Friday, November 25, 2011

The Case Against Personal Records


By AR Hemant - Fri, Nov 25, 2011 05:58 pm GMT

The clamour to let Tendulkar get his hundred has drowned out saner opinions on Indian cricket.
A young fan is dejected after Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed six runs short of his 100th hundred in international cricket in the Mumbai Test.
A young fan is dejected after Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed six runs short of his 100th hundred in international cricket in the Mumbai Test.
Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems to characterize our age, Albert Einstein once said. Such was the story at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.
Just after Sachin Tendulkar narrowly missed the milestone everyone has been waiting for, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan quipped that India ought to follow on to give Tendulkar another shot at that hundredth hundred.
The quip was demeaning to the sport. It also belittled two fine young cricketers — Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin — attempting to minimise India’s damages while trying to secure their careers. Should they have thrown their wickets so Tendulkar could bat again?
It overlooked the fact that India were miles away from saving the follow-on, and further away from securing the match. Aren’t these more pressing issues than a missed milestone?
Sanjay Manjrekar and Ravi Shastri weighed in during the lunch break. Manjrekar approached the subject with caution, saying Tendulkar should play in the ODIs against West Indies, so that he “gets this monkey off this back” before tackling the tougher challenges of the Australian tour. Shastri agreed.
This was an incredible comment on Indian cricket — about how the fleeting joy of an individual record (momentous as it is) is now twisting the thought-process behind team selection and wicket preparation. We know why the Wankhede wicket is as lifeless as it is, and its impact on the quality of cricket is there to be seen.
The upcoming ODIs present a chance to prepare young players for the big transition in Indian cricket. Instead, there’s talk of letting the veteran (with nothing left to prove to anyone) improve his individual record.
Sadly, this talk was led by distinguished former Test cricketers. When they shape public opinion in this manner, they can’t blame the public for pressurising Tendulkar to deliver that hundred.
Manjrekar was, of course, subtle in his comment. His was a polite way of saying that the milestone is making Tendulkar bat with atypical caution. The last time Manjrekar had used an animal metaphor to broach a similar subject, he was attacked by Tendulkar apologists. Even Tendulkar reacted to it, saying he wasn’t bothered about being called “the elephant in the drawing room”. (So why did he react?)
Ninety-four runs in a Test innings are still commendable. But only Tendulkar would know what demons he notices in the bowlers he would normally put through the shredder. In Mumbai, India’s No. 8 scored a hundred at a Sehwagesque pace; and even Rahul Dravid scored quicker than Tendulkar on Day 3.
He may not admit it. But we know it: Tendulkar wants this hundred badly. One only hopes he gets there quickly so that we can celebrate it, and let the spotlight move back to the game. That is where it belongs.
courtesy: www.yahoo.com

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Indian Tablet


Sakshat Tablet to be Launched in June 2011

Sakshat Tablet to be Launched in June 2011
Remember the Rs. 1500 Indian laptop? The one that got the world making fun of India in general and me never having faith in Kapil Sibal again?
The one that actually turned out to be an expensive storage device, and then somehow metamorphosed into a tablet?
It's being announced that the "Sakshat" (which sounds conspicuously dirty in Americanese), the $35 tablet codenamed 'Sakshat' is expected to launch by the end of this month.
Sakshat Tablet to be Launched in June 2011
While the Indian media is huffing up the desi-pride angle with talks of "Indian-iPad". there's very little for a complete tablet experience. And there's nothing desi about it; the tablet is made by Canadian firm Datawind Ltd.
The7-inch touchscreen tablet features a inbuilt keyboard, video conferencing facility, multimedia content, Wi-Fi, USB port, 32GB hard drive and a 2GB RAM. There's support for Open Office, SciLab and Internet browsing.
Sakshat Tablet to be Launched in June 2011
However, this means nothing for the aam-aadmi it was intended for, but there is a desi crop of real tablets worth checking out.
10,000 Sakshat tablets will be shipped to IIT Rajasthan by June-end, following by the launch of over 90,000 tablet units in the next 4 months.

Sakshat: Other Specifications

QWERTY keyboard, mouse and a minimum display of 7” colour LCD/TFT (touchscreen optional)
2 USB 2.0 ports and USB hosts
three hours
batteryless device
SD card slot (8GB expandable memory)
Support to connect LCD projector
Support for external hard disk drive (Minimum 32 GB)
Ethernet port
WLAN
80% shock resistant
Sakshat Tablet to be Launched in June 2011
While the tablets will be priced at Rs 2,200, there are reports of plans for later subsidies of 50%. The 1500 Rupee tablet might go for Rs. 1100, and has been developed as a part of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology to bring together 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in the Asian subcontinent in an e-learning initiative. (MensXP.com)

Indian Tablet


Leave your iPad at home, travel with an Indian tablet

The UbiSlate 7 touch screen tablet includes a 2GB memory card and has a battery life of three hours. Read more: …


Still picking the sand out of iPad's last beach holiday adventure?

A sibling of the world's cheapest tablet computer -- the Aakash, launched in India last month -- promises a cheaper, worry-free and therefore travel-friendly alternative for mobile computing.
The tablet's "proudly made in India" and the base version (meant for students) was launched on October 5. It was christened the Aakash tablet, after the Hindi word for sky.
London-based DataWind, a leading provider of wireless web access, will make a commercial variant of the Aakash available in India by the end of November.
The varient will have a less romantic shelf name of UbiSlate 7. It's currently available for pre-order atwww.aakashdatawind.com.
UbiSlate 7 costs US$60, or a maximum retail price of Rs 2,999, including all taxes and a 12-month warranty. 
Dubbed the computer version of the Tata Nano car, the 7-inch touch screen tablet promises a high definition video processor, Wi-Fi Internet and two full-sized USB ports.
The UbiSlate 7 offers the same features as the Aakash tablet: Web browsing, multimedia games and also doubles up as an e-book reader and instant messenger through Nimbuzz Webchat, a popular free call and messaging app.
The only difference is that UbiSlate 7 will have a cellular mode for web access on-the-go, with Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enabled.
Future products will include a mobile phone version of the device and a larger 10-inch screen.
"This is not only a concept that applies to India, but has ignited the imagination of governments around the world. The Aakash is proudly made in India, and is destined to revolutionize computing and Internet access for the world," says Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, DataWind. 
Impressed? Now let's see if it doubles as a Frisbee.
Courtesy: www.yahoo.com