Hasta la vista 08

Here we are again, at the end of another year - 2008. We are all perhaps looking back at the year and taking stock of where things are, how the year has passed and what we made of it.

Since I recently made a fresh new  move, and in the process moved far away from most of my family and friends, I’ve been thinking lately about what’s important to me and what I’m thankful for. I am thankful for this past year — I changed jobs, bought my dream jeep, got married, I have expanded my photography explorations and moved into a European country. I should also be thanking my wife, who stood by my side all through the difficult times. I cannot say 2008 was the happiest year for me, but overall, I am happy - except in few matters.

I honestly didn’t expect anyone to want to read Cross Roads and I didn’t care, because I had decided to do it primarily for myself as some kind of a journal. I started getting visitors only a couple of days after posting the first entry though I never expected to have hits. The blog got more and more important to me this year. Personally and professionally.

Through CrossRoads, I have met some interesting and indeed in the truest sense, beautiful people.  Thanks to my intolerance of wrong and inability to stay quiet about it, I have also come across quite a number of single cell morons.  Logic tells me that unless I wish to sink to their level, I should defend their right to hold their opinions however odious they may be.  Take their keyboards away from them and ban them from public places.  Right and wrong are often matters of opinion and interpretation, however very frequently they are not. 

2008 had been a very interesting year for me. A couple of failures and some huge successes. But life is good and, at the end of it - isn't that what matter?

I wish you all a good start in the next year. May all your hopes for 2009 come true. May all your fears in 2009 turn out as unnecessary over the course of the year.

Hasta la vista 2008. In minutes, you would be behind the curtains until such time comes when time travel is possible.

Hmm… your browser is not officially supported

I am coming out of the bloggers block and I do not want to be hit by it again. Hence I am writing anything that comes to my mind, just to keep me going (self explanatory?). Those who know me in person would know that I am a gadget freak and that my computer would always be equipped with genuine versions and latest updates of the software that I am using. In addition to this I am also a beta tester for Microsoft, Symantec, Kaspersky, Adobe and many other software firms out there. So here I am, writing about an episode from my life as a Beta Tester.

Microsoft had released a beta version of Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8) a couple of months back and I have been using the same ever since. Since we're talking about one of the most popular browsers on the web, which a lot many of the people had downloaded, installed and tested.  However, some of them (including myself) has encountered unexpected problems because IE8 doesn't support several important web services, including Yahoo Mail. In fact, you may manage to log in using the "Emulate IE7" function but, the compatibility issues still exist. There were problems in accessing Gmail with the first release, however this has been fixed with the latest build and even the New Gmail themes would work in IE8.

I am not a great fan of Webmail as I am very much satisfied with the comfort and convenience offered by Outlook. However, I use the New Yahoo Mail as my secondary email. Now let's see what happens when trying to access Yahoo mail with IE 8. The new Yahoo Mail states that it supports IE 6.0 and newer, Firefox 1.0 and later and Safari 2.0 and later, on Windows 2000, XP, Vista or later and Mac OSX or later.

Since it says that IE 6.0 and later is supported, this would obviously mean that later releases, including IE 8, are also compatible. Well, they're not. When trying to access Yahoo Mail with IE 8, I got the well-known error: “Hmm... your browser is not officially supported. The all-new Yahoo Mail hasn't been tested on your browser. You can choose to continue, or simply go to Yahoo Mail Classic.” I finally managed to get inside Yahoo Mail with the emulation active and it worked pretty fine. Each time I want to check my mails in yahoo, I have to undergo this. Thankfully, I do not have to emulate IE7, I just need to click on Continue.

So, in case you're currently considering updating your Internet Explorer browser to version 8, just think twice if you're addicted to Yahoo Mail. Or just wait a while until Yahoo officially support IE8 Beta.

May be I should do some alpha testing too…

Boolokam

Reading this clip in Today's Mathrubhumi Daily made me think and post about Malayalam blogs.

Blogging is fast gaining popularity among Internet users in Kerala and Malayalam blogs are gradually making their presence felt. Most bloggers have at some point had the habit of maintaining a personal diary. But unlike in diaries, where you can jot down every minute detail and your inner most secrets, a blog can be used as a platform to discuss, share your views and opinions on a wide range of topics. Blogging space helps you to be in touch with what's happening around the world, the latest news, which doesn't come in the media, meet new people or just for personal growth.

Diaries remain in one corner of your room while a blog takes you to each and every corner of the world. Once into blogging, these once-upon-a-time diary writers's habit of maintaining diaries takes a back seat (as what happened to me!). They move onto a faster medium of typing as well as rapid technology of publishing. More than encouragement from one's family, it is the response from their readers, which keeps the bloggers passionate about blogging and maintaining the blog.

However, Malayalam bloggers have a disadvantage - those who read their blogs have to be able to read Malayalam, which means fewer hits than English blogs. This perhaps is the major reason why Keralites shy away from blogging in Malayalam, though there could be a million Internet users in Kerala. Common guys, blogs are easy to create, all you need is a computer and an Internet connection. Pen down what you want others to read, log on to your account and simply upload for others to read. In a few seconds, web surfers can read the published content, and give you their feedback.

If however you do not want to write online, there are tools like Windows Live Writer, Qumana, Flock and loads more available on the net, where you can write offline and publish online. You can publish your blog post in seconds even if you are on a dial-up connection.

As for me, blogging enhances my skills in logical thinking, problem solving, research and writing. What about you?

New version of Windows Leaks to Internet.

Pirated copies of a Windows 7 build pegged by many as the beta Microsoft Corp. will release next month have leaked to the Internet, according to searches at several Bit Torrent sites today and yesterday.  A search on the Pirate Bay BitTorrent site, for example, returned two Windows 7 Build 7000 listings, both of which had been posted Friday.

As of Saturday afternoon, one torrent on Pirate Bay showed more than 1,800 "seeders" -- the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the torrent file -- and about 8,500 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. The torrent is a disk image of the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate, Build 7000, according to users commenting on the site and elsewhere on the Internet.

Pirate Bay and other BitTorrent sites, including Mininova, listed the beta build as a 2.44GB download.  This is not the first time Windows 7 has escaped from Microsoft's limited testing pool. Just hours after the company unveiled an earlier version at its Professional Developers Conference in late October, the alpha edition hit BitTorrent.

Users first reported the newest Windows 7 leak on Neowin.net's forums Friday, with the opening message and screen shots coming from someone identified as a "+fivestar VIP", who said he was from Beijing, China. Build 7000 is what Microsoft will issue next month as Windows 7 Beta, according to other reports by Windows bloggers who have copies. Paul Thurrott, for example, posted a review and screen shots of Build 7000 today on his "SuperSite for Windows" site, naming it as the Beta build.

Although Microsoft has promised to open the beta to all users in early 2009, it has been mum on an exact release date. Information published on its own Web site earlier this month, however, hinted that the beta will be available no later than 13th Jan. Some commentators and bloggers have maintained that Microsoft may release the beta as early as Jan. 7, after CEO Steve Ballmer delivers a keynote that evening at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where he is expected to talk about Windows 7.

Source : CompuWorld

Light is on the way

I was surprised at how friendly, laid back and fun is everyone here. I met some great guys and gals and even strangers are polite in a very sincere way. I’ve seen more than my share of fake smiles and meeting people who are so genuinely friendly and nice was a bit unusual at first. People affect me so much that over the months I gradually changed from being guarded, cold and reserved to being more cheerful and friendly myself. I’ll miss a lot of folks here when I eventually go back  home.

The days have been getting shorter since late June, or so I hear.  In the past two weeks, I’ve noticed that we also haven’t gotten any sunlight at all (Today was an exception - a bright sunny day).  I don’t know whether this is typical for the few weeks right around the winter solstice or if we have just happened to have had really bad weather. In a few more days, this trend will reverse and the days will get longer.  A fact that escapes many people in the modern age is that the shortest day of the year in Ireland takes place on December 21. I suppose that this is because of the proximity of Christmas. With so much emphasis on lighting up the place for Christmas and in plenty of time the absence of daylight is not noticed as it once used to be.

As the shortest day of the year was approaching, more and more multi-coloured lights and bright, festive decorations are splashed across houses and yards everywhere. Long ago, in more earthy times, people celebrated the solstice because it was the rebirth of the sun, when days began to lengthen and light began to return. As our ancient ancestors probably realized, their celebrations helped to keep spirits up when times were dark and cold, just as our modern holiday light displays function as a way to ward off the winter blues.

This event, known as the winter solstice, is much more pronounced the farther north you go in the world.  After you cross the Arctic Circle, you get a period known as polar night, where the sun doesn’t come up for several days to several months depending upon how far north you go.  Even as latitudes approach the Arctic Circle, however, days get dramatically shorter.

Please do note that the most powerful political and economic centres in the most powerful nations in the world all fall within a winter sunlight deficiency zone. Either way, the lack of sunlight and minimal daylight is pretty terrible.  I have heard the opposite version of this during the summer is amazing though.

Do the sunless, gray days of winter make you feel depressed, rundown, or lethargic? Around this time of the year, thousands of people find that they suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. SAD is a type of depression caused by a lack of sunlight.

Our perception of the world around us depends greatly on the information we receive about it. It also may depend more than we realize on our health, specifically our vitamin D availability in colder months. There is no way to couch this in cutesy, comfy language.

The way you see the world around you reflects the state of your mind. Your world view is how you are. The same world that some people see as dangerous, cutthroat, self-serving and frightening is seen by other people as compassionate, helpful, kind and generally moving forward in a way that is positive for the human species.

Health itself can play a huge role in a person's view of the world and in how they perceive and relate to members of their family and the people at work. People who live north of a line running roughly through the middle of the temperate zones then toward the poles from there may easily suffer from depression due to SAD.

Some one who is close to you might be suffering from SAD. Vitamin D supplements can help. It won't hurt you and me to take action to make our own lives and those of our loved ones better during the colder months of the year.

Karunanidhi warns supporters of banned organisations

M. Karunanidhi, the chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Thursday sent out a warning to the supporters of the LTTE, saying that the DMK government would not hesitate to take action against those who voice support and act in favour of banned organisations.

“The warning is applicable to all,” the Chief Minister said in a statement. Responding to a question whether the DMK was supporting the LTTE in the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Mr. Karunanidhi said the objective of his party was to ensure the safety of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. “The DMK is not supporting those who support the banned organisations in India. The DMK government will not hesitate to take action against those who voice their support to such organisations,” he said.

The warning has come at a time Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK), an ally of the DMK, is making preparations for ‘Tamil Eelam Recognition Conference’ on Friday in Chennai. PMK founder S. Ramadoss is slated to speak at the conference.

Source : The Hindu

Chronicles of Christmas

I am feeling very tired today. Got out of the bed at around three, checked through the windows to see if its snowing. The heating was on for quite a long time, so I switched it off and got back to bed. There I was having a most enjoyable dream when into it intrudes the sound of a siren. Eventually I realise that it is the snooze alarm on my mobile, so I force myself back to reality.

Battle to wake up this morning.  The brain realises its Christmas and I ought to getup.  Manage to drag myself out of bed with my eyes still half shut and stumble into the bathroom, and with eyes still closed start to brush my teeth. Looking at the mirror, I think, well, I have made it through this year almost. I am coming out of the bloggers block. So what am I going to write about today? Well, its Christmas. Why don't I write something about Christmas?

As the houses and storefronts are decorated with the adornments of the season and people are bustling trying to perform the duties that have been added to their normal routine, some may wonder, “Why we are doing all this?” 

The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmas traditions were celebrated centuries before the Christ child was born. The 12 days of Christmas, the bright fires, the yule log, the giving of gifts, carnivals(parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from house to house, the holiday feasts, and the church processions can all be traced back to the early Mesopotamians.

Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of New Years. The Mesopotamians believed in many gods, and as their chief god - Marduk. Each year as winter arrived it was believed that Marduk would do battle with the monsters of chaos. To assist Marduk in his struggle the Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. This was Zagmuk, the New Year's festival that lasted for 12 days.

The Mesopotamian king would return to the temple of Marduk and swear his faithfulness to the god. The traditions called for the king to die at the end of the year and to return with Marduk to battle at his side.

To spare their king, the Mesopotamians used the idea of a "mock" king. A criminal was chosen and dressed in royal clothes. He was given all the respect and privileges of a real king. At the end of the celebration the "mock" king was stripped of the royal clothes and slain, sparing the life of the real king.

The Persians and the Babylonians celebrated a similar festival called the Sacaea. Part of that celebration included the exchanging of places, the slaves would become the masters and the masters were to obey.

Early Europeans believed in evil spirits, witches, ghosts and trolls. As the Winter Solstice approached, with its long cold nights and short days, many people feared the sun would not return. Special rituals and celebrations were held to welcome back the sun.

In Scandinavia during the winter months the sun would disappear for many days. After thirty-five days scouts would be sent to the mountain tops to look for the return of the sun. When the first light was seen the scouts would return with the good news. A great festival would be held, called the Yuletide, and a special feast would be served around a fire burning with the Yule log. Great bonfires would also be lit to celebrate the return of the sun. In some areas people would tie apples to branches of trees to remind themselves that spring and summer would return.

The ancient Greeks held a festival similar to that of the Zagmuk/Sacaea festivals to assist their god Kronos who would battle the god Zeus and his Titans.

The Roman's celebrated their god Saturn. Their festival was called Saturnalia which began the middle of December and ended January 1st. With cries of "Jo Saturnalia!" the celebration would include masquerades in the streets, big festive meals, visiting friends, and the exchange of good-luck gifts called Strenae (lucky fruits).

The Romans decked their halls with garlands of laurel and green trees lit with candles. Again the masters and slaves would exchange places

"Jo Saturnalia!" was a fun and festive time for the Romans, but the Christians though it an abomination to honour the pagan god. The early Christians wanted to keep the birthday of their Christ child a solemn and religious holiday, not one of cheer and merriment as was the pagan Saturnalia.

But as Christianity spread they were alarmed by the continuing celebration of pagan customs and Saturnalia among their converts. At first the Church forbid this kind of celebration. But it was to no avail. Eventually it was decided that the celebration would be tamed and made into a celebration fit for the Christian Son of God.

Some legends claim that the Christian "Christmas" celebration was invented to compete against the pagan celebrations of December. The 25th was not only sacred to the Romans but also the Persians whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that time. The Church eventually was successful in taking the merriment, lights, and gifts from the Saturanilia festival and bringing them to the celebration of Christmas.

The exact day of the Christ child's birth has never been pinpointed. Traditions say that it has been celebrated since the year 98 AD. In 137 AD the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of the Christ Child celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350 AD another Bishop of Rome, Julius I, choose December 25th as the observance of Christmas.

http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/ visit the link to find out more.

Well, time for me to get my head straight. I thought of writing about my activities on Christmas and ended up writing on Christmas instead :(

The Runaway Jury

A couple of years back, I had the habit of buying a book every month. With time, the habit went down the drain, but reading has not. I read a min of two books every month and am somewhat proud to say that whatever linguistic skills I have acquired, are the result of my reading habits. Before I started blogging, I would finish reading a book and would jolt down my impressions in my diary. These days, I publish my notes in my blog. Yes, its my blog. I am free to write about anything that comes to my mind.

Till date, I haven't read many hard cover books. My choice has always been the paperbacks. A paperback can  be a great diversion from life, and this has always proved true where I am concerned. 'The Runaway Jury' by Grisham was one of the bestsellers and if my knowledge is correct, the story was adopted to make a movie.

The plot unwinds: A jury is selected in Mississippi to hear the case of a widow whose husband died of lung cancer. On this jury are all manner of average citizens, except that one juror, Nicholas, a law school dropout, has managed to penetrate county records, get a fictitious name added to the jury roll, and then have that non-person be selected to hear the case. The tobacco industry goes to great lengths to influence the jury, even outright bribing a few jurors. There's no dramatic cross-examination; no heart wrenching testimony. 

For once, lawyers play a small role in Grisham's tale. Instead, the focus is on Rankin Fitch and his nemesis, Marlee, who also happens to be Nicholas' girlfriend. Marlee and Nicholas have hatched a plot to get even with the tobacco industry. Fitch is the guy behind the scenes, a master manipulator with unlimited funds from Big Tobacco, and he will do anything to win. He is not one of the lawyers, but this is his eighth tobacco trial and he has never lost. The cat-and-mouse game played between Nicholas, Marlee and Fitch over the direction of the jury quickly becomes hair-raising as the stakes inch ever higher.

I am not going to give away the rest of the story. Grab a copy and read for yourselves. You wouldn't regret it.

The book best illustrates jury tampering,  the conduct of a jury which cannot follow instructions and the obsession of the tobacco companies to stay rich. At times, we get the feeling that those who head the tobacco companies would prefer death than to accept a defeat in the trial.

I have no practical experience with a Jury.  Jury tampering in the form of purchased votes as Grisham illustrates here is perhaps only one. A less prominent theme in 'The Runaway Jury', but one which nonetheless plays a major role in any big trial is the influence of the media; a community saturated by one-sided publicity about a trial is unlikely to yield a fair and impartial Jury. Additionally, the conduct of the attorneys can be a factor in influencing a jury's verdict. (The Jury system is not practice in India, and my knowledge on the system comes out of reading.)

As usual with Grisham, the writing is no more than workmanlike, the characterizations are alternatively thin and too broad, but all is redeemed by his patented combination of expertise and narrative drive. What makes The Runaway Jury his most rewarding novel to date is that it is fully enlisted in an issue of substance, in which arguments of genuine pith are hammered out and resolved in a manner that is both intellectually and emotionally satisfying. It's a thriller for people who love and like to think.

The taste of bread : Croissant

Waking up early in the morning on a winter morning can be fun. I was expecting frost all around and condensation in the car windows. Alas, I found the morning to be quite opposite. Even the wind was not blowing as it does often. My wife have been wanting to have driving lessons and sensing the optimal conditions, I decided to take her on a couple of lessons. Being tired after the lessons, she went back to sleep and this meant no breakfast. :(

Waking up just in time for a brunch, she wants to have a quick shopping and out we go to the shopping centre to get some groceries. This is how I came to have breakfast with a wonderful french bread - The Croissant. There was nothing wrong with the ingredients, and I just loved the splendid taste.

Since I loved the bread (which is somewhat rare), I wanted to find out how it is made and did a bit of reading on the net. They are made of a leavened variant of puff pastry by layering yeast dough with butter and rolling and folding a few times in succession, then rolling. Making croissants by hand requires skill and patience; a batch of croissants can take several days to complete. However, the development of factory-made, frozen, pre-formed but unbaked dough has made them into a fast food which can be freshly baked by unskilled labour. Indeed, the croissanterie was explicitly a French response to American-style fast food. The pastries are extremely popular in France as well as in other nations, and are typically eaten with breakfast. In some cases, croissants may also be filled with sweet or savoury ingredient, or used like bread to make croissant sandwiches.

The French pastry? Not really so. It was around 1683 that the Ottoman Empire decided to take over Venice. The Ottoman Turks and Venetians - Comparing the two, it was clear that the Turks was greater in number. However that does not undermine the power of Venetians.

Finally, the battle arose and Venice manages to hold their stand. They won the battle. To celebrate, all the bakers in the country decided to bake a new cake shaped as Crescent , just like the symbol of Ottoman Turks Empire. They believed that by eating the cakes, it is the symbolic represent that they are eating out the Turks from their land. Thus that was how the Croissant invented at first. Surprising?

I can't believe I never knew about these delicious breads. I'm hungry for a croissant, now. I love to taste the butter to the fullest! Go ahead, enjoy a Croissant.

I live in a different time zone now. So the post timing dose not mean that I am up late in the night :)

Can Red Wine reduce risk of Cancer?

Having a glass of red wine after dinner or adding some of the delicious drink to your food may be a good idea. A new study has found that an antioxidant component in it can decrease the risk of lung cancer.  Although the new finding is only restricted to men, the health benefits of the drink are well known.  The occasional glass is supposed to reduce the risk of developing the disease.

This is according to a report in the October issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention¸ a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"An antioxidant component in red wine may be protective of lung cancer, particularly among smokers," said Chun Chao, Ph.D., a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena, California.

Chao analysed data collected through the California Men's Health Study, which linked clinical data from California's health system with self-reported data from 84,170 men aged 45 to 69 years. Researchers obtained demographics and lifestyle data from surveys computed between 2000 and 2003, and identified 210 cases of lung cancer.

Researchers measured the effect of beer, red wine, white wine and liquor consumption on the risk of lung cancer. Adjustments were made for age, race/ethnicity, education, income, body mass index, history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema, and smoking history.

Among the study participants, there was on average a two percent lower lung cancer risk associated with each glass of red wine consumed per month. The most substantial risk reduction was among smokers who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day. The researchers reported a 60 percent reduced lung cancer risk in these men. Researchers warned men to stop smoking as the best way to reduce lung cancer risk; noting that even men who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day still face higher lung cancer risk than do non-smokers.

No clear associations with lung cancer were noted for consumption of white wine, beer, or liquor. "Red wine is known to contain high levels of antioxidants. There is a compound called resveratrol that is very rich in red wine because it is derived from the grape skin. This compound has shown significant health benefits in preclinical studies," Chao said.

Chao said their findings should not be construed to recommend heavy alcohol consumption.

Time for a glass of red wine? Now you can drink wine and know that there are some health benefits to it. How many other alcoholic drinks have health benefits?

Story of a Promise

News Courtesy : ManoramaOnline

Banks must apologise: Barclays Boss

The credit crunch will last for up to two more years, the boss of Barclays Bank believes.

John Varley forecasts that consumers and businesses would struggle to access credit for between one and two more years. He says banks should apologise to customers to regain their trust.

Mr Varley told BBC1's Panorama that the banking industry was facing a "public relations crisis" and would not regain the trust of the public until it had said sorry for what went wrong.

He told the programme: "If you look at the industry as a whole, if I speak as a member of the industry rather than as chief executive of Barclays, I absolutely have to say we should share our portion of responsibility."

A reduction in the overall quantity of debt in the economy was imperative, he said.

He added that he did not expect banks to start to increase their lending again before 2010.

But the key to economic recovery lay in asset prices, he argued."As soon as asset prices stabilise, then we will see the financial economy recover. And when will that occur? That will occur some time over the course of the next 18 months," he said.

Source : Yahoo News

Face Off :

Remember watching the movie Face/Off where a revolutionary medical technique allows an undercover agent to take the physical appearance of a major criminal and infiltrate his organization? Well, the video below is not a movie, but a scene from real-life.

Surgeons have replaced 80 percent of a woman's face, transplanting bone, teeth, muscle and nerve in the first such operation in the United States. She suffered severe trauma that cost her an eye, much of her nose and her upper jaw and left her unable to breathe, smell, taste or smile properly.The details about the woman, how she was injured, or who the donor was is still unknown.

Please be patient as the video may start with an advertisement.

She would need to take immune-suppressing drugs for life and may have to fight rejection. Now she can look forward to smiling again and taking a walk in the street without the fear of being called names or being humiliated because of her appearance. Reuters quotes the doctors : "We very much hope that for this very special group of patients there is a hope that someday they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things we take for granted."

The operation is the fourth done globally. French surgeons replaced much of the face of a woman in 2005 after she was disfigured in an attack by her dog. Last year, her doctors reported that she recovered slowly and steadily, overcoming two episodes of rejection.

The Crazy Ones

Here's a great advertisement from Apple that honour those that make up their own rules -

Apple Advertisement : Think Different - The Crazy Ones.

New Horizons of advertisement....? What do you think?

Hit with the Bloggers Block

Ever since my last post, I've been hit with blogger's block. I haven't been able to write any thing. I've tried, but was not able to make any progress on anything. It could be because I was thinking of writing on a highly controversial topic. I was going to do it, I am going to do it, but I just can't seem to bring myself to write on it, or anything for that matter.

I have tried different approaches, some worked halfway through. Some just didn't kick off. Well, I guess it's not just the controversial topic that put me in this situation. There are other things going on through the back of my mind and I need to deal with them or I may never be able to write another word, ever again.

To get out of it, I have decided that I will be posting comparatively small entries for now. May be that would work and writing short paragraphs would ease me back to my old blogging habits.

Xmas is here and it gets colder day by day. May be that also have to do with my blogging. Let's wait and see.

Big B Vs Four Brothers

	There are many movies in Malayalam which were adopted in other languages. Some of them have been great hits where some were flops. Manichithrathazhu became ChandraMukhi and then BhoolBhulaiya. The three movies were huge hits. The success story did not go on with Kuselan, a remake of the Malayalam film - Kathaparyumbol which was a mega hit in Malayalam. Many movies from other languages were remade in Malayalam too. The most notable one among them, is perhaps 'BIG B', a remake of a Hollywood movie. Malayalee Cinematographer Amal Neerad debuted into filmdom by doing the camera of Renjith's Black. After this hit, the cameraman was busy with a number of Ram Gopal Verma productions which has given him a firm grip over Hollywood. But when he thought to debut as a director, he very well opted for Malayalam.
	It was widely acclaimed for its cinematography, with its intense fight sequences, well-choreographed shootout scenes and peppy background music. The technical excellence of the film is deemed the best in the history of the Malayalam Film Industry. The film is a remake of John Singleton's Four Brothers (which itself is a remake of The Sons of Katie Elder). Although the film is a remake for having a similar plot line, it does not share any similarities, in terms of the technical side of the film, with the original. Both the films were released long back, but I abstained from writing a review, as I haven't been able to watch Four Brothers till recent times.
	Amal Neerad seems to be saying with his new thriller Big B that there are more ways of telling an action story, than those you already witnessed. Despite its simplistic storyline, it manages to stir your soul, and transport you to something that you have never experienced in Malayalam Cinema. The film stands out in all its technical departments. Sameer Thahir, the debutante cinematographer must feel proud to get into the fray with such a brilliant work. Vivek Harsha with his breezy editing and Gopi Sunder with memorable BG tracks, elevate the flick to a level of a Boll.
	Making a must see for a quality conscious, refined film buffs and also the front liners at the same time, the film establish the director as one of the brilliant and techno savvy story teller of our times. Though the film maintains its racy pace only on the second half, it succeeds in retaining the audience's interest till the end. Unlike most Mallu action movies, Big B proves to be a well thought-out product, which does its job of providing entertainment to perfection. Both the movies tells the story of 4 brothers who reunited after the death of their mother (4 are adopted sons) and decides to avenge her death.The 4 brothers are lead by the big brother played by Mammootty in Malayalam and Mark Wahlberg in English.
	Those of you who haven't yet had a chance to watch Four Brothers, please do so and you will know what I am talking about. I am yet to watch ‘The Sons of Katie Elder’, but I'll be doing so soon. Though equal importance is given to the four brothers in the English version, when it was remade in Malayalam, Mammooty took all the screen space considerably reducing the performance from other actors. ‘Big B’ shows us that with conviction and talent, we can make stylised movies having technical standards on par with the international, even with our low budget.

A Brave Soldier, The Dog and the Media Scoop

The Brave Soldier :-

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, a young man who knew his duty well went about doing it professionally and in the end made the supreme sacrifice of his life so that his colleagues would not meet his fate. He was given a hero’s burial. The electronic press was in the forefront in heaping praise and the high and mighty gathered to pay respect.

This would not have happened if he was able to do more acts of bravery and survive to tell the tale. You would not have heard about him, had he suffered injuries only - however brave his actions were. Sure, the Media would have then surrounded his hospital bed and bombarded him with repeated questions on the action, so that they could give on ground reports to the salivating public eager to know each and every detail of the attack as long as they were no where in the scene to actually witness it.

The Dog :-

Now that the hero was given the ceremonial final respects, the media was hungry for more. After all the Chief Minister of our home state had not paid the respects, where as the local state C.M had done it graciously. And so the hunt began. Political parties went to town about the issue and finally the C.M was forced to visit the family to pay his respects. By then the father of the hero was influenced by all the media reports and refused to meet and accept the condolence message that had been tendered under duress. There was rich pickings for the Media that night. Interviews, Phone call-ins, Campaigns to protect the Hero’s honour, Carpet bombing telecast after cleverly editing the whole unsavoury incident for max saturation effect. Hands were rubbed in glee in the editing rooms. There were high fives in the editorial desks. The TRP was off the charts, want more… Some more! Sleeves rolled-up the Media went to work.

The humbled C.M was asked by a channel about the alleged remark of the father of not wanting to see any Dog. The C.M fell to the trap. He said that had it not been for the hero no Dog would have even Glanced at the House. That was a crude colloquial expression that made the Media bosses jump up in glee. Out came the scissors and the question was deleted and only The C.M’s reply to the Dog question was repeatedly telecast. The opposition went down on their knees to thank their personal Gods, took out their dog garlanded with the C.M’s photo for a walk and just for the added effect cremated the effigy of the C.M.

By now the media could not get enough. A buffoon from Bihar came on to demand the C.M’s resignation and the people seethed with rage. Finally The C.M regretted causing pain to the family. Soon came the clarification from the hero’s family that they regretted the trouble caused to the C.M. They regretted the whole episode and wanted the whole affair to be closed.

What Sandeep’s family says….

http://www.asianetglobal.com/index.php?pg=newsdetail&id=9358

Speaking exclusively to the Asianet News on behalf of the father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Rajeev a close family relative clarified that Times Now, one of the national news channels had asked the chief minister to commend about the ‘dog’ statement made by the family members of Major Sandeep. He also said that the family treats the reply by the chief minister as quite natural and pointed out that there would have been no controversy had such a question not been raised.

Rajeev added that the family members of Major Sandeep deeply regret the mental agony caused to the chief minister due to this un wanted controversy and called upon all those concerned to end the controversy at the earliest...That was a rude shock to the media and the opposition out in the streets. The channel immediately brought out the breaking news of C.M’s apologies. Of course the scissors took care of the family’s statement. After all no one likes to look like a fool after heading blindly with a story that was just a fabrication.

The Media Scoop :-

That is how Headlines Today blew a small ember from the funeral pyre of Sandeep Unnikrishnan into a conflagration. Times Now and IBN spread it online. See how successful they are. Close your eyes. Think of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. What is the image that comes in front of your eyes? His brave fight or the sight of his father running around agitated? This is why we must never trust what we see on T.V . Political agendas are carried out by manipulating what goes by the name News.

Conclusion : Never let Media houses be the Guardian and Formulator of your views.

Orkut being used to spread Trojans

The Net has a long history of hoaxes and many of the "best" seem to involve dire warnings of virus attacks that simply don't exist. But this time, it's different.It is time for another thrilling adventure into the world of security threats. Apparently, Orkut is on a hacker's list. It is one of the most popular social networking sites in Latin America and the second most visited site in India.

Security Research firm Websense has released an alert notifying the general public that some people are using Orkut to spread Trojan links in messages disguised as official email from Orkut. This campaign is another attempt by spammers to profit from popular Web 2.0 services and seems to be a continued attack targeting Orkut.

Another method : An Orkut user gets a random message in Portuguese from a spooky Orkut member looking for a hook-up, who persuades the user to click on the given link. Clicking on a link actually leads to a malicious executable file, which is a Trojan Downloader named "imagem.exe" (SHA1: 6862b862877e5cb9f2180cc53ee4338977bc0efb). This subsequently opens the Orkut login page while a password-stealing Trojan called 'msn.exe' (SHA1: eee7ea71e6ce023fb9000ed75854a8cfd1fafe63) is downloaded in the background. "msn.exe" is copied to various system locations, using different names: "plugin.exe","kss.exe." These copies are bound to the system's start up. The Trojans are hosted on a compromised labour-union web site from southern Brazil, according to Websense. This continues the trend of malicious code hosted on compromised Web sites. Google is said to be investigating the issue at the moment.

The Trojan then opens up the Orkut login page and provides access to the user's ID; you can imagine the extent of damage wrought by this. Best thing to do -  delete such strange messages as soon as you receive them and do not click on them.

Working together means?

"If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time... but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."  Lilla Watson

I think this quote is a great reminder for anyone setting themselves up as a consultant, teacher, as a business service or in fact anyone who wants to 'help others'.  It reminds me that true benefit springs from a meeting of minds - and that only occurs when we see each other as partners with a shared outcome, when we put aside our worn societal roles (boss/subordinate, guru/seeker, healer/patient) and recognise that we are all in this together. 

In spite of our good intentions, in business and in life, it seems that when we are tempted to take a step ahead or a step behind one another we both lose.  Great works are co-created when we are willing to get naked and dirty together - when we are willing to commit to meaningful outcomes whilst recognising that neither of us has all the answers; but together we've got a great chance of working things out. 

This is not always easy for our egos to accept.

Working together means:

- Achieving things you can't do alone.

- More and better ideas.

- Less time to complete your projects.

- Better possibilities of getting credit and technical assistance.

 

Windows market share dives below 90% for first time

Windows OS last month took its biggest market share dive in the past two years, erasing gains made in two of the past three months and sending the operating system's share under 90% for the first time.

In November, 89.6% of users who connected to the Web sites that an Internet measurement company monitors did so from systems powered by Windows, a drop of 0.84 of a percentage point from October. The decrease was the largest slip by Windows in the past two years and easily bested other recent down months, including May 2008 and December 2007, when Windows lost 0.51 and 0.63 percentage points, respectively.

Apple Inc.'s  Mac OS X, meanwhile, posted its biggest gain in the same two-year period, growing by 0.66 percentage point to end the month at 8.9%. November was the third month running that Apple's operating system remained above 8%. "The more home users who are online, using Macs and Firefox and Safari, the more those shares go up,". November was notable for a higher-than-average number of weekend days, as well as the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. Hence Windows may come back strongly in December.

Windows' share typically falls on weekends and after work hours, as users surf from home computers, a larger percentage of which run Mac OS X than do work machines. Notable in Windows' downturn was a dramatic drop in share of the aged Windows XP -- the largest decrease since January 2008 -- and a major uptick in Windows Vista's share. While XP lost 1.81 percentage points, Vista gained back 1.16 points of that, its largest move since last January.

Windows 2000, the only other edition that the Internet measurement company tracks, continued its slide toward 1%, falling to 1.56% during November. As expected, Vista cracked the 20% mark for the first time last month, ending November with a 20.45% share.

Windows' share shows no sign of stopping its slow slide; in the past 12 months, Microsoft's market share has fallen from 91.79%, a decrease of more than 2 percentage points. During the same period, Apple has increased its operating system market share by 1.56 points, or a gain of 21.3%.

Linux operating system, grew from 0.71% in October to 0.83% last month. In August and September, however, Linux had a share above the 0.9% mark.

Operating system market share data is available at Net Applications' site.

Source : CompuWorld

Reality Check

I have been browsing through the News Channels & Web world. I am very sad and moved after reading and watching the incidents in Mumbai.

In recent years, terrorist attacks in India have become as much a part of life as the monsoon squalls. The only difference has been their unpredictability, as opposed to the regularity of the monsoons. The well-coordinated and large scale assault on Mumbai last week are not only qualitatively different, but also came with a chillingly new message. They will not let us Indian's leave in peace. 

The sixty - hour terror rampage that killed 195 people across our financial capital ended Saturday when commandos killed the last of three gunmen inside Taj while it was engulfed in flames. Previous attacks by Islamist youth and Kashmiri separatists were aimed at damaging our economic and political stability and inciting violence between majority Hindus and the substantial Muslim minority. They have tried to jolt our political system, hurt our business centers and science and technology hub, provoke inter-religious strife (attacking Hindu shrines and people during Hindu celebrations), and promote a sense of terror and helplessness among us. We can’t imagine the trauma of the people who were trapped and lost their nearer & dearer.

A previously unknown Muslim group - Deccan Mujahideen, which alludes to a region in southern India traditionally ruled by Muslim kings, claimed responsibility for the attack, but the officials point out that the sole surviving gunman is from Pakistan. Had it not been for the Commands, the Police and the NSG, at least 5,000 people would have been killed. Thank God, this brutal plan was not executed to precision.

I have seen cries for war with Pakistan in the media and web world after the attack on Mumbai. In my opinion, this would only help the enemies of peace. This attack I believe, was to destabilize & weaken the relationship between the elected Governments in India and Pakistan, to induce the feeling among foreigners that India is not among the places to visit or Invest. If the current elected Government in Pakistan had any sort of control over these extremists, then this massacre would not have happened.

There is a complex nexus of religious fanatic fundamentalists, army & intelligence. This hatred is the only key to their very own survival. Only a strong and stable Government in Pakistan can put an end to terrorism within their boundaries. But as such, I believe this will remain a dream. If such a Government ever comes to power, it will reduce the power of army & Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan. To make things worse we have fanatics & fundamentalists this side of border who are only helping them with irrational & irresponsible comments. 

The other sinister message of the terrorists this time is that they have an international agenda. Despite their talk of Indian Muslims being oppressed and Kashmiris being killed, their focus on Americans and British citizens and Jewish nationals shows their global concern. The U.S. has emerged as a key ally of India, but Britain is not any closer than other European countries like France and Germany. The search for American and British citizens most probably has to do with the Iraq war, echoing the terrorist attacks in Britain on charges of British involvement in the suffering of Muslims.

With the end of one of the most brazen terror attacks in our history, attention has turned from the military operation to questions of who was behind the attack and the heavy toll on human life? How had they been able to organize and execute such an attack without local help? If this is the case - who are those who have been helping these elements? What steps have been taken to nullify them? Why are the politicians given Z-category security when the lives of ordinary citizens cannot be protected?

I agree that we are not the only country to be affected by terrorism. For those who put forward this line of argument, I have questions. Can you tell me how many terror attacks have US faced after 9/11 or Britain after 7/7? The answer is ZERO. Does it mean that terrorists had not been targeting these countries? NO, their counter measures have been more effective.

"Forgiving a Terrorist is left to GOD; But fixing their appointment with GOD is our responsibility" INDIAN ARMY

To those who attack us : We are the people of the Largest Democracy in the World. We are not weak, we will not be weak - no matter what you do.