Participated in Badminton olympiad

First ever time in my life, I got a chance to represent my Company (AdventNet) at the Corporate Olympiad in Badminton Doubles category. Ooh… didn’t I enjoy it.. My partner Peter Balaji is a regular at these sort of events but how unfortunate that he ran out of the regulars this year.

Badminton has always been one of my favorite sports (next only to Cricket) and I couldn’t resist my exuberance from the moment I got to hear the opportunity. Having used to Concrete Floored Out-door badminton at Office, it was a pretty different setting at the Wooden floored In-door badminton court where the competition took place. It was a great experience though. We were a couple of teams representing our company (there used to be at least four teams representing generally but this time around we were found wanting for players as the regulars were caught with some un-postponable work. A blessing in disguise though that I got a chance).

The unfortunate thing is the fact that our team got beaten in the Second round (we had a Bye in the first round ). The good thing though is that the other team from our company went on to win the Silver medal (ie. were runners up by losing in Finals).

Photos of the event can be found here : http://www.corporateolympiad.com/badminton.html

Hoping to see luck knock the doors one more time …

Zoho Mail released

After being in closed (private) beta for some time, Zoho Mail got released last weekend. News here

While GMail, Yahoo or Hotmail will over shadow Zoho Mail at the moment in terms of the sheer number of users, I am sure there are a lot of goodies (a mix and match of goodies available across the various mail services) that people will come to like over time. Zoho mail pushes GMail back by being the first to provide Offline support but I am sure its just a matter of time before Google comes out with its own implementation of Gmail.

I am all the more happy about the release since I have been personally involved in the implementation of Zoho Mail for the iPhone. While we have optimized the mail interface for iPhone only as of now, an interface for other important Mobile platforms (Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Andriod) is in the works and will be made available soon. Stay tuned !

Do give Zoho Mail a try at http://mail.zoho.com and share your feedback.

Cricket stars turn targets

Looks like BCCI has engaged the Indian media to ensure frustration and humiliation for the Fab Four. The repeated questioning from the media on retirement and nano focus on their on field fitness and fielding are sickening (more importantly funny) to say the least.

This afternoon, the “Times Now” news channel was repeatedly showing mis-fields by Sachin, Ganguly and Laksman with a timed zoom-in on the visually disturbed captain, Anil Kumble. Nothing wrong but I got to wonder what is that we are seeing new ? Were Ganguly, Laxman or for that matter Anil Kumble great outfielders before ?

I am sure its about time that Kumble, Laksman and probably even Dravid will come out with their ire filled retirement announcement. Sachin, well no comments… as I would become a Indian Cric-atheist otherwise..

I am enjoying the fun ! Thanks to BCCI and the players for giving us such an entertainment.

Twitter experience

Its hardly a month since I started “tweet‘ing”, but I am already seeing its “social” impact. Here is Twitter’s definition by itself :

What is it?

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

from here

Today, I feel twitter has a much broader (should I say un-envisaged) definition than what is said above. From Instant Messaging to Evangelism to Marketing (to spamming) it has got a wider portfolio now. I don’t want to get into the debate of whether it is right or wrong or where twitter is headed to but I am forced to believe that the developments may have been a surprise for its creators as well.

Now, why this blog post :
This morning, I was surprised by a couple of mails from Twitter that said I had new people following my tweets. Guess what, they were spams. Somebody registers with Twitter and starts adding followers with links to their website (this one to be specific : http://twitter.com/KidsKorner). You are atleast forced to visit their twitter page to check if they are your acquaintances. Highly irritating to say the least.

A google search reading “twitter spam” got me the following results :

1. Can it get any better than this ?
http://www.twitterspam.com/

2. Another from Mashable :
http://mashable.com/2008/03/24/twitter-spam/
http://mashable.com/2008/04/14/twitter-spam-out-of -control/

There is probably much more (varieties of spamming but I didn’t bother past it as I sort of knew what to expect having been a naive target already).

Having said that, should say, there is a brighter side of twitter too. If not all, I see a good percent of people addicted to it. In my experience, twitter is more of a “PR“, “News” channel than getting to know “what some one is actually doing” (what it was meant for). Or may be its just with the people I follow

Follow me @
http://twitter.com/sathishr

One of mimickers favorite passes away…

I have heard this a little late today, but is nothing short of a surprise or being one of those unfortunate things to have happened. I am talking about Mr. Poornam Viswanathan.

The unique dialogue delivery and the iyer baashai he speaks in the films are the ones that made him one of mimickers favorites. Though he didn’t make a great Versatile actor (as far as I know. I may be wrong too), his performances were good and entertaining by and large. I am not sure if he has performed a central or a powerful character in any of the films (based on whatever films I have watched and as far as my memory goes) but he did his part quite well.

I have actually come to know of him better after his demise I should say. The following facts were totally new to me and I wish to have known them before :

1. He worked as a news reader in All India Radio
2. Poornam Viswanathan cleared his throat, controlled his emotions and announced India’s freedom to the outside world in a radio broadcast. At five thirty on the morning of August 15, 1947, young Viswanathan became the first Indian to make that external broadcast from All India Radio to East Asia. (from here)
3. The title Poornam came from the drama troupe he was associated with.

May his soul rest in peace !