Bad bad bad umpiring decisions at the India Australia test match

I’m not too much of a complaining person, and of course shit happens in life, but what I do like to emphasize upon is accountability. Malcolm Speed has once again dismissed the decisions in this test match as a bad day at the office. There has been a decision made in a match once again which can definitely be put up for questioning. In one of the talk-back forums at rediff.com a guy has recommended that we write in to the ICC and express our displeasure. I think this should be made a huge campaign. I have just written to the email id given ther ebut if someone has more accurate info then it is most welcome. And this guy has a point, if the makers of BIG BROTHER can take action based on peoples feedback, then it is worth checking what the ICC is made of. Of course, the people giving feedback are not goras in this case.

—–> The Catch the RP still insists he took cleanly, though finally given NOT OUT

An Illustrative article written by Prem Panicker can be found here.

Appreciate your feedback, and if anyone else is writing in too

So here is my email sent to enquiry@icc-cricket.com

Dear Sir(s),

If in fact, the many errors being noticed nowadays, and in specific in the just concluded second test match between India and Pakistan, are just bad days at the office, then why are the non-performers not penalised for the same.

Whether it is a cricket player like Yuvraj or Ganguly, a CEO, a politician or even a servant in the house, all of us get penalised when we have a bad day at the office, and definitely so when we refuse to learn from our mistakes. What makes umpiring so different that the worker does not get penalised for working below the barest of acceptable levels???

Till when will we have to see decisions being made in favour of the same nations again and again. I admit that things went wrong both ways, but that is just not acceptable. Maybe it is the way media portrays it, but I am extremely certain of being convinced many a times that the decisions against India far outnumber the decisions for India. Of course I am talking about wrong decisions here.

Let the officers who make mistakes be made to pay for them. Whether dishonest or honest and incompetent. It is high time that some accountability come from the umpires as well.

As one person said in a forum, if the members of even a brainless show like BIG BROTHER in the UK can listen to petitions from ordinary people, I hope the ICC can too!

Playing with my SmartPhone

I have had a Dopod 818 Pro for some time now, maybe 9 months or so, and the experience has been average with a lot of good stuff fighting for supremacy with a lot of performance issues. Anyway, that’s not what I’m making this post about. My original phone looked like this:

It is a phone originally made by HTC (HTC Prophet), and sold under many different names like the Dopod 818 pro, i-mate JAMin, Dopod 830 etc. More details on the same can be found in the link wiki here

And one of the new phones from the same company, HTC, is the HTC touch incorporating Windows Mobile 6 and TouchFLO, which basically makes these Windows based phones operate a lot like the iPhone. The positive side is that these phones have a lot many features that the iPhone does not have yet, like OUTLOOK and Hotmail sync and 3.5G browsing which can make a huge difference for a lot of people.

What I have been able to do, using some guides from the wiki earlier linked, as well as brilliant threads on how to upgrade the firmware and software on your existing Windows based smartphones here and here, is to convert my old phone into the latest, newest technology. Anyone attempting, please note that they should go to the WIKI first and find out exactly what model they are using. Of course, one is responsible for their own actions and the results thereof. Finally, my old phone behaves exactly like the video below. Whew, WOW. And I am adding some more brilliant apps to it now. Like Yahoo Go! 2.0

Though the Video is made by someone else, Check it out:

Citizen Journalism & the auto-wallahs of Delhi

There is a new site up, called Purdafash, started by someone from IIMC. Of course, we all agree that citizen Journalism is a good thing and helps to weed out a lot of protected and hidden flaws of society, but does it really help if these are issues that we all know about. I went to the site, and read a couple of articles there. One was about the fare charging policies of the Delhi auto-wallahs and the other about a traffic cop taking a bribe. Forget knowing about it, I’m sure, just about anyone in Delhi has undergone both of these experiences themselves. So we’re not really uncovering something new here. What is required for these issues is “execution” and “punishment”, not exposure. They’re exposed enough. Though, I definitely might be striking a wrong chord. I appreciate these efforts, and sincerely hope that as more and more people take to these media, the quality as well as the effects of these sites and operations would start coming into view. Why can’t we just have one head of government who is, for just this once, obsessive about rooting out corruption. Just one such person, and I’m sure so much of a difference can flow from the top.

And, on the point of the auto-wallahs, one recipe did come to mind. What if the passengers always approach the auto with a mobile-camera or any other camera in recording mode, with the number plate scanned and then ask the auto-wallah on video to go wherever they want to go. If the auto-wallah plays smart, he could be shown the evidence and threatened with some action, whatever be it. Possibly some of them might melt. And possibly some others may have to face some legal sanction… what think?

Formula 1 and McLaren disqualification

McLaren had been having a nightmare of a time in F1 preceding the 2007 seasons for quite some time. That was also possibly the reason why Mika Hakinnen retired in 2001… also leading to a sad career forward for David Coulthard. For a while, it seemed that there was no challenger to Ferrari till Renault came along and started the era of Fernando Alonso.

Throughout the 2007 season, I have marvelled at the progress McLaren had made. I hate dislike Alonso too much to give him credit for all the progress McLaren had made, and now it seems to be very plausible that the Ferrari dossier helped McLaren achieve much of its progress into 2007.

Everyone would have their take on the decision handed out to McLaren and it would definitely be clouded by our personal preferences, but I am in disagreement with almost everything.

a) Why do the drivers not get penalised at all? Could they have secured any points if the car did not move as fast as it did? (Obviously the assumption here is that it is proven that McLaren derived an advantage from the Ferrari dossier)

b) Why strip them of ALL the constructor championship points? Its not like they would have scored 0 points by themselves. I’m sure they would have scored 20-30! Maybe some formula should have been deployed, like halving it or something. It gives them too easy a way out when it say o points in 2007. It should have said 50,60,70… don’t let them get away with a simple “0″ which can be justified by McLaren as a “technical result” or whatever…. you know what I mean?

c) The $100 million fine, seems to be a bit too much. I don’t know how much the teams get as a share of the revenues and what the numbers are like, but $100 million!!! Most teams don’t have a total budget that large, many have a much smaller one. That was a bit too much I think.

Let’s see if there is more to come. And how the hell will they prove they are using no Ferrari know-how in 2008?? That’s a very tough one.

Formula 1 : News Briatore on the spy saga and Ron Dennis – F1-Live.com

Formula 1 : News Briatore – F1-Live.com

Most people in the F1 paddock seem to be of the opinion that McLaren was not as innocent as they claim in this whole spy saga in F1. On the other hand, if there was more to it, I wonder if it is really possible to hide it all. Someone or the other will come out and spill the beans… people are like that… when they are going down, they’d rather take the whole ship down with them. At least 1 or 2 of them will want to… Seems like Renault boss Flavio Briatore feels the most cheated through this whole episode. The Ferrari has a HUGE advantage coming in to the 2007 season with bridgestone tyres on all machines. Seems like McLaren might have derived the biggest chunk of their performance leap from 2006 to 2007 using data such as the ones alluded to below by Mr. Briatore.

“Had I only known Ferrari’s weight distribution, or how big their tank is, if I had a bit of those documents, then we surely wouldn’t be in this situation today,” the Italian Flavio Briatore told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Briatore charged: “Dennis says he’s immaculate, but it’s hard to believe him. No, I don’t believe in his good faith. In a team everyone knows everything.”

Kingsbury by TDI at Kundli

Edit on Jul 16, 2009:

There are a big number of people who are now getting together in Delhi contemplating legal and media based action against TDI for their behaviour and practises. Mostly, this has centred around the new and enhanced EDC being levied by TDI on customers who have already paid in full and been allotted as well as other customers who are feeling the pinch of firstly not getting anything at all in over three years and now bearing the brunt of more and more payments with no work to be seen almost.

I would request all investors of TDI to join this e-group mentioned in the post and comments of this blog entry. Together we can take a lot of action and media will also cover this if only they see the numbers and see the story in how the semi-reputed builders of this day and age are also fleecing customers. Look forward to some new folks joining the group and joining the action against TDI in Delhi.

The yahoo egroup is in the comments below.

Edit on Mar 10, 2009:

Just spoke to them again, and apparently for the 3BHK, Kingsbury, where I have the apartment, the allotment has STILL not reached 407 (my priority number). The thing is, we booked in APRIL 2006. We were made to pay again in JUNE 2007 by saying the allotment is coming up, even when the second payment was to be done ON ALLOTMENT. Since then, there is deathly silence except for new schemes all the time either trying to make you pay up in advance and being blackmailed into paying to get some allotment/possession/something.

The allotment apparently will still take “some time”.

The website, to which I am putting up some links below, actually talks about possession coming “soon” when I have not got a clue about allotment also. When I questioned the gentleman about it, he said yes, some possession is coming and it is for people who booked earlier than you. I mean, how much earlier could they have booked? 10 years before me? And I booked in original allotment with TDI directly!

Such brazen flouting of rules or principles should really be taken up by the authorities. Is there no one to oversee delivery and promise-keeping from these builders.

New pictures from the TDI website:

Edit on May 21, 2008:

Just spoke to the TDI Service Centre on 42166666. Point no. 1 – At least they talk politely and try to help. Of course, if there is nothing happening then no point blaming them for it or shouting on the staff… but they tell you what they can.

Updates:

1) Apparently the allotment for 3 BHK has happened till priority number 160. Mine is 407 so god knows when it will happen.

2) If you pay 90% of the amount, maybe also through the financing scheme in the comments below, then you can get immediate allotment.

3) Within 10-15 days of allotment, you will also have to pay the next installment which will be 277232.14/-

4) It is ABSOLUTELY SAD, but the pictures I have put up here on this blog are not of the apartment we seem to have bought as the woman told me that now “digging” is going on for the site!! Wonder what this building was on the TDI Site.

5) I remember when I had bought the house, it was supposed to be 1625 sqft. and now when I look at the receipt they sent me for the payments, it says 1400-1500 sqft. I had even confirmed with the contact centre very early on and they had said it was going to be 1625 sqft. Where did the amount in between go?

Seems like the place where me and my buddy invested in a flat finally seems to be taking off. It is really sad that we are not in India at the moment and I don’t know whats happening with the allotment of this flat. We really wanted to get in on an advatageous location within the complex. Perhaps overlooking the swimming pool

Anyway, a little bit happy that at least this work is happening -

Edit on 20th January 2008:

I guess all the optimism about something happening with TDI is waste. It has been almost 2 years since the booking investment was done and more installments have been paid since then. Had the same booking money been put with any of the other developers, it would have resulted in monetary gains for sure. This compares rather badly with the negative premium going on these TDI properties as far as I know. In any case, in two years, people usually develop and deliver the properties under construction. God help us!!!

Here is a link that usually has some activity on TDI properties -> TDI discussion forum