India Blend

Playstation 3 & madness begins......

2006-11-13T19:25:00.000+05:30

all we know how much we awaited about PS 3 & it's release . The mighty monster is finally released by Sony in Japan recently & it's starting new kinda madness over it.

"Tokyo - After its sell-out launch, the PlayStation 3 buying frenzy has jetted into cyberspace with some owners asking up to four times the retail price on Japanese internet auction sites on Monday.

Only 100 000 PS3s were shipped by Sony for Saturday's launch in Japan due to production problems with the DVD player, so many thousands of would-be buyers went away empty handed.

Now those with cash to burn have a second chance, with dozens of brand-new, still-boxed PS3s on sale online amid reports many of those who queued up were not real game fans but were instead being paid by black marketeers.

One PS3 with a 60-gigabyte hard drive which would have cost about $500 in Japanese stores was on sale on Monday on the internet auction site eBay for an asking price of $2 300.

Others were attracting bids from $600 up to as high as $1 475.

Paid homeless people

While many of Saturday's buyers gushed enthusiastically about the power of the PlayStation, there were others who admitted they had never before owned one and appeared reluctant to talk about why they were queuing up in the cold.

Homeless people were apparently being paid by middle men to queue up for consoles that are now being sold on the black market to dodge the "one per customer" rule.

PS3s have also been fetching as much as three times the retail price online in the United States ahead of their launch there on Friday as people sell their pre-ordered consoles in advance.

Despite the strong launch, investors were keeping a lid on their optimism with Sony shares down ¥30 or 0.6% at ¥4 640 in early afternoon trade.

Analysts noted that the brisk demand on day one was largely expected and the real question is whether Sony can meet its forecast to ship six million PS3s worldwide by March 2007.

Lack of game titles

The launch comes at a time when the world's second-largest consumer electronics firm is struggling to regain consumer confidence amid a wave of technical problems including recalls of millions of its computer batteries.

Mitsuhiro Osawa, an analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities, said he expects a rather slow start for PS3, citing a lack of game titles that can be played on the console.

"For Sony, how sales will fare in the next year when software publishers are expected to release more titles is a focal point.

"But there should be no problem in selling out the initial lot as the so-called 'early adapters' - or those consumers who prefer buying any new product - will jump on them," he said.

The success of the console is considered vital to a revival at Sony, which is in the midst of major restructuring including 10 000 job cuts under its first foreign chief executive, the Welsh-American Howard Stringer."

"Despite Sony’s best efforts at blocking so-called grey imports, or products sold and shipped from abroad, a number of sellers on eBay are offering PlayStation 3 consoles from Japan as well as pre-orders from shops in the US in anticipation of the console’s release this weekend.

The price for the model has reached over £915 at the time of press, and one seller is offering a Buy-it-now price of £999.

A number of listings are for units to be shipped from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan, with some sellers promising to refund any VAT that may be slapped on when it enters UK shores.

A listing for a pre-order for a 20GB unit from the US has reached over £500, while a 60GB unit has been sold for £1,220.

However, some listings are rather misleading, with sellers promising that the units are region free. There is some confusion over the region encoding of games and Blu-ray discs.

A spokesperson has confirmed that Blu-ray discs are indeed region encoded, as are both PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games, so that if you buy one of the units from Japan, you won’t be able to play older European games on it. PS3 games are indeed region-free, but there are only about 5 available at the moment. "

& yeah to add that there are some PS 3 disassembly videos are around on youtube which you can check ( ofcourse without buying or hurting your own )

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=PS3+disassembly&search=Search

Padmini Ramachandran (Meenu Master) is no more

2006-09-26T01:34:00.000+05:30

Padmini Ramachandran , have u guys remember this name of film world. She was well known actress of our past bollywood & south indian cinema. She just passed away in Chennai on sunday night @ chennai.

If you still don't remember who she was , then just do go back in past , film "Mera Naam Joker" where there was a girl called Meena ( Minu master called by Rajkapoor in the film).
There were many performances by her in hindi & south films.
just chek them on http://imdb.com/name/nm0655804/#actress

god may help her soul rest.

Domain name auction & scam

2006-09-13T12:09:00.000+05:30

Some people earn by work , some by writing. There is another way to earn is to sell on online site like ebay. You can sell everything from your undergarments to your soul (aaaha ) ,yea , people doing it. There are people who selling air which was collected when some so called "celebraty" was there . There are thousands of such exaples for it.

But, when there is good side of it ,then there is also bad side of it like scam. Just recently, www.ganesh.com has made it hadelines with "Hindu" & "Indian express" about it's domain name auction sale. Newspapers amazed that the domain name is worth 12 lakh !!!

when the auction started , it started with awesome bid with 5 Rs. & it went as high as 3,50,000 Rs. Now, I really don't understand how such big bull's jump has done to this auction ? may be it's really such worth it , LoL.
so, our estimed auctioner finally closed it with no match with reserve price.

On September issue's editorial , Deepak Ajwani (excutive editor, Thinkdigit) too noted about this domain name sale. He was little heart broken that our "God" oriented domain is loosing in terms of history's higest auction bid's like "sex.com". He lastly reported when bid was @ 50,000 Rs.

Now, Tom Sanders from Itnews.com.au has wrote about such auction on ebay recently.

"Scammers have turned to automated bots to create Ebay accounts with a positive feedback record, reports security vendor Fortinet.

Online criminals use the automated scripts or bots to create vast collections of user accounts with positive feedback records. Those accounts can then be used to attract buyers by offering high value items that are never delivered after the bot-master criminals have received payments.

Ebay uses feedback ratings to allow its users to build up a reputation. Sellers with a low feed back typically deliver poor customer service or have failed to deliver goods. Buyers are also suspicious of sellers who lack any feedback, especially when it comes to buying and selling more expensive goods.
The bogus accounts typically sell virtual items such as wallpapers and e-books through a "buy it now" auction for one cent and no shipping costs. Those items are then bought by another fraudulent Ebay account, all in an automated fashion.

"Most [of the sellers'] user names are made of six to eight random letters and bear around 15 evaluations. Having a look at these profiles reveals that they’ve bought roughly the same items – all for one cent," Fortinet noted on its website.

Further indicating a level of automation, each buyer is leaving identical comments for each transaction.

"With that one cent rate, building 100 accounts with 15 positive feedbacks each costs US$15. And 100 accounts are a reasonably solid base to set up a good deal of bogus auctions."

The auctioning website is a popular target for online scam artists.

source -http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=35511

I remember when last year or something 1 charity bollywood starts programme was organised in Mumbai. They arranged various online bidding on ebay like tea with celebrity & etc. There was a bid such that started with 15,00,000 Rs & when I cheked lastly it was around 24,000 Rs (Ouch ) .

Stock exchange- How much manipulated ?

2006-09-12T00:51:00.000+05:30

well well , our great dalal street is always records for something & people working here never let them just in history. Our indian stock history having many milestones with names like Late.Harshad Mehta to Ketan Parikh. About Ketan Parikh , he still paying crores of rupees to Madhupuara co-op bank @ ahmedabad for defaults he own to bank. Sebi has baned him for trading or any activity in stock exchange but he still paying them in quaterly any how. Sources says that he still active in the exchange but by back doors.

Now, here , a company is called Minal Engg. which is producing nothing is caching eyelines with market people. The company gone in IPO with stock price of Rs. 5 . It went to high as much as 400 + Rs when last stock boom & market crash happened. Sebi barred company for sometime. Now, the company is back in it's stock's "magic" prices. The company stock price is now jumped from 37 Rs to 200 + Rs. No wonder how it gained such high jump !

Oldboy (2003)

2006-09-09T15:32:00.000+05:30

Blood, torture & Violence thats the catchline.

If you not bother to see the cinema where torturisim is kinda main subject & wht else you can expect when this flick is made for you.
The story is about "Ho Dae-su" who is kept in prison ( you can call it sickest cell one can imagine) for 15 years for revenge by Villan of movie. Then there are life span of 15 years of Dae- su & torturisim by him & to him. After that, he released 1 day & given the 5 days to know/take revenge. He finds a girl, moves with her & film moves. During this , we know that Dae-su was victiim of villan becoz in his school days he saw villan doing "incest sex" with his sister. Due to this villan killed his sister & thinks reason is Dae-su. He kidnapes Dae-su for those 15 years. Towards the end , he finds that villan made him sex with his own daughter.

rating : 3/10

Notes: aah, I gave 3 for different story, non-horror but horror with such blooooody scenes.
Hindi movie "Zinda" was inspired (LoL) by this film. Zinda is having almost scene to scene copy(including costume, hair style, etc). But the film having scenes which u may never thought in dreams. Scenes like Dae-su attempt to sex with girl (daughter) when she using toilet, incest sex of brother sister, teeth removing by hammer (ouchh) . More, he use his man made metal needle kinda to make signs on his hand for counting years his term in Jail, cutting tounge.
1 thing I really not understand about the character of villan , how can he looks like younger than Dae-su even after those 15 years.
I don't know wht director Chan-wook Park thought for this filck & writer whether to sympthy for thier work. I too surprised that it made in IMDB 250 movies list.
Just make surewhile watching it ,there is no 1 around you (even after reading this)

Ashwin reviewed it in past -http://ashwinr.com/2006/07/11/how-gross-can-a-movie-get/

In the last , Oldboy's sequel is announced & slated release for year 2008 .

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

2006-09-03T19:11:00.000+05:30

3rd installement of fast & furious series

I saw this movie on my PC since again it's late asian release. But, the movie has finally hit cinemas here & I cheked it on cinema just last week with friends. The story is like " Sean Boswell, who has always been an outsider. A loner at school, his only connection to the indifferent world around him is through illegal street racing -- which has made him particularly unpopular with the local authorities. To avoid jail time, Sean is sent out of the country to live with his Farther in the military, in a cramped apartment in a low-rent section of Tokyo. Here , he found new friend like Twinkie who is man in racing there with his awesome modified Toyota. Then , he race with villan of movie called "D.K." & looses to him the race . In btw , he fall in love with D.K.'s love Neela. Since, he loosed the race , he joins hand with Han (partner of D.K.) to learn drifting car. Han is charged with moving money from D.K . from their mafia business. Should , I tell the rest of story , no way , comon , chek the movie yourself.

rating : 6/10

Notes: In the opening sequence , there is a background song which I really liked much ( chek it ).The movie having tell of Yakuza which is mafia trade involving "pachinko machines". The main man heading the business is called "Komoto". Movie will also teach you new japanise word like "takashi", "gygine"( ow, new way to learn Japanise).
& yeah , there is Han in the movie who look like Jackie chan. Vin Diesel is in special cameo roll in the end. Sean is calling D.K. =japanise timberlake , LoL.
and thanks to film director to show some awesome cars & lottttts of Japanise gals.

Chiken Guniya

2006-09-03T02:46:00.000+05:30

Chiken Guniya , wait a min , before u start thinking that it's some new nawabi chiken dish, stop there. It's a viral fever caused by bite by mosquito.
Now since the rain season is going on & all over India is having flooding which is helping our best friend of "night" mosquito to grow their community. Then there are few more places like resevoir water or dumping ground , wastage channels are to add to that list.Many places in India have reports of having thousands of cases for "Chiken guniya" including ahmedabad, surat, chennai etc. People are trying their best to kill these "blood suckers" , I myself busy trying various products. Till then , I tried mosquito coil (Kachchuwa jalao machchar bhagao, lol), next 1 is spray to try.
now I know why some freak wrote that song "sala 1 machchar aadmi ko ...... bana deta hai "

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest(2006)

2006-08-30T12:07:00.000+05:30

A sequel better than it's original !

once again the filmi "kahani" is written that moves around "Once again thrown into the world of the supernatural, Captain Jack Sparrow finds out that he owes a blood debt to the legendary Davey Jones, Captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman. With time running out, Jack must find a way out of his debt or else be doomed to eternal damnation and servitude in the afterlife. And as if this weren't enough, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are arrested and sentenced to death unless Will can get Lord Beckett Jack's compass, who are forced to join Jack on yet another misadventure."
The movie released in India on 23rd september (again Hollywood studio's foolish think to release it lately in asian circuit in name of stop piracy). Movie grossed 100 million $ in just 2 days record time, beating previous records.

ratings : 10/10

notes: runtime is almost 150 min (long enough for ppl who says hollywood flicks are only 1& 1/2hr long) . funny thing is in US it got rated PG-13 for intense sequences of adventure violence, including frightening images, lol. I cheked it's english & dubbed hindi version in cinema. @the moment no TC is avilable for it.

& yes , gr8 lovely hug to Keira Knightley.

Platoon (1986)

2006-08-30T11:08:00.000+05:30

one of the IMDB's 250 movie & best film oscar winner film in 1986.

here wht the film runs around "A gritty and emotional look at the lives of a platoon of American soldiers as they patrol, fight and die in the jungles of Vietnam as seen through the perspective of a young recruit. Two veteran sergeants clash when one of them precipitates a massacre of villagers."
Rating: 7/10
Notes: oh yea , I hate Charlie Sheen ( duno why ! ) , beware of gory scenes on movie.

V for Vendetta (2005)

2006-08-29T16:54:00.000+05:30

oh , too much work & busy life so , just got time to review this film.

so, in short, the film is something like "The futuristic tale unfolds in a Great Britain that's a fascist state. A freedom fighter known as V (Weaving) uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressive society. He rescues a young woman (Portman) from the secret police, and she becomes his unlikely ally."

The film is based on Allan Moore's novel with same name as film. Film having sequences based on some of our recent past war drama like Iraq ,Afghanistan (thats my views ).

Ratings : 9/10

note: a must watch with catch line " remember remember the 5th of November "

Wanna try luck @ Hollywood ,get some enlarge 1st

2006-01-28T19:09:00.000+05:30

Indian movie star Sheetal Sheth was shocked when she first arrived in Hollywood because every agent she approached insisted that she needed to get her breasts augmented.
Sheetal, who got her big break as the secretary in Albert Brook’s “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World”, thought people would have problems with her name - not the size of her bust.
Sheth says, “I went to Los Angeles and they told me to get boobs. About five different times they have suggested I get breast implants.
“I just laughed because my body is in proportion. I’m not buxom by any means but I’m a small girl so how much bustier can I be? Thank God I have a healthy self-image.”
We may “hate” Celebrities for getting plastic surgery, but the pressure on them is enormous it seems.
What we need is more acceptance, on our end and on the celebrities’ end. What Sheetal reveals is a very cut throat and high school mentality. The peer pressure must be enormous, and congratulations to Sheetal for not caving in to it, but for how long - who knows?

notes: it's ripped from shoutwire , O Sheetal where are you ?

2006-01-26T11:00:00.000+05:30

Welcome to India Blend

since this is the place to be discuss various talks about India & other.
I will try my hand for that soon.