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Seattle getting Tunneled !!
[Click for a bigger image]Seattle was busy this weekend. The main newsmaker was that Seattle Tunnel which was closed yesterday. Seattle’s tunnel unlike the one in other cities doesn’t feature tubes. Once the buses from the suburb entered the downtown, most of them go via the tunnel. Starting yesterday, they sealed it for the next two years when it will be equipped to run tubes as well as buses. And there were celebrations through out last week, arranged by the King County travel department. Some pictures that were shot using my mobile camera are on the Seattle photoblog.
The downtown traffic would just get heavier from the coming week with all the underground traffic moving above and I am expecting that it wouldn’t cause any delays. Throughout the last weekend, people were flicking pictures all along the tunnel that they are going to miss for the next two years. It was certainly a sight to watch and reminded me of people who took their last journey on the Old Chennai electric train a year back. Wherever you go, the cities & its people may be different but the emotion is all the same. An universal truth that is.
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A biased review !!
I am going to enjoy the new yahoo mail. No doubt about it. The new Yahoo mail which has added Ajax technology to make the mail app look like desktop mail application. Many of us who are used to Outlook’s look and feel are going to enjoy the virtual Outlook through Yahoo Mail.
But this review on WSJ by Walter Mossberg is certainly biased to a large extent. From the review –
Similarly, Gmail forces you to view ads alongside your emails. Unlike Yahoo, it offers no paid option to avoid the ads.
I’m sure Gmail will get better and better, and will eventually adopt the new programming techniques that allow desktop-like ease of use. But I’m not sure Google’s arrogance will ever make room for user preferences on things like folders or ads, or how emails are grouped.
Yahoo’s new email program would blow Gmail away if it were widely released today. That’s partly due to its features, but also to its respect for user choice.
GMAIL, when it was introduced last year, it was appreciated for being radical in approach and not following the boring and conventional method of email maintenance. The replacement of folders to labels was similar to Web 2.0‘s tagging. And if someone doesn’t understand what tagging is all about, cribbing about GMAIL changing folders to label doesn’t stand up to the levels of WSJ’s reputation.
I googled, googled and googled throughout the review to see if there was a mention of free POP access that GMAIL give. Yahoo was giving free access and then took it back few years back. I am not sure which user doesn’t want POP access which GMAIL gives. Not everyone might need it but the idea of re-opening POP was done only by GMAIL. And the stingy 4 MB limit of yahoo mail was raised to 1 GB only to counter GMAIL 1 GB storage. This news of yahoo raising its limits after being forced by GMAIL indirectly is comfortably forgotten in the review.
And what an dramatically sweeping statement that is to say Yahoo’s new email program would blow Gmail away. I have to say NO WAY. Yahoo may be the top notch on webmail as of today and may introduce the Oddpost way of email to the online community. But it’s because of GMAIL that the email revolution 2 started and I assume its the first product to be used by millions of people even when its in BETA. So there goes the Yahoo pride !!
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Mementoed !!
Now you know why they said it could be Memento. Anyway, seems like Gajini aka Ghajini would be out by 29th. Not just us, even the Hindu is waiting for Gajini. Check out IndiaGlitz’s Ghajini website. Don’t miss the trailer that explains it all.
Alongwith Murugadoss and Surya there are Kakkha Kakkha fame cinematographer RD Rajasekar and Editor Antony to add value. All the best team !!
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Why I like/dislike Selvaraghavan?
[Pic – Dhanush and his ‘team’ in Pudhupettai. Thanks Vikatan]7G Rainbow Colony made me think, this dude has understood the language of screen than many other seniors of the Tamil film industry. Though I didn’t vibe exactly with what Selvaraghavan tried to convey in 7G Rainbow Colony, I thought it was a much superior and a matured effort than the ‘Guna’ish Kadhal Konden.
Selvaraghavan mostly dwells (from the 3 movies he has made/contributed) on the yuppie side of adolescence with a thin line of pathos running throughout the movie. It�s this thin line that�s developed into a much larger issue at the climax. The major focus when the movie starts is usually shifted to this under developed sub-plot by the time the movie progresses into the first hour. Now what does this mean? Kadhal Konden started with a happy note on college and what seemed like a college romance suddenly turned into a nail-biting thriller and the guy who seemed as a hero-of-the-friend was developed into a sort of semi-hero. The movie has its own share of silly college comedy and inspirations from several films. I for once certainly didn’t expect Dhanush to turn into a psycho. It came as a sweet shock to me.
7G Rainbow Colony was a complete effort and had Selvaraghavan sparkling as a director. It may not have had the unexpected twists and turns like Kadhal Konden but it had an honest depiction of mediocrity. Infact, it is one of those movies that celebrates mediocrity. Except for that abrupt ending which was a thorn, I enjoyed most part of it.
Selvaraghavan like some of the best directors knows what audience love to see on screen. Even if they don’t like what he shows he knows to brain-wash them with those fabulous set of images [shot by Arvind Krishna, always] to his way of thinking. He knows how to convert a set of ASCII characters of the shooting script into moving images that resemble real life. I enjoyed his series in Vikatan called Kanaa Kaanum Kaalangal.
If we were listing the future architects of kollywood, Selvaraghavan definitely has a pole position. And in the movies to come, I would expect him to capture life as-it-is with more vivid images and compelling stories.
So why would I hate him when one is all praises for him. It�s his personality that one can see in every character he shapes. A writer certainly has his personality in some form or other, whether he consciously does it or not, in his characters. A lot of Sujatha’s character can be seen in his characters. Actually it�s tough to write a book/script by hiding your inherent smartness/dumbness. Selvaraghavan has his personality, his body language hidden in both of his protagonists. What we thought to be Dhanush’s body language and dialogue delivery skills in Kadhal Konden was replicated by Ravi Krishna in 7G Rainbow colony. And it’s irritating. Annoying to know it wasn’t Dhanush’s own talent for which we can take back the accolades given to him on the Kadhal Konden reviews. Also annoying to know that Selva is also like his guru Balachander. And this crib of Balachander’s way to dialogue delivery is imbibed with all his heroines. From Sujatha to Suhasini to Geetha to the girl in Premi, I hate when that body language is repetitive. All of them are radical protagonists like the Sidney Sheldon girls but it�s truly an over-kill when they walk, talk and act like Balachander himself.
Anyway, I was so impressed by the stills of his next movie Pudupet which stars his famous combo Dhanush-Sonia Agarwal (my fave). His interview[userid/pass required] to Vikatan tells that the movie is a about North Madras and it deals with people as they are. The picture of Sonia Agarwal as a girl from the kuppam seems too good to make me await the movie. I am sure Selvaraghavan would Chennai as it is. Sitting here in Seattle that’s one thing I would love to see.
kirukkal.com 