Microsoft’s little Google joke…

YouTube, Google’s ever popular video sharing service,does have its fair share of A-list admirers. Last week, we saw the Queen of Great Britain giving out her Christmas greetings on YouTube, by means of her YouTube Royal Channel. This time around, its Microsoft who has turned to YouTube.

 

(See MicroSoft’s YouTube channel over here)

What for, you ask? Well, for telling the people about some features in their not so popular all-show-no-go OS, Windows Vista. And now the funnier part, they have left comments open!! Muhahaha. I’m having quite a time going through the comments of the people.

 

I couldn’t stop laughing when I first read it on TechCrunch, and thought it would give you a smile too. Its good to see Microsoft respecting and realizing the potential audience reach of its enemies. Not too bad to end the year then, eh?

Happy New Year 2008 to all my readers. Here’s hoping the coming year be filled with joy, happiness, wealth and what have you, phew.

Tags: Google, Microsoft, YouTube

Gig review Ruia High Voltage

Mumbai University sucks all right. Call me a whining dog, if you will, but how could you possibly justify 35 days of exams which leaves me with almost 4-6 days for every exam. And in any case I study only 2 days before the exam. (Hey, I’m just being faithful to my tribe.) I was going nuts with all the tension flying around. Thankfully, Ruia’s annual fest couldn’t have been at a better time. And with top notch bands headlining, I just couldn’t give it a miss. Just what the doctor ordered.

 

Necrosis were first, and I was told they are famous for their Slayer covers. Heck, even their bass player looked like a Tom Araya-me-too. But what you see is not what you always get. Don’t get me wrong, their musicians were spot on, only the vocalist disappointed. I mean, someone go tell that chimp, Tom Araya shouts, doesn’t screech, for heavens sake. It sounded more like Lamb of God or worse Cradle of Filth. The drummer too, I must add, wasn’t quite in the groove. The covers were good, but the OC’s were not.

In the end they covered Raining Blood, and there was a bottle of cranberry juice (me thinks) which the vocalist poured all over himself. The girls went crazy at that but I found it quite amusing. I’m pretty sure; the lice in his head must have had a “dry day”.

Up next were Demonic Resurrection. They’ve been keeping a low profile since March, when they couldn’t find a good enough drummer. They are back now, with Viru of PDV. And after their first track, I had to conclude, they sound good only on the CD, and what they did live didn’t even make my head move even one bit. Every passing song just reaffirmed my conclusions. I just couldn’t understand why the hell people were mosh-ing and head banging their asses off.

Every song sounded like a collection of riffs, and there was no flow whatsoever. Vocals weren’t very much on the pitch and the lead parts bored me to death. Like a Wiseman once said “When you follow a chord family, you get a nice song. If you don’t, you get a Demonic song.” Now I fully get what that means…One more thing I would like to mention were their rather funny song titles “Spirits of the Mystic Mountains”. Right, we have only hillocks in Bombay and a Plateau at best in Matheran. DR really curdled my brains, or “dimaag ki dahi” to be Bombay-cally correct.

The only saving grace was Viru’s drumming, which was spot on and thunderous to boot.

Sceptre were up next and you could feel the anxiety go up by a mile. Did they deliver, this time around? Hell, yes! Read on to know more.

The first track they played was an inch perfect cover of Slayer’s Stain of Mind. And to my surprise (that’s a bit of an understatement actually), Teemeer (vocals and lead guitar) dedicated that song to me!! Guruji, you’re the fuckin best! Only problem was, the chicks(or everyone else, for that matter) didn’t know, “I” was Satish. Should have rather said “SatishSays dot Com”. Would have got me some traffic. Er. he he.

Corny jokes apart, Sceptre showed the kids, how exactly Slayer is covered. Blood curdling screams, perfect drumming and sync in the band, the jaws had to drop.

I screamed my lungs out and lost my voice in the very first track itself! They proceeded to play some of their originals and some Metallica covers (One, Fuel and NEM). You should have seen the girls screaming during Nothing Else Matters, everybody sang! If anyone’s questioning their logic of doing Metallica, you should have seen the crowd reaction. It was a college gig after all. They topped of their set with their hugely popular anti-smoking metal anthem, Charred. There was a 4-way wall of death, and I just wish I could have jumped in! But then I’ve got exams to give, and swollen body parts are not a very pleasant thing. Everybody enjoyed their set, and if not for Sceptre, I am sure half the people would queued up for a refund.

Vayu were the last band to play for the evening. I was seeing them after a real long time, and 2Blue’s voice was re-assuring to say the very least. Ravi Iyer too was all-guns-blazing with his guitar and wowed the crowd with his skills. I loved their Pink Floyd covers and all was well, when the mike suddenly started going off every few seconds.

2Blue had enough of it, smashed the mike and the band evacuated the stage. Shame, they couldn’t play their complete set. Some classic therapy is always good after metal.

That was the end of the gig and a really worthwhile day. I must congratulate Ruia’s organizing committee, for I heard, it was your first attempt at a rock gig. Not bad at all. Do try to focus on giving better sound, next time around. Get a proper sound engineer or something. The vocals and the guitars did get a bit drowned out by the drums at times. Do this much and I’ll put you guys on my “Gigs-to-attend-list”. Kudos.

As for me, I’ll return to my “beloved” books. Do post your comments on the gig and this review. Adios.

SatishSays dot Com rating 7/10

 

Confused about hosting?? Let WHC help..

So, you are about to find a good place to host your brand new website, or you are plain fed up with your current host and need to move to a new one. Whom do you turn to?? Fret not, WebHostingChoice is here to help.

The site has an extremely clean, green coloured layout which is very easy to navigate around. Gets some brownie points from me, because the people likely to refer this site will not like unnecessary complications.

This site is a perfect place to search for a new host. There are various parameters you can set to filter the host you want. Like price, bandwidth, features, scripts etc.

There is also a advanced search section wherein you can provide some niche features as search parameters.

 

What also makes me recommend this site, is that, there is a Learning Center. In this section the site clears all the air and myths you may have about paid web hosting. A great guide for the newbies and veterans alike.

The “Scams” section is particularly interesting, which highlights all the marketting gimmicks various hosts use and cautions you against the same.

 All in all, I would recommend this site to anyone on the lookout for a new host.

 

Tags: hosting