Liberty Featured Number "1,000,000,000"

Too bad, I went away from my supposed to be regular post "Featured Number" for too long. But I am back with pretty big number ( they say Back with the Bang isn't it?).

U know IPL ? who doesn't ? are IPL and Modi doing game a favour ? I think its too early to say but Cricket has never seen a salesman of caliber of Lalit Modi. The IPL commissioner had sought a net worth of $1 billion from parties who wanted to bid for the new IPL teams. Yes, a Billion with a Big B. I don't know how successful he will be but certainly he gave me a big number to Blog.

Stem Cell Therapy

All hail Tendlya

I read about Tendulkar’s 200 just before leaving for work. I couldn’t wait to come back home and write something to salute Little Master.

When Sachin first entered the scene at tender age of 16, the world knew him as a child prodigy who just loved to play cricket. Today, after more than two decades he is master of his craft, nightmares for the opponents and god to those whose religion is cricket. At heart he still is the same kid who just loves to play more cricket.

I remember a Q-A from Tendulkar’s interview that I watched last year. He was asked “After all these years and achievement in the cricket field, how successful do u think you are?” . Tendulkar replied “I think I have been reasonably successful”. …. Wow……. Tendulkar, arguably the best batsman after DON replied “reasonably” successful. He could have easily said “My record speaks volume, I am the best ever” with a popular bollywood swagger of unreal heroes and nobody would have mind a bit. By his answer Tendulkar reminded everyone the ages old adage “tree laden with fruits is bended”. The world loves Sachin because he is so easy on eyes, not only he is one of the best stroke players ever but also one of the humblest.

During 90’s Tendulkar carried almost whole Indian batting on this little shoulders. Today this burden might have eased a little, but he still is an important cog in the wheel. Sachin carries a heavy bat and on average one billion plus hopes every time he enters the cricket ground. When Sachin sneezes, whole Indian team catches cold. Moreover, Sachin never had a luxury which most other cricketers have. His performance yardstick is such that even a minor blip in form is unacceptable. In mid 2000 when he suffered a minor form slump, critics all over the world jumped in sync to conclude his best days were behind him. Newspapers printed “Endulkar” for his last name. Ex-cricketers started suggesting him to call it a day. The Cricket world, it seemed for the very first time realized Tendulkar is also mortal and it had troubles accepting it. Never once did he complain but left his batting do the talking. He battled his form, critics and troublesome tennis elbow and remained in the scene and thanks god he did. Cricket would have been poorer had he left the scene early.

Tendulkar has such a glittering career, its hard to come up with something that remains to be achieved. Few years ago Binod Kambli predicted Sachin to cross 20,000 ODI runs. Dhoni won’t rule him out playing in 2014 world cup and Sunil Gavaskar now wants him to set sight on 250 in an ODI innings and 450 in Test innings. All these milestones are quite challenging even for Sachin but one thing we have learned watching cricket is “Never bet against the abilities of Little master”.

In 39 years and 2961 ODIs, Cricket has seen many legends to embrace the game, including Sachin’s hero Sir Viv but I can’t name a name more deserving than Sachin for this feat. Who? If not Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.

Virus Scan for Cars?

Toyota brake problem reminded us of the sea change the vehicle has gone through in recent years. Most drivers don’t realize or are unaware of how modern cars have changed from their ancestors. Few years ago Automobiles started following the Airbus’s path to replace direct hydraulic controls with electronics. No more the accelerator or brake pedals are directly connected to the throttle by a physical connector. Electronics acts as intermediary.

I remember one of my friends expressing his frustration for not being able to do small repairs of his new car by himself. “Its all electronics, I don’t know what’s goin’on? I can do nothing” he was saying. Electronics systems and networks to connect them now make up 40% of the vehicle. Its difficult even for the auto mechanics as 40% of the vehicle is Black Box for them and they have to depend upon other Black Boxes to diagnose the problem. The firmware to control all the electronics is becoming increasingly complex too. For example in Prius, the software in the brakes controls the anti-lock braking systems, stability control and a system to convert the energy from braking into power to recharge the batteries.

The stakes are high with firmware design. Small glitches can have damaging effects. Problems with sudden acceleration and momentary lapse of braking are scary, esp in a highway situation. Even scarier thought is vehicles hacking which are very realistic, as we will see more software control of vehicles in future. What if terrorists were able get an insider into supply chain to insert a dormant code into each new vehicle that on a specific date and time would disable braking or cause sudden acceleration? I cannot outlaw a possibility of companies performing Antivirus software scans for vehicles before sending to the market in future.