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

BCCI and its arbitrary ways

The BCCI's arbitrary ways of functioning are well known and is well documented. But still few things are perplexing to say the least and there is no signs of acknowledging the mistakes, leave alone correct it.

To start with let us have a look at the local/state teams associations setup. The constituent members of the BCCI are as follows

• Tamilnadu
• Kerala
• Karnataka
• Hyderabad, Andhrapradesh
• Mumbai, Maharashtra, Vidharbha
• Gujarat, Baroda, Saurashtra
• Punjab,
• Haryana
• Rajasthan
• Himachal Pradesh
• Jammu and Kashmir
• Delhi
• Uttarpradesh
• Orissa,
• Bihar
• Jharkhand
• Madhyapradesh
• Assam
• Tripura
• Railways
• Services

The disparity is obvious in the composition of teams of three states - Andhrapradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat - why more than one teams for the above three states only ? May be it is a colonial Hangover. States like Tamilnadu and Karnataka can easily have two teams in the national circuit - one team comprising of the Metro only and the other team comprising from the districts.

Karnataka state cricket associationhave done a good job of nurturing rural talent by having a KPL. Infact if each state has good league system with good interchange of one-day, T20, three day games it will go in a long way in spreading the benefits of the commercialisation of the cricket.

IPL should have started from bottoms-up and gone up - a.la. Americal Basketball/baseball league rather than the current top-heavy structure.

Cricket debuts

For the cricket aficionado’s – the raw talent of Umar Akmal and Adrian Barath is a treat to watch ….pity that both ended in the losing side ….both are 19 year olds – Sure in the coming days we are going to hear about them more ….

While the Pak vs NZ is a great advertisement of cricket, it is sad to see WI capitulate to Australia within 3 days, inspite of Baraths heroics. Chanderpaul's failure in both the innings is the key moments but I guess Chris Gayles captaincy is uninspiring. May be his doubts on the future of test cricket makes him indifferent to Test cricket. As Ian chappell tells its time WI needs an inspirational captain and who else than the Darren Ganga to do the same ? This can make Chris Gayle focus more on his batting and on his day he may prove to be handful for the Aussie bowlers to handle.

Recommended weight

The recommended weight based on the height of an individual is given in the following sheet:

On Tamilnadu, an info presentation

A Zoho show presentation on some very basic facts about Tamilnadu. Will expand this later or add more presentations.



You can visit http://www.zoho.com to try out Zoho Show and other online tools of them.