The super-hero test

Interesting site this.. the superhero test!

I took the test and this is what I got

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 70% Spider-Man 50% Supergirl 50% Batman 45% Robin 42% Green Lantern 40% Iron Man 40% Wonder Woman 30% Catwoman 30% The Flash 30% Hulk 30%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Dancing cricketer!!

This is funny. Sreeshanth dances in front of Andre Nel after hitting him for a six. The others watch in amusement.

More is Less - Interesting thought from Joel Spolsky

Does having more options necessarily make you feel better? Does giving your users multiple ways to do the same thing make them feel any happier or smarter?

Joel Spolsky takes a look at the newly launched Windows Vista and concludes that having to choose between a multitude of options actually makes the user confused and unhappy.

Interesting read. Few excerpts below.

Choices = Headaches

This item ran on the Joel on Software homepage on Tuesday, November 21, 2006

I'm sure there's a whole team of UI designers, programmers, and testers who worked very hard on the OFF button in Windows Vista, but seriously, is this the best you could come up with?

Every time you want to leave your computer, you have to choose between nine, count them, nine options: two icons and seven menu items. The two icons, I think, are shortcuts to menu items. I'm guessing the lock icon does the same thing as the lock menu item, but I'm not sure which menu item the on/off icon corresponds to.

On many laptops, there are also four FN+Key combinations to power off, hibernate, sleep, etc. That brings us up to 13 choices, and, oh, yeah, there's an on-off button, 14, and you can close the lid, 15. A total of fifteen different ways to shut down a laptop that you're expected to choose from.

The more choices you give people, the harder it is for them to choose, and the unhappier they'll feel. See, for example, Barry Schwartz's book, The Paradox of Choice. Let me quote from the Publishers Weekly review: “Schwartz, drawing extensively on his own work in the social sciences, shows that a bewildering array of choices floods our exhausted brains, ultimately restricting instead of freeing us. We normally assume in America that more options ('easy fit' or 'relaxed fit'?) will make us happier, but Schwartz shows the opposite is true, arguing that having all these choices actually goes so far as to erode our psychological well-being.”

The fact that you have to choose between nine different ways of turning off your computer every time just on the start menu, not to mention the choice of hitting the physical on/off button or closing the laptop lid, produces just a little bit of unhappiness every time.

Can anything be done? It must be possible. iPods don't even have an on/off switch. Here are some ideas.

Read full article here

Guru - The Music

I've been listening to the music of Guru for the past few days. Its a Mani Ratnam-AR Rahman-Gulzar combo for the first time after DilSe; thats a gap of almost 8 years.
I feel its too early for me to post a review of the songs. However, I can certainly give a track listing.

• Barso Re - Shreya Ghoshal & Uday Mazumdar
• Tere Bina - A. R. Rahman & Chinmayee
• Yammo Yammo - Bappi Lahiri & Chitra Sivaraman
• Maiyya Maiyya - Maryem Tollar, Chinmayee & Keerthi
• Ey Hairathe - Hariharan & Alka Yagnik
• Baazi Laga - Udit Narayan, Madhushree, Shweta & Bhargavi Pillai
• Jaage Hain - K. S. Chithra, A. R. Rahman & Madras Chorale Group

As always Rahman's songs grow on you. The more you listen, the more you like it. You might not be all that impressed upon first listen.

will try to post a detailed review of the music later on.. For the moment though, keep listening!

Cool new monitoring service

i bumped into this cool new web 2.0 service. Its called site24x7 and i use it nowadays to check if my blog is available.

It actually tells me if and when my site went down, the duration of downtime, the time it took to load my blog, etc.. but the best part is its absolutely free!!

Hugh Macleod, again!

cool cartoon from Hugh Macleoad on his gapingvoid blog. Brought a smile to my face instantly!

different ways to tie shoelaces

just came across Ian's shoelace site. it shows u 16 different ways to tie your shoelaces. Wow!

never knew u had so many options. I am gonna try some of those

world cup fever is on

found world cup 2006 schedule in rediff.com

just realized, its been 4 years since the last world cup. But i can remember them like it happened yesterday. Last time around Brazil played very well and went on to win the world cup. Can they repeat their magic this time? Guess i need 2 wait n watch..

can we ever get to see the old sachin again?

He was a teenage prodigy who made a dazzling debut in late 80s who went on to become the darling of indian cricket fans. He is one of the youngest players ever in the history of test cricket to score a century. Speaking of centuries, he now is the batsman with the most number of centuries, a staggering 35 of them. Take that for a record. He was scored hundreds against all test playing nations, one of the few players to do so. He has carried indian batting hopes on his shoulders for years. The whole team batting revolved around him. There used to be a time that when he got out, the indian team batting simply collapsed. He has even evoked comparisons with the great Don Bradman. The man I am talking about is none other than the GREAT Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

With all these records behind him, Sachin is in a spot of bother right now. His career is not exactly the same as it used to be. There was a time when he could accelerate at will against the best of attacks. There was a time when there used to be a buzz around the stadium when he came into bat. But for quite a while now, we havent seen a brilliant innings from him. He has struggled with nagging injuries to his back, a tennis elbow and arms. His form has not been the best in recent times, in fact, statistics show he is going through the worst form slump of his career. He has slipped to #16 in world test batting ranks. Now that is unusual. Batsmen of lesser ability than him are at the top of the ranks. The ranks might not matter to him, the runs might not matter to him. What matters most is the paying public's perception of his batting. There are people who believe that Sachin's playing days are over, and their numbers are increasing. His feet are not moving as confidently as it used to. He has curbed his attacking shots and chosen to bat in a much more conventional manner. Once upon a time Sachin was a slam bang batsman, now he is only a shadow of his former self. There are younger players around like Sehwag, Dhoni who garner more public appreciation.

But there is still hope. All is not lost. His one-day form is not bad right now. He still opens the batting. One feels he is only 1 innings away from hitting form. One attacking innings from him, 1 quickfire 70-80 from him, and his confidence should be back.

The game needs quality players like him to sustain interest. Here's wishing him all the best. Sachin - Get well soon. Come back and play & win matches for india again.

Pitchakaran's ATM

We live in interesting times, dont we?

Amazing photo

just saw this amazing photo.... amazing to say the least

This is a real great picture……… jus watch the white ones which r the real camels


The black ones are shadows, white ones are the real camels… !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The snap has been taken from the top.........