Transforming power of Open Source?

Attended a Technology Conference today where the theme was "Open source will save the world" and the only free stuff that was handed out was a copy of Microsoft OneNote. Hmm....

The sessions were pretty good. Geoffrey Moore did a very interesting talk about Drawin, Innovation and Inertia. The panel on opensource was kind of lame. Some people can't get over the Redmond bashing. Some dude mentioned the purchasing power parity equivalent price of Windows for a Bangladeshi would be about $60000. Now, I looked up the price of SuSE 9.3 - student edition is about $59 bucks. Wonder what does that translate to a Bangladeshi - possibly, $40000. The CEO of RHAT made a compelling and very passionate case for subscriptions model licensing. The Yahoo COO almost took us back to 1999, talking about "eyeballs", ad. revenue and one id that will unlock the world. Hey, I ain't gonna fall for that again...

US to sell fighters to Pakistan - Bush will call it "exporting democracy"

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | US to sell fighters to Pakistan

So a few days after Condi Rice offers India F-16s to replace its aging MiG-21s, the US government sells F-16s to Pakistan to help fight terrorism. Nice try to force India's hand and help the US defence industry. Who do they think they are trying to fool. It is this kind of policies that resulted in 9/11.

Agent Orange lawsuit is dismissed

Agent Orange lawsuit is dismissed

Well... what can I say. At least, they did not say Agent Orange was an immuno-booster like the Florida Oranges.

AQ Khan and the world's IQ

BBC NEWS | South Asia | The story that refuses to die

A good article about the AQ Khan saga. Wonder whether the Pakis think that world is so stupid to believe that AQ Khan operated on his own. Wonder when would the General's luck run out. He certainly has more lives than a cat.

Old habits die hard... for both Congress and the Press

Sometimes the "secular" press in India keeps its silence. And, this is one of those times. Not much noise about Jharkhand and Goa where the parties involved did what they have done for years in subverting democracy. I guess, in both instances the reason for the silence is the general feeling that a "secular" government is better than a right wing one even if the popular vote did not indicate that.

Are we willing to walk with the devil to cross the "secular" bridge? We seem to be constantly taking focussed shots at the institutions that are a must for a vibrant democracy. And, this is true with the "secular" parties and the right wing ones.

Learning from MSFT - Apple - QuickTime /iTunes bundling

Apple - QuickTime - Download

I reached the link above to download Quicktime so that I could view some video. And, as I proceeded to install it I noticed the stuff in paranthesis - (includes iTunes). So, when MSFT has IE and Windows Media Player bundled in OS it calls for anti-trust etc... What should we charge Apple with? Maybe, the folks from Cupertino will call this "saving the world". LOL...

"Chugging", MMS and DPS

When I was in India in December the papers were full of stories of a sex snippet featuring a school boy and girl doing "la clinton" . Maybe, I should call it "chugging". The piece was created using an MMS phone and had found its way on to Baazee.com (eBay's Indian acquisition).

I found it interesting that about half the people who wrote to the newspaper editors complained that this happened due to sex education and MTV, while the other half complained that it was due to lack of sex education. Noboby felt that Bollywood with its steamy wet vidoes may be a cause (I am not saying it is). A few of my friends in the US felt that what happened was nothing big. Afterall, we are the people who gave the world Kamasutra (Of course, I wondered if these people had read the Kamasutra - the ones which is not a photojournal. It is an incredibly technical manual and fairly dry - like Arthasasthra).

Of course, the secular media which often reports of riots in the following terms -"members of a minority community..." did not find any issues in reporting that the students were from DPS (Delhi Public School). Wonder how the school mattered. The incident I don't think happened on the campus, it was not part of what was taught at school and the school had not provided the phone.

I feel a bit sorry for the school and the girl. The school, because they had nothing to do with it. And, the girl - not because of the act. It is obvious that the clip did not get to the net without her boyfriend's help. I guess to him she was just a score. Well, you live and learn...


Look at the bright side of things -
1) Incredible use of MMS enabled phone. Never heard of another incident like this.
2) Selling the clip on an auction site smacks classic capitalism
3) Our dowdy cops were able to track down folks who posted the clip and bought it off the net using IP addresses.

Cow dung paper, anyone?

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Tasmanian paper made from 'roo poo

Now that would be cool, way cool...Saves the trees and the cows (they can be of use even after they stop producing milk).

Blogging with BloGtk... Case of glass half full/ half empty.

This is a test using BloGtk. Took me a while to get it working. Should pay attention to the error messages. Turns out I did not have python-xml installed on my Suse 9.1. In the process I updated the KDE to 3.3 etc...Don't ask me why...

BTW, there is no support for the "Title" field of Blogger from BloGTK. Have to manually add the titles :(

Christmas party from hell

This is a story about the Christmas party hosted by the local office of a Wall Street darling that rhymes with Hell.

So, this company uses a whole lot of contractors (consultants as they are called) in its Professional Services group to keep the costs down. Some 60% of the folks in the office are these "consultants". They call it the "leveraged" model. This year in keeping up with the eternal theme of keep the costs down the office management decided to bring in Thai lunch for Christmas (yes, the whole Christmas party was nothing but this free lunch from the neighbourhood Thai restaurant). And, they sent an email out to everyone in the office saying lunch is free for employees and costs 10 bucks for the "consultants". Needless to say there were hardly anyone for the lunch party - the employees were too embarassed to be there.

Maybe they should just do away with Christmas party and call it separation of corporate and religion.

Jassie Gift... Whats in a name?

I must confess the first time I heard the name Jazzy Gift (turns out it is Jassie Gift), I thought it belonged to a race horse. The next was - only a Mallu would do so (To be fair, I have come to expect similar names from the Bongs and the Punjus.)

Anyway, since we are on the topic of names here are a few more interesting names. These are actual people who went to college with me. There was a girl by name Sweetie Thomas - bet her poor husband cannot consider sweetie as a term of endearment (one word less, makes life difficult for men). Then, there was Shaji Kuriakose (male) and Shaji Mary (female) in the same class. And, if that was not enough there was Binu Kurien (female) a year ahead of us and Binu K (male) in my batch. I guess these are what one would call unisex names.

Back to Jassie Gift - he did not choose the name but to live up to it is a big thing. And, that he certainly does.

Is Linux a four letter word?

I often used to say - "Java is a four letter word. And, so is Unix." Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that I worked for Redmond for sometime. I often thought they were part of the "Unholy Trinity" - Intel, Microsoft & Dell - one influences the other's sales.

Anyway, recently I decided to install Linux on my new laptop. Part of the reason was that it was an old laptop - an IBM T22. So, I installed Suse 9.1 Personal on it. Did the install over broadband from an ftp site. The install itself went off without a hitch. But, hey wait a minute. why is the wireless card from Netgear not working? Checked a few websites, found something about prism54 etc...Tried all that and gave up.

Tried doing VPN to my school. First I had to download the software, build it and then install it. Yet, it did not work.

Then, tried installing BloGTK, an offline blogging tool. The install instructions listed three or four dependencies. I found that my version of software was missing most of it. So, I began doing the download, build and install process. The libraries themselves seem to be dependent on other libraries and that link seem to be never ending. Of course, what is built for another distribution won't work on mine. Finally, after about two months of effort I gave up.

I am not a geek but I am not computer challenged either. I don't believe that Linux is for the masses - the people who mistake CD Drive for cupholder, don't know that Internet over AOL is same as Internet over any other ISP. I think Linux is suffering the same problems as UNIX - multiple incompatible distributions. And, why can't someone create a single install file that checks dependencies, installs the necessary libraries and then the software. Of course, the cost of software is free but my time is not...

Obeying orders .. remember Nuremberg

BBC NEWS | UK | 'Abuse' soldier 'obeyed orders'

So, here you have it. The keepers of democracy and freedom claiming that they were just following orders when they were torturing iraqis. Hey, isn't that what the Nazis said at Nuremberg and they did not get off so easily.

Why I don't use Reliance India Call...(cont'd)

So, here is the update - nothing much happened. But, lot of fun. See for yourself...

Here is my first email to Anil Ambani

Dear Mr. Ambani,
I am writing to you about my experience with Reliance India Call - your group's long distance calling service in the US. I hope you will take some time to read this.

I happened to open an account (#: ) on RelianceIndiaCall.com on Nov 11th and buy pre-paid card for USD 111.75. On Nov 12th after trying to call India for two hours on that service and not getting through, I decided to cancel the service. I called the Customer Service and the lady cancelled the account and promised to process the refund and send confirmation to that effect. In spite of email reminders I never received confirmation of the refund. So, on Nov 18th I called the Customer Service again. This time the agent told me that the company does not make refunds on a prepaid card.

I was not told of this when I called to cancel the card. And, I don't expect to pay for a service that I never used/ never worked for me. It would be great if the company could process the refund.

I wish the company can improve its service and customer service aspects.

Thanks

And, here is the response I got


Dear XXX,
Thank you for your mail dated 19-Nov-04.

I have carefully read your concerns regarding Reliance Infocomm.
Details mentioned in your email have been noted and passed on to the concerned people.

For further assistance please call *333 from your RIM or the number 3033 3333 if you are calling from a non-RIM phone. You could also send an email at customercare@relianceinfo.com

Thanks,
Anil

And, since I had nothing to do with Reliance Infocomm, I followed up with this email.

Dear Mr. Ambani,
Thank you for the very prompt response. My concerns were not related to Reliance Infocomm but Reliance Communications International Inc. - the company that runs the RelianceIndiaCall website http://www.relianceindiacall.com and provides long distance calling services in the US/ Canada. I am not sure if it is part of Reliance Infocomm.

I must say that the CEO/CEO's office is more responsive than the folks who manage the customercare@relianceindiacall.com email account. I have sent three or four emails in the last week to that email and received no response. And, as a Reliance shareholder I am not sure if it is a situation that I should feel happy about.

Also, the last time I contacted the RelianceIndiaCall customer service over the phone (1-866-6-Reliance, I live in Chicago) to get the company's registered address in the US, the Customer Service Agent was not able to provide that. I have never had such an experience with any other Cutomer Support.

Thanks

And, here is the response I get to the above email

Dear XXX,
Thank you for your mail dated 20-Nov-04.

I am in the process of reading the numerous proposals that are being sent to me. It is a matter of pride and joy to me, that people like you are giving thought to the future of this country and are sending in concrete plans for the same.

Your proposal is under consideration. Please give me time to go through it carefully. I shall revert to you at the earliest.

Please do visit my website for regular updates on my plans and the activities that I take up.

Thanks,
Anil

Why I don't use Reliance India Call...

So, last week I found that the calling card Valucom that I have used for the last five years had very few minutes left. And, since I needed more calling minutes to my dad who was recovering from a surgery in India I decided to try Reliance India Call - recommended to me by a few good friends.

I bought a prepaid card for USD100 (and, plus taxes it put me back by $111.75). I thne tried using it the next day... for full 2 hours but could not get through. Finally, I decided to cancel it. So, I called the customer service explained the situation and the lady cancelled the account and refund the money. She asked me to expect an email confirmation in the next few days.

On Wednesday I decided to check on the status of the refund by sending an email to customercare@relianceindiacall.com. And, when I did not receive any response I decided to call customer support on Thursday.

And, when I called them on Thursday the service rep said they do not refund money even if you never used the service. Of course, that was not what his colleague had told me when I cancelled it but it did not matter to him.

So, I decided to send one more email, threaten them that I would report them to BBB.org. But, I realized that I did not have their mailing address. So, I called the customer support center and asked for the registered address of the company in the US. Guess what! The person did not know the address.

So, I sent off a note to Anil D Ambani, who thinks he can save India. Lets see what happens...

Holy Crap... One down many more to go...

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Jayendra Saraswathi: Revered cleric

So, finally it has happened. One of the many holy men seems to be in trouble. Now, I am not saying that this guy is guilty of the crime but I do believe that he should be treated as any ordinary citizen would be.

I have always felt that being a holy man or running an religious institution is an incredible enterprise in India (probably world over) - lot of clout, lot of money, little taxes, no accountability and absolutely no transparency. And, if your organization happens to represent "minority communities" even better - even the govt. won't meddle with your affairs.

Wonder who will be next - the dude with bad hairdo, the incredible hugger or any of the number of folks who are trying the "save" the natives.

Once again Bihar leads the way

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | New Florida vote scandal revealed

The US elections are over and the electorate has spoken loud and clear. This article is from before the elections. And, I had been wanting to comment on it.

A few years back Dhilip D'Souza on rediff.com wrote an article stating we should not lament Bihar's current state of affairs - Bihar which was the light of the civilization, the cradle to the first university system, he argued, still leads the way. Today it is where criminalization of politics first began and now it is all over India...

There was a time when I felt that democracy in countries like India should aspire to move towards what happens in the US. But, I am getting the feeling that democracies in countries like the US will move towards the Indian style of democracy - invoke god, amplify the differences and win

Why do we like Robinhoods - The Verappan Story?

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Veerappan remains hero to poor

First of all, I am glad that Verappan is dead. It was long overdue. But, I guess connections (the criminal-political nexus) can keep you alive for a while. It is bit like a slow spreading variety of cancer - it keeps you alive for a while but it certainly will kill you.

What I found interesting about this story is that public seem to take the side of Verappan. They believe that the police faked the encounter. They believe that Verappan was a hero and helped the poor. Yet, no one knows anyone who has been benefitted by Verappan.

What is the heroism in killing elephants for ivory, felling the sandalwood trees, kidnapping people and killing people? Did Verappan transfer wealth from the rich/corrupt to the poor and honest? There is no evidence of that. There is evidence to the fact that he killed honest law enforcement officals in cold blood. His actions put the very villagers that he was supposed to be helping at risk.

And, Is he a Robinhood? I don't know. Even if he is a Robinhood, why do we like such figures? The fact remains that all Robinhoods broke the law, did not use their power to create social change. Instead they relied on fear and loyalty to survive and never took responsiblity for their actions.

Are we so disgusted with the politicians whom we elect, the government and its representatives that we subscribe to "enemy's enmey is my friend" doctrine? We need to ask ourselves - "Are you willing to walk with the devil to cross the bridge?".

Comrades last stand

BBC NEWS | Business | India's struggle to befriend investors

What amazes me about Indian communists is there exists a species like this. There was time when I thought the socialist/ communist ideas were great. But, soon I realized that their concept of equality is like the old Tata Telecom ad - "All PABXs are created equal. Some are just more equal than others"

They seem to believe they have the solution for all issues world wide. If that is the case why is it that West Bengal and Kerala where they have ruled resemble development graveyards. The old foggies who run the party seem to think that development and progress happen without working for it.

Nice try by Soutik Biswas

BBC NEWS South Asia Gandhi's non-violence message to Mid-East

In 1948 he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who opposed his tolerance for all creeds and religions

Soutik Biswas tries to stretch the facts a bit. My limited knowledge (from what I have read) tells me that Godse was more aghast at the Indian government's pandering of Pakistan at Gandhi's behest. Whatever the truth is, it is sad that India in the 50+ years since the incident has choosen to keep the facts under wraps. And, take an extreme reaction to anything related to the event. So, we have books like "Nine hours to Rama" and plays like "Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy" banned.