More annoying pop-ups

Can someone tell me how to get rid of pop-ups from the Times of India website? This is a recent development. Earlier I never had this problem in Firefox. Now I see the message saying "Firefox prevented the site from opening a pop-up...." but I still get the stupid pop-up. Btw, I don't have this problem on any other website (barring http://www.chennaionline.com)

John Roberts: Chief Justice nominee

John Roberts goes from virtual unknown to Chief Justice. Man, this is quite a power trip for this guy! I thought some of the current judges on the supreme court might be aspiring for this top job? Don't they have some kind of seniority consideration for this post? Maybe not. This is a clear case of a total outsider walking in and taking the top job. The guy is in his fifties and is likely to hold the top job for a few decades! Wonder why no one is talking about trying to change the rules of the game especially when the country is so sharply divided.

A cake walk confirmation just got interesting....

NZ-India final

As expected by most Indian cricket fans, India lost the final to NZ in the Videocon Tri-series. When the batting clicks, the bowling fails, otherwise the fielding fails, else everything fails. The biggest positive from this tour is that JP Yadav definitely deserves to be in the team as the all-rounder/fifth bowler. Next, Dhoni can certainly help speed up things in the last 10-15 overs. He has proved that more than once and can be counted to deliver in the future.

Venu lost a good chance to prove himself and might find himself dumped for good. Kaif and Yuvraj have extended their survival lease by the odd good performance. Agarkar fans now have more ammunition to fight his cause. Dumpimg Dravid from the captaincy seems to have taken its toll. He probably thinks he has had enough scoring runs under Dada and can keep his place without super performances. Lastly, India is certainly missing Sachin and his all round skills.

All in all, the Indian team is going through a lousy phase. Despite so much talent, a cricket playing nation with so many resources continues to fail. Don't know what exactly it is, but something has to change. If it doesn't, the same story will continue through to the World Cup in 2007.

Jelly Belly Factory

Check out the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, CA if get a chance. If you are headed to Napa this can be a nice stop over for the kids. Unlike the regular robot infested factory floors, this one is so vibrant with all the colors of the jelly beans. Beware, they give you plenty of sample jelly beans that are bound to drive the kids completely hyper if you don't ration them out!

India's win over NZ: Nothing to get excited about!

NZ rested Shane Bond for the match and that made all the difference. Struggling Indian batsman batted like champions. It was a smart move to rest the star bowler in my opinion. He'll be fresh and hungry to have another go at the Indian batting.

NZ's bowling without Bond and Vettori is pretty mediocre. On the other hand, when Bond does the job of putting serious pressure on the batsman from one end, the other bowlers start grabbing wickets from the other despite bein mediocre by themselves. In any case, this victory will give India some much needed confidence going into the finals. It is great that Dhoni played a useful innings to finish up the match for India. The final acceleration is something that India has been badly lacking. The fielding in particular was impressive especially the run outs.

If India win the finals, then all the complaints about Ganguly and co. will be promptly forgotten and Dada will be firmly in control once again.

Pizza Hut sucks, at least the local one does!

I am not a pizza lover. Unfortunately, I sometimes end up eating pizza at work simply because it is convenient, fast and delivered. The closest Pizza Hut to work is at:

1241 W El Camino Real
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Phone: (650)968-8100

For the third time in a row over a course of about 6 months, I have ended up with an upset stomach after ordering pizza from this store! :-(

On the other hand, I have had much better luck with Little Caesar's pizza. Very aggressive pricing, yet decent quality. They don't deliver in most places.

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.