It seems this is the latest joke going on in India. Of course, Pepsi has a commercial where they refer to Pepsi as ‘Bubbly’. Hence, Bun, Tea Aur Bubbly :-)


Bun, Tea Aur Bubbly

It was shocking to see how bad the Spurs played yesterday. Not sure if Manu was 100% fit. I think he has lost his chance of being the finals MVP. But of course the next game is the most critical for the Spurs and if they can win it, it will be fantastic.

My hope as I mentioned in an earlier post was that the series should not get to 2-2, and here we go :-(

It’s a 3-game series now and I am still not going to jinx anything. Let’s hope for the best.

I got this from a public blog I frequently read.

Could it be true?

Wow. It would be phenomenal if it were.

No offense to the traffic reporters on the radio, but why are they there? Don’t they just read the traffic report from a sheet of paper? Why can’t the DJ’s do it themselves?

Is it done to introduce a change in the lineup? To mix it up and make it a little less monotonous?

I just don’t see the need for a traffic reporter - they might as well become a part of the radio shows.

Soon we won’t be able to share music among friends. You know, the casual copying of songs for one another? Understandably, from the record companies' point of view. But for people like me, just starting out on the digital music scene, it is quite a bummer if I cannot burn unlimited.

I am not looking forward to the time where my songs can only play on my ipod or other music player, and if it crashes I have to call customer service to enable my new device just so that I can listen to my music. And on top of that, with my pathetic experiences with customer service nowadays, I will have to go to subscription models like Yahoo Unlimited. That way at least I will have ‘free’ streaming at any point.

Hmph.

—

From today’s Mercury News (may need free registration - pasting the entire article to avoid the trouble):

Music industry eyes `casual piracy'

MAJOR LABELS TO COPY-PROTECT ALL CDS SOLD IN THE U.S.

By Dawn C. Chmielewski

Mercury News

The record labels are in pursuit of a new class of music pirates – not the millions who download bootlegged songs over the Internet but those who copy music CDs for their friends.

The music industry considers the seemingly innocuous act of duplicating a music CD for someone else casual piracy,'' a practice that surpasses Internet file-sharing as the single largest source of unauthorized music distribution. After fits and starts, the industry's largest players are taking measures to place curbs on copying.<br><br>Sony BMG Music Entertainment, home to some of the music industry's biggest acts, including Bruce Springsteen, System of a Down and Shakira, plans to copy-protect all music CDs sold in the United States by the end of the year. Another major label, EMI, whose artist roster includes Coldplay and Norah Jones, will introduce copy-protected CDs in its two largest markets -- the United States and the United Kingdom -- in the coming weeks.<br><br>For consumers, it signals an abrupt change to the rip, mix, burn mania embodied by the 2001 Apple Computer ad campaign promoting the first iMac computer with a CD burner and software for creating custom music CDs. These new copy-protected discs limit the number of times people can create copies of music CDs or add individual songs to music mixes.<br><br>You can do with the CD you bought what you do with it if you’re within the realm of personal use,'' said Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG’s president of global digital business. You can burn a copy that you play in your car or a copy that your son plays in his bedroom or make a personal mix. That's fine. That's the way people listen to music these days. If you attempt to burn 20 copies and distribute them to the kids who come to your son's birthday party, that's not possible.''<br><br>IPods an issue<br><br>Copy protection raises an even bigger problem for the millions of people who own Apple's iPod digital music player and use its iTunes software to organize their music and create custom CDs. Apple has refused to license its FairPlay rights-management software -- even to the labels. That means certain copy-protected CDs won't work with iTunes or the iPod without employing time-consuming work-arounds.<br><br>They do not play on iPods simply because Apple has this proprietary approach,'' said Hesse of Sony BMG’s copy-protected CDs. We would be willing and able to put'' FairPlay on CDs in an instant if Steve Jobs would flick the switch and allow us to do that.''

Apple refused to comment. However, well-placed sources within the music industry said the computer maker is still in active discussions with the labels to find a solution.

We're working with all the major digital portable music players out there and our goal this year is to make them 100 percent compatible, so that when you put your disc into your computer, what opens up is your standard portable player interface,'' said Peter Jacobs, president and chief executive of SunnComm International, whose technology protects Sony BMG discs.<br><br>The music labels have been experimenting with various forms of copy protection since 2001. But early attempts yielded embarrassing results: The CDs didn't play in all stereos or computers.<br><br>The labels say such technical glitches are a thing of the past. EMI has distributed more than 127 million copy-protected discs in 48 countries with few customer complaints.<br><br>The technologies we’re testing have matured to the point where consumers can play, rip, burn and in some cases share their music with others while still protecting the intellectual property of EMI’s artists,'' wrote Richard Cottrell, the label’s head of anti-piracy in an instant message.

First CDs a success

The industry has been emboldened by Sony BMG’s success with the first copy-protected release from a major act. Velvet Revolver’s June 2004 release of Contraband'' topped the Billboard charts and ended up selling more than 7 million copies worldwide. It suggested consumers were willing to accept copying curbs that mirrored those of the digital download stores.<br><br>Now, half of Sony BMG's new releases -- including the Dave Matthews Band's million-selling Stand Up'' – are protected. All new CDs will be copy-protected by year’s end.

EMI will test various copy-protection technologies in different parts of the world, starting with trials in the U.K. that began this week.

The copy protection technologies from SunnComm, Macrovision and Sony DADC differ in subtle ways. There are, however, some similarities. Many come with two sets of recorded music – songs in the unprotected format that plays whenever the disc is inserted into a CD or DVD player, and a separate session'' of compressed, copy-protected files that open when the disc is inserted into a computer.<br><br>SunnComm's newest technology doesn't require two recording sessions on a disc. It adds the copy protection to the music on the fly, in whatever format the labels choose: Windows Media or Sony's ATRAC. SunnComm discs will also play on Macs. That's not true for the Macrovision technology behind EMI's copy protection.<br><br>On the PC, a message appears that asks the buyer for permission to install a piece of software on the desktop. Answer no, and the disc is ejected. It won't play. Once installed, the software regulates how often people can rip a full copy of the CD to the computer, burn individual tracks or make full copies of each album. EMI, for example, will permit the consumer to upload an album once per computer, burn individual tracks seven times and make up to three full copies of each CD.<br><br>A challenge for Apple<br><br>This not only prevents people from making endless dubs of CDs for friends, it potentially dries up the leading source of unprotected MP3 music files that feed the Internet file-sharing networks.<br><br>The move to embrace copy protection could boost Apple's online music rivals, such as Napster or Yahoo Music, which are based on Microsoft's technology, according to Paul-Jon McNealy, an analyst with American Technology Research in San Francisco.<br><br>Apple has three choices: do nothing and gamble that consumers will be so annoyed with copy protection, they'll stop buying music CDs; license its FairPlay technology; or embrace the technology of its longstanding rival, Microsoft, said McNealy.<br><br>Michael McGuire, research director for GartnerG2 in San Jose, said it's too soon to predict how copy protection will impact consumers who use iPod and iTunes. But it could prompt some consumers to stop buying CDs and go online for their music purchases.<br><br>Are these people likely to write angry letters to the editor or to Sir Howard, registering disgust?'' said McGuire, referring to Sony’s new chief executive, Howard Stringer. ``No. They’ll find it somewhere else.''
Contact Dawn C. Chmielewski at dchmielewski@ mercurynews.com or (800) 643-1902.

Was listening to JT The Brick’s show last night and was totally in agreement with him when he shut up a Detroit Pistons fan telling him he needed to come out and talk when they lost the first two games not when they won the first home game.

Another sad thing: My friend who plays squash with me, and who is a big Detroit fan, did not bother to bring up the NBA over the past week. Last night when we played, he asked me ‘Did you see the game?’. I asked him to shut up and told him that I had predicted that Detroit will win the first home game.

And then he went to say something that really surprised me: ‘San Antonio plays dirty’!! Aw come on Detroit fans. Don’t complain about San Antonio playing dirty. Just because you are getting a dose of your own medicine does not mean you start whining suddenly. Just admit it that San Antonio whooped you and made it a lot more difficult for you than you thought it would be!

Bob Geldof has come down on ebay for letting those charity tickets be available for sale on ebay. Why is it ebay’s fault? They are a marketplace and as long as the items are not illegal, we don’t want ebay to start policing and act as a customs authority.

The whole idea of ebays of the world is to allow free exchange of goods and services among people with needs and means. Why should ebay stop charity tickets from being sold?

And who are they to judge what is ‘good’ and what is ‘immoral’? If there is a rule or a law written down to stop something from being sold, ebay can refer to it, but there is nothing illegal about selling charity tickets and ebay is unnecessarily being blamed.

Note: I am a stockholder of ebay and have written this in no connection to my stock holdings. It is just a matter of discussion.

News.com had an article on the record number of messages sent for tickets for Live 8. Did a reunited Pink Floyd performance have anything to do with it?

There are so many nice things that are coming up everyday, but I have not found one good thing that I can use for all purposes. Take the following list:

1. GMail - excellent mail program, but is only available on the web. There is POP access, but I can’t access it through 2 POP clients like Outlook. It marks the messages read as soon as the first client accesses it. Shame, because if they gave me IMAP access, I would probably not even download all my messages, given the disk space.

2. Blogger - wonderful, easy-to-use program to blog, but it does not provide me password-protection. What if there was something I wanted to post exclusively for some people and not for the whole world? Can’t do that. Besides, I can never keep track of comments that I make on others' blogs, and others making comments on my blog.

3. Yahoo Mail - nice, clean interface. No POP access though, in the free version. Now that they have bumped up the storage to 1GB, I would like to see IMAP, or any other way to keep folders (including Sent Mail) in sync between computer and web interface.

4. Yahoo 360 - A little confusing, but a good idea to blend various social networking aspects like blogs, sharing reviews, messenger, etc. in one place. But I can’t create more than one blog, and I can’t let multiple guys write on the same blog.

5. Flickr - Excellent public-hosted photo tagging and display tool, but in order to make photos ‘private’, the users have to sign up and create a flickr account. Not sure if I could ask all my friends and family to sign up for their own account.

6. Picasa - My current computer-based photo organization tool. Simple, light and easy-to-use. But it does not have a corresponding web host to put the pictures online for people to put.

7. LaunchCast - Excellent internet-based radio, especially if you have LaunchCast Plus which allows unlimited skipping. But it does not include Yahoo Music Unlimited, which is basically On Demand music listening.

8. MSN Spaces - Provides an alternative to blogger in terms of permissions for users, but like flickr, MSN needs each user to sign in to passport. But unlike flickr, passport is probably less harsher for users because there is a chance that they have already signed up for hotmail at some point in their lives.

I could keep listing products and services I use … all of which are 90% there, but none of them are 100%.

Just venting.

Look at him…he looks scary to me. How could kids go to his house? If I were a kid, I would not let go of my parents' hands as soon as I see him.




Michael Jackson acquitted

Too bad that they are not going to tour as a reunited band. I would go, at any price!

And to finish off the weekend, we watched the Game 2 of the NBA finals and realized that so far San Antonio is proving to be too solid for Detroit. They dug themselves out of a hole in the Game 1 and never let the Pistons come too close in this Game 2.

Ginobili is electric, but more than anything else, San Antonio did a fantastic job of ball rotation, quick passing and executing all the time. The focus was there and the role players did excellent.

Horry was the guy always to be found near a loose ball. His 2 or 3 steals in a row somewhere in the middle of the second quarter was too good.

As you can tell, I am rooting for SA. I hope they take at least one game in the next three. Playing in Detroit is not going to be easy at all and I just hope that it does not get to 2-2 :-(

Saw the race on CBS. It was an excellent race. Schumacher had a horrendous start, which is quite atypical. Meanwhile, the two Renaults were unbelievable in their starts.

But unfortunately, (and luckily for Schuey and Ferrari) both Renaults defaulted and Montoya was black flagged.

Kimi won the race, which keeps the championship interest going. And if Montoya had not retired from second place, I think the constructors' championship would have been impacted in a big way too.

By the way, another exciting finish. The last 10 laps' dogfight between Kimi and Schumacher was superb. I don’t think Kimi would have let him pass even if there was more time, unless the car had some problems, but the way Schumacher fought it out and did not ‘settle for second place’ was awesome.

Now, on to the US GP.

Watched Bunty Aur Babli over the weekend. I loved it! The concept is simple - the guy and the girl are both from small town India and have dreams of making it big. Both have a fight with the parents and they leave their town looking for the ‘big time’.

The guy is a little more enterprising and always has some or the other ‘scheme’ to pitch. After being stabbed in the back in some town, he decides to take the short cut to riches. He teams up with this woman who is also looking to be famous, and executes one con job after another.

After a while, it becomes addictive and they keep on doing it, more for the kick of it than for sheer need. Abhishek Bacchan has done a good job in playing his part. Rani was sort of relegated to the back.

Amitabh is the cop who is after them, but has no idea what they look like or who they are. Finally he catches up with them minutes after they decide to give it all up and return to their home town. After listening to the two argue over what’s next for them and their newly born child, Amitabh feels sorry and lets them go away.

Ultimately, the two of them are hired to work for the Government to avoid such scams in the future.

Good fun throughout the movie, including some funny statements made by Abhishekh. That makkha and makkhi joke by Amitabh threw me off my chair.

A lot of dialogs between Amitabh and Abhishekh had references to their real-life relationship of father and son, which was interesting.

Aishwarya’s item number was good, though I am not sure why she did it. Rani was wasted except for the last part where she makes Abhishekh realize that they have to stop.

In the end, it was not bad watching the film on a Saturday night from the second row! I am sure I would have slept in Parineeta :-)

He is saying that he and his boss don’t talk much anymore and that he is looking for a new drive next year.

I saw the qualifying this morning and I must say, the car is damn bad. It is a 2-year old chassis and in this day and age where cars need to be tweaked from race to race, it is ridiculous to have a car last for 2 years and perhaps more.

Hope he gets a good drive next year.

With this 2-3-2 format of court choices, I think it is almost a disadvantage to start at home. If you lose one of the two home games, you are under the gun to win at least one away.

That’s why it is important for San Antonio to keep themselves focussed for the next game because Detroit is a very very strong team in terms of coming back.

Jordan boss told Narain Karthikeyan to drive faster and improve….with almost saying ‘or else’.

So enough has been said about the marriage. I am trying to think which is a better prospect - to be able to run Windows on mac hardware (ibook with Windows XP - wow!) or mac OSX on non-mac hardware (wow, Mac OSX on my crappy desktop!).

Oh well….

And the funny thing is it was not just drinking, they had an all-night drinking binge!

It was as expected - Wade played the game 7 as a starter; Shaq had a great game; Wade was off in the 4th quarter, trying too hard; the Pistons showed the resilience that won them the championship last year and made them #2 seed this year; the Pistons overcame a 6 point deficit that could have become 8 points in the 4th quarter and won game 7 on the road, and are in the finals.

So my pick Miami does not make it. That’s alright.

But I will still go ahead and make the pick for the finals. San Antonio will win in 6.

Game 1: SA
Game 2: Det
Game 3: Det
Game 4: SA
Game 5: SA
Game 6: SA

I happened to catch some highlights of the first test between Pakistan and West Indies and I am glad I watched it. Brian Lara is so good! His elegance, his range of shots, his power, his grace … everything … makes me think that forget Sachin, forget Dravid, Lara is the best batsman in the world today.

4 centuries in 5 innings. Unbelievable. He has just surpassed Bradman and has 30 centuries. What was suppposed to be almost unachievable when Gavaskar retired, is now under threat from two guys - the 34 test century-mark.

I hope to see Lara in full flow sometime in my life.

What a match it was. I didn’t know Puerta but that guy was playing really well. Nadal was just a little bit more consistent and less nervy. Puerta broke Nadal a couple of times in the 4th set but immediately lost his serve in the next game. The essence in tennis I think is to hold serve at least right after breaking the opponent’s serve, because it psychologically can kill the opponent. But Puerta was not able to.

But he was tired - he had played long matches in the past two rounds and was just not able to continue playing 110% every point against a guy who was hitting at the same level throughout the match.

In any case, good match. Loved to watch excellent tennis.


Rafael Nadal and Mariano Puerta at the French Open - picture from FrenchOpen.org.

Now I can say, been there, done that. Just need to watch the game and get the t-shirt ;-)


Fenway Park

Justine Henin has won a Grand Slam coming back from injury. She has lost only one match since she came back from injury where she was out for (almost or over?) a year!

Congratulations, and welcome back!


Henin Hardine with the easy win - picture from FrenchOpen.org.

From an alumni email:

USC TO STAR IN NEW TV SERIES!


Location, location, location – no wonder the producers of the new ABC reality television series The Scholar have chosen USC as their show’s setting. The Scholar is a program that celebrates higher education by giving underprivileged high school students a chance to compete for an all-expense-paid education at a top American university of their choice (provided they’ve been admitted). Tune in to Channel 7 on Monday, June 6 at 8 p.m. PST as ten teenagers are quizzed on subjects such as history and literature, and also asked to solve brain teasers.

The judges include an admissions officer from U.C. Berkeley and two others from Ivy League schools. According to the former Columbia admissions officer who thought up the show, it’s about “demystifying the college-admission process.” There should also be plenty of drama, what with ten teenagers competing for the top prize.

Here’s one brain teaser from the first episode:

There is a panel with three switches on one side, three light bulbs on the other. The students can flick the switches as often as they wish, but can only venture to the bulb side of the panel once. How can they figure out which switch controls which bulb?