Comic : Joe the Plumber

See this, and this.

Copyright : This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License

QR Code

This sounds incredibly exciting - QR Code, a Japanses invention, is basically a  2-D bar code.

"...QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that users might need information about. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL..."

And according to this post by Andrew, the real world implementations are slick and wonderful. 

what would be do without innovation ?

Copyright : This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License

Comic : Business Case

Copyright : This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License

Suresh MENON's insights on casteism in sports

Suresh Menon - one of the regulars on Cricinfo - has now turned into a commentator on casteism in India - shunning his profession of a cricket commentator - for reasons best known to him.

His recent potshots at 'middle class origins' of the Fab-four (Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Ganguly) while explaining why Sehwag is not considered as great as the above mentioned gents is in absolute distaste.

I think India has found a great candidate for Nobel price for the 'best find' category - that Sehwag's 'Jat working class background' is what prevents him from being spoken in the same breath as the others.

Phew - Cricinfo - your editing sucks ! How could you let through such raves and rants of unstable minds ?

Suresh MENON- What initially was so disgusting has now turned into a source of amusement and entertaintment. I hope you can provide much more of your 'expert insights' on why other players dont get recognized. Keep up the 'good' work !!

[Movie Review] Dasavatharam

By now, you'd have read this first line in reviews, a zillion times - 'The movie starts of with 12th century..." - whats with that People !



Anyway, the movie starts of with.. ;)



The more I think about this movie, the more interested i get about the movie, and how Kamal wasted a superb opportunity to make this movie work. First all the negatives.



Negatives

1. Cheesy Graphics - Vittalachariar movies had better graphics - all the rave about the tsunami, and 12th century river was a big load of ....


2. Contrived violent sequences, absolutely unnecessary - may be the masala element ! - I guess people misunderstood violence as 'via-lens' :P


3. As someone else said it, panchavatharam would have been as good. Nambi, Japanese, Avtaar Singh, Khalifullah and Boovaragan did not further anything in the movie.


4. Ridiculous make-up - I'd rather have them wear a 'macham' / mole to distinguish one from other than the so pla-sticky looking getups. As Balaji mentioned in his review, with his acting, Kamal did not even need any makeup for us to pick out which role he plays.


5. Mallika Sherawat - good riddance half way through


6. Music /Rerecording - call me sensitive, but it was too LOUD period

Now that we got that out of the way, here are some of the good things about the movie.

Good Things

1. Interesting storyline, could have been scripted better


2. Even though 10 avtaars were not needed, they have been decently connected


3. Amazing dialogs - wow Kamal DOES have such high wit quotient


4. Highly researched character etches


5. Very good acting, ofcourse by Kamal

Some of the thoughts I had as I watched the movie were

1. Shankar is one person who could have handled this wonderfully


2. Kamal could have played Asin's role as well - would have been interesting


3. With probably 10% of the budget, (i.e. remove make-ups, throw away ridiculously bad CGs, and cut violence) the movie could have been a big time, fast paced, laugh-filled entertainer.


4. Many events could just be 'narrated' ? i.e. Nambi - The movie could have as well opened saying that chozha raja dumped Perumal statue into the ocean in 12th century. What difference would it have made ? Instead they are used to showcase that Kamal can act in 10 different roles, and can shoot a big budget movie. D'uh if you did not know Kamal can act 10 different roles and pull it off with great aplumb, you won't be convinced after watching this movie either.


5. I liked the movie, but for the headache it gave me, and the gore violence sequences, and the moronic theather that brought back Indian memories (no AC for most part of the movie).

Verdict

The negatives outweigh many of the positives is the bottom line. But if you have the ability to 'overlook' the negatives - it is definitely worth watching - just for the performance of realistic Balram Naidu :)

p.s : Does any one know how this character played out in the Telegu version ?