Cool Iris Vs. Snap Preview

About a week after WP announced the rollout of the Snap Preview utility across all WP Blogs, I came across this Firefox plugin called Cooliris (mebbe itz cool iris). I’ve been using both of them since then on my blog and have had enough time to evaluate their pros and cons. For the uninitiated, both of these utilities are plugins that enable users to see a ‘preview’ of the site when they hover over a link. They provide a snapshot of the site to which you will be taken to when you click on that link.

Let’s take a look at Snap preview first.

Hyderabad: Auto Strike Called off

The week-long strike of the Auto Drivers in Hyderabad was finally called off yesterday. They had been protesting for the past few days against the government’s action plans of installing digital meters on all the autos plying in the twin cities. Even though it was a well-thought decision, the strictness of it made the Auto unions go into a tizzy! There were reports about how the meters would cost the autowallahs dearly and how they couldn’t afford it but I’m guessing they just don’t want to change to digitised meters. (psst…they would be difficult to tamper) The strike caused much hardship to public and coupled with the paucity of adequate transport services from the RTC, it was one hell of a commute everyday for most people….yours truly included! The strike was called off after the Govt. decided to defer the imposition of the meters by 90 days. Wonder if that is the best solution. There are equal chances of the stand-off arising again on the 91st day. I guess this was a stop-gap kinda solution for the problem, with bothe the parties clearly not working towards an amicable settlement. As of now, the autos have returned to the roads and with it the chaos and traffic jams as well! Sigh…win some…lose some!

Epic ‘Spoof’ Movie

Was strolling through the WWW when this Movie’s tite caught my eye over at Hollywood.com. the Movie’s called Epic Movie and is currently No.1 at the US Box Office. The Movie’s synopsis reads thus:

Centers on four not-so-young orphans: one raised by a curator at the Louvre (where an albino assassin lurks), another a refugee from Mexican “libre” wrestling, the third a recent victim of snakes on her plane, and the fourth a “normal” resident of a mutant “X” community. The hapless quartet visit a chocolate factory, where they stumble into an enchanted wardrobe that transports them to the land of Gnamia (with a “G”). There they meet a flamboyant pirate captain and earnest students of wizardry–and join forces with, among others, a wise-but-horny lion to defeat the evil White Bitch of Gnarnia.

Sounds familiar, ain’t it! Well if you did’nt get it then you haven’t seen a lot of movies in the past year! For all of the underlined portions are characters from hit movies. Does the Da Vinci Code, Nacho Libre, X-Men III, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Carribbean : Dead Man’s Chest and Harry Potter ring a bell? Of Course, this movie is the elaborate spoof of all these movies’ characters! Moreover it is penned by two amongst the six authors who were behind the Scary Movie series. Now it may sound like a laugh riot but some reviews at IMDB were noot too favorable! In any case it will be some time before it (or the cheesy camera prints) hit Indian shores…and then we can decide for ourselves!

Updated the Other Blog

Dreamt that my Other blog was taken over by net-leechers! (alright…thatz a lame xcuse) so went about and changed the themes and layouts and the AdSense banners a li’l bit! Still am yet to add any content to it. Blogger/Blogspot being banned at work is reason behind this apparent gross neglectment! Hope to get it up n running soon…..whatif it would hold only Copy-Paste stuff

Tennis, Soccer & Cricket

These were the events that took much of my viewing time over the weekend. And since it was a 4-day weekend at that (Thu – CL, Fri – Republic Day, Sat & Sun – off) I could devote a li’l more time to mundane activities like watching TV. But it did really start with a whimper coz we could not get tickets for the multistarrer romantic movie Salaam-e-Ishq at PVR and that capped a boring thursday of sorts.

In the Australian Open, unseeded Serena Williams defeated the pretty Russian Maria Sharapova in the Women’s singles final whereas Roger Federer made mincemeat of 10th seed Chilean Fernando Gonzalez. Credit to Gonzalez though…he beat players of the calibre of Hewitt, Blake, Nadal and Haas to get to the final only to be stopped by FedEx.  Though I didn’t see the Serena Vs. Sharapova match, I did catch the action in Federer Vs. Gonzalez and couldn’t help marvelling Fed’s  amazing moves on the court and the swiftness with which the outmaneouvred and  outplayed his opponent. It was attacking Tennis at its best.

Heroes – On Star World from Today

Star World is telecasting the hit NBC series – Heroes from today onwards, every wednesday at 9 PM. I first read about this series on Harsh’s Blog sometime ago but never really taken any interest in it back then. Star World started airing its promos since a while back and only then did I attempt to look around at what’s it all about. Bluntly put, Heroes is a comic-book-story-turned-into-a-serial. Much like our very own Captain Vyom or Shaktimaan. Note that there was no actual comic by that name but the story is a fantasy alright! The tagline of heroes reads as Ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities and that sorta tells it all! Common people who find that they have something of a superpower within and use that to the good of the world (probably). The synopsis reads thus:

As a total eclipse casts its shadow across the globe, a genetics professor (Sendhil Ramamurthy) in India is led by father’s disappearance to uncover a secret theory — there are people with super powers living among us. A young dreamer (Milo Ventimiglia) tries to convince his politician brother (Adrian Pasdar) that he can fly. A high school cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere) learns that she is totally indestructible. A Las Vegas stripper (Ali Larter) struggling to make ends meet to support her young son (Noah Gray-Cabey), discovers that her mirror image has a secret. A fugitive from justice (Leonard Roberts) continues to baffle authorities who twice have been unable to contain him. A gifted artist (Santiago Cabrera), whose drug addiction is destroying his life and relationship with his girlfriend (Tawny Cypress), can paint the future. A down-on-his-luck Los Angeles beat cop (Greg Grunberg) can hear people’s thoughts, which puts him on the trail of an elusive serial killer. In Japan, a young man (Masi Oka) develops a way to stop time through sheer will power. Their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the world…

Hmm…though i’d not say it is a must-watch show, the fact that it was the most-watched show in the US on its premiere – in September last year – and its intriguing storyline may get me to watch it initially. I remember I started off watching Desire: Table for Three on Star World quite avidly at first but then it petered out into a Mafia and gangwars kinda thing and I stopped watching it! So I’ll be skeptical about whether Heroes will manage to hold my attention week after week…..

KBC 3: Kaun Banega Comedian?

The much-anticipated Kaun Banega Crorepati Tritiya (if you can call that!) started airing yesterday with Shah Rukh Khan in the anchor’s chair in place of Amitabh Bachchan. And I immediately took a dislike to one of my favorite shows! Now, I am no SRK-lover…as much as I like some of the movies he has acted in (DDLJ, Karan Arjun, Darr etc) his knack of going overboard at the most inopportune moment irritates me no less. Also, in the past few years, he has tried to take his acting and mannerisms to another level – maybe in order to woo the NRI’s and the yuppie junta – and has failed miserably IMO. My lack of any respect towards SRK aside, I feel that no one could have made a worse quiz-show compere than him! I know it is harsh to be judgemental of him after just one episode, but ain’t first impressions the best impressions?

SRK is all that Amitabh Bachchan is not on the show. He is sarcastic, laconic and downright comical. One can sum up his ineptitude when one sees him ask the wife of the contestant to say I-love-you to her husband! It could have been All-the-best or play-well or even good-luck but no! I somehow can’t help feeling that he has this air of laaitt when he does the show….and that is detrimental to the keen quizzing spirit of the serious viewers out there. Agreed that it is more of a game-show rather than a quiz-show but the seriousness ought not be relegated to the back! And pray, what is this Freezing? Where has the immaculate and to-the-point lock kiya jaaye? gone off to? Another of SRK’s maneuvers to step out of the shadows of the Big B? Maybe! IMHO, Siddhartha Basu would have made a far better host than the comical Khan!

Blog’s Worth

Warning: This is a Random Mundane Self-Promotory post

Just happened to notice that the Wierd Wired World’s worth (as calculated from Technorati links etc) has nearly doubled!

My blog is worth $5,645.40.
How much is your blog worth?