Chennai Super Kings /Dhoni Sucks

We are well in the middle of much hyped IPL-2 in South Africa. Any ardent fan of this form of the game will testify that this year's IPL is just a shadow of last year's great tournament. Since I come form Tamilnadu, Chennai Super Kings was my preferred team over the others(till today's match). Chennai has already completed 4 games and about to finish their 5th Game today(against Deccan Chargers). To me this team appears to be one of the most confused group besides the Bangalore Royal Challengers.Captaincy of Dhoni seems appalling, especially with his final eleven selection. He just don't want to try native chennai players(just wants to keep his close buddies and poorly performing Joginder sharma and Parthiv patel at any cost). Chennai team has got one of the worst opening bowling combination which consistently leaks lots of crucial runs(acknowledged by Dhoni himself). The batting order is also not great with very the weird line up. Hard hitting players like Albie and Oram are left with few balls to play whereas uninspiring players like Parthiv and to a certain extent dhoni(yes, dhoni)are keep on batting higher the order to waste so many deliveries.The way the guys are playing I would not be surprised if my team e finishes bottom out of 8 teams in the tournament.

Chennai Super Suckers would have been apt name for this inept team

Airtel Broadband Sucks (also Rocks)

I always liked the Airtel Broadband services for its network quality and stability(and not to forget its wonderful customer service). But unfortunately the same can't be said about Airtel these days. It looks as if they are trying their level best to get a name similar to Tata Indicom(known for poor quality connections and service + Remember,Airtel Fair Usage Policy). It's been 3 days since I complained to the Customer Care guys at Bangalore regarding my connection problems with Airtel Broadband, I am yet to get my problem solved. First of the many service engineers I met from Airtel in the last 3 days told my Modem was the problem and needed to be replaced(which he did promptly). But it did not help the cause, so I have to log another complaint with CC. Since I live in Power-Cut's own country(Kerala), I needed the service guys to be at my flat well before the scheduled Power cuts in my area(which i stressed to the CC guys). Once again my bad luck played a trick, the Technical Guys came exactly during the power cut(i was told earlier that they should be at my place 2 hours prior to the power cut)So no possibility of troubleshooting my Airtel connection. This 3rd day in waiting from my side for some sort of solution my Airtel woes, still technical guys are at large no where to be found(in another 40 minutes i should have my regular power cut)this means I am not going to have working broadband connection for another two days(tomorrow is Good Friday so no chance for servicing from Airtel)

Happy Now Airtel-u suckerz(also rockerz)

(Update:At last my Airtel Broadband started working again, thanks to the technician Pankaj from Bihar(Airtel) he did the rewiring for my connection that solved the problem.Thanks Airtel fellas)

Ayan -Tamil Movie Review

After a long gap i went to watch a Tamil Movie in Theater(due to insistence of my friend Ganesan). Since my friend is a big fan of Actress Tamannah, he took me to a Tamil Movie 'Ayan'(means unmatchable)which stars his favorite actress. Ayan was released just 3 days ago in Kerala/Tamilnadu + going to a movie on Sunday evening means we had to face big opening weekend crowd. We successfully passed the crowd and got the ticket for Balcony in black(paid 100 bucks each for the ticket of 50 bucks).

Ayan has got a done and dusted plot with lots of illogical scenarios, nothing special to write home about. But still i would like to give a summary about the story. The story takes place in Chennai's Sowcarpet(area where one can find lots of Immigrant North Indians, in particular Marwaris) between two rival gangs in smuggling/piracy activities. Both gangs tries to outsmart each other and who wins at the last is the story.One gang is lead by Dass(actor Prabhu,looks very tired throughout the movie)a former associate of Nemitchand and current leader in Video Piracy and Diamond/Gold Smuggling in Chennai. He is ably assisted by Deva(Actor Surya) an M.Sc.Computer Science graduate with penchant for Illegal activities done in right way.The rival Gang is lead by Kamalesh(Actor Akashdeep,irritating throughout the movie)the son of Nemitchand. Kamalesh is ready to go any level to beat the crap out of Dass's gang(in particular Deva) which means smuggling Narcotics(illegal drugs) and having his mole in Dass's Gang. Deva has a friend called Chitti(played by TV Actor Jagan,in a nice comic role)with an important twist at the half way stage.There are other characters also in the movie, like Yamuna(actress Tamannah,in a stupidly sketched role)the lover of Deva and sister of Chitti,Deva's Mother(TV Actress Renuka, Dsss's Deaf Side Kick Dilli(Actor Karunaas, wasted character), Customs Officer Parthiban(Actor Ponvannan in a dignified role).Item dance by Koena is utter waste, she looks wooden with her facial expression and song appears out of place.

Music in the movie tests viewer's patience, most of them comes at awkward situations(every time a song starts people in the theater walks off for a cigarette or urinals) and sounds rehashing of Harris Jayaraj's older themes.Less said is better about the Background score.Screenplay is haphazard.

Cinematography and Surya are the only saving grace in this K.V.Anand Nightmare. Seeing the trend in Tamilnadu these days, all the movies distributed/produced by Sun Pictures has got absolute beating from the reviewers but almost all of them are also critic proof at the box office. This means public like these kind of mindless plot with grandeur more than good ones with stories and nice screenplay.

Looking at the good cast and a visionary cameraman turned director this movie had one would have hoped for much better final result.But what we get is a clichéd story line and screen play. After a decent action thriller Kanaa Kandaen Director K.V.Anand has given us a Perarsu kinda masala flick with lots of style but no substance.

Let's for hope a better script next time from the talented cameramen(K.V.Anand)

Baali's rating **/5

Real Me

It's been a while since i updated my Orkut/Facebook pages. So I decided to update it today with details which resembles more of real me rather than the fake one I've been trying to pretend for a long time. It took some time (approximately 2 years) for me to understand how these so called social networking websites works.

The concept of people from different parts of the world with different backgrounds, cultures and social strata forming various communities(localized/general) to discuss n number of things and forming networks is indeed a great idea. This gives a chance for someone to express their thoughts, who otherwise may not have done (or) afraid to do so in public.

In a way, these sites are kind of starters for amateur bloggers like me. But to get most out of these sites, one needs to be more closer to the reality than trying to be something else(which is what I was doing till recently). I usually used to paint myself as a great fella with loads and loads of talents(self proclaimed) which is exact opposite of what I really am. I feel there is no need to show everything rosy in a picture.I am not a super hero type or boy charming. I am just another ordinary guy that one can meet in every walk of life. I too have my share of Bad(?) habits, Fear, Problems and Weaknesses like any one else in this planet.But it does not make me feel any lesser than the others.So why should i try to project myself into something which i really not. My current profile in Orkut/Facebook more likely to have more pessimistic tone about me than my previous ones but i am not afraid/ashamed to be myself & This is Real Me.

Philips DVP3166

I have been using Philips DVP3166 for the past 1 and half years.I bought it for Rs 3500 from Vellore. I have purchased this over the others mainly due to its Divx Compatibility and USB connectivity option.

On the Plus Side it does what it supposed to do that is to play commonly used Video and Audio formats without any hiccups

So far i have tested it with following formats and it works perfect for me

In Video

Divx-Home theater profile(As well as custom without changing the resolution), both avi as well as divx extension upto Divx 6.8.5 revision. I tried the bitrate upto 4000 kbits and maximum single file size 2.16 GB without Q-Pel and GMC.

Xvid-Simple to Advanced Simple Profile in avi extension(better to use DX50 Fourcc code instead of Xvid)without Q-Pel and GMC(rest same as Divx)

MPEG-4 file made with MPEG-4 using FFDShow VFW enocder(Not Xvid/Div3)

To my surprsie all these 3 formats plays well in both .MP4 extension as well as the traditional .Avi

MPEG-1 / MPEG-2 in .MPG or .MPEG extension(Main/Std Profile)

DVD Format .VOB(Main profile)

In Audio

MP3(CBR/VBR),M4A / AAC(HE/LE),WAV,AC3,WMA(upto WMA 9)

Photos-JPEG

Through USB almost all the above are playable but there is one limitation though. I have tried with various Capacity Thumb drives and USB hard disks and file system. This machine recognizes only Hard Disk under 40 GB in FAT/FAT32 file system.Both USB 1.1, 2.0 are recognized.

On Minus side it has the following drawbacks

Up conversion of SD into HD not possible,the user interface is very limited and sluggish.It has no amplifier in it in case one want to use this with a home theater system. Also,there is no firmware update available (since its launch in 2007) for this model from Philips.

But still its a great little (cheap) dvd player weighing less than 2 Kgs with a sleek/stylish design and works perfectly for most of the common media formats.

Baali's Rating ****/5