Save the Tiger

Headline in the newspaper today:

Tiger population 1,411 in India: Report

Frankly, I don’t think there is a beast that comes anywhere close to the Tiger in the wild when it comes to personality. Its presence is just awesome. Even the Lion pales in comparison.

I feel really sad that this is the state of Tigers in India, where it is the National Animal.

Photo Courtesy

Cricket’s day of shame

To an extent I agree with what is written in this article about the Harbhajan saga. I agree to the point that revenue considerations have taken centrestage over the issues and Cricket Australia and ICC caved into BCCI’s demands. If the Aussie players were really confident that Harbhajan had uttered the word they consider racial, then they shouldn’t have agreed to downgrade the charges. This doesn’t speak well about the integrity of the Aussie players.
I don’t agree to a couple of things in the article, when the author agrees to the Australian players feeling that Harbhajan should have been punished with at least a one match ban. This should have happened only if there was sufficient evidence to prove that Harbhajan uttered the word “Monkey”. I feel that the Australian players are crazy if they feel that they can get Harbhajan banned without sufficient evidence. If Mike Procter had used some other evidence than just going by the word of the Aussie players over the word of Sachin Tendulkar, then I am pretty sure that a lot of people in India itself would have stood by ICC’s decision and said that the rules should be followed. What irritated the people in India and the Board itself is the fact that there is no evidence other than what the Australian players are claiming. If Ricky “integrity” Ponting claims that his integrity shouldn’t have been questioned after the Sydney test, then he should have stood by what he told Mike Procter instead of backing down. Now, this brings me to the question of whether the Aussies should have been punished for lying?

Now, the best thing that the ICC can do is to tell the world, how two entirely different decisions were arrived at within a span of 20 odd days with the same evidence, which is still considered inconclusive. Read this piece at Guardian. It talks without any prejudice that the Australians would have regarding the judgement and throws out the persons involved and looks at the process.

Technorati Tags: Cricket, Australia, Harbhajan, Sydney, Monkey, Symonds, Ponting

Most trusted brand in India

Take a guess!!!

If I had to guess then it would have mostly been on the lines of Nirma or some product of HUL like Lux or Lifebuoy etc. But, according to the BrandAsset Valuator Survey by Young & Rubicam for Forbes.com, the most trusted local brand in India is Good Knight.
Yes, I have typed it correctly. It is the mosquito repellant which is a joint venture between Godrej and Sara Lee. Maybe people are using Good Knight or at least hearing about it a lot more due to the mosquito menace which exists in most parts of India.

Here is the article and the presentation. Check out the trusted brands in other countries.
P.S: It isn’t very clear if the survey was directed at local brands only. The usual suspects like Coca Cola, Gillette, Toyota etc are missing.

Technorati Tags: Brands, India, Good Knight, Forbes

50 influential Indian Americans

http://www.rediff.com/us/top50.html

Great to see names like Aswath Damodaran, Om Malik, Ram Shriram and Manoj Shyamalan. But, I find it ridiculous that the editor has left out PadmashreeWarrior. I am pretty sure that she has a bigger say in the telecom industry and in the corporate world in the United States than most of the people mentioned here.

Warriors Blog

Technorati tags: Padmashree Warrior, Om Malik, Ram Shriram, Manoj Shyamalan, Aswath Damodaran

Harry Potter trauma care??

Ms. Vorsheck is available to speak with parents and children, as well as the media, on how to cope with feelings of grief and loss. This is a particularly timely issue with the release of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows scheduled for release this Saturday, July 21, 2007. Recent articles have sparked rumors suggesting that one or more main characters will die. This could have a serious impact on children, millions of whom have grown up reading, watching and profoundly enjoying the characters and storylines of the Harry Potter series. As the world comes to terms with the possible demise of a hero, The Highmark Caring Place and Ms. Vorsheck will share insights helping children and parents to cope with some of life’s most difficult challenges.[Link]

I just don’t understand this. Trauma care just because some character in Harry Potter or Harry Potter himself dies in the last novel. There are far better things to be worried about in this world. And I would blame the parents more than the kids for encouraging this if someone is indeed traumatized after reading this novel.

Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows

NDTV vs. CNN-IBN

Recently, Indian News television awards were presented at a show hosted by indiantelevision.com and NDTV and CNN-IBN walked away with most of the awards. But, look at these headlines from the two sites.

NT awards: NDTV India steals the show [Link]

CNN-IBN sweeps Indian News Television Awards[Link]

Well, for your information NDTV won 14 awards while CNN-IBN won 9 awards and Prannoy Roy was presented with a Lifetime achievement award. Now-a-days NDTV is the only news channel I watch and that too occasionally. I have stopped watching CNN-IBN after “that” blog post by Anuradha Sengupta. If you don’t know what “that” means in the previous line go and look in her blog on ibnlive.com. I don’t even want to link to that post.

Technorati Tags: NDTV, CNN, IBN, Awards, Prannoy Roy

Doctrate devalued?

Last week, I read that actor Satyaraj and music director Deva are going to become Dr.Satyaraj and Dr. Deva respectively. Well, they have done quite a bit in the cine field, but being honoured with a doctorate for that is slightly taking things too far. If this news came as a shock, the bigger shock is the news that Shilpa Shetty is soon going to become Dr.Shilpa Shetty. This is well…..

Satyaraj and Deva
Shilpa Shetty

And just read this

A leading UK University will confer on Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty today an honorary doctorate for her outstanding contribution to cultural diversity

What did she do to promote this other than participate in a reality show for which she was paid in crores? Maybe I don’t know about all her contrubutions. Maybe…….
And the other people on whom the Doctorate has been conferred by this University are Amitabh, Yash Chopra and Shabana Azmi.

Technorati Tags: Shilpa Shetty, Deva, Satyaraj, Amitabh, Shabana Azmi, Yash, Chopra, Doctorate

Dayanidhi Maran Resigns

This was in the offing and the official comfirmation came a couple of hours back. The news that he had sent his resignation letter has been confirmed, but whether it has been accepted or not hasn’t come out. I think it would be accepted as DMK has issued a showcause notice to Maran on why he shouldn’t be expelled from the party.
The trouble started when Dinakaran was attacked by supporters of Mr. Azhagiri and notices were sent to Sun TV.
As the Telecom Minister Mr. Maran had done reasonably well. He was instrumental behind getting the FDI in the telecom sector to 74% and also for the OneIndia plans. The success of these could be debated, but he at least wanted to get the tariffs down. He also focussed on broadband and rural connectivity, which would be the next big things for Indian Telecom industry.
We will have to wait and see who will be the next Telecom minister, but if he were to fulfill the promises made by Mr. Maran then (s)he would have their hands full.

[Update on the resignation. Rediff also has an article in the rise and fall of Dayanidhi Maran.]

Technorati Tags: Maran, Dayanidhi Maran, DMK, Telecom, India, broadband, Dinakaran, Sun TV

Configuring Netgear’s WGT624 Wireless router – Using WPA Security Type

WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access and is a superior security type. In my previous post I had mentioned that I used WEP to configure the network. Naren had left a comment saying that WPA is better than WEP and I did a little bit of reading on that topic before starting the process of changing the security type. It is actually simple to change it once the initial network is setup.

To Change from WEP to WPA:
On the Router:
1. Disconnect the wireless and the wired network. And connect using the wired network alone. The router can be ON during the entire operation.
2. Once you have connected thru’ Ethernet alone, login to http://www.routerlogin.net. Enter the username and password as you had done previously.
3. If the login is successful, you will be taken to the Start page. There is no change in basic settings. Click on Wireless settings in the left pane.
4. Once you have got to the wireless settings page, go to the place where Security Protocols are mentioned. I chose WPA-PSK (TKIP) as WPA-PSK (AES) was not available. Only WPA2-PSK (AES) was available and my laptop didn’t have this configuration. So, I chose WPA-PSK (TKIP). Once you have done this, you will be prompted to enter a ‘Passphrase’. Enter an alphanumeric phrase which is between 8-63 characters. And then apply the settings. (Remember the alphanumeric phrase)
5. The configuration is complete on the router side.

On the PC:
1. On the wireless connections icon or if you are using IBM laptops in the Access Connections, you will find the option to Edit Wireless connection.
2. Open the Wireless connection profile and choose the security setting as WPA-PSK (TKIP) and type the same passphrase as what you typed in the router. Save, apply and Exit.
3. Now power on Wireless radio and you should be able to connect to the Wireless network without any issues.

If there are any issues, then carefully check the security type chosen and also the passphrase correctness. If it still doesn’t work, then you can have fun debugging or go back to WEP.

Technorati tags: Netgear, WGT624, Wireless, Ethernet, Home Network

Are New Zealand and Australia in Asia??

At least Businessweek thinks so. My limited knowledge of Geography tells me that Australia is a continent and New Zealand is part of the larger Oceania group that constitutes Australia also.

New Zealand and Australian cities dominate the top slots in Mercer’s new ranking of Asia’s most desirable places to live.

China and India may represent Asia’s economic future, but the most desirable cities in which to live, for foreign executives and their families, are elsewhere. Cities in New Zealand, Australia, and Japan are far more comfortable places to reside, according to a new ranking by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, which provides advice to multinational companies on international assignments.[Source]

At least, they got Japan correctly.

Technorati Tags: Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Mercer, Business week

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