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What It All Means? (Confederation Cup Final)
Wow been almost a year since my previous post on my blog! crapady crap! 😛
Well the world of football was only talking about this clash of titans after the conclusion of the semis. Its was tipped to be Brazil’s chance to show what they were made of and a chance for the Spaniards to add to their growing trophy cabinet.
To be frank both teams showed really good skills through the tournament with the Brazilians getting back to boca jonito of sorts. They seemed to have lost that flare which they were better known for. Pure skill and arrogance to show off these were what champion Brazilian teams showcased on a consistent bases.
Spain on the other hand seem to be dominating the world with tiki taka for about 5 years now collecting 1 World cup and 2 European cups. Many find this style really boring as it mainly revolves around possession play and short intricate passing. This has mainly been a major influence from the style followed at F.C Barcelona.
One thing I observed in the finals was that the fans as crazy! Literally crazy for football and more so for team Brazil. Its almost like they make themselves feel like the 12th man on the team. Its going to be one hell of a powerful influence if you ask me in next years FIFA world cup. Opponents as experienced as Spain were also effected by this.
Brazilian coach Luis Felipe Scolari (at the helm for the second time) has done one heck of a job in making this team with a lot of youthful influence. The players seem to have gelled well and pace of their play seems to be their biggest weapon. All this according to me is mainly thanks to their key wingers in Hulk and Neymar. These two when in full flow send shivers down defenders as once the escape its hard to keep up.
Neymar had lot of gossip going around before the tournament thanks to his big money move to F.C Barcelona. Many would agree he hadn’t done much so far, other than show off skills that we love and a few wonder goals. But I have to say he exploded in this tournament big time. His influence in terms of play and on the other players to perform better is exceptional. He brings me glimpses of Ronaldinho on the pitch. Some of his goals in this tournament proved why the big bucks were needed for his services and all that talk doing the rounds was justified.
Spain on the other hand (just as Barcelona at the hands of Bayern) were caught out big time. Their style of play has its own faults where they try to pass the ball straight through the center. I do agree Iniesta and Xavi are more than capable of doing it but they have been put under lot of pressure with teams understanding tiki taka and ways to get around it.
Spain’s defense has been one to worry as Gerard Pique isn’t his usual self these days. He seems to have lost pace and with most of the team bombing forward (including Sergio Ramos at times) its leaves a lot on him to handle when opponents make their fast counter attacks.
Iker Casillas (I consider him one of the best goal-keepers around) hasn’t been up-to the mark too. His confidence sure has hit a low after the previous season, with Jose Mourinioh dishing out some serious stuff. He still has time for redemption but the next season with Real Madrid will play a big factor for him.
But my only concern for Brazil would be their bench strength. Their starting 11 seems to be set and bloody strong. But suppose someone gets injured and can’t play then is the bench ready to play at the same level (I have my doubts). Teams like Germany and Spain have that huge advantage where they have wealth of talent to choose from. This could be a serious factor in the coming world cup.
But then what this all means is teams now will aspire to win games which previously they would have given hope on (playing for a draw of sorts). Spain have lost their invisibility. Brazil are high on confidence. And football is in a new era where the style of successful football could just have a new definition of sorts.
Exciting Times ahead if you ask me. For a Football lover noting could be better. \m/
Cheers.
iPhone 5 is Here!
Well i have to say the most anticipated phone of this decade is unveiled and it might have raised a few eye brows and might have also unimpressed a few as well! With Steve Jobs and his legacy a major factor in the iPhone as a product it is ironic its got a major face lift in terms of a 4″ inch retina display and has an unparalleled camera.
It’s faster!! what Apple says is its “Up to twice as fast compared with the [iPhone 4S’ A5 chip]. The A6 chip also offers graphics performance that’s up to twice as fast as the A5.” Really amazing in terms of a performance upgrade! Its ben suggested by most experts the A6 is mostly based on a ARM Cortex- A15 design. It appears to be a huge deal because it means Apple beat both Texas Instruments and Samsung on bringing A15s to market (now Samsung might want to file a case by any chance!). The GPU core count in the iPhone5 is mostly double from that of the iPhone 4S.
Apple claims to be able to balance increased performance with decent battery life because of tweaks done independent of the main CPU. Now that’s engineering at its best and no wonder they are the benchmark for the industry. Battery claims by Apple say that, Internet use: Up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 8 hours on LTE, up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi.
Siri has been improved. In an onstage demonstration, Siri was able to answer questions about the result of a recent pro football game and recite a list of movies playing around town, along with ratings.
Beyond hardware, Apple telegraphed many of the software changes to expect in iPhone 5 when it debuted iOS 6, its latest mobile operating system, in June. iOS6 has some new features like Passbook is by far my fav feature (if it is well integrated with other major players it might well make my phone my wallet on a day to day bases), Facebook integration its according to most user the best in any mobile to date, Facetime over 3G might be a killer feature, iOS6 new maps app is another anticipated venture considering Apple is directly taking on Google maps head on etc.
Apple’s stock closed at $669.79 a share today, up 1.39 percent from yesterday and with the iPhone 5 going on sale on September 21 in a few hand picked countries and would be rolling out in about 100 by the year end it is Apple’s most aggressive roll out on any iPhone to date.
Google and Samsung might well have to get cooking to counter Apple’s new beast!
(P.S I would still stick to my HTC One X \m/ but might consider an iPhone some day! )
#cheers
What Is Google Drive?
Google has finally taken the lid off of the long-rumored Google Drive, giving users another option to stack files on the cloud. Initially when i first came across it i wondered if with already established players like DropBox or iCloud or even Sky Drive would Google be able to capture the market?
Google Drive
Essentially, it’s a beefed-up version of Google Docs. You can store your documents, photos, music, videos, etc. all in one place. It syncs with your mobile devices and your computer, so if you make a change from one gadget, it will automatically show up if you were to access it elsewhere. It tracks your changes too, so if you make an edit to the document and hit save, you can still look back at all your revisions from the past 30 days.
You can get up to 5GB of space for free, after which you can upgrade. It’s $2.49/month for 25GB, $4.99/month for 100GB, and $49.99 a month for a whopping 1TB. If you move to a premium account it also automatically expands your Gmail storage to 25GB. Noy bad i have to say for such great service.
It can handle more than 30 different types of files, including Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and HD video, and you don’t even have to have those programs installed on your computer. Drive also pretty much does away with email attachments, which makes sharing a lot easier. If you wanted to show a friend a video of your vacation, you could just pass them a link to that file, rather than adding it to a clunky message. You wouldn’t have to upload it to a message and your friend wouldn’t have to wait around to download a big file. (Neat i have to say)
Though Apple’s iCloud only caters to iOS users, the Google counterpart is open to all platforms. It’s easily accessible from a wide variety of devices, like Android tablets and phones, as well as the iPad and the iPhone (though only through a web browser at the moment). An app for Android dropped today, and an iOS version is coming in the next few weeks. You can also download Drive for your Mac or PC. Now that’s Google’s way of getting people hooked up to this service pronto.
With 45 million users, Dropbox has been the leader when it comes to cloud storage. However, it only gives you 2GB free. And for most people, 5GB is pretty sufficient, meaning they’re going to go with Google Drive.
I would say Google Drive is slick, clean and responsive. I definitively would recommend it to users considering most of us already use abundant Google services so why not add to the list 😀
#cheers
Trek to the Unknown!
Well its been quite some time since i posted on my blog. Have to say Im quite rusty !
Here it goes anyways,
Republic Day commemorates the date on which the Constitution of India came into force replacing the Government of India Act 1935 as the governing document of India on 26 January 1950. Me and 8 musketeers sought to give it a whole new meaning by planning out a trek to Kumara Parvata . The idea of the trek was a unanimous choice considering it was a popular trekking spot and our mid semester holidays was coming to a close.
The Team consisted of Sudhir Ravi, Nadig Vinay, Jayanth K, Prajwal P, Adarsh V, Sarvotham P, Santosh MJ and me (Students of RVCE Info Sci dept). It happens to my first trek while the other have been quite actively going to treks across Karnataka on more than one occasion. The excitement grew as 26th jan, 2012 approached!
Our fun started the time we left our home to get to the bus stop. With about 1 hour or so left for the bus departure time me and 3 other happen to be still stuck at South end Circle, Jayanagar and worst part our pick up point happened to be Navrang !! By some divine intervention we reach just in time at the bus stop by getting by the worst traffic Bangalore could throw at us. Slowly all of us tricked to the stop and were whiling our time until the bus arrived (which was supposed to be 9)! funny part it arrives at 1030 FTW!! It happened to the red rickety ksrtc bus (our luck!) it chucked on with its noisy engine may itself heard by all of us! I couldn’t manage much sleep as did a few of the others. We talked our life out disturbing a few fellow co-passengers (but like we cared!) and btw did i mention our results happened to be declared on this very day!! (yeah were crazy Lol)
As the bus moved closer to our destination our adrenaline was ready to hit the roof in anticipation of the epic trek that lied ahead! We reached Kukke Subramnya, a popular religious town popular for its temple that is dedicated to the lord of all serpents. A small yet well maintained temple. After the visit to the temple we marched on the trail that lead from the temple to the start of trek trail which was roughly around 1km.
The trek started of smoothly with all of us moving a a steady pace but then came the random steep sections in the pristine forest area. It proved a little tiresome but we moved on with a few pit stops along the scenic path! Considering Google only showed we vast stretches of grasslands i presumed after the initial upheaval it ought to flatten out! considering this was no ordinary trek, It opened up to a flat yet slightly steep part which we marched upon to reach “Bhattara Mane” after a 3hour initial stage one of our trek! We ate lunch and let our bodies relax for the journey that lay ahead of us. We marched onward at around 11:30! This was to be the start of about 8km trek to the peak. Vast Grasslands opening into gorges and mountains surrounding us from all the sides! It was tough on us considering most of us didn’t have to much physical preparation for the trek, In about 5 and half hours we made it to the top of the Hill we thought was the illusive KP! But to our dismay in front of us lie the mountain mocking at us in its pristine glory. We then had to make a choice of carrying forward or calling it quits for the day considering sunset was looming upon us and ahead lie a dense forest and by our estimation a 2hour trek! With some deliberation and skepticism we some how decided to carry on and ended up reaching the top in about 25 minutes (Howw HA!) the regained our strength to see the the Sunset into the horizon!
From this point on we faced the chilling yet futile fight against the chill of the night with very limited cover and were pretty much shivering throughout the night with only the beautiful constellation of stars to give us company! As time stood still i gazed into the night sky to realize a peace that i had never before felt (Its either that or i was to numb from the chill to think much lol!). A night to remember to remember for sure.
To my amazement we at around 530 odd in the morning to meet yet another marvelous site of the sun rising its majestic awe above the distant mountains and dense cloud cover! I have to say at 1712m i felt on top of the world! A 13Km trek had come to an end and we were going to get back to civilization with another 7km trek towards somwarpet! We walked through intense steep sections for abour 3 hours to reach a forest ranger check-post where we replenished our-self with water which we had run out mid way down our descent! A jeep ride back to the town where we had lunch and boarded a bus to get back to Bangalore (Best place in the world) and those a epic trek came to a close!
#cheers
Wireless charging !
definitely worth the effort!
Steve Jobs – World shall miss him!
Steve Jobs
Quite late indeed to write about a man who changed the world with his creations. Steve Paul Jobs is a name that goes down in the history books for what he created and the vision he left for the rest of us! When i came across details of his personal life on how he had to face hardships of walking 7Km to get free meals in Hare Krishna temple, sleeping in friends homes and selling coke bottle for cash. It makes me think he deserved what he achieved for what he endured in life.
Jobs along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula and others—designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential ofXerox PARC’s mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Macintosh. He made the computer move away from laboratories and put them in homes of common people. His vision of GUI made use of computer simpler affair.
After enduring a power struggle in the board, his resignation would have been termed as the last we saw of him form most critics. But to this day his story of rise to the top again by establishing NeXT Computer and Pixar (bought by him, previously called The Graphics Group). NeXT was is some way not a great success but Pixar created brilliant animation movies that had great box office success. To name a few A Bug’s Life (1998); Toy Story 2 (1999); Monsters, Inc. (2001); Finding Nemo(2003); The Incredibles (2004); Cars (2006); Ratatouille (2007); WALL-E (2008); Up (2009); and Toy Story 3 (2010). Disney did buy Pixar but Steve was given a 7% stake and was part of the board.
Steve Jobs
Upon his return to Apple, he turned their fortune around with market dominating products like ipod, iphone and ipad. He turned valuation of $3 per share company to a $300, proving why he is just so awesome. I still remember the first time used a ipod i was amazed as how awesome the UI was and the scroll wheel was amazing experience which to this date i still remember. The iphone was one step ahead paving a boom of the touch phone is the market.
” 3 Apples changed the world
1st one seduced Eve
2nd fell on Newton
3rd was offered to the world half bitten by Steve Jobs “
Not many had the technical know how like him but his eye for detail with respect to how his gadgets look made him stand out. A true visionary who the world shall miss!!
#cheers
Chip Wars !
Intel vs ARM
Every time anyone thinks about buying a “personal computer” we would automatically think about a comp with Intel inside and windows running as our OS. Well this ideal thought process may just have taken a wild turn considering the recent events in the realms of Technology.
In the past Intel did try to venture into the mobile chip manufacturing market but fell flat in its effort. With the recent rejuvenated effort on their part in re-entering this sphere considering the world is moving slowly but surely into our phones. Adding more spice to this latest announcement was the fact Intel is linking up with Google to bring processors for their handheld devices running on Android OS. It virtually bring a close to a 30 year partnership of Intel and Microsoft ( often also called Wintel ).
MS Window
This was in someway triggered by Microsoft announcing early this year that Windows 8, which would run on machines lacking x86 processor architecture used by Intel and AMD.
New era!
From my reading i would say by about first half of 2012 we might see Intel powered smartphones and tablets. Despite 80% market share of Intel in the present market it has constantly been under pressure by ARM (who produce low power consuming chips which are more suitable for phones), who apparently happen to have a monopoly in the mobile market.
Many would say Intel vs ARM may be a David vs Goliath story but Intel is feeling the pressure and are in the path for confrontation.
With Intel + Android (Google) & Windows 8 heating up the tech sphere, customers can expect better products in the coming months.
#cheers
iPhone 5 Concept Video
Well with ideas like these future looks bright! 😀
#cheers
Bala's Blog 