Wimbledon 2008: Rafa dethrones the King

Last night / early this morning, I witnessed one of the greatest tennis matches between probably who will be, the greatest champions of the modern day tennis era. Rafa beat the FedEx to win his First Wimbledon and in the process derailed Federer's quest for a sixth straight crown.

It was a high voltage match that see-sawed as the champions fought it out, interrupted by rain and hampered by bad-light. In the end, only Rafa stood tall. The FedEx express had been derailed but what a fightback it was for the five time Wimbledon champ after being 2 sets down, he came back to be within two points of another sensational victory when leading 5-4 in the fifth set but Rafa had the nerves to hold him back. Talking about nerves, the FedEx was the ice-man when he hit a backhand winner with Rafa on matchpoint.

Truly, this was one of the most brilliant exhibitions of tennis and while the Federer's 65 match winning streak on grass may have been broken, in his words "Don't write me off". He will be back stronger, faster and more hungry. In fact I feel that he may finally win Rolland Garros next year and stop Rafa from making it a 5P.

Wimbledon 2008: FedEx thumps Hewitt

Federer started week 2 at Wimbledon 2008 with a thumping straight sets win against Leyton Hewitt who didn't really play all that bad.Federrer just outplayed him and even though his game wasn't 100% on target, it was enough to earn him a well deserved straight sets victory.

Going by the draw, it appears as if we may be treated to another Rafa vs Federrer final. Two finals in two months between these two and the world of tennis can't get any better.Although the last Grand Slam final between these two (at Rolland Garros this year) was a bit of an anti-climax with the FedEx being steamrolled by Rafa so much so that Rafa apologised to Fedex for his own 'brilliance' and praised Roger's attitude on court during the match.

It would be interesting to see if Roger could put it across Rafa and repeat last year's performance on his favorite hunting ground, Wimbledon given the powerful, fluent tennis that Rafa has been playing lately.

Security in Enterprise 2.0: Building a case for Security 2.0

While reading up on the security concerns highlighted in this article from the NY Times, I could see many E2.0 evangelists shaking their head in despair. The recent attack on Google /Orkut's network that compromised close to 400,000 users within a few hours is going to scare people even more.

Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 is all about 'opening up', sharing information, communicating and collaborating. While the latest breed of techies are seeped in blogs, wikis, chat programs, Google docs and social networking sites, traditional firms continue to rely on the good 'old' trusted means of 'securely' disseminating information via emails and file attachments. The idea of sharing company documents that may have client names, sales figures on websites (yeah, Wikis are glorified websites) appears appalling to the senior management. Security concerns are always brought up when someone talks of adopting an Enterprise 2.0 outlook and many cases, these concerns are justified.

My attempts to Google the term "Security 2.0" bought up an interesting post which talks about the author's attempt at Googling 'Security 2.0" in October 2006 and his thoughts on what security 2.0. I can tell you that on today's date, my Googling attempts did not give me much either. Around the same time, Symantec spoke about bringing out Security 2.0 products but to me, the vision looked a lot like anti-virus packages bundled up in a new name.So where are we with Security 2.0?

The secure Enterprise 2.o forum and the ongoing E2.0 conference are good starts towards fostering dialogues between the participants of E2.0. Currently security in an Enterprise 2.o setup is limited to policies and mainly role based authentication but unless some convincing protocols are not established with regards to securing information management in an E2.0 setup, Enterprise 2.0 will not attain its goals of 'open communication and collaboration'.

Seeing God in Doing His Work

This morning, I was blessed to hear from Pastor Russel Ames, a very powerful and interesting insight on "Seeing the face of God". I have interspersed Pastor Ames's message with some of my own thoughts and the result is as under.

Being a Christian and having professed my love for Christ, I have sometimes wondered what it would be like to 'see' God face-to-face. Moses saw the Glory of God but before his time, Jacob saw God face to face. He wrestled an entire night with God and for what? He wanted God to bless him. He fought with God for a blessing. And this was the same Jacob, who had taken the birthright of Esau. The same Jacob who was returning to meet his brother, fearful of his wrath, fearful of death and while he was mentally tormented with visions of what would happen the next morning, he wrestled with a man, whom he believed was God. And he does prevail. He receives his blessing. God puts his hip out of joint and in this deformity, he is blessed as he is recognized.

The next morning, Jacob sends his cattle, his wives, his sons and his servants in front of him as he approaches his brother Esau. Why? He is petrified that his brother will rebuke him and might even kill him. His is a peace offering but how does Esau react. Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. (Genesis 33:4)

Esau forgives Jacob and refuses his gifts saying that the LORD has given him enough. To this Jacob answers, ".. Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.(Genesis 33:10)"

Jacob said that He saw the face of the LORD in Esau's face. What did he really mean? How can you see the face of the LORD in the face of your relatives or friends. Ps. Ames explained this using the example of Mother Teresa and her service. In every destitute that she served, in every tear that she wiped, she saw the face of the LORD. She saw the face of Jesus. Indeed she did as these verses from Mathew Chapter 25:35-36 testify...

"For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

Serving Jesus can only lead to one thing in a physical world.Pain, suffering and rebuke but looking beyond the boundaries of a physical world, there is much more to be achieved. Yes, in serving Jesus there is the one real chance to see HIM and to meet HIM, face-to-face and to be in HIS presence forever and that would be really something worthwhile.