A twist in the tale?

Yesterday's drawn match between Bolton and ManU has given Chelsea a good chance to capture this year's EPL. After the draw, Chelsea are just 3 points behind ManU with 3 matches to go. Add to this the fact that the next match of ManU is away at Chelsea, and we might just have an exciting end to this season. Though speaking of Chelsea and exciting in the same breath might be exaggerating to say the least, it cannot be denied that this season has provided its share of thrills and spills.
A team that had the worst start of the season since many years (2 pts of 3 games) , now is in the position of capturing its second successive title and is also in the line for a double.
Talking of which the match at Nou Camp is very important for ManU as Barca are a strong team and it is vital that ManU try to score at least one away goal and prevent Barca from scoring too many. Also Barca's defence is a bit suspect at the moment. So the differential factor will be how Vidic and company handle Messi.

A new era in Cricket ?

IPL has started in a big way a couple of days back. The first match was a totally one sided affair with Kolkata hammering Bangalore to register an emphatic win. As it was disappointing to see Bangalore lose, I was also somewhat happy that the much touted tournament was off to a damp start. If the tournament is a failure it will be a good lesson to the arrogant bosses of the BCCI. They have left no stone unturned in using their power and influence to crush the rebel ICL. ICL meanwhile has been producing some good if not great cricket to provide entertainment.
And thats the USP of IPL too. Entertainment. Not superstars performing or cheergirls but the players dishing out an exciting fare. I have a feeling IPL will fail on that count.

As of now my ideas are turning a bit true. In two more matches played yesterday, only one provided some semblance of a fight. The other one was also one sided.

Red Devils almost there

Man Utd have taken another step to repeat their EPL victory of last year. They did this in the best possible fashion for a ManU fan by beating Arsenal 2-1. Though they were not at their best and failed to produce the big match form that has been their style this season. But thankfully they did not have to pay a price in terms of points, though their performance will require some thinking if they have to really win this.

Arsenal begin as they did against Pool last week, by firing on all cylinders. They put the United defence, missing Nemanja Vidic under a lot of pressure. This ploy would have worked if they were some more accurate with their finishing. United, it appeared were in a disarray by the constant attacks but somehow held their nerve and began counter attacks of their own. It made for fascinating stuff and by half time the honours were even.

Arsenal stuck quickly in the second half through Adebayour and it looked like United would have to really pull their socks. But like it happened against Pool, after Arsenal took a vital goal, they conceded a penalty. Amidst high drama when he was asked to take the penalty twice, Ronaldo scored. 1-1

This brought the crucial time in the game, the time after a hour. ManU made two changes. Tevez and Anderson brought an attacking nature to the game. Arsenal were stringing passes but were no longer appearing too threatening. United kept attacking and got a free kick just outside the Arsenal box. Hargreaves scored the goal through a wonderful free kick. 2-1!!

Wenger brought on Theo Walcott and suddenly there appeared a new edge to Arsenal. Wonder why he is not starting games though. ManU did well to prevent the gunners from scoring and ended high and dry.

All in all, a wonderful game and no one deserved to lose. Arsenal threw away the lead yet again and ended second best.

So ManU are truly on to winning their second consecutive title after the worst start to their season in many years while Arsenal who started on a dream note are to end their season empty handed.

Update

After waiting for more than a month, I finally got home connectivity... I think this will help in doing my office work from home (if needed ) and also help in reviving my blogging which has gone dormat for a long time.
India lost the match to SA by an innings and 90 runs. One of the most humiliating defeats in recent times. Hope that this will not make BCCI to start focusing on slow pitches again.
EPL has shown that it has some more surprises in store. Middlesbrough did Chelsea and Arsenal a huuuuge favour by holding ManU to a draw. This after Arsenal and Pool played out a 1-1 draw and Chelsea won. With the blues 3 pts behind ManU and 3 pts ahead of the Gunners and with both to play ManU we are in for an exciting finish.
Another good result for Ferrari as they finished 1-2 in Bahrain. They seem to be coming together after a bad start in the Australian GP.

Oracle : Key Tables

This lists some of the tables that are of good use when looking at data at the session level.


1. v$session_longops: Has data regarding operations that are running on the database.

Execution plan on SQLPLUS

To get only the execution plan for a query and check for its performance even before executing the query, use the foll command on sqlplus:

set autotrace traceonly explain

This will show the execution plan for the query.

ORA: 01653: Unable to extend Table

An oracle error when Oracle is unable to extend the table in a tablespace.

Solution:
Extend the tablespace size

alter database datafile 'xyz.dbf' resize 1000M (The new total size)

Getting the datafile: Go to DBA->Segment management and Tablespaces in TOAD.

Sometimes the system may not have enough space for increasing tablespace file size.

Create a new file and attach it to the tablespace

ALTER TABLESPACE
ADD DATAFILE 'abc.dbf' SIZE 100M
AUTOEXTEND ON
NEXT 1024K
MAXSIZE 250M

Starting again

I have been writing this blog more than three years now. There have been spurts of blogs balanced with equal times of inactivity. There have been times where I have felt like blogging but have been unable to do so due to many reasons.

I just feel that I should blog whenever I find time, about anything I feel (that's what my blog says anyways) without waiting for getting something to write. If I do not like it, I can always delete it later.

So starting again from now, I am back :) ..

-Vin

A sedate start

The WC 2007 got off to a sedate start yesterday with not much fireworks. The match between WI and Pak did not set the thrill meters jumping. But it was not a farce too as the match was contested nicely.
Coming to the match, Pak lost but not much should be needed to it. It is possible in the early stages of the tournaments to have a few hiccups and it might not cause any major upsets.

-Winz

World Cup 2007

As I am writing this, the Cricket World Cup 2007 has begun in the West Indies. I intended to write about this, but never found the time. Hopefully I will find some time in the next eight weeks to write something. I would really like India to win this one, though I do not see that we have enough players to play in crunch matches.

-Winz

Inertia

All of us have studied in school that inertia refers to a continued state of rest or motion unless it is subjected to an external force. I find that sometimes I have a state of inertia. That is though things around me are changing or the situation is changing, I take my time to act on it.
Whenever anything changes, all the people connected with it respond to it (or react to it). Though it is not desirable to react at the drop of a hat, it is equally not good to remain inactive though things are changing around you.
If I feel so, then why do I hesitate to act ? Maybe due to the fact that I am an introvert and do not like to interact with people unnecessarily. Or that I am an optimist who hopes that somehow things straighten themselves. Or is it because I am lazy and do not want to do things? Or I do not like responsibility?
Whatever be the reason, whenever I behave like this, it invariably fills me with remorse and I feel I am not doing justice to myself and those who trust me.
So to change, I need to lower the level of changes that will trigger an action on my part.

-Vinayak

My Zodiac personality

After a long time, I visited the site where I took some tests maybe a couple of years back.

Took a zodiac personality test


Discover your Zodiac Personality @ Quiz Me


-Vinayak

Nit Picking

I am a person who likes detail but what I do not like is focusing on the minor detail so much that the main objective is lost. Like you are very hungry (close to starved) and you are debating whether to eat Chinese or Italian ... I mean come on... the main point is that you have to eat something.. I do not care if it is at a darshini. When I am not hungry that is another matter. Or cricket commentators debating about which order a batsman should come in to bat.. when the greater issue is if the player deserves to be in the team or not.
Such discussions invariably lead to failures as the whole is always more important than the parts. But somehow, people seem to take devilish pleasure in ripping apart something and critiquing each and every detail.
Mind you, I am not saying we should not look in the detail. Details are also important, but only when the broad picture is correct. What is the use in arguing about do we take a left or a right when we are in the wrong city!! . The only correct way is the way that leads to the correct city.

-Vinayak

A good Idea

Last week, I was in my hometown of Hubli and came back to Bangalore this week. When travelling in buses, I was pleasantly surprised to see (or re -see as it was earlier also) way of dispensing tickets which is less hassle free and also eliminates the ticket reuse tactics...
Bus conductors in Hubli use an electronic ticket dispensing machine. The guy enters the source and destination codes and a ticket print out appears out of the machine. This has some advantages: 1. The source and destination are marked so the ticket holder cannot "overstay" in the bus. I mean it will be easy for the conductor to check if he doubts.
2. Since the time is also printed on the ticket, there wont be any "ticket reuse".
3. The conductor need not carry stacks of tickets and keep tabs on how many tickets he dispensed.
What has surprised me is that apart from the volvo buses in Bangalore, no other buses are using this (or atleast I have not seen them doing it) . And Bangalore is the IT capital of India!!

Time FA did something....

I watched the match between Manchester United and Middlesbrough on Saturday. As a Man Utd fan, I am happy that the win took us 6 points of Chelsea. But the manner in which the first goal was scored left a bitter taste in the mouth.
Initially, I thought that there was contact, but replays showed clearly that there was no contact and the only reason I can think of Ronaldo diving is that he had lost the ball and thus the chance to score the goal. So he dived, ManU got a penalty and the rest is history. I for one thought that the boos he got were deserved. And to follow this, he dived again to get a free kick.
Now comes my question? How can the FA stop this? It has become imperative in light of the recent happenings where players from the top clubs resort to such tactics to get penalties, free kicks or get opponents sent off. And in my opinion, such behaviour from clubs like ManU, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool send a signal to the other teams that "this is the way to win" . So more and more teams will do so, thus reducing the game to a farce.
Some suggestions so that the FA reduces this:
1. Have a match referee who can annul goals or cards after the match. This referee should disallow a goal scored to a penalty or a free kick got from a dive. Similarly cards, given if any should be rescinded.
2. The player should be warned once, and for the next occassion, given a yellow card. For subsequent offences, the player should be banned from a couple of games. The only catch is that this should be done consistently to avoid charges of bias.
3. The club should be fined for repeated occurences. If they can be fined for the conduct of their fans, surely they can be fined for the conduct of their players too.
4. The club should be penalised by deducting a certain number of points for such behaviour. This may be harsh but putting pressure on the clubs is the only way to have any effect on the game.

I just hope that I do not get to see a match where the winning goal was scored by cheating.

-Winz