Missing Saturday

when i came to mumbai, in the initial days we used to just wait for Saturdays so that we can go out n have fun. but this is to our dismay that as we grew in experience ( though i learned nothing :( ), i kept on losing the zeal to enjoy life. the routine effected the mannerism and sometimes questions the very existence of me.

Saturdays used to be the days when we woke up late in morning and sometimes if had a friday night out then even late in afternoons. thanks to the alcohol ( the best buddy to all of us) and all those hot chicks who were just around us. they never will be with us i guess ( have to say those Gals have a bad time , as they keep missing us). don't feel very great n proud as i am trying to make every one reading this feel guilty.
Need to make a remark here that i seriously miss some crazy bastards who will push u to enjoy, to go out have fun, ask those chicks out. may be some stifler is missing in our lives.

coming back to my saturday, it used to be with Simon at our place. Well FYI Simon dont come these days , think he found some interest in Vashi. day used to start with Hangover , moving to a tea stall looking for remedy to that monster headache. coming back and then doing business who who paid for what , called as Hisaab . Damm !!! i hate this, screw up. i hate this becoz of the complexity involved , not mathematically but when u have to give money as change :-X.

entire week's pressure , pains would disappear just with beer ( wont say 1 , as one is never sufficient :P) and movies. staring at gals from the window using some one's binoculars was amazing. i know that is bad practice , but no one stops bribe that eats nation , why to stop us we dont harm any one.the objective was to forget that we mis our families , our love. we have amazing people around us , but we restrain ourselves to be with them. but saturdays would change everything, no restriction no bounding.

but the day this production , go live activity has started on week ends they made my weekends shrink, saturdays extinct and sundays a rare thing in my life. if business does not happen on weekends , people dont trade do transactions then why do u spoil my week end. ever since this has happened i miss Simon, my beer , my movies , my nightouts, my window , my binoculars checking gals and above all my happy Saturdays.

people technology comes again, projects come again , but Saturdays once gone don't revert. the whole point of investing my time and wasting yours is go out have fun, work hard in week days . enjoy saturdays, get along with nice babes to nice pubs disc or what ever your pocket allows ( i know a lot u r like me fresher with almost no money , gareebo :P). dont think that this is waste of money, but a tranquilizer to ur undressed emotions :P. dont waste ur time reading my blog now, go have fun, u already wasted 10 mins reading this. Damm!!! it takes so long to motivate u all losers like me :P

Lets pledge we wont mis saturday and sunday from now onwards. good going keep enjoying my Pravachans :P

My symbiotic relationship with QA

it has been over 10 months in QA , and months seemed to flip over in a blink. I came as a fresher from ilp and seriously had no idea what was am I doing ? in very initial stages of the graduation we developed this inception that QA is good for nothing , u waste urself in QA. Well the blog is not about who is better QA or Dev. Its about what am I doing in QA and what is QA doing to me . it’s a symbiotic relationship . lets see through what all we have done to each other.

Day 1 : it’s always filled with anxiety and insecurity blended with zeal to mark my presence. But what u decide is not always what u get, sometimes things are quite better and sometimes they shake ur core.

Next few days : when the anxiety is gone, it clears the picture of what u have in front is not the very same u thought of. For example , when I started my first regression I was cautious in every step that I did , every communication that I wrote . I always wanted image processing , as I like images in memory. I don’t know what should I call this , I became more cautious in even speaking to strangers. Like they were some application and I have to do an analysis of them.

After a month , when u are well absorbed in the team. Now is the time when we are introduced to status mails and scenario writing. This is the point where the complexity starts developing. As a new bee I was never sure of what is a scenario about. And every day I had to write a status mail to tell the oldies what I did. And soon this became a characteristic feature of my personality when I gave my status for the day to my mom and told my girlfriend what issues was I facing in application? Gosh!!! what am I doing ? but this had a positive node also attached to it , that was I started analyzing my self and I am sure this will help , at least in choosing new girl friend.

Another feature that got introduced in my personality was during transition. I always felt like the kid of “Tare Zameen Pe”, all lost among the stars n galaxies during KT session. I treated my self as Troy, who can always cut through the application. When I was kid , I used to break down all the toys cars n gadgets that I had, open them and fix them. I guess that is what I do in QA also. I testify the applications for users but me as an application has loads of bugs. I can make a statement here that I never found good testers in life who could identify them :P.

Now the analytical ability to identify and verify the business flows is more habitual . I don’t have to think analytically , my thinking process has turned analytical. I tend to find analytical solutions and reason for not only work but in situations that my friends are in. I patiently listen to them , wow this is also what QA did to me J, made me patient. They just want to speak out their frustration and we being analytical think they want a solution. So I just provide them business solutions. One suggestion to all my tester community , don’t put on ur thinking when u speak to ur girl / boy, coz this may help u in business but might land u in deep trouble with the one . To deal with ur loved ones read ‘Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus’.

QA made me a better analyst , patient and intellectual person but at the same time made me more confused in deal with my self. I don’t spin the coin in air to decide what I want rather I do think what would be optimum. I think of scenarios and plan out the strategy just as the way I do at work but that nullifies the fun of unpredictable nature of life. Here we come closure of this nonsense where I made no point and thus managed to make u either more confused or plant the inception of getting confused. Yippy QA is too good in this. Cheers , Good night and good Luck .

Coming back !!!

Time to revive the old glory...what say anshul !!!

grow up you budget makers

pranab da and gehlot uncle aap dono kabhi bade honge???

aam aadmi ka budget bol ke aam aadmi ki hi band baja di.kabhi aap dono ghar ka kharcha chala k dekho to pata chale ki aate daal ka kya bhav h.

chalo thodi help me kar deta hu--> arhar daal 80 rs/kg,aloo 13/kg,onion humara kanda 15/kg,tamatar 22/kg,petrol 43-47 rs/ltr,WHEAT FLOUR 17/KG,milk saras dairy 26 rs/kg,milkfood ghees 245/kg list bahut lambi h.YEH BHAV TO ABHI H,AAP K BUDGET K LAAGOO HOTE HI IN SAB MEIN ACHCHA KHASA INCREAMENT HOGA,TAB SHAYAD RAMAYAN WALE RISHIO KI TARAH HUME BHI ROZ UPWAAS KARNE PADENGE........KAAL CHAKRA H.........aap ne to bol diya ki bharat ko india se jod rahe ho uske liye aam admi ki kamar kyu todi.

pranab da bole ki aam admi ka budget h,market mein aaye slow down ko khatam karne k liye demand generate karni hogi,uske liye janta k haat mein paisa hona chahiye,

"PRANAB DA KAUN SE AADMI KI BAAT KAR RAHE HO KAUN KHA SAKTA H 80 RS/KG KI DAAL.KAUN MIDDLE CLASS WALA AADMI ROZ ROZ LCD KHAREEDEGA"

idhar GEHLOT UNCLE bole ki vat 14 % karne se jyada farak nai padega janta ko" SIR JI KABHI MANDI MEIN JAA K ALOO KHAREEDO PATA CHAL JAYEGA KYA HAAL H".aap se umeed thi ki aap sale tax kam kar k ses hata k petrol diesel k prices kam karoge,jisse market mein demand,aam admi k haat mein paisa aayega,PAR AAP TO AAP HO KAM TO KIYA NAHI BADHA AUR DIYA.

INDIA KO BHARAT SE JODNE MEIN JIS AAM JANTA KA AAP LOOG KHUN CHOOS RAHE HAI,AGAR YEH HI HAAL RAHA TO MIDDLE CLASS AND LOWER CLASS MEIN KOI DEMARKATION NAHI RAHEGA.

INDIA KO BHARAT SE JODNE K LIYE KHUD KO BUNGLOW MEIN SE NIKAL KAR AAM AADMI K SAATH CHALNA HOGA........................... JAISE KISI JAMANE MEIN "AKBAR THE GREAT" NE KIYA THA. ......JISSE PATA CHALE KI UNKI TAKLEEF KYA H,AUR TAB SHAYAD AAP KO YEH MALUM PAD JAYEGA KI AAM AADMI K LIYE AAJ BHI ROTI KAPDA AUR MAKAAN JAROORI H,LCD JARI WALI SAADIYA YA MOTOR CYCLE NAHI.

SO GROW UP YOU BUDGET MAKERS

JAI HO JAI HO

The Great American Bubble Machine

From Matt Taibbi's "The Great American Bubble Machine" in Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83.

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they're preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.

visit this link: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine

Is MSD playing the Indian Micheal Clark

well earlier i didn't agreed to it.actually the cricketing community believes that micheal clark is the cause of the torn apart dressing room of aussies.and the recent events in the indian cricket scenario makes me think of the same.this time it's not micheal clark it's mahendra singh dhoni.even before the world cup the team appaered to fragile and torn apart.thw sehwag issue, loss of temperment in media meeting,people not attending team meeting,top form players under performing,the lack of lusture on field. all these things show thatteam was not gelled up and the consequences are tata bye bye to title.

what is it? this will get clear from the comming tournaments.lets hope that this is just a rumour and dark period for the team

TEAM INDIA OR TEAM IPL

The big starred Team India couldn't win a single game against any Test playing nation.They could not even match the standards of the international T20 players.Where are those big promises gone that "YEH CUP KAHIN NAHI JAYEGA". ............ GONE WITH THE CLOSING CEREMONY OF IPL 09. hehe folks let's accept this very fact which i stated in my previous posts too IPL is INDIAN PROFIT LEAGUE where it's just not the frenchises and bcci who earn but the players too.

These men in blue perform only in the IPL. ahh i knew you require facts lets have a look the best bowler under performs,two top performers in batting under perform,except yuvraj and bhajji no performed to standard.

Captain Cool lost it , had fights temper in media.opening pair couldn't take india to decent start,kings of swing lose line and lenght just after being hit for a boundary.

these people just wanna play ipl,and the problem is not that if u know defending title is gonna be tough then you should accept it just not bloat about the fake success.India can take only one satyam at a time not any more.

so why shud indian's be shocked when they know that they have a poor record of defending titles,the lost defending tiltle in 1983,then champions trophy and now T20 championship.it is an age old ritual for the indian team.

don't feel like having stroke it is a part of the game,yeah but this way is bad.

and once again the newspaper wud read "SUNDAR SAPNA TOOT GAYA"

do jaipurites deserves traffic projects like metro,brts,ring road etc.

A few days back i read a news paper that gave the list of the projects that are in pipeline or are about to start very soon,this included some dream projects like Metro,BRTS.  At that particular moment i thought and the government who just seems to taking pain to do something for the public welfare other than commenting,but today i'm not writing to screw up the government statements and policies.

you would not be amazed if i tell u that whenever my mom ask me to go to the walled city i feel like i'm having intense head ache,nad u know the reason,the GREAT TRAFFIC SENSE of the jaipurites.now u would be intrested in knowing what is wrong with that.i tell it's qiute a long list, and i can start with this

1. any one does actually know what is a stop line and where is it?

2.has any body heard that u need to stop on every red light, irrespective of whether it is heavy traffic or light.the best example for this is the red light in front of university of rajasthan's gate.

3.how many young riders and car drivers know that u should not answer the phone call while driving.

4.this one is my favourite ,how many people think that it is necessary to take side before turning

5.how many many people do realise that having working tail and break light is as important for the vehicles behind u as are the front lights for u.

6.this one is awesome how many of the license holders actually signifies that they want a u turn.

7.how many people konw that there is a no horn or better known as silent zone on the Jawaharlal Nehru Marg.

8.well most of the time i shout at people for this, how can some apply breaks right in the middle of the road when it is vacent and without any pre sign of doing so, in hindi we call this khade break lagana.

9.almost all the taxis and mass tranport vehicles including the government vehicles also donot have tail lights and indicators at all working.

The fact is that jaipur's majority of traffic problems are associated with the driving style and habbits of the jaipurites.even if the state government builds and provide latest technology,equipments the problem would be still the same.so jaipurites either improve ur driving habbits or get ready for some seroiusly bad traffic in coming future

JAI HO JAI HO

a post for the so called saviours of indian tradition,writer is trying to wake u up.please try to do so

A Most Indecent PostJessica Thompson  Monday March 30, 2009

There's been a lot in the news lately about traditional Indian values, and the women who are destroying them. 

The kick-off event for the current culture war was the attack by a right-wing Hindu group on a group of young women hanging out in a Mangalore pub at the end of January. The thugs claimed they were out to "save our mothers and daughters," who had been corrupted by western culture. The stories continue to trickle in: 

"Man assaults jeans-clad wife for dressing up like men" (4 Feb)
"Mangalore goons target noodle straps" (4 Feb)
"Karnataka moral cops threaten Hindu girls for talking to Muslim boy" (26 Feb)

And on and on. In one incident after the other, men have verbally and physically abused women who breached one of the many unwritten rules of proper female conduct. 

Then Valentines Day rolled around. I've always found V-day to be commercial, boring and vaguely nauseating. It never occurred to me before I moved to India that it could be offensive, too. I read with some amusement about how last year in Delhi, 100 Shiv Sena men held a protest and shouted slogans like "People who celebrate Valentine's Day should be pelted with shoes" (Is that any catchier in Hindi than it is in English, I hope?). 

I don't get it. Why it is "indecent" for a woman to wear a tank top or jeans, yet nobody bats an eyelash when men scratch themselves, spit and urinate, um … everywhere? 

If this about rejecting Western influence and materialism, an argument I can understand, why not also target Indian men who wear jeans or imported suits, drink Coke, shop at malls and watch Hollywood movies? Are Western practices only offensive if they are adopted by women?

Shiv Sena and the like argue that they are "custodians of Indian culture" and are defending "traditional" values. Since when is assaulting women a traditional Indian value? Who gave these guys a mandate to decide for the rest of the country how everyone ought to live? Which Indian values, exactly, are they defending? It would seem it's only those that keep women subservient.

Their repressive efforts were effective, sadly, with many women reporting that they were afraid to go out alone or to be seen talking to a boy from a different religious background. 

But the Saffron Brigade, as they are affectionately known, did not go unchallenged. One very vocal opponent is a loosely organized - but 54,000 strong - group of women (and plenty of men, too) called the Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose, Forward Women. 

The name alone is a stroke of creative genius, and it proves that the fight against fear mongering and repression doesn't have to be humorless. The women leading the effort could have taken a conventional (read: boring) approach to make their case; instead, they launched a campaign to send thousands of pairs of pink underwear to the heads of the moral police. 

The Pink Chaddi campaign has been called immature by some critics, but the thing is that self-righteous moral types don't tend to respond in kind to intelligent dialogue. You might as well have some fun with them. Also, not taking them too seriously strips them of a lot of their power. 

Majority opinion seems to be that these guys are a bunch of clowns. Certainly most of our readers seem to disagree with their tactics of brute force and intimidation. I wonder, though, what percentage of the population agrees with their underlying message?

Warne likely to miss rest of IPL

Indian Premier League (IPL) has suffered a serious set-back with skipper Shane Warne likely to miss the rest of the tournament due to a hamstring injury.
Warne, who is also the team's coach, was injured when he was batting against Deccan Chargers here on Monday night. Rajasthan Royals lost the match by 53 runs. Warne required a runner while batting and will probably need 10 days to recover.

In Warne's absence, Graeme Smith is likely to lead the side.

Rajasthan Royals director of coaching Darren Berry said: "I think it is a balancing act that will be our focus to get it right. We can field just four overseas players and it is a difficult thing to manage. We have now put ourselves under pressure."

Rajasthan Royals have already lost fast bowlers Kamran Khan and Amit Singh because of suspect action.

Pakistan's stand on Taliban:- affirmative or a lollypop to world

pakistan has confirmed the news of fresh attacks on the Taliban. well it was after the Taliban forces and the pakistan government had signed the sharia law implementation under the Malakand Agreement.i don't what motive is their behind the attacks on Taliban now.this is because when the goverenment knew that taliban is growing at a massive speed and will threaten  very existence of the state of pakistan,then why didnot they had a check on the FATA and NWFP for the growing influence of taliban.

well the malakand agreement actually was the sign of the growing influence of taliban and the weakening democracy in pakistan. how can a state that says it belives in the democracy support or enter into an agreement with a body like taliban who says that they are the first enemy of the democracy.

the fresh attacks were certainly started under the international pressure and specially from the U.S., this is certainly clear from the sequence of events where U.S. threatned pakistan to either eleminate taliban or it will stop all kind of support and help to it.

this appears to be one of those acts of where pakistan had tried to move the focus of the international feternity from taliban to India,pakistan had started the air attacks asked India for complete report on the suspects in pakistan for mumbai attacks,and few months later again start the age old drama on kashmir.

this is sure offering of a new flavour of lolly by pakistan to the international feternity and what is actually intresting is how long can they resist this new temptation.

JAI HO JAI HO 

ungli pe tilak ? which finger is it : Index or Middle

yeah i don't know that u people are aware of it or not. well some people tend to use their power status and fame to mend and mould the system and laws to suit them.or they are in a habit of getting into fame through unjustified measures.well again the controversy revolves round the bollywood.

in the third phase of the general elections the entire bollywood feternity got their midlle finger marked against the pool of crores of voters who got it on their index finger.well well well

what is it ? a publicity stunt , a measure to encourage voting or is it a move to mark them as distinguished persons who are above all like the arsitocrates kind .

why was this done i don't know but this was surely not justified because when i asked the officer at polling booth to put the mark on my middle finger he refused to do it,and said it was against the directives . so either the bollywood thinks and is considered above the directives or there is a shear problem of misuse of power to acquire fame.further these celebrities were so obssesed by this mark on the middle finger that they created the foul and insulting gestures with them showing it in electronic media , people i think you have definitly forgotten then what happened with Greg chappel in kolkatta, public pushed on to his knees for that act. mind you when we can do it to an australian legend then we can surely do it to you. mind your ways and your public statements and gestures,india allows freedom of expression but not the freedom to insult masses.

be aware if you think you can make something count then do it on a positive side .

JAI HO JAI HO 

India has got black money details from Germany: Government

NEW DELHI: Assuring the Supreme Court that it was trying to retrieve black money stashed in tax havens abroad, the government on Saturday said it has already secured significant information from Germany and income-tax sleuths were following it up. 

The finance ministry disclosed this in a 27-page affidavit to the apex court in response to a lawsuit accusing the government of doing precious little to retrieve Indian black money to the tune of Rs.70 trillion stashed abroad. 

In its affidavit, the government also told the court that its persistent efforts in collaboration with international community have also resulted in Switzerland agreeing to make its secretive banking laws and norms more transparent in tune with the global standards. 

Reiterating its assertion that it is not sitting idle in this matter, Director Priya V.K. Singh of the Department of Revenue under the finance ministry told the court that following repeated efforts since Feb 27 last year, the government got the information on Indians with secret accounts in LGT Bank of Liechtenstein March 18 this year. 

The government, however, added in its affidavit that the information procured from Germany cannot be made public owing to the condition of strict confidentiality under which it was procured. 

"On account of persistent follow-up by the union government, the German government provided the information (about Indians' secret bank accounts) on March 18, 2009," said the affidavit. 

"The said information, however, was made available on the condition of strict confidentiality of contents under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement," it added. 

"The information received from the German authorities has been forwarded to various taxation authorities concerned for action as appropriate under the provisions of the Income Tax, 1961 and the Wealth Tax Act, 1957," it said. 

It added "the tax authorities have initiated the process of reopening the assessments (of those tax evaders) under the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Wealth Tax Act, 1957".

BHAIYA SONE KI CHIDIYA AB SHAYAD PLATINUM KI CHIDIYA KEHLAYGI

1. SECOND BEST PERFORMER AMONG BRIC NATIONS IN LAST QUATER

2. STILL LARGEST AND FAVOURITE PLACE FOR FOREIGN PLAYERS FOR INVESTMENT

3. AND NOW THIS 70 TRILLION INR BLACK MONEY IN JUST ONE BANK OF GERMANY.

JUST THINK AND TRY TO CALCULATE HOW MUCH IS THERE IN SWISS BANK,THAT CLAIMS IT'S 33% PLUS ACC. TO BE OCCUPIED WITH  INDIAN BLACK MONEY

HINDUSTAANIYO KI MAHIMA NYARI,RECESSION KI MAARI  DUNIYA SAARI,

HUMARA PAISA WO SAMBHALE,CHAHE UJAR JAYE UNKI DUNIYA SAARI

I THINK THIS YEAR OBMA MAY ASK INDIA FOR TWO THINGS THE VERY FAMOUS JUGAAR TECHNOLOGY AND 

LATEST DLF IPL,TO RECOVER FROM SLUMP.

JAI HO JAI HO

Who is KAMRAN KHAN ???

Shane Warne, the Rajasthan Royals captain, has named Kamran Khan, a 18-year-old rookie left-arm fast bowler, as one of the players to watch out for in the IPL starting in Cape Town on Saturday. Warne has also provided fresh insights into his relationship with Graeme Smith, a bitter rival once but an IPL team-mate now, and reiterated his controversial theory that an international team doesn't need a coach.

Warne, whose captaincy was a revelation during last year's IPL when he galvanised a bunch of not-so-famous players into a winning combination, insisted that he did not regret missing out on being Australia captain.

He shared his shortlist of Rajasthan's potential stars of this IPL with the South Africa-based Sunday Times newspaper and included Kamran, who bowled just one over against Cape Cobras in a warm-up on Saturday, alongside India players Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan. Indian media reported that Kamran, who bowled Cobras' Justin Ontong with an off-stump yorker in that over, is the son of a woodcutter who gained his shoulder strength from cutting wood in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh in north India. He is yet to play first-class cricket and was reportedly signed by Rajasthan Royals for Rs 12 lakh (US$24,000) a year after Darren Berry, the assistant coach, spotted him at a local tournament in Mumbai.

The team, which had nicknames for each player to pin down his role in the side, is reportedly on the verge of finalising one for Kamran. "We've got one young player who's going to be very interesting," Warne said. "We're tossing up now what his nickname is going to be -- Wild Thing or Tornado, something like that. Kamran Khan is a young kid, a left-armer, a slinger, he doesn't speak much English at the moment. He's a tiny little guy but he bowls 140 plus. Another guy to look out for is Ravindra Jadeja. He played last year, did enough but he's had another year of experience. Then there's Yusuf Pathan. He was dynamite last year, he just destroys medium-pace and spin bowling. He and Andrew Symonds are two of the cleanest hitters I've ever seen."

Smith was also important to his plans for a lot of reasons, Warne said. "One is that he's another captain to bounce ideas off," he said. "When I'm bowling, he's someone to keep an eye on the field. When I'm talking to a bowler he's making sure the best fielders are in the right spots. I think he enjoys the IPL as well, just having the opportunity and the freedom to go out and bat without the responsibility of anything else. For us, being in South Africa and having the captain of South Africa in our side is a huge advantage."

He said he had become "good buddies" with Smith after spending some time together during the inaugural IPL, and added that the latter had matured as a captain, too. "We had a few beers after the first game and chatted about a lot of stuff," he said. "We hung out a fair bit. We've kept in touch since then and become good buddies. They [South Africa] have done well. He's matured a bit too. He came in at a young age and wanted to try and mix it. He didn't want to take a backward step. He was so verbal and public about everything. We won 5-0 [in 2005/06] and I said to him the other day, when something's not working, try to do something else. Don't just continue and let the ego get in the way. He said, 'yeah, yeah, I've learned my lesson'. He learned a lot about himself and how things work. He's matured into a good captain."

Warne also insisted his views on international coaching had not changed even years after his controversial rift with John Buchanan, the former Australia coach.

"The only reason I'm coach is because the Royals don't really have a coach," he said. "I'm just the captain, really. I've got two assistants who do a good job in Darren Berry and Jeremy Snape. Darren looks after practice while I get around and speak to individuals and Snapey floats around, helps guys prepare and does some one-on-one stuff. Captains should always run the cricket. At international level I don't think you need a coach. At domestic level you need a coach."

He said he had no regrets about not being Australia captain but added he enjoyed captaincy. "I'd be sitting in a straitjacket in a padded cell if I started regretting everything that happened in my life," he said. "I never chased the captaincy. If I'd had the opportunity it would have been great but I don't look back and think about it. I've captained the Royals, Hampshire, Victoria and Australia in one-day matches. People can see the way I captain. I enjoy being captain and it brings out the best in me."

Source: CricInfo, 13^th April 2009, http://content.cricinfo.com/ipl2009/content/current/story/399360.html

T20 American Premier League arrives

Twenty20 cricket fever has now also hit the US, with an inaugural American Premier League (APL) series set to take place in New York in October this year, the Afrikaans weekly Rapport said here on Sunday.

Rapport disclosed that former Proteas Nicky Boje, Andrew Hall and Lance Klusener had already been offered lucrative contracts to participate in the APL, which would be modelled on the success of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that will be played out in South Africa from the next week.

The three South Africans were banned from participating in South African teams after they became the first local players to sign up for the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) two years ago. The International Cricket Council (ICC) refused to recognise the ICL, with the BCCI launching the IPL in its wake.

Boje, Hall and Klusener, who have jointly represented South Africa in 113 Tests and 374 one-day games, will be in the (American) Premium World Team which will play against Premium India, Premium Bangladesh, Premium Pakistan, Premium Windies and home side Premium America, according to the weekly.

A knockout round, in which each side will play the others once, will be followed by semis and a final consisting of three matches.

The inaugural series of the APL , which will take place twice a year, will be played out in New York from October 6 to 26 and the next one in April 2010 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Like the IPL, the huge interest in the game has brought with it lucrative fees for the players.

The three South Africans have reportedly been offered two-year contracts with a payment of $50,000 per tournament, besides the money that bidders from the various franchises might spend and match money from the games. Players will also be contractually bound to participate in marketing campaigns across the US.

Bidding for the players in the APL sides will take place in the same way as that of the IPL, with players being sold to franchise holders with the highest offer.

IPL supremo Lalit Modi said at the launch of the IPL series in South Africa recently that there was a huge cricket-loving community in the US who had followed the inaugural IPL last year intensely. He also expressed a wish to take the IPL to the US and China in future.

It's the terrorism, stupid; not India: US message to Pak

Courtesy : Times of India

The United States will institute benchmarks that Pakistan will have to meet, including scaling down its confrontational posture against India, if Islamabad is to earn the massive foreign aid Washington and its partners are lining up, Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton indicated on Thursday. ( Watch )

The benchmarks will include moving troops from its border with India to its insurgency stricken areas to fight its homegrown terrorism problem, Clinton suggested, following up on the broad US prescription and advice to Pakistan that its grave domestic situation, and not India

, constituted the biggest danger to its existence.

Clinton provided the assurances about benchmarks at the urging of some lawmakers, but said she would prefer they remain an executive decision rather than legislative so that the administration would not be paralyzed. Some of the benchmarks would be classified, but the administration would share them with Congress

.

"You know, on a simple measure, is the Pakistani military still amassing hundreds of thousands of troops on the Indian border, or have they begun to move those toward these insurgent areas?" Clinton explained at a Congressional hearing, citing the example of one such benchmark. "What kind of kinetic action are they taking? How much? Is there increasing up-tempo or not? Is it sporadic, so they start in and then they move back?"

"I agree with you completely that we need the internal benchmarks," she told an anxious lawmaker, adding the approach would be across the government. "The intelligence community will have certain measurements; the Defense Department will; we (the State Department) will look as well."

The Pakistani government — and some of its supporters like Senator John Kerry — has opposed legislative benchmarks, especially those which condition US aid to Pakistan ending its sponsorship of terrorism against India, saying they are humiliating. But lawmakers on the House side are against giving Pakistan a free ride given what they say is its history of double-dealing.

"I've been around this place 40 years. My experience with Pakistan during all that time is that it has always been Pakistan, which means it's a country of dealmakers, but they don't keep the deals," said Congressman David Obey. "I have absolutely no confidence in the ability of the existing Pakistani government to do one blessed thing."

Other members also complained about Pakistan's double-dealing – paying lip service to fighting terrorism while cutting deals with extremists. "How do we succeed in Pakistan if the Pakistanis themselves are either unwilling or incapable of making the tough choices and taking the tough action needed to confront the insurgency?" asked one Congressman.

Following up on President Obama's

assurance that there will be no blank checks for Pakistan, Secretary Clinton also re-iterated what has become a virtual mantra in Washington in recent weeks: Repeated advice to Pakistan that it is not India, but Islamabad's own home-grown terrorism that posed an existential threat to it.

In an indication that US aid to Pakistan will be contingent on its India policy, even if it is not incorporated into legislation, Clinton said US officials have been "spending countless hours in really painful, specific conversations," to convince Pakistan of the changed situation. Pakistan was slow to understand this, she suggested.

"Changing paradigms and mindsets is not easy," Clinton told anxious lawmakers, adding, "I want to underscore the feeling we get, which is that if you have been locked in a mortal contest with someone you think is your principal — in fact, only — real enemy, and all of a sudden circumstances change, it just takes some time."

Similar policy prescriptions and sentiments (It's not India, it's home-grown extremists) were expressed at a Harvard lecture earlier this week by General David Petraeus, chief of the US Central Command with oversight of Pakistan and the middle-east, indicating that US interlocutors are all reading from the same page.

"The existential threat" facing Pakistan "is internal extremists and not India," Petraeus said in the speech at the Kennedy School of Government, adding such an idea was "intellectually dislocating" for the institutions of Pakistan fostered on decades of projecting confrontation against India.

Over at the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Pakistan crisis was taking a lot of President Obama's time. Defense Secretary Robert Gates too chipped in, asking Islamabad to recognize the danger and take action.

On her part, Clinton told lawmakers there is a growing understanding of the changed circumstances within the Pakistani leadership.

"Now, there are no promises. They have to do it (act against extremists)," she warned.

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WINDOWS 7 : Learnt from users

WASHINGTON: To design Windows 7, Microsoft analyzed billions of pieces of data. It studied exactly what PC users do in front of their screens.

It tallied hundreds of thousands of Windows surveys. It got feedback from people all over the world who tried different versions of the software.

As a result, every change or new feature in Windows 7 comes with a back story. Here is a sampling of things you'll see in the next operating system and explanations of how each came about.

- New feature: You decide the left-to-right order of icons in the task bar at the bottom of your screen.

- Back story: Microsoft's research showed Vista users commonly launching a series of programmes, then closing and immediately reopening some. Microsoft realised that these people wanted their programmes to appear in the same order on the task bar every time.

- New feature: Right-click on a task bar icon and get a "jump list," a menu of important or frequently used options for the programme.

- Back story: Microsoft had resisted the idea of hiding a key feature behind a right click, worried people wouldn't find it. But the data showed most people right-click on icons to see what that might do.

- New feature: Drag one open window to the left side of the screen, then another to the right side to line them up so they are the same size and side by side.

- Back story: Microsoft couldn't initially figure out why people were spending so much time resizing windows and dragging them around. It turned out that users were trying to give themselves a side-by-side view of documents for easy comparison.


- Back story: From its Vista data, Microsoft could see people's photos, music and other files were swelling in number and stashed all over the place, not organised into the dedicated folders Microsoft had set up.

- New feature: "Shake" an open window with your mouse to make all the other ones "minimise" into the task bar.

- Back story: Microsoft's research showed that people often had six or even 10 windows open at once, which gets distracting. Shake is one of several features designed to help people tame all the open windows.

- New feature: Move your mouse to the bottom-right corner to make all your windows temporarily transparent. Then click the mouse, and all the windows minimise.

- Back story: What's notable here is what Microsoft didn't do. There's no tutorial or bubble advertising the feature, a small step toward making Windows 7 quieter than Vista. "We want people to confidently explore the system," said Sam Moreau, a user experience manager.

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Select your symbol

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