Confused Soul

Don’t get confused, I am not going to confess about my mistakes in past. It’s is just the name of the book, I finished yesterday. “The three mistakes of my life” is the 3rd book of IIT-IIMian author Chetan Bhagat. But if anyone will ask me about the book, I will simply suggest a big NO. It will be nothing but sheer waste of time to read this.

Though Mr. Bhagat is claiming this as a true story, once you read it, you will find out how fictitious it is. In this book, the author has put everything, which sells it India…CRICKET… POLITICS… RELIGION… LOVE… EMOTIONS… all the horrible things of that time frame like Earthquake in Gujrat, Twin tower collapse… everything you can imagine. This book is no better than a low budget, loose script Bollywood flick.

Some things which look good to me in the book are:

1) The AIS (Austrailan Institute of Sports) funda of distributing scholarships to make great sportsman.

2) Some Australian lingo like MOZZIE, SIPHON the PYTHON, NCR (i.e. number of cans required) and some more...

3) The stages in love: WE-JUST-LOOK, WE-JUST-WALK, HOLD-HAND and …

4) Ish’s passion for cricket and for Ali…

And that’s all; everything other than this is just rubbish. The only other thing which is good that it doesn’t make you bankrupt, it’s available only for 95 bucks. But my advice is to add 50 more and go for a good movie rather than reading this pile of around 300 pages (including prologue and epilogue).

That’s all from me, not it’s your choice to go for it or not.

Hmm...Finally I got time to write a new entry for my blog. This entry is dedicated to all the community work and will remain stuck to the Adobe punchline "Giving back to Community".

You must have noticed the image at the top. What is this all about? Is it an painting illustrating the rich usage of color by an well known artist or an example shown by an art instructor? No, it is nothing like this but this is the creation of a girl, who won the first prize in an art competition hold by Adobe for the children of an orphanage. This event was hold on 8th May 2k8 in Adobe Campus and I volunteered for this event. But thanks to loose scruples of some people, I could not be there for a longer time :(... BTW, when I saw this painting I felt very embarrassed as I am not very good in using colors and this painting for sure deserves a award. Though I wanted the same little girl to win who won when our team hold the event over Diwali and we decorated our work area using those paintings.

Though it's a bit late (around 2 days), it's my original thought and creation. (I copied the picture from somewhere and changed the content)

Gmail labs is one of the best things I discovered in different mail services. It allows you to do lots of things. After logging in Gmail, just click at the "lab" tab in settings or click on the "lab" icon just after your email ID on top-right corner of your browser window and you can see the numerous features offered to you by gmail. These google guys always do out-of-the-box things...

I personally liked some of the features provided by Gmail labs:

1) Signature tweaks: I personally liked this one. Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the "--" line that appears before signatures. But beware, you can't use this and the "Random signature" Labs feature at the same time.

2) Quick Links: Bookmarks common Gmail views. it adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL (mails) in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.


3) Superstars: Adds new star designs to better differentiate important email. After enabling Superstars, simply click on the star icon repeatedly to rotate through new star options. you can also choose which icons you wish to use in the "General" Settings page.


4) Email Addict: Lets you take a break from email and chat by blocking the screen for fifteen minutes and making you invisible in chat.

Now a days, I am not getting enough time to write something serious because of the increased workload in office. Though I was busy for the complete day, I created a favicon for my blog. it's easy and just 2 minute process. For those who don't know what a favicon is... favicons are defined as tiny pieces of art you’ll usually find in your browser’s address bar or when searching through your bookmarks. Favicons are important as they provide visual indicators to visitors and help them to easily associate the content with a bookmark in their browser. Besides, favicons are just nice to look at and there are way too many sites which don’t make use of them. We like to change things. Creating favicons is easy; I created a favicon on my own using a tool.

Please notice the light blue tiny icon before URL in the address bar. Here is a bigger version of the favicon I created...

If you want to create a favicon and add to your site or blog, it's easy. Please go to http://www.favicon.cc/, spend 2 minutes and a favicon of your choice is ready :-)

Note: These favicons (created like this) work in all browsers except Internet Explorer 7.0.

I was turning pages of newspaper today morning and stumbled upon this particular advertisement. Read this ad and imagine about an house which is on Ist floor, has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one D/D and a kitchen near DPS school. Every time you want to grab something to eat, you have to drive 4-5 miles to DPS school and drive back to your home :D

While working today, I came to know about an interesting fact about Gmail. I had sent a mail to my Gmail account from my office ID and made a TYPO. I had misplaced the dot(.) in my mail-id and realized this only after I sent the mail. But on checking my Gmail, I got surprised by seeing that mail there. On researching I got this interesting fact about Gmail. It is possible that many of you might already know this but for others it may prove very helpful.

Below is what I got from google description of that mail address and some interesting add-ons are following that:

From Google:

There are three common reasons why Gmail users think they're receiving someone else's mail. Please select the description that matches your situation below.

Your address is similar but has more or fewer dots (.) or different capitalization.

Sometimes you may receive a message intended for someone whose address resembles yours but has a different number or placement of dots. For example, your address might be homerjsimpson@gmail.com, but the message was sent to a Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com. What's going on?

Gmail allows only one registration for any given username. Once you sign up for a particular username, any dot or capitalization variations are made permanently unavailable for new registration. If you created yourusername@gmail.com, no one can ever register your.username@gmail.com, or Your.user.name@gmail.com. Furthermore, because Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, adding or removing dots from a Gmail address won’t change the actual destination address. Messages sent to yourusername@gmail.com, your.username@gmail.com, and y.o.u.r.u.s.e.r.n.a.m.e@gmail.com are all delivered to your inbox, and only yours.

If you're homerjsimpson@gmail.com, no one owns Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com, except for you. Sending mail to Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com is the same as sending mail to homerjsimpson@gmail.com, or even HOMERJSIMPSON@GMAIL.COM. If you're getting mail addressed to Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com, most likely someone was trying to send a message to Homer.J.Sampson@gmail.com, or Homer.J.Simpson1@gmail.com, and made a mistake. You might even get messages from mailing lists or website registrations because the intended recipient accidentally provided the wrong email address. In these cases, we suggest contacting the original sender or website when possible to alert them to the mistake.

But beware, this doesn't apply when you login. You have to login with your original username as Gmail recognizes dot(.)s.

Add-ons:

1. One email for every purpose

Instead of using different email addresses for various purposes (work, school, friends, etc.) you can use different variations of your Gmail and filter incoming mails by ’sent to’ address. For instance, all incoming mail sent to ‘Name.Surname@gmail.com’ can be put to folder ‘work’, messages sent to ‘NameSurname@gmail.com’ can be put to ‘friends’, ‘N.ameSurname@gmail.com’ can be used for newsletters, and so on.

2. Track/Block spammers

When signing up for some website, say thatwebsite.com, you can add thatwebsite to your Gmail User ID (eg. GeorgeBush+thatwebsite@gmail.com). This way you can block your subscription whenever you want and even identify those websites that distribute your email address to spammers.

Now a days, I am reading THE KITE RUNNER by KHALID HOSSEINI. Though I have just completed the 3rd chapter yesterday, I want to share something, which I realized very true.

In a scene, the protagonist (in his childhood) was with his father while he was drinking. "If what he(Mullah) said is true then does it make you a sinner, Baba?" The child asked. He was clearly questioning on the drinking habits of his fatter. "Hmm" the father said, "Do you want to know what your father thinks about sin?"... and the answer was obviously a nod in yes. That answer was all, why I'm writing this.

“Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?”

Note: Mullah is a title given to some Islamic Clergy.

The reasons in support of the argument were something, which mesmerized me a lot.

“When you kill a man, you steal a life,”Baba said. “You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

Isn't it very true? True in every possible sense that every sin is a variation of theft. Name a sin and relate what it steals from the victim??? Theft doesn't only mean to steal your money or materialistic possessions; it also means to lose your trust, your rights, your dear ones and anything you can think of.

Look at the above video and you will witness the most amazing shot of cricket history. Though cricket books haven't include a shot like this, this has already stolen a lot of attention from cricket pundits all over the world. Some were mesmerized, some scandalized and some repulsed on this very controversial one. Many cricket gurus worldwide made their comment on this shot. Though there is nothing wrong or against the rule, still it's drawing a lot of comments.

Personally, I admire this shot a lot. The shot, which is termed as SWITCH HIT, may become the most playing shot in T20 format. All the fuss is there because this wasn't a part of a T20 clash but of an ODI between NZL and ENG. Many people have criticized this one saying that this is unfair to the bowling team as they have no choice to set the field (for a Right Hand Betsman of a Lefty one). Also some comments came in the form that how the LBW decision will be taken in this case.

Following are the comments/views/justificatins came from every corner of the world about this shot:

"I covered my eyes as soon as he turned his body around. I was quite surprised and went 'Oh no', but he smashed it. In fact, he smashed it twice. He did actually come up the wicket and say, 'I was thinking about that in bed last night.' So at least we know the visualisation was there."
Paul Collingwood was there

"I just take my hat off to him and say 'nice shot'. All it's done is make me go back and change and get better and come up with a new tactic."
Scott Styris, the unfortunate bowler, takes it on the chin

"To even it up, bowlers should be able to bowl down both sides of the wide line. Then it brings your skill into play...

"It's one of those freakish things, and if it happens again it might go straight up in the air. It's a difficult shot, so we'd almost encourage it."
Daniel Vettori another bowler, and the opposing captain, sees both sides

"That's ridiculous. Absolutely stupid. The reverse sweep has been part of the game for however long. I am just fortunate that I am able to hit it a bit further."
Talk of the stroke being unfair did not please Kevin Pietersen

"Funnily enough, Chris Benham and I were practising KP's new shot in the nets a few days before he pulled it out of the bag.

"The right-hander's left-handed hit over long-on is the natural progression from a reverse-slogsweep."
Hampshire's Nic Pothas creates an intellectual property-rights issue

"Now that he has played that shot against Styris, I can finish off what I tried to say so many years ago. The argument is, if the batsman can change from being right-handed to left-handed, there shouldn't be a problem with a bowler changing from being right-handed to left-handed, either, without having to tell the umpire, nor should he have to tell the umpire if he is going over or round the wicket."
Michael Holding sums up the bowlers' predicament

"A bowler must advise a batsman when he's changing direction, why should the batsmen not; given that where the bowler's aiming will depend on the placement of the off stump."
Gideon Haigh seconds Holding

"It just should be outlawed straightaway. If you want to hit to one side of the field, you've got to do it in a cross fashion, and not swap the way you're facing or your grip. Otherwise you are going to start to allow the bowlers to go round the wicket, over the wicket, and keep swapping during their run-ups."
We know which side Ian Healy is on

"The lawmakers have to be mindful of innovation versus convention, potentially what is good and entertaining and what is prejudicial to the game... He has just set a standard at the moment that no one else has been prepared to try in a game. Others might have been prepared to practise it, but he has actually taken the next step, had the courage to take that risk."
John Buchanan respects innovation when he sees it

"As a cynical old bowler myself, I can see bowlers just stopping in their run-up. I am amazed that Styris didn't do that on Sunday, at least the second time. One way of doing it would be to get rid of the whole idea of leg side if the batsman switches his stance. So the bowler has a reasonable amount of latitude on wides on both sides of the wicket. And it doesn't matter where the ball pitches when you go up for lbw."
Dickie Bird is in the bowlers' corner too

"The truth of the matter is that there is a thing called flair in cricket... As far as I am concerned there has got to be a bit of flair in cricket. The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned, is the way they should go."
Tony Greig is all for experimentation

"I wasn't working on that game. I was watching it on television and I nearly jumped out of my seat. I thought he was absolutely brilliant, and it was a stroke of genius."
The ever-excitable David Lloyd manages to get even more excited

"That was outrageous. I hope he tries it on me. I might have more chance of getting him out."
Shane Warne, KP's former Hampshire team-mate, seems to indicate that he may yet come out of retirement if this is the way cricket is headed

"If he [the batsman] is going to do that then you tell your bowler to bowl short into his ribs - and we have three leg slips and a gully [in case you have three slips and a gully to begin with]. If the batsmen is being so cute and clever, then I am going to say, 'Right, you are having a bit of Bodyline son'."
Nasser Hussain speaks with his Jardine cap on

"It incurs a great deal of risk for the batsman. It also offers bowlers a good chance of taking a wicket and therefore MCC believes that the shot is fair to both batsman and bowlers."
The MCC, after much deliberation, rules in favour of Pietersen