Air India... why bother

Someone I know is coming by an Air India flight (AI125). Turns out the darn flight is about seven hours behind schedule. Of course, I did not get the information from Air India. A friend called me from the point of origin to let me know. Air India has two numbers to call here in Chicago. One goes to the mailbox and you get the message "mailbox is full". The other provides the flight status for flights on Friday (2 days back). What would it take for this airline and its employees to act like professionals.

Three weeks back the flight (AI124) left Chicago behind schedule because the crew was stuck in traffic.

Maybe they should just windup the airline, sell its assets and call it a day.

Finally...

The Open Source Heretic - Forbes.com

It is dawning on some people that "Free Software" is not really free. If its going be free how do you plan to put the bread on the table.

Here we go again...

Christian Aid Week Report 2005 The damage done: Aid death and dogma

So, the aid group Christian Aid has put out a paper that blames the British Govt (actually,Britain's Department for International Development) as being responsible for the suicide of farmers in Andhra Pradesh. LOL...

It is not job of the British govt. or its agencies to protect the interests and lives of farmers in India.

Lack of access to credit at favorable terms, bad land management and farming practices cannot be attributed to DFID. And, this is not a case of govt. providing subsidy to its farmers to artifically lower the market prices like US cotton subsidy.

Wish these "save the world" types will stop publishing such nonsense.

Agreed... chip making is chump business

"Via unfurls chip for low-cost notebooks | CNET News.com: "If Intel was the gorilla in the processor world, AMD was the chimp and Via was the monkey, Via CEO Wen Chi Chen once said in an interview"

It is interesting to see how the Taiwanese and Korean companies are moving up the food chain. Hopefully, Via and its likes will give the incumbents a run for their money.

In recent days there has been a lot of interest in low cost PCs to bridge the digital divide. Yet, the idea of using TV as a computer monitor does not seem to feature in that. Yes, it has been tried before and it failed. But, that was for the mainstream market.

Or, is it possible to have a computer inside the TV - put a harddisk and the processor. Maybe, the TV then can morph into DVR/ Computer and ... the media hub.

The "crazy old coot"... she is hoot

BBC NEWS | Americas | Pizza rage lands US woman in jail

You must be kidding...

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Shark rescue operation goes wrong

Only in India and with Indian cops could this happen. They save the sharks from the poachers and then throw them onto the sand until they can complete their paperwork. By then all the sharks die.

Now, if only sharks like whales also have suicidal thoughts and beach the poachers and the cops might have said that was what happened and gotten away with it.

Does Google love Linux?

The penguin folks often point out that google runs its whole enterprise on cheap hardware running linux. That may be the case. But, there is hardly any software that Google produces that is available on Linux.

In fact, Google is not the only one. Other who profess their love for Linux often don't release a linux version of their software/ tool or release is later.

So, as it stands I still can't get WPA support on my Suse Linux for Netgear WG511.

Eager for Eiger

Microsoft tries to breathe life into older PCs | CNET News.com

It is about time for either this or a suscription based licensing model with lower costs.

Right of Information Bill passes first test

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Indians get right to information

Yes, the Right of Information Bill passed my first unscientific test - I googled for the text of the bill and got it.

Here is the text - India Right of Information Bill, 2004

Power to the people

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Maharashtra's free power to end

Now, if this is true then it is one hell of a deal - as important as winning independence. And, only a trifle less important than implementing an uniform civil code.

But seriously, finally some government in India has realized that handout like free electricity does not serve the best interests of everyone. Afterall, pretty much everyone knew the ones who benefitted from this to a larger extent were the large / rich farmers. And,there were a whole lot of people who called themselves farmers but did no or very little farming.

Now, if the government to tackle theft of electricity, transmission losses and quality of service that would be something to sing about.

Its a dog's life...

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Dogged by a cartoon

First they flush the Koran down the toilet to intimidate the terror suspects into submission. Now, some bloke does a cartoon depicting Pakistan as a dog and claims that it was meant to be a compliment. Guess he did not realize that dogs are considered "dirty" in the islamic world. Anyway, I would not portray Pakistan as a dog. That would be an insult to the whole dog-dom. And, Mush must be happy - at least this is one dog that makes its master dance to its tunes. Wonder who is the master in this relationship...