DMK's Achilles heel

Wikipedia defines - An Achilles’ heel is a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall.

Even for a casual observer of TN politics it is easy to figure out what is wrong in the ruling DMK party. From almost an invincible position just a couple of months ago - with consecutive wins in by-elections, unbelievable money power, powerful media backing - suddenly DMK seems to vulnerable. The success of Jaya's massive meeting in Kovai may not be the only factor. The brazen and open domination of the octogenarian leaders immediate family is an ongoing joke in TN. Maran's, Alagiri's, Stalin's, Kanimozhi's .....and all and sundry of the DMK family member hog the limelight these days. All these are bound to have "some" impact in the silent public.

The business interests of the Karunanidhi's clan are awesome and unbelievable. It will be naive to believe that everything happened through clean hands. Some of the "activities" of the family are :

- SUN TV group including Dinakaran and Kumkumam - Maran Family
- Kalignar TV - Kalaignar Family
- Cloud Nine Movies - Azhagiri's son
- Red Giant Movies - Stalins son
- Sumangali Cable Vision - Maran Family
- Royal Cable Vision/Jak communications - Azhagiri Family
- Spice jet - Maran has around 40% stake

In addition to this assorted interests in furniture retail, two wheeler dealerships, real estate and et all.

The most unbelievable thing is - DMK - a cadre based party and a party with strong second-third rung leaders is at the mercy of one family. The only saving grace is - M.K.Stalin the once much maligned power centre in DMK now looks like an angel compared to the strong arm tactics of his brother Alagiri. All in spite of the party having powerful district secretaries who almost rule their district as a feudal kingdom.

If DMK has to lose the assembly elections 2011 they know who to blame.....

ICC - Howard -Malcom Speed

This is one of the comments of Malcolm Speed (former ICC president) on the Howard's rejection saga :

"To conclude, let me make a prediction. The ICC head office moved from London to Dubai in 2005. Howard's rejection is a clear sign that the ICC will be based in Mumbai by 2012," he added.

;-) Waiting for that day ....

So what goes around, comes around ......amusing to note that as early (or long ?) as 1992 England and Australia had Veto powers in ICC !!!

And more about Howard :

http://www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/139495.html

SAP buying Sybase

SAP buys Sybase – one of the remaining database vendors in the market. This will heat up the competition in the ERP market and will lead to more consolidation (read oligopoly) in the DB market. With most of the DB software are in the hands of the biggies (M$, IBM, Oracle and now SAP) small customers and ISV’s might find difficult to pay the increased costs.

All this augurs well for cloud vendors as increasingly cost conscious customers might switch to cloud. Also it helps to escape fromthe clutches of big vendors - already Oracle is designing strict license terms for ompatible hardware for its poducts.

Among the major ERP vendors SAP is the one which dont have its own DB. Always they had to depend on their rivals DB’s. Now this lacuane is filled. Ironically SAP does not support Sybase DB (yet). SAP sources mention it might take six months to one year to enable the same.

Looks like a good move for Sybase – once SAP is enabled in it DB all they can see is uptick only. This is the advantage of being a “product” company. Even after trailing the major DB vendors by a big margin and even in the recession they made a sales of about $ 800 M and was able to find a attractive buyer ..

Ranji and Duleep trophy finals

Anybody following local Cricket would agree that this seasons (2009-10) mathces (atleast the finals) were competitive and a great advertisement for cricket. While in the Ranji finals, Mumbai won the match based on its sheer experience (we can equate Mumbai as Australia of Indian Cricket) - what they lack in talent, they make-up with ruthlessness and single mindendness to win. Nothing taking away from Mumbai, I felt its more of Karnataka losing rather than Mumbai winning. On another note I also felt that this years Tamilnadu's team should have been in the final. Except for that one match (QF gainst Delhi) they simply dominated all other matches they played and they should have been in the final. OK, maybe they would have encountered Mumbai in the semis but anyhow .......

Cricinfo's link in the Ranji Final - http://www.cricinfo.com/ranjisuperleague2009/content/story/444048.html

And todays Duleep trophy final, again is lost by South Zone rather than won by Wset Zone. Though Yusuf Pathan has to be credited for his incredible knock, the way South Zone fielded and threw away the match - could have been possible only on two reasons - either they never thought they could win or the match was fixed (and who fixes the local matches ??) ..The match will be remembered for Yousuf's herocis and also for DK's valiant effort in both the innings ....DK's story is reaching the tragic proportions - will he play for India or not (again..) ....or he will just fade away .....

Too cruel for the cricketers ...so near but so far ....

Cricinfo link on the Duleep trohy final -

http://www.cricinfo.com/duleeptrophy2009-10/content/story/447169.html

The top IT companies

List of the top 12 IT companies which dominate the world in their respective segments :

(not in any particular order)

• Google
• Apple
• Microsoft
• Oracle
• IBM
• Intel
• CISCO
• HP
• Dell
• SAP
• Adobe
• Amazon