Price down for HD DVD players

Hoohaa! HD DVD players now costs less than $300. What a future to come.

Look at this post for more information.

Tributes and hopes

The news shocked me today is the unfortunate death of James Kim, the senior editor of CNET. Read the CNET tribute.

NASA is ready for another Discovery launch. Indeed the name of Discovery fetches the sorrowing memories of Kalpana Chawla, who dead during their return in Columbia, 2003. See a CNN story about the remembrance of Kalpana Chawla.

India mourns space heroine

But the soul of Kalpana Chawla will be happy as another Indian women all set to fly to space. Sunita Pandya Williams is the new generation Indian women astronaut who is ready to take the step forward from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. See the Times of India story of this development.

Sunita set to take a spacewalk

LDF retains UDF strong hold

The result came. George M. Thomas, the ruling CPM candidate won the Thiruvambadi by-election by a nominal margin of 246 votes. He defeated V.M. Ummer Master of Indian Union Muslim League, a United Democratic Front (UDF) coalition partner.

The UDF camp was on very high when polling was completed on 4^th December with record 84.21 per cent voters casted their votes. They have all rights to believe that the upset happened approximately seven months back was only because of anti-incumbency factor against the then ruling UDF government and hoped for a complete victory this time. But when counting started today at West Hill Polytechnic, Calicut, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate took lead right from the start of counting of postal votes began. Then for a short time Ummer Master took the lead and after 2 rounds of counting completed George M. Thomas regained his lead and marched upto 2800 votes lead.

But the drama is yet to come. When 70 per cent of the counting completed, the lead of LDF candidate began to dip. He came down from 2800 to 124 lead and handed over a handsome lead of more than 600 votes to his opponent when the 95 per cent of votes counted. But the lead of Ummer Master also began to dip and after 98 per cent of votes counted George M. Thomas regained his lead once again.

The final 2 per cent of counting belongs to George M. Thomas. He gradually strengthened the lead and finally declared the winner with a majority of 246 votes as well. In all aspects this photo-finish resembles a one-day cricket international. The politicians, voters and viewers felt the pressure and tension.

It was the day many people of Kerala eagerly looked into their political life. The by-election in Thiruvambadi assembly constituency was declared after the death of sitting MLA Mathai Chacko. The late member was elected during the April 2006 election by toppling the UDF candidate M.C. Mayin Hajee for more than 5000 votes. Traditionally Thiruvambadi remained as a UDF strong hold. But two recent elections in 2006 proved very tough for them and the opposition LDF marched to victory.

Nokia 6235: Still worthy...

Dears,

I am very sorry for not coming alive in this blog for a long time. There was lots of events hold me back to my basics. Nowadays I am a little free to scribble something and here I am.

For these long days many things happened to me. The first among them was the change of my mobile handset. Previously I was using Sony Erricson T102 with a BSNL connection. Since February 2006 I said good bye to BSNL and also to the my old handset. Now I have a Reliance CDMA connection with a Nokia 6235.

The handset is sleek and have a stylish design. It has a VGA camera and a video recorder. My wife is always happy with the camera. But I am not, as I always switch to digital camera for taking photographs. The main feature I used to utilise frequently is its voice recording feature. As a journalist I have to record many voices on the go and I am making 100 per cent out this.

Another feature I am addicted with this model is its integrated FM Radio. When I was asked to choose a handset there was an mp3 phone in the stand. But I preferred for FM Radio rather than mp3 player. On these days many FM radio stations are coming and competing to satisfy users with live and latest musical stuff. Then why I have to choose an mp3 player? My thought is well paid now as I enjoy FM Radio programmes in its best.

For some more years, I can say that, I will not go for an another model. I'll stick on to my Nokia 6235 till then.