From the rumors and hints being dropped, India will have another reason to celebrate, maybe as early as this weekend.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the new torch bearer deserves this honor. But before we go all out, let’s remember the person who started it all, when the climate was very different.

Back in 2005, Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian driver to get a seat in F1. And 2005 was a very different time period. Sponsors in India were still weary of the international scene, there was no Force India F1, there was no Indian GP and there certainly was no chartered course for an Indian driver. I do not know of any other drivers from India who decided to pick a driving school like Elf Winfield and then went on to compete in the international scene, even in the junior races.

But braving those odds, Narain managed to secure a ride. Driving for a back marker team, I did not expect too much from him, but he did shine. Call it blind faith, but I did and still do believe that Narain would have done well had he found a stronger team.

In the following days and weeks when the Indian media hails the new blood, celebrate, but spare a moment for the man who made it there, with a much smaller fan base, a much smaller group of sponsors and managed to create history.

As much as I hate Nascar, I know this. If Narain does start racing in that series, I will be there cheering him. The man deserves it and that’s the least I could do as his fan.

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Google has finally reacted to the FB acquisition of Friendfeed, by launching Google Buzz, it’s version of Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed all in one. Just like with the launch of the iPad, the world went crazy, for a little while, I did too.

People like Jason Calacanis are way too excited and if you follow me on twitter, you should already know that I do not agree with his view.

Not everyone is on Gmail, even if they are, not everyone uses all its features. Case in point, my parents. Between them, they have 3 email accounts on Gmail. They religious check their email and although they are signed into Gtalk, they still use Skype for video conferencing with me. Gtalk offers the same exact features and I’m signed into Gtalk always, yet they do not associate Gmail and talking, to them it’s where they check their email.

“Who the hell are these people?” was the thought when I saw random people following me. Google is smart, most of the time. But the choice to automagically add followers is pretty crappy and even creepy. “Friends”, family and other people now are automatically following me. With FB, I pick and choose who I want to add and then give them appropriate rights to view my stuff. With twitter, since anyone can follow me, I am careful about what I’m saying. But with Buzz, they added people automatically and I have to do the legwork to remove people / block them. Besides the fact that I’m going to look like a rude a-hole from removing them, they automatically show up on my google reader. So my options are to stop doing things they way I used to, filter people and then continue. Or make everything private until I can find the time to fix what google broke.

I am annoyed by the Farmville requests on FB, although I do not play the game, but FB still gives me the option of reading up on what my friends have been upto and join groups that interest me. Some of these people are people, I’d never email, have never emailed and how the heck am I supposed to follow these people on Buzz.

By integrating Buzz with Gmail, Google has managed to annoy the heck out of me. I have 800 odd “unread” emails and to add to that, I’m going to have a bunch of Buzzes to read. It’d be different if it was in a different page, but nope, it’s right there. Updates show up straight in your inbox to boot. This is going to get more annoying as I start following more people. The profile pages are clumsy and I cannot get to the profile pages of certain people who are following me. Add to that the UI inspired by Windows 3.1. Granted its version 1.0 and they are going to update things soon, that’s how they do it, but until then, its just clumsy. And whoever thought that double populating the Google reader and Buzz would be a good idea? Seriously, I have to click “mark as read” twice?

With twitter you get to catch up on what the world has to say (depending on who you follow of course). With FB it’s catching up on your not so close friends are up to . With Buzz, its those top 20-30-40 people you email all the time, people you probably know and hang out with. By now, you are probably already “friends” with them on FB and are following them on twitter.

I have always felt that Google was overdoing things. Search, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Voice, Andriod, Nexus one, Orkut, Blogger, Picasa, Google News, Finance, Google Docs, You Tube, that secret project with NASA and now Buzz. I for one would be very disappointed if Google becomes another Yahoo.

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Apple took cellphones to the next level with the iPhone. Tom, Dick, Harry and my grand mother have one and they created a great revenue generation scheme with their apps. One of the parts where they screwed up was with the camera.

If you are one of the few people, who does not own one, a google search will tell you about how bad the camera is, so I’m not getting into the details.

To give you a rough idea, I’ve always found myself in the “Never edit a photo” crowd. I took pride in composing “good” photos and sticking to that. There have been times, when I’ve cropped pictures and played with the RGB settings, but they were rare.

All this changed when I had a bad camera on the iPhone.

Over the course of the past few months, I’ve managed to play with a few free photo editing apps for the iPhone. Darkroom, ArtCam Lite iEasy Photo Lite, PS Mobile and Best Camera. It’s true that all those apps, save Best Camera, are free, but I find myself going back to Best Camera over and over again.

The reason I’ve noticed is a) the ease of use. The filters are easy to apply, easy to access and there are just enough filters to not get lost. It’s an iphone and Best Camera keeps it simple.

b) Their integration with Social Networking sites. As paranoid as I am with Facebook stripping off copyright information and trouble with their TOS, I like people to see my photos. Best Camera make it easy and quick. FB, Twitter, Flickr (via email) all happen in one place. No more downloading the photos and uploading them individually to every site.

If you still are contemplating getting the iPhone or the App, head on over to the site and check out the photos. If you really are interested, check out my flickr set of Best Camera photos.

Oddly enough, this little app has made me take a second look at programs like iPhoto and Lightroom, which I previously would not have considered. Now that to me is a successful product.

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Mom’s are very difficult to shop for. They almost always have the things they want and it is very hard to get them to try new and different things, even if you do succeed, there is no gaurentee that they will like it.

The process is made even more complex when you live in another country like I do. To help her out with her newly remodelled kitchen, I decided to complie a list of things that I plan on getting her. The things to remember with Indian mom’s is that they have gotten used to donig things in a certain way, so my little gifts are targeted more towards things that she will use without too much change.

Like for example, I do not see a point in getting her a wine opener or a can opener. She does not drink and she is not a fan of canned goods. But an oil dispenser makes more sense. So here goes a list with links to amazon.com. Fell free to add your suggestions to the comments and a link to where I can find the product.

Cereal Dispenser
This is a product that has had a lot of infomercials. I never have owned one, but have seen it around and have liked the wow factor.

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I finally found the answer to a question that has been puzzling me for a long time.

Never mind the question, but the answer is Jealousy.

Thank you mom and thank you dad, I know I don’t say it a lot, but I am so proud of the way you brought us up. If it were not for you, I would have been another one of those people.

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Mr. Richard Stiennon has a recent post on ZDNet titled “Customer Support Issues will Kill OneCare”.

In my opinion, I disagree. Here is why.

If Customer Support Issues are the main cause of concern, every big company from Walmart to Ford would have perished in a couple of months of opening. Forget them, talk about Best Buy and Circuit City, have you ever tried to buy a computer from them ? They are the ones who read off the script.

It’s like walking into a showroom and talking to the salesman about the car that was released yesterday. Of course they are not going to know anything. It takes time for the knowledge to trickle down. How and why do you expect Microsoft to be different ?

I have been using OneCare for a few months now. I also run a competetor’s Anti Virus suite and have had a stable platform to compare a very vastly used Anti Virus solution and OneCare..

First off, OneCare is a complete package, it could be and is not as good as many individual products that do the same thing, but it is a start. Forgetting the fact that it was made by Microsoft, take a look at it and you would understand that it gives you control of the essentials. There is much more that needs to be added to OneCare, but I do not have a problem with what it is right now.

Secondly, its Microsoft’s licensing policy that will sell this product. Every Beta Tester myself included got an email from MS giving us “special pricing”. But the icing on the cake was the fact that I could use 1 license to install the product on up to three machines. Personally, I would not mind spending 50 bucks and “protecting” three machines, than get 3 copies of another product, fill out the rebate forms and wait for 6-8 weeks to get something for free. Besides, in this day and age, if you really thought that an AntiVirus / Spyware solution will guard you a 100%, you need to wake up.

In the long run, MS will add more features, besides who knows Windows / Vista better than MS ?

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BOB SLYDELL Here’s a peculiar one. Milton Waddams.

DOM Who’s he?

BOB You know, squirrely looking guy, mumbles a lot.

DOM Oh.

BOB SLYDELL We can’t find a record of him being a current employee here.

BOB PORTER I looked into it more deeply and I found what happened was he got layed ff about five years ago and no one ever told him about it. But through a glitch in Payroll, he still gets a paycheck. I went ahead and fixed the glitch.

BILL Great.

DOM So, um, Milton has been let go.

BOB SLYDELL Just a second there, Professor. We, uh, we fixed the glitch. So he won’t be receiving a paycheck anymore. So it’ll just work itself out naturally.

BOB PORTER We always like to avoid confrontation whenever possible. The problem is solved from here on, then.

- From Office Space - Via IMSDb

Still don’t get it ? Read the part in bold.

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[Evert] No kiddin It was the greatest opportunity of Colt’s career.

He was up two sets, and then he completely choked.

And I don’t think he’s ever fully recovered from it.

You know, John, choking can be instigated by the smallest thing.

[McEnroe] Absolutely. You wake up in the morning, and something just isn’t right.

Or maybe a little superstition you have goes wrong.

And a seed of self-doubt is planted.

Then everywhere you look, that feeling of doubt seems to be looking right back at you.

Once that happens, all it takes is one point.

One decisive point that can make or break your confidence…

and completely determine the outcome of a match.

- Wimbledon (2004)

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My close friends and family know that I am very busy for a couple of hours on Saturday and Sunday during the F1 race weekend. If the broadcast is at midnight and I can’t watch it, I set my TIVO to record it and watch it the first thing in the morning.

Last year when CBS decided to broadcast three races of the F1 calender, I was happy. The race was going to be on HD and I thought I was going to Enjoy it. Then came San Marino. The best race of the season covered by two dumb-asses.

For the novice F1 fans, let me help you. As much as you know about whats happening on the track, the commentators know more. Most times, they are on the circuit, they have driven / tested / have been involved with F1 for a long time. Minute details that miss the eye are caught by these people and given the fact that they have been around, they know (or almost correctly guess) what caused a car to blow up. As a viewer, this is very important, that is if you bother to watch every race and follow the season.

In 2005 when CBS covered San Marino, Schumacher was chasing Alonso. This race is considered one of the best races in recent Formula 1 history and the commentators were talking about how F1 is different (read better, WAY BETTER) than NASCAR. I was pissed, but I could understand. CBS was catering to much of the American Viewers, who have no clue about F1. No biggie. By the time I saw the second and third race. I had to mute the TV and just watch the cars drive by, as painful as it was, it was better than listening them fumble and get very important details wrong.

I was happy about the 2005 Indy race. Firstly Michelin failed to do their homework and in the back of my mind, I figured, CBS would drop coverage of F1. Boy was I wrong. In 2006, they decided to do it again.

The commentators in question are Derek Daly and Ralph Sheenan (not sure I got the spelling right).

Derek was an F1 driver and it shows. Although he is very excited, he makes sense most of the time, except when his fellow commentator Ralph decides to ask him silly questions. This weekend there was the “Derek, how do cars react to the curbs ?” question that was posed a million times. I do not know Ralph’s background and I can’t seem to find it online, but the dude should stick to his day job and stop talking about F1.

Not just that, the conference at the end of the race was cut to fit the schedule. CBS’s coverage is good, but they should rethink their commentators. At least Ralph.

On the other hand the three amigos on Speed keep you entertained. I will never forget their “Super Best Friends” comment about Super Aguri.

David Hobbs and Steve Matchett have international motorsport and F1 experience. Bob Varsha makes up for lack of driving time with plenty of commentating experience. Why replace these guys with rookies. CBS, please stop the harassment. Your haphazard job is pissing more people off than what happened at Indy in 2005.

Here are some people who agree with me.

2005

http://forums.dieselstation.com/index.php?showtopic=11687

http://www.canspice.org/2005/06/12/cbs-f1-coverage-sucks-ass-to-levels-previously-unknown-to-mankind/

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?s=2935708551587a8b18e11fba51d526d3&p=2878628#post2878628

2006

http://cranialcavity.net/fullthrottle/wp/index.php/what-is-cbs-thinking

http://wonderduck.mu.nu/archives/171186.php

http://insider.speedtv.com/viewtopic.php?t=118147&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

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