Isles

USA NTSC HDTV Sony Bravia works in India

2011-09-10T08:17:00.002-05:00

Many including myself had some concern on US TVs working in India. USA uses NTSC signal and India has PAL. After doing some research in Internet found that Dish TruHD MAY work for US based TVs. I decided to try it. Called Dish and the technician came and installed Dish. Once the output was set to 1080 standard in the STB the video came perfect in my Sony TV. So its confirmed that it will work. I have my TV connected through HDMI cable. I also bought a step down transformer to convert 220v(India standard) to 110v(USA standard) as my TV manual said it will only work at 110v.

TV model: (LCD) Sony Bravia KDL46Z4100

Smooth Transition

2008-11-05T11:52:00.000-05:00

Top 10 Airlines and Airport 2008

2008-10-31T08:55:00.007-05:00

The rise of Asia...

Top 10 Airlines 2008
Top 10 Airports 2008

2008-10-31T08:28:00.002-05:00

Click on the picture to zoom in.

Fixing housing mortage crisis and the economy

2008-10-29T11:01:00.003-05:00

Read the last para below. Click the images for a bigger picture so it is easy to read the super tiny fonts.

The power of the Old FOX

2008-10-28T12:48:00.003-05:00

Economy is very bad.
The country is fighting 2 wars.
People are losing their jobs and retirement savings.
People are tired of the last 8 years.

They want change.
Election is coming.
Obama must be leading McCain in huge numbers, like 80% to 20%.
But still, ever wondered why are the polls so close!

http://tvbythenumbers.com

FNC - FOX News Channel

Gap between Rich and Poor

2008-10-21T08:39:00.000-05:00

The report found that the income of the richest 10% of people was, on average, nearly nine times that of the poorest 10%.

Graph showing income gap between rich and poor

But the size of the income differentials varies, with the greatest disparity in Mexico, which has a ratio of 25 to one, followed by Turkey and the US.

The most equal distribution of wealth is in the Nordic countries, including Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7681435.stm

Time to move to Nordic countries !!!

Government Spending. Good or Bad ?

2008-10-16T10:13:00.003-05:00

In a recession economy, if consumers are not spending, if corporates are not spending, and if the government too is not spending, how will money flow in the economy?

It won't.

So why are people against government spending?
In a recession time, government should spend more, in good public projects, like infrastructure development, R&D etc resulting in new jobs.

Google 'Keynesian economics' and 'Keynesian Formula'

2008-10-10T08:27:00.000-05:00

When the sun sets in the west, it will rise in the east.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27112481/

Obama vs McCain Campaign False/Misleading claims

2008-10-09T14:19:00.001-05:00

1959 Opel gets over 350 mpg

2008-10-07T12:28:00.001-05:00

...the car is efficient because it's extremely light. In fact, there's nothing inside it. One tiny plastic seat, no dashboard, no passenger seat, no back seat, no trunk. There aren't even headlights. The rear wheels have been replaced by a single, ultra-hard wheel and the drive-train is just a bicycle chain....

http://green.yahoo.com

New US Dollar Bill

2008-10-07T10:40:00.000-05:00

WMD=Wallstreet Melt Down

2008-10-02T15:28:00.002-05:00

We were looking for this in Baghdad !

Wall Street

2008-09-30T09:55:00.001-05:00

"We lure you from the confines of your home WALLs and leave you on the STREET"

Root Causes and Real Permanent Long Term Solution to US Financial and Mortgage Crisis

2008-09-26T13:32:00.003-05:00

Root Causes :
(1) Job loss
(2) Less Wages
(3) High Interest Rates(Mortgage, Credit Card & Loans)

Real Permanent Long Term Solution
(1) Create Jobs (Green Technology, Infrastructure Development, Stop/Tax Outsourcing)
(2) Increase Wages
(3) Cap on Interest Rates(Mortgage, Credit Card & Loans)

Iam no economist. But a pragmatist.
I don't like complex solutions because I can't understand it.
I like simple solutions which I understand and which will work.

How to fix housing mortgage crisis?

2008-09-23T13:09:00.002-05:00

Give green card to all legal immigrants and even if 75% of them buy homes, that will jump start a demand in housing market and will function as a spark and ignite the housing market.

What's our world worth? Financially...

2008-09-22T14:21:00.001-05:00

Marketwatch reminds us that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is about $15 trillion. The GDP of all nations combined is approximately $50 trillion. The total value of all the real estate in the world is estimated at $75 trillion and the total value of all the world's stocks and bonds is about $100 trillion. But there's a $500 trillion market in derivatives!

When does life begin?

2008-09-19T10:09:00.002-05:00

Sometime back in August when Obama and McCain were talking various issues at pastor Rev. Rick Warren forum, they both were asked, when life begins.

Obama answered that it is above his pay scale to say exactly when life begins.Means, he really doesn't know.
McCain answered life begins at conception.

In my opinion Obama gave an honest and correct answer.
McCain, on the other hand, gave a politically correct answer.

I believe that no one can really tell when life begins exactly.

Lets say, like McCain, we say life begins at conception. Then do we really know our own date of birth and place of birth?

It's not the date and place where we were delivered, but its the date and time and place where we were conceived.
Now, seriously, how many can answer that question?

All our birth certificate, and legal papers should have the date, time and place where we were conceived because that's when our life actually began and not when we were delivered.

Sounds complicated right ?
It does.

Google Chrome

2008-09-02T15:09:00.002-05:00

Google came up with the announcement that they are coming up with a new product called Chrome, a web-browser.

Everyone is surprised.

I was telling about this to some friends of mine few years ago.
I told them not only Google's browser will just be a web-browser but lot more than that.

This is my prediction. Or this is how I would develop Chrome if I was running the project.

Chrome, will be more than just a browser. It will be a mini-OS.
It will have pretty much all the capabilities of an operating system and few basic applications all in-built.

So for an ordinary computer user, who just uses the computer for, just say,

browsing,
chatting,
emailing,
sharing pictures, videos,
webcam,
text editing,
e.t.c

they will not need an OS like Windows, or OS X, orLinux.

Chrome will evolve to be a mini-OS.

I will be designing Chrome in such a way that in future, ordinary users who use computers for basic functions like listed above, will only need to buy a LCD monitor(or even use TVs) and a keyboard and of course an Internet connection. They will be able to use a USB flash drive loaded with Chrome and plug-in the USB in the keyboard and start browsing/chatting/emailing e.t.c

Google Search bug

2008-09-02T14:47:00.002-05:00

I found a bug in google search. There are no 'O' s in 'Google'.

Sarah Palin - McCain's VP choice

2008-08-29T10:18:00.002-05:00

McCain has chosen Sarah Palin as his VP.

I wonder if the move is to get the women votes, mainly Hillary Clinton supporters and feminists.
Many Clinton supporters who wanted to see a women in the ticket was disappointed when Obama chose Biden as his VP.
Sarah Palin may give them a chance to see a women in the ticket.

But what if it backfires for the hardcore Clinton supporters?

By electing McCain they will make history that Sarah Palin is the first women VP. And who knows maybe making way for the first women President in the future (2012, 2016) and deny Hillary that fame.

Barack Obama and 8

2008-08-28T14:18:00.002-05:00

The Chinese consider 8 as a lucky number. That we all know.

How about this.

Barack Obama was born on the 8th month of 1961 (year adds to 8 too).
He entered Harvard Law School in 88.
He is running for office in the year 08.
Hillary Clinton officially declared support at DNC on 08/26/08 (day adds to 8)
He got officially nominated for president on the 8th month, August.
If he becomes president he will be the 44 th president (adds to 8).

By Numerology the name 'Barack Obama' adds to 8

What else I wonder!

2008-08-25T08:53:00.001-05:00

How often does this happen?
3 crashes in one day and making the CNN home page.
And this just after few days of a huge crash in Spain.
Lots of crashes these days!!!

Earthquakes and causes

2008-06-05T08:34:00.000-05:00

"This great earth, Ananda, is established upon liquid, the liquid upon the atmosphere, and the atmosphere upon space. And when, Ananda, mighty atmospheric disturbances take place, the liquid is agitated. And with the agitation of the liquid, tremors of the earth arise. This is the first reason, the first cause for the arising of mighty earthquakes."

-Buddha,
Maha-parinibbana Sutta 3:14

"Nasa scientists have said they could be on the verge of a breakthrough in their efforts to forecast earthquakes.

Researchers say they have found a close link between electrical disturbances on the edge of our atmosphere and impending quakes on the ground below. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7435324.stm

What the hell is top secret?

2007-10-01T09:55:00.000-05:00

IB report sees Cong, allies slide in early polls, key with BSP

In the event of a midterm Lok Sabha poll, the Congress will not gain seats, says a top secret Intelligence Bureau report prepared for the prime minister's eyes only.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/oct/01polls.htm

What the hell is Top Secret, for the eyes of prime minister only. Its out in Rediff, you dumbos. Half the world now knows it.

I made Sushi

2007-09-09T17:19:00.000-05:00

So after cooking many Indian Cuisines, I wanted to try something very different.
So, inspired by my buddy Dave, who already tried and succeeded, I decided to try Sushi for myself.

I went to World Market and Tan A Plaza and got the necessary kit to make the Sushi.
I purchased a recipe book Sushi, by Ryuichi Yoshii, even though the recipe is quite simple and could be downloaded from the Internet.

And I tried Sushi using Tilapia, and a custom recipe of my own, deriving from the traditional Japanese recipe, and to my surprise, it came out pretty descent :)

The Sushi didn't come out in perfect round shape, but hey, Iam trying this for the first time :)

Attached are the pictures of the Sushi I made. Click to see the enlarged version.

Recycling

2007-09-06T07:34:00.000-05:00

Often when I do some cleaning (yeah right...) in my apartment I see so many wires, cables, power cords, used cells and electronics accessories, I used to wonder if there was a place to recycle it instead of trash it.

I came across this website, which provides locations where they can be recycled in the United States.

http://www.mygreenelectronics.org/

Movie again

2007-08-31T08:20:00.000-05:00

Last evening Jo and I went to the movie 'War'.

Devon Aoki was hot.

Also the next Batman movie trailer is out. Christian Bale has become one of my all time favorite movie actor.

The Dark Knight

A website I designed...

2007-08-30T13:45:00.000-05:00

I designed a website for Uma aunty, who is an excellent dancer, so are their daughters Ranjini and Sarini.

http://www.umaettigi.com

Movies, Movies & more Movies...

2007-08-30T13:37:00.000-05:00

Ok...lets see what all movies I have seen recently.

Rush Hour 3, The Invasion, Superbad.

Iam not going to write anything about these movies, Iam too tired. Go see yourselves.

Media War - Sun TV versus Kalaignar TV

2007-08-28T10:20:00.000-05:00

Now that DMK has started its own television channel, Kalaignar TV, what will Sun TV do?

I never used to watch political news in Sun TV as I know for a fact that it will be biased towards DMK and against any other party which is in the opposite camp.
There is no denying that.

Now that DMK is on its own, it will be interesting to watch how Sun responds.

I was watching Sun TV 8.00pm News last night, one of the reports was on Jayalalitha giving some land to each of 174 party volunteers from Virudhunagar district for participating in agitations announced by the party and courting arrest recently.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/070827/54/6jz96.html

The report also mentioned that Jaya condemned the party leaders for causing some inconvenience to public and they were asked to explain their actions.

Going by the nature of the report, it looked like Sun was portraying Jaya in a good light. hehe.

Welcome to politics :)

Move away 'Google', Brand 'God' is the new 'Google'

2007-08-28T09:10:00.000-05:00

Gold-coated temple near Vellore

Vatican airline takes to the skies

What's India Watching ?

2007-08-14T12:51:00.000-05:00

or better

How's India killing time !

http://www.indiantelevision.com/tvr/

Go Sun TV Go.
Make more people watch Mega Serials like Kolangal and Arasi.

May the Men Cook for Themselves and the Family.

Tattva - Understanding the Rituals and Traditions

2007-08-08T07:39:00.001-05:00

I started a new website "Tattva" (http://tattva.planetvimal.com/)

Please make use of it.

2007-08-06T19:36:00.000-05:00

I went to the movie 'The Bourne Ultimatum' Saturday. I thought the movie was awesome. Very good thriller right from the beginning. I wish I had read the books before as some of my friends said that that books were even more elaborate.

For all fans who like spy thrillers, The Bourne series is a must watch.

Image Courtesy : Yahoo Movies

Rescue Dawn

2007-08-01T12:22:00.001-05:00

Last evening I went to see the movie 'Rescue Dawn' starring Christian Bale.
I loved the movie.
I am a big fan of Christian Bale.

He is an excellent actor. He puts so much hard work into acting.

Take some of his movies for example.
He acted in a picture called 'The Machinist'.
He was so lean; actually skin and bones.
See the picture and you will understand what Iam talking about.
This was in year 2004.

The next year, in 2005, he acted in 'Batman Begins'. See the picture from that movie. He built his body.

In this movie 'Rescue Dawn' he makes a similar transformation.
Form this...

To this...

Image Courtesy : Yahoo Movies

Hula

2007-07-25T08:06:00.000-05:00

Hula.

This is the project that I've been working on for a while now and keeping me extremely busy.

http://hula.planetvimal.com/

Iam currently busy with the post production work.
I hope to complete them soon.
That's the logo. Yep, I designed the logo ;)

Proposed Chennai airport

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

http://www.hindu.com/2007/05/23/stories/2007052307200100.htm

Global Warming - "Wakeup you skeptics"

2007-05-23T08:51:00.000-05:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6676775.stm

Hundreds of Hindus in Nepal are flocking to see a statue of a deity which is said to be "sweating".

At least now, the skeptics should start doing something about global warming.

Analyzing 2007 +2 results in TN

2007-05-15T15:44:00.000-05:00

I just analyzed the +2 results that came in TN.

The list contains the cities from where the Top 3 scorers from each subject came from and the count of Top 3 scores they made.

Interestingly...many of the toppers came from small towns and villages and not big cities where they have 'excellent' schools with 'super-awesome' coaching/tuition facilities hehehe.

I have a feeling that Chennai, Coimbatore students are involving in lots of extra-curricular activities than curricular activities :)

Tamil Wikipedia

2007-05-15T15:12:00.001-05:00

http://ta.wikipedia.org

Cricket, ICC and BCCI

2007-04-30T05:39:00.000-05:00

Gone are the days where commercials were shown between cricket.
Now, cricket is shown between commercials.

I was visiting India when the World Cup was going on.
I was watching Sony.
How many commercials!
Oh Gosh.

As soon as the ball released from the bowler's hand they cut to commercials. And when they come back the first ball of next over is almost over. I got a doubt whether Sony was doing the viewers a 'Great' favor by showing cricket in between their commercials.

But after my India vacation I came back to US and was watching the same World Cup here in Dish.
What a way to watch.
Hardly any commercials.
No interruption of the match or commentary.

I understand I paid $200 for this World Cup and its free in India.
So showing commercials is a necessity in India. But there is a limit to that.

These things clearly show that the game of cricket is now mostly under the control of big sponsors.

BCCI - Board of Cricket Controversy in India
BCCI - Board of Cricket Commercials in India
ICC - International Commercial Council

2007-04-27T15:08:00.000-05:00

Sachin Tendulkar's coach at school, Ramakant Achrekar, used to place a one-rupee coin on the stumps as bails and used to challenge the net bowlers that if they got Tendulkar out, they could keep the coin. Needless to say, not many succeeded.

If he does same thing today... he will go bankrupt.

Nothing Changes

2007-04-19T13:31:00.000-05:00

Buddha said "Everything Changes".

Apparently during the times of Buddha there was no BCCI.

"At his press conference soon after picking the 30 probables for the World Cup, Vengsarkar was asked why no legspinner had been included. "Can you name one legspinner?" Vengsarkar snapped back to the journalist."

Not much chance of change

What the heck?

If the journalist has to give names, what in the world is Vengaya Sarkar's, sorry Vengsarkar's job is!!!

Like i said already here in worldcup blog, nothing much will change.

Cricket World Cup 2007 & Fantasy Team

2007-03-08T13:21:00.000-05:00

Created a new blog for worldcup and also bought a Fantasy Team.

http://worldcupinwindies.blogspot.com

Tony Jaa - Jackie Chan, the next generation

2007-02-15T09:26:00.000-05:00

Last night I saw the movie Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior. I saw the movie for Tony Jaa. I heard about his stunts from someone I know and decided to check it out myself.

Waw.
This guy was amazing.

He is like the next Jackie Chan. His stunts were authentic and no strings attached (literally).

For any Jackie Chan fans and Martial arts fans, Tony Jaa movies are a must to see.

I have his second movie The Protector in my Netflix Q. Hopefully I can see it next week.

Women cannot be punished for adultery

2006-12-25T09:43:00.000-05:00

http://www.rediff.com/

"The section provides expressly that the wife shall not be punishable even as an abettor based on the reasoning that the wife, who is involved in an illicit relationship with another man, is a victim and not the author of the crime."

What kinda logic is that!

hmmm...so much for equal rights for men and women.

In Saturn's Shadow - Saturn and Earth - By JPL, NASA's Cassini

2006-12-19T09:45:00.000-05:00

"With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world.

This marvelous panoramic view was created by combining a total of 165 images taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera over nearly three hours on Sept. 15, 2006."

Can you spot our earth?

You might want to click the image to see in its original size and see how small our earth is!

And how small and insignificant are we within our own Solar System !!!

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2314

Courtesy : JPL, CIT, NASA

My blog got Snap ped ;)

2006-12-18T14:09:00.000-05:00

Yes...You can see a preview of the website links in my blog, by just placing your mouse over the links.

My blog's 2-D code - Semacode & Shotcode

2006-12-15T13:54:00.000-05:00

Apocalypto and Blood Diamond

2006-12-13T09:25:00.000-05:00

Last Friday my friends and I went to Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. I thought the movie was very well directed. It was a thriller from the beginning till the end. The story is about a man and his family's survival from human sacrifice in the ancient Mayan civilization. It has nothing to do with the end of Mayan calendar in the year 2012. I thought it must have something to do with that, but no.

The heroine was a very pretty girl. She looked like an Indian girl. But Mel Gibson in Jay Leno's Tonight show, mentioned that she was a local girl. Nevertheless she was very pretty and her kid son was also so cute.

This movie is definitely not for the faint hearted.
There are scenes where people are killed alive and their beating hearts ripped out and offered as sacrifice :)
Yes, that's right. Beating heart.
And also, their heads chopped and rolled from the top of the Mayan Pyramid all in the name of sacrificing to satisfy some Gods.

Fast forwarding to last night...
Went to the movie Blood Diamond with my 'Movie Gang' again . hehe. I thought this movie was an awesome movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio's acting was very good.
Djimon Hounsou looked handsome too.

The story is about how poor Africans are made to kill each other while the west loots their natural resource, Diamond.

Maybe girls will stop being crazy about diamonds after seeing the movie.

Wait...Am I crazy or what!!!
No... I don't think girls will stop being crazy about Diamonds :)

Images : Courtesy Yahoo.com

VVS Laxman - India's new Defense Minister

2006-12-08T11:05:00.000-05:00

India tour of South Africa
Tour Match: Rest of South Africa v Indians at Potchefstroom, Dec 7-10, 2006

Day -2

VVS Laxman 31 runs / 103 balls.
He scored 4- 4's.

So technically he scored 15 runs / 99 balls.

Chennai, Tamilnadu Cops get police cars - First in India

2006-12-06T09:37:00.000-05:00

Chennai police gets police cars like USA.
First in India.

Courtesy : Sun Network

2006-11-30T09:37:00.000-05:00

Pakistan
Afghanistan
China
Nepal
Bhutan
Burma(Myanmar)
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka

What's common with the above countries!

These countries are either unstable or unfriendly with India.
And they all are our neighboring countries :)

World of Warcraft

2006-11-27T10:55:00.000-05:00

It's been ages since I played any video game. Last time I tried any video game was when I bought Sony Playstation 2 couple of years ago, but really never played for more than a week.

Now after a long break and after much hype and publicity from Todd and Alex, I decided to try out the latest hot game 'World of Warcraft'.

So last weekend, I downloaded a 10 day trial version of the game.
Gone are the days when games were just few kilobytes and maybe megabytes and came in a floppy disk. This game, which I downloaded was like 2.5 GB. But with a broadband connection, all I had to do was schedule a download overnight and the next day morning it was all downloaded.

This was just a 10 day trial version.
Yes, after 10 days if I want to continue playing I have to buy the game which is like $50 and here is the interesting part...if I have to continue playing I have to subscribe to the game, and it costs about $15 every month.

Yes, World of Warcraft, also called as WoW, is a MMORPG.

So I created some characters and tried out the game.

Iam in.

Stop blaming Indian cricketers

2006-11-27T10:48:00.000-05:00

It has started all again.

You know every time Indian cricket team performs very badly, protestors take it to the players home and streets and burn effigies and things of that nature.

This has to stop.

Our cricketers are human beings.

They have a life, they have a job to do. Day and night they work in Ad shootings, and attending functions and events and may be partying and doing some side business, and we should be glad that they agreed to play for our cricket team even though the monetary benefits from the salary is not much. We should be grateful for that.

The reason for us losing the matches is coach Greg Chappell.

Are you asking me Why!

I don't know, I thought that's what we usually do!
Blame on the coach and sack him. I thought its a SOP - Standard Operating Procedure.

Ghajini and Asin

2006-11-26T17:39:00.000-05:00

Ha... a different weekend after a long time.
I rented 3 Tamil DVDs. Watching tamil movies after long time. After seeing the movies...I realized I haven't missed much, movies have not changed.

Emtan Magan, Maanavan(yeah, don't ask anything more about this movie, this is for Reema Sen) and at last...Ghajini.

Ghajini was little different, but still I don't know if this was a hit back home, but I thought the movie had lots of flaws.
But I liked Asin's character and her acting. Asin looked very beatiful. Her character was 'living' in the movie. All her scenes, were so full of life and fun. She reminded me of someone.

hmmm...I've done 'A movie a day week', I guess I should now do a 'Book week' and read some books this week.

Mélissa Theuriau - Anchor for the French channel LCI

2006-11-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Mélissa Theuriau is an anchor for the French channel LCI which is a 24 hour news channel. I wonder if anyone will remember the news !

Work Warning!
Don't google her for images.

Turducken - What kinda stuff is this !!!

2006-11-23T08:28:00.001-05:00

While the rest of the world is busy working... we are busy stuffing.

Move away Turkey, welcome Turducken.

What are we going to do next year...stuff this into a cow!

Oh poor birds...and animal.

Deja Vu

2006-11-23T08:09:00.000-05:00

Ok... This is my problem.

I really do not believe Time Travel as they show in movies is possible.
It is impossible to go to the past and interact with the past and change things.
I can't even imagine something like that happening.

We may be able to see the past, but in a 'Read Only' mode. You can see , but you can't interact, or in other words you can't change the past.

I went to 'Deja Vu' last night.

The movie was a good movie, except for the fact 'Time Travel'. But the whole movie revolves around time. So ... :)
Accepting the fact that time travel is possible for like 2.5 hours, this movie was surprisingly a good movie.
My expectation were low for this movie, pretty much I thought it was a junk, but it was at least above average if not good.

The technologies that they use in this movie...come on, its just movie...I do not think anyone in the world has such a technology as of today.

The actress, don't know who she was, was pretty.
Denzel Washington as usual was cool.
Val Kilmer...comes and goes.

hmmm...I wonder what I would change if I can Time Travel and go to past!!!

2006-11-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

# The U.S. entry process is considered the “world’s worst” by travelers

* Travelers rate America’s entry process as the “world’s worst” by greater than a 2:1 margin over the next-worst destination area.

* The U.S. ranks with Africa and the Middle East when it comes to traveler-friendly paperwork and officials.

* 54 percent of international travelers say that immigration officials are rude.

* Travelers to the U.S. are more afraid of U.S. government officials than the threat of terrorism or crime.

* Two-thirds of travelers surveyed fear they will be detained at the border because of a simple mistake or misstatement.

http://www.poweroftravel.org/release-11-20-06.aspx

James Bond's Casino Royale - Daniel Craig fits the role

2006-11-20T11:13:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday went to 'Casino Royale' and 'Happy Feet'.

I wanted to see 'Casino Royale' on Friday, First Day.
But was invited for a Birthday party so I had to watch the movie on the second day :(

So went to see the new Bond after a second Birthday party at noon on Saturday.

The new Bond was awesome.
This is a very different Bond movie.
This is the 'Bond Begins'.
Bond is very rough at the beginning of his career.
He is not sophisticated.
He makes mistakes, he apologizes, he doesn't know how to act(like Bond) around women. He gets beaten and kicked around. He bleeds badly. As the movie progresses, you can see this rough Bond getting refined and starts to kick ass. In the end we get, 'Bond, James Bond' :)

As this was the first novel written by Ian Fleming, there are only few gadgets like the Defibrillator in Bond's Aston Martin and a tracking tag implanted in Bond's arm.

Iam a big fan of Pierce Brosnan. When I heard that he won't be doing the Bond sequel I was disappointed. But when I saw Daniel Craig, I thought it was a good choice.
Daniel Craig made a good impression in this movie as the rough, unrefined Bond. I do not think Pierce Brosnan would have fit the rough Bond role as perfect as Daniel Craig. Piece Brosnan looks sophisticated.

I liked the movie.

It's interesting it gave a tough competition for the Australian animation movie 'Happy Feet' despite the fact that the Bond audience is considerably less than the animation movies and in addition to that, many Bond fans boycotting the Bond movie, to show their dislike in Daniel Craig.

In my opinion, they should watch the movie for themselves.

'Happy Feet' is, I believe, the first Australian full length animation movie. I thought it was hilarious. The animation was very realistic.

Dum Maro Dum - Hare Krishna Hare Ram, Zeenat Aman to Yana Gupta

2006-11-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

I've been listening a lot to one of my all time favorites 'Dum Maro Dum' from 'Hare Krishna Hare Ram'.

Bought the song in iTunes too.

If you wish to see the video of the song, its in YouTube.

Dum Maro Dum YouTube video

God, if I had money, I would remake the movie with Yana Gupta in the role of Zeenat Aman.

Only Hotmail

2006-11-16T10:20:00.000-05:00

Only HOTMAIL.

Iam a paid customer of Hotmail.

A Movie A Day Week

2006-11-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

Monday - Flags of Our Fathers
Tuesday - Flushed Away
Wednesday - Borat
Thursday - The Prestige
Friday - Babel

2006-11-15T13:37:00.000-05:00

India, Pakistan activate anti-terror mechanism

ok...that's funny, because

"I am a Lashkar member", Pakistan MP discloses

Are these guys kidding Indian government?

2006-11-08T13:48:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine and I planned last weekend to do 'A Movie A Day' where we see one movie every evening for 1 week. So far it has gone good. Let's see how it goes from now on.

I was also in for a surprise when I came to know this.

Sivaji The Boss Trailer - Rajini Shriya Vivek Vairamuthu AR Rahman Shankar AVM

2006-11-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

I created this trailer using some still pictures.
Turn on the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADioDbIPggc

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8196567495169793799&hl=en

India's Bangalore in name change - Bengaluru

2006-11-01T14:02:00.000-05:00

"The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says that for many it is an assertion of regional pride and preserving local culture in the face of growing Western influence."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6107082.stm

Preserving local culture ???
You preserve the local culture by closing the bars and night clubs, not by changing name

India's Google Map ?

2006-10-31T14:34:00.000-05:00

I came across this India's version of google maps today.
Even though its not as detailed as US and Canada, this looks cool.
At least its a good start.

Who knows, Yahoo or Google might end up buying this company, making the owners millionares.

http://db.mapmyindia.com/

You can see a map, or you can get driving directions too.

Road Trip to Canada - Part I

2006-10-29T07:54:00.000-05:00

It was like 8.30 am on a wednesday morning. I went to Vasanthi akka's home to get some Canadian dollars. She had some from her earlier visit to Toronto. I thought I could use it. It was a 11 hour long drive from Richmond, VA to Ottawa, Canada, according to my car computer. It started badly. I was lost in Richmond twice. Yes, it's quite embarassing considering that I have lived so long here, I took wrong exits twice and it cost me nearly 30 minutes. Then as I had lots of water that morning, hoping to stay hydrated during the long drive, I had to stop twice to pee between Richmond and Washington DC. But call it blessing in disguise, because of this delay, I missed the rush hour traffic in Washington DC.

When I reached the US-Canada border the immigration post was like a toll booth. The officer 'Bonjour' ed me. I replied the same and said 'Hi' . That's my complete French vocabulary, other than 'Sortie' for 'Exit'(this is very important, I needed to know how to get the hell out of a place when in danger) and 'One, Two, Three'.

The officer did not ask much questions. He knew why I was there.

Then when I reached my place at Ottawa it was like 7.00 pm wednesday night.

I checked in and was looking for a place to eat. I found a Greek fast food place and ordered some Falafel togo.
Came to my room, had it and went to bed.

The next day was important for me. I needed to be relaxed and comfortable.

My new digital Camera

2006-10-26T10:21:00.000-05:00

For a long time, I wanted to own a digital camera.
The one I had bought in 2001 was a very old camera with poor resolution and very low memory.
I gave a Canon digital camera to my sister as a gift.
But I myself never owned one.
The only camera I had was a film SLR.

So for this Canada trip I decided to buy a digital camera.

I was impressed by reading the reviews of a particular camera
Kodak EASYSHARE V570 Dual Lens Digital Camera

I also bought a 1 GB memory card.

I took lots of pictures in Ottawa, Toronto and Niagara falls.
I will have to download them to my computer, which by the way suffered a hard disk crash, and check out the quality of the pictures and video clips(yes, the camera seems to take beaufiful video clips).

But first priority, salvage my notebook computer and see if I can recover my data from the hard disk.

Camera Review:

It's simple, easy menu options, less buttons, not too complicated.
For a "not so smart" guy like me who just prefers to take pictures and does not want to spend time figuring out how to take pictures, this is a good camera.

Road Trip to Canada

2006-10-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

Yea, that's the route of my Road Trip to Canada.

Richmond, Virginia, USA
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Buffalo, New York, USA
Richmond, Virginia, USA

About 1800 miles, 5 days.

2006-10-10T12:43:00.000-05:00

Throwing a stone!

Maybe they just had one nuke and they used it for testing and now they are thinking they made a mistake by using the only one they had for testing.

If this is the way NK is going to fight, then we don't have to worry about them.

2006-10-05T15:15:00.000-05:00

"A terminally ill woman in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan has died after fasting for 14 days in keeping with a religious custom."

"Nikhil Soni, who filed the court petition, says he tried to break her fast and had even informed the local police asking them to take action."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5390162.stm

eh...Nikhil...don't you think you will be doing a better job if you worry about the hundreds of people dying in India out of hunger and poverty?

2006-10-03T09:30:00.000-05:00

Oh I forgot to tell about another movie I saw with my friend in the theater. 'Fearless'.

Jet Li seriously kicks ass.

2006-10-02T08:52:00.000-05:00

This weekend was both tiring and relaxing.
I went to the gym and did some intense exercises after a very long time, and Iam very sore and tired. At the same time I rented lots of DVDs and watched a lot of TV at home too while relaxing in the comfort of my couch.

I saw 'The Triangle'. I thought this was a movie about Bermuda Triangle, but it happened to be a 6 hour TV movie about Bermuda Triangle. Nevertheless I enjoyed it, worth all the money I spent as I got 6 hours of entertainment. Also it was good to see 'Catherine Bell's cute face. But my plans of sleeping early Friday night and getting up early on Saturday morning got screwed.
Then I have started to Netflix one of my all time favorite TV Serial, The X-Files.
I got the first 2 DVDs of Season 1, total 8 episodes including the pilot. Man, I love X-files. Its good to see the faces of Agent Mulder and the flawless Agency Scully :)

Then I also saw 'V for Vendetta' starring one of my favorite actress 'Natalie Portman'. It was an ok movie, in my opinion.

Goddammit its 9:50 am. Let me get back to my work.

The most unwanted

2006-10-02T08:40:00.000-05:00

Even since I returned from There, I have been going though a phase, I guess.
Suddenly I feel like the most unwanted person or the most insignificant person.
I very well knew each one of us and everything we have seen in this planet is insignificant compared to the Space Time Scales we have known.

For those who don't know what Iam talking about, you should see this Cosmic Calendar.

This shows in the known Time scale, our life span is so insignificant. Also we all know the size of the solar system, and the Milky Way galaxy and billions of such galaxies and may be even billions of universes. So both by Space Time scales we are insignificant.

But recently I have started to feel that even in this small planet earth, in the small city where I live currently, Iam the most unwanted and insignificant.

I do not know if this just happened or this was always the case and Iam just aware of it now after coming back from There.

2006-09-26T15:47:00.000-05:00

"I would say that we should never use the word Islamic with whatever is happening. Islamic terrorists. Now, Islam doesn't believe in terrorism. It hurts people's sentiments. You can call terrorism terrorism. It has no religion. There are terrorists in Sri Lanka. Are we calling them Tamil terrorist? Hindu terrorists? They are Hindu."

-Musharraf, September 2006

http://www.foxnews.com/

uh...Mr Musharraf...if the 'terrorists' in Sri Lanka are to be called as 'terrorists', then why should the 'terrorists' in Kashmir be called 'freedom fighters'???

Doesn't make any sense!

oops Flag upside

2006-08-25T12:21:00.000-05:00

Ranjini, Music Box & This Guy (Ye Ladka)

2006-08-22T08:49:00.000-05:00

Ranjini Ettigi is a Richmond, Virginia born young singer who is making her mark in the music industry.
Her album is soon to debut in MTV Asia.

http://www.qwilite.com (official website)
http://www.qwilite.net
http://www.myspace.com/ranjinimusic

License Plates

2006-08-03T12:36:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about this for a while.
Whenever I drive I see these vehicles passing by, or the ones that I pass, and have this coded message or some text in their license plates.
I find it fun to decode them and see what the license plate says.

Then I thought why not catalog them and put it in a separate blog.
(huh, yeah, yet another blog from me. Iam sorry folks, but you always have the choice to not read all my boring blogs)

http://decrypt-licenseplates.blogspot.com/

Evolution of Hi

2006-07-26T10:16:00.000-05:00

How Are You?

became

HAY

became

Hai

became

Hi

2006-07-20T18:05:00.000-05:00

Her hair... soft and rich...
Her voice... liquid...
Her eyes... bewitching...
My sleep filled with restless dreams...
My wakefulness with longings.

Be like a running brook... which deaf, yet sings its melodies for others to hear..
Feel the pain of too much tenderness...
Awake at dawn with a winged heart...
And give thanks for yet another day of loving...
Empty yourself and yet be filled...
And know you are in love.

iPOD

2006-06-25T18:19:00.000-05:00

Finally I got my iPod.

Nelly Furtado is HOT.

Thanks Q94.

Promiscuous Girl by Nelly Furtado

2006-06-23T08:44:00.000-05:00

I've been listening lately the song 'Promiscuous Girl' by Nelly Furtado, and also watching the video. WAW.

After 5 years, now I feel the time has come to buy an iPod. Iam shopping :)

Also, I like the song 'Temparature' by Sean Paul.

Why Tamil is a Classical Language !

2006-06-22T15:59:00.000-05:00

http://tamil.berkeley.edu/

"To qualify as a classical tradition, a language must fit several criteria: it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich body of ancient literature. Unlike the other modern languages of India, Tamil meets each of these requirements. It is extremely old (as old as Latin and older than Arabic); it arose as an entirely independent tradition, with almost no influence from Sanskrit or other languages; and its ancient literature is indescribably vast and rich."

2006-05-26T08:43:00.000-05:00

The BMW that my friend Raghav bought recently.

Doing Business in the East - The West Way

2006-05-11T07:35:00.000-05:00

There is something unique about how some businesses are run in the west

Wireless phone service providers give phones free or at highly discounted rates. Sometimes they even give you money back when you buy one of their phones.
The catch is, you will have to sign a contract for 1 or 2 years with the service providers. That's where they make most of their money.

Car dealers, give great discounts when you buy a new car from them. Dealers don't make much money when they sell the car. But when something is wrong with the car, and when you take it to the dealer, they charge you heavily. That's how they make most of their money.

This is how business is usually done in the West.

Tamilnadu Assembly Elections 2006

DMK has promised a free color TV to every household, if they win the elections.

Now, the question of whether they will stick to the promise, now that they have won the election, will have to be seen.
Honestly, I don't think so. I believe that in urban areas, many families may get free color TV, with great media attention. But in rural areas, probably a whole village may get 1 or 2 free color TVs.

Why would DMK want to give a free color TV, say mainly to people in urban areas?

I belive the reason is two fold.

First, to get people's attention and win the election, which by the way seem to have worked.A classic example of textbook execution.

But the second reason, which I think is true, is truly an interesting and amazing plan.

Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV), part of the Sun TV group, DMKs voice in the media world, is a large cable operator in the Chennai area. They are in a huge acquisition spree, acquiring small cable operators in all parts of Tamilnadu.

So the more people have TV, the more subscribers for Sumangali Cable Vision, the more revenue! TADA!

And since SCV is in acquisition spree, very soon, they will have a huge monopoly in cable business.
Of course the cable service might be free for sometime, say 3 months or so, much similar to the ‘deals’ that they give in USA.
But after that, there is a great chance, that they can charge high amounts for the cable service. This also serves as a platform for them to provide broadband internet services through cable, similar to Comcast in USA.

Once almost every household have TV and SCV, DMKs voice, it can be used as a powerful media to push the agendas of DMK. They can literally control what the people can see and listen through TV.

This is really an ingenious plan.

ICC International Cricket Council adopts one more suggestion from me :)

2006-05-05T08:47:00.000-05:00

The International Cricket Council is to debate whether to allow teams to appeal against umpiring decisions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/4975832.stm

I earlier wrote an email to ICC suggesting few changes to cricket. The email and the response here.

http://vimaln.blogspot.com/2005/02/icc-proposes-changes-in-odi-format.html

The only suggestion remaining now is my 3rd suggestion for Timeout.

Superman Returns - Brandon Routh / Hrithik Roshan

2006-05-01T15:22:00.001-05:00

So my favorite movie Superman Returns...

With Brandon Routh, who resembles Christopher Reeve remarkably.

Although I think Hrithik Roshan will make a better Superman. At least that's what I would have done had I owned WB.

"O Podu" ... Section 49 ‘O’ of the Election rules 1961

2006-04-26T10:28:00.000-05:00

“O Podu” is a social awareness movement.

“O PODU’ means “cast the vote”. Voting is both the right and duty of the people. Another objective of our movement is to make people aware of their constitutional right to cast their vote under section 49 ‘O’.

It is a unique feature of our Indian constitution that it has provided the legal right to the voter to reject all the candidates. Section 49 ‘O’ of the Election rules 1961, has empowered the voter with this right. This section has conferred the right to the voter to inform the booth officer, after the indelible ink mark has been marked, that the voter does not want to vote for any of the candidates. The section requires the booth officer to record the voter’s choice of 49 ‘O’.

http://www.keetru.com/ohpodu/english.html

THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS RULES, 1961

God and Science

2006-04-10T10:54:00.000-05:00

I thought this was interesting (even though I don't agree with either of them 100%). Nevertheless , I learned something from it.

I wonder...

2006-04-06T10:10:00.000-05:00

Scientists question paranormal behaviors saying that until unless they can be observed, measured and repeated, it cannot be accepted and therefore it is not True.

Scientists speak in support of Darwins Evolution theory.

Shouldn't they wait, until they observe the evolution of one species to another, measure and repeat it ?

What the Bleep Do We Know?

2006-04-06T08:32:00.000-05:00

Last night Dixita and I watched the movie/documentary 'What the Bleep Do We Know?'.

I heard a lot about this movie and the hype around it.
Finally got to watch it last night. It was a good movie. But it was over-hyped in my opinion.
It was good in the sense there were lot of things that I was able to understand and learn. But there were many gray areas with inadequate explanation.

I think anyone who is interested in spirituality, quantum physics, or have questions like 'Who are we?', 'Who is God?' et cetera, should watch this movie.

Holy Cow!

2006-03-27T15:14:00.000-05:00

Digits that we recognize as "arabic" were brought to Earth by our teachers from Thiaoouba...

This is kinda spooky!

Google Pages

2006-03-22T14:23:00.000-05:00

Alright, today I got an authorization from Google, to use their yet another beta product, "Google Pages".

Right now, google pages, don't offer much. It's very primitive. Let's see where it goes from here.

http://vimaln.googlepages.com/

Parallel parking

2006-03-21T15:09:00.000-05:00

Do you find it tough to parallel park(like me hehe)?

Well, this is how you do it.

2006-03-17T20:00:00.000-05:00

The picture on the left is nuclear reactor dome. A potential place where nuclear weapons are made.

The picture on the right is siva lingam. A symbol of Lord Siva, the God of Destruction.

Anyway, I just learned about 'Diminished Value'.

Our ancestors?

2006-03-08T14:24:00.000-05:00

Looks like the theory of meteors carrying seeds of life, as mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, dated April 25, 2005, might win. Read this , dated March 5, 2006 and be amazed.