Memorykeeper

Indian team selected for SL ODIs

The Indian squad had been named. Due to injury concerns the team has been named only for the 1st 2 matches v. SL. Ganguly, Kaif will have to prove their fitness by the end of the 2nd match to considered for the forthcoming matches/series.

• Virender Sehwag
• Sachin Tendulkar
• Gautam Gambhir
• Rahul Dravid (captain)
• Yuvraj Singh
• Venugopal Rao
• Suresh Raina
• JP Yadav
• MS Dhoni (wk)
• Harbhajan Singh
• Murali Kartik
• Irfan Pathan
• Ajit Agarkar
• S Sreesanth
• RP Singh.

Kiran More and the selection team have done well. It seems, now that the overpowering, imposing obstacle of the Gangles-Dalmiya axis is missing, the essential parts of the Indian cricket machine have got a life and mind of their own.

Taking out the rookies, the rest practically selected themselves. The selection of the rookies named was expected, especially after the Challenger Tryout Trophy completed recently. It was the omissions that were the surprising element of this team.

Ganguly: Injury – physical and mental. Injury or not, would Gangles WANT to be back, now that his powerbase seems to be eroding.

Kaif: Injury – unfortunate. I would have liked to see the Chappell-Kaif-Dravid trigon working in the absence of Ganguly the batter. From the noises in the media, Kaif is the likely choice as potential longer term captain, once this ‘rough’ patch in Indian cricket smooths itself out. Kaif seems to be the answer to ‘After Ganguly and Dravid, who?’

VVSLaxman: Very Very Sad Laxman? This was surprising. Going on previous selections, a 48 and a 100 would have cemented a team place for a year, guaranteed. More print will be out criticizing, justifying, commending this omission. Especially with his involvment in the Chappell-Ganguly spat recently. Did Kiran More and the selection team have the memory of this at the back of their minds?

Zed: He has been inconsistent of late. The rest should do him good and also might get that ‘fire in the belly’ reignited. This omission should also serve as a message to other players. Should this rational, logical trend continue, the players will understand that performance is paramount to maintain a place in the side. It’s how you play and not who you know, that will get you selected.

Sree Santh caught the necessary attention and was duly rewarded for dedicated, disciplined bowling. He should now be taken into the fold and nurtured and instill the requirements of performance at this level. Well done Sree Santh.

Chappell, the Fans and possibly the Indian team got what they have been asking for. A non-biased (?), non-partisan selection. Time to get this machine into gear and justify the changes taking place, albeit slowly.

osted earlier under cricket alter-ego - RJ on [World Cricket Blog]
World Cricket Blog's mention by [WeblogWatch: BBC]

Indian skipper named

The selection commitee has just named the Indian Captain.

For the SL and SA series, it’s going to be [Rahul ‘The Wall’ Dravid].

With Gangles out of the current Challenger Trophy, sulking with a ‘minor’ tennis elbow, the selection committe could not name anyone else but RD as captain. At this time, it will be difficult for Gangles to be in the reckoning for a place in the 1st XI, on account of his lack of fitness – physical and mental

Gangles slowly walking down toward the |Exit| sign?

Posted earlier under cricket alter-ego - RJ on [World Cricket Blog]
World Cricket Blog's mention by [WeblogWatch: BBC]

Whiteboards 4 Home Organisation

[cgr] opens up an interesting discussion on the use and consequently the 'make-up' of whiteboards for organizing activities in the home on [Lifehack.org] called ['Using Whiteboards for Home Organization'].
This was back in August, but I have revisited it many times, just thought that it would be easier to post it here on my blog.

If you’re like me, organization somehow always revolves around lists. It has gotten to the point that the lists themselves have bogged my fiancé and me down as much as the activities themselves. I have had great organizational success using whiteboards at work, so I brought one home in an effort to combat the list problem. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment, so we got a whiteboard which is roughly 3' by 4' and we installed it on the wall of our kitchen.

Great uses of the varitions

Submitted by memorykeeper on Tue, 2005-08-02 14:36.

Great uses of the varitions of the 'whiteboard' Arnout's I find the most appealing and looks good too. Lighting seems to be the grey area here. The first comment by wynia.org took my mind to those X-ray reading boxs in a doctor's office. It will have to be a form of casing, but then it should not be too deep, that the whole look gets lost. That is if you would need to light it from below. IKEA, I believe will have a range of budget clip on lamps, which may work. Will get the drawing board, or should that be 'whiteboard'(!), and mull this over.

Great ideas, all.

Shopping List

Submitted by memorykeeper on Tue, 2005-08-02 16:11.
The way I have it working right now is a pad with long paper, stuck on a convenient side of refrigerator with ordinary magic tape. Everyone in the house has be told to write down what they used last. So if junior used up the maple syrup, he writes it on the list. Senior used up the butter, it goes on the list. The shopper then tears the list off and does a filter of the list.

In conjuction with the whiteboard, stick the pad in the lower right hand corner along the bottom and right edges [why right???? hmmm just feels right!!!:)], reachable if there are juniors around the house!

Not wierd,. Just working!

Submitted by memorykeeper on Wed, 2005-08-03 15:16.I did it the way I did because:
* got the juniors involved into the whole scheme of things
* One person doesnt not need to carry the full responsiblity of 'making' the list. Only filter it. Usually it is one or maybe two who would do the shopping, so he/she would know if anything is double listed.
* Allows 'shoppers' without PDA knowledge, to tear off the list and go on her/his merry way to the stores.

Honestly speaking, the PDA route would be my preference. Much easier. No bits of paper. No extra pen to carry.

Call me finicky, but I make up my list based on the location of the items in the store. If in a normal walk through of a store, I hit the dairy aisles first...that goes on the list first. Saves a lot of double backing with a cart, weaving in and out of other'raged, exasperated' shoppers' cart.

At the checkout, I lump similar items together. The chilled stuff, milk, cheese, frozen gets into the checkout scanner first, thus get into the bags together, making the storing away easier and less time consuming once you get home.

(I'm begining to sound like Monk!!)

The stores tend to keep changing the aisles and the displays. But should they standardise the location, then it would be a good idea for the stores to print the aisle locations for all shoppers to carry. The shopping lists would be more organised, much 'peaceful' (can shopping be peaceful????) and they would need less of the 'May I help you's' who dont really know how to help, around the store!!!!

Here's my drawing on a napkin

Submitted by memorykeeper on Thu, 2005-08-04 14:39.
cgr: this wouldnt be a bad idea for some open source software developers to work on. however, for your idea to work, the stores need to standardize the product display aisles. but an idea worth thinking about.

sysadman: the pegasus lights are pretty neat. flourescnet back lighting is the best for backlighting and would work best as backlighting a frosted plexiglass or frosted glass.

the restaurants board, personally, I dont find appealing because of the overly bright colors that end up on the board.

when i have the time and its my turn, I punch in the shopping list into the Handyshopper in my palm. However, I have not got used to the aisles bit yet. that is a handy bit of software for palm and shopping.

Here's a budget version of a backlit board:

1. Use the plexi glass from Ikea, as suggested and recommended by arnoutdrenthel.

2. Fixed mount it about 2" off the wall. Would look good if brushed aluminium studs can be used as the stud spacers.

3. Place one or two Microfluorescent T4 Light Fixtures (as seen on pegasus lighting) either in line with top and bottom long edges or the left and right short edges of the board. These, of course would need to be mounted on the wall. The T4s are 1⅜" high, so the 2" between the plexi and the wall would allow for the light to diffuse well across the board.

Alternatively, mount the glass, and lights on a thin sheet of white plexi sheet..same size as the Ikea Plexiglass...giving you a neat looking open sided light box..and that in turn could be screwed to the wall.

Now let me get back to the drawing board!!

Comments on: [Lifehack.org: Using whiteboards for home organization]

Super Series, a regular event?

There is some mileage to Pollock's comments of such a series to be a regular event. I would put a twist to it though. In my twist, at the outset, we must assume that Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are honorary Test members. There just to add the numbers and of no significant value at all.

The Twist: Why not have a rotating world superseries. Each test nation to host the Superseries. The host nation would thus take on the RoW.

Eg: Australia played RoW(less australians).
Now the next series moves on to say, New Zealand.

Thus New Zealand will play against RoW (this time including Australians but minus the Kiwis)

Institute a SuperSeries cup. Maybe every two years.

Any takers?

Commented on: [Sight Screen: Super Damp Squib]

Tennis Elbow: Ganguly Style!

         

This Ganguly preoccupation goes on. SRT has been on a long road with his Tennis elbow and now, convenienly, SG has Tennis elbow. More surprising that with THAT Tennis elbow, he is still able to carry out some intensive exercise and fitness routine. John Gloster figured in the 'Zimbabwe fitness affair' and he figures in this too. The cynic in me may prove right in saying that JG's running his own 'greasy' agenda here. And its India, if its not one Dr Joshi, another Dr Joshi can easily be found.

After all this, the significance of the Challenger Trophy has been diluted and I dont really look forward to the slight possibility of being able to watch the games live on my PC via SportingStreams.com and if his saga carries on, the SL series (and being able to watch it live, sitting here in the US) will prove to be a major damp squid.

Someone radical and something radical has to be done to the Board of Chaos and Confusion of India (BCCI)!

Commented on: [Sight Screen]

Australia XI bulldoze again!

         

Yet again the Australian side prove that they are a champion team - fighting one battle to win the war, and not a team of champions - fighting their own battles with no sight of the war that ought to be fought.

One of the few series, that being able to watch the whole match on my PC (thru SportingStreams.com) just turned out to be a wasted firecracker. Saying that the quality of the stream and the practically 24/7 customer support, made the viewing part a good experience. Far cheaper than the alternative - Willow.

John Wright has a heavy task ahead in trying to iron out the chinks in each player and atleast try and win the 3rd ODI and the Test.

Commented on: [Sight Screen]

       

      

About SportingStreams

1.  Talking about streamcast cricket, for fraction of the price, I would recommend www.sportingstreams.com.

   I subscribed to sportingstreams.com since the India-Pakistan series not so long ago and have been more than satisfied. Added advantage that you can also get links to streams for F1, the new A1 grandprix, football/soccer.

2. mark Says:
   October 4th, 2005 at 10.28 am

   Just looked at sportingstreams.com and it seems way too cheap to be legal. There is also no way of seeing a test clip. R J: Is it a proper stream or someone filming the tv? And what’s the bitrate? A friend got conned on a similar site for football where the bitrate was only 36kbps..

   As the saying goes.. if an offer’s too good to be true it usually is..

3. R J Says:
   October 4th, 2005 at 1.29 pm

   I am pretty much happy with the quality. I have not used Willow since I tried Sportingstreams and was happy with the quality and the variety available. I enjoy Manchester United in English Soccer. No this is not tv being filmed. The rate is anything between 186kbps ~ 240kbps. I have watched all the Indian Cricket series thus far - Pakistan, SA, Australia, SL-Ind-Ban TriSeries, SA in Windies, the local English League cricket and even the recent Twenty20 Club championship in England. If you’d like any more info shoot me an email.
   Can’t wait for the Super Series circus to start rolling!

4. R J Says:
   October 4th, 2005 at 1.37 pm

   Dont do Willow, so cannot honestly compare. But there have been many who have used both and opt for sportingstreams.com. Quality and variety. No, its not someone filming TV. Rate is at anything between 186kbps ~ 250kbps. They are trying to up it to around 300kbps which would be good, but existing quality is great, especially when considering the price also.
   I have been pretty much happy with the quality. If you need any more info shoot me an email.
   Can’t wait for the SuperSeries circus to get rolling.

5. R J Says:
   October 5th, 2005 at 7.39 pm

   sorry about the double comments. i guess the comments did not post straightaway, since they may have been parked for moderation.

6. colindale Says:
   October 6th, 2005 at 2.47 pm

   Checked that site out rj and as i normally use willow i can compare the two,pros have to be the price,was also sceptical,but as you say it certainly works,was watching at 205kbps,which was fine and bufferless,the only cons i would say,it takes a while to work out the system ie sending off for the link,putting in the password,into winamp etc guess next time i will allow 5 mins extra

7. R J Says:
   October 6th, 2005 at 7.31 pm

   Yes that is true, but its a good and, on hindsight, essential safeguard. Counting down the clock for ODI2 to get underway. Hope RoW pull themselves together into a fighting team.

Comments from: [Corridor of Uncertainty]

Moving Blog

When the big banner titled 'blogcontrol*' was installed on every myblogsite blog, it was the last straw that broke my 'myblogsite' back. Time to up and leave.

I have sent the support team and F Marte and E Lee (apparently in the corporate office)daily emails reminding them of the monstrocity that has become their website. (Myblogsite then have the cheek to invite me to create a myphotoalbum????)

Add to that just around this time, their spam filters, comments controls failed and I had to close off comments entirely and sit through the night deleting close to 240 spam comments advertising all shades of black of society.

I decided to move to Typepad. Should be easy right? Generate an export file, transfer it over to Typepad and boom? No, fizzle wheezz pop, more like! The file that myblogsite generates is not in an easily convertable format.

Only a manual move was the alternative. Shooting myself in the head seemed to be the easier thing to do.

I pulled out Blogjet (http://www.blogjet.com) It enables import of all your posts, date and time intact into your PC/harddrive. (A month's full working trial version is ideal, but I liked it so much, I just bought is after playing around for an hour) :) Then export it to the new site. Setting up the blog connections is easy. A well thought out piece of software. It was tedious but easy. Only downside is that comments cannot be imported/exported in this manner. Either lose them, or peg onto the relevant post manually.

Having set up the typepad blog, I came across a fellow blogger who introduced me to Wordpress. I liked, I jumped and am now setting up a blog in Wordpress.

A big note of thanks to Myblogsite.com for seriously screwing up their bloghosting. Without this happening I would not have searched nor found the likes of Typepad or Wordpress.

Anybody having problems with myblogsite.com? Don't even bother. Lock it up and pulverise the key.

RIP: Myblogsite.com

My blog links:

'Old' memorykeeper at Myblogsite: http://memorykeeper.myblogsite.com
'New' memorykeeper at Typepad: http://memorykeeper.blogs.com

Hope the above helps anyone who find themselves in a similar myblogsite HELL!!

Writeboard

Doing my constitutional Blog-Around and stopped at one of my favourite sites - Backpack. 
37Signals - the people behind Backpack, Basecamp, & Ta-da lists, have recently released a wonderful collaborative writing tool called Whiteboard.

[Writeboard] is a web-based tool, with its unique URL making it accessible from any machine. Creating a whiteboard is as easy as entering the name you want to call your whiteboard, the password, your email and viola!, you have your own whiteboard. This is one tool I will find myself using a lot.

Write, Share, Revise, Compare.

Another wonderful simple tool for the complexities of life and things within.

More than two? Sorry, unelectable

[Two-Kid Norm For Candidates]:
When Gujarat's civic bodies go to the polls next month, those whose third child was born after March 23, 2005, will not be eligible to contest. This was the date when the two-child norm came into force. The nomination forms issued by the collectorate for the elections will have a clause barring those having more than two children from contesting the municipal polls.

Who takes note and accounts for all those born 'out of wedlock'? Seems to be a rule implemented as a convenience and tool for easy election to a civic body office. The cynic in me observes, especially on all things 'Power' related in India.