shakeup will be difficult for the administration. That is what has prompted Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citigroup to ask the U.S. government to give him and his management a chance to continue to execute their powers.

http://m.economictimes.com/PDAET/articleshow/4191515.cms

This way, American system will continue to be dogged by the same style of management and techniques which have proved to be a failure. By saving a few companies, I am sure many more are going to be lost down the road.

I think if America is so desperate to invest public money, then why invest in old losers? Rather, try and bring up the new winners. Why not try to bring up new Googles, Intels, Microsofts of the world. Innovation can be a road ahead and who said that necessity is the mother of all inventions. The bailout package is trying to remove the necessity by putting a blanket on all the ill deeds committed by Corporate America.

“It is just reinforcing failure.”

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/536158.html

So, we continue with fresh capital and old and failed systems. Let’s see when we come out of this recession and how long the new period would last. The odds would certainly be in favour of another recession if the systems are not overhauled.

Agrarian Distress and Indian Economy

2009-03-07T17:59:00.001+05:30

Where our agriculture is heading is a direct result of what we as a country have done so far. The simplest and the most obvious reason for this is because we all have chosen to neglect the class the agriculturists of our country represents. Since the all important phase of liberalization came into existence in 1991-92 by our current Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the polity of our country has totally focussed itself on the hypothetical and notional growth engine of our economy, the Stock Markets. If there’s turbulence in our stock markets for an hour, the finance minister comes out in open and tries to pacify the markets and all of our media gets focussed there. However, the reports of farmer suicides in Vidarbha region, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the Tsunamis of the world are not even considered precarious. We have forgotten to take care of the people who need it the most. There are charities of course for the grief stricken people of course, like the loan waivers, and the reconstruction of villages after Tsunami, the Gujarat earthquake, but most of the time, why do we need dying people to be reported on a very wide scale media to realize that these are the people who are in real need of attention and efforts.

All the time in the past 5 years, if we tune in to any TV channel, we’re constantly bombarded with news only about the performance of our stock exchanges and India growth, fundamentally strong economy etc. and 4-5 people sitting there analyzing all the time about how strong we are as an economy. Unfortunately, every one fears to peep into the dark side of it.

Sample this. Sometime last year, while working for a Multi National Corporation in Bangalore, I received an e-mail from the Human Resources department asking all Day shift employees not to report to office for the next day. Reason, the Supreme Court was to deliver its verdict on Kaveri Water division between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and there were apprehensions about the wide spread riots in the whole of Karnataka should Karnataka loose the case and the lives of employees were considered to be at risk by the HR department of many corporations. Why were our people fighting for water? I mean the stock exchanges were doing very well, and there were no recessionary times, the job market was booming and the CXOs (X includes E, I , F) were earning as much as they could and flying business classes. There simply should have been no reason as to why our people across the two states were fighting for water. Unfortunately, if we have a closer look at it, the first time this division of water thing came up way back in early nineties, the worst case of rioting ever in the history of Karnataka was because of Kaveri Water dispute with Tamil Nadu. Why so? Why have so many people died and so much bloodshed for the sake of water of a river in the next “Tiger Economy” or the next “Asian Giant”? It’s because the lives of the farmers irrigating their land out of that river is at stake.

Also, the division of Kaveri water did not change the way the Cokes and Pepsis of the world did business in India. A Rs 6000 odd crore (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/kitnon-alcoholic-beverages-market-in-india/07/21/342572/) soft drinks market of the world simply is not ready to accept the fact that the cold drinks we consume are depleting resources of our own farmers. We’ve forgotten to respect the way people live in our country. Although we show courtesy in the form of loan waivers and collecting money and clothes when they die, we are totally oblivious to how they are living and coping up with it. Very unfortunate for a country where economy was predominantly agrarian.

In fact we live in such extra ordinary times where our billionaire film stars (read Amitabh Bachhan and his farm land acquisition in Barabanki (UP)) have occupied farm land stating themselves as farmers. This can’t be labelled as unfortunate as well. This has something to do with the total loss of respect for our farmers and the way they are living.

True that the Bengal Famine can be classified as “Britons at work” but the agriculture sector of our country today and the figures that we looked at in the class are also a result of “PRAGMATIC” attitude towards agriculture. Who’s at the work now and who is at the helm of affairs? Our own people. The very own Coke and Pepsi drinking people I believe. And that is what has spelt dooms day for our farming sector.

Take PDS, considered to be one of the finest poverty alleviating systems of our country. It neither reached to all corners of the BPL families and whenever it reached, it was inadequate (http://www.blonnet.com/businessline/2001/08/13/stories/041303mg.htm).

Clearly, nothing works in our country because no one wants to make it run OR perhaps no one wants to look at the darker side of our export oriented growth.

I would also like to point out that farm loan waiver schemes will not help the systemic failure of agriculture and farming sector of our country. Promoting private players (be it corporate farming, be it export orientation of food, be it futures trading) to accumulate wealth out of the sector which ought to benefit the masses is never going to help.

The government is not ready to invest in development of the sector and instead, is trying to create a free market system for a sector that is not matured at all. The Global food crisis of 2008 did not help the cause of Indian farming at all. Couple it up with the total dependency on monsoons. And the Prime Minister goes on record to say that with the help of America, we can create another green revolution. Perhaps he is asking us to be dependent on “Western disturbances” as well.

A note from Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyer (http://www.countercurrents.org/aiyar030507.htm) on the same situation explains why we’re so considerate on spending 648 Crores on rural India and at the same time we are spending Rs 7000 Crores on Commonwealth games.

Is MS Dhoni fit for Test Cricket

2008-10-12T11:02:00.001+05:30

Well, tons of questions are raised when Yuvraj Singh flops in one test match. Last time he scored a duck in the infamous Sydney test and since then has failed to impress the selectors for a permanent spot in the test team. But nobody asks the same question about M.S. Dhoni. Unfortunately, i don’t remember one single make or break innings since his match saving innings in the Lords test against England last summer when we were there under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy. I think time is ripe enough to critically evaluate the role of M.S. Dhoni in the Indian Test Team. Is he a wicket keeper who can bat or a batter who can keep wickets. I don’t think so he has been able to justify even one of the options. He dropped Michael Hussey on 1 and he went to score 146 and when he himself came out to bat, scored mere 9 runs of 51 balls and seemed least interested in batting. Merely being the One day team captain or a T20 captain should not guarantee a place in the test side. It’s just the wrong selection ethic. To be very frank he doesn’t deserve a place in the test team considering that he has completely forgotten why he was hired for. He has hired because he was a good wicket keeper and an aggressive batsman. Now, if he has lost his aggression in the limited overs format of the game, that might well be justified considering that he is the captain of the side, but when it comes to test cricket, we have the brilliance of four batsmen to take the responsibility baton and the fifth fab is our captain. What is his role then in test team. Same for which he was hired. Keep wickets and be an aggressive batsman. But as of now, he is not doing justice to any one of them. I still feel we can stick to Dinesh Karthick for a while till he realizes his own faults, considering the fact that Indian Cricketers realize their faults only after getting dropped for a series or two. And the fate of M.S. Dhoni must be the same if we want the same cricketer back. Unfortunately Gary Kirsten says MSD is ready to lead the test side. I’d rather say he’s not even ready to be the test cricketer as things stand. One might say that it’s too early to predict but then we can not keep risking a spot which literally becomes a free hand for the Ozzies to deal with. They are the toughest side to beat in Test cricket not for the reason that they are tough cricketers, but because we are weak. And our weakness displays in our team selections. Let’s see how the series pans out. I obviously want India to win but I would still be critical of MSD throughout the series for the kind of cricket he is trying to play. If Harbhajan Singh can consistently bat better than Dhoni then probably Dhoni can be demoted to Number 10 in batting even if we do not want to drop him.

Manchester United popularity in India | Ryan Giggs knows it

2008-09-05T04:12:00.001+05:30

"You see it when we go abroad in pre-season, you appreciate how popular United is. We have fans in India, China, South America. That popularity is a result of our history.” Ryan Giggs

How true is he?

The link here to the official website of the greatest football club in the world – Manchester United : http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={F9E570E6-407E-44BC-800F-4A3110258114}&newsid=6617542&page=1

Google Chrome | Google turns on screws on Microsoft

2008-09-03T18:22:00.001+05:30

Finally, Google Chrome made a debut on my laptop. It was more of serendipity than a direct download link which fails to install because of a proxy problem (may be). So, I just went into the error details in the event viewer and got the download link from administrative tools of my pc and voila, I was able to download the installer for Google Chrome (about 7.32 MB in size). The installer did not even take a minute and also imported all the settings from internet explorer, regarding Connection settings, favorites etc. And impressive it was with the looks until I got pissed off with the functionalities that it possessed. It’s still in a very nascent stage and the main problem is it cannot resolve/render a web page, until you yourself append a www. before you start typing the actual address. That means to open economist.com, I’ll have to explicitly write www.economist.com which really was annoying. Moreover, I could not open my bank website from Google Chrome and other websites as well. Probably, it can not handle any exceptions on a web page and thus does not render it at all, unlike the internet explorer, which is able to digest all the errors and still render a page.

I feel Google Chrome has a lot of way to go before it comes anywhere close to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. But this can be treated as a big big threat to Microsoft, whose desktop software operation space has been vied as a monopoly till now and is being invaded and at web, Microsoft is no where. It’s a classic corporate warfare, but with the kind of innovations to bring users closer to the two organizations un earthing every day, I believe, people, and especially netizens stand to benefit from this competition.

A tribute to the Don of Cricket | Sir Donald Bradman

2008-08-27T23:35:00.001+05:30

Today is the 100^th Anniversary of the true DON of cricket, Sir Donald Bradman. Considered to be many as the greatest run scoring machine, Sir Don retired from international cricket having a test batting average of 99.94 having got out for a DUCK in his last innings of an illustrious career spanned over 2 decades. Sir Don was the captain of “The Invincibles” team of 1948 where playing in English summer for consecutive 6 months, his team did not lose even a single match. And this was his last test series. All anybody who knows about cricket can do is Hail Sir Donald Bradman.

Here’s the link containing the illustrious sporting history of the man who is still hailed and regarded as the greatest idol of cricket of all times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Bradman

Disappointing series opener for Manchester United

2008-08-20T14:17:00.001+05:30

Although Sir Alex has not shown any regrets for their series opener draw against New Castle United, I was very disappointed. I know that United is not a rock star right from the start and has a habit of picking up steam in the middle of the season, but the team that played against New Castle was far from what it used to be. Fans were ready to see another goal scoring riot from United but it was just not to be. In fact, without Ronaldo, attack from flanks became impossible as there was no body to control the ball there. Kevin Keagan must be having his mouth in his heart when the match started but to a United fan, a draw at Old Trafford pinches like a loss. We were not having services of Tevez, Ronaldo, Rooney had to be pitched in for full 90 minutes as Hargreaves and Ryan Giggs picked up injuries in between the match. All in all, the team just does not have quality strikers at all. Rooney as usual was class apart but was alone. Frazier Campbell’s debut was a forced one as we did not have players. Nani suspended, Ronaldo injured, Anderson in Olympics is not helping at all. We have match on coming Monday against Pompey, whom we struggled to beat in FA Community Shield final (we had to go down to penalties) and it becomes more or less a competing match with Chelsea, as Chelsea beat them in season opener 4-0 with a spectacular goal from new comer Deco. Let’s hope United can do something to salvage pride. The next match is away though and a draw would not be a loss there.

Considering that we have 6 major trophies to go for this year, there’s a hell lot of hard work required from players, and injuries are going to add headache to Sir Alex’s plans. We are the defending champions of 2 (Barclays premier league, and ECC), others being FA Cup, FIFA World cup Club Football, UEFA super cup and the League Cup. A club like Manchester United should go for the maximum and we do have the resources as well. Let’s see how this year’s challenge pans out.

A big UNITED FAN.

Rooney fit for series opener against New Castle

2008-08-15T23:08:00.001+05:30

Finally, here’s the news. http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid=%7BF9E570E6%2D407E%2D44BC%2D800F%2D4A3110258114%7D&newsid=6616132

Wayne Rooney has overcome a serious virus to be fit against New Castle (Remember last years 6-0 drubbing with Rooney not scoring a single goal). That would take some pains off Sir Alex as United is really struggling with Goal Scorers this season with Ronaldo not coming till September end, Nani suspended for two matches and Campbell not showing any form, everything was left up to Tevez for the season’s opening matches. The goal scoring inability of United was quiet visible with F.A. Community Shield match against Pompey (Portsmouth) won only on penalties when United had chances to go till 7-0.

But Sir Alex probably must not forget that we would still need a striker for this season, for if one goes unfit, we are dead again. Anyway, for now, all the best to Kevin Keagan’s side.

IIT Kanpur emerging as top industrial consultant | Setting milestones for MBA

2008-08-14T01:34:00.001+05:30

Here is the link:

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?leftnm=3&autono=331132

And the news:

IIT-K emerging as top industrial consultant Vishnu Pandey / Kanpur August 12, 2008, 4:47 IST

After setting standards in the field of engineering, research and technology, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) is fast emerging as one of the choicest industrial consultants for prestigious projects in government and private sectors.

The institute has undertaken to provide technical know-how to a leading private construction house in Mumbai to construct a building, which will give the country its tallest skyscraper on completion. The professors are already providing advice and assistance to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to realise the proposed Indian lunar mission, 'Chandrayaan'.

The Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) has also sought the institute's help in designing the proposed Trans-Ganga city residential project on the Kanpur-Lucknow highway. The institute is also working on a number of innovative projects with the Indian railways including a proposal to use eco-friendly toilets and remote mapping of exact train positions to make travel safer and more convenient.

The institute's director, Professor S Dhande, says that in this era of globalisation, consultancy is emerging as one of the most prized and glamourous professions. "Proper consultancy is pivotal for every industry to develop high-quality products at low manufacturing costs," he added

Master of Business Administration (MBA) students of the institute will now provide free consultancy services to the local industrialists. Dhande said that a number of ailing industries of the city could be revived by management expertise. "The initiative would also help the students grasp the practical problems faced by the industry and apply the theoretical concepts in real life problems," adds Dhande.

The institute is also helping the government to develop cost-effective technology and software for aircraft component manufacturing. The project cost is merely Rs 20 lakh while the technology has fetched the Indian government revenue of $7 million by its export to foreign countries. The technology became so popular that foreign companies bought it for a premium

The institute has also begun a programme to provide research, technology upgrade and impart skills to various small-scale entrepreneurs of the state.

Currently, a programme for generating new technologies and upgrading the manufacturing techniques used by brass artisans of Moradabad is being run by the designing department of the institute.

Dhande says that similar projects for the glass industry of Firozabad and Agra will be conducted soon.

India and the Gold Medal

2008-08-11T14:20:00.001+05:30

The quest has finally ended. It always appeared to be at the horizon but finally we’ve managed to lap it up.

Yes, India finally has a coveted GOLD MEDAL at Olympics. Abhinav Bindra has really made our country proud (http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/aug/11bindra.htm ). This is for the first time that an Indian has managed a Gold Medal in an Individual event. And a gold medal has always meant what “Ashes” means in Cricket to England or a “FIFA World Cup” to any country making it to the finals of the event.

This year is going to be one of the most remembered years in Indian Sport history for quiet some time coming now. A GOLD MEDAL is a dream of any country at the Olympics.

So finally it comes down to ONE GOLD MEDAL for 1 billion people to enjoy.

We are truly living in some of the most memorable and extra ordinary times that this country could have ever enjoyed.

Hotmail down again

2008-08-08T13:22:00.001+05:30

Will this service (www.mail.live.com) ever be up??? I’ve been dying to check my mail.

Thankfully I am not a paying member for the service. I can understand the frustrations of the people who have paid for the service and are facing difficulties in accessing the website.

Bill, are you listening mate??????

Windows live mail | Proxy issues

2008-08-07T01:07:00.002+05:30

Here @IITK, we connect to internet from behind a proxy server and Windows live mail, writer and in fact, the whole suit of softwares of windows live just doesn’t work behind a proxy server. So I am unable to install windows live and use its features and the services (www.mail.live.com and www.spaces.live.com) are usually down for most time of living life. I tried googling and found a few solutions at good old MSDN but to no avail. That leaves me with no other option but to continue with Blogspot till another solution is found for the same, which I don’t think so would arrive any sooner.

So, for now it’s good old blogger in service. Let’s keep hitting it. If you have a solution, please let me know, by either commenting in this space. This piece doesn’t allow anonymous comments though. Or either mail me @ nitin.jagga@hotmail.com. I don’t know when I’ll be able to check considering the downtime of the service.

And BTW, Barclays Premier League starts from 17^th of Aug this year for Manchester United. I am a Die Hard fan of the Old Trafford club and hence a natural Chelsea F.C. hater. Let’s see how the season pans out this time since there are a lot of issues at the club, Nani is suspended for two matches, Rooney is unfit, Ronaldo is not coming till September end and Giggs aint getting any younger. So, let’s see Sir Alex’s plans for this year.

Let’s hope this year also turns out to be another memorable year for United and it’s fans.

I return to meet my nemesis

2008-08-07T00:56:00.002+05:30

I always thought that once I walked past that B. Tech. subject of “Dynamics of Industrial Behavior” which took two back breaking attempts to get an increment of 1 mark (the biggest difference between life is difference between 39 and 40, I hope all the engineering grads under the number system would agree with me. So much so, that a 40 became a 100 to me.), it would never come back to haunt me.

How wrong I was and it was a classic case of “Hoping against hope”. So, here I am, once again in MBA studying the same subject “Organization Behavior” and once again the same appears to be Rocket Science to me. Let’s hope this time this is the one final time I am coming across the subject. But thanks to NIT Hamirpur, it has already prepared me, not for the subject but for the worst though.

I've moved to Windows live. Have you?

2008-06-16T23:14:00.000+05:30

I am moving on from Bangalore to IIT Kanpur. And my blog seems to have moved to. I feel there's something special about Windows live service that attracted me over there. I was never a prolific blogger though I intend to become a regular one at the least. And this service (www.get.live.com) is just prolific in terms of services to the netizens. OK, Windows live mail does not do anything more than Office outlook, but it is lightning fast. The main stuff of interest is the Windows live writer. Try it out folks, blogging always is fun, but it couldn't be much easier if it wasn't for the Windows live writer. It is like 360 degrees of blogging and you can even write to blogger. But I chose the migration path because even the default template is beautiful and customizability is not upto the intelligence of the user but is really very easy. Trust me, try it out for yourself and you would realize that life is a lot simpler now.
One another good feature is that the Windows live space, in your blog you can add trusted email ids to send entries to your blog. All entries coming from other email ids is invalid. This is especially good as your truly had to suffer a lot in setting an email id for this blog as there were scripted spams which were finding ways into the blog and I had to log into the blogger to delete them every time.
Also, In Windows live writer you can keep editing the blog on the desktop application and then hit publish and whenever you feel like modifying the posted entry, just click on the left side of the panel which lists recent entries. The entry will be retrieved on Windows Live Writer and you can modify and when ready, hit publish. It has many more functionalities as well which are worth a try.

Here's my new space http://nitinjagga.spaces.live.com

Blogger community must be shocked at this

2008-06-01T02:06:00.002+05:30

Messing up something unknowingly is a mistake and is generally forgiven (and laughed at if it is a very light one). We do that every other day of our lives. But when it is done deliberately and that too by an Organization (I say organization in this context as it pertains clearly to an organization), it must be heinous and shameful. Have a look at this:

http://blogs.oneindia.in/390669/35/1/showblog.php

A reputed editor and a journalist of the caliber of Rajdeep Sardesai shouldn't have done this.

MBA Not a distant dream now

2008-05-31T00:15:00.005+05:30

I think I have continued this tradition of 1 post a month for quiet some time now. Things were pretty hectic on the work front and rest of the time was consumed by IPL. Disappointed at Delhi's todays loss though. I think from now on, I will be quiet a regular blogger since I am going to resign from the job sooner than later.

Yes that elusive MBA dream has come true. Would be joining IIT Kanpur this session in July for MBA. Results had come out in April itself but then was too stuck up with the job to get any way ahead. Do not know what MBA holds for me though but I would try to do well there. Haven't tried to read anything about MBA but planning to use the office time to do some constructive build up to "Accounting for Management" subjects on en.wikibooks.org as this appears to be the only viable option available considering the strict internet options my organization has followed.

I also have carved out the travel plans. Would be going to delhi on 1st of July and from there to home, SWEET Home in Sunder Nagar (Himachal Pradesh) for a few days. The course starts on July 20th. Really looking forward to go there and really leave this ordinary job of being a software engineer and not really being able to contribute to the organization in a significant manner possible.

Probably more of the posts would now be Bussiness oriented. Although I would continue to pen down (or rather keyboard down) the thoughts that move me.........

Hoping to be regular soon........

Quota row

2008-04-11T04:59:00.002+05:30

Today finally I was broken. With the Supreme Court Upholding the OBC quota into higher education institutes like IITs, IIMs, AIMS (well it cannot get any prestigious than this), there is no where in this country to look to for justice, for equality.

We have tons of Cos in India claiming to be equal opportunity provider but can we supply them the talent they require.

United we fall, Divided we stand is the brand new mantra for India to go to.

Earlier I never casted my vote. But now Congress will have to pay for this. Why not we have reservations for poor people. In a poor country like us, education should be need based and not caste based.

With this judgement, how many poor people will benefit? Can even a single family below poverty line produce an IITian or a doc from AIMS or a management grad from IIMs with the help of this so called "Landmark" "Historic" judgement.

I always had faith in my country's judiciary but that is shattered to pieces now.

Every country, every society needs three basic pillars to run itself:

1. Legislature
2. Executive
3. Judiciary

1. Legislature: Legislature is mainly responsible for introduction and amendments to the law and order governing the country/society.
2. Executive: Executive layer is responsible for implementation of law and order elements.
3. Judiciary: Judiciary is responsible for overviewing and penalizing the defaulters.

In India, the first 2 layers were always politicians and we know the education level of our politicians. Even if we have a GOLD MEDALIST Prime Minister (who asks CEOs of organizations to take less salary :)) or outright criminals, they are all constitute our legislature and Executive pillars.

Only part remaining was judiciary and today our judiciary has just about shown that it does bend in front of power, I don't know about money though.

Arjun Singh, just for the sake of getting his Idol planted somewhere in some community has terribly divided our country with casteism to the core.

Probably the next part would be create separate states for separate castes and hence a peacefully divided India. We never know with the kind of politicians we have, anything is possible.

OK, so we've got sponsor for our MPs as well. Guess who?

ADIDAS: Impossible is nothing.

Reality check to the nuclear deal Continued

2008-03-19T23:31:00.002+05:30

In continuation to my previous post, I would definitely like to agree with Red Craig
for the issues he has highlighted in his comment to the previous piece I had written.
Previous post

He's absolutely spot on with pointing out that the nuclear energy is one of the most efficient when it comes to green house gas emissions and hence that point is absolutely regretted on my part. But the counter issue here is that the nuclear power industry lacks the support and capacity to undertake a massive construction programme which can have a telling effect on the global warming issue. In fact, after being in a decline for a quarter century, the industry relies on a few international manufacturers. At lease nine reactor components, including giant pressure vessels and steam generators are made in only one facility owned by Japan steel works. A recent U.S.-based Keystone Center report pointed to a six-year lead time for some parts.
To control one-seventh of the global greenhouse gas problem, according to the calculations by Priceton University Profss Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala, the world will need to triple its installed nuclear power capacity by building more than 1300 reactors and the share of U.S. alone would be building 5 power reactors a year for 50 years. Seeing the U.S. economy and one of worst sub prime crisis that has gripped over the U.S. banking and financial system, the investment in nuclear power to that accord doesn't seem to be coming in the near term.

I absolutely agree with Red Craig on the subject of state subsidy as well. But I meant to use the subject considering our own country (India)'s prespective of being generous when it comes to subsidies. I don't even have a vague idea of how people percieve state subsidies in other countries though the matter should have been the same throughout, which according to Red Craig is not to be.

Thank you very much Red Craig for pointing out the mistakes. By the way his blog is as impressive as his knowlege. Red Craig's blog

Another thanks for expecting that Indians will make intelligent choices into the matter. Unfortunately mate, this is the only point where your knowledge goes wrong. Our polity is in such a shabby state, I am sure that 80% or our legislature and executives (read our respected politicians who run our country but do not even know how to find their ass with two hands)do not even know what the nuclear deal is all about. But still half of them are up in arms as if they are really concerned about our country.

Reality check to the nuclear deal

2008-03-17T23:14:00.000+05:30

We’ve seen so much of hoopla created around the nuclear deal, be it left, be it BJP or be it the ruling UPA who’s pressing hard to get the deal done before the country hits the general elections button.

A reality check would reveal all the cons of the deal, which probably would not ink much of betterment to India’s cause but it does help in an energy starved country such as ours.

I would like to put forth a few points which do not usually demean the sense of producing power from the nuclear reactors but in general sense as to what it would mean to the world and in particular to us, India and its citizens.

The first thing that our country needs is a mixture of energy resources as it would most definitely benefit us from hedging against commercially unforeseen risks. As we stand today, 2.5 percent of our electricity demands are met by nuclear processes. We certainly need to increase on that to hedge on our coal dependency. But here comes the catch. The generation of power from imported enriched uranium won’t make much of a commercial sense as it would be too costly on the tax payers and would need generosity of the state to be consumer friendly on the paying front.
Just as we are one of the word’s top imports in Arms and Ammunition, and our research and development in the same being defunct, the same is going to happen in the power space. Now just like when we could have invested in our own resources to build a world class base of Arms and ammunition center for our defense capabilities, but we chose otherwise, we are in the process of repeating a similar mistake with power sector. Whether we have enough resources and commitment in our country for the generation of power is a separately debatable topic, at least we can try to invest in our own energy resources.
Also, the share of nuclear power in worldwide electricity supply is stagnant at about 16% for the past 20-22 years. This issue is still not bothering us at all. It might just not be economically viable to produce electricity via nuclear processes. It is agreed that every power generating source needs state subsidy in one way or the other, nuclear reactors are coupled with a lot of overhead and maintenance issues like accident covers, radioactive waste storage, terrorist and international safeguards.
Nuclear power generation has seen the least technological advancements in the past years as compared to its peers. So, if technological advancements are unlikely to come by in this power generating source, the costs are likely to remain stagnant or rather will be increasing.
While electricity generation might be clean, the nuclear fuel cycle is carbon intensive and as such, emits a lot of green house gases and hence is a danger to the already much hyped global warming, besides its radioactive wastes being a threat to the environment.

All said though, India is still in an advantageous position with nuclear power being a substitute or second fiddle to our normal power generating resources as they have never been able to cope up with the heave demand our country has posted ever since we became independent.

But however, a lot of dependency on Australia for the import of enriched Uranium might lead us to be dependent the way we are dependent on Crude oil prices and crude prices impact our petrol prices and hence inflation, which costs dearly to a common middle class man.

What is better? You decide…..

Source of inspiration for this article: Brahma Chellaney, Editorial, The Hindu

Starting of Alumni Chapter at Bangalore

2008-02-29T00:25:00.002+05:30

FYI...................Food for thought for all NITH friends............

Guys and Gurlz, Let us start an alumini chapter of our college in Bangalore. I had a brief talk with our Lalit Sir and he has taken up regarding this. If we are ready to form the chapter, Lalit sir was also open to come/send some representative for the inauguration. So, small steps at a time:

1. Willingness to participate in the chapter – I need yes/no by This Friday (29th Feb)

2. Based on (1), have a debate on the scope and activities of the chapter (7th Mar)

3. Have a baseline draft and sync up with the college alumini association on the scope and planned activities (14th Mar)

4. Plan for an inauguration meeting in end Mar/mid Apr

What is it you need to do:

1. Let me know if you want to be a part of this or not by 29th Feb.

2. Have some thoughts on what we want to achieve through this forum

Regards,Mallik Mallikarjuna Rao V.V.Ch.

Lead Engineer
Texas Instruments

Hello Mallik, I am out of station currently and will not be able to join physically.

But nonetheless, I would like to put some suggestions for the activities of alumni association.

1. Career counseling by having direct e-mail contact with the students ( similar to what Abhyuthaan is doing, or tried to do )

2. Career assistance by giving timely information about freshers' recruitment in companies at Bangalore, influence management of own companies to go to NITH for campus recruitment.

3. Enhance industry-institute interaction by giving seminars and trainings to the students and faculty, thereby enhancing the employability of the students in the industry. Enhance awareness about current industry needs, especially in the cross functional domains. The chapter can have a target of organizing a number of seminars/trainings per year.

Many of such activities can be done sitting at the comfort of own office or home.

Best regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Anupam Gupta
Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd.
RBIN/EDT3 Tel. +49 711 811-23651

New ICC Rules | OZ cricket

2008-01-13T11:42:00.000+05:30

I beleive the following peice of is the most emailed chain of the country in this year. And if Ponting and Co. continue to behave the way they are, this might continue till the OZs visit our country and some sort of tit for tat happens here. Also, I beleive Cricket Australia is better off paying money to their players rather than UMPIRES for winning matches.

After watching the test match, I feel some rules have to be incorporated by ICC to give the other teams a perfect clarification

(1) Ricky Ponting – (THE TRULY GENUINE CRICKETER OF THE CRICKET ERA AND WHOSE INTEGRITY SHOULD NOT BE DOUBTED ) should be considered as the FOURTH UMPIRE. As per the new rules, FOURTH UMPIRE decision is final and will over ride any decisions taken by any other umpires. ON-FIELD umpires can seek the assistance of RICKY PONTING even if he is not on the field. This rule is to be made, so that every team should understand the importance of the FOURTH UMPIRE.

(2) While AUSTRALIAN TEAM is bowling, If the ball flies anywhere close to the AUSTRALIAN FIELDER(WITHIN 5 metre distance), the batsman is to be considered OUT irrelevant of whether the catch was taken cleanly or grassed. Any decision for further clarification should be seeked from the FOURTH UMPIRE. This is made to ensure that the cricket is played with SPORTIVE SPIRIT by all the teams.

(3) While BATTING, AUSTRALIAN players will wait for the ON-FIELD UMPIRE decisions only (even if the catch goes to the FIFTH SLIP as the ball might not have touched the bat). Each AUSTRALIAN batsman has to be out FOUR TIMES (minimum) before he can return to the pavilion. In case of THE CRICKETER WITH INTEGRITY, this can be higher.

(4) UMPIRES should consider a huge bonus if an AUSTRALIAN player scores a century. Any wrong decisions can be ignored as they will be paid huge bonus and will receive the backing of the AUSTRALIAN team and board.

(5) All AUSTRALIAN players are eligible to keep commenting about all players on the field and the OPPONENT TEAM should never comment as they will be spoiling the spirit of the AUSTRALIAN team. Any comments made in any other language are to be considered as RACIALISM only.

(6) MATCH REFREE decisions will be taken purely on the AUSTRALIAN TEAM advices only. Player views from the other teams decisions will not be considered for hearing. MATCH REFREES are to be given huge bonus if this rule is implemented.

(7) NO VISITING TEAM should plan to win in AUSTRALIA. This is to ensure that the sportive spirit of CRICKET is maintained.

(8) THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: If any bowler gets RICKY PONTING - "THE UNDISPUTED CRICKETER WITH INTEGTIRY IN THE GAME OF CRICKET" more than twice in a series, he will be banned for the REST OF THE SERIES. This is to ensure that the best batsman/Captain will be played to break records and create history in the game of CRICKET.

These rules will clarify better to the all teams VISITING AUSTRALIA.

Customer review | Nokia Customer Care

2007-10-28T12:48:00.000+05:30

If you are planning to buy a new Nokia mobile, think twice, for if the mobile doesn't work fine, there might be no help available at hand.

Such is the plight of Nokia Customer Care Center (at least here in Bangalore), if you go to the Nokia Customer center (Koramangala one), you'll have to stay at least for 3-4 hours before somebody attends to you. And that too, if you are lucky enough to know the registration procedure, because except for the grieved customers, there's no body to tell you the registration procedure even if you keep asking the people who seem to be in charge of the operations there.

It seemed too odd for a Co. like Nokia (I've had at least 7-8 different models of Nokia phones and have never ever tried any other brand) to have their customer care in such a pathetic shape. When you enter inside, you'll get the feeling of a Railway station and people waiting for their train to arrive for eternity (and the delay shows on the faces of disgruntled customers). There is probably no place on earth which is perfect, but it's all about the damage control that matters. You might have pushed wrong things into production, but it's the responsiveness with which you roll it back and push correct things is what matters.

But not the case in India though, it's all about sales and nothing about after sales. No doubt wherever you are in India, I believe it would not take you more than a few minutes to purchase a brand new Nokia Phone because they seem to be everywhere. But if it takes you 3-4 hours of sitting in Nokia customer care center just to register your complaint you'd definitely feel duped for the premium they charge on their phones. This is what I label as cheating the customer. First you sell him a thing that's not working fine, then you take a hell of a time (remember time is money again) to register his complaint. It can't get any worse than this.

Assume you've bought a brand new Nokia phone and it developed some issue. You go to Customer care center and wait for about 3 hours to register a complaint and they do not decide to fix it citing blah blah reasons, what will happen to you? Won't you feel cheated? Well in my case I waited for 2 hours and when the wait didn't seem to get over, I got up and left the place. In those 2 hours that I wasted over there, I realized that it's just not Indian corporates who take service to the customer lethargically but even the foreign corporates (that too trusted ones like Nokia) take their customers for a ride. Thank god last time my phone developed a problem I didn't go to them and am still living with it. I think time's here again to live with another problem that my phone developed. Time has also come for me to switch my loyalities as well.

I do not know whether this one relates to Bangalore, India or perhaps all the places where Nokia (the giant mobile manufacturing firm) has its operations.

Movie Review | Bhul Bhullaiyya

2007-10-13T00:13:00.000+05:30

Do Not dare and watch this movie. Bhul Bhullaiya turned out to be a total loss of money and wastage of time.
It's high time Priyadarshan realizes that his Mallu theory just doesn't work in Bollywood, and in this flick, he's proven himself to be a talent killer.

Rajpal Yadav is wasted in the scattered 4 or 5 scenes that he got in the movie. Paresh Rawal is just in his usual sense, but the timings of his jokes are some what incorrect.

Another big fraud, there's no Akshay Kumar in the first 45-60 minutes of the movie.

Shiney Ahuja displays that the guy has got a lot of acting skills.

All in all, this is a real bad movie, the climax is as idiotic as it can be, the comedy for the most part is not amusing and the movie is real bad torture.

If you've booked the tickets already for watching it over the weekend, I suggest you'd be better off selling it to some one, well even if at half the price.

If you've not booked it, lucky you. Don't ever dare to go to a theater near you.

My one and a half year old baby.......... still going FULL ON.........

2007-08-03T07:38:00.000+05:30

BSNL Broad band | Naaaaaaaaah..........

2007-07-21T23:43:00.000+05:30

I took BSNL broad band seeing their advertisements all over the place and thinking that since they give 2 Mbps speed, the customers must be on a roller coaster ride, getting such broad band speeds at the cheapest possible rates.
So, for a single user, I will tell you the exact scenario:

1. Fixed line charges : 180 Rupees/Month
2. For 250 plan: 250/Month for 1GB and additional .9 Re/MB. @256 Kbps
3. For 500 plan: 500/Month for 2.5GB and additional .8 Re/MB @256 Kbps
4. For 900 Plan: 900/Month unlimited broadband @128 Kbps.

Add to that 500 rupees of installation charges (one time) coupled with refundable telephone security of 1000 rupees (one time) added with 500 rupees security for broad band (one time). OK and if you want to have STD on your phone (coz your default plan would be One India plan, i.e., STD for Re 1) 1 grand more as security.

Add to it another 60 rupees /month as modem charges, else you can purchase them from BSNL @ 1200 rupees.

So, if a user takes plan 3, i.e., 500 plan, charges would be (assuming he takes the modem on rental and has given all the infinitely never ending securities) 500 (for broadband, againg assuming he doesn't cross the download limit of 2.5 GB) + 180 (assuming the barrier of 50 free calls is not breached) + 60 (modem charges) = 720. Add to it 12.36 % surcharge, it would come out to 800 rupees.Please do not forget that the BSNL customer service does not exist.

Now, airtel has 500 rupees as installation charges, 500 rupees as refundable security, and 700 plan is unlimited broadband at 128 KBps, so the monthly bill comes to around 785 rupees for unlimited broad band.

Which one is better, you decide........

My ordeal with BSNL was full of thorns as well. The landline phone was installed at the very instant i gave 500 rupees as installation charges saying the broadband services can be enabled only after 10 days from the installation of the landline. Those 500 rupees were given in cash to the person carrying the equipment. He said BSNL doesn't accept cheques. OK, now, for broad band services, I didn't require their modem, as I had my own router, to this he said, we can supply the userid/password but cannot configure the modem. Knowing BSNL doesn't give static IPs, I knew configuring the modem would never be a difficult task, but here came the trouble.

Instead of the original 10 days, he (read: the exchange guy) gave me the userid/password in 20 days, the same day the WAN link was down. After 2 days, he said the WAN link would be up :), and it was. But the authentication problem is still devoiding me of the internet connection, and my bill for the first month has a security note of 1000 rupees and installation charges of 500 rupees. I called him up again, to this he said, you give me 1000 rupees, i will pay the whole bill on your behalf. Great...........

Now, i tried calling their customer care number. BSNL has categorically mentioned on their website that the customer care works from 8 AM to 8 PM Mondays thru Saturdays. But if call them at 8 AM, chances are that you might not get any body at the other end to pick up the call till 8 PM. The number is 1800-424-1600.

So, I called up 1500 to complain, she said call 1800-424-1600 and banged the phone. What the hell????????? Banged the phone on the customer. That's what BSNL is all about. At one end, they would be having Preity Zinta to endorse their products and on the hand the customer service doesn't exist in their dictionary. So I have decided not to pay (why to pay security when i will get it anyway after getting the phone disconnected) the bill, instead get the connection removed, and opt for Airtel instead. I've already burnt 500 bucks in BSNL, and i don't want to burn any more amount of money. I am once the phone goes out of order, there would be nobody to come to the rescue.

And from now, my answer to BSNL Broad Band would be Naaaaah............ For continuous access to internet, at least stay away from BSNL.

Thank you Google I am loving it

2007-05-16T19:55:00.000+05:30

Participated in the Google Cricket Blog Contest. Didn't win, the blame has to partially go to India's dismal performance at the cup, which made me loose all the interest in the tournament.

Anyway, Google still made me feel the winner with asking for the address and sending a cool surprise gift -> a Cricket DVD of 1983 World Cup Winning Moments of Indian Cricket Team. Feeling really great. It's a great DVD, consists of Semi Final of India Vs England and Final India Vs West Indies, with match analysis from Kris Srikanth and interview with Kapil Dev Nikhanj, a man who led India to such heights of which our cricketers are reaping rich dividends.
Though India might not have won something, but Google has definitely made me feel a winner.
And although these words are stolen from McDs, but "I'm Loving It"

World Cricket's Biggest upset

2007-05-11T08:27:00.000+05:30

World cricket's biggest upset:

Chittagong Stadium, Bangladesh, 10th May 2007:

Minnows India, in what is being touted as the World Cricket's Biggest upset in the history of Limited Overs International Games, has defeated Bangladesh by 5 wickets and thus have taken revenge for the defeat handed over to them by the hands of the then minnows Bangladesh in World Cup 2007 held in West Indies.
Captain Rahul Dravid was in full support of the players, saying it was Virender Sehwag's gutsy display of shots to score 30 that helped the team to chase the target of 251 set by Bangladesh. He said that it's a very emotional moment for the team as well as the country and asked the viewers and fans back home to stay calm and not come out on the streets in support of the team and waste their time.

Bangladesh team looked a bit complascent and looked like they had taken India for granted, but men in blue(s) came from behind to put a great display of batting and fielding and bowling to restrict Bangladesh to 250/7 and then went ahead to win the match.

Man of the Match M.S. Dhoni has said that he is ready to do any advertisement endorsements in Bangladesh as well, and insider sources said that he's been contacted by a few of the local manufacturers for his great acting skills on screen.

Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthick, who also played a major role in this victory by scoring a 50 has said that he should get his due share for playing so well, but not in the games he play, but for advertisement sponsorships.

Manager and Temporary coach Ravi Shastri said, "It was a great effort on part of the boys to show strength and character despite being down and out for a major part of the match. If India has to win 2100 World Cup, the young guns need to fire and that was what exactly happened in this match." He went ahead and said "Dhoni, Karthick and Dinesh Mongia have great cricket/acting careers ahead of them and onus is on Karthick to learn Hindi (since he is from Tamil Nadu) and march on the path of success not only in Indian ad space but in Bollywood as well".

In the heat of emotions, Sharad Pawar mistakenly quoted Dinesh Mongia as a youngster, forgetting the fact that he might be a youngster with his experience of playing international cricket, but he's old enough to be in line for the consideration of next coach of team India.

By our own Correspondent Robin Uthappa, from Bangladesh.

Alumni Meet of NIT (REC) Hamirpur

2007-04-26T19:46:00.000+05:30

Friends, an email from Anoop Sir (hope every body remembers him) to one of our seniors. Time to dedicate something for the Alma matter.

Dear Alumni

We appreciate the enthusiasm and response to the Alumni Meet being organized on 26-27 May 2007. We have received many communications from the Alumni indicating their inclination to attend the Meet. However, for smooth conduct it is desirable that the Alumni now send their confirmation regarding participation in the Alumni Meet 2007. We request the Alumni to send their confirmation with following informations:

Name:
Year of Graduation:
Branch:
Number of Family members attending the Meet:
Travel Plan (The mode of journey, date and time of arrival)
E-mail ID
Telephone numbers

The confirmation of participation or any queries may be sent to following addresses:

Dr. Anoop Kumar (Dean of Students & Alumni)
jas.anoop@gmail.com, anoop@nitham.ac.in
91-1972-254726, 254727(R), 91 94180 09467

Dr. Pardeep Kumar (President Alumni Association)
pkumar@nitham.ac.in, pkumar256@yahoo.co.in
91-1972-254332, 254333(R), 91 94181 31826

Travel Suggestions
You can reach Hamirpur by direct bus service, or by train up to Una. You can also travel up to Kangra by Air Deccan that has started daily air service from Delhi.

Stay Arrangments
To rekindle the memories of your student days, stay is being arranged in the Hostels. Presently, we have 5 boys hostel and one Girls Hostel.

Bid adieu to Brian Charles Lara!!!!!

2007-04-20T07:35:00.000+05:30

An era is over. The champion has called it quits.
How does it feel like seeing a champion walk off the field, knowing he would never be seen playing live in a ground, which has seen it all, which has seen records being broken, bowler’s lives being shattered, which has seen the fortunes of one man changing the face of the game, which has seen ball bowing in front of the bat.
This is simply not a fitting farewell for a champion like Brian Charles Lara. A person who has a highest test score of 400, a first class score of greater than 500 and a legacy of cricketing shots will be left behind him.
He has been a great server for cricket. He is a great player. Now, after Lara, reign of a tottering empire is up for grabs, and whosoever grabs it, will have to rework the Lara strategies, but that’s a different story altogether.
Year 2007 has been generally very strict on the players. With Justin Langer, Damien Martyn (he actually took retirement in Dec. 2006), Shane Warne(whose flippers were referred to as KING COBRA), Glenn McGrath, not to forget Inzy, now Lara, and with the growing demand, who knows when Tendulkar will be out of the race as well, declaring their retirement, World Cricket will be pretty less worth the salt it has been till now.
These all have been great performers and match winners for their teams, but Lara clearly stands apart. No bowler, who has ever played against him, has been spared of his cricket antics. Not every day you get to see a champion like him bat. On Saturday, April 21 2007, he will appear for one final time in a limited overs version of the game.
Be there to bid farewell to one of the greatest players in the Cricketing history.

So, what is the difference between a character pointer and a character array?

2007-04-16T08:18:00.000+05:30

So, what is the difference between a character pointer and a character array?
Or, let me put it across in simpler terms,
What is the difference between char a [] = “abcdef” and char *b = “abcdef”?
Knowing very well that arrays are NULL terminated, size is certainly not a difference, neither is the fact that both a and b store the address of the first element in the array, or in other words, are the pointers to the first element in the array.
There are 2 subtle differences however which are rarely noticeable:
1. There cannot be any reassignment in case of character arrays but the same work with character pointers.
Eg.
char a[] = “abcdef”;
char * b = “abcdef”;
char c[];
char *d;
c = a; //This is not possible, error
d = b; //Perfectly legal.
2. Knowing that both a and b are pointers to the first element in the array, in other words, a and b store the address of the first element in the arrays, while b is a true pointer, a is not.
I.e., while b can be redirected, a cannot be redirected.
Eg.
char a[] = “Hello”;
char *b = “Hello;
b = “Idiot”; //Correct
a = “Something”; //incorrect
Other wise, character arrays and character pointers are interchangeable and are equal in terms of array size and available array operations.
However, to avoid potential modifications later in the code, character array is better suited than character pointer for use.

Now you can blog in Hindi

2007-04-15T13:16:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered if you could write, “Kya haal chaal hain?” and it would get converted into devanagari script, and posted on your page?
Well google has done just that. Google’s imagination is just churning out cool products and gadgets literally every day, and all of them pack a surprise punch in them. Have a look at this piece of news on the official google blog:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/now-you-can-blog-in-hindi.html

A south Indian's tribute to people of himachal pradesh

2007-04-09T21:03:00.000+05:30

Here's a tribute to the People of Himachal Pradesh from a person belonging to Tamil Nadu. The guy was going to take admission in REC Hamirpur, and this depicts his feelings en route.

http://sarojthakur.wordpress.com/2007/02/22/a-south-indian%e2%80%99s-tribute-to-the-people-of-himachal/

BCCI’s decisions. Are they really helpful?

2007-04-08T15:36:00.000+05:30

Well first of all, all the decisions taken by the BCCI are very bossy in nature and really goes to show, that they can even control the private lives of the players.
The only thing we want is performance from the players and their list of advertisements can grow to any amount of levels, which is not an issue with us. However, BCCI has proved that from now on, it intends to groom cricketers out of cricketers and not model out of cricketers, which at least one they have in the squad named Mahendar Singh Dhoni.
The only good decision they have taken is the reduction of match fee of a player and declarations of bonuses for victories and for series, and scrapping of contracts which used to feed money even in the event of non performing of a player.
By the way, I’ve already stopped purchasing Sunfeast kit fit biscuits (endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar) well I won’t even feed these biscuits to my dogs, 7 up (endorsed by Dhoni), Mysore sandal soap (Dhoni), no insurance policies from Max New york life insurance (Dravid), no petrol from IOCL petrol pumps (Pathan), I already have a hero Honda, otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken one (courtesy Yuvraj singh and Virender Sehwag).
Ravi Shastri, Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh given the responsibilities of the team is a great decision though.

Notice from Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh are not going to yield a single positive sign. At best, they’ll be barred for 2 matches.

Bangladesh stun Proteas

2007-04-08T15:29:00.000+05:30

Watching yesterday’s match was not so much of a delight. I’ve seen West Indies batting falling like 9 pins, Pakistan are Indians are no mugs to such pathetic and disastrous performances, but South African batting performance, the way it started with A.B. De Viliers batting to slowly must have raised a lot of cricketing eye brows for the simple fact that we are just not accustomed to a South African Side batting like this.
But Bangladeshis must be congratulated on the way Md. Ashraful batted (he is a real genius), and the way spinners bowled in tandem to destroy the South African batting, and this throws up a lot of permutations and combinations for the World Cup. Think if England would have beaten Sri Lanka, the tournament would have been like Gateway of India.

But here’s a good thing that we can say. If India would have progressed to Super 8s, in all probability we would have lost to all the teams in Super 8s except Ireland (that could also have been tight). At least Bangladesh was able to stun a big fish.

Here’s a thing or 2 now for the cricketing fraternity to do. I think, teams like Bangladesh and Kenya (2003 semifinalists) need more exposure of International Cricket, than they usually get. A handful few cricketers from these budding nations must be picked up and trained at some of the best designated Cricket Academies in the World (these academies can be ranked and designated by ICC), say if Ashraful, Rafiq and likes of Tamim Iqbal (age 17) can get some training in Australian Cricket academy or other academies around the World, it can go a long way in strengthening the crickets of these nations, and can definitely help expanding the cricket fraternity from a mere few to the Whole World.

By the way, India’s chances of the Bangladesh tour are also looking gloomy with Banladeshis putting up such brave performances against other teams.
Dravid might very well have to search for other ideas (to throw excuses to the press about why we lost). Well one very common excuse that Dravid throws is “Well, I mean to say, we didn’t play good cricket. I mean to say, we should have played better cricket”.
Will he ever tell us, when will we start playing better cricket?

Sri Lanka's Super 8 victory against West Indies

2007-04-02T07:44:00.000+05:30

Seeing/Watching Sri Lanka thrashing West Indies by 113 runs confirm one thing. That is, Windies are out of the race now, even if they win all their 3 remaining matches, I don’t give them even an outright chance to make it through to the Semi Finals.

Sanath Jayasuriya has once again shown his potential and it’s so easy to guess why he’s one of the most dangerous batters in World Cricket.

As for Mahela Jayawardena, he’s also peaking just at the right time. In fact, Lanka is just peaking at the right time as a team, Malinga is showing the stuff he’s made of, there was never ever a question on Vass and Murali, Jayasuriya and Jayawardena are back amongst runs. It won’t be far when Tharanga and Sangakarra get into the act. Chamara Silva was the main destructor in the match against India (how much my heart pains when I remember that match which sent us cracking out). All in all, they are one of the favourites to win the cup.
Here is my list of semi finalists:
1. Australia
2. Sri Lanka
3. New Zealand
4. South Africa

Is yours any different??????

Google's Prank on April Fool's Day

2007-04-01T21:01:00.000+05:30

Google just won’t let anything go by without letting people noticing it, and sometimes, it just continues to fool around.
Today is 1st April and you can see such stories around, whenever you open www.google.com or www.gmail.com
Well the latest one is http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html

Can you believe it? A company spending money itself, giving costly services to the customers for free, screwing up environment for the same?
Or does Google believe it can fool people around by coming out with press announcements on 1st of April this year.

By the way, 2nd one is most hilarious. http://www.google.com/tisp/
If somebody believes this breakthrough technology of Google to give interned via commode, think of where people will go for morning ablutions. Imagine people using broadband this way and offices also going the same way. Is it even possible some day? Who Knows? Not now at least. And by the way, who will be the Google engineer waiting for the cables to come via the flush route to connect the jack to the Google internet center for connecting to internet.
Well even if they pay me millions, I won’t be the one to do the job.

I always knew Google had the smartest engineers around, but certainly not the smartest foolers around. Especially after their last year prank about sending engineers to Moon for software development, I don’t think there will be lot many who would get fooled this time.

If somebody believes it's true, please mailto: jagganitin@gmail.com

Can we really blame Greg Chappel for our World Cup Debacle

2007-03-28T09:42:00.000+05:30

Can we really blame Greg Chappel for whatever happened?

No is the answer. I mean when all the dust settles on the matter of India’s performance in the World Cup, is it really correct to blame Greg Chappel for all the losses. I think he has just been made a scape goat because of a few reasons listed here:
1. He was blamed for getting Sourav Ganguly out of the team, who was the most successful captain India had ever had, and people were never able to digest that he wasn’t playing upto the level that an Indian player is supposed to.
2. He was blamed for experimenting a little too much for the loosing streak that followed after our dismal WIndies tour last year. I still ask the same old question. Can a coach go out there with Bat and Ball in his hand and play out the stuff for his team? Does a player like Tendulkar really need a coach to motivate him to win matches for his country?
3. He’s a foreign coach and he’s far more transparent in his dealings than any other coach we’ve ever witnessed. And this transparency is one of the primary reasons for his downfall.
Probably in 2 years of his reign at sub continent failed to teach him that the matters in Cricket are affected a lot by politics and are best when not discussed openly/disclosed.

That’s why John Wright (I respect the man for what he’s done for Indian Cricket) came out in Open only in his book, that too after his stint with our team was over.
I am not saying here that Greg Chappel should continue or should be sacked (statistics reveal he shouldn’t continue though), but the primary reason for India’s failure has to be Dravid. Rahul Dravid failed miserably to lead the team from the front and he never had the capability to prove himself as a captain of the team.
It’s almost the same team that Ganguly led to the finals of the World Cup in 2003, and the same team has failed miserably. After Mohd. Azharuddin, he’s the Worst ever captain witnessed by me in my whole past 15 years of following Indian Cricket to the core (mind you, I was just 9 when I started following cricket, and that’s the average age of an Indian when he starts to follow cricket).

The issues to resolve here is how do we get the team to perform better.
A bit of thought reveal the following solutions:
1. Tournament based fees (not based on performance of 1 match, but based on performance in the tournament), average levels and goals to be set by the Board, with or without taking players into confindence, and pay out depending on the performance and achievement of goals by the players, with lowest amount as low as zero for the Worst Performance.
2. Introducing yearly awards for cricketers playing for the country. Both categories included, Best and the Worst. I mean Best Bowler, Worst Fielder and so.
3. Get more of youngsters in the team, and get at least Sachin tendulkar out of the team.
4. Changing of captain is but of course a formality.
5. No coach is required for a team who is gonna fail other wise.
6. Permanency of the players to be removed. It’s not a government job after all. Perform or Perish should be the Mantra fed to them.

Hope people would agree on a few.
Your thoughts??

India's tragic loss to Sri Lanka & their world cup exit

2007-03-25T14:58:00.000+05:30

Ok, this was high time i came out of the Mental Trauma of the defeat against the Lankans, and the heart breaking fact that we are out of the World Cup 2007.

The World Cup which was the primary reason for appointment of a Coach (Greg Chappel), coz it was touted that he would be the one who would script the path to victory. But that script has gone awfully wrong.

I do not believe and still hold the fact that players like Sachin Tendulkar (Ailaa) and Rahul Dravid do not need a Coach, and a foreign coach can not change our fortunes. All they need is retirement so we can give young guns a chance who can build the future team. Do not dare to look at World Cup 2011, we are simply not ready to comment anything that is so far, and we cannot divert people's hopes to an event that is 4 years from now, and continue the cyclicity that we have always followed since 1987, we'll win the next cup.
I believe no coach is required, Sourav Ganguly should be reappointed at the helm of affairs again, and Tendulkar should retire. I have been thinking of his retirement since 2003 World Cup, but this guy is becoming relentless and untiring. So many defeats, so many failures, but he continues. He's lost all his respect. It's a fall from Grace for him. Last time around when he was made the captain he refused. Now he won't. Because he doesn't have any other role to play for the team.

By the way, a team that fails to put up 250 on the board against Bangladesh, and fails to chase 250 against Sri Lanka, doesn't deserve to be even there in the World Cup, leave aside winning it.
If we can't chase 250 against Lanka, what do we expect to chase against Australia, 150???
Will they set a target of 150 against us, and tell us, "Mate, go ahead win the Cup".

I always knew we were never going to win the Cup.
Here's my earlier link, which i wrote at the time of selection of team for the event, and how brutally it has come true.

http://jagganitin.blogspot.com/2007/02/world-cup-team-announced.html

Your Thougts???

India strikes back

2007-03-19T23:15:00.000+05:30

We can recover from a shock but cannot certainly avoid it.
If we would have batted even half the way we batted against Ireland, in the match against Bangladesh, we would have definitely won that match.
We believe in Permutations and Combinations and mathematics and NRR to support us primarily because we invented ZERO (I presume this reason for the love of our cricket team for mathematics in tournaments).
By the way, when will we get the chance of improving our fielding and catches. Or probably, our coach Greg Chappel was so busy in politics, getting his favourites at their favourite positions, that in the past 2 years since he has been the coach, he never got to realize that fielding and catching is one areas, this team of Maharajas need to improve upon. In the last match, our very own Captain led by example, dropping one easy chance, and our Wicket Keeper too didn't help the cause of last moment fight by Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel by dropping a sitter.

The man they call Robert Andrew Woolmer

2007-03-19T23:01:00.000+05:30

It cannot get any worse than this.
The great man didn't deserve this. Bob Woolmer has given so much to cricket. Every body in the cricket fraternity was so jealous of South African Cricket team, not because they had the most talented fielder in the World, not because they have one of the best Captains in World Cricket, not because they had one the best fast bowler, not because they had one of the best all rounders in World Cricket, but because they had Bob Woolmer as their coach.
It is never an easy going for any cricket coach to be coaching the sub continent sides, but a game is a game, and I hope the old man knew that.
Bob Woolmer really deserved a great farewell. It's just not fair enough for him to die like that. He should have stayed on. How much everybody would have loved to get a hands on on his book "DISCOVERIES OF CRICKET".
Bob Woolmer has given so much World Cricket, the whole cricket fraternity and all of the Cricket fans really owe so much to him. He has been a great man and his unique methods of coaching are always visible on the field by the way of his players demonstrating victories on victories.
And he's always been very professional in his approach to the game, especially in the way he took and performed his duties as the coach of always dogged by controversies team of Pakistan. He never held any regrets for Shoaib Akhtar openly, always praised the players, and supported Pakistan even in the unsportly event of Inzy refusing to take the field in that Oval Ball Tampering Fiasco.
He gave his whole life to the game, and the game took his life away.
It's just not fair. It was just a game, it shouldn't start having an impact on the lives of players and coach to such an extent.
I am feeling bad and such events are only going to bring a bad repute to the not so genteman's game now.
Your thoughts............

Pakistan Cricket | Sad state of affairs

2007-03-18T12:11:00.000+05:30

Well this a not a post of a right wing hindu extremist, neither i want to spread any communal tensions accross the communities living in India, but sadly, Pakistan Cricket is far worse than us.
What is a world cup without an India Pakistan match. Nothing.
That's why the cup is already over.
I am sure we are not going to win the World Cup. The only thing I was on the look out for was the Battle between India and Pakistan, and with Pakistan team returning back after a sorry loss to Ireland, the World cup for an average Indian fan is over.
For an over optimistic fan, it's still on, as he'd say that India can win the rest of their matches and can win the cup.
But if you see deep down, it's impossible to face the mighty Aussies, Africans, Kiwis, English, West Indians, we should better loose to Lanka, and come back home and avoid the insult of loosing all the matches in Super 8.
I am really disappointed for Pakistan, as it clearly appears that the team is being dogged by Non Cricketing reasons. I have always been a fan of Pakistani Cricket and the talent that they have produced and the kind of players they have shown to World Cricket.
I am really sorry for the way they've exited the World Cup and I hope the great old/lazy Inzi doesn't receive all the firing when he reaches back.

For a change I won't critisize India for losing against Bangladesh

2007-03-18T11:15:00.000+05:30

Well for a change, I am not going to critisize/condemn Indian cricket team for losing the match against Bangladesh.
But however, the yesterday's match did prove another force in the reckoning, another strong team in the making, which can also enforce it's way to the top.
Look at their opener Iqbal, smacked Zaheer Khan all over the park like he was a left arm off spinner bowling loose half voleys. The guy is just 17 and the kid should be in school rather.
And in comparison, we have Sachin Tendulkar who has 18 years of International Cricket experience and he fails in every match.
Look at the difference and you'll realize that one of the strongest contenders of the cup are just on the verge of getting out of the competition. I was really disappointed and heart broken when we lost the match, but then I am very happy for Bangladesh. The way they represented cricket must be a lesson for India. Forget about the World Cup, Bangladesh other wise would be difficult to beat any day.
If Bangladesh can keep up the promise shown, I am sure we can look forward to very tough competitions within Asia. With the likes of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and of course Pakistan, this proves to be the toughest continent in the World for Intra Continent and Inter continent Competition.
And if Asia Cup resumes, I am sure we won't stand a little bit of a chance the way we take our Cricket. We live a little too much on Past Glories ("Virender Sehwag"), and we simply don't have any foundation for the future.
The same is the case with Pakistan, although in totally different manner. Where as in India, we are dogged with the Politics from within, Vengsarkar making Tendulkar Vice-Captain, Strong Maharashtra presence just doesn't exclude Tendulkar from the books, Dravid doesn't let Sehwag and Pathan go, Chappel is on top of every thing, and that is happening only because BCCI is an autonomous body.
In Pakistan, they are marred by politics from every where. We all know what a devastating team Pakistan is, but then there are too many issues besides Cricket that they have to tackle. Be it Shoaib Akhtar and Mohd. Asif drug issue, be it Shoaib Akhtar and Bob Woolmer fighting issue, be it the press statements of Shoaib Akhtar, be it Wasim Akram/Imran Khan critisizing the team management, be it speaking to media persons in Urdu, it's just a little too much beyond cricket.
I hope this can wither away, but with PCB controversies/lies/politics cannot be bogged down.
Another thing, Ponting must be laughingt at us and Sunny for the way we fared on the field yesterday. May be we can appoint Habibul Bashar as our coach once he retires.
I am sure he'll be far better than Greg Chappel.

PS: I am still regretting the 1971 war when we helped Bangladesh attain Independence from the clutches of Pakistan. Had it not been done, yesterday, Pakistan still would have lost against the IRISH team, but we would have been spared from the spat of Bangladesh.

Australia thrash Scotland in their World Cup opener

2007-03-15T09:00:00.000+05:30

It was time I was praying something happened to Australian cricketers, may be some kind of lightning strike them, or something, but it was a routine story.
They thrashed the minnows by 204 runs.
But Scotland bowled very well except for the last 2 over where they gave away 41 runs. They had just managed to restrict the Aussies to 300, which must be a bare minimum that you can expect to get when you chase against the Aussies.
With an inexperienced bowling side that they have right now, Glenn McGrath is the only trouble for the Indians. Also, since he has started coming 1st Change, our very own Ailaaa Sachin Tendulkar will be highly relieved as he'll be able to bat for at least 10 overs against the Aussies, which is great news for us. Because I've never seen him lasting for 10 overs or more against the australians whenever Glenn McGrath is playing.
Let's hope fortune favours tendulkar this time.
Anyways, going back to Scottish bowlers, I think they also exposed the batting of Aussies, if you can get the first 3 early, they will be in deeper trouble.
Also a hopeful Indian heart (mine) says that they've also lost a bit of sharpness in the field.
Let's hope Dravid and Co. take it as good news and are able to capitalize on such stuff.

Sunil Gavaskar Vs. Allan Border Viz a viz R.T. Ponting

2007-03-15T08:42:00.000+05:30

Ok, so now Border has also jumped into the war of words between Great OLD Sunny Gavaskar and the ever so proud and idiotic Ricky Ponting.
You can go on creating records in your field, but if you are not humble enough, it's never going to help you in the long run.
Allan border has said that there are different cultures at war in cricket and said only sub continent teams complain of "You lucky bastard" and other aussie comments like that.
What the hell? An average indian uses a lot of abusive words now-a-days. Shall we also go ahead and introduce those abusive words in cricket and go on saying you lucky m*********.
These aussies are way off target if we consider good cricket into consideration.

The 2nd thing of Border way off target was "WE PLAY CRICKET HARD AND FAIR".
Although i don't have a shadow of a doubt as to whether they play it hard or not. They definitely have lifted the game to very high levels, where other one day teams are still dreaming to reach.

But if any sports fan have ever seen any tournament in Australia (against Australia), you would realize the difference between fair play and unfair play.
They resort to all tactics they can to win the matches (especially test matches).
I still remember the one in which Justin Langer smacked a triple ton against us. We had to get him out (clear, loud and plumb) around 6 times.
The 3rd test at SCG when we were 1 -0 up in the series, in 1 test match we had to get Ricky Ponting out at least 7-8 times, for the umpire to be convinced that he deserves to go back to the pavillion. Such decisions against a side as good as Australia costs Test Matches, and Morale, and thus they are able to win series comfortably at home.
If you are a great fan of Indian Cricket you can remember that in the same series, once Tendulkar was given LBW, when the bowler himself (damien fleming) said it was not out and he just appealed for the sake of appealing thinking it would never be given out.
Then, also, who can forget Tendulkar being given out LBW for ducking a bouncer and getting smacked on the shoulder.
It makes the road so easy for the Aussies to pull off wins at home.
Now, when they go abroad, the story becomes different, but at least such decisions don't hamper a teams chances and hence, whosoever plays well wins, thus reducing the Aussie records.

It's a shame that such a team rules World Cricket. I would rather go for Zimbabwe/Kenya ruling world cricket instead of the AS***** Aussies.
Your Thoughts????

Cricket world cup 2007 fever in US

2007-03-04T01:42:00.001+05:30

An interesting website demonstrating Cricket World Cup 2007 in US.

http://cricketwc07.com

Check it out.......

Old Blogger.com Vs New Blogger.com

2007-02-25T12:32:00.000+05:30

So, google has finally migrated the blogger.com and given the full version instead of the beta one. But there is an issue I have been facing ever since i have started using this new blogger version. And that's become a hitch ever since.
Now, I have configured my settings in blogger.com and have a mail id for the blogger. So, every time I write an email to this blog mail id, my email gets posted as a blog, and i never had to log into blogger.com to compose my posts, although it does give a lot of powerful tools to compose, but then i am a plain text blogger and don't require so much tools, rather i would go for simplicity which google seems to have withdrawn, or this might be a bug which they might not have encountered, but now, they should look at it and should be doing something for this.
Can google do something for me?????????

Shit on Amitabh Bachchan

2007-02-25T12:21:00.000+05:30

Yes he was my favourite hero till yesterday. A hero whose every movie, I have seen at least 3 times.
Till now, I never used to miss even a single movie in which he was the hero. But from now on, at least one fan of Amitabh Bachchan is over.
He's a real star, he must know what he is doing. Doing favours with Samajwadi party and the likes of Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh is as bad as doing a crime.
In the advertisement for Samajwadi Party, Amitabh Bachchan is quoted saying "Spit on them for saying there is crime in UP". As if Amitabh Bachchan doesn't know if there's any crime in UP.............
Unbelievable, we all know (even if i don't belong to UP), that Mulayam Singh Yadav, since becoming the CM of the state has opened all the flood gates for crime and corruption in the state. Now, UP can't even claim a single official machinery which is performing without corruption. Mayawati and Mulayam Singh are the same.
But for Amitabh Bachchan, that nomination for the post of PRESIDENT OF INDIA supercedes all thoughts. Even of that he is a hero in public, and before supporting anyone, he should be absolutely sure about what he's saying, as it'll impact lives of so many people.
But he's also a typical UP stuff guy. Even after reaching so much of stardom and fame, he's still crying for more and this can very well be seen by his political relations with SP. This is all bullshit.
Shit on Amitabh Bachchan I would say. I would have asked him about the crime rate of UP if Nithari scandal would have happened to somebody in his relations(god forbid me for saying that). He's a rich guy and every body in India knows the crime of any part in India doesn't impact them, it only impacts middle class people, as they are the most unsecured ones.
UP is now the CAPITAL of India's ORGANIZED CRIME, since Nitish Kumar came to power in Bihar and drove away all the Laloo fed goondas and rowdy elements.
And Amitabh Bachchan claims that there is no crime in UP.
A day after the Bombay blasts in 2006, Mulayam Singh came in open and gave a clean chit to SIMI. What the hell? Mulayam Singh Yadav himself should have died on one of the trains in Bombay, and should have taken Amar Singh and Amitabh Bachchan on that train, then we would have seen who gives clean chit to whom. It's a clear vote bank politics for the vote of minorities. I mean to say come on yaar, these politicians don't care about law and order, or peace, they just want votes.
I am thinking of the day we have a President Like Amitabh Bachchan.
The following are the direct consequences of this:
1. All the Income Tax cases pending against him will be blown off in a flash. He would go scott free.
2. A President's rule in UP would be equivalent to making Mulayam Singh Yadav as the CM of the state as they both openly return favours to each other, be it the Bentley car, or be it attending Amar Singh's Birthday.
Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, you are no longer a hero, you are also the same breed politicians as Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Amar Singh, Shibu Soren, Lal Krishan Advani, Shahabuddin, and all the others of the same breed.
Shame on you Amitabh Bachchan, shame on you.
Of course you deserve to have shit for advertising for one the most corrupt leaders of India.

Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. | Movie Review

2007-02-25T12:20:00.000+05:30

This was the 2nd one this weekend.
Quiet fine, really comic, every body in the movie makes sense except for Abhay Deol and Minissa Lamba (sorry for getting the name wrong but i know only this version of her name).
Abhay Deol is not an actor for god's sake. Hell he doesn't even look like one.
All other are really good, Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi, Channel V VJ Ranvir (he's really into an acting mould, great), Kay Kay Menon (in his usual senses), the comedy and light heartedness of the movie is awesome.
Take some cotton for giving your ears a much deserved break whenever Amisha Patel speaks up.
The only issues are when there are some back ground stories started by Radio Mirchi, they don't really make much of a sense, except for the story of Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi.
For others, the background stories are an absolute turn off.
All in all, a must watch for having a doze of laughter medicine.

Black Friday | Movie review

2007-02-25T12:18:00.000+05:30

Ok, this was a movie week. Two movies in a row.
First of them was Black Friday. Truly said "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".
The movie is fast paced although it looses it seam at a lot of places and especially where Badshah Khan's story starts creeping in. That was the only stretched part, and the last part about Dawood Ebrahim was a bit confusing.
So, all the characters are named exactly the same as they were in real life (as far as anybody who ever might have happened to track the 1993 Bombay blasts case must have known), right from Dawood Ebrahim, Tiger Memon, Yousuf Memon to Azghar Muqadim.
The movie is quiet good, but it relays the long gone aches of Bombay riots, Sensitive Babri Masjid and ever so usual Hindu Muslim riots issue.
Although the movie has been shot in good spirit and it definitely shows how one side runs over the other and the second side comes springing back to take the revenge long due. "AN EYE FOR AN EYE", there by making the whole world blind.
Kay kay Menon is his usual senses as the cop investingating the case. The movie is very good and a must watch but only by the people who can relive the pain and agony the city had gone through and not for right wing extremists who can once again be fuelled over the 14 year old happenings.
The only point misssing in the movie is the involvement of Sanjay Dutt in the case. His name doesn't appear in the movie at all. This was something that the people must have been apprised of as well.
If the director and producer did not fear Dawood, why did they fear Sanjay Dutt?
By the way music by Indian Ocean is damn good.

Any answers???????

Planning to Purchase Hero Honda Karizma | See if you satisfy it's parameters

2007-02-25T12:16:00.000+05:30

Well, for the past one month, i've been facing this problem of petrol stealing from my bike Karizma (coz the place where i stay, the parking is not all that safe). Now, the trouble is, at least in this city (Bangalore), I cannot get the Fuel Cock Lock for the bike. You get it for any other bike, but not for Karizma.

Now, here are the underlying problems.
1. First of all, knowing the Indian Problems, not only are on the roads but also parking as well, Hero Honda cannot provide such an arrangement which will take the price of the bike by merely 50 bucks but the additional functionality will be accepted gladly by Indian consumers who are prone to such thefts even in parking, and at home too, until or unless they park the vehicle in a locked location every single time (this means, you cannot leave the bike unattended for a minute or too).
Mr. Munjal, any answers, leading No. 1 two wheeler company in india and still not catering to the very basic needs of the consumers. Just following the Japanese designs blindly.
Remember what works in their country may or may not work in our country. Security is the first and foremost issue in our country and these motor cycle makers don't even provide that. I never realized it till I've started becoming a victim of such a thing. And it's really getting difficult to maintain the motor cycle. Even if I change the location, what I should look for is a nice house for myself to stay in, I cannot make my bike stay in my house and sleep myself in the parking area.

2. If these two wheeler manufacturers can't take a risk of losing 50 rupees per instrument, can't they engage in partnership, 3rd party providers to sell such things, so consumers take it on their choice and not on manufacturer's force. If they can't even do that much, I wonder there's very little help to the Indian consumer then.
When every thing is said and done, you're left with 2 choices:

a. Go for any other bike except Karizma (Hero Honda take note, I am Karizma owner and a hero honda customer for 5 years now), coz you get such security accessories for every other bike I know(till pulsar 180 dtsi).
b. If you are hell bent on spending 82 grands for Karizma then make sure spend another 300-400 grands at least in making a safe parking for your bike coz the manufacturer will not even hear as to what you demand.
He's gonna sell what he likes......
I always thought money can buy everything. Here i am ready to pay any amount for that lock, which will prevent petrol stealing from my bike but i cannot get it.
Proven Wrong.........

Your thoughts????????????

Black Friday | Movie review

2007-02-25T11:51:00.000+05:30

Ok, this was a movie week. Two movies in a row.

First of them was Black Friday. Truly said "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".

The movie is fast paced although it looses it seam at a lot of places and especially where Badshah Khan's story starts creeping in. That was the only stretched part, and the last part about Dawood Ebrahim was a bit confusing.

So, all the characters are named exactly the same as they were in real life (as far as anybody who ever might have happened to track the 1993 Bombay blasts case must have known), right from Dawood Ebrahim, Tiger Memon, Yousuf Memon to Azghar Muqadim.

The movie is quiet good, but it relays the long gone aches of Bombay riots, Sensitive Babri Masjid and ever so usual Hindu Muslim riots issue.

Although the movie has been shot in good spirit and it definitely shows how one side runs over the other and the second side comes springing back to take the revenge long due. "AN EYE FOR AN EYE", there by making the whole world blind.

Kay kay Menon is his usual senses as the cop investingating the case. The movie is very good and a must watch but only by the people who can relive the pain and agony the city had gone through and not for right wing extremists who can once again be fuelled over the 14 year old happenings.

The only point misssing in the movie is the involvement of Sanjay Dutt in the case. His name doesn't appear in the movie at all. This was something that the people must have been apprised of as well.

If the director and producer did not fear Dawood, why did they fear Sanjay Dutt?

Any answers???????

Google Calendar | Events on mobile

2007-02-18T20:38:00.001+05:30

Well i am definitely very excited and very happy to see this service. Got to tell you this.

http://calendar.google.com

Sign in with your google account. Set up your mobile number (works in India), enter the verification code. And here you go. All your events set up, and google will message you about the events at the preset time. Great isn't it?????

I hope/wish if Microsoft could have provided this facility with their Exchange Servers, that would have made life really easy.

But then this is also fine. You've got to setup Birthdays and anniversaries only once, to be repeated for life, and google takes all the required care to remind you at the time desired.

It's once again a brilliant service provided by google, and as usual, for free.

Check out right now......

World Cup Team Announced

2007-02-12T13:49:00.000+05:30

Dont be surprised to look at the team..

http://www.cricketnext.com/news/team-india-for-world-cup-announced/23201-13.html

There's nothing that this team can do, all are a bunch of Eunuchs, nobody is really interested in winning the World Cup either.

Sachin Tendulkar-> Too busy complaining about pitches/balls keeping low/tennis elbow, other injuries

Rahul Dravid-> Nobody is working, why should I?

Robin Uthappa->Wants to make a mark, can go to any extent(hitting can be dangerous)

Virender Sehwag->Leave aside world cup, i want to play my cricket, getting out for a duck doesn't matter, nobody takes up team's cause, why should I?

Irfan Pathan-> World cup doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is the place in the side. Who thinks of the team anyways?

Anil Kumble-> Don't ask me to improve my fielding, I am a good bowler and that's what matters.........

Sourav Ganguly->I'll play my part, that's it, let the captain and coach think of the World Cup

Mahendra Singh Dhoni-> I want to be like Gilchrist. So even Australians can endorse me to do advertising campaigns there.

Dinesh Karthick-> Doesn't match up to the scale required.

Harbhajan Singh-> I can't bat sensibly at all, I'll go and hit out at everything even if 5 runs are required of 20 balls, and i am the last batsman.

S Sreesanth-> I got a five wicket haul in South Africa against them, I am on top of the world, no body can hit my bowling and i'll continue to get wickets for another 2 years(do you call this over confidence???)

Munaf Patel-> Got sting, but no real intent on doing anything, except playing his own part, what's the definition of team. By the way, don't ask me to touch the cricket bat at all, and i cannot field, take it for granted.

Zaheer Khan-> BIGGEST HOPE, but can he do everything on his own.

Yuvraj singh-> SECOND BIGGEST HOPE.

Ajit Agarkar-> Has he ever accomplished his line and length for 3 overs at a stretch????????

So, in effect, playing 2 players is equivalent to playing 11 or for that matter, all 15 selected for the trophy. If we ever get a chance to even snare at the trophy, that would be only when Rahul Dravid will be the skipper of the cleaning/maintenance team, only then he can see or even touch the trophy.

World cup is the event in which every country sends their best foot forward.

We are sending our worst

Your thoughts.

About India's loss

2007-02-11T18:37:00.000+05:30

I am in a doubtful state of mind. On the one end, we are trying to catch a bookie, his relationship with Marlon Samuels, we don't allow betting on matches in India, as we say it is gambling.

What are we trying to prove by playing Virender Sehwag in the team. Aint we gambling?????????

This gamble has been facilitated, so that, at least in one match the guy can score a fifty (hundred is by no means possible), and he can be taken to the World Cup, saying the guy is in form. I agree to the fact that he's won a lot of matches for Team India, but does that mean that he will be able to deliver the things again and again. If this is true, then I am bound to ask, why did Sir Donald Bradman ever take retirement? Why did Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, Sunny Gavaskar, Jimmy Amarnath, Balwinder Sandhu, Prasanna ever take retirement? They should be there in Team India because they won a lot of matches for, so they can deliver the goods throughout their lives, Mr. Sehwag, you'll have to wait for another 40 years, till all the match winners of 80's (before that we weren't used to winning matches), to get a chance to bat for Team India ever again. That would be justice enough for a player who's been terribly out of form and still being played to force his way further in? Now, if we ask for replacement, I would say, if today Yuvraj had played, who would have missed? Obviously then we would have had one spinner instead of 2. That's why Romesh Powar was shown the door without giving much of a chance, the same thing happened with Gautam Gambhir. What's the real need of playing the World Cup, when you know you are never going to win it? But it means a lot of money, a foreign tour and enjoyments, especially for players like Sehwag, because they don't toil much on the ground, 50 overs of field and 0-5 overs of batting. Greg Chappel and Dravid must think Professionally and also must be Professional in their decision making, rather than being favouritists to make such provisions. Their duty is to make sure the team wins, and has the right sort of combination to win each and every match and not to make sure that all their favourite players are in the team. I do not see any reasons for India crossing the super 8's in the World Cup. Reaching Super 8s is a cake walk because of Bermuda and teams like that, but then Cricket is a funny game, and we are accustomed to playing one of the most Idiotic cricket in the World. What was West Indies before we went there? Now, they are certainly one of the favourites.

With today's victory over Australia, England have also emerged as a strong contender on the lists....

Your Thoughts????????

258 required | What say??

2007-02-11T12:49:00.000+05:30

258 might be more than enough for India if DADA doesn't show his batting skills, and I presume 250 might be enough for Australia as well. Congrats on another 50 to Collingwood. The SCG is looking majestic.......

Srilankan Batting at Rajkot

2007-02-11T12:37:00.000+05:30

Watching Sangakarra tearing Indian bowling apart is not a pleasant site at all.

Simultaneously, watching English batting being torn apart by Aussie Bowling and great fielding is also noise of the highest decibles to the ears.

UPDATE: Sangakarra has just been caught of the bowling of Munaf Patel. Congrats all the fans of Team India.

OK, Munaf Patel is on a hat trick after Maharoof has been held out in the deep, trying to go for a six.

NIT Hamirpur Alumni meet 2007

2007-02-07T08:57:00.000+05:30

Hope this comes as a breaking news to all, but NIT Hamirpur Alumni meet 2007 has been planned and it's on 26th and 27th of May this year, so all you guys who are alma matter of the same can plan.

Check out http://www.nitham.ac.in

Also http://nitham.ac.in/Alumni/alumni_meet2007.htm

Also check out something latest on the campus news http://sarojthakur.wordpress.com/2007/01/31/the-journey-forward-nit-hamirpur/
--
Thanks
Nitin Jagga

Indian team selection | no surprises at all

2007-02-03T21:04:00.000+05:30

I believe it is imperative for any team (of any sport) to go into the greatest sporting event of that particular sport with the best possible and the most potent players (match winners) in the team to maximize your chances of winning the event.

Something very peculiar about our team is the way the players are selected, persisted, and then dumped. I don't know the logic or the idea behind selection of Virender Sehwag for the one day team against Sri Lanka and eventually World Cup. Every time the selection committee changes, there is a hope in that arises in the heart, there is a prayer that goes out of heart saying, let's hope this one is absolutely transparent in it's decisions and whatever it does, does for good. But Dilip Vengsarkar is no better than Kiran More. Both are same personalities in different shapes and sizes. Both idiots.

After selection of team for the South African tour (which we would like to forget absolutely, except for DADA's comeback), Mr. Vengsarkar(or Colonel as he is called), said that V.V.S. Laxman has not been selected because of injury and fitness issues. And when no batsman was able to do well in the series, suddenly (according to Mr. Vengsarkar, Laxman became fit and raring to go to South Africa to play 1 one dayer and the test series). Wasn't it a trick in the bag to still keep Ganguly out?

Mr. Vengsarkar, I've got two words for you, and I definitely hope you can understand what those two words are.

Now, coming back to the selection. I don't know why Irfan Pathan is constantly being picked despite failures even in Ranji. If the player is out, you cannot judge and take him back by only one Ranji Performance, other wise, we'll have at least 100 players in the reckoning per month.

Pathan and Sehwag don't find a place in my team for the World Cup.

Neither does Suresh Raina (too timid and selfish to be playing for the team). You got it right there Mr. Vengsarkar

Life after internet at home

2007-02-03T20:44:00.000+05:30

Loads of advantages of having internet at home. But can somebody tell from where i can download mobile softwares for Nokia N72, especially Real One Player and some other cool softwares like Office and all.

Any help will be really appreciated.

From hutch database sir

2007-01-27T15:59:00.000+05:30

Yes this one came in as a shocker. The other day i was called up by
some person asking me to take up his cos credit card. When i refused
immediately he asked the reason. So now u have got to answer your
reason for not taking anything that doesnt interest you. What the
hell? Anyways, i told him i have quite a few and dont require anymore.
And asked him on how he got my number. He said, "From HUTCH DATABASE
sir".
So service to customers doesnt mean anything to telcos. Instead making
cheap money at the expense of secrecy and privacy of their customers
is their first priority. I heard the other day that airtel has been
fined for selling their customers numbers to tel callers. Why in the
hell was hutch spared? No business ethics no customer service
priority, money and only money is the motto of telcos. But if that
comes at the cost of inconvenience to the customers, how can a
customer escape this net. My friends tell me airtel is no better than
hutch in this matter. Can somebody offer a solution?

--
Regards
Nitin Jagga
09886434405(M)

M Blogging

2006-12-14T04:20:00.000+05:30

No updates on mobile blogging yet. My simple e mail editor of gmail
doesnt excite me much. Anyways i have been in hell for the past few
weeks (my colleagues know more about it). Now out of it. Planning to
write a novel titled: "to hell and back ". So original thinking.

--
Regards
Nitin Jagga
09886434405(M)

Hands on on M Blogging

2006-11-26T22:54:00.000+05:30

Finally i am able to witness the phenomenon of m blogging. In my case
though i am using this simple gmail for mobile application by google
(Yes it does work in india as well). And i am composing a simple text
mail to my blog id. Thats it. If this is what is m blogging then i am
afraid there is nothing much in it.
If somebody does know the exact powers of m blogging please let me
know. Till then i presume i will have to live in ignorance. And here
ignorance is certainly not bliss.
Please mail your comments to: jagganitin@gmail.Com

--
Regards
Nitin Jagga
09886434405(M)

Tech | C++ | Assignment Operator

2006-09-07T00:52:00.000+05:30

Well this won't talk much and at least about the assignment operator of a class. Rather the simple assignment operator(=).

Ok, so let's begin with what a = b, means in C++?

Essentially this would imply to assign whatever is the value in b to a.(we are not talking of objects here, but of simple variables, say int).

So, can there be a condition where a = b (in C++), be left associative, i. e., can this imply assign the value of a to b.

Yes, there's at least one case as far as my knowledge goes. That is the case when a function returns a reference.

Say for example I have a class and a function/method which returns a reference to that class.

eg.

class A

{

//definition goes here

};

int main()

{

A &f();

//code

}

A &f()

{

//code

return A1;

}

Now in main function an assignment f1() = A2, where A1 and A2 are two objects created of A, would be perfectly legal and valid. And this statement implies to assign the value on the left hand side of the assignment operator to the operand/variable on the right hand side of the assignment operator.

Any thoughts???

Google talk turns 1

2006-09-07T00:32:00.000+05:30

Come one and all to celebrate the freedom of a chat that google talk has given to us. While it turned one on 24th of August, a belated happy birthday from my side.

Click on the link: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/happy-birthday-google-talk_24.html

Last 2 or 3 blogs were technical | Shocked

2006-09-07T00:21:00.000+05:30

Well most of at least my classmates of REC Hamirpur reading this would have been shell shocked at the previous 3 posts which were absolutely technical in nature and would have definitely given them a shock of their life. They would be wondering as to the guy, who always used to flunk in the exams, (you know, days at REC Hamirpur were awful when it came down to the only one thing that could ever matter on earth in an engineering college(that too a bit prestigious one)), you guessed it right, they are exams.

And you can very well sense the time of exams, especially at REC Hamirpur, with lights in each and every room lit up all night, to make up for a whole semester (this is really cruel on subjects), smoking, frustrated on not studying throughout the semester, promising oneself to make sure next semester won't be as this, but this is really like hoping against hope.

Well I am not talking about FIVE POINT SOMEONE, but it's true, the book Chetan Bhagat wrote was a leaf straight out of my college life.I happened to read that book only after I was getting bored of a monotonous work life, but the book in it's entirety is my college life. Any body who has spent time with me in my college can tell you that. If he was caught stealing the paper, I was caught using unfair means. Unfair means is really a very unfair name given to any help which can really help you walk out of the examination hall with a bit of smile.

Ask anybody what would he deem to name a thing which helped him pass the exam? At least not Unfair means by any stretch of imagination.

Anyways, going back to the real thing, ok, guys, i've become a bit sensitive. A bit serious about life, a bit techie too, yes, I love C++ all the more, i've started studying. It's a bit of an irony though that after screwing through my B. Tech. which essentially could have given me a great promising start to a great career (Not all was lost since I was able to complete the course in it's designated time, although only I and a few of my friends know, how I did it). It was not a question of whether I could not do it or any thing like that, c'mon yaar, 200 people pass out of my college every year. It was never a question of ability. It was the sheer lack of the education system to bring out the best in you, and it was the sheer ability of the education system to bring out the worst in you.

So, people like me tend to look out for other options to just pass the course.

After that part of life is over, life is back to normal, square one, where i am still the same, i love studies, i love studying anything remotely understandable. I can study throughout my life, and right now C++ and SQL have become a bit of priorities, don't know whether I will be sticking with them for long, but as of now, they stand first in the queue.

So, probably from today onwards, you are going to be looking at a lot of posts on these two subjects, probably some tips about some exceptional circumstances as and when they happen in and around my area of study or these can contain some hidden insights about the language, or can be pure and simple concepts, for easy and thorough understanding.

2006-09-06T23:48:00.000+05:30

Technorati Profile

Google Note book

2006-09-05T22:35:00.000+05:30

It seems like i am not yet getting the hang of all the products google have on offer.

Google notebook just seems to be one of them, which i got while browsing through a tech. site.

Try this link http://www.google.com/notebooks

It's a real cool product by google to arrange your notes, things that you read online and try to save some part of it and forget then, where you pasted the stuff.

I think it's one real cool thing for techies coz we've a lot of source codes, taken as reference from net and completely forgotten about in 3 days. Google notebook will help us in arranging them. By the way, code jam is over and i've failed balatantly. Well the only problem is that you require to be total geek to be a participant in google code jam. Anyways, i'll definitely try it next year, as by that time, my knowledge base will also be increased, and probably the efficiency of the code that i write will also increase.

Let's hope the time comes soon.

Code jam was like a traffic jam of thoughts and algorithms in the mind. And code arena was like a cricket ground after the match.

Anyways, there's always a next chance.

C++ | delete this

2006-09-04T23:53:00.000+05:30

What does delete this do?

Try this, in a class, in the destructor write delete this.

Eg.

class A

{

public:

A();

~A()

{

delete this;

}

//member functions and variables

};

int main()

{

A *a = new A;

//do anything you want to do

delete a; //Calls the destructor

}

Hope your code executres correctly. Mine never did.

Nonetheless it gives a good idea of this pointer.

Rollback after a truncate command

2006-09-04T23:50:00.000+05:30

Well, as we all know that truncate is a DDL Command which runs with Auto_Commit_Status set as true.

Hence, anywhere in your query if you have a truncate command, it will commit automatically and you won't be able to rollback the command.

Now, let's see basically why you can't rollback in case of truncate and why you can rollback in case of a delete command.

A delete command is a DML Command and is a logged command, hence, every time you use a Delete command, it'll log every bit of info it is deleting in a log file and hence the Index columns can be retrieved as they were (before delete), in case you want to rollback.

But in case of Truncate command, this command is also logged but it only logs the starting and ending points of the truncation, and hence the info. is gone, and you cannot rollback.

This is the difference as to why rollback command is always faster than delete command.

So, when can you rollback in case of truncate.

This can only happen inside a transaction, that too before commiting.

Eg.

BEGIN TRAN

//Do something

truncate

if @@ERROR <> 0 (Your own condition here)

rollback transaction

ELSE

COMMIT TRAN.

Comedye@Work with SQL Server

2006-09-04T23:43:00.000+05:30

With regards to my work today i had to take a variable and do some comparison in a stored procedure(mind you, the SP was quiet long), in a where clause. And that variable was to take result from a select query.

Everything worked fine until i realized that the select query can return multiple rows and in that case, my variable would fail me for not being able to hand multiple results. (One or no results was a very good scenario, but QA would have take a whole life out of me for doing such a sin).

So, now, I thought of using either a cursor or a table variable. Now, cursors are a part of your code in SQL only when there's no other option available, so i thought of using a table variable.

What happened was that i was not pretty familiar with the syntax, and so i decided to take the help of MS SQL Server itself.

And I already knew, Microsoft's help is technically always correct, but practically never helps you.

So this time, when i opened SQL Server's help, I browsed through all the pages showing this table variable help, and it's really impossible to comprehend such long pages, i decided to view only code snippets and hence put them to use.

Such a code snippet i got was

Select * into table_variable_name from actual_table.

Now, what followed was chaos, whenever i tried to execute the query using a table variable and doing an insert like this it always failed me.

Finally i did use insert into clause much to my relief but still it baffeled me as to after every step being correct, and the code snippet also appears in SQL Server help, why my query refused to get even parsed.

I googled on and on but couldn't reach a sufficient and conclusive solution.

Then i went to SQL help and read the whole article and there it was written as

"Table variable cannot be updated using code as follows"

select into tablevariable from table

GOODNESS ME. They could have put a warning sign or atleast something to make sure that the user doesn't actually mistake it for correct code. But i believe microsoft does want you to read through whole of the piece of crap they write, which is always technically correct, but rarely ships you out of trouble.

So, the next time you are going to read MSDN or any help, just beware, read it thoroughly even if you want to clear some doubt, else your doubts will become a mystery to yourself, and confusion and chaos will prevail.........

By the way, does anybody know when can we rollback a truncate command???????????

All about ISPs, BroadBand And Bangalore

2006-09-03T20:23:00.000+05:30

If there's one thing where bangalore has been caught napping is the Broadband internet connection and the services offered by these ISPs.

I don't think so they can be any proud of it in Bangalore at least on the Broad band Part.

For Instance, Bangalore has 5 ISPs as far as I know-:

1. Airtel (My area is a no network zone for Airtel, in fact 1/3rd of Bangalore is a No Network Zone for Airtel)

2. BSNL (It takes about a year to get it's connection + Zero (literally) after connection services). I am not sure of their coverage at this particular moment.

3. Tata Indicom (VSNL) (Frequency of Browsing internet -> 1 day out of 10 days the connection works, so you can very well make out.

4. Hathway-> Covers only 1/10th of the city.

5.Sify-> Same as Tata Indicom

Plus the area where I stay, is covered only by Tata Indicom (that too, probably because they have an office here).

There's a no activity period for the internet connection after every 1 day which lasts for about 10 days. Repeated complaints and often visits by their field engineers to the house to check router etc., doesn't yield any result for 10 days. Then after about 10 days of inactivity, the link suddenly goes up and i am able to browse for 1 day and then it goes down for another 10 days.

And I've heard from my friends that only Airtel is worthy enough of a broad band connection.

I wonder if only tough competition from some international companies can wake their eyes or will the customers stay harassed for the services that are on offer right now.

They say customer is the king.

Not in Bangalore at least.

Wonder La | Bangalore

2006-08-29T22:06:00.000+05:30

Have been to Wonder La this past weekend. It was one of the greatest experience probably. If you are in Bangalore, I would advise to visit at least once.

But beware! Some of the high thrill rides are not for the faint hearted.

Especially the air rides.

All in all, it was a great experience. The water rides, 3D Show, Lazer Show, everything was an awesome experience in itself.

Try once, you won't forget it for long.

And readers, Please note and try "Maverick Air Ride".

Net up | Blogging follows

2006-08-27T20:08:00.000+05:30

All dear fellows, sorry for an almost 6 months' inexplicable break in blogging.

But I've been some real time busy these days, and nothing really has happened which was really worth notifying.

But now, the internet connection at home is up and running, you'll probably see a lot of posts coming in now, and pretty regularly at that too.

Till TATA Indicom do us apart.

Rest of all, everything in Bangalore appears to be pretty fine as of now. As well as my own life has been going on pretty smooth, except being a bit busy till now. But i do hope, i'll continue to stay busy till the rest of my life.

One more thing.

CODE JAM is around the corner. Anybody who wishes to participate can (of course technically sound).

http://www.google.com/codejam

Competetion will be in C#, C++, Java, Python.

By the way I am up for C++.

See you there in the Code Arena.

Nitin Jagga..........................

BEWARE: HPCL Petrol Pump near to MS Ramaiah College and Hospital

2006-04-16T19:36:00.000+05:30

This is a forced one.

The HPCL Petrol pump near to MS Ramaiah College and Hospital deserves this piece of blog.

Well everybody beware of that petrol pump, rather i must say avoid it.

Last week, I went there to fill my Darling Karizma's tank and ordered 510 bucks of petrol.

The guy filling very gratefully filled petrol worth 100 bucks and closed the hose. I said you've got to fill in worth 510 bucks worth of petrol, and he was filling from my left hand side.

Just then, a guy from my right came and said in local language to fill up petrol worth 410 bucks more, and started asking questions to me like if i knew kanadda, telugu, asked me not to use mobile phone in petrol pump (i was wearing a handsfree that time mind you), i said i wasn't using it.

Looked at the left( and forgot completely that i didn't see the meter reading, whether he resetted the machine to zero or not). And the guy promptly filled up petrol till 410 and stopped.

And my Credit Card was charged for 510 bucks.

Moving outside the petrol pump, i realized the digital display of my bike with regards to petrol level in the bike (Yes dear, Karizma has a digital display indicating fuel level in the bike and a very accurate one), thanks HERO HONDA for that. And I realized that it was showing very less level, and realized at least 2 liters were missing from the tank.

Frustrated at that, i drove away, had some juice and tried to calm myself but just couldn't for i've been driving a bike for 4 years now, and always was careful, and a little careless and you are done. That was it.

I decided, I would complain to some manager or somebody about it (I was fearful of the locals filling in there).

So I went to the petrol pump again, and asked for a feedback form or some kind of stuff to report to. Following is the excerpt of the conversation.

Me: I want the feed back form.

Filler: Sorry sir,

Me: feedback form, or something.

Filler: Sorry sir, illaaah (this means no in kannada)

Me: Give me your manager's number

Filler: Sir koi galati hogayi to hamein bataao (If there's some mistake please tell us sir).

Me: No, I just want to talk to the manager (I was still apprehensive about colliding with locals alone, but wanted to fight for my rights).

Filler: No manager sir.

Me: Ok regional head's number

Filler: Illah

Me: Ok, I had filled my bike with 510 bucks of petrol 15 minutes back, give me the bill for that.

Filler: Oh sir, you are that guy with 510 rupees bill. (Realizing the gravity of situation), sir, we are sorry sir, it was our mistake that we filled the bike with 410 bucks of petrol, please bring your vehicle and get 100 bucks of petrol filled in it.

Me: fine

and i got the full value petrol.

And then I showed to him the digital display of my bike with regards to fuel, and I said

Aage se gaadi dekhkar chuna laganaa (Further ahead, dupe people only after seeing the vehicle).

thanks hero honda again.

You can make out for a difference of 2 liters in the display, not for one liter.

Guys, just avoid that petrol pump.

What say?????????

Update: Dr. Raj Kumar's funeral

2006-04-16T19:21:00.000+05:30

What if, UNFORTUNATELY, another great RajniKanth were to bid a farewell???????????????

Chennaites will think that if Kannadigas can kill 8 people and close the state for 2 days, their targets will be much higher, and I am sure, they will strive very very very hard to achieve that.

What say??????

Dr. Raj Kumar's death and bangalore mourning

2006-04-16T19:18:00.000+05:30

Well, well well, it's been too much. I thought Bangalore had the right kind of culture, blend and mix to carry it forward with boom, but all i can say that india can only go back in gloom.

First of all please read this piece with comments http://jagganitin.blogspot.com/2006/04/is-english-killing-other-languages.html#links

The person "GIRI" is a hardcore kannadiga and uses all the more hardcore abusive words against my post.

Please ask this kid to grow up and respect each other's feelings.

Then the second thing is what we've all seen this week, with the sad death of Dr. Raj Kumar, a great in the Kannada film industry.

But we can now clearly relate his death to 8 other people who died in the mob fury. I watched each and every thing live on TV as just because of these ZERO IQ and Idiotic people, whole of the Bangalore was Shut down and even the Cable TV showed only News Channels, and for bachelors like us, we had to survive on Bananas for the whole of the day, coz we've a lot of Idiots even in this part of the world.

What do you say Mr. Giri about the Kannadigas and their rich culture now. Does your culture asks you to kill others in case a famous personality died.

I mean to say look at the other side. Shall we close down whole of India in case Mr. Amitabh Bachchan were to die?

Is that possible? No ways.

But you really can't expect anything out of Idiot people like these. 8 people including a police constable died. What the hell?

I was seeing live on the TV, and the people were beating police people like anything, destroying cars and buses and as soon as Camera focussed on them, started dancing. Just goes to show the emotions of people and how frustrated they were (I think they would have been wishing that they get the same farewell from earth).

They made a mockery of a great person's exit.

I am really disappointed at the attitude people possess here. They are absolute idiots I am convinced now.

And, they were 5 lakh in numbers, so you don't have to really justify them.

Every body who was there, when even the great Dr. Raj kumar's family was appealing to the public to go home and watch the funeral on TV, nobody paid heed to their appeal eventually, was an idiot and just shows the frustration of the public.

I am bowled over at this rich cultural heritage and frustration of Mr. Giri.

Is English Killing other languages

2006-04-10T08:10:00.000+05:30

Here's what i posted on Rediff.com's article on Mr. AnanthaMurthy's comments about whether English is killing other languages or not?

If you want other people's views please read http://mboard.rediff.com/board/board.php?boardid=news2006mar14msg2&page=11

Here's the link to the great author's comments: http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/mar/14english.htm

I must say it's a kind of mixed bag. But the worst thing about the author is crystal clear. He's a strong Kannadiga and wants kannada back from being global. You just can't stop all this. Everything has to dwell some day or not. True, due to silly politics, the name of Bangalore has been changed to Bengaluru, but then the thoughts and message is pretty clear. These people just want to live in the shell and die. Can't they see how many people face a lot of problems just because they are hindi speaking and don't know kannada? Everybody in Bangalore, who's a non-kannada (But an Indian), has faced this problem of not being able to speak in the local language. This is pretty shady. Can't you see, how many Indians are facing a problem because of this? Indians facing problems in India, because of people like these authors. True he might have won some awards in literature, but i would dub these awards as rubbish, if these awards have failed to bring a global outlook to the author. Shame on you. We should ask the author, whether he's proud of being a kannada or being an India????????
Ask him.....

The guy wants to divide India with regards to languages, so if his is done, after 5-6 years I don't see India as a world power, but can really see no interaction between the other states due to language barrier. So cheap author, with so many awards, and shameless, giving his cheap thoughts a global outlook.

People like these want India to be as backwards as possible, and don't just want to see where the world is heading. I mean to say I know only 2 languages, Hindi and English, and I am very fine with it. Why do I need to know my regional language when it won't be required throughout my life.
Look at Tamil Nadu, they are staunch supporters of Tamil, and people there don't talk in hindi and english. What the hell? No people from outside can go there because they face a lot of problems there.

The author just wants to make some more blots on the face of india.

Your thoughts. Email Nitin Jagga: jagganitin@gmail.com

Indian talent the world's best | No doubt Continued

2006-04-10T08:09:00.000+05:30

Sorry forgot the link http://mboard.rediff.com/board/board.php?boardid=money2006mar08msg&page=3

Indian talent the world's best | No doubt

2006-04-10T08:04:00.000+05:30

This is what i had posted on Rediff.com on the question as to whether indian talent is world's best or not......

If you want to view other's views as well, please take a look at the link

There's no second thought about whether Indian Talent is the best or not. They are the world best of course. But the question raised here is pretty correct that Indian Companies have very rarely come up with World Class Innovations. The thing to note here is that most of the talent literally goes out of India in search of greener pastures, where the pastures have also proved that they are perenially green. You can just compare the situation, "How many Indian Companies do provide World Class and State of the Art R & D Facilities?" I wonder even if you are able to count 1. See, in software field, The tech. majors of India are largely project oriented, like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, they thrive on their clients to provide the specifications on which they build their products. So, R & D never comes into picture. Whereas companies like Intel, Microsoft, Google, thrive upon themselves to continually innovate the products, and these are not Indian. So, rather than Condemning Brain Drain, we should really see what all are the aspects leading to it, and really realize that if you don't provide the facilites, you are not going to get competent products.

So, rather to condemn them again, we'll first have to create the opportunities here, so that they are not attracted towards other countries' lucrative and greener grounds, but rathere choose to stay in India, and work here for the betterment of our country. But then if we fail to create such situations here, we can't just sit idle and accuse them for leaving our country to contribute their brains towards development of the world.

Talent cannot be killed after all, it can only be brought up.................

Hot Male Sabeer Bhatia is awake and upto the task

2006-03-08T16:28:00.000+05:30

So much time, it took that normally public thought Sabeer Bhatia (Founder Hotmail) is burnt underground somewhere, but every time i personally counted him out, he's always come up alive and strong.

His new venture is bloganywhere.com.
Let's see how it goes, coz his arzoo.com banged the time it was launched.

But here we have an Indian kid, who's just bringing all the more shine to Indian name.
Who says Indians are not world class innovators?

Probably the whole world was using hotmail before gmail came into picture and ripped hotmail apart.

Will Jessica Lall get justice

2006-03-07T10:07:00.000+05:30

Will Jessica Lall get justice?

What a joke? It really makes me feel like crying all the time, as to what is happening in our great country. Nobody, and I mean to say Nobody and absolutely nobody, can ever digest as to even why Manu Sharma killed Jessica Lall. Just for being refused a drink.

Oh my goodness. If this keeps on happening in India, within no time, we'll see a customer demanding a chlormint from a shop and if the shop keeper doesn't have it, KILL HIM. As simple as that. No law is ever going to catch you because you are the son of a powerful politician. What is it?

Is it what our freedom fighters dreamt of, when they laid their lives for us to live in free, where we could have the fundamental rights to live, to speak and others. Thank god, the likes of all freedom fighters didn't live to this day to see, what is happening inside our country. Even they would have believed that our country would have better been slaved. This judgement is not a shock but a shock.

I have always believed in one thing. Life is above everything else. And that killer Manu Sharma has taken one life. How can somebody live after killing someone, who is somebody's sister, somebody's daughter. Somebody whose day starts with seeing the person, whose absence had been intolerating all these years, and after 6 long years, comes this judgement, that Manu Sharma didn't kill her.

What happens from now on? Our President APJ Abdul Kalam Azad has promised justice for the Lall family, but I wonder, whether he's even being practical or not. Right now even if he pushes things up, after some time, or rather, after his tenure, the new President will be the same or not?

What is happening to India? I am not a social activist, neither intend on becoming one. I am just a simple person who loves India, still proud of it, after seeing so much corruption. It could have only been our country where these open and shut cases can be changed from track. The same thing has been happening in the "BEST BAKERY CASE".

It's really unbelievable as to what is happening in our country. The politicians must also realize, that neither the money, for which they are doing such reckless things is ever going to accompany them after death (Probably they should die immediately). They should realize that they are there for a cause, and the cause is bringing our Nation up together. But no, money and corruption has caused such a big hindrance that they can't see any further, and they are just blinded, and can't even see, what their children are doing?

And to protect a killer is a crime itself. I am very happy that this time around at least the people's demands are being met and the case is being reopened. I do hope I live upto the closing of the case again and the criminals being put behind the bars.

But what should be done is punish them all (Obviously if they are found guilty, which is a very difficult thing). Punish all the police people and culprits together, as police in the previous case was also involved in tampering of evidence, as without their help, it would have become really impossible for the culprits to hide themselves.

And upto the superior and responsible level police should be taken to the task for that.

I REALLY PRAY TO GOD THAT JUSTICE WILL BE DELIVERED THIS TIME AND LOT MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE CRYING SEEING WHAT PLETHORA OF EVENTS ARE HAPPENING IN OUR COUNTRY CAN ONCE AGAIN FEEL PROUD AND JOYOUS THAT, IN AT LEAST ONE CASE, SOMETHING WAS GOOD.

Other wise, we know what is happening in our country. There are lot many Manu Sharmas and Jessica Lalls who go on unnoticed. But if we can make a start somewhere, where we can show that even politician's sons are also not outside the law, then someday, fear might also set in the other Manu Sharmas. But if the current rule is to be believed, then nobody is safe in India, even on roads.

And it can be with you and me as well. Who knows? Where a Manu Sharma can just take a pistol out and kill you with 1000 people on the road watching and then turning hostile when their turn comes as a witness.

We have to make a start somewhere to make our country much more safe and liveable.

I request all people reading this to please pray and hope for justice.

The Fuss About Gmail and Privacy: Nine Reasons Why It's Bogus

2006-02-23T20:33:00.000+05:30

This particular piece of blog is being taken from the O' Reilly Website where he promotes the use of gmail. All the thoughts are of Tim O' Reilly and nothing has been tampered here. If anybody wants to have a look at the particular excerpt by him, please click here http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4707?wlg=yes

There has been a rash of recent editorials about privacy concerns with Google's gmail service. A number of organizations have asked Google to voluntarily suspend the service. One California legislator has gone so far as to say she plans to introduce a bill to ban it. This is nuts! A number of things to consider:

There are already hundreds of millions of users of hosted mail services at AOL, Hotmail, MSN, and Yahoo! These services routinely scan all mail for viruses and spam. Despite the claims of critics, I don't see that the kind of automated text scanning that Google would need to do to insert context-sensitive ads is all that different from the kind of automated text scanning that is used to detect spam. (And in fact, those oppressed by spam should look forward to having Google's brilliant search experts tackle spam detection as part of their problem set!) Google doesn't have humans reading this mail; it has programs reading them. Yes, Google could instruct a program to mine the stored email for confidential information. But so could Yahoo! or AOL or MSN today. (Perhaps people feel Google is to be feared because they seem to so good at what they do. But that seems rather an odd point of view.)
For that matter, the very act of sending an email message consists of having a number of programs on different machines read and store your mail. Every time you send an email message, it is typically routed through a number of computers to get to its destination. Run the traceroute command at a command prompt on any Linux or UNIX system (including Mac OS X) or tracert on a Windows system to see the hops that your internet packets go through from your machine to any destination site. Anyone equipped with a packet sniffer at any of those sites can snoop any mail that they want. In fact, the NSA recently proved the effectiveness of this approach by tracking down terrorists by way of their mail traffic.
The amount of personal data already collected by credit agencies and direct marketers dwarfs what might be gleaned from email. There are folks right now, who know everything you've ever bought. Heck, just recently, I was shopping in Bath, England, and made a large purchase in an antiquarian bookshop. Fifteen minutes later, I was four buildings down the street in a second bookshop, tried to make another purchase, and had my card rejected. Meanwhile, back in California, my wife was receiving a call, wondering if the card had been stolen. "Why would someone halfway around the world be spending so much on books?" they wanted to know. That's real time monitoring! Privacy advocates (and as a former board member of the EFF I count myself among them) argue that privacy is a slippery slope. But we're already a long way down that slope, and I have a lot more trust in Google to do the right thing to protect my privacy than I have in credit card and direct marketing companies! I certainly don't see why Google is being singled out. There are so many bigger issues to worry about, from RFID tagging to surveillance cameras on London street corners, that programmed scanning of email for targeted ad insertion doesn't seem like too big a deal to me, especially when it's disclosed up front to participants in the service.
Gmail's offer of extended storage means that hosted email accounts might appeal to more than the casual home user, resulting in the storage of more mission-critical messages, but considering that many businesses are already hosting critical business data at outside service providers like salesforce.com, I hardly think that is a show stopper.

People are also expressing concerns about Google's plan to insert targeted advertising into email sent with the service. Once again, I find myself baffled by the uproar. Some reasons:

No one is going to be forced to use gmail. If you don't like ads in your mail, don't use the service. Let the market decide. (Note: as far as I can tell, ads do not appear in outgoing mail, so there's no spamming of non-subscribers. Ads appear only in the mailbox of the gmail user. And as with Google adwords on search results, the ads appear in text boxes off to the side of the message, where they can easily be ignored if the information they provide is not useful.)
Google has a history of providing tasteful, unobtrusive, useful advertising. When all the other online services rushed to plaster their sites with bigger and more obnoxious banner ads, skyscrapers, popups, pop-unders, and screaming animations, Google held the line, and defined a new paradigm for advertising that no one seems to mind.

Meanwhile, I am entranced with the benefits that gmail will hopefully provide!

The ability to search through my email with the effectiveness that has made Google the benchmark for search. How many times have people asked, "When can I have Google to search my hard disk?" That's a hard problem, as long as it's just your disk, on your isolated machine. But it's solvable once Google has lots and lots of structured data to work with, and can build algorithms to determine patterns in that data. Gmail is Google's brilliant solution to that problem: don't search the desktop, move the desktop application to a larger, searchable space where the metadata can be collected and made explicit, as it is on the web.
The second-order search through "six degrees of separation" promised (but not yet delivered) by all of the social networking services such as Friendster, LinkedIn , Plaxo, and Google's own Orkut. These services are essentially a hack, designed to get around the fact that no one has yet re-invented the address book for the era of the internet. Why should I have to spam all my friends, asking them to "join my network", if my email client is smart enough to know who I know, how often I communicate with them, as well as who they know, and how well.
(Microsoft Research's Wallop project shows some interesting steps in this direction. Until I saw gmail, I was convinced that Microsoft would eventually own the social networking space by adding Wallop features to Outlook, since having access to the actual email traffic data and address book is so much more powerful than the workarounds that the social network services have to endure. I've been excited about the Chandler project because I saw its developers asking themselves how to reinvent the address book for the age of the internet -- thinking of contacts as private, public, or somewhere in between. But Chandler seemed like too little, too late to keep Microsoft from owning another promising new application category.)
Eventually, I imagine I'll be able to ask gmail, who do I know who can help me to reach someone I'm looking to meet...and get a reasonable answer, without any invasion of privacy. After all, I have lots of friends who know me well enough to make a recommendation to their friends, and pass on contact info if appropriate. Gmail wouldn't break any new social ground here -- it would just make it easier to find out who to ask, without revealing any confidential information. (Meanwhile, the existing social network services DO lead people to reveal lots of private information that could be misused by spammers and other electronic harvesters. Gmail could provide this information more securely.)
Storage of my critical data on one of the largest, most reliable data storage banks in the world. As Rich Skrenta made so clear in his recent weblog posting, Google is the shape of the future. Forget Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law. Storage is getting cheaper faster than any other part of the technology infrastructure. I remember Bob Morris, head of IBM's Storage Division and the Almaden Research Labs, telling me a couple of years ago, that before too long, storage would be cheap enough and small enough that someone who wanted to do so could film every moment of his life, and carry the record around in a pocket. Scary? Maybe. But the future is always scary to those who cling to the past. It is enormously exciting if you focus on the possibilities. Just think how much value Google and other online information providers have already brought to all of our lives -- the ability to find facts, in moments, from a library larger than any of us could have imagined a decade ago.

Gmail is fascinating to me as a watershed event in the evolution of the internet. In a brilliant Copernican stroke, gmail turns everything on its head, rejecting the personal computer as the center of the computing universe, instead recognizing that applications revolve around the network as the planets revolve around the Sun. But Google and gmail go even further, showing that once internet apps truly get to scale, they'll make the network itself disappear into the universal virtual computer, the internet as operating system.

I've been dreaming this dream for years. At my conference on peer-to-peer networking, web services, and distributed computation back in 2001, Clay Shirky, reflecting on " Lessons from Napster", retold the old story about Thomas J. Watson, founder of the modern IBM. "I see no reason for more than five of these machines in the world," Watson is reputed to have said. "We now know that he was wrong," Clay went on. The audience laughed knowingly, thinking of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of computers deployed worldwide. But then Clay delivered his punch line: "We now know that he overstated the number by four."

Pioneers like Google are remaking the computing industry before our eyes. Google of course isn't one computer -- it's a hundred thousand computers, by report -- but to the user, it appears as one. Our personal computers, our phones, and even our cars, increasingly need to be thought of as access and local storage devices. The services that matter are all going to run on the global virtual computer that the internet is becoming.

Until I heard about gmail, I was convinced that the future "internet operating system" would have the same characteristics as Linux and the Internet. That is, it would be a network-oriented operating system, consisting of what David Weinberger calls "small pieces loosely joined" (or more recently and more cogently, a " world of ends"). I saw this as an alternative to operating systems that work on the "one ring to rule them all principle" -- a monolithic architecture where the application space is inextricably linked with the operating system control layers. But gmail, in some sense, shows us that once storage and bandwidth become cheap enough, a more tightly coupled, centralized architecture is a real alternative, even on the internet. (I have to confess that was one of the wake up calls to me in Rich Skrenta's piece, linked to above.)

But in the end, I believe that the world we're building is too complex for tight coupling to be the dominant paradigm. It will be a long time, if ever, before any one company is in control of enough programs and enough devices and enough data to start dictating to consumers and competitors what innovations will be allowed. We're entering a period of renewed competition and innovation in the computer industy, a period that will utterly transform the technology world we know today.

I love Dave Stutz's phrase, "software above the level of a single device ." We're used to thinking of software as something that runs on the machine in front of us, its complex dance hidden by the blank metal and plastic of the hardware that houses it. But now, computers are everywhere, and each dance has many partners, a whirling exchange of data that will be made visible when and where we want it. It's not the machine or even the software that matters, it's the information and services that travel over the hardware and software "wires." Gmail's introduction of large amounts of free online storage for application data is an important next step in freeing us from the shackles of the desktop.

This isn't to say that there aren't important issues raised by the internet paradigm shift. The big question to me isn't privacy, or control over software APIs, it's who will own the data. What's critical is that gmail makes a commitment to data migration capabilities, so the service isn't a one way door to the future. I want to be able to switch to alternate providers if the competition makes a better offer. The critical enabler is going to be the ability to extract my data and connections so that I can work with them on multiple devices, for example, syncing my laptop or phone with my gmail account rather than having to work only in a tethered fashion. I understand why gmail doesn't offer this feature now, but it's going to be essential in the long term.

disappointment from the hands of adsense team

2006-02-16T11:11:00.000+05:30

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

Please note that we have certain policies in place that we believe will
help ensure the effectiveness of Google ads for our publishers as well as
our advertisers. We have thoroughly re-reviewed your account data upon
receipt of your response and have reconfirmed that invalid clicks were
generated on the ads on your site. According to our policy on this matter,
we have disabled your account in order to protect our advertisers.

We appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

fight against adsense for getting the program renewed

2006-02-15T13:05:00.000+05:30

when i am busy i am really very busy, don't even get the time to blog.

but right now i am fighting my own case with google over blocking my adsense program on this blog.

But there is one thing about google, that is their promptness in the replies, i mailed them about blocking my adsense ads was fallacious

they promptly replied asking for some details.

Now within a week, i am expecting a reply (the results no matter, but i am not a person losing the battle so easily) i will continue it up with google till they float it as a public service. Although its upto them for selecting the affiliates, but still if it's a public service, i won't give up hope. Because I wasn't at fault. And if I wasn't at fault, they should realize it, that they were at fault.

Earlier blog, which failed | My ordeal with petrol purchase with citibank card

2006-02-15T12:56:00.000+05:30

Finally they've agreed that i was the person who purchased the petrol 2 days back with my own credit card.

Although I've been lucky enough to be one of the proud customers of citibank, with no hassles and problems from their side,

the last thing really confused me. Actually 2 days back, I purchased petrol and filled my Karizma fully upto the brink. And the next day, I saw there was no transaction in my card according to the statement online. So, I was confused and I called up citibank and let them know that I had purchased some petrol worth 700 rupees and it should be credited into my account. But they promptly said that I hadn't done any transaction of such nature and I tried to convince them that I owe them the money. Then today again I called up and then they said, that they had inquired into the matter (what a prompt inquiry, they rarely do so when its your money at stake), and the filling station had not claimed the money and as soon as he claims the money, it will be reflected into my account. Till then it cannot be reflected as it's upto the merchant to claim the money.

What if he forgets to claim the money???????

(They rarely forget to do so...................)