India – The First T20 Champions
September 24, 2007
Congratulations to Team India. India has pulled off a magnificent thriller, that too against the the arch rivals Pakistan. What else an Indian cricket lover want in his life. I am sure that Indian Cricket fans would cherish this for the rest of the life. The young guns have given a joyful and historic day to Indian cricket fans which they would never forget in the life.
Earlier when India was batting I always thought it was not easy to put 160+ runs on the board against the very good Pakistani bowling attack. Asif, Sohail, Afridi and Gul all were bowling amazingly well with the combination of good length deliveries, lethal yorkers, slower ones without giving any room for the Indian batsmen to play their shots.
I thought Gambhir’s Inning was the key in Indian batting as he has shown caution with aggression and played some lovely strokes all over the park with some nice timing and placement. His six to gul on the mid wicket which had hit the scoreboard on the stands was the shot of the Indian Innings for me. Rohit Sharma’s chipped in in the end and made quick fire 30 of 16 were crucial in India’s victory. He kept a cool nerve and played good cricketing shots in the end. Nasser Hussain was all praise for him for playing good cricketing shots.
Then came the Pakistani batsmen. I was wondering if Afridi would be sent to open along with Imran Nazir, good that he was not sent. You never know in the first six over with fielding restrictions Afridi can easily turn the game. I thought that RP Singh in this tournament was bowling really well and as expected he had bowled a beautiful length delivery to Hafeez which he guided to the hands of Uthappa on the slip and then started the fall of wickets in the regular intervals. The younger Pathan bowled superbly in the middle and took crucial wickets of Malik, Afridi and Arafat. Misbah was in amazing form and shown some good tempermate and maturity while chasing the scores and I am sure he has given many tense moments for the Indians. I had a scary moments when sohail was coming to bat as I heard Rameez Raja saying to Harsha Bhogle that sohail is also known for big hits at the domestic level. He really gave some scary moments too by hitting those two sixers. Though Misbah had tried the clinch the victory from India. I was some how confident that this next gen Indian team would emerge as winners and so did they, when Sreesanth took his catch of the life which will be remembered by Indians as long as cricket is played in india, something similar visual of Mahinder Amarnath lifting the wicket and running towards the stands after the fall of last west indies wicket in 83 world cup.
It was very good and heartening to see the way MS Dhoni Marshaled his team. Be it his strategies, gambles and bowling decisions, choosing players all paid off for Dhoni in this T20 Cup. We can see what a good leader with full of positive energy can make a difference to a team.
Congratulations for Team India Once again.
Sixer Singh’s Six Sixes
September 24, 2007
It was a treat to watch Yuvraj’s six sixer’s in a an over of Broad, more ever his sixers came from absolute cricketing shots no slogging at all. His strength, timing, placing and middling the bowl to the bat were key to those Brilliant hits. I am sure these six sixer’s video’s will be all over the net and will be seen for long long time from now.
For those who had not witnessed this record and for those who want to see it again and again here is the video
India v/s Pakistan – T20 World Cup Final
September 24, 2007
India v/s Pakistan T20 World cup final. This is going to be a treat to watch final for all the cricket lovers across the world. I believe today’s game would be evenly poised as Indian batsmen are doing extremely well and so are Pakistanis in the bowling department. I am sure Indian’s have edge here as they have beaten champions and are in high spirits
If India bats first and gambhir sehwag duo see off asif and sohail in the opening spell then I think the rest would do their job. A good start against Pakistan is a key here. We are on for a good match today. In the Indian bowling department sreesanth, rp singh and harbhajan would be key players to restrain Pakistani batsmen from scoring big scores. I hope Indian players do well today and cheer us with a much needed championship victory over Pakistan.
Chak de India.
40+ Books For Professional Design & Development
September 6, 2007
Smashing Magazine has compiled a list of 40 expert books in the field of typography, color, graphic design, brand identity, inspiration, web design and programming, web 2.0, usability, data visualization and simplicity.
10 Principles for UI Design
September 5, 2007
These are ten general principles for user interface design. They are called “heuristics” because they are more in the nature of rules of the thumb than specific usability guidelines.
Visibility of system status:
The system should always keep users informed about what is goin on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Match between system and the real world:
The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
User control and freedom:
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards:
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Error Prevention:
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Recognition rather than recall:
Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Flexibility and efficiency of use:
Accelerators — unseen by the novice user — may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design:
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors:
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentation:
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.
By Jacob Nielsen


