Category Archives: General

27 May

My Sony DSC HX1 Performance, Learning and Photos – I

After a lot of ifs, buts, confusions and questions I’ve bought Sony’s DSC HX1 . Well I’m not that good at photography but yes I like that.

Here I will post my some of the photography with new DSC HX1. I’d request your comments and suggestion to improve it.
Mind well, the pictures captured and uploaded here are compressed to almost ~30% to fit the size restrictions.
I hope you’ll like it. Don’t Miss the last picture of the page.

Close Ups:

Earliest morning capture in low light:

Flowers:

Zoomed at Max to reach here:

Concentrated on subjects – Still learning on this:

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No matter how many fish in the sea, it feel so empty without me 🙂  [At some lake on the way to Jammu]:

Bat-man begins – I’ve never seen it so clear (except on discovery)

The horizontal and vertical panorama captures of The Taj Mahal and The Kutub Minar – Possibly very first time captures 😉

Taj Mahal - panorama view

Kutub Minar - panorama view

Attempt to get the Moon:

The Moon by DSC HX1

Now the best of my live captures [as of now]:

The law applies: Survival of the fittest.

I saw it live, a fish came out, got its food and went back in water. Life is all about struggle and here you can see the risk of life that brave fish has taken… I really love that… This is the extent one should go to get what you want. I should have captured video but… alas… Enjoy the capture mean while…

Life for food-food for life

Your comments are welcome.

27 Apr

Google:Earth View on Google maps

When have you lastly visited Google Maps? Google have now Introduced Google Earth on Google Maps. Now using Browser you can  see 3D maps online; they named it “Earth View”.

Till now we were just looking at flat terrains but after installing the Earth View Plugin, you will be able to get actual 3D view. You don’t need to install the Google Earth Software, this is simple browser plugin that will do the trick.

You can see the places like Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, Eiffel, the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower and many other favourites in 3D mode.

3D Earth View of Effiel Tower

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3D Taj Mahal from Earth View

3D Taj Mahal from Earth View

You just need to download the Google Earth View plugin: http://earth.google.com/plugin/

Enjoy.

03 Apr

Place to visit Mumbai: Alibaug 1-2 day tour weekend picnic

Think about one day tour and a lot of fun in Mumbai? Alibaug is a good choice.

It a normal budget, full day, full fun and great place.

Reach Gateway Of India. [20 Mins walk / 5 Mins (Rs. 15) Taxi from Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus / Victoria Terminus]

Gateway of India

Gateway of India

Book a PNP / Ajanta Jetty from booking stalls opposite to Gateway of India. [AC – 120, non-AC – 65]. [First ferry @ 8.30 AM – depends on tide conditions too]

Non-AC ferry, top seat is best way to travel as you can feel the breezing wind and cool waves. The birds following in the mid-sea to the ship is a different fun to capture them.

Sea Birds following Jetty

Sea Birds following Jetty

Next you will land at Mandwa port, Quick walk to the bus services provided by PNP / Ajanta to Alibaug. [It takes 1 Hr from Gateway of India to Mandwa and ~30 Mins from Mandwa to Alibaug.]

If you’re over cautious, book tickets for return journey and confirm day’s last jetty. PNP / Ajanta Jetty service offices are near by only.

The closest beach is Alibaug beach, walk-able distance from Alibaug bus stand.

At Alibaug beach you may have water bike / wave ride, or normal sea-routines.

If you’re a fort’oholic, you may choose to visit the Colaba Fort @ 100 Rs / person through a 10 minute boat ride. 1 hr. is sufficient to capture all major corners of the fort.

Colaba Fort, Alibaug

Colaba Fort, Alibaug

Kolaba Fort, Alibaug

Kolaba Fort, Alibaug

I don’t much recommend Alibaug to waste your precious time on.

Akshi and Negaon beaches are on the same route. Auto will charge 120 Rs for Negaon beach ~30 mins from Alibaug Station / beach. [Take mobile number from auto driver in case of no return transport availability.]

Negaon beach

and is really a recommended one. It has nice long beach with all those coconut trees greeting the waves to the shore.

If you’re a bunch of crazy guys looking for a place to freak-out, Negaon beach is for you. Football, cricket, Hourse riding or any beaching activity is absolute fun here. I don’t like lazy bums in the gang but they can rest under the shadows on misty sand. Gliding and water rides are of-course available.

Negaon Beach, Alibaug

Negaon Beach, Alibaug

Negaon Beach, Alibaug

Negaon Beach, Alibaug

Hotels / rooms are cheap; food is okay; though these shouldn’t impact as these are not major fun part.

You cannot cover everything in one day; nor have I visited all of the attractions there.

For 1 day tour, pack a bag and directly reach to Negaon beach.

Approx expenditure: <500 Rs / person.
Large

Other Routes:

By Road: One can reach Alibag via Pen (30 km away), which is on the Mumbai (78 km away) – Goa road.

From Mumbai, one can reach Alibag by traveling on the Mumbai-Goa highway (NH-17) till Wadkhal (Vadkhal) and taking the right fork from Wadkal – the left fork will lead you to Goa. The distance is approximately 108 km from Mumbai.

By Railways: The nearest rail railway station are Pen, India. Through Pen, India, it is connected to Khopoli.

Other beaches at Alibaug:

Varsoli Beach:Located about a mile from the main beach, home to a very large naval base.

Kihim-Navgaon Beach: Kihim is a secluded place at a distance of 12 km from Alibag. The Kihim beach is famous for dense cover of Coconut trees. It is also famous for woods which are home to rare butterflies, birds and flowers.

Awas: It is situated about 16 km away from Alibag.

Saswane: It is situated about 18 km away from Alibag.

Rewas: It is situated about 24 km away from Alibag.

Chaul Revdanda: It is situated about 17 km away from Alibag.

kaneshwar Mandir: It is situated about 17 km away from Alibag to karlekhind-chondi road.

Mandawa: It is situated about 20 km north of Alibag. The catamaran/ferry services are available from Mumbai to the Mandawa jetty. Many Bollywood celebrities own bungalows here.

Kashid Beach: It is 36 km away from Alibag, on the Alibag-Murud highway, also this beach is possibly one of the cleanest and most beautiful beaches in the region with almost ‘white’ sand.

27 Mar

Earth Hour March 27 2010-India-Switch off lights for future

Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). Earth Hour held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

In 2007, 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights and in 2008 many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008.

In India during Earth Hour 2009, almost five million Indians across 56 cities switched off their lights for an hour to contribute towards the action for climate change.
Earth hour saved almost 1000 MW of power! Celebrities and cricketers including Aamir Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble have supported the cause with Abhishek Bachchan pledging his support as the brand ambassador.

Earth Hour 2010 will take place on March 27, 2010 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., local time.

Earth Hour 2010 is reportedly on track to become the largest Earth Hour yet, aiming to garner more than the one billion participant goal of 2009’s Earth Hour.

121 countries have signed up for Earth Hour 2010.

Show your support:

New economic modelling indicates the world has only 5 years to initiate a low carbon industrial revolution before runaway climate change becomes almost inevitable. But it can be done, and the long term benefits will be enormous.

So now’s the time to take a stand and give world leaders the mandate they need to make the right climate deal.

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This year, India – IHG Hotels Group Support the Earth Hour Cause by encouraginh in-house guests to switch off lights in their rooms and join the “guestogether” parties being hosted by them between 8:30 and 9:30pm.

Lets start making difference-

Switch off all unnecessary lights @ 8.30 on 27th March

and make the Earth Hour a success towards our a better future.

25 Feb

God-Sachin Tendulkar takes Cricket on New Heights-Records Machine

They say,

If cricket is a religion Sachin is the God.

It’s been 2,961 matches and 39 years when the first ODI was played. On 24th February 2010, Sachin Tendulkar broke the barrier of 200 runs in ODI, set one more standard.

Every Indian believes in him and his skills, no matter in what situation the team is, if Sachin has always been people’s hope and many of the times Master Blaster have proved that.

If you think this all Sachin thing is a Hype, my suggestion is BELIEVE the HYPE…

Most – Sachin Tendulkar:

  • Most Test centuries: 47
  • Most ODI centuries: 46
  • Most ODI Fifties: 93
  • Most Matches Played: 442
  • Most Inning Appearances: 431
  • Most number of Test Matches for India: 166
  • Most run scored in the history of Test cricket with 13447 Test runs.
  • Most Runs in an ODI Innings: 200 runs (147ball 25×4 3×6) in an ODI against South Africa.
  • Most 4’s in ODI: 25 against South Africa. (Century through 4’s)
  • Most Runs: 17,598 Runs at the rate of 45.12 runs (as of 25 February 2010).
  • Most individual runs ever scored by a batsmen in an ODI (200* against South Africa at Gwalior in 2010).
  • Most centuries against an opponent – 9 vs. Australia.
  • Most centuries vs. Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.
  • Most centuries in Final Matches 6 (India Win All Matches)
  • Most centuries against One Team – Australia 19 (10 test+9 ODI)
  • Most number of 50+ scores in ODIs – 139 (46 Centuries and 93 Fifties)
  • Most number of 1,000 ODI runs in a calendar year: Seven times – 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2007
  • Most Fifties in World Cup Matches : 13
  • Most number of Man of the Match Awards : 61
  • Most number of Man of the Series Awards: 15
  • Most ODI runs in a calendar year: 1,894 ODI (1998).
  • Most centuries in a calendar year: 9 ODI centuries (1998).
  • Most centuries in international cricket: 93 centuries (47 in Tests, 46 in ODIs).
  • Most runs by any player in a single Cricket World Cup – 673 runs in 2003 Cricket World Cup
  • Most overall runs in international cricket, (ODIs+Tests+Twenty20s): 30,000+
  • Most overall runs in international cricket (ODIs+Tests+Twenty20s): 30,000+ (13447 in Tests, 17,598 in ODIs).
  • Most number of times getting out at 90s(90-99 score): 17

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The only player – Sachin Tendulkar:

  • The only player ever to cross the 14,000-15,000-16,000 and 17,000 run marks.
  • The only player ever to score 200 runs in an ODI
  • The only player to score 5 times 150+ (186*, 152, 163, 175 and 200*) scores in ODI cricket.
  • The only batsman to score over 3000 runs against any opponent (Against both Australia & Sri Lanka).
  • The only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs.
  • The only player with 5 centuries before age of 20.
  • First and Fastest batsman – Sachin Tendulkar:
  • First player to reach 12,000-13,000 Test runs.
  • First Indian to surpass the 11,000 Test run mark.
  • First batsman in the planet to score a double century in a One Day International.
  • First batsman to reach 10,000-11,000-12,000-13,000-14,000-15,000, 16,000 and 17,000 ODI runs.
  • First batsman in history to score over 50 centuries in international cricket.
  • First batsman in history to complete the 30,000 runs in (ODIs+Tests) or (ODIs+Tests+Twenty20s).
  • Fastest batsman to reach 10,000 runs in ODI (259 innings)
  • Fastest batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket history in 195 innings (Brian Lara holds the same record).

Misc – Sachin Tendulkar:

  • Highest score in Test cricket by an Indian when captaining the side: 217 (Against NZ in 1999/00 Season)
  • Scored centuries against all Test playing nations.
  • Scored over 1000 ODI runs against all major Cricketing nations.
  • The highest batting average among batsmen with over 10,000 ODI runs.
  • On his Test debut, Sachin Tendulkar was the third youngest debutant (16y 205d).
Sachin TendulkarSource: Wikimedia

Records in Partnerships – Sachin Tendulkar:

  • The maximum number of runs scored by the opening partnership (with Sourav Ganguly). They’ve put togather 6,271 runs in 128 matches that includes 20 century partnerships and 21 fifty run partnerships.
  • The highest partnership in ODI matches (with Rahul Dravid) hold the world record for (331 runs against New Zealand in 1999 at the LBS, Hyderabad)
  • Most runs in World Cup Cricket History (1,796 with 4 centuries & 13 fifties at an average of 59.87 as on 20 March 2007)
  • Record of getting out the maximum number of times in the 90s in international matches: 24 times (17 in ODIs and 7 in Tests)

And no… this is not the end… much more is there and much more will come…

Sachin is the Greatest batsman of all time…

Sachin defines the standards and I wish he should keep doing it, on and on and on…       🙂

(as of 24th Feb 2010)

Sources: GK, google & wikipedia

-- Kedar Vaijanapurkar --
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