Lets Play!

Come October, the buzzword starts to go around. Game releases, LAN parties, hardware launches, cutting edge technology and a lot more. I realise I haven't written for a while now cos' I've been busy living, working and testing new technology (per-se). Now recently I did a lot of market research on a lot of subjects (Graphics Cards, Mother Boards, Gaming Technology, DirectX10, Windows Vista, etc.). I bought some decent hardware, played the hell out of some of the most hyped titles ever and briefly tried out the new Windows Vista (codename-Longhorn). Now writing about all this is a waste of time, cos' anyone (and everyone) has already covered what there is to cover about all of this. So I will just waste a little time in posting images of what I have been into. So don't expect fancy write-ups, cos' there would only be (gripping and intense for people with heightened sense of understanding) images. A picture is worth a thousand words and wastes 1/1000th of the time you would spend reading about <insert what you like reading 'here'>.

CYA !

Sterling Commerce e-Gaming

It was one hell of a night. It was about valour, guts and glory. It was about the ability to strike and the inability to survive. Strategy and brute force. Focus and skill. It was Sterling Commerce's e-Gaming Finale. Here is the review of the gala event.

Initially the thought of having a gaming tournament in a professional environment was odd. A tourney in office? Are you kiddin' me? It'll be a flop! Anyone and everyone doubted the ability of professional hands dealing with gaming events, be it playing or organising. There were a lot of talks that people might not be much interested. The league round of knock-out games in Counter-Strike, Quake3 and NFS Underground 2 were played in a small room with 15 spectators and 8 participants at a time. Ventus, Lamina and Terra came out victorious. Now was the time for the final event. The grand finale to decide the 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions. I walked into the cafeteria thinking about the task at hand and the setup was a shock to me. An absolute sitter.

The event's final was being under-estimated by everyone. It was a huge setup. Big LCD TVs, huge projector setup for the audience, WCG style sitting arrangement; that is all that is required to make it a gaming experience of a lifetime. I had the honor of playing from the side of Terra in CS and Q3. There were spectators, there were servers and there was energy. A lot of it.

The night started out with Ventus vs. Terra. Quake and Counter-Strike were assumed to be in ventus's pockets as they had players like fandoo, So!id and BlackDeath. Even Killer from Ventus did more than what was expected. Terra was crushed after a fighting start in both games. Then came NFS, Terra won the races back to back. They also won against Lamina. Terra came out victorious in NFS thanks to Mukha, Chandan, Shishir and RKT. Now the pressure was off Terra's back when they were to play Lamina in CS and Q3. Supposedly, Terra took it a bit too easy and lost both the games in Nail Biting finishes to Lamina. The scores were 10-9 in CS and 8-6 in Quake3. Call it luck or whatever you wanna call it, but the second favorite team (terra) landed up in the 3rd spot. Lamina's spirits were high and they had to play the undefeatable Ventus. Lamina made a good start in both CS and Quake3 thanks to Fubu and HappyFeet, but Ventus gathered their strength and crushed Lamina as convincingly as they could.

It was a night of rocking gaming. The players in all teams did well and surpassed expectations by a long margin. The Final standings were Ventus-1, Lamina-2 and Terra-3. The gameplay of So!id(CS), BlackDeath(Q3) and Chandan(NFS) were mind-boggling. Fubu and company did well too. Kudos to everyone involved in making the evening an adrenaline packed journey into the OtherWorld. The atmosphere, the energy and the professional handling of the event made it one hell of a show, the first in its kind. In the end a very special Thanks to Rajesh Chandolia for making it all possible. Keep rocking dude. :) And yeah! The sound was BOSE. Game ON!

The seating for the audience with LCD Screens on sides and a projected screen in front.

The Players practising.

More practise right before the start.

Solid in action.

BlackDeath in action.

You

Who are you? You are a figment of my imagination but very real indeed. You are someone in pain. Going through hard times. I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that times are gonna get harder. The good news ... read on.

I heard a piece of music today. It reminds me of you. It was called 'Elin Shore'. I heard it again and again. Again and again I heard it. As if I was trying to hold something made of thin air; but not ready to give up on it. I heard it so many times that it got etched in my mind. It was a piece from a long lost documentary I did during my farewell days in college. I believe in the power that this little piece of sound possesses. It brings things back. Gives hope. It has to be heard to be believed. The set has nothing to do with love or emotion, its just so simple and serene that its empowering. Listening to it makes you want to listen to it over and over again.

I saw you today, seemed like something was amiss. Seemed like something was not where it should have been. Seemed like you were trying to reach out to something, but not someone. I saw the constant struggle in your eyes. I wish I could tell you how easy it was to handle it. Words like trouble, struggle, pain, frustration, etc should have no place in your mind. I dont claim to have seen everything in life, I'm too young for that. I dont claim I have seen the worst of times, I am too ignorant. I dont say I know a lot, I am simple. I am oblivious to almost everything but you. Through your eyes I have seen a thing or two. Through your mind I have learnt a lesson or two.

The best gift you have given me, is yet not known to you. I want to bestow it upon you now. But I cant find the means to. From you I have learnt how to keep it cool. From you I have learnt how hard life can be. From you I have known how to be above the quicksand of life under any circumstance. I know you have problems. Everyone has problems. What makes someone appear happy to us is the way they handle those problems within their own self. Some people break down. Some never bend. I know this for a fact, that people which I know of, never break. They never quit. I dont let them. In my vocab the words 'Quit' and 'Cannot' dont exist. I know from first hand experience (and trust me it is pretty good) that ANYTHING can be done in ANY amount of time. Now this line can be misinterpreted, and is, in most cases. It simply means that the human capability extends far beyond the stretches of our imaginations. There have been times I have accomplished impossible feats. The me you see now believes that any one who has the right frame of mind can accomplish anything they set their eyes on; and TIME doesnt come as a factor at all. Not only me, I know people close to you who have done this. Set a goal, achieve it. Set another one, achieve it. Set another ... fail ... try again, achieve it. Walk the line and see how everything falls into place. Life is a constant struggle, anyone who has seen enough of it, would vouch for this fact. Rich or poor, Smart of silly, Young or old. Anyone who has seen enough, will tell you the same thing.

Lets talk about someone who believes in the concept of a perfect life. Smart people are hard to find; but impossible to find are the smart ones who believe that one day their life would be perfect. Life is never perfect, all it can offer you are perfect moments. Thats it. People who dont play, dont win. People who dont run, never reach distances. People who dont swim, never cross oceans. People who dont believe in themselves, never achieve. The best thing that life can offer you is someone to be by your side while you try and achieve what you have set out to. This is the way of life. People can have different strides, big or small, but the destination is the same. I trust one should take each day as it comes, while setting goals and achieving them. Suppose you want a square ABCD to be drawn on a piece of a paper. Firstly, you gotta imagine it (dreams/ambition). Secondly, you gotta pick up the pen (determination). Then you gotta make four points (A, B, C and D which is the effort). Then you got to join them with straight equal lines (putting things into perspective). There you go, you have your square. Since you drew it, its yours to keep and no one can take it away. Some tasks are a tad bit difficult than the foolish example I have given. Some things have a million factors attached. But in the end, everything follows the same route. We should always be grateful that we have come a far way. We should always believe in things that we have accomplished to fuel the fire that would run us into a many wonderful things that we will accomplish. Focus, effort and commitment to your dreams are the ONLY things that can help us get where we want to go. Self belief can get rid of frustration. Focus can take care of failures. Effort can take care of everything else.

Faults. A lot of faults is probably what I am made up of. Maybe I sum up into a big mistake. But what I am not, is a quitter. But I have learnt to keep stress away. Mental stress specially. A very famous quote on life is Dont hate the players, hate the game. Thinking that someday you would be there, will never take you there. Deeds will. I believe there is always a way. I believe there is always a little something more I would want to write. But keeping it till here, I wish you well in everything you try to do. Just remember, anything and everything can be done. Everything has its faults, every situation has a loophole. Everything that appears good has a tremendous amount of effort and will-power backing it up. Things just dont work, people like you and me have to make em' work.

Fire

No smoke without you, my fire.
After you left,
your cigarette glowed on in my ashtray
and sent up a long thread of such quiet grey
I smiled to wonder who would believe its signal
of so much love. One cigarette
in the non-smoker's tray.
As the last spire
trembles up, a sudden draught
blows it winding into my face.
Is it smell, is it taste?
You are here again, and I am drunk on your tobacco lips.
Out with the light.
Let the smoke lie back in the dark.
Till I hear the very ash
sigh down among the flowers of brass
I'll breathe, and long past midnight, your last kiss.

by Edwin Morgan

The New Orkut ???

Just as I was done throwing sh*t in the face of Orkut it has rekindled my desire to beat the hell out of people responsible for the latest disaster they have managed to accomplish. People call it a new Theme, a new kinda Look, a Wow inspiring change! I call it shit ... take a look.


Now I am a big preacher in favor of change, but there are certain basic problems with this new design. Hi orkut! Certain things I hate about you are ...

1. If the image captions are too long, so long sucker! They wont show completely.
2. The color scheme looks as if someone took a crystal clear dump over the old theme.
3. The new font colors are not even 10% as good as the old one.
4. The text doesnt look as good as the old style.
5. The buttons look as if designed by an infant, could'nt google come up with better sleeker and retro button designs.
6. The black and white images, which used to look Very Cool on the old design, now look like portraits of grannies sick and tired of knitting.
7. The colors in the colored snaps look duller and shittier due to the super bright (halogen) backgound color (Tide wala white). I mean it has been a sincere effort to blind us into believing that change is good. I say FcK oFF ... wake up, all colors are washed out.
8. Now whats up with the curvy edges of all on-screen elements, I think the developers tried to make it baby-safe, with no sharp edges.
9. I hate bubbles ... and everything here looks like I'm looking at the old orkut through a semi gelatinous bubble.
10. The new look 'per-se' makes me feel as if it has been designed because all the orkut users were dumb and did'nt know what they were doing. Assholes!
11. Orkut was most definitely totally jealous of the way Facebook looks. So the super brainy geeks at google sat down and thought of how to counter that jealousy. Suddenly the brainiest of them all stood up and screamed, Lets rip off their design, make a few changes and launch a new orkut! Everyone clapped.
12. Another one spoke, But wouldn't it be too obvious that we are jealous of Facebook? How about adding a new feature, suppose, we add the 'ScrapBook' button on the top of the page again ...; Everyone clapped again.
13. And ... Another geek spoke, Yeah! and to cover it all up we'll over publicise the Scrapbook button on the top of the page so that no one notices the changes we've made in design. We can pass this junk off as not just a theme change, but a functional overhaul. Clapping followed.
14. Then some f*ck-bag suggest the worst of it all, We can slide in the new design to the users slowly, group by group. Everyone nodded. Their plan was to make us feel that "Google is God, when Google decides and starts doing something, it is inevitable. We will have to wait for the inevitable to fall on our heads flat."
15. Everything is smaller.
16. It all looks like a chubby high school chick who is high on marijuana and has a lot of make-up on.
17. What is this Add Photo crap in the scrapbooks anyways? Who needs it? Couldnt you have added a better functionality? Like 'delete all scraps'. Or maybe a new button 'Delete my Profile' on the top of the page.
18. There is only one good point with this design; you can edit your photo album more easily now (hint: upload photo section on top); but the new design is so sucky that I dont even wanna login anymore.
19. Fonts have been made bigger, but the place-holders for the same text has been made smaller. And why does every box look like a shady grey calamity? Moronic.
20. I thought they would give us a 'Theme Selector' functionality. Suckers! Think of how cool that would be, users choosing their own themes (like blog templates).

But thats all just my own opinion, just cos' I'm sick of people asking me, Did you see the new Orkut? Wow! Aint it great!. NO! ITS NOT GREAT. I HATE IT. I'LL DELETE MY ACCOUNT AND EVERYONE WILL THEN CRY THEIR EYES OUT. Yeah Right!