This is what I am talking about! What an exciting race after such a long time…Michael Schumacher and Ferrari proved that they are truly the masters of the close race. As long as the car is competitive, there is nobody who can beat Michael Schumacher.

Great race for him, and sadly for him, Alonso got P2 and so Schumy was only able to take 2 points off the lead. It does make the championship a little more interesting, but it will get meaningful only if Alonso has a DNF soon. He keeps getting podium after podium and so he does not lose too many points to anyone.

So, it is on to Hockenheim in Germany with a lot of pressure on Schumy with it being ‘home’ GP.

What is the point of interconnecting the two messengers - Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger with Voice? I use both, and I don’t want to commit myself to one or the other, because what if the other one gets cooler features in the future??

Instead, the two companies should have released a common messenger which would let me add msn and yahoo addresses in that one client. That way, I am assured that all the development is going to be for that one client only, and not for one or the other.

I signed up for both the betas, but sorry, I am going to not use either. I am happy for now, with my trillian.

Unlike Rockstar this season (see earlier post), Last Comic Standing is a very good use of one hour of your time. The comics are not too bad and the show is fun.

It was sad to see Gabriel Iglesias getting kicked out because he used a Blackberry, which was against the rules. He was certainly the funniest of the lot, though not by a big margin.

I think Chris Porter has a chance to win it all. His writing is good and his delivery is fantastic. I think he can win it.

Thanks, NBC for supporting this show. But where is Jay Mohr??? Anthony Clark is so dull.

It has been a few weeks of Rockstar Supernova and sadly, I have not enjoyed it at all this season. The band sucks (too much rock and too much ‘dirtiness’ compared to INXS), and even worse, the singers also suck.

In any case, last night’s episode had only 3 good performances and 2 of them were from ladies, and I know Supernova is not going to choose a female lead. The Australian was the only good male singer and he was also not that great. Hopefully these singers will improve along the way.

In the Rockstar:INXS season, there were a few singers who stood out right from the first episode and that made it more and more interesting to watch. So this one I am going to force myself to sit through, hoping that a couple of the singers step up big time.

The Tainted Love version was the best last night, but unlike last season where I was able to predict the encore performers, I cannot predict this season. The band is weird. I do not want to buy any Supernova records. No way.

A few days ago, Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd passed away quietly. May his soul rest in peace.

And a big thank you to him for founding my favorite band! What would life be without Pink Floyd???

This is a forward circulating around via emails ….

Dear Terrorist,

Even if you are not reading this we don’t care. Time and again you tried to disturb us and disrupt our life - killing innocent civilians by planting bombs in trains, buses and cars. You have tried hard to bring death and destruction, cause panic and fear and create communal disharmony but every time you were disgustingly unsuccessful. Do you know how we pass our life in Mumbai? How much it takes for us to earn that single rupee? If you wanted to give us a shock then we are sorry to say that you failed miserably in your ulterior motives. Better look elsewhere, not here.

We are not Hindus and Muslims or Gujaratis and Marathis or Punjabis and Bengaliies. Nor do we distinguish ourselves as owners or workers, Govt. employees or private employees. WE ARE MUMBAIKERS (Bombay-ites, if you like). We will not allow you to disrupt our life like this. On the last few occasions when you struck (including the 7 deadly blasts in a single day killing over 250 people and injuring 500+ in 1993), we went to work next day in full strength. This time we cleared everything within a few hours and were back to normal - the vendors placing their next order, businessmen finalizing the next deals and the office workers rushing to catch the next train. (Yes the same train you targeted)

Fathom this: Within 3 hours of the blasts, long queues of blood donating volunteers were seen outside various hospital, where most of the injured were admitted. By 12 midnight, the hospital had to issue a notification that blood banks were full and they didn’t require any more blood. The next day, attendance at schools and office was close to 100%, trains & buses were packed to the brim, the crowds were back. The city has simply dusted itself off and moved one - perhaps with greater vigor.

We are Mumbaikers and we live like brothers in times like this. So, do not dare to threaten us with your crackers. The spirit of Mumbai is very strong and can not be harmed.

With Love,
From the people of Mumbai (Bombay)

7 blasts within a real short span of time. During peak hours. On commuter trains which carry millions of passengers daily. 80 feared dead. Over 250 injured.

This is pathetic. The restless jealous bastards cannot see prosperity blooming anywhere. Just when things were going well and peacefully for the city and of course for the country, this happens and slows down everything.

I wish the guilty are found quickly and stoned in public.

Earlier there was the Shiv Sena instigation, which I truly believe was a ploy to start riots in the city. It was partial success because Shiv Sena was able to slow down and shut the city down for a day or two. But the good thing was there were no riots as such.

And now this…it truly shows that this is an act to incite some passions and start a finger-pointing and ultimately create a hostile environment which leads to instability in general.

Mumbaikars are too strong to let something like that happen. They will rise above this and move on in no time.

I think everyone saw it coming - JPM leaving F1. But I did not know it would happen so easily and that it would happen this year itself.

So he is going to be in NASCAR. He likes the bumping, the passing, the rough driving. He could not cope with the F1 discipline and the smarts needed in racing F1.

Maybe NASCAR is his true home. Maybe he will succeed there.

Now, McLaren needs to find a partner for Alonso for next year. Who will it be?

Roger Federer played a good match, and in the end prevailed over Nadal in an exciting Wimbledon final match. It was exciting because everyone knew that Nadal was not going to get blown away by Federer.

And he did not. After losing 6-0 in the first set, which I sort of expected, given the nerves of making the first final on grass and playing the best player on grass, Nadal came back big time and even though he lost in the second set tie break, he won the next set. And suddenly it seemed like there would be a 5-setter.

Federer would have nothing of it. He shut the door on Nadal and closed out the match in the fourth set.

What was surprising to me is how little Federer came to the net and whenever he did come, how uncomfortable he was made to feel. Nadal on the other hand, came to the net and won many points from there, and to say that he is a clay court player is really unjust. He is a complete player and in no time, he will be a threat to Federer.

And if you know me, and have read my earlier blogs, this is exactly what I love - a great rivalry. Federer’s winning was getting boring and he still is a class above everyone else except Nadal. Now, Nadal has risen way above what was expected and is a true challenger. It should be fun!!

How could Zidane be tickled so much that he did what he did? The foul was not only unnecessary, but it proved critical at the moment and in the game overall, because Zidane was needed to make one of the penalties for France, and that ended up being the big difference between the two teams in the end.

It was an unbelievable action by Zidane, and one which will tarnish his entire career for a long long time. People will now not remember him for what he has done in the past, but what he did to effectively lose the World Cup for his country.

Sad end to the competition, to his career, to the finals.

But a great game to watch otherwise.

Phew. The monkey is off the back. So what if it was against the lowly West Indies? For a few moments in the series, they did not seem to be too lowly … despite the administrative turmoil there, they were able to put together some decent sessions.

Hats off to Rahul Dravid for a fantastic performance batting-wise in the final test. Amazing.

Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar is on a century-hitting spree in the minor league in England. More than the centuries he is hitting, what I am pleased to see is the fact that he is lasting that long. Let’s see how his ramp up goes.

I will not be posting a separate entry every year about the anniversary. A few days back, this blog became two.

No more mention of it from the next year on. If it survives.

I have a problem with the ticker that scrolls across the bottom of the TV on all ESPN channels. I had set my DVR to record the Indy F1 race qualifying as well as the race. So on Saturday when I was watching Wimbledon coverage I tried hard to avoid it and I ended up seeing “Michael Schumacher grabs pole” and I thought dammit I will not be able to watch the qualifying that I have recorded.

Then, at some point on Sunday, I did the same exact thing. I tried hard to avoid it, but kept switching my focus to it and saw just “Michael Schumacher” and said to myself and the wife that it was over. He won it, and I won’t be able to enjoy the recording anymore. In fact, I would not even watch it.

Some may argue that I should not have been watching TV on vacation, but there were reasons. We had walked a lot and we had come back to the hotel room to relax in the afternoon and that’s when I saw it.

The Hancock Center definitely provides better “natural” connection than the Sears tower. There is a section where they just have a metal grill rather than a thick glass, so you can feel the wind and elements from that height. Much better than the Sears tower, where you are behind a thick glass window and all you can do it look through the glass. Which is not a bad view, don’t get me wrong. But after a certain point, the difference in height does not matter much.

Plus of course the wait at the Sears tower to get up was 1hr+ and we got to the top of Hancock Center in about 20 minutes :-)

I know people would like to visit Sears tower because of the fact that it is one of the tallest buildings in the world, but don’t forget Hancock!

After having a sensational year or year-and-a-half, Sania Mirza has continued to slump and get out in quite early rounds. She had so much promise and I don’t know what it is, but she has just not taken off like she was expected to.

Media pressure? Maybe. Self-confidence (lack of)? Not likely.

Whatever it is - its just not happening for her anymore.

Recently, a blogger whose blog I read regularly for tips and tricks, told me about a project he was undertaking, and I jumped at the opportunity to help him out because I have implemented some of the hacks he has put together.

The project was to create a wiki and The Bloggerhacks Wiki is now live!

Congratulations, John and the Freshblog folks. Keep it up!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the bubble is back. The bubble mentality is back.

I had reserved a taxi for this morning to take me to the airport, and the guy apparently had some beef with me (I always call Yellow Cab) from a previous experience with me forcing him to accept credit cards.

So this guy calls me that he is at the leasing office, and not at my building. I told him that the code to enter my building is such-and-such and that he should come to my building and I would be down in 5 minutes.

What he did next is unbelievable and left me absolutely stunned. He raised his voice and said ‘No, if you want to go to the airport, you come to the leasing office’. I said, somewhat curtly, ‘No, every week the taxi comes to my building, and I am not going to walk all the way to the leasing office today’.

And then he erupted. ‘You are the one with the credit card issues, I don’t want to come’. I said ‘What is your taxicab number?’. He responded, ‘Why?!’. I told him I want to complain about his attitude, his tone, his behavior. He said ‘FUCK YOU’.

Yes, in the same words!! Not figuratively, not implicitly. Directly!! I just could not believe it.

I called the cab company and complained to them and told them they have lost me as a customer. The person on the phone was apologetic and asked me to call his main boss who would be in at about 10am (this all happened at 6.10am!).

Hmph. This is the unfortunate side of the economy growing like it was 1999. Freaking attitudes. Just because they get more rides nowadays their service levels are going down. I don’t think it reflects the company, it is just these few idiots who have such attitude. Sadly, those few idiots have caused me to not ever call them again.

What a boring championship this is turning out to be. What was expected was that Kimi would challenge Alonso and Schumy would be up there in the standings too, but look at how this season has unfolded - boring domination by Alonso, with Schumy being a distant #2, and Kimi out of the title picture completely.

And Kimi’s state of affairs was clear when he was asked about his slip at the end of the race making him go to P3 instead of the P2 he was holding till the second-last lap. And his response was something to the effect of no big deal, does not make a difference if you are P2 or P3, if you don’t win the race. Just shows how casual he is taking this season and that we should not expect any miracles from him till maybe next year.

Speaking of next year, it is still a mystery who is going to partner Fisi at Renault next year. I would imagine, Kimi, but will Kimi be ready to be a potential #2 driver, since Fisi was apparently termed the “backbone” of the team??

So if Kimi cannot be #2 driver at Renault and if Schumy stays on and therefore Kimi cannot be a #2 driver at Ferrari, will he stay back at McLaren?

Recently, I read about Kate’s Firefox Screencap Project, and submitted my Firefox screen cap to her.

Go ahead and submit yours, and let me know your thoughts on my Firefox-ing.

Giancarlo Fisichella extended at Renault means there is one less place in the musical chairs that will unfold in the next few weeks/months. It is not such a surprise, but I think given all the complaining and the bad results he had got, I would not have been surprised if he was dumped.

But I guess losing their #1, champion driver is a big enough change for the team, so they may have thought it better to keep some stability and continuity in the team for the next season.

Who’s next to get slotted/booted?

I am surprised how ESPN and related channels have taken up tennis (and football, with the round ball) and are showing so much live tennis even though Americans are not in the top in either mens or womens singles. It is quite a brave move and it may be a calculated move from the ATP and the WTA to increase the popularity of the sport in America because after all the money comes from here.

If we are going to see only ‘-ovas’ in womens and Federer/Nadal in mens, Americans will shut off the TV’s and switch back to baseball, basketball, football (oval ball) and hockey.

But whatever be the reason, I am glad they are showing a ton of tennis live, including the earlier rounds. Keep it up, and don’t give up, ESPN!

Congratulations, Miami Heat. That was a wonderful Finals for any Heat fan to watch. Of course, since I did not care much after Dallas made it and Detroit did not, I did not watch the Finals like I watched some of the other rounds. But I watched the most important part - the last quarter of this game and the post-match celebrations.

Great job by Dwyane Wade throughout the Finals. I only saw the highlights on the news programs and he was making some unbelievable shots.

I am very happy for him, and for Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning for getting their rings.

And the only person I like from the Mavs is their high-class young coach - Avery Johnson. He speaks so precisely, so matter-of-factly, such basic stuff. He is a great addition to that club and I just wish it was not Dallas :-)

Congratulations once again, Miami Heat. Brag on for the year!

Last night was a normal night. I was going to drop my cousin and his friends to the airport and then come home and take the flight this morning to San Diego.

And then I noticed something. At dinner, I felt a pain in my mid-back. It was something like a cramp. I thought, oh no big deal, it will pass. But unfortunately, it became worse. I put a Ben Gay patch just to kid myself that it is going to get better, but the entire drive to the airport and back was bad. I took two Tylenol Extra Strengths and asked the wife to apply some Ben Gay because the patch kept coming off. It is a crucial week for me at work, and I almost had to be there.

I did not cancel anything because I thought it would get better if I slept it off. Put the alarm for 5am, packed my bag and went to sleep in deep pain.

When the alarm went off, I could not stand straight! I immediately knew that I had to stay back and not take any chances by going out of town. I cancelled the bookings, and sent out an email to the client that I am not going to make it today (at least).

Then I went back to sleep for a bit. When it was a decent time, I started calling orthpedic doctors that my insurance provider recommends. There were quite a few - between individuals and groups, I made at least 10 phone calls - but almost NO ONE had time today. Isn’t it freaking unbelievable? Just because they are specialists, they were acting snobby and were not willing to see me today.

Then it struck me. I don’t need the doctor, because they are only going to prescribe me some godforsaken pain killer. I needed to go to a chiropractor to get my back muscle straightened out. And guess what, there is one in our complex! I called them and they promptly took me in and the chiropractor was able to get some stuff straightended out, and said that a massage may help and then if needed, another session the next day.

I signed up for the massage also, and so far, it is slightly better than this morning, but I am still in deep pain.

My firsts (all time) - a visit to a chiropractor, and a massage. I will most likely be doing the same things tomorrow too.

I found out about this band on MTV Video Awards, of all the places! Some of the sounds they played in promoting the band sounded exciting, because they sounded classic rock-ish and I love that sound.

So I went to my Yahoo Music Unlimited and looked for them. I must say, they are awesome. I haven’t had much chance to research what their story is, but they seem like a new, young band but they are playing music that sounds like Led Zep, Jethro Tull (including the flutes!!), etc.

The entire album is good. Check it out …

Picasa finally updated their client to allow FREE hosting of up to 250MB of photos. I can’t wait for the invitation to start using it. In fact I may pay the $25/year fee for the 6GB storage because then I can avoid paying the same to my web host.

From the millions of ‘early impression’ posts I have seen today, it looks like it is a reasonable upgrade to the Picasa2 client. The only thing people are not happy with is why make everyone download a desktop client when everything else they do seems to be pointing the other way - web-way.

And why limit to only 250MB? When Gmail is 2.7GB, why limit photos to only 250MB? Maybe they have realized they need to make some money? :-)

The other thing I read today is that ‘private’ feature has a clear bug where it does not stay private because people were able to fake the URL and add /private to someone’s albums and get the private pictures. HAHA, so much for private feature.

I guess I will be happy to start using and get familiar with it before cancelling my web hosting package :-)