Pluto has been officially descoped as a planet of the Solar System. So officially, we now have 8 planets.
Per my earlier post, I wonder what impacts would it have on Astrology.
Well Pluto, nice while you lasted, you cold, miserable, frozen piece of nitrogen. Adios.
NW42 – from Amsterdam to Mumbai was turned back because some passengers apparently unbuckled themselves when the seat belt light was still on. And then some of the janta apparently started fiddling around with their cell phones. (more…)
Sprint fired its Chief Operating Offier Len Lauer today. Amid Sprint’s multiple operational snafus over the past two quarters including introducing low cost plans (which only existing customers snapped up as opposed to new customers), lack of attractive handsets (only US national carrier without the hugely successful Motorola phones like Razr and other generally desirable handsets), strategy of attracting low credit customers ( causing high churn and payment default rates) and its falling stock prices – someone had to be made a scrapegoat – and understandably, it was Len Lauer – as the Operational head honcho of the company.
A lot can be written about the current state of Sprint – its merger pains with Nextel, the incomplete nature of the M&A due diligence and the corresponding siloed nature of upper management etc. – a lot of that can be attributed to a big merger that Sprint and Nextel went through – but looking forward, my opinion is, Sprint is headed the right direction in terms of its macro level strategic direction – be it the focus on 3G data services or the synergies built with MVNOs or spinning off their local phone service.
I think this is the beginning of a new big restructuring and I think it is needed to begin a long due turnaround.
Time will tell.
Categories: Corporate News · News
In keeping with the new look at my other avatar, I thought I’d change the look of this blog – wanted a clean, simple no frills look. The thing is though, WordPress doesnt really have the choices of templates that Blogger does.
Anyways, this is the best I found. And this shall be, hereforth, the new look, until something else catches my fancy.
Categories: Blog
Just to continue with my pet rant, another article on how Pakistani expatriates are now increasingly getting involved in terrorism worldwide and how all terrorist related activites are, eventually, all interconnected.
Here is some information I found about the issues I have been occassionally writing about. Upshot is that its apparently an ATOM API error and we mortals just have to wait it out till Blogger updates its ATOM API server.
Nothing in life is perfect!
Categories: Technology
One of the reasons why I chose WordPress over Blogger as the platform of choice for my second blog was because I love using Performancing and for some reason, Performancing does not integrate seamlessly with Blogger.
I have recurringly been getting this Atom server error specifying something like a DOM properties error, which makes it very irritating, indeed impossible to use Performancing with Blogger.
So there goes – my pique of the day.
Categories: Personal · Technology
On his 60th birthday, Narayan Murthy steps down as the Chief Executive of Infosys.
There was an interesting incident mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article – it talked about how in 1995 Infosys walked away from a contract with General Motors because of the tough clauses set in the contract – 1995 when Infosys was an unknown entity in the corporate world – remarkable.
All the best NM. We, as individuals and as a nation are grateful and awed by what you have created.
I paraphrase the title of this post from an article referenced later in the post. I have been writing quite a lot about this topic – about how the western world seems to suffer from a tunnel vision when it comes to evaluating the terror attacks that happen in India – somehow it doesnt seem to be perceived at the same level of outrage as opposed to when an attack happens in, lets say – London or Madrid.I didnt know this but read this – and I quote from this article
“ Take US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher’s comments after the Mumbai blasts. He suggested that the US had not seen any evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the blasts. “I think we need to be led by the evidence before we start drawing conclusions and make policy pronouncements on it (Mumbai blasts). So that will be our attitude, and I think that should be the attitude of others as well,” Boucher reportedly said.”
The article goes on to describe how it sparked off diplomatic sniping with Navtej Sarna (who is usually a rather laconic personality) quipping (and I quote from the same article)
“The US was part of the St Petersburg (G-8) statement. If you see any inherent contradiction in any statements coming out of that (US) government, you have to address that government.”
Read the article and draw your own conclusions – especially if you are one of those folks who only get their staple of news from mainstream American media.
The gist is this: To fight this scour of terrorism, one needs to look beyond a purely national strategic vision. A terrorist attack in India (or even for that matter in Pakistan) needs to be treated exactly as a terrorist attack would be in the western world. Because the perpetrators of such acts, are not constrained by any geographical or ideological causes. They will kill Kashmiris and Klingons.They will kill Americans and Armenians. They will harm anyone who disagrees with them. And the only way to deal with these people is to understand that there can be no compartmentalization, no asinine diplomacy. We need to build bridges with the Islamic world – yes – but we also need strategies that makes it clear that no quarter will be granted. By anyone. To any of this kind.
In the history of international test cricket, this has never happened. The final test match between England and Pakistan at the Oval was considered forfieted and the game awarded to England – who were fighting to save the game anyways.
There are lots of reports all over the Internet – and I wont talk about it here. You can read a wonderful analysis of the day’s incredible events here and here.
Gist of the story – Umpire Darryl Hair from Australia changes the ball in the middle of the game because of ball tampering. Post Tea – when the umpire walks back in, the Pakistani team refuses to take the field – the umpires remove the bails and walk out. The Pakis after fuming for sometime, now decide to take the field, only to discover the umpires have now decided not to show up. Per the laws of the game, after a lot of hullaboo ( and some booing of the Paki team), the test match is awarded to England.
Now, apparently, none of the Sky TV footage covering the game caught any incriminating evidence of ball-tampering. Also per Inzy, Hair never talked to him about why he was changing the ball – Pakistan construed this as an allegation of cheating and hence decided to protest.
What’s actually funny is that none of the warring parties – the Pakistani cricket team on one hand and Darryl Hair on the other – have an exactly clean background. Pakistan’s shenanigans on and off the field is very well documented – be it the ball tampering charges against Waqar and Wasim in the mid 90’s, to match fixing, the Sharjah debacle, Javed Miandad running after Dennis Lillie, the dubious quality of PCB umpires in the 80’s and 90’s – the list can go on.
On the other hand, Mr. Hair is not exactly an angel incarnate either. Reading his record makes one wonder if he is entire impartial or has some deep seated racial bias against the South Asians – the guy was infamous for no-balling Muralitharan for chucking. And he has had a history against Pakistan.
Now, Osman Samiuddin raises some good questions – apparently Shaharyar Khan (the PCB head honcho) said the protest of not walking out to play was supposed to last a “few minutes”. Osman writes that Pakistan came out to play after a full 50 minutes. Besides, if Pakistan really wanted to continue playing, the same should have been communicated to Hair when he went to the Pakistani dressing room to find out if they intended to come out and play. Apparently nothing to that effect was communicated.
What it tells me is the this – the Pakistani team and its officials had no clue what to do. There was no strategy. Essentially, it was a case of inflamed officials running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to formulate an “appopriate response” to the “affront” to the image of Pakistan -and in the process, forfieted the test match.
Who loses? The spectators yes. But most importantly the game. And the spirit that sports as an activity promises to promote. It will be hard not to look at the game at the Oval as a fitting metaphor of the times we live in. A cricket team from the Islamic republic of Pakistan is, atleast according to them, grossly unfairly accused (and frankly, I have to see evidence pointing to the contrary) by a white umpire, with a track record of percieved bias by a number of countries – all from South Asia. And a match, which they should have legitimately won, is awarded to the other team.
