TORONTO MASTERS

Two days back when I was happened to glance the paper I was shocked to see a news. The Toronto Rogers Cup has started. Since I didn't know the telecast timing I decided to follow up through the papers. What I was Roger was defeated again by Gilles Simon. What is this? Who is this person? A person who has no reputation has stopped Roger yet another time. But this time it is in hard surface. This is not a good way to start the season. Anyways I think Roger has to check out his strategies for playing. If he keeps on playing like this then I don't think so that he will be the best player ever in the history of Tennis. It is not important that your No.1 but you have make some difference from other top seeders.

One of the best player who is forming reputation again and again is Rafael. He has improved all his strategies and is more energetic than any other player of this century. He should be called the best player ever in the history of this century. Rafael will be meeting the unseeded German Nicolas Kiefer on Sunday. I think Rafael has to built a new home to keep his trophies as his reputation is increasing enormously.

HOLLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I returned from my blore trip. I had an extraordinary trip. But the final day was worst. First my parents wanted to go out somewhere. It was pouring outside. But they didn't mind that. They returned by evening. Then they prepared to leave. Our train was scheduled to leave at 22:45. So we thought we can start around 22:00 since the station was nearby. But guess what?????????? My cousin told that the auto drivers will charge double the charge of the original cost. (It is very casual happening there. They just say double in their local terms. They take only 3 people in an auto. 4 people means 1 and 1/2 rate. 5 people means double. Even in call taxi only four. No five people.See in chennai 5 people can go in an auto for normal rate. Call Taxi's wud allow 6 people. Come on learn from chennai). So we have to catch the auto around 21:30. Luckily we got the auto. When we were about to turn from the street where my aunt's house was there my mom had a doubt if my dad has taken his wallet. I stopped the auto in my local Tamil and English(since i din know kannada), lucky that the driver understood me. I asked my dad to check the tickets and we proceeded to the station. When we were nearing the station there was traffic jam. At least in chennai the vehicles will tend to make some movements. But in blore no nothing happened. We were in the same spot for more than 10 minutes. The auto driver turned towards me and asked the train time. There was enough time left.

At one point of time the vehicles started moving. But the car in front of us was pushed by two fellows. What a crap????????? But some how our auto driver took over that car. I was relieved not more a minute. My auto stopped in between the traffic. Driver checked everything. He tried to start again. No nothing was happening. I was shocked and my parents were also equally shocked. After making a quick analysis the driver said "GAS BLOCK". Nothing can be done as of now. He started pushing the auto and took a u-turn and progressed through the same way we came(We cannot cross the road at that streach since there was median.. i guess in chennai the medians can be crossed. In blore they have raised some bars to avoid the pedestrain crossing.). My dad was asked to get to reduce the weight and my mom looked at me questioningly. At one point where we can cross the road he asked us to get down and walk through the pavement and the station will be there. I think I hired the auto to drop me in the station but I walked to station with my parents and all the luggages. We reached the station around 22:25. We started around 21:30 so that we will be around 22:00 hrs at station. We were happy that we started early or else we would have missed the train definitely. So I guess that even if the station is very nearby we have start early to avoid mishap.

ROSES ARE RED

The best novel I have read i my life. A thriller I can never forget in my life. James Patterson is one of the BEST THRILLER SPECIALIST. I started this book on one fine morning. Right from the first page it was very interesting. So I was not able keep the book down. But destiny has everything for me. My mom started scolding me for not cleaning my room. So I kept the book down an Finished the cleaning work in a hurry. Then a struggle between me and mom over lunch. So finally I took the book. Guess what????My friend called me and i was talking over the phone for an hour. What a day to start a superb novel??? I just hit myself. Then picked up the book once again and continued for hours together. I put a note to mom "DON'T DISTURB". For another three hours I was not at all disturbed. I had some 50 pages. The suspense was at the edge. Since I don't have the habit of reading the last few pages ahead of the earlier pages I was glued to the book. I forgot my dinner and finally finished the book. But the ending was a horror for me. It has a sequel. OMG!!!! My head would burst without reading the sequel book. Till date I searching the sequel book to have it for myself.... Hoping to find the book soon.

The book was amazing and it is one of the top 10 in my list. What a talent has James Patterson got.. No way. Excellent way of handling the suspense. He is one of the author who can make the readers forget all essential things in life. If you read his novels you will definitely like his work more than any authors. He is THE BEST AUTHOR in this world.

OMNIDIRECTIONAL CAMERA

Few days back I came across this article which dealt with a camera with a 360 degree field of view. So the camera is called OMNIDIRECTIONAL CAMERA. Omnidirectional cameras are important in areas where large visual field coverage is needed, such as in photography or robotics. Here is some glimpse of that camera.

In photography, an omnidirectional camera (from omni,meaning all) is a camera with a 360-degree field-of-view. Omnidirectional cameras are important in areas where large visual field coverage is needed, such as in panoramic photography and robotics.

Overview

A camera normally has a field of view that ranges from a few degrees to, at most, 180 degrees. This means that it captures, at most, light falling onto the camera focal point through a semi-sphere. In contrast, an omnidirectional camera captures light from all directions falling onto the focal point, covering a full sphere. In practice, however, most omnidirectional cameras cover only almost the full sphere and many cameras which are refered to as omnidirectional cover only approximately a semi-sphere. In the case that they cover full sphere, the captured light rays typically do not intersect in a single focal point.

Applications

The picture shows the omni directional(360 degree) view of a corridor.

Panoramic art

Traditional approaches to panoramic photography mainly consists of stitching shots taken separately into a single, continuous image. The stitching of images, however, is computationally intensive and depending upon the quality and consistency of the shots used, the resulting image might contain a number of deficiencies which impair the quality of the resulting image. In contrast, an omnidirectional camera can be used to create panoramic art in real time, without the need for post processing, and will typically give much better quality products.

Robotics and computer vision

In robotics, omnidirectional cameras are frequently used for visual odometry and to solve the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problems visually.Due to its ability to capture a 360-degree view, better results can be obtained for optical flowand feature selection and matching.

Miscellaneous

Appliations of omnidirectional cameras also include surveillance, when it is important to cover an as large visual field as possible, teleconferencing, where it is of interest to include as many participants as possible in the same image.

SPREAD THE WORD

For a long time I m very eager to join in hands with some social organisations for the services. Here I m going put sum posts about the organisations that really for the society. So my post on this label called "RATIONAL THINKING" would be about THE BANAYAN.

Battered, bruised, brutally abused, both physically and sexually, ignored by everybody, eating out of garbage bins and with no place to call home. This was the situation of Chennai’s homeless women with mental illness even just a decade ago. They were an invisible minority, and would have stayed invisible had it not been for two young women who put them firmly back on Chennai’s social agenda. Vandana Gopikumar, then still a Master’s student of Social Work, came across a half-naked, mentally ill homeless woman in absolute distress on the road in front of her college. Nobody else seemed even to notice her. With the help of a close friend, Vaishnavi Jayakumar, she tried to find shelter for the woman. But most of the NGO's and organizations were not ready to accept the women.

They decided that they have to solve the problem and the result was the seeds to THE BANYAN. Vandana finished her Masters where as Vaishnavi dropped out of her MBA and joined in hand with her friend.The girls started growing the seeds of The Banyan in 1993.The Banyan started off as a shelter and transit home for homeless women for mental illness who had wandered from their homes across the country and ended up in the streets of Chennai.One of the duo’s core beliefs was that the women needed to receive timely treatment and to be rehabilitated in mainstream society. Twelve years later, after reaching out to over 1500 women, and successfully rehabilitating over 700, their beliefs have been vindicated.

With little more than the firm belief that nothing is impossible and that every human being on this planet is entitled to a life of dignity, The Banyan was registered as a Trust in 1993. Adaikalam (Tamil for ‘home’), a rented three-bedroom building, became a care and rehabilitation centre. Eventually over 100 women would call Adaikalam home, finding it a safe, comforting place where their wounds would be healed. Days of no money and hungry mouths to feed were not uncommon. As desperate as was the struggle was the importance of the work. 1994 saw The Banyan’s first rehabilitation, the beginning of more happy reunions and fairy tale endings than anyone could ever imagine.

There are several ways in which you can help The Banyan:

1) Make a donation in cash
2) Make a donation in kind
3) Volunteer with The Banyan
4) Visit The Banyan and spend some time with their residents
5) Organise some informal entertainment for their residents
6) Tell your friends, relatives and acquaintances about the work of The Banyan
7) Spread awareness on mental health issues at your school, college or workplace
8) Accept the mentally ill as individuals and as members of our society

All i wanted is that people whoever read this post should know that how privileged we are with our life. All they need is just a hand to help them to live a life that we are having. SPREAD THE WORD.

TELL ME YOUR DREAMS

I wanted to read this for a long time and now has succeeded. What a plot? I cannot believe that Sidney Sheldon has done this work 10 years ago where multiple personality and other things were not that familiar among the people. Everybody says that Master Of The Game is his best piece. But according to me Tell Me Your Dreams is the master piece in his life time. Only after his death I started reading his book and I m finding his books to be amazing. Even though I watched the movie that was based on this novel I didn't find any part of the book to be bugging. I think it is the author has put his writing. Now I m planning to read all his novels. What ever he has described in this book makes me feel a bit creepy. Especially there may be a person around you who is suffering from such a disorder. If this book had been written in the present year or a couple of years back it would have hit the market with world history. I think the author has got a terrible courage to risk himself in this subject a decade ago.HATS OFF SIDNEY SHELDON!!!!!!!!

MY HEART SKIPPED A BEAT

July 06, 2008. I readied myself in front th Idiot box to watch the much awaited grand slam(Wimbledon 2008). i finished all my jobs before 7 pm and positioned myself to watch the match. To watch this match i fought with my dad who wanted to watch the finals between India and SriLanka(Asia cup). But when matched turned out to be nasty I was given the chance to watch Tennis and eventually we didn't switch the channels since the match was interesting.

Roger without losing a set enterd into the final and was the cruiser and he needed a cruise controller. On the other hand Rafael Nadal was at his best exhibition of his talent. He beat the number 1 in French Open and was expected to win the match to put an end to Roger's wining streak. When the match started I was having my legs crossed and even my fingers. Roger started with a nice start but Nadal broke his serve in the first set. But I had all the hope that Roger will strike back. But the set was won by Nadal.

In my family except myself and my mom all are Nadal's fan. So eventually celebration started when Nadal won his first set. My dad was in sky and i had to bring him back by sayin that still there is lot to go. I refused to get up from my place hoping that Roger will win since that's the lucky place.The next set started. I direly wanted Roger to win this set to prove that he is unbeatable. Roger took early break in Nadal's serve. He was leading the set by3-0 lead. Then the lead extended to 4-2. Hoping for the turn of the tide I didn't change my position in my sitting and watched the match. But Nadal was too challenging. He leveled the game to 4-4. The set ended with 6-4 where Nadal was leading the game by 2 sets. Oh my god!!!!!!!! Nadal has made it and has got a bright opportunity to stop Roger in his arena.

Third set was quite interesting. The games were levelling and both players started pushing each other to the edge.The rain has started. The players went to the locker room. This is much needed for Roger to regain his composure. He did it. So the tie breaker has cum. Roger did the early break and won the point 7-5. WOW. Roger is back. I was on my feet and jumping after long time. My legs and fingers were so numb.

Fourth set was amazing. The players here again pushed each other to the edge. Another set driven to Tie Breaker. Roger lost both his serving points. Nadal eventually climbed up to 4-1 lead. So this is how the match is going to end for the number 1. The Nadal leaded the game by 5-2 so he was 2 points away from championship. But a double fault by Nadal made the score 5-3. The a nice shot from Roger put another point to him. Then the score was Leveled to 5-5. Very very interesting. At one point Nadal was having 2 Championship point in his hand. My brother was telling my that if Roger wins it is miracle. That miracle happened. Roger took the set by wining the tie breaker 10-8. WOW..YIPPPEEE.

Final set. There is no tie breaker. So an early break in the serve will decide the Champion. It was nail bitting match. The games were going on and on. It was levelled. Then the turn happened when Nadal broke Roger's serve and took a lead of 7-8 games. Nadal eventually finished the final set by 7-9 games lead and conquered hi first Wimbledon Championship. MY HEART SKIPPED A BEAT. Nadal the new Champion.

The match started around 19:30(local time) and ended at 2:00 in the morning. I was sitting in the same position for more than 5 hrs and my legs and my fingers went numb. I was not able to digest the defeat and dono how Roger has accepted it. I watched the finishing ceremony with tears in my eyes.

WHAT WAS ROGER'S MISTAKE?
1) He was not able to break Nadal's server.
2)The court coverage was not equal to that of Nadal.
3)His backhand returns were not that efficient.
4)Roger plays onto the net which was an advantage to Nadal.
5)Shot angles were not that gud.
6)What happened to his drop shots?
7)What happened to his sling shots?

I think Roger has to think new strategy to conquer the titles again. Nadal was at his best and proved it. His accuracy was amazing. He hardly hit 9-10 shots away.But Roger did it for many times. When Nadal pushed Roger to a forehand return Roger would push that one to away. What a mess? Roger put 25 aces (vain) and Nadal put only 6. Roger made 52 unforced errors and Nadal made 27 errors. This was the crucial thing of the match. The total points won by Roger was 204 and by Nadal was 209 which was close. This shows that Roger was not that far away from his 6th title. It was Nadal who executed everything correctly.
Roger had only one thing to say. "He deserved it."
Rafael Nadal had to say "He is a champion. He is still number 1.He is still the best. He has got 5 in a row and I have now only started."

What a match!!!!!!!!! Lucky I didn't miss the match. But I will have the loss in my mind until Roger defeats Nadal in the very next match. Check out for Roger in future, Nadal