Just another blog...

Wednesday, June 22, 2005
On this day:

Sania goes down....

Sania Mirza goes down but not without a fight.
She lost in the second round of Wimbledon to the 5th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova (the current US Open chanpion). She played very good tennis. She came back strongly to win the 2nd set and put in a good fight in the 3rd set too. She almost won the match!!!

Couple of my friends predicted that she will be sharing frames with Telugu stars in movies in a year's time. I just hope it DOESN'T come true :) She is a great hope for Indian tennis in singles which otherwise doesn't exist right now.

Monday, June 20, 2005
On this day:

2005 US Grand Prix or was it???

I am sure that everyone will agree with me. Yesterday’s US Grand Prix was @$@%@. It was total crap. Off the 10 teams, only 3 started the race.

The other teams withdrew as per recommendation from Michelin due to safety reasons. Ralf crashed during Friday practice because the Michelin tires were not holding up and were failing for some reason that could not be determined.

The so called race had just Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi (all three running Bridgestone). With only Ferrari being a big team on the track, we just cannot call it a race. Even though Ferrari and Schumi won, I really don’t want them to win races this way.

It was a huge disappointment for me and should have been the same for the millions of fans across the world especially with more than 100,000+ people spending $100+ average on tickets. It was a real pity.

Things that could have been done:

Michelin should have done a better job: Ralf crashed at the same corner last year because of tire problem and if I remember correctly, it was Michelin. I just can’t believe that Michelin didn’t do anything to fix that issue. I won’t buy into the argument that because of the change in rules this year, the tires had to last the entire race length and therefore, this hasn’t been tested yet. But even this year, Ralf crashed during the Friday practice and I think that the tires would have been fresh at least at that time. Therefore, I think Michelin messed up big time.

Ferrari could have relented a bit: There was a proposal at the last minute from all the teams to introduce a chicane just before the last corner to slow the cars down. All the teams agreed but Ferrari on account of introducing risks by changing the track just before the race. Therefore, even this proposal couldn’t get through.
Update: I am not sure whether the issue about Ferrari and the chicane is true or not. Different sites are having a different view on this issue. On second thoughts after reading a couple of articles around, even if Ferrari didn't agree on it, I really don't think it is an issue. Just because Michelin couldn't make the right tires, the teams cannot demand a change in the circuit. This is not correct. Of course, the fans were at a loss. Maybe they should all target Michelin and NOT target FIA or Ferrari.

Check out this article at www.f1racing.net
We had a detailed written confirmation from Michelin that the tires were unsafe to run unless there was a chicane put in to slow the speed into this (Turn 13) corner," said Ron Dennis, team principal for West McLaren Mercedes, during the race. "We've been trying with other teams to convince FIA to put a chicane in the circuit, and they refused."

Dennis empathized with the fans while remaining steadfast that safety concerns were the final straw in the decision not to race. "Our primary responsibility is to the safety of my drivers, and I fully understand the consequences for Formula One are severe, and certainly enjoyment for the spectators here," he said. "The teams had no alternative. We were for this to be a non-championship race; we were prepared to race later; we were prepared to do virtually anything other than to race through that corner at high speed. And that's an unacceptable risk."

I am not sure how Dennis can argue to have this race as a non-championship race... I really think he is crazy. Maybe Minardi could ask for the entire season to be scrapped since their car is not up to the mark :)

FIA could have relented a bit: Michelin flew in some other tire compounds for the race, but FIA did not allow the teams to change the tires as per rules 

On a humorous note... All the 7 teams could have driven the race length a little slowly in order to help Michelin gather some testing data so that they can improve the tires at least next year.

Updated: 6/21/2005 - 2:00 PM

Thursday, June 16, 2005
On this day:

Turn Win XP to media center

There is a remote control from SoundGraph that enables you to control Win XP using a remote effectively turning your Win XP to a media center.

"...The solutions from SoundGraph let you control any PC or notebook with an IR remote, as long as you have a free USB port for the infrared receiver. All standard video, audio and image data can be listed and managed, and played with the included multi-media software..."

Tomshardware.com is probably one of the very best review sites that I have been following for a few years now. This product has been certified as "Must Have" which assures that the product must be really good. The external version of this product is pretty easy to install. As it says in the review, all you need is a free USB port for the receiver.

For people like me who have gigs and gigs of songs, photos, videos and movies on the PC, this product is definitely a boon. It is definitely on my wish list when I build my home theater along with a PC media server.

Check out the review at Tomshardware.com

Please enlighten me if there is a equivalent or better product or is there any other means to achieve the same functionality.

Lucas vs. Spielberg

A nice long article about two of the best directors of Hollywood. Check it out.

"... Spielberg—it was revealed—had lent a helping hand to the climactic light-saber duels in Sith. "George gets stuck sometimes," said producer Rick McCallum, as if the Star Wars saga were a particularly stubborn patch of lawn. "He never asks for help, but you can feel it when he needs it. With Steven he got encouragement from a directing peer..."

SpielbLucas

On a sidenote, there is another artcle debating whether Lucas and Spielberg ruined the movies. Check that out too.

Monday, June 13, 2005
On this day:

Apple's transition to Intel

With Apple's transition to Intel confirmed, here is a comic that illustrates the different stages of the transition - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression & Acceptance.

appleintelcomic

From Kiruba

Friday, June 10, 2005
On this day:

Personalized Google homepage

I am not sure how many people are aware of this. Google offers a personalized homepage just like MyYahoo etc. The google homepage can be customized with options to view GMail, stock quotes, weather, Google News and of course Google search.

Visit http://www.google.com/ig