Atul Karmarkar.Com

Federer beats Roddick, gets # 15

Atul Karmarkar — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:02:20 +0000

Gosh ! What a Wimbledon final !!

Federer finally clinched his 15th Grand Slam but not before Andy Roddick gave him some super anxious moments during this marathon of a match. The scoreline says Fed won 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14; the longest Wimbledon final in terms of games, as well as the longest Slam. The final set, which went to 30 games and 95 minutes, was also the longest ever in a men’s Wimbledon final and even longer than the women’s singles final this year !!

Last year, Nadal had wrested the crown from Fed in a nerve wracking match that lasted just short of 5 hrs, prevailing 9-7 in the final set, in semi-dark conditions.

What can one say of Andy Roddick ? He put in one of his most inspired performances ever and still came up short, for the third time here. It was really tragic that he never lost his serve during the entire match, except in the final game, and Federer, who made so many unforced errors, couldn’t break Roddick, and lost his own serve, walked away with the trophy. No doubt, Fed deserved it, but I guess everyone on Centre Court would agree that Roddick didn’t deserve to lose.

Fed of course, pulled out aces whenever he was in trouble (50 in the match!), and in the fifth set, had progressively shorter service games, whereas Roddick’s always seemed to go to the brink. Roddick of course, had a golden opportunity in the second set tie-break, when he was up 5-1 and then 6-2, with four set points to take a 2-0 lead. Fed then showed champion stuff in reeling of the next 6 points in a row to snatch the tie-break 8-6 and level the match.

Federer now has 6 Wimbledons (one short of Sampras), 5 US Opens, 3 Australian Opens and 1 French Open.

Hail Federer, well and truly an all time great !!

Review: Ice Age 3 – Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Atul Karmarkar — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:09:39 +0000

Just got back from Bangalore on Sunday, and decided to continue the movie watch where we had left off at X-Men: Wolverine.

This time the movie was Ice Age 3 – Dawn of the Dinosaurs and having watched the earlier ones, there was definitely a sense of anticipation, especially as far as the special effects were concerned.

We were all a tad hungry, and as the movie was at Inox, a quick snack-up at McDonalds was just the fuel we needed in order to get by the next couple of hours.

So, ok.. the movie opened with Manny and Ellie discussing their baby, and what they would do to help bring it into the world. This sudden move of the mammoth couple to parenthood however unsettles their pals – Diego, who feels he’s losing his edge anyway, and Sid, who also starts craving a family of his own, which is when the fun starts.

Sid comes across three dinosaur eggs, hidden in an icy shelf just below the Ice Age. He brings them up and decides to raise them as his own, inspite of warnings from Manny. Soon enough, Momma T-Rex shows up and is furious that Sid dared to steal her eggs. She takes the baby dinos and Sid to the land of the dinosaurs, below the Ice Age.

Obviously, the friends, including Crash and Eddie, have to pitch in to rescue Sid, and they tentatively venture into dino land, where they meet up with Buck, who according to me, was easily the star of the movie. He wears a grass eye-patch and wields a mean looking knife, which we later learn is the tooth of a giant T-Rex, Rudy, his enemy. Buck has been living in this land and agrees to lead the friends through the jungle to Lava Falls, where Momma T-Rex has taken Sid and her babies.

The character of Buck is swashbuckling, almost like a jaunty pirate and his one-liners are truly hilarious, not to mention Buck’s Rules, which are a must for survival in this land.

Throughout the movie, Scrat the squirrel continues his quest for the acorn and now he has a wily female squirrel Scratte, to contend with. Some of their dance sequences are simply awesome.

Just as they are nearing the end of the rescue mission, Ellie goes into labor and she is attacked, so Manny and Diego stay back to protect her, while Buck takes Crash and Eddie ahead to rescue Sid, who is on the verge of toppling over into the lava fall.

In the meanwhile, Ellie gives birth and it’s a girl. Incidentally, the moment the baby came into focus, a little girl in the audience also piped up, saying “It’s a girl !”, causing everyone to break into peals of laughter. The mammoth couple decide to name her “Peaches”, their code word when the mission started, in case Ellie went into labour.

Just at the end, Rudy attacks the herd, and though Buck manages to trap him, Rudy escapes and resumes the chase. This time, however, it is Momma T-Rex who comes to the rescue and knocks him off a cliff.

As the herd decides to return, they invite Buck to join them. He is in two minds and feels a sense of emptiness and a loss of purpose, since he’s spent so much time chasing Rudy, who is now gone. However, just as he’s about to join them, a roar in the background confirms that Rudy is still alive, and Buck’s mind is made up.

So basically, all’s well that ends well. To conclude, this is definitely a must-see atleast once, especially for the fantastic effects plus it was in 3-D unlike the earlier ones. Of course, there were some reviews that got into a little too much detail, like the dinos being extinct long ago, the geography of the land, and some other improbable scenes, but WTF, just see the movie for pure enjoyment. Kids will love it, though some of the dialogues and humour aren’t strictly for them…

An eventful week at Bangalore

Atul Karmarkar — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:01:56 +0000

Just returned to Pune… and already feeling like taking the first flight back to Bangalore !!

It was a fun filled lazy week, what with the idyllic weather. No rain, however. Got to meet several friends who are now based here, including an old friend I last met some 13-14 years ago. Unfortunately, some other friends were out of town in the same week I was there, so a meet-up couldn’t happen.

Most of the evening activity was in the Forum area, as it was central and easy for everyone to reach. Also went to a place called Terrace Nation, situated in the National Games Village, Koramangala. Fantastic ambience and location, but the major sore point was with the pace of the service. Each order had to be repeated a minimum of two times, whether it was the food or even ice cubes and soda, and yes… we even had to remind the steward to get the bill !!

We went to the Bannerghatta National Park on Friday, mainly to acquaint my nephew with the animals that he’d seen so far only in his picture books. Yep, he was suitably impressed, though he couldn’t say so yet. He even touched the trunk of an elephant !

Saturday was again a lazy day, and we all went to have breakfast at A2B, followed by a visit to Cubbon Park, where we played a bit of frisbee n stuff. From there, we moved on to the Taj Residency for a spot of lunch. The coffee shop was full as Bosch had given their employees some vouchers, so they had all chosen that day to land up there. We went to the restaurant beside it, and the food was pretty good, the preparation and presentation even more so.

Sorbetto Al Caffe

Come evening time and it was decided that we’d have coffee at a place called Cafe Pascucci on MG Road. The place has a nice ambience, good decor and a nice menu. The crowd is also pretty good, and the place attracts a lot of foreigners too.

I had a look at the menu, and though there were several yummy items on offer, I chose one called ‘Sorbetto Al Caffe’.

The contents seemed mouthwatering; coffee powder, coffee beans, coffee liqueur… the works !! In short, absolutely lip smacking stuff !

As it so happened, a short while later, a friend and I also decided to meet up at MG Road as it was closer to his house, and no prizes for guessing which venue I chose.

I had no qualms in ordering the sorbetto all over again, and felt like a really content cat after downing it for the second time.

Come Sunday and it was time to leave. The trip to the airport was routine enough and once there, I had to shell out some dough for the stupid UDF which only seems to be charged at the airport here.

Once I boarded the Indigo flight, the names of the crew were announced and I think this was the first time I was flying in an airline where the Captain was a lady, a far cry from Roberto Carlos !

Off to Bangalore

Atul Karmarkar — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:28:45 +0000

It’s been quite a while since I took a break from work, and the weather and timing also seemed right, so am gonna be in Bangalore for a week or so.

Bangalore of course, is where family (my nephew, in particular) and friends both are, so going there at every available opportunity is a no-brainer. The last visit was a somewhat subdued one, considering we arrived there the same day as the Mumbai terror attacks, so obviously there wasn’t too much partying around at the time.

Hopefully, this time promises to be different. Activity on the blog, which is anyway dwindling, will be even more so, but I’ll be active on Facebook and Twitter, so gimme a shout if you are in Bangalore and wanna meet up !

500 cops and 50 hrs – All this to kill one dacoit

Atul Karmarkar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:44:36 +0000

One of the biggest WTF kinda news I’ve come across… Ghanshyam Kevat, a dreaded dacoit, was gunned down by UP cops in a village in Chitrakoot yesterday.

Nothing particularly amazing about this piece of news, but then look at the stats.. it was a single dacoit against almost 500 heavily armed cops and commandos, and what’s more, it took them close to 50 hours to nail the bugger !!! As if this wasn’t enough, he even killed 4 cops and injured 11 others.. all this with a .315 rifle and some bullets.. Amazing !!

If he had been carrying the kind of ammo carried by the terrorists who attacked Mumbai, it is anybody’s guess as to how many more cops would’ve been killed…

Doesn’t say much about our security forces, huh…

An evening at the Sagar Plaza Formula One Sports Bar

Atul Karmarkar — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:40:51 +0000

Was chatting with a friend about the Turkish Grand Prix, and how some years ago, we used to watch the race each Sunday at a pub over pints of beer. The talk turned to the Formula One Sports Bar at the Hotel Sagar Plaza, and if it was worth a shot going there again.

It was ages since I’d been there of course, but a quick call to the hotel confirmed that the bar was very much in existence, and the receptionist sounded almost shocked when I asked the question. As expected, there was the usual faff about coming early and stuff, first come first served and all that blah.

Come Sunday evening, and there were a few drops of rain, but nothing much as it turned out. I reached a bit early and headed straight for the bar, and oh boy… what a change ! The seating arrangement was not like before and it seemed much more crowded and stuffy, like they had decided to just dump as many seats as was humanly possible !

There were around 15-20 people already in the bar, so anyway, the race started on time at 5.30 pm, and so did we. There was a cover charge of Rs.250/-, but what pissed me off was their insistence of serving only Fosters beer during the race. I wasn’t too keen to have a vodka or whiskey that early in the evening anyway, so we settled for a pint of Fosters (Rs.80 each), along with some fries (bloody expensive).

The projector screen wasn’t all that great either and the weird railing on one side of the seats made it difficult to see the lower half of the screen so we shifted to a different location. That was only only marginally better, as someone’s head was nicely obstructing the screen. Just when I slightly shifted my chair to get a better view, another guy came and plonked himself behind the first guy, a little to the left, which meant instead of seeing the lap timings and track positions, I only got to see two bobbing heads in different directions !

We decided to order stuff to eat, and though there really wasn’t much choice, it was ridiculous to see a chicken sandwich and chicken burger being priced the same (Rs.150). Wasn’t too great anyway, with the burger patty spilling out of the buns, and watery tomatoes to boot, which totally soaked a couple of tissues as well.

The race itself was ok, with Button taking the title to grab his sixth win in seven races this year. An amazing turnaround for the Brawn GP team. Towards the end there was a bit of excitement as Vettel, who started on pole and then lost it during the pit stops, tried to hassle his team mate Mark Webber. His race engineer even said, “Don’t push it, Mark is faster”, but Vettel didn’t seem to care and only went even faster. Webber, till then coasting along, got a rude wake up call and upped his pace, but only just, and finished second with Vettel grabbing the final podium place.

Was an ok evening I guess, though we certainly ain’t going back to the Sagar Plaza F1 sports bar anytime soon.. and yes, the icing on the cake for the day was Federer winning the French Open… Finally !!

Google mentor Rajeev Motwani is no more

Atul Karmarkar — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:22:19 +0000

Happened to come across some tweets and then a couple of news items that said Rajeev Motwani passed away suddenly. Frankly, I’d heard of his name only once before, and even then wasn’t able to recall who he was but a little browsing soon got me up to speed.

An IIT-Kanpur alumnus and a Stanford University professor who was a mentor to Google co-founders Brin and Page, he died when he accidentally drowned in his swimming pool. He didn’t know how to swim. He was only 47 and probably at the peak of his academic and professional life at this point of time.

In a condolence Brin posted on his blog, he said ”In addition to being a brilliant computer scientist, Rajeev was a very kind and amicable person and his door was always open. No matter what was going on with my life or work, I could always stop by his office for an interesting conversation and a friendly smile. Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it.”

At Stanford, Motwani founded the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS), from which he mentored many start-ups and was a major catalyst in the Silicon Valley eco-system.

R.I.P, Rajeev.

Rajiv Rao, creator of the Vodafone ZooZoo

Atul Karmarkar — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:53:20 +0000

Anyone watching the recently concluded IPL T20 matches would’ve got used to the Vodafone ads with those funny little creatures in white.

Though somewhat slow to take off, those creatures, called ZooZoos, have become an instant rage among people and Vodafone has been quick to cash in, with several spin-offs, campaigns and merchandising focussed on those ZooZoos.

But wait a sec, who is the man behind this campaign?

It is Rajiv Rao, executive creative director at Ogilvy India, and he came up with the name ZooZoo because,

“We wanted something that sounded cute, lovable and a bit mad like the characters”

Rajiv has been in the ad business for almost 16 years, the last 10 with Ogilvy, where he was also the person behind the memorable Hutch pug campaign.

Read on for some more interesting insights on the man himself.

Google Wave, coming soon

Atul Karmarkar — Fri, 29 May 2009 23:32:02 +0000

Google has announced the launch of it’s exciting new product, Google Wave, a real time platform which it says will be a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web.

To be launched later this year, Google Wave seeks to combine email, IM, wikis, social networking and project management into an all-in-one solution, right from within your browser.

So what exactly is a ‘Wave’ ?

According to Google,

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

You can ask to be notified when it’s ready.

Say Hello to Microsoft Bing

Atul Karmarkar — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:51:03 +0000

Microsoft has unveiled what it hopes will be a Google killer. After months of testing a new search engine under the code name ‘Kuomo’, they have taken the wraps off this new product, christened ‘Bing‘.

Doing the honours at a conference in Carlsbad, California, CEO Steve Ballmer said,

We’ll have what I would call a big budget — big enough that I had to gulp when I approved the budget.

There has been speculation that Microsoft is going to spend close to $80-$100a million on their advertising, though predictably, they’ve declined to comment on this.

They say Bing will be a ‘decision engine’, one that will present results and some intuitive tools aimed at making the decision process easier for the user.

Some initial thoughts:

The first thing I noticed was the picture of a snow leopard, which I thought was weird considering Apple has an OS by that name.
The search results, initially a bit wonky at first, seem to be getting better.
Bing does not seem to have plans for going mobile, at least not yet. This is a huge mistake, considering the number of users who use their Blackberry and other smartphones to access the net nowadays.
The addition of a new navigation menu to the left, called an ‘Explorer Pane’, which adds links to aid you in your decision making process. Decent enough, but I’d rather not have it at all.
Quick Preview – a feature located to the right of the search result that enables one to see a snippet from the actual site. This hangs at times, though.
Integration of it’s Farecast Technology (a company it purchased last year) to search for lower airfares and other travel queries.

Too early to tell whether it will actually be a Google killer, and there have been quite a few that have attempted this, albeit unsuccessfully. Let’s see what the coming weeks hold in store for this new product.

Atul Karmarkar.Com

Federer beats Roddick, gets # 15

Related Posts:

Review: Ice Age 3 – Dawn of the Dinosaurs

You may also like to read:

An eventful week at Bangalore

Related Posts:

Off to Bangalore

Related Posts:

500 cops and 50 hrs – All this to kill one dacoit

Related Posts:

An evening at the Sagar Plaza Formula One Sports Bar

Related Posts:

Google mentor Rajeev Motwani is no more

Related Posts:

Rajiv Rao, creator of the Vodafone ZooZoo

Related Posts:

Google Wave, coming soon

Related Posts:

Say Hello to Microsoft Bing

Related Posts: