In this post, i'll write about a few heart breaks that happened in sports last week.
First one that comes to my mind is John Isner. He played a record 665 minutes against Mahut. That match lasted for 3 days and Isner finally won 70-68 in last set. But that match took all energy from Isner and the poor bloke lost to de Bakker in just 74 minutes. He hit a record 113 aces in the 1st round, but didn't even hit a single ace in the 2nd sound.
The second one goes to Slovenia soccer team. When they finished their match against England, they were nearly in the 2nd round. But Donovan had different plans. His last minute goal fired US into the next round and Slovenia were out. The comedy is US drew with Slovenia 2-2. US hit a 3rd goal but was denied for unknown reason. If that goal was given the final result would have been known very earlier. Poor guys.
At last is the Sri lankan cricket team. They performed so well in the league matches, but were unlucky in the final. India entered final after little fumbles. To sri lanka's bad luck, even the usually out of form Dinesh Karthik hit 66 that day. Now India is celebrating as if they played very well.
Happy Reading!!!
P.S: I'm posting this through mail via gprs. As i don't have net connection currently, it will take another week or so to post usual through computer. Until then adjust with the formatting and posts.
I was quite busy for the past two days as I went to and fro to college and bus stand to initiate the steps for getting my bus pass for this academic year. Amidst all the wanderings, I had free time to view three movies.
Finally, a solution for album titles in iTunes
In my previous post A Review of my Apple iPod Touch, I mentioned that I was having a head ache with the iTunes. One main problem I faced was the inappropriate album titles. Finally, I got a solution for the problem. The first solution I found was inside iTunes.
·Right click a song and click ‘Get Info’. Click Info tab
·In the Album column, delete the current name and type the name of the movie or album.
·This will be enough for classification, though you can add all other details if you would like.
The second solution was outside iTunes. Before adding the song to iTunes, do the change as follows
·Right click the song and choose properties (in main folder itself).
·Click Summary tab and click advanced.
·Now click the mouse in album title and you will be able to alter the album title.
·Now, add the folder in iTunes and you will find the song at the right album.
Changing the album title also helps you when creating a playlist in your mobile phone music player.
Tedious processes in getting a bus pass
As I said in the beginning of this post, I have been wandering for the past two days solving the issues for getting a bus pass. First, we have to get a certificate from the college to prove that we are studying there. On giving this proof, we’ll be given a form in which we have to get from Principal again. On giving this form back, we will be given the ID card in which we have to get sign from Principal for the third time. Now, we have to get sign from the issuing officer the ID card has to be laminated by us. After all these things, our monthly slip will be given. So if we plan accurately we need to go to college four times and bus stand four times. The office will be open till 1.30 pm only. To me, half these things are unnecessary. Anyway all these difficulties are worth it, as you can travel at one third of the actual fare.
Movies I watched
I watched two movies yesterday and one movie today. I watched Prince of Persia- Sands of Time in my iPod. It was great watching it in iPod. The movie was also nice. Generally movies are converted into video games, but in this case the famous video game has been converted into a movie. The story is based on the sand inside a mysterious dagger which is capable of reversing time.
Then I watched Ocean’s eleven and Ocean’s twelve. It is a series of movies. Without watching Ocean’s eleven, you can’t watch Ocean’s twelve. The story revolves around a group of talented guys, who focus their talents on robbery. If you love, con movies don’t miss this stuff.
Some Screenshots of my iPod
An Interesting Message I received in my Phone
In Electrical Machines Practical exam, External examiner to student, ‘Why does a capacitor blocks DC, but allows AC to pass through?’
Student replies, ‘See Sir, a capacitor is like this.
‘DC comes straight like this and capacitor blocks it.
‘But AC goes up, down, up, down like this and jumps over capacitor’
Examiner is shocked.
Happy Reading!!!
P.S: In the SMS, I received symbolic diagrams, which I've replaced by downloaded diagrams.
I got a new Apple iPod touch from my brother. Actually he had got it for me when he was in US. Since his stay in Uruguay extended much longer than he anticipated, he made it reach me through one of his colleagues in Uruguay, who came back to India a few days ago. After a little fumbles I was able to contact his colleague and got the iPod a fortnight ago. So, first a big thanks to my brother for this wonderful and expensive gift, ‘Thank you dear brother’.
It is an Apple iPod Touch 2G with 16 GB capacity. I’ve been using it mainly to hear music. For people saying, ‘what else can u do with an iPod?’ Read further. I’ll be writing review to the iPod as likes and dislikes.
Likes
Appearance
The first thing I liked about the iPod was its appearance. It is slim and beautiful and resembles an iPhone in its model. Its metallic grey color is impressive. The buttons and spaces for earphone and USB cable for invisible. It has just two buttons (sleep and volume control) and a center wheel for home.
Display
The next thing I like is the display clarity. IPod touch has 3.5” LCD screen. The clarity is great. It’s great for watching movies and photos. The sensitivity is good. When you turn the iPod the screen also turns accordingly.
Battery Capacity
IPod’s battery is so good. It allows 36 hours of audio playback (3G iPod Touch provides 30 hours only) and 6 hours video playback. This means you can hear songs for one and half days or watch 3 movies continuously. The battery gets charged in 4 hours (80% charge in 2 hours).Though, there is no separate charger. You need to charge it via computer only.
Music
Of all the good things, this is the most wonderful thing. What else is an iPod designed for? Music effects are great. There is lot of equalizer options and you can choose any of them (though I read in a forum that equalizers drain the battery).
Earphones
I said music is great. But don’t you need a perfect earphone to hear them. Apple provides a perfect earphone for the iPod. I’ve been hearing songs using the earphone and it’s a great experience. It has changed some of my views on certain songs. It provides you the complete dynamics of the song and music. It mesmerized me most of the times. In online forums, I read that the earphones provided by apple are very poor. But my earphone is rocking or maybe people are expecting more.
These are all the likes. Interested in iPod touch? Wait; there are equal numbers of dislikes too.
Dislikes
Problems without Wi-Fi connection
There are lots of inbuilt applications in iPod such as Mails, YouTube, Safari, Maps, Weather, etc. But you need Wi-Fi connection to use them. Where the hell can you get Wi-Fi connection in India? So you can’t use all these things. IPod’s front screen will be blazing with these apps, but you will never be able to touch them. But I hope this will be over soon as Wireless Broadband Spectrum auction is taking place.
Everything through Apple iTunes
Want to copy songs, photos or videos to your iPod? You can do it only through Apple iTunes. The software is free of cost, but its working is not so great. It doesn’t detect some of the songs in my computer. Syncing photos to iPod is also a problem. It’s not very comfortable using iTunes. I read a saying written by an anonymous person in an online forum, ‘If you buy an Apple iPod, Apple will make you their permanent customer. Whatever you need to do, you need to do it through Apple’. It’s quite true. You can’t even add an application that is outside Apple Store. In India, we like a lot of freedom in using things. Though, we can break our iPod, I’m not interested. I’m more happy hearing songs than use apps.
Very low speaker volume
In likes, I said earphones are great. But the speaker is pretty bad. The sound generated is very low. I understand that the less efficient speaker is due to thin nature of iPod, but still it could have been better.
Frequent Crashes
I’ve been using the iPod for a fortnight, but I’ve had two crashes in this span. The first time the applications (such as music, videos and photos) were not opening. It worked properly after restarting the iPod. The second time, the iPod crashed and nothing except a white screen was present. It was not getting switched off too. I was afraid and checked in online forums. Quickly I understood there are lots of crashes in iPod touch worldwide. I got a solution (had to press sleep and navigation button simultaneously) there.
Great Online Forums and Communities
Apple doesn’t provide a user manual with the iPod. But you need not worry, since there are lots of iPod touch forums online. The communities in Orkut are also good. When I checked online, I was amazed to see that Apple iPod touch is more popular than iPhone or any other iPods despite its cost and problems. Whatever the problem maybe you can get solutions in the forums. You can get it by just searching in google.
My Suggestion
If you are of the idea of buying an iPod touch my suggestion is to go ahead with it. Today 3G iPod touch is being sold (8GB, 32 GB and 64 GB are available). 4G is going to be out soon. It will provide you a great music experience.
If you are in India, I would advise you to look for Apple iPod Nano, which is quite low cost. It’s more suitable for Indian conditions (doesn’t have lot of apps). IPod Nano has FM radio and video recording in addition and is available in lively colors. A few of my friends have iPod Nano. The problem is it is very thin and short (at least iPod Touch is relatively long). If you carry it outside you need to be very careful, as you can lose an iPod Nano very easily (even if it falls when you take your hand kerchief, you can’t sense it). IPod Nano is already in its fifth generation.
Happy Reading!!!
P.S: G refers to Generation in iPod. It doesn’t have to do anything with G in mobile phone technology. There will be no great difference in iPod generations. 3G iPod touch is an improved version of 2G iPod touch (mostly software alone differs). Software updates are done freely by apple.
I have finished four of my six exams. I have done the exams quite well. Now I have my remaining two exams in middle of my holidays. Confused? Read further.
First University, now Government
Actually my exams were scheduled on May 19. But at the last minute, due to some unforeseen reasons (???) our exams were postponed to June 10. So we had 20 days of additional preparation time (actually we treated them as vacation). Exams were to be over on june 26. Now here comes the Tamil Semmozhi Manadu. For this function from June 23 to 27, Government has announced holidays from june 23 to June 25 (june26, 27 are Saturday and Sunday). So, our exam on June 23has been postponed to July 2. But, the funny side is that the exam on June 26 remains.
Government’s plan is that Saturday and Sunday will be holiday in all universities and so it is unnecessary to say June 26 as holiday. Our intelligent guys in the university have got it all wrong. So we have exams with lot of holidays (or holidays with two exams in between). So probably with all these postponements, we won’t be having any vacation this semester (may be 1 week will be there). My view is that if the exam on June 26 was also postponed, it would have given us a good 10 day vacation. Particularly, students residing in hostel would have got a good stay in their home. Whatever it is, our vacation has been spoiled.
Amazing Steels
Today I had my Engineering Materials and Metallurgy exam. I had a chapter about Ferrous and Non Ferrous metals. Steels covered one third of that unit. When I was studying, I just pondered outside the subject. I was mesmerized about how a small amount of Carbon can change the properties of Iron. Steels are nothing but Iron having carbon content less than 2%. Depending on the amount of carbon, steels are further classified. For every 0.1% of carbon added, there is a dramatic change. Steels are used in all places. To further improve the properties, other materials are also added (called alloy steels).
Stainless steels are one such type of steels. It contains minimum 12% of chromium. The chromium forms a thin but strong chromium oxide layer, which doesn’t allow other things to get in and thus avoids rust. If it gets less than 12% the corrosion rate increases steeply. Just as I went through the steels it was amazing. Everything ranging from razor blades, pins to construction bars, bridges, railway lines are using steels. But raw iron is not used generally in anything (if iron contains more than 2% carbon, it is called cast iron and it is also widely used in machinery).
Mosquito Menace
It’s being raining here (more drizzling than raining) now and then. It hasn’t reduced the heat to a large extent, but it has got mosquitoes into action. It’s just June and it’s annoying to see mosquitoes now itself. Don’t know how things are going to worsen in the upcoming days.
Improvements in cinema theatres
After the advent of Big Cinema’s cinema halls into Madurai, a lot has improved in other theatres too. Many theaters have done renovation works and are completely new with good air conditioning effect and very good seats. Most of the theatres have divided the olden theatre into 2 or 3 new screens. A few theatres that have been renovated include Thangaregal, Ambiga Theatre (screen II alone), Guru and Mani Impala. All these were very poor a few years ago.
This means that people are going for more comfort than price. Though these theatres cost you more, the comfort level is very high. Also the splitting of screens means that, the crowd has dramatically decreased. Of these all, I like Big Cinema’s theatre, plainly because they charge you the same price whether you go on the first day or last day (where else can u see a movie for Rs. 65 on the opening day).
Not only theatres, Madurai seems to be developing in all aspects day by day. Things that were once dreams are coming true now. Initially I thought these things won’t last long here but now it seems that I got it all wrong. Today’s people are ready to spend and enjoy (for example, last week I read in newspaper that the newly opened Domino’s pizza is a great hit here). It’s all good going here.
I was in Chennai for the past two days. I went for my brother's engagement and had a lot of works there. Everything went great. I had a good 2 days with my relatives. I came back today morning by train. Train was late by an hour and a half and so I came back home late. I took rest for some time.
Then in the afternoon, I went to college to get my hall ticket. Now, I'm back in home. My exams begin day after tomorrow. So, I need to start preparing for my exams. My exams will be over on june 26.
Until then I need to study for my exams and so I may not be able to write frequently. So give a little break for me and my blog!
Today morning, I woke up to find out the shocking news that Roger Federer was packed out of French Open by Robin Soderling.
From this news, I learnt a very important lesson for life ‘Never give up’.
Before the match, there were many odds against Soderling
·Federer had reached 23 grand slam semifinals continuously. This feat was achieved over a span of six years.
·Soderling has lost to Federer in all their previous encounters (12 matches including last year’s French open final).
·Out of 12 matches, they have played 31 sets and Soderling has won only 2 of them.
Despite all these factors, Soderling was confident about conquering Federer and achieved it. Federer won the first set very easily. But then rain poured and when they were back, Soderling was on the stronger hand. He won the next three sets comfortably to send the world number 1 out of the grand slam.
To me, it was a very great win. To win a tennis match, you need to win 3 sets. But Soderling had won only 2 sets against Federer in 12 matches. To win 3 sets in a single match for the first time, that too in French Open quarter finals is great. Soderling never gave up and was rewarded at the end.
In last year’s French Open, Soderling was the one who sent the clay king Rafael Nadal out of French Open. Now let’s see if he can repeat the same in this year’s finals too. It would be good to see a title clash between Rafael Nadal and Robin Soderling.
