Sachin Said it

Some months back Sachin speaks out in an interview about himself.

So what did he say in that interview. Take a look! 

• Memorable Day: Beating Pakistan in the 1992 World Cup 
• Worst Day: Losing the first ODI in RSA in 1992
• Heroes: Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Imran Khan, Sandeep Patil 
• Greatest Influence: My family
• Ambition: To be number one in the world
• Favourite Ground: Sydney Cricket Ground
• Least Favourite Ground: Bangalore
• Biggest Complaint: None
  
• Changes to Improve: None. I enjoy the game
  
• Funniest Moment: Batting with Vinod Kambli in a school game. Vinod dropped his bat and started to fly a kite  
  
• Other Sports Followed: Tennis in particular
• Hobbies: Collect CD's
  
• Other Stars: Maradona, Boris Becker
  
• Favourite Actors: Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Nana Patekar
  
• TV Show: None in particular
• Film: Coming To America
  
• Spare Time: Listening to peaceful music, with friends
• Embarrassing moment: People asking for my autograph and then asking me my name! 
• Music: Pop
• Hates : Rumors
• Car: Maruti
• Food : Steak
• Drink: Orange/Apple Juice and Water
• Favourite Restaurant: Bukhara, Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi
• Holiday Resort: Yorkshire, Headingley
• Hotel: Park Royal Darling Harbour, Sydney
  
• Clothes: official - jacket and tie; else jeans and t-shirt
• Wildest dream: Listen to loud music and watch movies. And then in the evening, go for a very long drive
• Newspapers: Times of India, Mid-day, Afternoon Dispatch
  
• Authors: Haven't started reading books yet
  
• Magazines: Sport star
  
• Motto: Be true to yourself    

Funny pictures

Who says India is shining. Take a look. It seems like we are 25 years behind.

What the Web Will Look Like in 5 Years.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time. Figuring out how to rank real-time social content is "the great challenge of the age," Schmidt said in an interview in front of thousands of CIOs and IT Directors at last week's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009.

Gartner is the largest and most respected analyst firm in the world and much of what Schmidt said in his 45 minute interview was directed specifically at business leaders,but I've documented highlights from that interview that we believe is of interest to anyone who's touched by the web.

Highlights:-

• Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
• Today's teenagers are the model of how the web will work in five years - they jump from app to app to app seamlessly.
• Five years is a factor of ten in Moore's Law, meaning that computers will be capable of far more by that time than they are today.
• Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance - and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.
• We're starting to make significant money off of Youtube", content will move towards more video.
• There are many companies beyond Twitter and Facebook doing real time.
• "Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information, we want it included in our search results."
• "We can index real-time info now - but how do we rank it?"

•  It's because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources.  Learning how to rank that "is the great challenge of the age." Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem. 

There's lots more in the full 45 minutes of Schmidt's interview, including a statement that a Google OS Netbook  will be here in 2010, with HTML5 local caching for offline use. That's the roadmap, though, that's guiding much of what Google is doing today. From Chrome OS to Google Social Search.
Does that sound like a compelling vision of the future? Not discussed were distributed social networking, structured data, recommendations, presence data and other factors that could complicate Google's plans. What do you think the web will look like in five years?

London Dreams- Review

London Dreams is a complete departure from Vipul Shah's earlier outings Aankhen, Waqt, Namastey London. This film is about relationships and tends to get very real and intense, in the post-interval portions specifically. The scale of London Dreams is gigantic and the execution of concerts (it's about a band) sweeps you off your feet. London Dreams borrows from Milos Forman's brilliant film Amadeus (1984), which was based on Salieri and Mozart's life. In fact, Suneel Darshan too had made a film based on Amadeus called Shakalaka Boom Boom. Vipul Shah has handled this intricate subject well, but the writing could've been tighter. Sejal Shah's cinematography is super. Brownie points for capturing the concerts brilliantly. Salim-Sulaiman's background score matches international standards.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music is a downer. London Dreams is about a rock band, about music, about concerts and the music had to be the soul of the film. Unfortunately, it's not! The songs have been filmed in the most energetic fashion, but how one wishes the music was one of the strengths of the film. The film could've concluded when the two friends re-unite at the station. Adding one more song thereafter only dilutes the impact of the emotionally correct sequence that has just been witnessed.It's the second hour that does the trick. You can't help but carry several sequences in your heart, even after you've made an exit from the auditorium.Both Salman and Ajay vie for top honours. Salman has a role that the junta would take to instantly and the actor too endears himself to the viewers. He's stupendous. When it comes to displaying intensity on screen, very few can live up to the standards set by Ajay. To state that he packs in a power-packed performance would be an understatement. They, in fact, compliment each other wonderfully well.

Asin is admirable and pairs off very well with Salman. She is sure to have a new name after this film - Chennai Express (that's how Salman addresses her affectionately, all through the film). Om Puri has a brief role. Aditya Roy Kapur is very good and registers an impact. Rannvijay Singh doesn't get much to do, except throw nasty looks at Salman. Manoj Pahwa provides some funny moments. Brinda Parekh is okay.

This film was originally planned over a decade back to be made by Rajkumar Santoshi with SRK and Aamir. Well, it may not star them now but makes for an excellent musical journey worth an experience in the big cinema hall.

London Dreams has superb performances from its principal cast and several emotionally-charged sequences as its two trump cards. But its biggest drawback is its climax and also the music, which is the weakest link of the movie.