Nice movie for kids

If you are looking for a good movie to take your kid(s) (5 years and older) to, I recommend Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Very nicely made movie. The sets are great and Johnny Depp and the other actors have done a fine job. One can't help notice Johnny Depp's Michael Jackson-like potrayal of Willie Wonka. I haven't seen the original movie from the early seventies(?) so I can't give you a relative view.

Thunderbird: Searching for attachments

I have been using Thunderbird email program for a while now. Its great! The other day, I was trying to search for emails with attachments and couldn't figure out how to do it. I tried searching the Thurderbird site and didn't find anything there on this. Any Thunderbird experts out there?

Cricket: The Day of Reckoning?

Tomorrow could be the end of an era in world cricket. After over a decade of dominating world cricket the Aussie slide is now on the verge of being completed. A defeat at the hands of the English! After a long wait the English press I bet can't wait for its day(s) in the sun!

Nothing has gone right for the Aussie on this tour of England. They have struggled right through and never looked like a champion side. Tomorrow is their last chance to turn the tables. Given the recent performances this seems highly unlikely. A VVS-Dravid show does not happen every day. :-)

Dentist: To remove or not to remove?

According to most (possibly all) Dentists in the US it is recommended to remove the wisdom tooth on both ends and their counter parts on the top row. That is a total of 4 teeth! The claim is that they are not used in the chewing process. I have never heard this from Dentists in India.

In general, the attitude of Dentists in India is to try and save every tooth as far as possible. Dentists in the US on the other hand love to do an extraction at the slightest excuse. Someone told me the supposed rational for this approach. If you remove a tooth then they are free of law suits. If you try some fancy exercise on the tooth and something goes wrong, Dentists are likely to get sued! Also, given the crazy health insurance racket in the US, I believe an extraction is easy money. I am curious to know the experiences of anyone around here on this.

Chinese Restaurants in Mountain View

Two good Chinese restaurants in Mountain View on Castro Street: Hangen Szechuan Restaurant and Hunan Chili. They are very close to each other and are virtual clones of each other. As for downsides: Hangen -- The owners wife could use a visit to "charm school"; Hunan Chili: They try to get you to pay in cash, though nowhere does it say that they have a min charge to use the credit card. If you want to get around it, just say "I have no cash". They'll then accept your credit card!

If you visit either of these try the Mapo Tofu. If you like spicy food you'll love this dish.

Ashes: Aussies in shambles, still worthy of playing the World XI?

England continues to strengthen its hold over the Aussies with this test. As always Flintoff makes all the difference. Just when it looked like the Aussies had England down at 229 for 4, Freddie turns out a fine century. Man, this guy is real good!

The way the Aussies are playing, I don't think this team deserves to play against the rest of the world! The World XI deserves to play a stronger side, perhaps Steven Waugh's Australian side.

India vs. NZ: Bonded by Bond

Shane Bond simply destroyed India's batting. Its not surprising. The team has been performing horribly. Our celebrity stars show up late. Ganguly is still sleep walking more than batting. Viru looks like he has had a little too many "aloo parattas" during the off-season. Dravid is probably pissed with his short stint as captain and too distracted as a result. Yuvraj thinks his century on the SL-WI series is enough for a while. Kaif is mostly a fielder etc. etc.

The saving grace of this match: India finally gave JP Yadav a shot and he certainly looks set for the all-rounder slot. Irfan is evolving into a potential all-rounder. Our opening bowlers have survived longer than one series without injuries and actually performed quite consistently. Last but not the least, India gave one of its youngsters (Venugopal Rao) a good chance to prove himself. Unfortunately, he ended up facing an unplayable delivery. In the competitive environment of world cricket, playing the unplayable is what sets apart the true stars. Nevertheless, Venu needs a few more chances, especially considering how long we persist with our celebrity stars.

Google Talk

Ok, now Google is in the IM/internet voice chat business as well. Its starting to get a little boring. After all the cool search stuff, they seem to be just looking around, seeing what's there and come up with cool variations. Its about time they came up with something drastically new and game changing. I love Gmail, Google Maps, Add Content, Google Video, Google Custom Home page and other old wine in new bottles from Google.

Frankly, I am starting to get a little bored with Google's new stuff. No wonder people are starting to refer to Google as the new evil empire. Does the world need one more IM? One more free email? One more MyYahoo? One more Blogger? One more social networking site? One more Yahoo finance? Oh well...

Chappell's honeymoon is over

Greg Chappell was pissed with the Indian players for showing up late at the start of the tour. He was even more pissed with the press for jumping all over him and taking pictures. Sounds like Chappell's honeymoon period is over. If India flunks this meaningless tournament in Zimbabwe, the pressure on him is bound to get worse. Perhaps he'll have to learn a few lessons about defending himself from Dada.

Graeme Smith: World XI Captain

Its quite an achivement for Graeme Smith to lead the cricket World XI against Australia. Until a few years back, he was brought into lead SF, despite being a virtual unknown. Though he has had mixed results as the South African captain, his recent performance in the county championship Twenty20 tournament and the match against Australia for Somerset speaks volumes of his abilities. Captaining the World XI should be quite a crowning moment for him.

Masala Cricket: Asia XI vs Africa XI

The “masala” cricket that is underway between Asia XI and Africa XI just witnessed another display of classic spineless performance from our Indian tail-enders. Just when tail-enders in the Ashes series are performing unbelievable wonders, the Indian tail-enders succumb with the least resistance as always. Btw, Viru’s bad form seems to continue into this worthless series. India should have sent in the lesser stars/discards like VVS instead. Dravid did a smart thing by withdrawing.  Btw, this entire series is available for $20.00 on broadband.

New Word Plug-in for Blogger!

This is a test using the new MS-Word plug-in for blogger. This is really cool!

Wine Tasting in Fremont, CA

There was Blockbuster video store next to the Wells Fargo Bank on Mowry Avenue (in the Dana Bazaar complex: 5113 Mowry Avenue, Fremont, CA). Now this store has been replaced by a pretty fancy wine shop. Amazing collection of wine from all over the world. They even have some limited wine tasting. I can't remember the name of the store, unfortunately.

Ashes: Third Test

Wow! What an exciting test match. I can't remember the last time test series was so exciting.

Hats off to both teams for spirited performances. Flintoff seems to have come into his own this series and that makes all the difference to the England side. For Australia, Brett Lee deserves a lot of credit for saving the Test unlike the last test where he ended up on the loosing side despite a fighting performance. Most importantly, Ponting played an outstanding innings when most needed.

Here are some thoughts that come to mind after this test:

• Hayden badly needs a break. Katich failed too but I think he deserves a longer rope. Brad Hodge in place of Hayden might be a useful change. However, I think Brad Hodge will come in place of the injured Clarke and both Hayden and Katich will survive another test.

• Steve Bucknor must be forced to retire. His umpiring has been consistently poor for the last few years (especially in matches involving India). His Martyn decision almost cost Australia the match. Btw, I am curious if he (or whoever the match referree is) will show the guts to haul Ponting to the discplinary stand for resenting when Martyn was given out?

• Gillespie is another guy who badly needs a break. His batting is more useful to Australia than his bowling :-) Kasporovich or Shaun Tait should definitely play in the fourth test! I will be terribly surprised if Gillespie plays in the next test.
  

Ashes: England bounces back

What a game! Hats off to the Aussies for fighting back so hard and almost pulling off a victory. England should be relieved to have leveled the series. Flintoff's super abilities and McGrath's absence made the difference to both teams respectively.

With both Lee and McGrath doubtful for the third Test, the Aussies have their hands full with problems. Lee was taken apart in this test, and both Kasparowicz and Gillespie are no where are as menacing (even from a wicket taking point of view). I think its a good idea to try out Shaun Tait as a good surprise package for England. This Ashes is shaping up very well with England putting up a credible fight. Its is also a sign of Australia's waning superiority over other International teams.

Thunderbird is cool

I switched to using Thunderbird (I have been using MS Outlook Express for many years now) a few months back. Its look and feel is very much "Outlook Express like" with lots of cool features as a bonus. So if you are an Outlook Express user, the switch is painless.

The Junk handling capability is especially welcome and powerful in this day and age of relentless junk mail. Search capability is excellent. Since the move to Thunderbird I have been exploring new features more than I ever did in Outlook Express. So this is not necessarily a Thunderbird vs Outlook Express report. Instead its just a re-assurance for anyone contemplating a switch.

Indian Oil Cup: India scrape through to Final

It was a close match after India had WI on the mat. It just proves that India's bowling is weak with a full fledged fifth bowler. Given the wickets in SL are conducive to spin it makes sense for India to play five bowlers including two spinners. This match also strengthens the case for saving Dhoni for the last 15 overs. The opening spot should be a choice between VVS and Ganguly. I don't think there is room for both of them in the team. Hopefully, Viru will fire in the final. Its a pity the JP was a mere passenger on this tour. And sure enough the poor guy will be dropped for the next tour. So much for India's search for the elusive all rounder.

The team for the final in my opinion must be:

Sehwag
Ganguly (if he is fit, else open with Yuvraj and play Venu in the middle order)
Dravid
Yuvraj
Kaif
Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Nehra

WI win against SL. Huh?

Was this match fixed? Or the Sri Lanka team took it easy? Or they decided to lose the match in order to inject some excitement into this boring triangular series? It had to be one of these. Its hard to imagine this WI team pull off a victory against any team. ...barring maybe India on a really bad day:-(

Supreme Court Justices: Term limits?

Why don't Supreme Court justices have term limits? I don't understand the logic behind these life time appointments. The US produces so many lawyers with great credentials, so why should this privilege of being on the Supreme Court be restricted to just a few individuals.

Its sad to see Chief Justice William Rehnquist drag himself to court despite his poor health. Sure, its a personal decision and he wants to continue serving. But when the country has so many qualified individuals can't we give the poor guy some rest? (Btw, I truly admire his resilience and commitment, and this is nothing personal towards him or other cancer patients).

I just think its crazy to have lifetime appointments for any post. Getting rid of it will certainly help reduce the partisan nature of the battle that goes in the appointment and confirmation process. Some kind of system where every President gets to appoint a couple of Supreme Court justices or something on those lines.

Speedy travel to India

Check this out -- 16 hours to Bombay from SF! Can't wait for these flights to become operational. Its looonnggg overdue!

India-Zimbabwe series coming up

Another meaningless cricket series is round the corner. Two tests against a second string Zimbabwe side. I sincerely hopes the Indian selectors give our so-called celebrity cricket stars a rest and send in an entire team of newcomers. It would be painful to see the Ganguly, Sachin, Sehwag and Dravid pile up centuries against the second string Zimbabwe side. Another golden opportunity for India to try and expose some up and coming players to international cricket.

The elusive Indian all-rounder

The Indian cricket team has been struggling to find an all rounder ever since Kapil Dev's departure. Forget about a star bowler like Kapil. India badly needs someone who can score 3-50 runs and be counted to bowl 10 consistent overs in every match.

The Indian team management strategy of unearthing this elusive player is completely baffling. India has played three matches and not once has anyone who fits that profile been given his quota of overs to bowl. Venugopal Rao never got to bowl in the two matches he played. Then he was dumped from the team. Raina seems to have developed into a run out specialist. He gets to bowl the last over to give away the winning runs. Kinda like giving the young boy a candy. JP Yadav is busy warming the benches while Ganguly and Sehwag get to cover for the 5th bowler! Firstly, how can you unearth an all rounder unless you experiment with those who fit the profile?

India went into this series knowing fully well that the fifth bowler-all rounder slot was crucial. Then, we select a few newbies and never try them out! Why were these guys selected if the captain does not have the confidence to try them out? What kind of message does it send to these newcomers? In my opinion the captain must select a couple of bowlers who he thinks are the going to be his 5th, 6th and 7th bowling options and then make sure they bowl in every single match. That's the only way they can identify this key player.

To experiment or not to experiment?

Arjuna Ranatunga has criticised India's strategy of experimenting with the batting order as having "pressed the panic button". I completely disagree. In fact, I feel India is not experimenting enough, especially on the bowling front. To start with, India should have selected a new look team. An insignificant tournament with a third rate team like WI participating -- can there be a better place to experiment?

India is a cricket crazy country with over a billion people. Unlike other fields of endeavor, cricket is an area where India has no shortage of funds. The BCCI has boat loads of money and sponsors from all over the world throw money at events and at the cricketers. Yet, India is third from the bottom in its ODI rankings. Clearly, there is something wrong.

The age old strategy of sticking to heroes of the yester years while young talent ages and withers away without ever landing on the international arena has gone on for too long. The only way that this can be can prevented from happening and ensuring that India becomes the best team in the world is by experimenting and unearthing talent. The only way we are going to be successful is by giving new-comers a shot at the international level.

I wish India had experimented more on Bangladesh tour. What is the point of sending an injured Tendulkar to Bangladesh to score a double hundred while the Srirams, Badanis, and Joginder Sharmas of the country languish on the bench? It doesn't prove anything and doesn't help prolong the career of the world #1 batsman? What is Kumble doing in a worthless tournament like this when he is barely assured of a place in the playing eleven! Why bother with VVS Laxman when we know his fielding sucks, he can't bowl and his batting form has been pathetic.
Personally, I think the days when one can play at the international level of over 10 years are gone. Most players must consider themselves lucky to survive at the top for more than 5 years. For example, barring Michael Clarke most Aussie batsman and all rounders get a break at the international level only in their late 20s or early thirties.

Cricket has become too commercial a sport and the stakes are way too high for India to compromise on unearthing new talent. The only way to do that is by experimenting.