Demand what you like - its democracy

Start of rant - Allow me to vent my anger at our democracy.

Our dear and favorite terrorist Kasab janab now demands , yes demands, that he needs a perfume, toothpaste and be allowed to take a stroll outside in the verandah. Yes sir. We are your service. The entire nation is at your service, sir. May we bring you some sweets specially made for you by Karachi Sweets Store? Sir, would you like to have access to online resources to find out different ways to fool the people of India? Sir, we have a new scheme. Blow up more than 200 people, you will be eligible for an air-conditioned cell. The tax paying Indians, some of whom you successfully blew up, will pick up the tab for it. We offer further discounts in the term of sentence if you are from LeT. You just need produce your id before the Entertainment Dept. of the Indian Prison System. - End of rant.

Mr. Kasab is still alive and rocking. Our judicial system is supposed to give the right punishment to the guilty. Is he not guilty? Or has he not been proven guilty? Innocent until proven guilty? Since I do not have the complete understanding of the Indian judicial system, I do not know what makes a person guilty. Therefore, I also agree that he might be innocent until he has been proved to be guilty.

In our country, it is a gift to be born a criminal. Because as a criminal, you can stand for elections until you are proven guilty. It takes a lot of time to be proven guilty. Sanjay Dutt got arrested 15 years after the crime of the 1993 serial blasts. Similarly, Kasab has been in police custody since November 27th but is yet to be be proven guilty. Four months to prove a person guilty for a crime as blatant as the 26/11 attacks and that too committed in broad daylight? Seems outrageous but might be quite possible given the pace at which the judicial system is accustomed to work. And if Kasab stands for election, I have no doubt that he will win. Why? The government will "reserve" a seat for him as he is a minority and then create special circumstances to win votes for him. When Laluji and Paswan babu can use a fake OBL as his brand ambassador, then anything is possible.

The dearly beloved terrorist says in his letter to his lawyer 

"Staying in one room, I am getting mentally sick. It should not happen that in future things may go out of control"

Let me remind you Mr. Kasab, if you ever step out of that prison, ever, then that would be the last day of your life. Let things go out of control and you will realise the meaning of waking a beast.

May the souls of 26/11 victims rest in peace because after knowing this, they will come running out of their graves.

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Teachings on Team Spirit by SRK

Disclaimer: What follows is purely based on media reports. If the truth states otherwise, do ignore the post.

 

In what turned out to a spectacular show of team spirit and encouragement, our Bollywood King SRK has returned from SA because his team is not performing well. Mind well, he owns the team which is not performing well. This is some show of team spirit. My guess is that if the team is not performing well then the owner is not gaining money. If no gain is involved, naturally he is not interested. The entire concept behind IPL which is similar to that of EPL, is to get high profile and ultra high net worth people to own the cricket teams and provide resources to make them perform and win. SRK may have done his best to make his team perform by pumping money into their performance and coaching, which by the way, is all he can do and probably knows how to do. He would probably be leaving the rest of the “details” to the managers of the team. But his act (if truly reported) shows an example of bad team spirit. He is the captain of the ship called Knight Riders and if it sinks, he has to sink with it. Not run away from it.

 

What he can do is increase his participation in the management of his team, buy better players, replace the coach (Buchanan), get better equipment etc. He is probably going to do that after the team returns from SA. But I believe, whatever fight-back spirit left in his team would now have evaporated into thin air. Why? When the owner of a multi-million business is not interested in the welfare of the business but just personal interests, the business closes down. That’s the best time for the business to start looking for a new owner. The head of Satyam went down albeit for different reasons but they were personal nonetheless. And the company had to look for another owner. Will Knight Riders suffer a similar fate? You never know. It’s just speculation and only time can tell.

 

All the best!

Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford, 1995

One of the most inspirational speeches of all time. Steve Jobs delivered this speech to the graduating class of 1995 from Stanford. Though most of you might have already read this speech, but if you haven't then drop everything that you are doing right now and take out 5 mins to read this speech. You will probably feel different after going through the speech. Better yet, you will start acting on that idea that you had long time ago. You will start giving thoughts to something that you have always wanted to do but never managed to do it since you thought you were never good enough.

 

Get inspired!

A Gadget to detect ghosts?

In what I term as Out of the World Phenomenon (OWP), a company has managed to build a gadget that can detect supernatural presence. Wow! If that did not unnerve you, then I don’t know what can. I am having serious doubts that exorcists have long used this gadget although secretly to detect ghosts and spirits. Only after that they use their super natural ability to talk to the spirits and chase them away to some other home. Imagine an exorcist holds up the gadget(synced up with an online database)  in the air and beep! “Ghost detected in the far right corner. Biz Tips: Send it to a Mr. Jignesh Patel’s place  in the neighborhood who is afraid of ghosts. It will generate more revenue for us. Tech tips: Use the Floo powder and sprinkle it on the east side of the bathroom where the ghost was born.” The exorcist then does the needful and gets paid for it and of course, his biz also expands since apparently the spirit listens to him and goes to Mr. Patel’s place.

 

Personally I am inclined not to believe in supernatural phenomena but if someone can prove it to me using this gadget, I am ready to change my mindset.

 

Some nerdy gadget eh?

 

This information of this post comes from Wired.com.

Express your "inner" feelings

Interesting way to express your feelings. As Amit Verma mentions on his blog, it does express the attitude of our politicians. On the other side, maybe they are encouraging us to employ the usage of our middle finger to show it to the politicians who want votes but no work. In any case, visit Amit's blog here to have a look at the picture of Ashok Chavan, the chief minister of Maharastra along with his wife, showing the common gaali to us.

Gun for car deal

Recently an article appeared in the TOI about a person getting "AK-47" as his car number plate. This is pretty amusing. He paid Rs.85000 for the number. Of course, the gun and the car both cost more than that. More on AK-47 at Wikipedia. I googled the price of AK-47. It costs around $500 for a new piece. A pretty good deal for a famous rifle.

 

Whims and fancies huh?

 

Meera Sanyal - Independent Candidate from South Mumbai

Today morning, I had been going through my usual list of blog feeds when I came across a particular thought on Amit Verma’s blog. This thought is from the website of an independent candidate for Lok Sabha, Meera Sanyal, from South Mumbai. The lines:

 

Meeting with a group of leaders of the Sindhi community I was asked what I would do if elected to propagate the Sindhi language. I started by delivering my campaign speech in Sindhi, much to the astonishment of the group as few people of our generation now speak the language! At the end however, I stressed that I was standing not as a Sindhi (which I am by birth) nor as a Bengali (which I am by marriage) nor as Maharashtrian (which I am by domicile) nor as a Parsee (which I am told that I look like) nor as a Sikh (which is a religion my family follows) nor as a Hindu (which is my officially stated religion) but as an Indian.

 

I highly recommend all of you visit her website. She has outlined her agenda and is crystal clear about how is she is going to achieve them. One look at her career growth and you would know that she is someone worth voting for. Educated individuals is what we need in our government today. Whether one independent candidate is going to change the country, is something no one can tell. But well, whatever difference she makes to her constituency, if it is for good and people like it, other parties are bound to follow, ultimately leading to the goal improving the city and therefore, moving towards an improved nation. This too is what she claims on her website. And rightly so. We have been taught and trained to follow and beg. Our fear of not being good enough has always ruled our senses. She has given up her fear and is leading head on in the elections. Once again I urge to people to vote for someone who will make a difference. Not someone who has been symbolic of claiming victories of battles not fought by them.

 

Today Meera stands on the booth as an Indian. We too need to stand up as Indians. Not as Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian or any other religion. This is about India. It is about our country and how we want to see it. We need to understand that the only identity that one must carry is that of an Indian. It doesn’t matter where do you come from, where were you born, which caste do you belong to, which religion do you follow, how much money do you have, what contacts do you have, which “don” is your friend, which untouchable you have touched, whether you sport a beard or wear a turban, whether you like cricket or ‘gilli danda”. All that matters is that you are an Indian and need to act like one. As she mentions, she comes from and interacts with people from diverse backgrounds, religion, status etc. But all she has in mind is that she is an Indian. And that is all we need to do. Be an Indian in spirit and not in words.

 

Disclaimer: I am not pitching for Meera Sanyal nor am I promoting her candidature. All I am pitching for is a change that will lead our country and make it better than it already is.

 

From a loving Indian,

Jai Hind

MMS says he can revive the economy in 100 days

The statement coming at the time of the elections either makes it consequential or a fallacy. Which one is the case is something I cannot choose from. But whether MMS should be given a chance to revive the economy in 100 days is something that rests in the hands of the people of India.

 

As a background to what I am going to rant about, please refer to the following Wiki article on sub prime mortgage crisis. The reason why I ask you to read it is because you will come to know one of the major reasons of the financial downturn. Please note that the article says that the crisis apparently came to light during the years 2006 - 2007 when the house prices declined. At that time, the Indian economy was performing much better than expected with record inflation and sensex levels. At that time, the govt. of India was in its 4th year. My speculation is that someway or the other, the economists of the govt. of India must have figured out that the crisis is going to hit the Indian market either directly or indirectly and at any point of time in the coming two years(i.e. 2008 and 2009). Therefore, my belief is that MMS must have been awakened by these economists and they must have urged him to do something. So I surmise that MMS, being a former FM himself, must have formed a team to plan for the worst recession of the century.

 

I guess a plan of revival would take at least 6 months to form taking into account various factors and sentiments of a 1 billion people country. Assuming, the govt. woke up on 1st January 2008. A report would have been ready by July(7 months, given the inherent governmental delays). The financial downturn hit us head on after Lehman went down in the month of September 2008. If you count till today, it gave the government almost 180 days (Oct 08 - Mar 09) to implement the plan to revive the economy. Giving a discount of 60 days, to allow the govt. to wake up from the deep slumber or late realisation of the crisis, they still had 120 days to implement their plan. But they did not.

 

They saved the plan till the elections were over. Why? If they implemented the plan and if it went wrong, they would lose by the worse margin ever in the history of parliamentary elections. Besides, the govt. would be thinking that since the whole country is screwed for the next 24 months, is 3 months and 20 days going to make a difference? Think not. I do not doubt that the plan is brilliant and will make a difference if executed properly. What irks me is that this plan could have finished its implementation now and we could have started the implementation of a 200 day Financial Stimulus Plan or Sustained Economy Plan(hypothetical).

 

Well it's elections time isn't it. Any plan well-timed or ill-timed, if it can be used to win votes, then use it.

 

I am proud to be a voting Indian.

Human waste and the mind

It’s funny how the human nature behaves differently in different situations.

I was just thinking about such a situation. According to human nature, a place for the disposing rubbish or garbage is a dustbin or a garbage bin. You would not want to dispose off the waste in a clean and a fresh place. The only place where waste can go is the dustbin. A dustbin is something which is always supposed to be dirty. It is only there that we will dispose the waste. We won’t try and find a clean place to dispose the waste. On the contrary, when it comes to disposing human waste, it is always desired that the place be the cleanest. We dispose human waste in a place where its clean but we dispose other kinds of wastes in dirty, unusable places, though both are wastes. We crib and criticize about dirty toilets but never know why. But that’s how the human mind is.

Adios!!

The Funny Thing about Future

This post is about a funny thing that I realised about future. To give you some background, recently I watched a movie called Next. The ever charismatic Nicholas Cage played the lead role. This man is able to see the future but only two minutes ahead of time. I won't rant on about the movie but I will quote a dialogue from the movie here: "The funny thing about future is everytime you see the future, it changes." From the context of the movie, you would understand what the statement means. But I thought I would try applying that to our present world.

Its funny how we always manipulate the future and yet tell others that we can only control the present. What are we doing when we start a savings plan? What do we do family planning for? Why do plans always have a contingency plan? Why is there always a Plan A and also a Plan B as contingency? Is it not apparent that we are always changing the future?

Thinking on the same lines, I saw the future and saw the need to save some money. There was always a plan drafted by the Force but yet I saw the future and tried to change it by investing in a savings scheme. What did I do? I changed the future. Now again I try to see the future. Its different from what it was before. It changed because I manipulated it and as a consequence of that, the flow of events earlier will not happen now. So now if I see the future, it is different from what it was earlier. For e.g., I saw the future after I invested in the savings scheme, and I realised that I would need more money when I grow old. So I invested more money in the savings scheme.But according to the earlier future, I was going to buy a brand new car with the surplus money in my account but now I changed the future by seeing the future.

And this is how it always works. Try applying this chain of thoughts to everything you do and you will realise that you are manipulating the future in every activity you do.

Have a great future !!

Adios!!

 

 

The rise and the fall of Apple

Two great essays at the Wired.com blog about the rise and the fall of the Apple Inc.

 

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

Get inspired!

Denial of Sex law

I was always under the impression that this world today was a free world. With the advances we see everyday, seldom would you see something which is so 19th century. But now after reading this, I am pretty much sure that we have not yet entered the 21st century. We have evolved but our minds haven't.

 

The article linked above is about the oppression of woman in Afghanistan. They have long suffered the atrocities of the so-called "loving" husbands who prefer to keep women in check. And the worst is that these women are quite satisfied with the lives that they are living. It seems that they like to be treated as sex puppets rather than respect. Recently, as the article and related news item states, there have been protests by the oppressed women to abolish marital rape. Marital rape as per the definition given at Wikipedia is spousal rape is non-consensual sexual assault in which the perpetrator is the victim's spouse. It seems that men in Afghanistan consider it as their birth right to have sex with their wives when they desire. Which is when men desire. No opinion of a woman counts. Denial of sex can result in more oppression and atrocity. How about men denying sex? No law exists. Who makes the law? Men, of course. And what is more ridiculous is that the law of sex denial applies to only 15% of the population belonging to a particular community.

 

And, of course , of course, men can deny food to the wife if she denies sex. Wow! Women, deny them children if they threaten you. Are men fools? So much so that they do not know where they come from? Do they not know that because wombs exist, they are doing what they are doing at present. A simple idea or a revelation such as that should knock some sense into them but no.

 

In what becomes a funny WTF situation, men start protesting against the protesting women proclaiming that the law is for their own good. Chauvinism and hormone surges at its best yeah? Men can't see that demands of woman being satisfied. It is only they who command and not the fairer sex! And perhaps the wisdom of "loving" husbands starts taking effect when some amongst the protesting women joined the men to become supporters of the law. Fear of oppression?

 

This is how we see the world and some others don't.

Black money

In what I term as a "startling" revelation, the govt. is finally going to crack down on the LBT bank to find out which Indians hold the greatest amount of black money in Swiss tax havens. Its another story that one of the employees from the bank itself sold the data to the German govt. and once again, we beg them to give us the information regarding some of the Indians holding the accounts there. 

Can we ever stop begging and start commanding? No, we can't. Want to know reason why? Who do you think has got largest holding in the Swiss? Unofficially, I received a message from one of my friends working in a Swiss bank that Indians account for a staggering 10000 crores worth of undeclared money in the Swiss account. Wondering where your tax-money is(assuming you are not the siphoning off the money from the coffers)?

The question is why is this issue coming to light during the times of the elections. Opposition parties are accusing LK that he has alerted all those holding the black money abroad. As if "all those" do not have cronies in the govt. who can alert them before even Mr Advani can dream of it. When the game is about votes, any "daagh" is worth converting into a national issue. And believe me, though I am not clear about the reason, but this black money cannot be connected the elections. Reason: all high profile politicians park their money abroad in the Swiss tax havens, no matter what party they belong to. So why would Advani provoke the issue? Has he not got that money out there? Or is it because he has turned 81 and is now satisfied with all the wealth and is suddenly planning to "improve" the state of financial affairs of India? Because of guilt? No? I am curious to find out. Feel free to comment.

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Politicians "working" inspite of the impending elections

According to this news report, it is business as usual for the politicians in the times of election. I would not know how to react to this piece of news. I would rather believe if it said that they get to work only when the elections are around corner. No policy decisions are to be made that influence the vote bank. Pretty much obvious. They make decisions that influence the voters to vote for them not against them. Such policies get the green light as quickly as possible if the ruling party manages to convince the opposition.

 

Such is the game of politics.

India Squirting

I reproduce here an email that I received as a forward from one of school friends, Mihir Badiani. It represents an humorous representation of the Incredible India that we see today. And the name of the author is also a humor intended at the contents if you observe carefully. Here it is:

 

Despite the global economic meltdown, thanks to the Incredible India campaign a trickle of western tourists continues to make a passage to India. And do they find India Incredible? They sure do, as this intercepted letter from an enthusiastic visitor shows:

    Hi, all you folks back home, Boy am i glad that i came to India. It's even more Incredible than they say it is. Back home in the US you hear that India is a very dirty and unhygienic place. Well, i can tell you that's not true at all. India is a very clean place. Incredibly clean in fact. And you discover this as soon as you leave the airport and see all these people, all men, all busy hosing down the streets, the buildings, everything, with streams of water. At first i thought: Oh my Gawd! Are all those guys peeing? In full public view? Gross, man. Then i said to myself: Nah, it can't be. After all, this ain't just any ole India, this is Incredible India. So these guys who i thought were peeing were, Incredibly, actually cleaning the streets and buildings by hosing them down. And the most Incredible part of the whole thing was that the hoses they were using were in shape, size and every anatomical detail identical to men's youknow-whats. Now, is that Incredible or is that Incredible?

    As the you-know-whatshaped hoses show, Indians are Incredibly inventive and artistic. In fact, every Indian is an artist. Except they don't use paint brushes or canvases. They squirt paint — always red paint — straight from their mouths onto the walls of buildings, pavements, passing cars, whatever catches their fancy. The result is that the entire Indian landscape is a work of expressionistic art, like a Jackson Pollock painting, except it's all in varying shades of red. Sometimes one of these squirtedout works of art gets washed away inadvertently by an overzealous hoser. But, hey, no big deal, because sure enough, before you can say 'K G Subbramaniyan' you've got another instant masterpiece splattered on the same spot. Aaah thooo! as the local saying goes.

    Apart from traditional arts and crafts such as wall- and pavement-paintings, India also boasts a number of Incredible modern marvels. The whole world knows of the Nano, the world's most economical car. But did you guys know that apart from the Nano, and to keep all those Nanos from bashing into each other, India had with great foresight already invented the world's first mobile traffic islands which help regulate traffic on the busy and crowded streets? These traffic islands in the middle of roads are not only self-propelled, capable of moving about on their own will, but have been designed in the shape of the sacred Indian cow so that no one, rash motorist or jostling pedestrian, dares challenge their right of way on pain of eternal damnation. The result is the Incredibly Indian traffic jam.

    But perhaps the most Incredible thing about Incredible India is the Tall Tales Competition that takes place nationally every five years, or whenever the mood takes the country. In keeping with the ancient oral tradition which goes back to the time of the great epics, the Mahabharat and the Ramayan, master storytellers from all corners of the land compete with each other to see who can tell the biggest whoppers, the tallest of tall tales, the mother and father of all fictions and fables, to what is said to be the biggest audience in the world to judge such a contest. Those who tell the biggest and most imaginative lies are rewarded by being given free run of the country for the next five years. And the most Incredible part of it is that this great fibbing contest is called Democracy.

    Indeed, everything about India is so Incredible that i've decided that i want to stay here forever and never go back to the US. I'm not too hot at fibbing so i don't think i can take part in the tale-telling competition. But i could always become a hoser. Thing is, will i be supplied with one or do i gotta bring my own hose?

    Yours etc,

    A S Quirt

 This is what makes India incredible. Traffic islands to be or not to be, we still love our country but to see it transform from third world to the first, we must cultivate the patience that is no longer a virtue in today's youth.

 

Later .....

Is late rising good?

Jonathan Mead at Zen Habits surely thinks that is the case. Follow the link to know why.

 

India's Sanitation Challenge

Here is one more challenge [Link to Bloomberg report] that new govt. should take up. As if it does not have much on the plate already, which for the record, I don't think they do. All the welfare work in our country is being done by some NGO or the other. It is non-governmental and therefore, it works. Why does it work? Because it had been created to do so. It is a non-profit organisation, though my personal belief is no NGO is a no profit organisation. Everyone and every organisation makes a profit in some form or the other. But I would not mind giving my money to an NGO rather than give it to the govt. as tax and see it disappear in some tax haven.

 

Will the new govt. gear up for the vision stated in the report? Vote for the less dangerous political party and hope for the best.

 

 

In the news - WTF

I have nothing to say about the news item that I have linked here. It kicked the wind out of me. It reminded me of a comment that I had read somewhere. It said "Given the choices of politicians today, you would be better off making a choice amongst the less dangerous ones rather than embark on a quest to find the best one". Link to the news item. Since Lalu can use the companionship of a fake OBL for his campaign, why can't Karunanidhi do the same by claiming friendship with the LTTE chief? KN claims that the leader of the terrorist organization is not a terrorist. He is a good man. How worse can the intelligence of our politicians get? Makes you wonder yeah?

Its destiny and we are destined to vote for the less dangerous politician! Scary but true!

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Who says you need a VC to start a biz?

You never need a VC to start a business. All you need is the will and the determination. Rest is all history. Have a look at the story of a first gen entrepreneur from Vadodara who went global with his ice-golas.

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In the News

In the news today:

Another 26/11-style attack in the offing: US think-tank

Yet another threat and another worry for the Indian government. But do you think the govt. is worried about an attack right now? I dont think so. They are so busy "protecting" their constituencies that they wont be able to provide the security against such an attack. When a high-profile revenue generating IPL cannot garner enough security for 100 cricketing men, how do you think is the govt. going to protect more than 1 billion people? Ever heard of an Indian politician being killed in a terrorist attack? They are at liberty to spend whatever amount they can to beef up their security. All levels of Black Cat and Black Dogs(ok, hypothetical) would be employed to give them the protection. But they are untouchables, literally. Yes, you cannot touch them. But we, the common people of India, are expendable. And, ofcourse, cricket teams too are expendable.

Makes you wonder whom to vote for. Right?

Wanna ride the thoughts? Comment away!

Maggi - The famous noodle brand

Pangs of hunger is what lead to this post. And as always, we turn to instant food to satisfy that instant hunger. One such brand of foods that I turn to most of the times is Maggi noodles. I cooked myself a packet of Maggi and sat down in front of my laptop. Looking at the bowl, I suddenly realised that I have eaten these noodles for last 15 years of my life and I never did find out as to where it came from, what was it that made it taste so yummy. And as always, it lead me here. The brand Maggi originated back in the 19th century in Switzerland. It started out as a soup specialist and then moved on to many food items of which one is the subject of this post. Please refer to the link above for more information on Maggi and its origins.

That lead to some more random search on the internet. I came across a question which I think is quite ridiculous. The asker wanted to know as to how to make a Masala(Ms) similar to that of original Maggi brand. One, if anyone could make a Masala similar to the original one, then Maggi noodles (MN) would be a non-existent entity. Non-existent because someone would have made it earlier and renamed it to say, Koodles, whatever and MN would never have been born. Two, Ms is a business secret. Businesses thrive on Intellectual Property (IP). They cant afford to lose a product secret. And what is even more ridiculous is one of the answers. I quote the answer here,

Hey, call the maggi customer care centre.......and ask for the ingredients......they have to disclose the ingredients which they are not doing presently......probably U can take cover of the Right to Information (RTI) act and ask the company officials about it........if u get any info on it........please share with all.....

I will comment on the above statement by taking it up in parts. 

call the maggi customer care centre

I tried to find a number for a customer care for Maggi but could not get hold of it. Assuming it does exists, I wonder what compaints must the people logging out there. Take a look here. Sorry for digressing but it does seem funny. :)

ask for the ingredients

The company is so nice that it will readily share its trade secret with everyone. It wants to run out of business but that is what it became such a big brand for. It is very easy to ask for something that you are never going to get. That way, you know you have not wasted your energy.

hey have to disclose the ingredients which they are not doing presently......probably U can take cover of the Right to Information (RTI) act and ask the company officials about it

And this brings me to main point, RTI. I would like to ask the questioner as to whether he has ever read the RTI act or even tried to find out as to what comes under it and what is exempted. I have emailed the asker and haven't received a reply yet. I searched the RTI website and found out this. Have a look at the iv clause in the 6th question of the FAQ. I quote it here,

information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information

Do you think that the "competent authority" is going to invoke the Act, because a lady wants to find out the ingredients so that she can make the Masala herself and start a venture?

I took this opportunity to vent my ire on the way people think and comment without giving it a thought.

Want to ride the thoughts? Comment below.

Indian Rupee Design Competition

This is an interesting piece of news that I came across today. India is looking to create its own Rupee symbol just like $. It has announced a competition wherein they have set some guidelines as to what the symbol should represent. While keeping a competition does seem like a good idea, but it should be kept in mind that this symbol would be used across all sorts of technologies and computing languages.

 

Another thing to keep in mind, as per the given guidelines, is that the symbol should represent our culture and tradition. Now is the time to think as to how we can represent a topic as wide "culture and "tradition in as small as a symbol whose width should not be greater than "0" (given guideline). Interesting huh? What is more interesting is that I could not get hold of a government website where such a competition has been announced. Secret huh?  

Update:

As mentioned by  my friend Mitesh below, the competition finished on 15th April. Results are yet to be announced. Thanks for the link.

--
Kashyap Patel

Why is sophistication not good for us?

The consequences of Wall Street's reckless brilliance in many ways parallel modern-day engineering disasters. If you travel through Italy, you can't help but notice the many Roman bridges that still stretch across that nation's waterways. How is it that the Romans could build bridges that would last thousands of years, while the ones we build today collapse after a few decades?

The answer is simple. Back then, they did not have the fancy computers required to calculate exactly how strong a bridge must be. So an architect made a bridge very, very strong. Today, engineers can calculate exactly how much steel they need to incorporate into a bridge to bear the expected load. The result is, they are free to make them weaker..

First came across this thought at Atanu's blog. The more you think about it, the more it seems to be true. In these times, you cannot survive without a machine by your side. Be it celphone, calculator, laptop or Kindle. Our ability to think becomes limited because most of it is done by the machine. It is always true that unused entity always tends to degenerate be it human brain or for that matter, anything made from matter.

Minds today are trained to accept what the machines say. The machines are always assumed to be true as long as a bright mind has programmed it to always give the right and exact answers. Thats the reason why vulnerabilities occur in the systems and breaks it up leading to wide spread damage.

Whether the advent of the machines is a bane or a boon is something that cannot be commented upon since you wont be reading this blog if it was not for a machine.