Blazing Bhaji - Turbantor with Bat

Had the pleasure of watching the batting of the "Turbanator" - Harbhajan Singh... He was on a different level altogether and seemed to carry the 'midas' touch with him. Every shot he played was either disappearing into the crowd or hitting the advertising boards.

Tendulkar has been having a dream run of form with bat in this IPL so far. And to top it off with his knock today he came up with a captain's masterstroke idea today of bowling Harbhajan first up. My 2 cents..this masterstroke was prompted by couple of reasons
- The adrenaline was flowing for Bhajji after his batting blitz...nothing could be worse than having a charged up bowler bowling at opponent's batsman
- More importantly, the dew would have made the ball soft and Bhajji would not have the proper grip & loose the impact.

AND BEHOLD...2nd ball of the DC innings...guess what Sachin holds the "kamal" catch to c the back of the most dangerous DC batsman - Gilchrist.

I believe the wind was Knocked out of DC by Bhajji's knock but the fall of Gilchrist on 2nd ball of the innings knocked the spirit out of their fight..

With the result of the two games played today, has thrown IPL -3 open. Rajasthan Royals (RR) with their 4th consecutive win have climbed up the ladder. They are now placed 3rd in the points table after having played 7 games. Deccan Chargers (DC) who were riding a success wave are now struggling and are on the 5th position but very likely to be displaced by KKR or DD tomorrow. Look at the Points Table reference

We still have lots of games to go...And we may see some teams making a comeback

Watch the highlights on www.youtube.com/ipl

IPL3 - Match of the Tournament so far

I have stopped blogging for many days (years).....but watching the match between Chennai Super Kings & King Punjab made me blog again.

Classic match. you could say one team tried its best to loose the match while the other sneaked through an ajar door. there were couple of instances for few players to make a name for themselves and they did not grab it

- parthiv patel had everything going for him. he had to play himself till the last over to take Superkings over the wire
- Irfan Pathan had a golden opportunity to become a hero for Punjab by bowling an over of his lifetime. he had to restrict CSK from getting those 10 runs in the last over

God knows had CSK played their full quota of 6 balls in the Superover...we might still have some more excitement left in the game..

In the end, Chennai Super Kings have themselves to blame as it is said..."THEY SNATCHED DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY".....

Scribd - A good site

Guys...just came across this site SCRIBD where you can upload docs yourself or search for some reference docs.

I came across this site while reading LewisC blog http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/oracle/guide

Lewis Cunningham is an Oracle Ace, author of EnterpriseDB: The Definitive Guide and a Database Architect. I have been following his blogging on ITTOOLBOX very religiously. He definetely has good inputs on Oracle which are very helpfull.

DST Update - Issue with BlackJack Mobiles

By now everyone would have realised that US Moved to Daylight Saving Time (DST) this weekend. So, this means that starting weekend the time zone delta with the US will be one less hour.

Keeping this in view, I noticed that the time on my 'BLACKJACK' had not changed to the DST timings. Oh god.... thinking I had put the time update to manual I checked the settings. To my surprise it was set to 'automatic' and then it dawned on me that the mobile had failed me. As per my naive belief it should have changed to DST based on the settings.

This got me surfing the net and it lead me to the following microsoft site which had an update available for the Window Mobile devices.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx

You need to download the CAB file available.

I downloaded the file and my mobile changed to the DST timings immediately.

Hope this works for everyone.

FYI: I use the AT & T network.

Sync your data - Allway Sync

Last year in thanksgiving I purchased an external drive and since then have been struggling to synchronize the data between PC & External Drive..... some of it can be blamed on my carelessness or lethargy to keep data in synchronize. After quite a struggle & surfing the net, I stumbled upon "ALLWAY SYNC" a free download.

The software has easy to use interface. It helps in 'analyze' the files that need to be synchronized between the source & destination. Allway Sync also gives us a list of files that are questionable and waits for us to take action.

Feel free to download the software from http://allwaysync.com/download.html

Finally, my prayers are answered and data is synchronized between the drives

Cannon SD1000 - Lens Error, Restart the camera

My cannon SD1000 died on me while taking pics of my new born baby. It kept saying "Lens Error, Restart the Camera". In the hospital, I could not concentrate or do any trial n error on the camera.

Back home now... I did the following and it worked

Removed the battery, recharged the same. Inserted the charged batter and very gently moved lens sideways couple of times. The lens immediately went in and I restarted the camera. Everything is back to normal.

I have clicked some more photos and it is working fine.

Not sure if this will work for everyone....no harm in sharing some tip

Bundle of Joy arrives

Wondering why I stopped blogging.....for a very good reason

Sudha and myself were blessed with a cute little baby on 29 Feb. She is named ALEKHYA and will remain 'young' always as she was born in the leap year.

She is our second child....Abhishek our first son is all excited and already playing the bigbrother.

SuperBowl XLII - Final Update

The Final Game lived up to the expectations....Eli Manning gave the 'slip' of his life...Patriots were left shell-shocked. Eli in the last 2 minutes of the game played probably threw the 'best' throws in a football game. NY Giants defense were the "MVP" of the superbowl. Brady was not able to create the moves and was 'sacked' very often or made to throw wild.

An interesting article that caught the attention "Patriots coach a sore loser"

It is point well made .....

"But when the shoe's on the other foot, and Bill Belichick's team has been beaten, he can't sit there and take the pain for a few seconds. "

Bill Belichick should have waited till the final whistle to blow before embarking on his mission to congratulate the winning coach. At the same time, other school of thought would debate that Bill Belichick was eager enough to admit his team was beaten and was being sporting enough to walk across to the other side. This action of the 'star' coach is going to rage for many weeks to come. While the debate is on, we should give Bill Belichick and Patriots there due credit, they were the best but failed the 'last' step to the zenith.

NY Giants are TRUE WINNERS....they were underdogs but played like "CHAMPS"...Congratulations Eli Manning and the brave 'defense' team.

Before signing off - on SuperBowl...the following were the last two commercials watched by yours truely....

Victoria Secret - let the real games begin
American Idol - even champs can dream.

Curtains have come down on another SuperBowl....

SuperBowl XLII - NY GIANTS CHAMPIONS

NY GIANTS ARE THE CHAMPIONS....

Eli Manning gave a slip of the season...he slipped out of the pile to throw a "TOUCHDOWN" pass of his life.

SuperBowl XLII - TOUCHDOWN NY GIANTS

IS THIS THE TOUCHDOWN for the CHAMPIONSHIP......

Are we going to see the the end of "SEASON RUN-STREAK" of the PATRIOTS...

35 secs to go in the match and the Giants lead by 3 and now 'time-outs' will come into picture..

TOM BRADY - THE STATUE will have to bring out his best game out in the field..

HOLD YOUR BREATH ......

SuperBowl XLII - TOUCHDOWN PATRIOTS

Randy Moss - Catches the ball of the match -- A TOUCHDOWN

Tom Brady...is heading for 2nd SuperBowl Championship...

Eli Manning will have to really pull-off something here to keep the NY Giants in the hunt...

MATCH IS ON..........

SuperBowl XLII - Commercial & Game Update

Coke is leading the way in Commercials at the beginning of the 4th quarter

CocaCola - Washington DC
Toyota -
TACO BELL - New Fiesta Platters - OOla
Gatrode - Man's Best Friend
Bud Light - Flint
Hyundai - Genesis - think about it thru the tunnel

Randy Moss has been able to make only 2 catches in the whole match and we are alreadyinto the last 10 mins of the 4th quarter. The NY GIANTS defense is playing their best football. They are hurrying Tom Brady and who looks to be shaken up. He seems to be running out of ideas.

Need to see if we would see another 'ace' coming out of his pocket. He is back on the field as we are in the last 8 mins of the 4th quarter.

SuperBowl XLII - NY Giants Lead

NY GIANTS score a TOUCHDOWN ... LEAD the PATRIOTS 10 -7

SuperBowl XLII - Commercials Update 2nd Half

Hyundai - "Genesis " the drive thru the mountains
*** other blogs are talking about Hyundai making its first appearance since 1989 in SuperBowl

BudLight - Missed the flight
Sunsilk - make it happen
CocaCola - Macy's Parade

************
not sure if these commercials were aired before the SuperBowl

E*Trade - not sure if it was aired before SuperBowl
Jack in Box - Jack in the Spa

the Big Brother - Peyton Manning is looking anxious as he watches his brother putting it up against the Patriots.

SuperBowl XLII - 2nd Quarter Ad Update

The advertisements aired during the 2nd half

Cars.com - Witch Doctor
SalesGenie - Pandas
BudLight - The Wheel
IceBreakers - Ice Cubes
Careerbuilder.com - The Wish, Bee

These ads were aired as the Patriots challenged that NY Giants had 12 men on the field.

SuperBowl XLII - HalfTime Update

Patriots are having a tough time keeping the NY Giants defense at bay. NY Gaints had a turnover just before the half-time. NY Giants would go to the tent feeling good...they have not let the Patriots run away with the game. Tom Brady has been sacked almost 3 times today and has tough time throwing 6 times.

Scoreline of 7-3 in favor of Patriots definetely does not tell the true story of the game. NY Giants are giving everything they have and it is going to 'final' half worth watching.

It is going to be an exciting 2 quarters....Let's watch n enjoy

SuperBowl XLII - Ads Update

The following are the ads that have been watched by me

Ford Synch - Anesthesia On
SalesGenie.com - Indian Touch - Mr. Ramesh
GoDaddy.com - not for kids. surprising it went thru the Censor Board
Budwiser - Horse & Dog partnership
Toyota Corolla - Cannons firing
Garmin Navigator - 'Follow the Leader' the take on the French Leader Napoleon Bonaparte
LifeWater - Lizards dancing to the "Thriller" - Very Catchy
GMC - Never say Never - Yukon Hybrid
BudLight - Gives some Indian touch.
Cars.com - Stone Circle
PepsiStuff.com - not that intersting, involving the Justin Timberlake
Doritos - violent, not cool.
T-Mobile - Barkley & Wade T-Favorites

SuperBowl - Ads Update

Ads that have been aired so far and looking ood

Budwiser - The Fire
Audi - Car take on the 'head of horse' in the film 'GODFATHER'
Dell - Red
FedEx - Piegons causing an havoc
Gatrode - G2 - Derek Jeter Baseball Field

Jim Carrey is at the venue enjoying the show.

Patriots lead 7-3

SUPERBOWL XLII - Underway

Wow...the American sports extravaganza is underway.

the whole of US is now busy watching the match between NY Gaints vs Patriots.

Most of the viewers would be eagerly watching the new advertisements that are going to be released today.

If you miss any of the ads and the same can be watched at www.myspace.com/superbowlads

Budwiser - Fire Adv and Audi's take on the scene from Godfather really show the way for some good ad watching..

If someone wants to know more about superbowl...they can visit the NFL site http://www.nfl.com/home

It would be worth watching if Jr. Manning would be able to pull off a trick out of his bag to upset Brady's applecart.

Will India survive the Last Day?

It has been an exciting series so far and it boils down to the 'last day' of the final test match. The series so far has contained all the 'masala' a bollywood pot-boiler would have. The stories and happenings both on the field and off the field has lifted the Aus-India series to a new level.

Now it comes down to this '5th day' battle and the million dollar question 'Will Indian batsmen survive the last day'. History on the same ground tells us all a different story. In 2004, India had pulled a stunning victory over Aussies when both teams had completed 500 runs in their respective 1st innings. In 2006, Australia had pulled off another Ashes historic win, when they beat England by 6 wickets. Again both teams had scored more than 500 runs in their 1st innings.

As things stand, this match happens to be in the same state as the Aus-Eng match in the 2006. England could not survive and Australia chased down the target.

Apart from the history of the Adeliade ground, we all know about India's vulnerability in the 2nd innings of a test match. Leave the umpiring decisions aside, Indian tail could not survive the last 10 minutes of the Sydney test match. Tail-enders have put up a great show in the 1st innings by throwing their bats around but when it comes to survive they have been found lacking. India do not have a big lead on the board, hence they have not alternative but survive all the sessions of the last day. Hence, it may boil down to how the top-order and tail stands up to the contest.

Moreover, Australians are all charged up and would like to give one of their greats 'Gilly' a resounding farewell. Adam Gilchrist changed the complexion of the 'wicket-keeper' batsman in the history of cricket. He has really given the best performance both in front & behind the stumps.

Oh boy....ODI has changed test cricket... gone are the days when we used to see similar scoresheets and give up on the last day as match heading for a draw....

Who knows what the 'crystall-ball' has in store for us tomorrow...

One placard in the Perth Test carried truely fits the bill today again...

" Heart says India, but Head says Australia"

From 'oracle' point, a T20 match scenario might just be on the cards..Australia trying to chase down 150-175 in the last 20-25 overs...

Indian blues...all the best 2-1 would be the score which would make us all happy..And a 2-2 result would send the INDIAN FANS index to a 'stock' high level