In response to: Money for nothing
The initial response to IPL might be over rated, but the reason I like IPL more than other ICC tournaments is the concept of "Free Market".
Performance of players and their commitment to the game will decide how much they will earn and not their seniority or political backing.
I totally agree that some bids have been over the roof, but as the league will mature, the free market economy will kick-in and stabilize the system.
Those were hard-core business people bidding for Ishant and Dhoni, that too with their own money.
No businessman will invest millions of dollars in a player if he doesn't see any profit from it.
They must have some idea of what they were doing.
There are some other points, on which, I do not agree with the author
1) Why compare Twenty20 with Test Match? No one is saying that twenty20 is a better judge of player’s performance. Why compare 100 m sprint with a 42 km marathon? Test Match is indeed THE ultimate test. But, twenty20 is not a piece of cake either. In my honest opinion, it is difficult to come out on 5 different fields on 5 consecutive days and hit 50 in each innings. And, if you are still wondering why twenty20 pays more? Well, that's economics, more people watch twenty20. Yes, everyone follows Test Match but what percentage actually watches it?
2) Justifying the fat salaries of EPL and NFL over IPL is a bit overwhelming for me. Just because NFL is only 20 weeks long or football players will run 13 km in a game, and play against ManU, Arsenal etc makes them eligible for big bucks? Why??
NFL is 20 weeks long, but IPL is even shorter. Most of the IPL players won't be getting a chance to get in the elite, closed group of test players or one day players, their season ends with IPL. Thus as per authors logic, IPL salaries are in fact justified.
Now about EPL, well if only physical work decided how much money you earned, well, than I should get more money than my Maay-baap! Also, it is absolutely wrong in saying EPL is more intense than IPL. No one has seen any IPL matches yet! How can you judge it?
3) Author does another mistake of comparing EPL and IPL hiring process, when in fact BCCI has made it clear that IPL is based on NFL! NFL has a similar draft process which avoids one team getting hold of all good players. e.g. Real Madrid hiring every possible striker in football world. (It’s a different topic that it didn't work for Real Madrid). Therefore I am actually glad that players were not allowed to choose the clubs. Nevertheless, don't forget, if the player wants to switch, the clubs can negotiate deals with each other.
To conclude, let’s not try to compare IPL to anything else. People had similar reaction when one day was launched but soon realized that they had to accept it because the market demanded it. I know this market can't be trusted, but at least they are more reliable than an ignorant bunch of politicians, who decide who will play in the next cricket match. Think of all those relatives of yours, who wanted to play cricket as a carrier, but we all discouraged them and made them study commerce/ science / arts. Now they can follow their dreams and make a good carrier out of it.
I now maintain 3 websites... latest in the league is the IGRASP website... http://www.purdue.edu/igrasp. This is the most "jazzy" one so far :-)
It all began with my personal website www.ashtekar.org which went live a few months back. I always wanted to design my own website, in fact back in India I have tried several times to upload my website. But always I ended up abandoning the project, most of the times I was too aalshi to complete the website....
In Jan I joined Purdue and found myself within reach of every possible tool that I could imagine to help build my site... That was it... I decided to take this opportunity and complete my website! Also I decided to complete it in a week, coz I was afraid I might abandon the project again...
Next was my Labs website.. http://tools.ecn.purdue.edu/~metrib/, there is a long story associated with how I ended up doing this website... and I am too lazy to type it here... you may call me and I'll be happy to tell it to you...
Finally!!!!
I have been able to secure ashtekar.org domain name... with many big shot jewelers sharing my last name.. it was kinda net war i had to fight to secure this domain name...
I am planning to make this domain common for all my family members....
Today is a great day for me... I have just uploaded my new website that too with my very own personal domain name!!! ...
You can access my website from
www.ankurashtekar.comAt this moment there is nothing much on the website, but soon I'll be adding lots of content to it . Right now it has some personal information about me, my resume, my photos etc...
The one section I am really proud of is the blog section. I have sucessfully integrated blogger with my website.. thus you can read this blog right from my website!!!
Year 2005 saw some very interesting new trends. Browser war was reignited with Firefox stealing away users from IE domination. Later Opera browser joined the party by removing ads and going completly free. Google redefined free email with Gmail. Also by hiring Microsoft's top executives, Google fueled rummors that Google is planning to challenge Microsoft not just in search services but web browser, web technologies and even OS!
But the latest buzz in the internet suggests that Microsoft is going to bounce back... HARD!
Vista is regarded by many as a major improvement over XP. Vista from its betas looks all set to harness the incredible power of internet to provide users with a whole new expirience. Live.com seems to be an important step towards it.
Live.com is a new portal that has gone in beta stage last month.(another beta !!!). Live.com is a improved version of start.com. Start.com was launched a few months back by Microsoft, but it seems they were not so happy with the name "start" ( another hint that Vista might not have the start button! ). Microsoft guys have now decided to use Start.com as a testing ground for Live.com improvements.
Live.com has a simple interface (like google), it will host "live" content as per users choice (like my.yahoo.com), Content will also support RSS feeds. But what sounds cool is "Gadgets". These are like small third party extensions which can be added to Live.com as per users choice. Many gadgets are available at microgadgets.com, and Microsoft is counting on community to develop many more like firefox community.
It will be needless to say that live.com will be deeply rooted into Vista. IE7 will probably be designed to take full advantage of Live.com. Also MSN messenger will be renamed to Windows Live messenger and Hotmail will be renamed to Windows live Mail. All these Live services will then be connected together to give users a whole new LIVE expirience.
technorati tags: live.com start.com
I am writing this post from a new browser called Flock.
Flock is a new "social browser" based on Firefox. Its still in preview stage but unlike Firefox betas this one is very much stable.
After installation when you start? Flock for the first time, you will notice that its not so much different from Firefox... it just looks like Firefox with a cool theme. But wait...... there are some extra buttons near the address bar, and a closer look will tell ya what this browser is all about.
In the address bar there is star button, and clicking on it saves the page as favorite just like Opera 9. But there is more ! Flock connects to del.icio.us and updates your live bookmarks. Also Flock provides with a well designed favorites manager to sort your favorities.
Button next to star opens a window called blogpost. It asks for ur blog details and HEY.. it gets all ur blog data from blogger, wordpres etc... And now you can edit, write, or just drag drop content to your blog. This feature is truly awesome... and I must say the editor is quite well designed.
Another big feature is the RSS feed management, I haven't yet fully explored it.. so will write about it later.
Anyways for now I am going back to explore some more features of Flock... and yes if you are wondering where to get Flock.. then click here. Also you can get Flock extensions from here.
technorati tags: flock firefox
Rediff portal is perhaps the most popular Indian portal to date, and rediffmail - the email service from rediff has played a big role to keep the portal popular.
Just a few years back, there was tension mounting among email users, as most the free services were getting converted to paid service or were being closed down. There were rumors that even Yahoo and Hotmail will be paid services. Also many providers reduced the size of inbox to just a few MB. This situation did take its toll on the Indian web market as well. Email services like 123india, indya, sify all suffered; But one service survived. It remained strong, and perhaps grew even stronger. And that service was rediff. Rediff provided email at blazing speeds. It was nearly thrice as fast as hotmail and twice as fast as Yahoo. This super speed
immediately attracted the attention of Dial-Up users who were frustrated with snail mail from hotmail and yahoo.
Last year google launched Gmail and changed the face of free email. The size of inbox was no longer in MB but now in GB! Also with use of AJAX, Gmail introduced some revolutionary features that were a big hit with email users. Yahoo and Hotmail also responded and increased the size of inbox. They have also now introduced their beta services that will counter Gmail's innovative features.
But while the internet is buzzing with Yahoo and Hotmail beta, a little is been said about rediff. Rediff has shown amazing alertness in the market. They have always identified the trend quite early than other providers. Within months after the launch of Gmail, rediff increased the size of its inbox to 1 GB; It took a few more months for hotmail and yahoo to respond.
Also just last month Rediff added AJAX features to its webmail. Again this is much earlier than Hotmail and Yahoo, who still are in beta stages. No wonder why many Indians have rediff as their primary email address.
Rediff truly deserves a pat on the back for their email service. Keep it up guys!
P.S.
Click here for more info about AJAX in Rediffmailtechnorati tags: ankur ashtekar beta rediff
Last week I had mentioned about yahoo beta with AJAX components, I have got hold of some screenshots. The image below shows the basic structure of Yahoo mail beta. Note the way it looks more like a desktop application rather than web page. This is the magic of AJAX.
After Gmail and Yahoo, its Hotmails turn to give it a shot at AJAX. Hotmail too now has launched its beta, code-named "Kahuna"
Here is a screenshot of it (courtesy Paul)
The configuration is similar to vertical (default) layout of outlook 2003 with folder list on left, then inbox then preview pane. But this configuration works well only with big screens... on 800x600 resolutions it looks a bit messy. And off course the big ugly ads add up to the mess.
Both Yahoo and Hotmail betas support other features like drag and drop, right click options, rich text editing, auto-complete... etc... out of these Gmail right now does not support drag and drop and right click options nor does it have the preview pane... these features will surely challenge the Gmails title of "innovative email".
technorati tags: ankur ashtekar hotmail yahoo bet
