automobiles — Leave a comment
07
May 06

Auto : Honda City – Revisited

Luhit – Blog Archive : Honda City – Didn’t bother for a test drive

I did flirt with the idea of buying City for two reasons 1. It is a Honda Car 2. The great milage everyone talks of. As I looked at the specs, it just had 77 bhp. On a highway I would have struggled more then I did with my current Santro. There is nothing much to say about the City?s looks.

About a year back, the Honda City did not have much appeal for me. Agreed, this car gave a great millage, but what about the pleasure of driving ( whatever it means on a Bangalore street 🙂 ).I think Honda India has received a lot of feedback from people like me. Some six months back they launched a new variant of the City – the Honda city ZX. It has a VTEC engine that pumps 100 bhp. The extra 23 bhp gives the car the much needed pep feel. Honda still continues to sell the frugal 77 bhp variant.Now, why did Honda launch the ZX. Well, last six months has seen some high profile launches in this segment. First, Ford launched the Fiesta, then Chevrolet launched the Aveo. Both of these cars competes with Honda City. Even, Hyundai is about to launch a new car in this category.Since its launch, the Honda City has been a best seller in it’s segment. But, now it remains to be seen of the City can protect it’s turf with competition from Ford, Chevrolet and Hyundai hot on it’s trail.

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macintosh — 1 comment
06
May 06

Firefox Mac OSX Theme

Firefox Mac Theme
Firefox Mac Theme,originally uploaded by manaskb.

Mac OSX users can make Firefox look like Safari using the GrApple theme that can be found here : http://www.takebacktheweb.org/

Safari is a pretty good browser, still there are some people like me who would like to use Firefox (www.mozilla.com). Safari users who would like to move to Firefox would be at home after installing this theme.

How to Install :

Go to site : http://www.takebacktheweb.org/

find the Mac OSX theme you like. Just click on the “Install Now” button for the theme you have selected.

Other option : From Firefox ->Tools->Themes-> Get New themes; This opens a new browser window for the addons.mozilla.org site. On the search box, search for GrApple. You will get the Mac OSX themes for Firefox.

Note : These themes only work on Mac OSX. If you are on Windows, just get a Mac 🙂

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cricket — Leave a comment
06
May 06

Cricket: The New Stars

Luhit – Views, Reviews, Experiences….

Indian cricket has never been short of superstars. Indian players always excelled at individual records. Half of the Indian cricket team would be in the top-20 of the ICC rankings.

After following Cricket for all these years, one think I known about Indian Cricket. A losing team is full of bloated super stars. But, what of a winning team ?

In the months following the Sri Lankan tour of India (2005) the Indian team has continued to do well at home. Especially in the one day version of the game. The visiting English side nearly got whitewashed 5-1.

India has done well this season. They beat Pakistan, Sri Lanka & England. Most importantly India won against these countries with wonderful margin. The drawn series against South Africa and the Abu Dhabi series against Pakistan took some shine off the wonderful series wins.

Who would have believed such a good season for India without Tendulkar & with Sehwag totally out of his grooves. But India has won on the shoulders of some young & promising players. In one match or the other it has been a Pathan, a Raina or a Dhoni or a Seeshant who has seen India through. Each man in the side has come good in some match or the other. Emphasizing the point that Cricket is a team sport.

With a season of wins, no doubt someone must have played better then the others. In my opinion, one man has stood out this season.

If MS Dhoni took the elevator to stardom, this man took the stairs. This man is Yuvraj Singh. After years at the fringe and with years of lost opportunities he has finally come good. He has played the most critical link in the wins this season. He has been aptly rewarded with 3 man of the series on a trot.

The Indian media has gone heads over heel in heralding him as the new super star. Perhaps he is !!! I hope he remembers, it was the same media that made Ganguly the superstar once, and it is the same media which takes delight at writing rubbish on him now.

I am a fan of Yuvraj now. I hope he learns how to handle this new stardom. He is a team player to the boot, and I hope he continues to remain so. A man can be successful only if his team is.

The only Indian cricketer who has managed his stardom well is Rahul Dravid. With Captain Dravid at the helm of the team, I hope some of his modesty rubs off to the rest of the team.

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cricket — 1 comment
20
Nov 05

Cricket: The U-turn in India’s fortune

What does the records say ?Indian cricket has never been short of superstars. Indian players always excelled at individual records. Half of the Indian cricket team would be in the top-20 of the ICC rankings.

But what of the Indian team ? As a team the records are dismal. Various people have called it a team of paper tigers. A group of chokers who can snatch defeat from the brink of victory.

India has played 387 test matches between 1932 to Nov 2005. And has won only 84 of these, just 21.7% success rate in test matches. On ODI, of the 692 matches India has played between 1974 and Nov 2005, it has only won 292. Look at the last few years , the team was studded with superstars – Tendulkar, Ganguly, Kumble, Dravid …… Yet the records for the past few years is no better.

In any team sports, as well as in cricket – success comes only when the whole team plays as one. No single superstar can play better then a team of talented cricketers playing as one. Over the years the team had developed a total dependence on single super start in the team. In not so recent past, once and again we have seen the team collapsing like nine-pins at the drop of Tendulkar’s wicket.

The over dependence on a single superstar has been a bane for the team. Neither has it helped the individual who has to shoulder the team teams responsibility all alone.

What the team needed was a bunch of match-winners !!!!!!!

Perhaps things are changing, if we are to look at the recent 7 match one day series against Sri Lank during Oct, Nov 2005.

The U-turn in India’s Cricket fortune

India won the ODI series against Sri Lanka 6-1. Each victory was sealed with match winning performances by different team members. India won the first match on the shoulders of Pathan and Tendulkar, while Dhoni powered India to win in the second match. Each successive victory brought out a new match winner in the team. This has never happened to the team India.

At the end of the series the Team India was group of match winners. Each team member doing his role and supporting the others.

Is this the U-turn that one day will make Team India a world beater ?

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reviews — Leave a comment
13
Nov 05

PDA +Mobile Phone+Touch Screen = A768i

I have been using the Motorola A768i PDA phone for last 10 months. In these months it has not only been a mobile phone. It has become my personal assistant ? reminding me of the N number of meeting I attend in a day. It has been my alarm clock. It has been my Internet browser. It has been my voice recorder. And the list goes on and on …

When I purchased the phone my requirement was a PDA cum mobile phone. It should have a small form factor, but should have a large display. I also did not want a Windows PDA.
I looked at all the PDA/mobile phones in the market. The A768i suited my requirements most. It had a small form factor, which I can easily carry in my pocket. Though it is relatively small, the display was quite large. This owing to the touch screen controls which eliminated the need of a keyboard. The phone worked on embedded Linux, so no worries of mobile viruses.

The phone comes fully loaded. It has blue tooth, Infrared, GPRS and USB connectivity. The Infrared has been very useful for syncing my Outlook calender and exchanging files to/from my laptop. The preloaded software on the phone is also very handy. It has a WML browser, a very versatile multi document reader called Pixel. I have tried loading PDF, Excel, Html files on the Pixel ? it works like a song. It has full calender and task list management software. It even has POP3 email client and even supports VPNs ? really amazing. It can play MPEG audio/video. There is also a paintbrush like tool.

On the touch screen you will get a full QWERTY keyboard. It also has handwriting recognition and voice control. The Voice control is much sophisticated then contemporary Nokia smart phones.

The phone doses not come with Games installed. If you have GPRS connection, then you can download some games for free from the Motorola site. The site also has free ring tones, wallpapers etc.

It has decent battery life for a PDA/phone. The biggest let down is the camera.

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