tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36733212024-03-08T09:19:18.182+00:00The Opti MysticJust another brain-dead techie with views on everything under the sun!Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.comBlogger482125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1091466538707814962004-08-02T18:08:00.000+01:002006-05-18T17:12:43.933+01:00A 'moving' post!Paraphrasing Jivha...Ultimately, my blog was mine and mine alone. And I decided to move it.Please note that I shall no longer be actively blogging here. I have moved my web residence to...http://www.opti-mystic.net/blogPlease update your blogrolls to point to my new blog rather than this one.Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1091265601016127912004-07-31T10:20:00.000+01:002004-07-31T10:20:01.016+01:00Once in a blue moon!If you ever thought of doing something but only once in a blue moon, then you'd better do it today... coz tonight is gonna be that blue-moon night!! ;-)Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com51tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1091194937852846372004-07-30T14:40:00.000+01:002004-07-30T14:42:17.853+01:00Outsourcing election campaignsWhile on one hand John Kerry has been advocating lesser outsourcing and returning jobs to Americans, he does not seem to be averse to outsource his campaign to foreign nationals.
David Radulski poses an interesting question...
Then again, doesn't bringing in underpaid (unpaid?) foreign workers mean that a US professional campaign canvasser has lost his or her job?
Btw, I do realize that there'sSameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1091168576622893432004-07-30T07:22:00.000+01:002004-07-30T07:22:56.623+01:00Kerry not good news for IndiaFor those Indians who continue to think that Kerry is the man to support for the top job in America, here's one more reason to think twice about that viewpoint.
Speaking at the Democratic convention (the one where bloggers have been given a position of preeminence), Kerry spoke, among other things, about closing loopholes in US tax laws so that incentives will no longer be available for Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com62tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1091106891373677272004-07-29T14:14:00.000+01:002004-07-29T14:14:51.373+01:00Sour grapes!A former Pakistani Test player has alleged that the India-Lanka tie was fixed.
I am not surprised. Someone or the other usually crawls out of the woodwork in Pakistan and makes these claims everytime an Indian win hurts the interests of the Pakistani team.
Perhaps the idiot did not know that the biggest reason for India's advance into the final was the terrible mis-calculation on the Pakistani Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com103tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1091083159399829392004-07-29T07:26:00.000+01:002004-07-29T10:06:15.513+01:00Paypal class action eMailIn these days of e-mail scams, hoaxes and spoofs, its very difficult to trust emails from anyone who wishes to part with a lot of money. Remember the Nigerian e-mail scam and how it fooled a lot of gullible people or the hoax mails from banks or PayPal.
These hoaxes played on...
People's fears by cautioning them about a security policy update that required them to send personal Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com74tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090973204125773382004-07-28T00:58:00.000+01:002004-07-28T01:06:44.126+01:00Ganguly's masterstrokeWas it a gamble? ... Was it cool calculation? ... Was it TINA at work?
Or was it a masterstroke?
Whatever it was... Ganguly's decision to throw the ball to Zaheer Khan for the final over turned out to be a successful move (especially after the 21 run rollicking that Jayasuriya gave Zaheer in his 4th over). And as we know... nothing succeeds like success!! :-)
Chalk one up for, arguably, Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090919525670268182004-07-27T10:12:00.000+01:002004-07-27T10:12:05.670+01:00No interviews needed in KGConducting interviews for tiny tots seeking admissions to kindergarten or pre-primary classes, is a totally unfair practice that schools have been adopting for a long time now. The reasons, why this practice is unfair, are:
1. Competition for marks/grades has grown to such an extent that it exists not only among students but also among the schools. In this game of oneupmanship, schools try to 'Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090678537339099802004-07-24T15:07:00.000+01:002004-07-24T15:15:37.340+01:00Email space Vs. Web spaceWith the sudden increase in email storage space by nearly all major email service providers (yes! Hotmail has upped its offering too, though only for paid users. Free users continue to languish in the ridiculous 2 MB limit!... at least till autumn arrives.), I wonder when we will see a similar trend in webhosting?!!
Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com133tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090659551579430012004-07-24T09:59:00.000+01:002004-07-24T09:59:11.580+01:00Whoa... Bangalore burnout?!Bangalore, it seems, is losing its sheen and the aura of invincibilty as far as IT is concerned.
Well... at least Wipro seems to think so.Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090563495021831562004-07-23T07:18:00.000+01:002004-07-23T07:18:15.020+01:00WTF?!!The Sept 11 panel confirms what everyone has known forever - that Pakistan has had close links with Osama Bin Laden.
But the panel, quite puzzlingly, goes on to recommend long-term military and other aid to Pakistan, inspite of its tendency to get cozy with the terrorists!!
The panel blames Pakistan's links with Osama on the endemic poverty in the country... "Pakistan's endemic poverty, Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090562037531035232004-07-23T06:51:00.000+01:002004-07-23T06:53:57.530+01:00Changes plannedBig changes expected here soon.
Watch this space!!
Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090368206456131542004-07-21T01:03:00.000+01:002004-07-21T01:03:26.456+01:00The Bangladesh threatArun Shourie talks about how, the present governor of Uttar Pradesh had warned, as far back as 1996, about the impending threat of the rise of a "third Islamic State" in the subcontinent.
T V Rajeswar, the former head of the Intelligence Bureau and the present governor of Uttar Pradesh had predicted this dire threat in a series of articles published in The Hindustan Times, way back in 1996. Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090364633720195652004-07-21T00:24:00.000+01:002004-07-21T00:23:35.343+01:00The George who cried wolf!One of main justifications for the war against Iraq was supposed to be the links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Time and time again, all the top officials in the Bush administration had claimed that there was 'overwhelming' proof that there were extensive ties between Saddam Hussein and Osama's terror organization, Al Qaeda.
But the Sept. 11 commission (National Commission on Terrorist Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090365779906577132004-07-21T00:14:00.000+01:002004-07-21T00:22:59.906+01:00Zaheer injured... again!These days when India plays a cricket match, with Zaheer Khan in the team, it's almost certain that he will pull one of his thigh/calf muscles and be ruled out of the remainder of the tournament!
And he did not disappoint this time! He was ruled out of the upcoming match against Bangladesh, in the ongoing Asia Cup tournament, with an injury to his quadriceps muscle. And that too... right Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090365199404196242004-07-21T00:05:00.000+01:002004-07-21T00:13:19.403+01:00In or out... that is the question!Do you tuck in your shirts?
Well, if you do, you might be considered to be boring and sartorially anachronistic!!
And that's because flying shirttails are the new 'in-thing' (pun quite unintended!)... the latest symbol of rebellion!
... and of course, an untucked shirt works oh so well in concealing the 'midriff bulge'!! ;-)
[NYTimes registration required]
Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090248433163351692004-07-19T15:47:00.000+01:002004-07-19T15:47:13.163+01:00Exploiting loopholes in law... and getting away with it!The Ghatkopar bomb blasts case is all set to go the same way as the Mulund blasts case. The accused have signed an application saying that they have no faith in the court.
This is similar to the written application filed by Saquib Nachan, the prime accused in the Mulund bomb blast case. Nachan successfully managed to stall the court proceedings by claiming in his application that he had no Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090234873135619032004-07-19T12:01:00.000+01:002004-07-19T12:01:13.136+01:00The new iPod - sleeker... cheaperApple will unveil the latest iPod later this week. Newsweek reviews the new iPod to find that... It looks a bit different, operates more efficiently, has a few more features and costs less. This new baby is thinner and sports a new menu that feels like the one on the iPod mini. The battery-life has been extended. There are new features like multiple on-the-go playlists and playback of audiobooks Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1090220333100368232004-07-19T07:58:00.000+01:002004-07-19T07:58:53.100+01:00Jivha - The TongueJivha stops blogging. Forever??Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1089996355923667062004-07-16T20:17:00.000+01:002004-07-16T20:21:06.546+01:00A skeleton tumbles out of the closetThis, ladies and gentlemen, is precious!!
With all the brouhaha over the name of Lopamudra Ghatak, I decided to dig around a bit for some more dirt information on her. So I hopped on to our friendly neighbourhood search engine and searched for 'Lopamudra Ghatak'. Weeding out the results pointing or referring to Economic Times, the first search result (without any reference to the 'Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1089931700953489082004-07-15T23:48:00.000+01:002004-07-15T23:48:20.953+01:00Very little 'saffronisation' of education after all!A report by a panel of scholars appointed by the new HRD ministry in their efforts to de-saffronise Indian education, has indicated that saffronisation of the history texts used in schools was a minor matter as compared to the 'Northanization' of Indian history by parochial writers with 'a strong north-India bias'. Evidence: Of the 89 pages devoted to the study of Ancient History of India, not Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1089930746780262162004-07-15T23:32:00.000+01:002004-07-15T23:32:26.780+01:00POTA faces the axeThe UPA government has finally taken the decision to scrap POTA by repealing it during the monsoon session of the parliament. But some of the provisions of this 'draconian' Act will be retained by adding them to already existing laws of the land.
This decision, while in keeping with the promises made in the Common Minimum Programme, is purely symbolic since the POTA was, in any case, going to Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1089884526800046792004-07-15T08:11:00.000+01:002004-07-15T10:42:06.800+01:00The Great American DreamSome say the job market is opening up fast in the US. Some say its booming. So you think about posting resumes to US job consultants with the hopes of snagging a job or two in the land of opportunity. Well thats what a lot of my friends have been doing these days.
But then if you read The Economic Times (and horror of horrors, believe it), you'd be worried to death about going to the US for a Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1089676970629469402004-07-13T08:20:00.000+01:002004-07-13T10:03:55.463+01:00Schumacher the best ever?Michael Schumacher is a great driver. He's the best there is and probably among the best there ever were!
But is he the best there ever was?!
If all you hear are the fawning paeans sung in his praise by lakhs of Johnny-come-latelies who call themselves F1 fanatics, you'd be convinced that indeed, Schumi is the greatest Formula One driver that ever walked this planet.
At least the author of Sameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com43tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3673321.post-1089678660428510732004-07-13T01:31:00.000+01:002004-07-13T01:45:05.460+01:00My political tendencies...I took two political quizzes today. The first one was The Enhanced Political Quiz... in 2D. It returned the result denoted by the red dot in the following picture.
The second quiz I took was the Political Compass quiz where I scored the following result as represented by the red dot in the following picture.
Libertarian, huh?! Hmmmm... Posted by HelloSameerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05180127231158085662noreply@blogger.com7