[Image - Acharya]

Just another new year wish.

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Steve Rubel leisurely wrote a step-by-step hack to read some of O'Reilly's book at Google Books.

Finally Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch had to interfere and comment that all he discovered wasn't hack at all and its just how Google Books and O'Reilly Publishers wanted the book to be available.

Been following these blogs for a long time now and Steve's blog was specially very informative with some fabulous pointers. It was in bad taste to write a step-by-step hack. Especially Rubel has been pointing out to people who are plagiarising his blog and now he has steps to hack a Google site. That sounded pretty childish.

Another reason, I wasn't comfortable with that post was that, people who had no idea about Google Books are waging a virtual war against Google for making the offline world accessible to the online world. While Google is trying to fight out these wars, security holes and such hacks would only increase the dis-belief on the whole venture. And I think a noble cause has to be atleast left alone if not encouraging it.

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**Hasn't been spell checked. Was just blowing some gas. Read at your own risk**

The latest picture postcard of Rajini[looking energetically as in Billa/Mr Bharath] in Sivaji makes me fear that this Shankar flick will also turn out to be another Baba. Baba was a flop mainly due to the hype that was created by media. Now that blogs are trying to match the media in every other area, news is spreading like nobody's business on blogosphere.

If only someone kept track of that picture, it would possible be the most e-mailed picture in the last week or so. I got atleast 6 forwards of the same picture from various newspapers. Sujatha and Shankar should be grinding their teeth to catch hold of that photographer who paparazzi'ed the whole thing. Me too. Just because I am going to miss the surprise of meeting the 'old' rajini in a 'new' movie. Starting now, we will have numerous stories floating around on Sivaji that would even entice Shankar to include in the original script.

I was also bloddy irritated about Selvaraghavan's pre-release marketing of Pudhupettai. While making a whole movie on gangsters, an interview that's sounding as cheap as, "This is a special movie for Sneha. She is acting as a prostitute. It would be a milestone in her career", doesn't suit. For someone like him, I would expect a rather sublime interview and not being so obvious about the characters which spoils the whole fun of watching a movie. I care a damn if its a milestone for Sneha or not. Especially not before the movie. The pre-release marketing should only being hinting at what the movie is aiming to do. Whether its going to be a milestone or not is for the audience to decide. Also this attitude of glorifying someone is he shaves his head or he acts with lungi or if a heroine acts with a saree through out a movie, doesn't stand a chance to make an impression. Come on dude, I'm expecting Pudhupettai should do atleast 50% of what Marti's GoodFellas did to Hollywood. If only its turning to be a pot boiler, I'm no more bothered. BTW, Pudhupettai has many context based songs/themes that may not be once-more numbers but they will sure be an enjoyable watch.

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Magazines run ads.

Books don't.

What are blogs?

This is sheer co-incidence. Two days before, I decided to remove ads out of this blog. Two days later, I read Seth Godin's introspective blogpost on Promotion, Self Promotion and ofcourse Ads.

If you are a blogger, you are sure to have thought about this, numerous times. Even if you aren't one, Seth's post would hint you the kind of promotional and self-promotional ads run by the blogs. Do read it.

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Roger Ebert's Best Movies of 2005. Crash tops the list as Spielberg's Munich is on the third while King Kong sits on number 9.

Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and U2's Bono are Persons of the Year 2005.

Time's Best Photos of the Year 2005.

Reuter's Pictures of the Year 2005.

Google's 2005 Year-end Zeitgeist. Looking at Froogle - Top Searches in 2005, you know how the world goes ga-ga over the whole IPOD thing. Indian version of Google's Zeitegeist isn't out yet. However going by the international zeitgeist itself you could expect Sania Mirza, Bipasha Basu and Mallika Sherawat to top the list.

10 Best Tech Podcasts of 2005. The Web 2.0 Show has been quite interesting.

Sify's Kollywood Box-Office 2005. This essentially does not mean these are the 'good' movies. We know good movies and box-office are inversely propotional. Thalaivar's and Jo's Chandramukhi tops the list. And yeah !! read closely, No Comments for minuses on Chandramukhi.

Best of Indian Blogs ?. We are still in the process of nominating the Best Indian Blogs. If you haven't nominated your favorite Indian blogs, read more on IndiBloggies. If the whole thing sounds a little geeky to you, cool off. Leave a comment here and I will try to nominate them for you with a mention of your name.

NY Time's The 10 Best Books of 2005. Haruki Murakami's Kafka On The Shore tops the list of fiction 2005. Ian McEwan's Saturday is also one of them. They also have 100 Notable Books of the Year which features Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown, Freakonomics, The World is Flat and also the expected Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince.

P.S - Will keep adding few more as they keep coming.

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I know it was me who jumped in at first to sign-up for Google Adsense, when it was introduced. Two reasons. To earn money from the blog and to also try out how Google Adsense works. Well, I haven't earned more than what I spend on this blog. More than the hosting charges, its the time that I invest writing which is more precious. I do enjoy the experience of writing. Add to that joy the lots of typos and grammatically perfect sentences that would Wren and Martin, a run for life.

Just that I don't want to earn money from the targetted ads. Hence I unplugged the Ad scripts from the templates. Adsene has been just outstanding as expected. Maybe I'll plug back the Ad scripts after a few months. As of not this blog is Ad-Free. Talk about signing up for the Ads myself and taking it out with a dramatic post like this.

To keep the templates trim, the Go Seattle Photoblog is also not plugged out of the templates. I did notice that the flickr script has been running more than the expected time and sometime it's frustating to see the blog getting loaded after a long time.

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With all the hulla-golla over Mani Ratnam directing Mahabharata coming to an end, there is some rumor on bollywood circles that Mani Ratnam is directing Aamir Khan, produced by Bobby Bedi. Well, its not Mahabharata but a romantic comedy. And I'm already thanking my stars that Mani Ratnam isn't directing the three-series Mahabharata, atleast in the recent future. And I hope he never does it. I would love to see if he makes Mahabharata in Tamil. However, we know tamil cinema's market isn't as big as bollywood.

Anyways on the Mani Ratnam-Aamir Khan-Bobby Bedi project, Mid Day reports -

Aamir Khan will be again seen in a comic mould after a long time. Mani Sir is directing and scripting; it’s a special project, as it marks the coming together of Aamir and Mani Ratnam for the first time. Talking about the format, Bedi adds, “It’s completely different from whatever romantic comedies you have seen so far. A lot of changes and incorporations are being made, so I can’t really talk about the story.”

Mani Ratnam directing romantic comedy seems very exciting given Mani's mood to make some serious cinema, these days. Above all that is Rahman joining the team, will be a question to be answered in the coming days.

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Baradwaj Rangan's posts an old column on Mani Ratnam's Iruvar in his blog, Blogical Conlclusion. Given the lucid flow and his 'too' perfect references to the most appropriate trivia/persons of Tamil Industry, makes this column an eminent research material.

I aspire to pen one such article on both Iruvar and Hey Ram. But after reading this column, I probably wouldn't do that with Iruvar. If you are tamil cinema geek or a Mani Ratnam fan, this is a must read. One hell of a read, this is.

From Two People, One Industry -

Iruvar has a breathtaking style that brings to mind Tamil cinema, both old and new. The film is a passage through time, and an early song sequence showing Anandan – this name is itself that of a small-time hero of the fifties and the sixties who starred in the likes of Vijayapuri Veeran and Veerathirumagan – romancing his lady is shot in black and white, with the elaborately ornamental wipes found in films of the Ambikapathi period. Vairamuthu’s lyrics here incorporate suitably chaste Tamil words, AR Rahman’s heavily Carnatic-style music appropriates the characteristics of early composers like G Ramanathan and SV Venkataraman, and this song is sung by Unnikrishnan and Bombay Jayashree.

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Chinmayi's rendering of Anbulla Snehithiye is one of the best megaserial songs on Tamil Television. While most of the mega serial songs are fast paced and get on your nerves after a couple of times, Anbulla Snehidhiye's title song was one of the best, those days. Chinmayi recently had posted that song on her audio blog. Do listen to this melodious number.

Anbulla Snehithiye was a late-night megaserial on Sun TV directed by Priya, an assistant to Mani Ratnam[for Iruvar and Dilse] and also an assosiate to Suhasini[for Indra]. Priya recently shot to fame with her debut directorial venture, Kanda Naal Mudhal, which I'm looking forward to watch. Priya also was the scriptwriter for Revathi's directorial venture, Mitr- My Friend.

Anbulla Snehidhiye was probably the only mega serial, I watched regularly. It was broadcasted at 10:00 pm on weekedays, the time I had my dinner. With several of my favorites like Suhasini, Anu Hassan and 'Fanta Illamai Pudhumai' Swarnamalya, the cast was nearly perfect and the story, top notch. If you are wondering what the story was, it was adapted from the novel, Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

This title song was a household number and felt elated to hear it after a long time. Thanks to Mukund for pointing me to the post.

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I had no clue until Dilip Radhakrishnan pointed out that IBN Live was linking here to the review of King Kong. I've been hearing about IBN Live only for the last two days.

IBN Live is apparently a news channel from TV18 and CNN. Rajdeep Sardesai, The Big Fight guy from NDTV is leading this effort. From their site, IBN seems to be a pro-blog channel as they are calling for Citizen Journalists and an exclusive blog microsite from the journalists. Nice to know, the TV media is going the blog way.

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John Battelle the author of The Search, which was named as one of the Best Books of the Year 2005 by Economist, predicts Web 2006.

His prediction about Google -

Google will stumble, some might say badly, but it will be significant. How? My money is on its second or third major deal - something on the order of the recent AOL deal. It may well be a loss (perceived or otherwise) in the Google Book Search case. Or it might be the privacy issue. This is not to say the company is going to fail, or the stock, for that matter. Just that it will face a major test in 2006 that it won't pass with flying colors.

I am wondering why Google would be failing in the Book Search case. I've been munching a list of reasons as to why Google is actually doing better in the Book Search case. Given John's fabulous insight on Google and their business, I'm forced to assume that his prediction might actually turn out right.

But then, Google Books is an awesome service to connect the offline and online world of Books. Why would they fight against it ?

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IIT Madras' Saarang 2006 is happening from 24th to 29th January 2006. The dates were just announced and Airtel seems to be the main sponsor of the whole program. Donno what's up with Hutch this time.

This year's pro-shows aren't announced yet. Sulekha sponsored a Saarang Blogathon for the last 2 years. Probably this time too, given that Kiruba is now in Sulekha. But the Saarang has a blog, Saarang Talk[Via Sudhish] written by Amrut. Per the blog, Amrut says that the blog would be a bridge between the Saarang and it's audience.

Anyway, this is just a ramble post as I would be missing the Saarang this year. Saarang has it's own spirit that ranges from being geeky to cheeky. Even if you are fast approaching your big 30s, you are sure to get charged up with the first encounter of the slogan, Live a Saarang !!.

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In and As Saravana[Remember Saravanan Irukka Bhayamen in Chandramukhi].

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The recent interview of Steven Spielberg[via Ajay] with Time's Richard Schickel, is an interesting look into Spielberg's mind as a director. Not only Spielberg talks from his heart, he also effectively conveys his steadfast approach towards doing the film he wants to and how he escapes without succumbing to the pressures of success.

When I don't have a movie, I don't take a job just for the sake of working. I just sit it out until I find something I'm passionate about. If I find something light, I'll make it. Like Terminal. It wasn't a film that I'll be remembered for, but it's a film I'll remember for the rest of my life, a sweet short story that gave me a chance to work with Tom Hanks--and people think I'm crazy for saying this--giving what I think was his best performance. Some people have said, "Why did you make that little movie when you could have been doing something important?" And I said, "Well, at the time it was important." And if I find something dark and historical--like this Doris Kearns Goodwin book [Team of Rivals, about Abraham Lincoln] I'm working on now--I'll do that. It's just how things work out. It's all about timing.

Richard also writes in-depth about Spielberg's yet-to-be released, Munich, a film on the killing of Israeli atheletes during 1972 Olympics.

Meanwhile, 2 people from Redmond are named as the Persons of the Year 2005. Bill Gates & Melinda Gates are the duo. Also named as Person of the Year is U2's Bono.

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Domaru...Dapsaa...Dhommai....Kumaaru..Kokki Kumaaru !!

Hey Padicha Naaye Kitta Varathey
Enga Area Ulla Varaathey !!

A/C Potta Bathroomil Enna Varum Ponga
Thandavaalam Kitta Othunguvom Naanga
Nethu Vecha Meenkozhambu Kaathula Pesum
Malli Poovum Inga Pootha Meen Vaasam Veesum !!

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These are a series of ramblings on Marghazhi month. May not be all that interesting as these are personal posts. Just wanted to register interesting and funny stuff about childhood in chennai. These were one of the prime intentions when starting the blog. Along the way, I drifted elsewhere and now I'm trying hard to get back the original groove.

Let's start from Ven Pongal. During the month of Marghazhi[15th Dec - 14th Jan], when you rush to a perumaal koil in the wee hours of morning, you get two things. Apart from sighting aathi pinnal girls, you get handful of suda suda ven pongal and spirituality to the heart's content. Perumal Koil pongal is much better than Ghee Pongal[Rs.13.95] in Saravana Bhavan. But those days when I went to the seenivaasa perumal koil along with my mom at 5:30 in the morning, I knew nothing about Saravana Bhanvan or Naachiyaar Thirumozhi. All I knew was that my mom, quietly made a big kolam and went to koil in the early morning of marghazhi month. When she came back, I was still brushing my teeth, thinking about the boring social studies homework given, the previous day. She came back with a dhonnai full of steaming hot ven pongal. So after brushing my teeth, I got to eat the pongal even before my coffee. There was something special about the pongal and hence decided to hitchhike my mom during her kaarthala koil trips.

I landed in perumaal koil, after bath, sharp by 5:40 am. Along the way to the temple, women keptdrawing, what is called as Theruvadaichaan, a maavu kolam that spread the breath of their respective lanes. In the koil, they recited a sloka and mom would recite alongwith them. With atleast 50 people, reciting the same sloka(I thought) at the same time, I had goose bumps for no reason. After sevichu'fying perumaal and thaayaar, a queue(?!) gets formed for the highlight. As you proceed along the queue, one maama stuffs a dhonnai in the hand. The other bhattachari, has a huge karandi in his hand. He scoops a mountain of the ven pongal from the andaa and filled the donnai. I always get this itching feeling that the bhatachari gave me less pongal than whoever stood before me. Anyway, the minute I get my donnai filled with ven pongal, I would go to the main pragaaram of the temple and eat pongal to my heart's content. My mom gets her share also to me. Now that I'm done with both the donnais of pongal, I head back home and sleep again by 6:15 am.

Till this day, Marghazhi reminds me of Ven Pongal even before Thiruppavai. Thiruppavai ?

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He just started blogging. Here is timbl's first blogpost, So I have a blog.

Before that, in 1989, he proposed something that changed the world forever. He is Sir Tim Berners-Lee and he invented the World Wide Web. Welcome Vaathiyaarey !!

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An outright commercial. Fantasy flick. Overtly sentimental. Glitches here and there. Popcorn muncher's special. Graphics Galore.

Yet its an accomplishment in modern cinema. Its bigger than what you have seen before. While it pays tributes to many classics, its tries to get better than all of them. It slightly succeeds too. If you are a sane person you wouldn't attempt to make a movie like that. One would assume it was Matrix or Charlie Kaufman flicks which were unconceivable. Even after conceiving, bringing them on-screen would be a tight rope walk. But King Kong is very much conceivable but the script to screen conversion is where Peter Jackson displays his genius in movie making. If Lord Of The Rings was anything by grandeur, King Kong is an epitome of this show business. With this PJ proves he is one among the top showmen in Hollywood.

Oh !! yeah, its the same story. The beauty and the beast. The same moving fantasy tale that we have witnessed before more than once on-screen. But there's not one beast here but an array of them. While the gorilla falls in love with blond babe, the other spooky creatures try to eat the beauty, flesh and blood. Its like making Mahabharata or Bible, as a film. The whole world knows the story. So what are you going to do different about it ? Peter answers that with an utmost ease. Even succumbing to have a very 'believable' ending, PJ still works his crazy ways of getting there, to the climax. With a three hour movie you could pretty much bore the fans with all the build-up. PJ does take his own sweet time in unleashing the beast but doesn't allow you to sink in the seat, even until then. Howabout having King Kong + Titanic + Jurassic Park + all the what-if-you-get-lost-in-a-creepy-forest movies in one movie. Its a sheer tact to combine the best of all these and pack them into one movie.

The beauty and the beast are so well attached to each other. Just like the previous Kong flicks, you would fall in love with the Kong even at the very minute you meet him. At the end, it does compel you to shed a single tear. Though it might be laughable to watch the inter-species romance, this is how the original was made. Kong loves the Ann Darrow, a suffering actress. Ann just sympathizes Kong for that. But no where as I feared, Naomi shouts," Kong...Kill them". And thats a big relief.

An effort of re-creating this classic is an herculean task. There are hundreds of infinitesimal details that needs to be taken care. Without a worthy team, PJ wouldn't have succeeded in creating this to-be-classic. Yes, PJ's King Kong is the most complete movie in the Kong series and its an instant classic. A perfect cast which includes, Naomi Watts - the babe from Mulholland Dr., Adrien Brody - with a nose of namooru Vikram and the superb Jack Black. I would crime if you missed to mention, Andy Serkis as the man behind the CG Gorilla. You just can't ask for more in the casting department.

Re-creating the depression-era New York mustn't have been hard with computer graphics. But the production values are just mind-blowing. The skull-island and those wacky creatures seem horribly true. King Kong by himself seems completely alive. Be it the way he jumps thunderously to catch the blond girl or the way he sneaks through the streets of New York after finding her. while the most brilliant sequences being the above, there are also masterfully picturised stunts between the Gorilla and T-Rexes. You wouldn't be skeptical, that Kong is a computer generated creature. However there are places where the cast caught in between graphics, seem unreal. An amazing support from the music director for those splendid BGMs.

It takes nearly 100 minutes for the Kong to enter the story but the entry is with a build-up much bigger than a Super Star entry. From then on until the end its pure action, every shot. At times it gets so high that you just wish, PJ would give a few minutes of break for the action.

As Peter Jackson says, its his childhood dream to make King Kong. But none including him would have believed that it would turn so spectacular. The whole three hour movie seems to be a big dipper of fun, romance, action and fantasy.

A must see, ofcourse in the theatre. Don't even dare to watch in on the DVD. Forget your logic and critic hats at home. PJ's King Kong like Spielberg's ET is one of those reasons, why movies exist.

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[Click Pic for a bigger version]

[Scanned from newspaper, this morning]

Recieved this Sivaji poster a few minutes back from Karthi, a friend and a theevira Rajini fan, who eventually told me first about Jaggubhai stuff. If only I got my hand on this yesterday...what a birthday post, it would have made. Yo !! is that Rajini, looks a lot younger with the new hairstyle(!!).

So they are starting today in Hyderabad and there you go, I'm already drooling the sort-a-dream-team - Rajini(obviously), Rahman, Sujatha and ofcourse Shankar. Add to it K.V Anand, Thotta and Raju. Are they selling tickets already ?

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Seems like movie of the year has finally arrived. Ananda Vikatan's review of Thavamaai Thavamirundhu[needs uid/pass] would even make a Cheran basher, develop an urge to watch the movie.

Cheran has been writing a series for Vikatan on making of this movie. Vikatan's overwhelming response could be a result of that but I choose to think that this is truly good cinema. All I could do is keep hoping that way until I get to watch it.

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Even with a string of not-so-big movies and a long tail of media ventures failing, I was hoping that Spielberg's Dreamworks SKG would never go away. But the ancient theory of big fish eating small fish happened to spill over Spielberg's dreams too. And Paramount bought Dreamworks for $1.6 billion.

By no way one could write a tribute for the eaten-up production house of Spielberg, Dreamworks. I've been thinking atleast for 2 years that Mani Ratnam's Madras Talkies should be cloning what Spielberg and his partners at Dreamworks are doing to Hollywood. So what where they doing ?

The new studio was portrayed as heralding a tectonic shift in the way the industry operates. The perception was fed by the principals themselves, with Katzenberg telling reporters at the launch news conference, "I look at the three of us and think this has got to be the Dream Team."

It's hard to think that we may not see the boy throw the fishing rod from the moon. It was a symbol of good cinema. There is always another hope left.

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Shankar & his team manages a mallu back-up. A hefty back-up thats arguably better than the originally chosen 'one'. Big B would have been nice-to-have on the tamil screen. Still, I'm lovin' it !!

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...wait. Watch Vanamey Ellai or e-mail Sneha. Seems like many BPO/IT guys knew this much before us. Its a pity !!

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[Image]

Read the very insightful transcript of Enn Kanavar, a speech by Sellamaal Bharati[not devayani] where she recollects her life with the 'Poet of the century'. And as usual, favorite lines from this dude's poetry -

Ooyuthal Seiyom Thalai Saayuthal Seiyom
Unmaigal Soalvom Pala Vanmaigal Seivom

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Yet another case of E-adichaan blog copy as I found an interesting blogger, while googling for something else. Itz what Varun haz to say ! ! ! is a blog run by Varun Nair. Check out more about this dude here.

Comparisons start here -

- Black review there on Mr.Varun's blog and here.
- Signs movie review there and here.
- On Rahman's Roja being awarded Time Top 100, there and here
- Shucks!! even Google's Birthday note, there and here/here.

BTW, our Nair saab has put up Rang De Basanthi music review. Do check, it could be copied from your blog.

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After a long time, listening in a loop, Raaja's Maariyamma from Karagatakaran. One of Illayaraja's best folk number with amazing beats that would just make you dance. I ain't joking.

Other numbers in the queue are -
- Janani Janani
- Kaathalin Deepam Ondru
- Naanaga Naan Illai
- Paalum Pazhamum Kaigalil
- Pasumai Nirantha Ninaivugaley
- Kaathal Kasakuthaiyaa
- Aaru Athu Aazhamilla [Remix]
- Aatamaa Therottama
- Acham Enbadu Madamaiyada
- Kottaiya Vittu Vettaikku Pogum
- Ennathaan Nadakkum Nadakattumey
- Jaathi Illa Bedham Illa Thanni
- Sindhu Nathi Inisai
- Kaaviyama Illai Ooviyama
- Kumari Pennin Ullathiley
- Mega Kottatum Aatam

Just wanted a random tamil songs play list. Now playing Paalum Pazhamum Kaigalil....

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3 more 24 hrs for the beast feast.

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Yet again, Yahoo shows its love for Web 2.0 or is it because Google is already a Web 2.0 giant. Whatsoever, the lovely lovely folksonomy site, del.icio.us was bought by Yahoo.

At first it was the photo revloutionary Flickr and now with del.icio.us, yahoo tried to override it's own respective applications. Yahoo Photos could have developed to the speed of Flickr and its My Web 2.0 was developed on the same lines as of tagging which was a competing application to del.icio.us.

With Google missing to buy Flickr, it was rumored then that del.icio.us was certainly for Google. Another hit and miss for Google. What next ?

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Hemanth gives a good review for Surya's latest flick Aaru. He notes -

Aaru has been made with same class as Ghilli and I'm positive feel it's going to see similar returns. From the choice of Trisha and Vidhyarthi to the Telugu speaking baddie, Aaru's been done with Surya growing clout in Andhra. The Telugu version is also titled Aaru (not Aarulu).

I can take Hemanth's words and am now curious, which I wasn't before, to watch Aaru. Enga Seattle oru seriyaana thandam. Oru mannangkattiyum release aaga maatenguthu

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Not only Prabhu bought the first CD of Rahman's Rang De Basanthi but also he probably wrote the first review for it. Ferrari Fast !!

RSS is everywhere. RSStroom Reader. Pretty Funny !! [Via Seth Godin]

Hemanth throws valid questions on the declining standards of Tamil Nadu Politics. I agree with both of them.

The Hindu Prakash Jha's recommends Apaharan.

Bhaskar Ghose writes a fabulous column on the Kushboo Issue, The right to speak freely.

"Make your bed in the morning, help out in the shop, and read a book a day". I wish I had to do atleast for a few weeks. Jeremy Micer writes about a great book shop Shakespeare & Co. [Via Uma's indianwriting].

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Aries March 21 - April 19 Daily Overview for December 08, 2005 Provided by Astrology.com Daily Extended Forecast

Quickie:
Watch your frustration level today. Inconsiderate people will test your patience.

Overview:
It's time for you to put an end to whatever you've been beating yourself up about. It's over, it's done, it wasn't a deliberate or malicious act, and you know it. Give yourself a break.

Was running anti-spy on yahoo tool bar and was accidentally taken to My Yahoo. Thats where I read the my sun sign astrology today, as given above. Donno what it means except someone is forcing me to take a break.

BTW, am not a jerk on astrology. I certainly believe(after all my experiences with astrologers of chennai, for my friends), astrologers are grossly wrong but astrology is right.

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[Pic - Dhanush and his 'team' in Pudupet. Thanks Vikatan]

Selvaghavan talks to Vikatan about his latest flick Pudhupettai which is floors with Dhanush, Sonia Agarwal and Sneha. While the interview is mostly for creating 'awareness' of Pudhupettai, the parts where he talks about the lifestyle in a metropolis, seems to be true.

The interview continues even in the next issue of Ananda Vikatan. Should check out to see if there is any more insight on the movie. And yeah, Sneha acts as a sex worker named Krishnaveni. Selvaraghavan says its a sure shot milestone for Sneha. Mothalla padatha release panunganna !!

Inside Pudhupettai - 1.

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I have no clue, why Michael Douglas wanted to produce, One Night at McCool's. It had nothing significant to it except it indirectly scans intentions behind people's every action. In a Aayitha Ezhuthu-like screenplay, the point of view of story shifts between three people. All these three people are at various levels of the society and cross each other's life by letching at a sexy girl. While it a good timepass on tuesday evening, it didn't come together very well at the end. Especially people shooting and killing themselves for a sexy chick was just hype at extreme level.

Liv Tyler's ravishing beauty is where the movie rests and she cake-walks through the vamp role. Still, she isn't the same natural beauty as we saw in Armageddon. Alicia Silverstone would have also made a good fit for this role. Michael Douglas does nothing but smoking on-screen(which is banned in India !!). Watch it for some silly fun on a boring evening.

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Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene.

John Battelle's The Search - How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

Notes from the Underground : The Most Outrageous Stories from the Alternative Press.

Las Vegas for Dummies.

Currently reading these offline. Online....Phew !! It's information overload.

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I love to hear the talk radio while driving to work but then I probably end up with those news stattions constantly screaming the traffic updates.

NPR is certainly fresh air for me. I am probably their newest subscriber to their programs. Accidentaly, I got to listen Terry Gross' Fresh Air on the net. Since then its keeping my MP3 player busy. Am patting myself on a self-found gem.

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Pradeep Sebastian writes in his column End Paper about re-readings of a book and what maketh a book lover.

I HAVE always thought a true book lover is one who rereads. To know one book well than to know many peripherally. It can take the form of revisiting a favourite book or just rereading a favourite passage.

When people make train journeys I've noticed they seem to prefer taking along a book they've already read. Like a known companion. Increasingly, it seems to me that what a committed reader has with a book is a relationship. And that it's like most relationships sustaining, volatile, vulnerable.

The question is does the book remain the same book the second time around? Are we even the same readers when we revisit these books? I am sure many of you have marvelled at how the same book expands before you, surprising and humbling you with how much you missed seeing on the first reading.

Wise words. The same could be applied to movies as well. Just wanted to add, if I watch all the movies that release, I am not a good movie lover.

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After nearly the whole world has watched Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire, I set out to watch the movie on a Saturday morning. By the time, I walked out of the theater, it was freezing cold outside and I couldn't believe that there were still cars running around. Not because it was freezing cold outside but I was in a state of trance for the last couple of hours that made me believe that when you aim a wand at something it can transform into a monkey or a donkey or even an IIPM Ad. Who knows. Harry Potter isn't Rajini to get you transfixed during his on screen presence. Still, Harry Potter has a magical aura around him. And even if you never liked, with people around you cheering, " Harry Harry Harry", you can't just hate him. And I was one such odd man out.

Harry Potter and I have a love-hate relationship. Before I go on to state what the love is, here's a secret. I haven't yet read any of Harry Potter books. One reason could be that before I set out to read book one, I saw the first movie. After then, year after year, it's a custom to walk into a theater where Harry fights Voldermot and succeed every single time. Hence I am not a major Harry Potter freak to whom you could ask, " Which spell makes the Dark Mark appear ?" and I would readily shout, Morsmordre. From the first time, I always have a feeling that I haven't understood the entire thing about Hogwarts and Harry as compared to someone who has read the book(s). Generally, I would love to read a book and watch the movie but I am not used to read a book series like Potter and watch the respective movies on screen. Not just me but millions of people around the world aren't used to this kind of book-then-movie-book-then-movie stuff. Thats probably one reason, why I believe Harry Potter is a major phenomenon and would be talked about until at least the next century. I ain't awestruck at Harry Potter's movie but I I truly believe in this.

Even as I purchased the ticket, I knew that Harry Potter wouldn't die in the hands of Voldemort. As the print media is already selling Harry's sixth book, one would know before hand Harry Potter is going to succeed even in fifth and the sixth movie. That certainly distances you from getting involved with the movie. This is where my interest never gets even as as Harry gets a wild card entry in the Tri-Wizard tournament. So I have to say if there are major changes to the climax of the next Potter movies, my energy levels would soar and would make people like me, get involved. I wish that happened much against the wish of Harry Potter fans.

In this serving of Harry Potter's Adventure at Hogwarts, Harry's hormones work overtime even as Harry is thrown into a deadly challenge for which he isn't mentally ready. As he makes a lengthy stare at his school mate Cho Chang, you know Harry has grown-up. This is clearly innocence lost. From just being a children's fantasy story, Harry Potter grows up into a teenager flick. I am not sure if this is what J K Rowling originally intended to be. There is a huge possibility that she just allowed the character to shape it by itself and hence from being just a chandamama story hero, Harry Potter gives a feeling of being a real human being. This is the biggest plus in creating a fantasy story. You could make just about anything in a fantasy story. Even in the next story, JK rowling could take Harry Potter back to his first year at Hogwarts.

I have to ramble here. Harry Potter isn't James Bond or Spiderman or Superman or any of the super heroes. If this Harry Potter like growth had happened, year after year, James Bond should have turned into a 70 year old man now, going by Ian Fleming's initial description of James Bond. Or Superman would be a retired old man, sitting in a recliner and reading NY Times. But it never happened. Superman is as young as he was, when first introduced. Watch out for the young Superman as he returns in the summer of 2006. My Paati created a fantasy hero for her grand children. So the same Darling Rajakumaran is still fighting the Mahendrapuri Raaja as he was during my childhood days. My nephew heard the same story a few years back. Just that the latest Darling Rajakumaran drives a Maruthi 800 while mine had only a karuppu horse. May be this growing up is what makes Harry Potter a saga. An epic that could stay for decades to come. None can answer now and its for time to answer how Harry Potter would be carried into the future. Probably 50 years from now, like Peter Jackson, some could give life to the forgotten Potter story and re-take it for the movie standards of that day. The reality is, Daniel Radclife would have enough beard like Dumbledore and would be resting in a recliner like the above said Superman.

Goblet of Fire is a so-so movie. There are some fantastic CGI scenes but the movie is more realistic than other Potter movies. The Quiditch World Cup had breath taking special effects. Made me wish if only there was a real stadium like that. Someone said the whole quiditch stuff ran into more than 50 pages in the book while it was reduced to 5 minutes on-screen. Quiditch was one thing that made me sit-up in the first potter movie and I felt let down as the whole chapter ended up so fast. Still, the movie by itself was filled with competitions. It had 3 races and some story in-between the three competitions. While the dragon episode was the grand one, the other two were pitiful counter-parts. Especially the maze competition for climax, reminded me of the final scenes of Kubrick's Shining.

The screenplay has a many yawning places which made me slide down the chair and yearned to go to sleep. Of course there are also sensational scenes in the story. Though reading the whole Yule Ball episode might be sleep inviting, on-screen it was short and sweet. Harry asks for a girl to dance with him during the ball. Since she is already going with someone else, he finally settles down for an Indian girl. And why would they want to symbolically represent Indians as brown skinned by choosing darker girls while there are thousands of fairer Patels and Shahs in England. Spontaneously, Harry hugs Granger while he is about to start for the second round of competition. Thats probably a highlight of this Harry Potter episode. I'm waiting to see if Granger would marry(?!!) Potter or Weasley, as Wesley also sights Granger as much as Harry. The ending was sober with the death of a friend but there is an entire sequence before that seems like the mummy awakening, which is exciting.

There is absolutely no reason to write a review for this movie. Its become like a sort of social thingy for Harry Potter movie to release and the world waits for their turn of tickets in long queues of theaters to watch him do magic. They still cheer, "Harry Harry and Harry !!". More reasons to love this movie than hate it.

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[Thanks - Vikatan.com]

I watched Majaa and felt happy. The movie wasn't great but the artists remained intact. Should Kamal Hassan be in Vikram's place, he would have said, be careful with him for given a chance Pasupathi would walk away with applauses.

Pasupathi the guy whom we spotted from Dhool or even in Kannathil Muthamittal is currently one the most wanted character artists in Kollywood. But thats like caging him. A natural actor like him can be used for any character/any film. Knowing this, probably Kamal wanted him to do the silly comical role in Mumbai Express after a vibrant villain in Virumandi.

In his recent interview to Ananda Vikatan[requires uid/pass], Pasupathi talks about his childhood days at Thandaiaarpet and how he was caught into this magical world of theatre acting. Pretty interesting interview where he recalls his past as roaming in streets assuming himself to be Sakalakala Vallavan Kamal. And thats when he joined Kothupattarai that brought him upto speed on theatre acting. I was surprised to know that he was one of the founders of the legendary Magic Lantern theatre group.

Next Films ? An english film where he is Piccha, a poor farmer. Then, Veyyil, Shankar's next production directed by Vasantha Balan where Pasupathy is Munusaamy, the projector operator of Kaniappa Talkies. Shankar is also producing, I heard, a Vadivelu starrer named Imsai Arasan 23aam Pulikesi. Both Veyyil and Imsai Arasan seem pretty different. Do we have a Tamil Ram Gopal Varma with Shankar, as expected ?

I only hope Selvaraghavan would use Pasupathy for Pudupet. Wouldn't that be a devastating combo. Watch out for Pasupathy in the coming days.

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Been stuck at office like a car after heavy snow. Loads of work before the million dollar baby goes live in two weeks from now. Curious last moments is what makes a software engineer's life, a bliss. And I'm enjoying every moment of it trying to keep myself cool without getting panicked.

Talking about getting panicky, Seattlites just got freaky over the last few days owing to the weathermen going over-board about the expected snow. When snow came down, people left the office thinking that the snow would take over the city. What happened was an anti-climax. Snow came down, life went on as normal. Nothing much was distruppted except me being late for the evening coffee by just a few minutes.

By the time me and friends reached the COMPUSA store on the thanksgiving night, it was 11:30 pm. Around 500 Indians(yes, 98% indians and 2 % asians not indians were the only people around) were already in the line with monkey caps and their wives, who showed no interest in accompanying their husbands to an electronics store. Stroke of midnight, people started walking inside the shop and as usual a bunch of desi dudes ran inside the shop without coming through the line. By the time I was inside the store, it seemed like a kalinga war was just fought. The hard disk section was ransacked and I just got hold of some box which I didn't know what it contained. Following the old quote - follow the stream, as everyone was picking up couple of boxes, me too picked up two of them. Later when I saw that they were 250 GB hard disks costing $180, i left them back.

Did you just think, Technology has improved so muchaaa. Wait. Around 200 of the desi crowd was just climbing one upon other like the first day first show of a Rajini movie to get a 512 MB USB pen drive for $9.99. Phew !! I came back home without buying anything.

The Thanks 'buying' stuff finally arrived. Like I planned, I bought the 160 GB external accomdata hardisk but for $70, instead of $50. I bought them online at Fry's Outpost. Also went to CompUSA next day of Thanks giving to find hundreds of wireless routers lying around, which were missing on the previous night. I am a mobile blogger now. Yep, the home network is all set, thanks to CompUSA's wireless router. So I can browse and even blog while eating idli molagaapodi on the dining table.

As it gets colder in Seattle, it gets exciting too. The snow this morning while driving to work, lifted my spirits. The tall evergreen trees with snow cap on them makes the whole place look so beautiful. Accompanied with Rahman's Tanha Tanha on the CD player, it was a sight that I would remember for a long time to come. Meanwhile the city is getting it's holiday dressing. Street trees are decorated with serial lights, Santa socks and caps being sold even in medical stores(!!), the work place is getting decorated with holiday trees and the shops are open even longer than the original working hours to meet the holiday sales. The year end seems to be the most exciting part of the year, be it in India or in US. Oh yeah !! I'm missing the marghazhi kutcheri.

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I was reacting to Chenthil's non-commital blogpost on the recent plagiarism accusations on The Hindu. Few arguments touched upon rogue blogging. I have some strong comments on rogue blogging and how blogs can be mis-used as anti-fame machines. Here is the extract from the comments that me and Chenthil had on his blog.

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From Chenthil's blogpost -

This incident set me thinking about this sharp tool called blogging. Take Mr. Bhaskaran. He has been writing for about 20 years. Assuming 20 reviews a year, that makes it 400 reviews. Even if say, 20 of his reviews were inspired, he will be painted as a plagiarist for all 400 of them. It is a little harsh on him. Again I stress, I am not batting for anybody, just thinking out loud how this tool called blogging can be used.

lazygeek said...

//Even if say, 20 of his reviews were inspired, he will be painted as a plagiarist for all 400 of them. It is a little harsh on him. //

Chenthil, I don't get this logic. How do you say its a little harsh on him. its a matter of integrity when it comes to fourth estate.

Chenthil said...

Guru, the issue I was concerned more here was how blogging can be used to bring down somebody.//

lazygeek said...

Yep !! There are rogue bloggers every where and the idea of rogue bloggings sucks. I agree. Now lets take this analogy to the IIPM case which is very recent. Do you also think that IIPM literally raped by bloggers. Imagine IIPM has been around for a while and they might have given great education even for atleast 200 people, they were ragged by the bloggers for screwing up with one AD on newspapers. Do you think so ?

Also, imagine the tamil nadu police captures so many criminals on a daily basis. do you think they were ragged by bloggers when they were condemened for moral policing with just one hotel.

Are we being balanced here ? If you are saying yes, i'll have a bigger reply.

Chenthil said...

Guru, of course I am not being balanced. I myself have participated vigorously in IIPM issue and Moral Policing. But of late I am getting this doubt, whether we are using blogging as a tool to bring down things. When I was participating in those issues, I could feel the mob mentality engulfing me, making me feel the potency of power without accountability.

In such mobs, some of those who are shouting along with you won't be agreeable to you on normal days. But since all of us are shouting for an issue, we tend to forget this fact. To put it in Engineering College slang, whenever there is a fight in collge, there will be a group who will be standing invisible but creating a big noise. We call that "Sound vidarathu". I am wondering whether blogging is going down that road.

lazygeek said...

Obviously its going in that road. Remember those days when you had asked why I was keeping off senstive issues. This was the reason. Its because we have bandwith and a keyboard that listens to your whims and fancies, by means of senstive topics and sticky posts, we are just becoming rogue bloggers, to the core.

Ofcourse there are people who react because they feel dejected or upset of some issue. i have to say i felt very dejected when i saw the plagiarism. two reasons. one the lazygeek blog is a victim of plagiarism. donno if you know but the reviews and posts are intelligently stolen and some interesting thoughts are added to it make seems like a original post. second, i am a long term reader of hindu. infact right from the start. so i felt dejected and hence that post about hindu.

There are bloggers whom even you can spot so easily who are just waiting for to kick someone and waiting for a prey. those dudes are pretty new and have no clue of the immense satisfaction blogging gives. if its all about eyeballs and page hits and comments gallore, blogging ceases to exist. but thats what we have today and it really sucks. really sucks.
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And before you start to comment here is a quick note. These were comments and they were written with an urgency. Hence they may not really bring out the essence of what i mean. I was trying to compare Chenthils' logic of argument in Bhaskaran's case with the IIPM and moral policing issue. My take on moral policing and IIPM remain intact despite these conversations for the sake of an argument. While this argument continues so does the concept of rogue blogging.

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