What Matters More – Runs or Money?
Two big news coming from Cricketing world today – Sachin Tendulkar crossing 14,000 runs in test cricket and BCCI suspending Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. Two pieces of info, about almost the same set of players but still making a huge difference to fans.
We cricket loving fans live in a different world, we treat cricket as religion and love it more than anything, and when people try to take advantage of that fact it hurts us the most. In last couple of years, money has taken the center stage, most people would not have noticed yet but will notice it now. The kind of corruption is in under either in form of spot fixing, match fixing or accounting irregularities it hurts us the most.
We are the fans, when we wake up at 5 AM to watch Sachin Tendulkar play against Australia, we do not care about what logo is on his shirt – either it be Nike or Sahara it does not matter us. It does not matter to us what advertisements are played, it is Coca Cola or Pepsi. What matters to us is the straight drive, hook and the pull, that battle between bat and ball is so powerful that when Ravi Sashtri says “when Sachin plays well, India sleeps well” is absolutely true.
Cricket is healer for this developing country. We get in all sorts of arguments, fights, reservations, and demolitions and are even hit by internal and external terrorism. But when it comes to Cricket it does not take much, we just need a TV in a show room and outside public becomes happy. People forget they have to go for work, college or meetings, they forget what religion or cast they are from, they forget what language they speak, and there is only one thing which wins – the joy of watching our favorite team play.
And it is not just about our team; we appreciate and cheer good Cricket from everywhere. We cheer for good bowling from Muralidharan, nice hitting by Peterson, fast bowling from Bond, Andy Flower’s reverse sweep or anything nice which is played with proper sprit.
Lately it has been hit by scandals. It all started with Hansie Cronje’s revelations a decade ago. Some players got greedy and we got a setback that caused us a lot of players. Because of that we would never be able to see Azharuddin’s masterful wrist strokes. What caused it all, it was the greed of certain players.
Now in 2010 we uncovered the story of Lalit Modi and how his greed is causing problems again. Not just some teams are being kicked out of tournament, he has taken a format of the game to such high level where it has started to outshine the real cricket. It hurts not only the fans but players as well, as summarized by Coach and Captain of Rajasthan Royals, Shane Warne in his tweet:
3 seasons ago royals won the first ever ipl, underdogs come good what a story, it helped give credibility to the competition !!! Now look. The royals gave young unknown Indian players a chance and I as captain backed them, and our coaching staff supported them we were a team. What now for the youngsters, I hope BCCI come to there senses, fingers crossed!
Who has the answer to these questions? It’s all well and good that new players got chance to play, it gave stage to new stars to shine but was that just a cover for a scandal that was brewing up beneath? The story is not just limited to Cricket, but if we look around all major sports have issues like these – be it match fixing scandal of Serie A and Serie B league of Italy, or Nelson Piquet Jr. slamming his car into barriers in Singapore GP, or NBA referee gambling on the games he was officiating.
Till we have a lot of money in sports we will have these problems. And without money we will also have problems as we see in case of Indian athletes, who do not have proper infrastructure. We need money, but at the same time a system that regulated the kind of money getting into the system. This calls for a wide reform of the system and almost seems impossible, but things can be changed. Same way we could throw out tobacco sponsorship out of sports, we can deal with this issue as well. Government has to step-in, authorities have to be less corrupt and more passionate about the games they are involved in. Lets just keep the sports what it is, lets keep the passion alive for the fans and players and it will last forever. Learn a lesion from Sachin Tendulkar, he has lasted 21 years playing international, which is not just mentally but physically impossible. With his simple lifestyle, passion for the game and not letting success get into his head can last him this long why can’t we adopt same approach to the sport. Lets bring in more administrators who are passionate about game rather than about money or politics and we can be on right track.
What Could Google Do – Friend Rank
Posted by veetrag in Technology, Web on October 7, 2010
I was listening to This Week in Google where Jeff Jarvis, Gina Trapani and Leo Laporte were discussing the issue of Google’s social strategy. The main point of discussion was what Facebook and Twitter are doing. Facebook has more than half a billion users but still not able to provide proper recommendations, while Twitter had over 180 million users and it has an excellent recommendation system. The topic that skimmed up was it’s not the users that matter, it’s the relationships that matters the most for any social strategy.
On the other side, Google has a lot of users but not a successful social strategy. Google has shown it’s capabilities by providing us ‘Priority Inbox’ which is a testimonial that with enough data, Google can mine excellent relationships and eventually recommendations. How does Google get into the game? They have money, engineering capabilities but a lot of failed social attempts too. One thing is they can harness the fire hose provided by Twitter but that would not suffice all needs of Google.
One of the options is for Google to have it’s own Social Network (Google Me?), but we know form past experiences (Orkut, Buzz, Latitude) that Google cannot build a good social network. Then how do they get all the data they want? At that time I wondered what if we bring Android into the picture. One of the most fascinating things about Android is it’s contact sync. Google syncs all the contacts from Phonebook, Facebook, Twitter, Skype and other application into one phonebook. They do an excellent job of figuring out which users/handle/userid belong to same person and bundle it together.
I see it as opportunity for Google; by capturing a large market in Smartphone they have a system where they can capture a lot of data with just one primary key – gmailid. With more and more usage of mobile platform people use twitter, Facebook, Skype and voice calls, all from one device. If that device is capable of capturing all the data and building a social graph internally then I see Gold for Google. Google can have it’s own ‘Friend Rank’ algorithm which will rank friends based on number of calls, frequency, twitter replies, wall posts, picture messages, email threads and many more small parameters. Once friends are ranked, that data can be passed to Google servers. And that data can be utilized to provide better “social” search results.
Main part about this is privacy implications. That is why I think building of Social Graph has to be done on mobile. That data should not be sent over airwaves. Once the platform calculates the graph, it can store on Google servers, as reverse engineering of that graph is not possible. It’s just an idea, where I think Google can be headed to.
A Short Stint in God’s Own Country
Posted by veetrag in Uncategorized on September 16, 2010
After an interval of 5 years I got a chance to visit Kerala once again and spend some days. When it came to choice of transport, I decided to travel by Indian Railways, I wanted to relive those memories of Engineering days when we would travel back and forth on Konkan Route four times a year. Konan is my favorite railway route, with over 2000 bridges and 90 tunnels, this not only in an engineering marvel but provides one of the best views in the world. Throughout the Western Ghats the big question is which side of beauty one should capture – Sahyadris on left or Indian Ocean on right. Since this was just after the onset of monsoon, we witnessed lots of waterfalls, streams and flooded rivers passing through lush green mountains. Konkan Route Photographs
Ten years back when we first visited Kerala (or actually entered South India) we named the whole area as ‘Jalebi Pradesh’ based on resemblance with characters of Dravidian languages. But it took only first three days to realize that we were studying at one of the most beautiful locations in the world. This chance to visit Kerala to attend 3 weddings was a golden chance to live those memories once again and I exactly did that.
Things were a lot different this time though, instead of going through the bad quality hostel food I was staying with a friend. The quality of Apam, Putt, Kadla, Idiappam and many more Kerla delicacies that I used to like had improved drastically. Luckily I reached Kerala on day of Onam, so I was able to enjoy Sadya. Not only once but thrice in just 20 days. It was also interesting to know different way of eating Putt and other dishes, with different bananas. And definitely I did not miss my favorite Malayalee dish – Payasam.
Sadya prepared by a friend
Talking about food, there is one thing I miss a lot, Sharjah Shake from Premier Junction shop. That shop used to be our favorite during college days. The milkshakes were so delicious and rich that if one has a milkshake from that place, he will have to skip at least one meal. To try the same we friends travel for more than an hour, hopped two buses only to figure out that shakes were not available at that time. That was a disaster, but we made up for that by visiting our other hangouts.
I had a chance to go to Marine Drive and take a boat ride as well. Marine Drive is an absolutely amazing places, I like to go there and watch sunset. It is one of the most calming experiences. Sun setting in the sea and lights coming on other side of city and islands, makes it a memorable experience. Other places I visited were the new malls that have come up in the city. I am not a big fan of the malls, but wanted to see how has the city changed in last five years. It was a surprise for me- inside the mall the atmosphere was totally different. Not different from other malls but from outside. It was exactly same as any other mall that one would find in every city, same brands, same toys and same people, it all feels like coming out of an assembly line. Photographs: Sunset at Marine Drive
For other weddings I had to travel to nearby places and one of them was Alappuzha. Even though I did not get out of the bus but tour through the city and going through all the places where I have been and highways near backwaters were enough to bring back those fun holidays we had at Alappuzha. Alappuzha is very beautiful places, a place where I can live. Only issue being my language constraint and vegetarianism.
My language was not as much tested as my last experience, but I had to travel alone, switching buses, but my GPS came in handy. One interesting incident was when a friend tested me in my Malayalam skills. I tried my best and asked for water but instead of vellam I said vallam. Instead of getting water what I got was laughter from other side with a question – how are you going to drink a boat?
Overall it was a great experience, after years I was able to meet a lot of good friends, be in God’s Own Country one more time and enjoy the dishes made in coconut oil. I love the fact that India hosts so many different cultures, different geographies and visiting these places provide a new perspective and lots of learning. Obviously this visit was for a greater reason, to celebrate four of my close friends getting married. Congratulations to Anju, Cijal, Geo and John and wish you all great married life. And of course thanks a million to my hosts, John’s family and another friend for hospitality and making this trip memorable.
Audio Notes using MS Office 2008
Posted by veetrag in Technology on August 6, 2010
Last week I was looking for solution for best Audio Notes. There are many commercial applications available but One Note was my favorite. Switching to Mac rules out use of One Note, but the solution that I found was perfect and without any additional cost.
If you are using Office 2008 or above this will be available in just 2 steps:
- Switch to notebook layout: In the ‘View’ ribbon you can switch to ‘Notebook Layout’ which transforms the normal layout to a tab based (vertical). Tabs can be used for different sections, and the page are ruled too (I don’t know what purpose they serve, but it looks good).
- Switch on the Audio: Tools -> Audio Tools -> Start Recording will start the audio recording. Best part about this recording is the position of text while audio was recording is also recorded. When you hover over a piece of text, a speaker icon appears next to it. Using that one can playback specific notes pertaining to that text easily. This makes it a brilliant utility specially for class and meeting notes.
Screenshot of Audio Recording.
Lessons from The Master!
I am not saying cricket is simple, but everything around it, if you keep simple, it becomes relatively easy
On the eve of becoming the most capped player in Test Cricket, these words perfectly sum the way he thinks and explains how he handles the burden of expectations from millions. I like this statement very much because I believe the same in technology arena. Technology is not simple, but if separate it out from other things and remove all the jargons, it can be understood easily.
People who do not know Sachin would always wonder how can one person dominate World cricket for more then 20 years and still remain simple, down to earth person who when walks on the filed is hope for billion people and nightmare for opposition. Answer is simple – his simplicity and love for game acts helps him play but he never allows that success to get into his head. He answers it simple -
Time flies. You just need to enjoy it, it’s a circle. You are not always on the top, sometimes there are rough patches, but the simple formula that I have followed is, whenever I have gone through tough phases, I have found a reason to work harder. And try and spend all my energy at something I have been wanting to get better at.
Congratulations on yet another record and lets level this ‘dead’ series.
Team Orders
Formula 1 has been hit once again with the controversy of Team Orders. Team Orders can be defined as team dictating the outcome of it’s two players. Mainly this situation arises when team favors one drive over another. This has been a controversial topic in motor sport for long time and change of regulation has a lot to do with how it can be perceived. In earlier days of F1, a specific leader of team was chosen and even if he can problem with his car, he could use his teammates during the race. But those times are gone and now sporting rules do not allow to dictate the results.
The bigger question then arises is – Formula 1 is a team sport or not? Lets see how the teams are designed. Both drivers have separate car, with moderate modifications done for each driver as per his driving style, physical conditions and other factors. Both drivers have separate team of engineers working on respective cars, that makes it more like individual sport. On other side, funds for a team are handled from one team, almost all of the technology is developed for both drivers and data is completely shared between both, this makes it a team sport.
If we consider F1 as team sport, then team has right to dictate the result. It would be similar to Cycling where complete team tries to win the race for the leader. Here unlike other team sport such as football and cricket, the team leader is considered a winner and not the team. World knows about Lance Armstrong as winner, but very few know about which team helped him win the title.
But the difference is a team leader is selected in the beginning and everyone knows what they are getting into and what are their duties. Unlike in Formula1 where no one driver is selected as leader and that is why I believe F1 should be considered an individual sport. No one should be robbed of the victory one deserves. But this is not the end of story, every team order situation should be considered individually.
For example the Austrian GP 2002 when Schumacher was asked to take lead off Barichello was not a fair move. Point being, Barichello was fast in practice, qualifying and race as well. That time to ask him to give his position away was unfair. But during yesterday’s race where Alonso was allegedly given chance to overtake Massa is totally different. Massa could never match the pace of Alonso is the race and that could have resulted in few situations. One being where Vettel would have come close to Alonso and started pressuring him, that could have resulted in something lesser then Ferrari 1-2 which is not favorable. Second situations is where Alonso and Massa could have collided trying to fend each other and could have resulted in zero points. The same situation arose few weeks back where it resulted in collision between Vettel and Webber. To Ferrari’s defense, they would never want to have a repeat situation of such and asked Massa to back off for the greater good of team (no pun or double meaning intended).
This situation barely justifies the move and it might yield in punishment or not, all depends on WMSC, which is handling this matter. This time WMSC should not only resolve this matter, but also come up with strict guidelines to protect individual’s rights. They should specifically have scenarios where similar conflicts in team can be resolved.
As a F1 fan, we do not want any more scandals in this sports. Already for last few years we had too much politics, race fixing, espionage etc and this season seems to be shaping up well keeping everything behind.
A Programmer’s Explanation to Inception
Spoiler Alert
void main(){
static int totem = 12345;
int level = 0;
int task = 45678;
int returnTotem = dreamSequence(task);
if (totem == returnTotem)
printf("you are real");
else{
printf("Stuck in limbo");
while(true);
}
}
int dreamSequence(unsigned int number) {
int totem = 12345;
level++;
int taskCompleted = 0;
// Task Processing
// Time Spent in function = f(t,level)
if( taskCompleted)
return totem;
return dreamSequence(task);
}