Ruchika case and implications on the judicial functions of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Ruchika-case-Rathore-attacked-outside-Chandigarh-court/articleshow/5547879.cms
So it has happened finally. A student stabbed Rathore outside a court. This is NOT the first sign that people are losing faith in the justice system in India. People have lost faith a long time ago. What this is indicative of is that people are now acting on fixing things their way. For a long time actions were limited to the goondas, the politicians, the naxals and probably some “heroes” in the movies. If the govt of India does not act on fixing the system NOW, we will see public executions.
Drilling holes in the plate from which you eat
aka AT&T’s policy toward their customers. ref: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/iphone-caps/
A fundamental point that many ISPs raise nowadays is about the so called bandwidth hogs. When an ISP sells me a network connection saying that it is a 2Mbps line and then in the fine print somewhere state that it is “max 2Mbps”, I would like to call it fraud. If it is max 2Mbps, why don’t you sell me a connection with max 400 Tbps or whatever is the bandwidth available at India’s exit nodes? What matters is the minimum bandwidth. Load balancing makes sense only when there is strain on the network and not when you want to deploy less infrastructure and charge people exorbitant amounts for what is a network connection on crutches. If you promise a network bandwidth of 2Mbps it means that I get that bandwidth regardless of what my neighbour uses. It also means that I should be able to fully utilise the bandwidth without the ISP cribbing about me being a bandwidth hog. What’s next? Sever the connection, still call me a customer and charge me for not using the service? Umm wait that’s what the govt does so well.
This is THE game!
Yup. I am talking about Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Respect, to Infinity Ward. I haven’t had this much fun since I played, umm wait CoD MW 1. Sounds like induction to me. This is one of the best games I’ve ever played in single player. The sequences, the way they push the player (read: me) to work things out and quick is amazing! Especially the “breach” sequences. I do not understand all this hue and cry about the airport sequence. I did not find it “disturbing”. I guess it’s either Activision PR or over enthusiastic nuts at the censorship boards worldwide.
I’ve made a promise myself that US is not a country worth going to and working on video games. Now, though, it seems like Infinity Ward has changed the winds … and with it, my opinions. Yes Infinity Ward I think you have made a difference to another gamer and more importantly another game developer.
“Stay away from politics and concentrate on cricket” – Bal Thackeray
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bal-Thackeray-slams-Sachin-over-Mumbai-for-all-remark/articleshow/5234553.cms
Those are the words of Bal Thackeray, the next fascist leader who wants to keep Mumbai “clean” by moving everyone out. Exactly what gives him the right to say that? Mumbai is a part of India and that means that anyone should be allowed to enter the territory. Not to hurt anyone’s feelings but isn’t that exactly what the JKLF said to “liberate” Kashmir from India?
All that apart, why should Sachin not move into politics? Who is Bal Thackeray to say that? Sachin has done his bit for Indian cricket. What has Bal Thackeray done for “aam admi”? Oh wait, he goes around inciting communal violence. That’s his resume. If I read between the lines, isn’t Bal Thackeray threatening Sachin? Is he saying that politics is HIS turf and no one else is allowed to tresspass? Bal Thackeray sahib, if you do YOUR job and no one else needs to enter politics. You still haven’t cleaned up Mumbai’s streets off of the filth. How many Marathis have you saved from near death?
B.R Ambedkar said that violence is not a means of bringing change when there are constitutional means to do the same. If you want to make Mumbai “for Mumbaikars only” do it via the constitution. Show me that you are serious about this – expel Amitabh Bachan from Mumbai and I will admire you as a man of his word.
On an unrelated note, I guess Sachin will never get into this mess. It is pointless for him to degrade himself to the same level as Bal Thackeray. Sachin was never a man of many words. I guess he needs his bat to do the talking this time around, again.
The Prime Minister’s safety claims the life of a citizen
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/PMs-security-claims-patients-life/articleshow/5194254.cms
That, my friends, is how India works. The most important people (VIPs/VVIPs) trample over the “aam admi” (common man). This, in the name of security, is the highlight of the irritation that one faces in India. Why do we have anyone designated a VIP anyway? Why are they important? Why do they get the whole road blocked everytime they move around? Why should the common man have to put up with this nonsense?
If these VIPs have to wade through the traffic, I will bet that the traffic situation in India will get better. It is only because they don’t have to face the music (pun intended) of the honking horns that they are apathetic toward many of the other problems.
Indian Independence
Independence – I don’t understand what it means. Did we gain independence from the British only to be enslaved by our own? Take a look at how corrupt the govt is in all aspects. The Right to Information act has so many holes now that you could call it the only measurable transparent law in the constitution. I also wonder if we gained independence too easily. I am not sure what true independence would mean. Compared to say, Pakistan or even Somalia, I know that we are better off in India. Compared to Sweden or South Korea we are worse off.
One possible reason for this is the population. Everyone is too busy with their life that they don’t want to think about the person next to them. I will give you one example – traffic in Hyd. Everytime I see a lorry taking a u-turn on a road without a traffic signal, I notice people trying to snake their way around the lorry. Wait for 3 minutes and I can guarantee that there will not be a traffic jam. It is quite simple to understand this logic but people do not want to spare that time. Exactly what do they want to achieve? Reach the next traffic light faster? Are they losing millions because they reach the office 10 mins later? Everyday I see a lot people trying to cross the road at Infosys, Hyd office. It is a risky thing because there are far too many vehicles swooshing by at high speeds. For all their reported profits why doesn’t Infosys build an overhead bridge? Doesn’t the company care for it’s employees?
If we reduce our population we might just value individuals a lot more than we do now. I might be completely wrong about this but it is probably worth a shot.
Please comment on the above points.
Optimisations on 5800
I updated my Nokia 5800 Xpress Music and lo behold the whole thing is slow as a snail now. What’s worse? Their own DRMed (Digital Restrictions Management) concked off and won’t allow me to play the songs preloaded in the phone. That did not bother me anyway because they had a terrible set of songs in the first place.
So I am asking Nokia – give me a job for optimising your operating systems (Series 60 Rel 5). I’ve done that on my game earlier and can do it again. On the other hand if things don’t get better Nokia will lose a loyal customer. Watch out for HTC is in town now.
QWERTY keyboards on touchscreen phones
Almost all the touch screen phones and some of the so called “smart phones” have a qwerty keyboard nowadays. It becomes a negative thing if a phone doesn’t have one. What baffles me is these so called “power users” have to use only the two thumbs to type. qwerty was never designed to work with two fingers (other than for Venu that is). So what’s all this hoopla? Why doesn’t a single phone manufacturer invest in new user interface design? It is, after a touch screen … right?
Time to boycott team India in cricket
Dear all.
It’s time to teach the high earners a lesson. Enough with the press coverage. The Indian players have earned well in the IPL2 and let us leave it there. Useless fielding, pathetic plan, horrible bowling and above all a star studded batting line up that got b*** raped in the end tells us all about how lousy this team has ended up. It could have been the fatigue from IPL2. In which case talk to Gilchrist, he did well after 1 yr of break. An opening partnership that was found lacking against bounce is as horrible as things can get. Why bother playing the game if all the chinks in the armour start from the helmet? Tell me one thing that this team did correctly (other than winning the toss). Even before the game started we lost Sehwag to IPL2. Then we lost the team spirit to the following controversy. These player don’t get paid insane amounts to let down a whole fkcing country. Probably Dhoni can now go home and use broadband internet instead of using Aircell’s facebook connection to stay in touch with his friends.
On a positive note (yeah) it’s good that India lost this game though. For the simple fact that they would have been gangraped by South Africa in the next game. Now we can watch the remaining part of T20 without adverts beating us down. Come to think of it why should I cheer a bunch of players who only manage to disappoint a whole country? Why should ANYONE cheer for BCCI (a private corporation) that does it’s best to squeeze money out without doing anything to better cricket in India? Why do all these players get so many chances inspite of failing pathetically? Time to raise the bar and say – If you fail even once, you are OUT of the team.
Now… who should I cheer? West Indies probably for having consistently surprised “top rated” teams. Or South Africa for being a team with so many players shouldering responsibility if even one other player fails to deliver. Heck even Ireland for producing Guinness dark stout… errr
Uranium listed as commodity?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/Lehman-Bros-sitting-on-nuke-stockpile/articleshow/4411110.cms
The US cannot entrust nuclear material to democracies but it fine for private parties to trade it in “commodities market”? WTF? So what’s next? Discounts on nuclear fissile material if you buy it in bulk?
Why is this trade not between countries/govts. Why are middlemen entering the scene? And here we are watching Terminator where robots/AI will take over the world and destroy us all. Bah!
