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Microsoft with horns – not just horns – it a Longhorn:

Introducing the next developer version of Windows OS, codenamed Longhorn, Gates tried to woo Windows developers to support and try their hands on Longhorn.

Longhorn, the next generation windows appears to be a set of integrated applications with an operating system rather than a monolithic operating system release. Thats what Gates had to say in the Professional Developers Conference 2003 in California. He was sure that the beta would be released by next summer but the commercial release would be in the year of 2006.

Longhorn is built around three major advances–a new graphics and presentation engine known as Avalon, a new communications architecture known as Indigo, and a new file system known as WinFS that borrows from Microsoft’s relational database technology’

Look at this Longhorn developer center, it seems the feel and look of windows is getting converted to the next generation of softwares. Given the ability of Microsoft to make drool-over front-ends, it is very convincing with the alerts and buddylists placed at the right corner of the screen.

Transparent windows, animated windows that pop open and a new taskbar on the righthand side of the screen that displayed a clock, buddy list, and news and other information streamed onto the desktop via an RSS feed. Finally RSS feeds are recognized well by Microsoft which is a cool thing that happens to this blogging community.

But the controversies are already at news.com as it calls the graphical look of Longhorn–particularly its transparency and animated windows–are reminiscent of Apple’s Mac OS X.

Also check out the Longhorn Blogs, a Longhorn fan website.

The Real Pithamahan of Indian Cinema :

Senthil’s Pithamahan review was spelndid and he said the movie could be re-named as Ayudha Ezhuthu because of three characters, Vikram, Surya and Laila who took the movie beyond boundaries.

I OBJECT. Maybe nickname Mani Ratnam as Pithamahan and never even think of giving away his movie name to someone else.

All they said about Rajini‘s japanese fans but we never believed.

Now, Rajinikanth makes it big time. Here’s the Rajinikanth’s unofficial fan club from Japan. Looks like they are more serious fans that what we are. Though we couldn’t read japanese, these pictures explain all.

As you go through the club, there are numerous forums and bulleting boards discussing his movies from Siva to Baba. Lots of professional analysis and tons of links that link to other Indian Fan clubs.

Time for Rajinikanth to join with Jackie Chan for the next movie and call it Baba Jaba. Hows that ?

Link via Kinglsey via Ram.

Things change so fast. The predicted to-be hit of diwali was Ajith’s Aanjaneya. That one is running low with bad previews. Read here for senthil’s review in my comments box.

Pithamahan, the un-predicted movie is getting fave reviews because of the performances of lead actors Vikram, Surya and Ajith. The reviews coming in say that though Bala captures the dark sides of human emotions, Vikram’s performance in Pithamahan will go down in history as one of the most spectacular performances. Ofcourse, I predicted a no-no for Pithamahan because of my disliking towards Bala’s movies.

I’m yet to watch Pithamahan and it is releasing late here in chiacago on Nov 7th.

The smoky smell of crackers is what reminds me of diwali and here in US, I was yearning for that smell to feel at home. Like me were thousands of Indians who got together at the Aurora Temple in Chicago to the get feel of being ‘at home’ and celebrate diwali.

Last night, with clear skies the temperature dropped to 30s. Despite the icing cold, the sky was lit with huge fireworks at 8:30 pm. Catcalls and the Indian trademarked finger-in-the-mouth whistles deafened the whole temple. Never before had I celebrated a diwali with thousands of people with full of joy and a brightly lighted temple. Though there was a huge lines for the Perumal koil Puliyotharai and the Royal Indian Thayir sadham.

But the night went long after that and we were playing the card game, Literature. We also had one hour more to spare. So as we turned back the clock from 2:00 am to 1:00 am to accommodate the daylight saving, we realized we had 2 more hours to go before the next diwali.

Willow TV was helping us to watch the India vs Australia match live on the Internet. But the package was huge. Priced at $70 for all the matches of the TVS Triangular Series, we watched the match live, on a laptop connected to a cable modem. The broadcast was fantastic without much clipping so we could witness clearly how Sachin celebrated a revengeful diwali against the aussies. With Shewag giving his wicket cheaply to the second slip many of them crashed out under the blankets.

But the determined like me who sacrificed our sleep were paid back by Sachin and VVS Laks with the powerful knocks. This wasn’t the most classy century of Sachin but was certainly a good one after a long time. Though both Sachin and VVS struggled in their 90s, they managed to touch the century. While Sachin had couple of lives at the fag end, he threw his wicket at 100. Sent in perfectly on time was Yuvraj Singh who played a swashbuckling innings again.

So as we knocked the aussies, what everyone were whispering was that we should have done this 8 months back. But that’s long gone.