Cricket - 2nd Test, Efficient Kiwis, Overconfident Indians

As the 2nd test unfolds, it looks more and more true that Yuvraj Singh is not a test match batsman. It also shows that Virender Sehwag is a predictable one. He will take risks no matter what the situation.

The Kiwis have always played international cricket based on a limited pool of talent. Their main weakness is the lack of depth in their teams. Due to this, they rely on their strengths which are

1. Efficienctly using their limited resources
2. Being tactically smarter than their opponents
   
3. Avoiding obvious mistakes

If one stays with them on these three fronts, their lack of depth gets exposed. Just watch them play Australia or South Africa. They more or less get muscled out.

The current Indian team has the depth but tends to loose ground on the above points. When they don't, they also dominate New Zealand like they did in the first test. This test, they have lost on all three counts with dropped catches, and rash shots.

The situation has been made worse with Dhoni missing. It costs India their best keeper by far, a strong lower middle order batsman and an inspirational captain. Kartik has already contributed a dropped catch. The gap between him and the next best options for captainship also seem collosal now.

As for Yuvraj Singh, there is no way to hide him after this test. He will have to play the innings of his life to make up for his lapses in this test to save his test career.

Nano - a better review

I found R Jagannathan's review of the Nano in the context of India's urban traffic issues in DNA's Opinion section interesting.

I agree with his view that the 2-wheelers occupy significant space if braking distance is considered in traffic. But this applies to traffic in Mumbai where some form of lane discipline still exists. Not so valid in others where 2-wheelers usually slot into any gap available and hence occupy less space, not that it makes for a pleasant traffic situation.

Jagannathan says that cars should be cheap but roads should be costly, charged for usage just like any other utility. So, the more one uses it by private transport, the more one pays. So, only the rich will use the road more often even if more people have cars. This point though is a valid one to control traffic congestion.

The other issue is the age old one of improving public transport, nice in theory, not so in practical implementation. It will need political will, a most risky option for any politician. This 'will' can only come to the fore if it will cost an election not to use it.

Tennis - Nadal pulls ahead

Nadal pulls ahead

By adding the first major grand prix tournament at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells right after his Australian Open win, Rafael Nadal has pulled further away from Roger Federer. This time there was no Federer in the final but Andy Murray. The final though, showed that if Murray is finally almost at par with the top two, Nadal is by far the more adaptable, tactically sound player.

This tournament exposes a growing chink in Federer's earlier impregnable armoury of tennis skills. The backhand unravels under stress. Relentless pressure on Federer's backhand coupled with disciplined shot making helped Murray win 6-1 in the 3rd with Federer as good as giving up. Troubled times indeed for Roger but more mental than physical.

Under normal conditions, the final would have been a tough to predict match. In fact, given Murray's recent wins over both Federer and Nadal, he would have had a slight edge. But he showed an inability to adjust to unfavourable, windy conditions and succumbed easily 6-2, 6-1. This tournament gives the winner 1000 points and Nadal extends his lead further from Federer even as Murray closes in on world number three Novak Djokovic.

7 Reasons not to disable Right Click on Browsers

Sites disabling normal functions within the browser such as right click, copy, paste, selection etc. have the following faulty thinking.

Most of their visitors are there to copy their content.

1. This is more likely to turn visitors away as it interferes with their normal use of a common application.
2. It creates a negative image of the company (suspicious and non trusting).
3. It inconveniences the majority for a potential transgression by a small percentage of visitors.

Those who want to copy their content now cannot.

1. Most scrapers can easily bypass the above restrictions.
2. Users intent on copying can easily get the source code and extract what they want.
3. Covering for all browser types and their versions is not worth the effort.
4. Since most methods involve javascript, disabling scripts usually bypasses this or breaks the site.

It is like a shopkeeper asking each shopper to go through a security check before entering their shop. All it does is turn away visitors and can lead to potential losses rather than any of the perceived gains.

The blocking process creates a very negative image of the site and company and causes loss of brand value. After all the site is there for a purpose, not exactly to post one's trade secrets but to promote the business.

P.S. Came across a more detailed view from 2002 at Sitepoint by Rosemary Wise. Amazing that the problem still exists seven years later.

The larger Nano issues

As mentioned in my earlier post, if it succeeds, Nano will be a major business triumph making them Tata the dominant car manufacturer replacing Maruti.

Tata has officially launched the Nano as the world's cheapest commercial car. This is expected to lead to a rise in car ownership in India. It is considered beneficial if one is to believe the media hype surrounding it.

As with all issues, the Nano launch will have its pros and cons, its supporters and critics.

The pros

1. An affordable car to a larger population base in a country where transport facilities overall are very poor.
2. Greater mobility as a car can carry more people over longer distances, also it is less tiring as it is compared to riding a bike.
3. All households having an income enought to afford two bikes will now afford a car.
4. It helps leverage the advantage of the improving inter city transport infrastructure (albeit slowly)
5. With a larger car owning population, the government will be under more pressure to ensure good infrastructure (hopefully)
   

The cons

1. The demand for fuel will go up significantly if the car is a major hit across the country.
2. The number of road fatalities will go up what with an already poor record at current traffic volumes.
3. The poor won't have much benefit except maybe a little less strain on public transport.
4. The generally poor infrastructure and endemic corruption in corporations will mean that urban India will have more traffic stress.
5. Cities will suffer additional traffic congestion.
6. Traffic pooling, though nice in theory, is unlikely as people who buy a Nano won't keep it at home.

I might have missed a few obvious ones in both of the above. For me, as of now the cons outnumber the pros.

Nano - Tata bid to capture Indian Car Market

Though one does not know the actual cost breakup of the Nano, it is likely that Ratan Tata won't mind selling it at a slight loss. In spite of all the hype about nation building, this is a purely business decision.

• Manufacture low end product and deliver to capture market even if at an initial loss.
• Move up the value chain using the leverage as the dominant car manufacturer.

Tata already has some penetration on the car segment through its Indica series. The Nano will strongly challenge Maruti's long hold as the numero uno car manufacturer. If it succeeds, Ratan Tata deserves full credit from a business perspective as he was willing to take that risk.

In the next post, I will look at some of the pros and cons of the Nano for India as a whole

Extending Google search with Webmynd

Makeuseof.com has suggested a few tools for extending Google search results. Webmynd seems the most interesting of the lot. Its integration with other search tools including Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, wikipedia and others makes it hard to ignore. Add the ability to tweet directly to Twitter and that just makes my day.

I am one going on two

This Sunday will be a special occasion as it is my son Ishaan's 2nd birthday. As a thumb rule, my doctor told me, it is 'walking by one' and 'talking by two' give or take a month or two.

So, finally I am, since the last month or so, having a legible conversation with my son. It is restricted to 3-4 word sentences and slowly building up a sequence of these to get across a point. It can all of a sudden revert to baby jargon at any point if something catches his interest enough to distract him.

It makes one think, language is such an amazing gift in human society and so taken for granted.

Rank checking tool

SEOBook has come up with another useful SEO tool. The new Rank checking tool for Firefox helps checking rankings for Google, Yahoo and Live search engines. It allows searching for multiple keywords. Also group keywords using the Presets feature. All in all looks like a very useful tool for a quick ranking lookup or an indepth one as desired.

You only live twice

Chemical Ali gets 3rd death sentence. Again proves the law is an ass. The judge could just have confirmed an earlier death sentence. Or are they planning to kill him 3 times?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090302/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq