I blog therefore I am!

10 commandments for Apple fanbois

2012-01-27T11:46:00.000Z

10 commandments followed by all Apple Fanbois everywhere in the world

1. Thou shall publicly denounce Flash whenever possible.
2. Thou shall proclaim 3.5" to be the perfect screen size.
3. Thou shall not compare features with an Android device.
4. Thou shall proclaim all features unnecessary if they are not on your iCrap.
5. Thou shall spout foaming hate at all Android users.
6. Thou shall not miss any chance to point to the world "It's a sexy device!" about your iCrap.
7. Thou shall think of "replaceable battery" as the work of the devil.
8. Thou shall not use logic to evaluate thy iCrap device.
9. Thou shall consider it a privilege to pay shitload of money to buy obsolete technology.
10. Thou shall always reply to an Android users' boasts with "I don't need that feature!"

Stop SOPA - Freedom of speech is more important than corporate greed.

2012-01-18T08:30:00.000Z

Adding my support to Wikipedia, Reddit and other sites protesting SOPA today on 18th January 2012 I have decided to add this banner to my blog as my own protest.

More information here: http://viewpointsofasagittarian.blogspot.com/2012/01/anti-sopapipa-blackout.html

Wikipedia going dark on Wednesday!

2012-01-16T22:49:00.001Z

Yes, this is not a joke. In protest of the Internet censorship bill SOPA, Wikipedia community had decided to make the website offline for 24-hours. Anyone who uses the internet knows how popular and how valuable Wikipedia is when you want answers to casual questions or research queries.

If it is going to affect your work, you can take steps so you don't lose access to the massive knowledge-base. Just Google "Offline wiki" and you will find several solutions to download the entire content of the Wikipedia to your personal device. These solutions are available on various platforms from Android to Windows. I think it's a good idea to have an offline Wikipedia anyway for those moments when you are not hooked up to the internet.

More information on the link below:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/01/wikipedia-go-dark-wednesday/47467/

Sign Into Your Google Account on Public Computers Without Typing Anything

2012-01-16T22:40:00.001Z

This is why I love Google. Absolutely ingenious and so useful. I have just tested it, from my own computer of course, but it works like a charm. Amazing!

http://lifehacker.com/5876559/sign-into-your-google-account-on-public-computers-without-typing-anything?popular=true

Bullshit Omniscience Principle

2012-01-16T20:50:00.002Z

This is a principle that I have come up with. In says that like God, "Bullshit is everywhere." Let me elaborate.

You must be familiar with the old quote, “It’s love that makes the world go round.” Some jaded peoplehold the view that “It’s money, not love, that makes the world go round.”Actually both are wrong.

My principle, Bullshit Omniscience Principle, says that "It’snot Love and it’s not Money, it’s the Bullshit that makes the world go round. Ifit weren’t for the bullshit that we constantly hand each other the civilizationas we know it would cease to exist."

I know, I know, you are not convinced yet. I will prove it with examples from real life. But before that, let's define what constitutes bullshit. I'd say that anything which you say but don't mean, all the half-truths, all the white lies, all the things you say just to please someone...etc. etc. that's all bullshit.

So when you go visit a friend couple and see their child for the first time, the first words out of your mouth are, "Oh, he's sooo cute! Cho chweet!", even when you are thinking, "God, they can use HIS photo to scare Gabbar Singh!". Bullshit!

When you meet a friend's wife or girlfriend for the first time, afterwards you tell him, "Shefali seemed really nice!" Bullshit. Actually you were thinking, "Such a control freak! She's going to make his life a living hell. And doesn't he see those teeth or what?"

When ladkewale talk to the bride's father at the planning stage they always say, "We don't want anything..." Bullshit! They think the bride's father will give them more than they can ask for.

When you are sitting in front of the interviewer for the job, your words are and I quote, "I don't worry about overtime, the work should be finished." But after you get the job, you make sure if you enter the office at 9:01 then you leave by 17:01 not 17:02 even if you have to shut down everything 20 minutes in advance. And any day when India is playing Pakistan is a day for you to fall sick.

The interviewer is no fool either, he's paddling his own bullshit. "Our company has an excellent employee growth program.." when he's really thinking, "Yes, we will give you a score of C+ on appraisal and give you a 3% raise or tell you to go find another job."

This is even more interesting in the case of girl candidates. She would serve up some bullshit wrapped up in nice words, "I am very focused on my career, I am hard-working, a team player and totally dedicated to my work." When actually, she's thinking, "My father is looking for a boy for me, as soon as the engagement is done, I will be out of here so fast there will be a hole in the air."

And the interviewer is thinking, "So what if she doesn't know anything about automation and answered 7 of the 10 questions wrong. She's cute, at least there will be some good-looking faces around here, the male-to-female ratio in the testing team is already so pathetic!"

The examples are too many and time too little. But let's take one more.

You are on a date with a beautiful girl with a figure like your favourite bollywood goddess. You say, "My god, you have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen!" Bullshit! You were looking at boobs, you don't even know what colour her eyes are!

On the other hand, she is saying, "Awww, you are so sweet!" but thinking, "Thank god, I Googled him before coming on this date. If he didn't make so much money, I'd out of here like a scared rabbit...what a geek!"

Okay, I must stop here, as you can see there is absolutely no shortage of examples from our real life and I think I have made my point now.

Let me summarize by saying that bullshit is the lubrication that keeps the wheels of the civilization turning smoothly, it's the glue that holds this world together. In fact if there's one thing that separates us from the Neanderthals it's our capacity to paddle bullshit all day, every day, ad infinitum.

But you know, if you want some no-bullshit material you can always come read my blog. ;)

Why the fuss about Siri?

2012-01-13T09:23:00.000Z

I have tried to ignore it so far but I have had so much mention of Siri on blogs, from other iPhone users and from other Android users that I thought I should put my own thoughts here for reference.

So, why the fuss about Siri?

Just one word - money!

Or if you prefer two words - marketing budget!

Yes, the only reason Siri has appeared so much on the radar lately is because Apple paid for it. Apple have their own technology blogs and they have their well-established strategies to place their product in the limelight. It's easy to do when you are paying for the light and the stage, either openly or discretely.

Then what's my beef with Siri? Actually, nothing. It's one useful feature in an otherwise useless piece of crap. That it doesn't work as well as advertised and in typical Apple fashion you only get to hear the good news while the problems are suppressed is another matter.

But Siri is basically just a voice-command and voice-dialling system. As I said, it's a good thing. I don't mind it. It's time iCrap users had something that was useful. I do, however, mind the fact that Apple is trying to act like they have just invented the wheel and given it as a gift to humanity! No, sir, that you have not!

In 2005, when I was using a phone called JASJAR, on Windows Mobile, I had a voice command application that could play music, dial phone numbers etc. Even before that when I was using phones that had just the Java-based mobile OS, I had voice commands and voice dialing, including customizable voice shortcuts. I remember having voice dialing as far back as January of 2001.

And on Android, I have had voice commands including voice dialling for a long while, at least a year. But because there was no multimillion-dollar marketing hype to release such things, nobody made a big deal out of it.

What Apple has done, is to re-use that existing functionality and packaged it well, then hyped it until it sounded better than Second Coming. Typical Apple!

To be fair, I don't want to go into the details of how rarely it's possible to use a voice-interface properly as that applies to all of them not just Siri.

P.S. 1. Siri doesn't work in UK if you ask anything like "Where's the nearest Pizza Hut?" It will tell you it can only find things in North America. Now how great is that for the British and European users, and Indian sub-contitent..and Russia..and..well, basically rest of the world. For Apple only North America matter. And is this fact mentioned anywhere in the fancy Siri ads or specs?

2. I have found web articles that Siri doubles the data usage on your phone.

So the Apple customer rep said...

2012-01-11T23:40:00.001Z

On the afternoon of 23rd December 2011, start of Christmas weekend, I went to an electronics store with a friend of mine, Currys, if you must know. This friend was in the market for a tablet and even though he had asked my advice, I knew he was the type who'd deliberate for months and then fall prey to Apple's marketing. But I went with him anyway, it's fun in itself for me to roam an electronics store with all those gadgets and devices around. I love to just browse there.

I should mention that I was wearing the tshirt that you see in the picture.

While looking over the iPads (it does sound like a sanitary napkin when said like that) we ran across the in-store customer representative from Apple. I had forgotten about the tshirt but he of course, noticed it.

So, he asked me if I didn't like Apple. I said, "No, I just love Apple. iCrap is my favourite crap in the world." He didn't get it.

I have noticed that the Apple people or even most fanbois don't directly say that Android sucks or it's bad or anything, they start something like, "Android is really great, some of my best friends are Android users, but...". Yes, they are sneaky about it lest someone discover their secret that they have sold their sole to Apple.

That's how this guy started, "Android is good, but it's become too fragmented now. Everybody is coming out with an Android device."

I swear to you I was not looking for an argument! Mainly because I have realized this tendency in me to jump down the throat of anyone who pulls out an iPhone in front of me or says that it's a good device. Also, my friend knew that I am a jumper-down-the-throat and he was watching me, waiting for me to pull out my bazooka and blow this guy away. I could almost hear him thinking, "Okay he talks so much in the office about this crap, always badmouthing Apple, let's see if he can stand up to an actual Apple guy." Because everybody knows that marketing guys are fast-talkers and they have all the facts about their devices and all the weaknesses of the competition.

Because of this I was trying to stay civilized and let the Apple guy live. But he continued. He (the Apple rep) asked for my opinion! It was like he had a deathwish! So I replied to one of his comments. He replied and then...I had to shut him up. It's a shame I didn't record the conversation but I had no idea it would be long, I was going to "walk away from the conflict". Honest, I was trying to spare him.

Even though I didn't record the conversation and don't remember all of it, I remember a few major points that he tried to make, like, "It's all about the user experience. Nobody goes and says if they have a good experience with a phone, you only hear the problems..." I told him that's not true. He countered, "Who goes and says that they like a phone."
"I do."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"You go and point out the positive things about your phone?"
"Yes." He looked incredulous so I added, "Do you want a URL to my blog?"
He, prudently, declined that offer.

Not only is that true (anyone can read my reviews of my phones on this blog) but iPhones users very often gush about their phone how they love it. That's my guff with them, the company tries to hush up the problems.

I agreed with him that's all about the experience, "If your phone's battery dies, me, I can go buy a 10 quid replacement battery and be up and running, but you will have to send the whole phone to Apple and pay a big amount to get it replaced. If your battery has never died on you, this won't matter to you. If one time the battery dies on you, you will always curse the non-replaceable battery."

He had no choice but to agree.

He mentioned that iPhone was simple, not everybody was good with these devices. I laid a trap for him, "So you are saying that Apple devices are made for the technologically challenged?"
He didn't see it, walked right into the trap "Yes." I insulted his whole userbase in one sweeping statement and he agreed with me!

In "The Big Bang Theory" the main characters who are these genius scientists often talk about "Apple's devaluation of the word Genius" because apparently Apple store employees are terms "Apple Genius" in US. While talking to this guy I could see what Sheldon and Leonard mean.

After a rest he came back with his favourite, "But Android has become so fragmented now."
Now that the guns were drawn I didn't let it pass, "It's not called fragmented", I told him, "It's called taking the market by storm, it's called pissing on Apple!" I pointed to the tshirt.

He gave me a sheepish grin and shut up!

So, think about it, even a paid customer representative cannot defend the crap that Apple makes, what good is it then? Anybody else want to take me on?

Shut up about Lokpal already!

2012-01-05T09:55:00.001Z

Indian people need to shut the fuck up...about corruption!

What was it that Jesus said - "He who is without sin shall cast the first stone!" or something like that.

Lately there has been a lot of discussion and shooting of mouth about corruption what with the Lokpal bill and Anna Hazare's movement and everything. It surprises me how little common sense is there in the world and how otherwise sensible people can be idiots. Yes, I am going to say "idiots" because I am pissed off right now.

Let me ask you something, you, who is sooo dead-set against corruption and cannot curse the corrupt politicians enough..who do you think you are?

When you are stopped by a policeman on the road, why do you say "Sir dekh lo kuchh ho sakta ho to.." instead of simply paying a challan like an "honest" citizen should? You don't even want to go to court and challenge it because you'll have to take a day off work. It's much simpler and easier to slip a 50 Rs. note to the constable on duty with your driving licence and be on your way.

When you need a ration card, do you go and stand in the queue for half a day or you pay an "agent" to deliver it conveniently to your house?

When you got your driving licence, did you really take the tests or did you "ensure" that you passed?

When a family member is sick and you have a chance to bypass the queues because the nurse on duty lives down the street from you, do you NOT take it because it would be unfair to others?

When you get a parking challan, do you go and pay it or do you find a way to "get it settled"?

When you have to pay "donation" to the private school to get your child admitted do you think even for a minute NOT to do it because it's corrupt and admit your kid to the government school?

When you buy something expensive do you waive the receipt because it'd mean paying 2% sales tax if you took the bill?

Have you ever lied on your expense account to the company?

Is your income tax statement 100% accurate?

Then who the hell gave you the right to talk about other people's corruption?

The politicians are blamed because they are caught, and they do it in such horrendously large amounts but isn't that the only difference between you and them? A small thief and a big thief? They are both thieves and you know it.

So what is it? What is this big devotion to the Lokpal or any anti-corruption movement? Isn't it you trying to quiet your conscience about your own corruption by pointing fingers at the bigger thieves?

What I am saying is that it MIGHT be possible to find an honest policeman in India but it would be next to IMPOSSIBLE to find an honest member of the public!

I have no knowledge of the Indian politics, never did, never will, but if Anna Hazare is a politician, I would doubt IMMENSELY that he is without reproach. It just means that he hid it well.

And what would happen if the Lokpal bill was passed? Do you think it's LEGAL now for cops to take a bribe? Tell me in which department it is legally allowed to take a bribe and then tell me in which department bribe system is not in place!

Do I need to list out the activities that are 100% against the law and still each one of them flourishes in every city in India? Prohibition only drives the activity underground and drives the price up. Corruption is already underground, so what do you think will happen when one bill is passed?

In a country where a corrupt politician can get out by bribing the right people, it is absolutely stupid to pin so many hopes to a piece of legislation.

The law doesn't fix a problem, the culture does, at present we have a culture of corruption and it's not going away any time soon. So wake up and shut up!

'nuff said.

Happy "New" Year?

2012-01-03T12:30:00.002Z

Happy New Year to all my readers, all my blogfriends and all people who read this. If you don't get to read this, still I wish you have a lovely new year.

"Happy New Year" are the most used formula at this time of year, everybody wishes everybody they meet happy new year, but what does it really mean? We are wishing each to have a happy "New" year only? Well the wish is not for the whole year surely, simply because the year will not be "new" for the whole 12 months! So how long does the newness of the year last?

Or is the wish just for the New Year's Eve which is only on 31st December of the "last" year? That seems too short for all the fuss we make about it. Some people do actually wish "Have a wonderful year" or "Have a prosperous 2012." but that's only a minority.

Would anyone care to explain what this "new" year mean really?

My opinion, if you care to ask, is that the newness of the year lasts only until you are full of vigour and enthusiasm and don't give up on your ideas and dreams. When you start feeling tired and overcome by problems, the year is beginning to get old. That way some people manage to enjoy the "new" year right up to the midnight of 31st December because their enthusiasm never wanes.

I wish you a whole year full of dreams and the will to make them come true!

My teachers: Mr. Chauhan

2011-12-29T12:18:00.001Z

Teachers come in a variety of types, some who would rather be left alone, others who like to take control and drive things. And there are a few, extremely few who actually like to provide intellectual stimulation and make their students really think for themselves.

Mr. Chauhan was one such teacher. When I was doing my computer course we had a situation when we lost our teacher to another job. This, I should clarify, was a very small institute, owned by one person and usually staffed by one teacher. I was hardly in a position to criticise as the fee was very low and even then we had the option to pay in monthly instalments. If I told you how much it was, you wouldn't believe it, it was so low.

So, we had our computer teacher and suddenly he got another job and decided to leave the institute. The owner/manager of the institute, who also taught some classes, got Mr. Chauhan to fill in. We were learning PLT at the time (short for Programming Logic Techniques). Mr. Chauhan came in, and asked us some questions on what we had learnt so far in computers and in PLT. And he had this infuriating habit of saying "Why?" after every answer we gave him. His contention was that you should know the reason why something was so, not just say "That's what we've been told." This did annoy me because at some point that's what you have to say. No, not really. Now, I understand that the chain of answers should stop not at "So we've been told." but at "It's a fact provable by experiment." But we didn't get into that then.

Next we started on PLT. He started to quiz us first.

Mr. Chauhan: What do you need to write a program?
Class: Computer.
Mr. Chauhan: Wrong!

Oh, God!

But that's the sign of great teachers - their words can change your life, and you NEVER forget those words. He told us the "A program is written on paper, not on computer." This might seem blatantly obvious or even flippant but any computer programmer worth his salt would know exactly what it means. When you start writing programs on computer, you do shoddy work and make more mistakes. When you write a program on paper, you do your best work, and that way lies excellence.

He told us that the best paying job in computers (at the time at least) was a Systems Analyst and he hardly ever needs to go near a computer.

In that same class, he asked us more about programs and I was giving an answer when he stopped me and said, "No, not a program, algorithm." Arrgh! That almost sent me into a rage! They were the SAME thing! No, they are not!

Years later he told me that after the class he told our centre manager to keep an eye on me and forget the rest. Hehe, yes, I am proud of that. No way I am NOT going to mention that! But that day I was pissed off with him. But that was always his style, he never believed in spoonfeeding his students. I did very well in PLT, so what did he do? He didn't praise me or anything, he just gave me MORE problems to solve than other students in the class. The result is that I have very strong PLT skills and love to debate with people on the merits of "OR" and "AND" in a line of code.

After PLT he taught us COBOL. Yes, it was that long back. COBOL was on its way out even then but this was before the year 2000 so it was not completely out yet and did make some programmers rich when the Y2K work came. Alas, I was not one of them. Still, I did very well in COBOL and got 93% in the test, which was not only the highest in the class, it was my highest score in any computer subject. A year later the centre owner asked me to teach a batch there and guess what subject he asked me to teach - COBOL.

Then there was the incident when Chauhan Sir taught me MS-Office in 5 minutes.

This was a couple of years later, I was a software faculty by now and was teaching in a small institute other than the one I studied in. I was teaching DOS, Windows and a few other things, but not MS-Office. That was new at that time. It was version 4.3 I still remember very vividly. The nice lady I worked for wanted me to learn MS-Office so I could teach it as well. She and Chauhan sir were friends so I could go and learn with him at his institute which was in the same city.

I remember it like yesterday. I went to the pay phone near the institute and called Ds (that’s my code for him) to arrange for classes. He was in office and we talked. I explained what I needed. Here’s how the conversation went:

Ds: Toh MS-Office seekhna hai? (You want to learn MS-Office?)
Me: Yes, sir.
Ds: Kya karoge seekh ke? (What would you do with it?)
Me: Sir yahan padhaoonga. (I will teach it here).
Ds: Wordstar aata hai? (You know Word Star?) (Word Star was an older word processing software, DOS-based, and quite popular before MS-Word came along.
Me: Aata hai, sir. (I know it, sir.) (I was very confident, I was very good in WS).
Ds: Phir? (Then?)
Me: Sir, MS-Office nahin aata na. (I don’t know MS-Office).
Ds: To MS-Office seekhoge. (So you will learn MS-Office.)
Me: Yes, sir. (I was getting a bit annoyed by now.)
Ds: Phir? Naya aa jayega phir woh seekhoge? Kitne word processor seekhoge? (Then, when the new one comes out you’ll learn that? How many word processors will you learn?).
That shut me up and made me think.
Ds: Usko khol lo, help file kholo saath mein, aur karo. (Open it, and open the Help file, and use it.)

The whole conversation took less than 5 minutes, but he taught me MS-Office in 5 minutes. Alongwith that he taught me all other word processors and all programming languages without a computer in sight! Never felt the need to go for a class to learn a new application after that. And I ended up learning many other software and programming languages after that. I started teaching MS-Office later that week and have taught all versions. I pride myself on my Word and Excel skills and even though they are not my primary tools the knowledge has been extremely useful to me in my career.

That’s the kind of teacher Ds was and is. He knows how to kindle the spark and let the student learn instead of crippling him with spoonfeeding.

I am still in close touch with him. Whenever I go to India half of my vacation time is spent with him, either visiting his business or home, or debating something in technology or society.

One thing I really hate is that he never taught me Chess. He was a state champion in his time and I really wanted to learn to play better Chess from him. But the only time we played together it was like him playing with only 10% of his mind on the game and he beat me, no, actually crushed me without even bothering to “play”. I hated that. But I haven’t given up, some day I’ll trap him into teaching me. ;)

There was a great time, a wonderful period of my life when I was working in his own company. Even when I had a problem in a technology or language that he didn’t know, I would still go to Ds for solutions. And he would sort me out. Without knowing the language and without learning! His logic is just so strong that he always knows what questions to ask.

He had written books on COBOL that were used in schools as textbooks, but he never mentioned it to brag. I found out just by chance. Same thing about his Chess skills. He never brags, never needs to. But anyone who meets him, cannot forget him. I am very proud and privileged that I met him and that he is still in my life as a guiding spirit.

My dream is to one day collaborate with him on a project! Amen!

Facebook is a waste of time

2011-12-22T12:13:00.001Z

Sigmund Freud maintained that all energy is sexual energy and if a person uses that energy in anything other than sex he is applauded by the society but if he uses it in pursuance of sex itself he is considered a pervert by the same society.

I am proposing a theory that all energy is Facebook energy. If it is used directly on Facebook then it is a waste of time but if it is directed into some other venture it turns into a useful, productive result.

As usual, let’s look at history, Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, Mao Tse Tung were these great people? Yes, they were. Did they have Facebook accounts? No, they didn’t! On the other hand, George Bush, Paris Hilton, Sarah Palin are all on Facebook.

‘nuff said!

Sachchi Shiksha

2011-12-19T10:10:00.000Z

[I was planning to do a blog post on this topic (which I still might do later) but when I woke up this morning the inspiration in my head was more towards poetry than prose. Result is this poem. I take no responsibility for what happens if you follow it like a life philosophy. Or if you don’t. ;) ]

नया ज़माना आया प्यारे इसके नये उसूल,
झूठ के ढोल बजाओ भाई, सच को जाओ भूल,

सच को जाओ भूल यही दस्तूर है प्यारो,
सच की फीकी दाल में यारो, थोड़ा झूठ का तड़का मारो.

बारह आने सच्चाई के चार आने का झूठ,
खुल्ली लूट मची है प्यारे लूट सके तो लूट.

लूट सके तो लूट, बहुत मौके हैं प्यारे,
बेईमानी की चाबी पकड़ो खुल जाएँगे ताले सारे.

दस्तूर जहाँ दस्तूरी का हो, सच्चाई का राग ना गाओ
भाषण तो घर जा कर देना, पैसा फेंको काम कराओ

पैसा फेंको काम कराओ, चाहे नौकरी या हो तरक्की,
चोर चोर मौसेरे भाई, अपनी दोस्ती सबसे पक्की.

सच की राह तुम चलो हमेशा बच्चों को यह पाठ पढ़ाओ,
Admission का समय जब आए, donation दो entry पाओ.

donation दो entry पाओ. , मत सब को उपदेश सुनाओ,
'खाओ और खाने दो' का तुम नया मूल मन्त्र अपनाओ.

सच्चाई की राह चले तो काँटे ही राहों में होंगे,
बेइमानी की खाद लगाओ, फूल उगाओ खुशबू पाओ.

सूखी रोटी सच्चाई की कब तक पानी से खाओगे,
बेईमानी का मक्खन मारो अपना जीवन सरल बनाओ.

Texting and driving

2011-12-18T17:40:00.001Z

It might seem like a good idea, but it really isn't.

Reality about Text Messaging: Video

2011-12-18T17:32:00.001Z

http://www.maniacworld.com/Texting-While-Driving-PSA.html

Text Messaging

2011-12-18T17:30:00.000Z

Comedy Circus - 4.12.2011

2011-12-10T18:52:00.001Z

Amazing episode, best of all episodes of all seasons!

Movie Review - Desi Boyz - Rocking it filmy style

2011-12-07T08:35:00.001Z

When you go to see a Hindi film, especially in the current times, you don't really expect a lot of common sense and realistic scenes. You expect to be entertained with larger-than-life characters and dramatic scenes alongwith Bollywood style music. If you go with those expectations you'll love Desi Boyz.

Frankly, my expectations were much lower courtesty of Akki's last film Tees Maar Khan. But I was pleasantly suprised. The story as usual is very basic and can be explained in one sentence. Jerry Patel (Akshay Kumar) and Nick Mathur (John Abraham) both lose their jobs in the times of recession and in order to fulfill the dire need of money in their lives, they become male escorts. That's it.

Now, if you gave that premise to a 5-year old (Desi) boy and told him the star cast, he would be able to give you ALL the twists in the story including the type and number of songs.

And yet, the movie manages to not disappoint because of the silly but nice humour and the little twists that have been executed well. The movie manages to keep people on the seats and doens't make them look at their watches. Pace of the story is fairly even.

It's Rohit Dhawan's first film as a director and I think he has done a good job. At first when I heard the name I thought David Dhawan had adopted Rohit Shetty, but later found out that he was David Dhawan's own son. To Rohit (Dhawan)'s credit, the film is much less silly than David's films that he has made with Govinda in the past.

The gigolo part of it is done with brilliant dance and music numbers. Like almost all modern music this won't last long either, but for the flavour of the month the music is very entertaining and hummable, even danceable. Suffice it to say that I have all the songs in my playlist right now.

While we are talking of music, I think at least 2 of the tunes are stoen, excuse me, inspired by other Hindi songs. If you are curious do a comparative analysis and see if they click. Here's the data. The retro type song "Filmein shilmein chalti thiiN, hum gaane waane gaate the" reminds me of that that song about Gandhi in Lage Raho Munna Bhai. The other song - "Jhak maar ke" has starting music that looks exactly similar to "Rookhi sookhi roti tere haathon se kha ke aaya maja bada." I think it's from Nayak. I'd like to hear your opinions on both. But all in all, the music is very good and the singers have done a great job as well.

The kid who plays Akshay's nephew is very cute and has delivered a good performance for a child so young. Unfortunately his name is not in the IMDB credits.

The humour in the film is good and fortunately not much of it is gross male-movie type humour. The dialogues for the most part are clever and suit the characters. The outtakes used in end credits are really funny, best part of the movie in my opinion, though they are filled with *beep*s.

Let's talk more about the star cast. Both Akshay and John have been presented as beefcake and if my friend's reaction is any indication the female audience will love it. Both female leads, Deepika Padukone and Chitrangda Singh, are looking really good and their clothes have been designed to cash in on their beauty. I like both of them, especially Chitrangda so no complaints from me. I might buy the DVD just to watch them. :) No, I will buy the DVD for the extras. There are a big number of female extra's in the songs and there are really sexy. They have done their part quite well too, as I was watching them in the songs, having no interest in either John or Akshay's oiled up bodies. In one song "Subah hone na de", Bruna Abdalah has done an item song like appearance and she's hot, man!

Anupam Kher has done a great job in his role as the girl's father and they way he has balanced his gay/curious streak in the character is both hilarious and genius. Omi Vaidya the annoying guy from 3 Idiots has a small role, he is annoying in this one as well, but I think that's what he's meant to be. Mohnish Behl, small role that he done with dignity. Sanjay Dutt has delivered a good performance as the Escort Agency Owner.

As for poetry in the lyrics, hah, what poetry, mate? The lyrics are the normal, cheap, rhyming crap you get with most new songs. The chorus of 2 or 3 songs ('make some noise for the desi boys', 'subah hone na de', 'allah maaf kare') is very catchy and will stay with you but the words are almost meaningless.

There are lapses in common sense, but you kinda expect that much. For example, my highly intelligent nephew asked me yesterday, "If they are struggling so much for money why does John not sell his motorcycle?" Yes, John had really expensive-looking bike that he doesn't sell even when they lose the kid because of money. There are other things,

This film reminds me of two other movies. One "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" in which Rob Schneider does a hilarious job of being an inept gigolo. Second, "Evelyn" in which Pierce Brosnan delivers a tremendous performance as an out-of-work Irish father fighting for the custody of his children.

This movie doesn't touch either of them but is a good entertainer for a weekend afternoon.

Gotcha!

2011-12-05T11:39:00.001Z

Btw, that article I posted on the nevative effects of cursing your computer "Be Kind To Your Computer"? Well, it was a fake. I wrote the whole thing just in the fit of a creative spasm. You can take it as a late April fool's prank from me. But I did post the truth as part of that post at the bottom. But only for those who can read invisible text. :)

Actually, it was a good test of my readers after my "Be Safe On The Web" post. If you had followed any of the links in the article, you'd have found that they didn't lead anywhere. Except the Wikipedia links. And as befits a good lie, I mixed it up with a good helping of the true facts.

I hope you enjoyed the post. ;)

Death of a Legend - Dev Anand

2011-12-05T11:26:00.001Z

Indian film cinema legend Dev Anand passed away in a hospital in London yesterday. To the Hindi film lovers in India, Dev Anand needs no introduction. I just want to use this space to express my deepest sorrow that the industry has lost an icon!

Dev Anand or Dev Sahab as he was known to everybody, was not just a film star, to me he was a symbol of undying passion and indefatigable spirit. He had a very successful film career starting from the black and white era of Hindi cinema all the way into technicolour with so many hits and superhits that they cannot be counted on the fingers. In his old age (I use this word hesitantly for him as he defied the term with his very being), he continued making films, and he kept on making them despite the result on the box office.

There were questions about the quality of his films and that he was so fond of being in the frame himself. Maybe there's something in that, or maybe it's that elusive x-factor that one needed for a box office success in Bollywood. But even his worst enemies cannot say that he accepted defeat. Even after the bad failure of a movie, he'd simply dust himself off, announce his next film and go out in search of his next discovery.

Despite the failure of several of his later films, he launched many successful careers. There are many legends and inspiring stories about him that you can easily find on the web. But I cannot refrain from mentioning the legend of his black shirts. The legend goes that Bombay police had to request him not to wear black shirts as it excited his female fans too much. There is a mention of some girls jumping off balconies. I don't know how true that is but it must have a grain of truth in it based on the facts we know.

Dev Anand was always a well-dressed, debonair star on-screen and off it. Even in his later years this image didn't change. Any time I saw him on screen in a film festival or award function, he was always the well-dressed, well-spoken gentleman who did our film industry credit.

Another inspiring fact about him, for me, is the song "Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya". In an interview Dev Anand said that he lived his life like that and indeed he did. That song has been an inspiration to me for years.

Dev Sahab was 88 and he worked till his last breath. His latest film is Chargesheet to be released in 2011 (already released?).

I will just finish with the sentiment that Dev Anand will be missed for his contribution to the Hindi cinema and he will live on forever through his work.

General information about him you can read in this news item:
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/entertainment/dev-anand-bollywoods-stylish-peter-pan-dies_629122.html

Random sher - ilm ka sauda

2011-12-02T10:54:00.001Z

अश्आर मेरे यूँ तो ज़माने के लिए हैं
कुछ शेर फक़त उनको सुनाने के लिए हैं

ये इल्म का सौदा, ये रिसाले, ये किताबें,
एक शख्स की यादों को भुलाने के लिए हैं.

Be Kind to Your Computer

2011-12-02T09:10:00.001Z

[Photo: Courtesy worldwidedigitaladvertising.org. Article from external source.]

"Come on, you useless little piece of junk! Print. PRINT! PRINT!!"

Are you one of those people who shout at your computer whenever it fails to please you with its unquestioning obedience and superfast performance? Are you one of the frustrated thousands who look for a hammer when the Control-Alt-Del doesn't work?

Perhaps it's time to rethink your approach. Scientists in a company in Norway have released a research that describes the negative impact that "dysfunctional behaviour with inanimate electronic devices" can have on the human nervous system. Based on a sample of 2200 people from the IT and IT-dependent companies these scientists have developed a profile which they are calling "Electro-Chemical Human Responsiveness Index". This profile, called ELCHER for short, categorizes the range of various responses humans have in a "failure through negative feedback loop" situation.

During the study subjects were told to interact with a computer system as part of the "preparation" phase of research. Typically, they were told to fill out a form in a word processor and print and sign it before bringing it back to the researcher who would then tell them what they were supposed to do as part of the "research" phase.

The computer systems were rigged to produce 3 different kinds of failures in sequence. Examples of failures included - failure to save the file, various error messages during typing, sudden deletion of all text, flickering of display and printer failure.

The scientists claim that depending on a human user’s reaction to a failure condition produces different chemicals in the body. Users who were observed (secretly) to shout at the computer system in a failure situation were later discovered to have a higher level of melatonin in their blood stream than those who suffered patiently. Melatonin is a harmful chemical that increases the electric polarity of the red blood corpuscles leading to an increased chances of cerebral damage.

Users who silently suffered the malfunctions were measured to have 3 to 5% of increase in their melatonin levels whereas users who shouted at or cursed the system were found to have a whopping 73% to 81% melatonin in their blood. Normally melatonin, known in the scientific circles as the “hormone of darkness” is released in the blood by the pineal gland in very specific situations.

The company, Digichem Research Labs has hinted that they are planning to use this research to develop a highly sophisticated gadget to offset this phenomenon. No design or prototype is available at this stage but the company spokesman, Druger Balonski confided in the Norway Times that it would be a wristband type gadget that the user will need to wear only in front of the computer to offset the “negative feedback loop effect”. No other details about how the gadget will work have been shared at this time while the company waits for a patent hearing.

Until the gadget is in production though, we would advise you to be kind to your computer!

[Source: Norway Times English Web Edition]

This whole article is a joke. There’s no truth in it as far as I know. I just wrote it to flex my creative muscles.

Google now censoring some websites

2011-11-28T21:25:00.001Z

[Photo credit: http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/Do%20no%20evil_5798]

My outspoken disgust for Apple and iPhone does not stem from personal reasons and as such it does not stop as a particular company or product. My objection, vehement and strong objection, is against limiting the users, restricting how they can live their lives. I have never been a big fan of Flash, I have never been a Flash developer and frankly I hate those annoying Flash ads that you have to watch on some websites. But I despise that Apple should decide whether users can have Flash on their devices or not. NO! It's the user's right to decide.

So when Google starts acting like a big brother and starts with censorship, no matter how small, no matter how benign in appearance, I wouldn't stand for it. As of now, I am looking for a new search Engine. The link below is an article that'll explain why.

http://torrentfreak.com/google-now-censors-the-pirate-bay-isohunt-4shared-and-more-111123/

Copyright Industry - A Century of Deceit

2011-11-28T21:02:00.001Z

A fascinating article on the copyright lobbying through the 100 or so years.
http://torrentfreak.com/the-copyright-industry-a-century-of-deceit-111127/

Just to add my own 2 bits, I remember one time I was stuck trying to fast forward the anti-piracy warning on a DVD and found that I couldn't. Try it some time, it's programmed so that the viewer has to watch the full track that contains the warning or warnings. At that time I remember musing over the fact that the punishment for the crime of copying a movie seemed unreasonably high, like 10 years of jail time. I mean, that's the kind of sentence that should be reserved for really heinous crimes. Is copying a DVD really at par with rape and murder?

Shayri: Allama's ghazal

2011-11-28T15:30:00.001Z

Long, long time ago in a different continent, I bought an audio cassette titled "Qawwalis from Films". I do love Urdu Shayri and Qawwalis are a really fun, enjoyable medium of singing the ghazals. There have been many, many qawwali's in Hindi films, some of them based on real Urdu Shayri while others were written just for the film.

This cassette had several of them like "Chaandi ka badan, sone ki nazar", "Yeh mana meri jaan mohabbat saza hai" and of course the famous "Yeh ishq ishq hai" from Barsaat ki Raat.

Sandwiched between two great qawwali's was one that was so slow and boring that I would press fast forward every time it started. Not only was it slow and boring, the music was very uninteresting and the words were in tough Urdu, it just didn't mean anything to me.

But I used to listen to that cassette very often and sometimes I would be late in pressing the FF button on the player. This way I heard the first few words of it. Then a litte more. And then I got curious some time and let it play a little longer. I still didn't like the music but the words piqued my curiosity even more.

Gradually over the years, I pieced together what the words meant and also learn a bit more about the ghazal. It's Allama Iqbal's ghazal and it is indeed in very tough Urdu, but I really one of the shers from it and that made me like it.

With that much ado, here are the two sher's, the first one and my favourite one.

Kabhi ae haqiqat-e-muntzir nazar aa libaas-e-majaaz meiN
Ke hazaaroN sajde tadap rahe haiN meri zabeen-e-niyaaz meiN

कभी ऐ हक़ीक़त-ए-मुंतज़िर नज़र आ लिबास-ए-मजाज़ में,
कि हज़ारों सजदे तड़प रहे हैं मेरी ज़बीन-ए-नियाज़ में,

I'll explain the literal meaning but I am not yet smart enough to explain the real meaning. Might take me another 10 years or so.

The poet says - O much awaited reality, show yourself in the fabric of practical some time, for a thousand prostrations are eagerly waiting in my worshipful forehead.

Yes, of course it sounds a thousand times better in Urdu and I like it even without understanding it fully. But my favourite sher is this:

मैं जो सर-बसजदा कभी हुआ तो ज़मीन से आने लगी सदा,
तेरा दिल तो है सनम-आशना तुझे क्या मिलेगा नमाज़ में.

This one is easier to understand. The shayar says, whenever I prostrated in prayer, the earth started to say, "Your heart is filled with your beloved, what do you hope to get from prayer?"

This of course, has as many meanings as you can get from it. One is that prayer is not real if your mind is not in it along with your body. Another meaning is (as I see it) that when you have found love, you don't need prayer, only love.

In any case I love this sher and I am reminded of it any time someone mentions namaaz or roza or things like that.

And that's enough for a literary discussion. :)

Funny traffic signs

2011-11-28T09:16:00.001Z

I thought you might be as bummed by Monday morning as I am. So here are some funny traffic signs to cheer us both up. With my comments, of course.

As long as they said please...

Hmmm, that seems like a really intelligent sign.

Gee, thanks for your support.

Shhh....it's our little secret!

Somebody got their priorities right...:)

We can't make it easier than this for you, can we?

PSA: Be Safe On The Web

2011-11-22T11:57:00.001Z

This is a public service post. Recently I have realized that there has been a flood of dodgy email messages and viruses spreading through emails and Facebook etc. With more than a decade of experience in IT I have had my share of such scam/viruses/trojans and phishing emails. I have learnt from them, having fallen for some of them and then avoiding the rest. I decided to give the benefit of my experience to anyone who might need it. Right at the outset I want to declare that I am not a security expert and not a hacker, my sole qualification is my firsthand experience with such things and my commonsense which has saved me in the past.

Disclaimer: The ideas and suggestions in this post are mine, based on my own intelligence, skill and experience. They work for me. I don't know if they will work for you or whether they will be good or bad for you. Therefore, I cannot take responsibility for anything you do with them. Read the post, consider the ideas, evaluate each suggestion with your own mind then do what you think is best for you. If you follow any suggestions from this post, you take the responsibility for all results. There, that's done!

There are so many types of such malware (things that want to do harm to you or your computer) around and so many variations on each that it would need a whole book not a blog post to cover them all. Therefore, I would just focus on the things that I think will provide the most benefit to the maximum number of people. I might do supplementary posts on the same topic later.

Attack type 1: Phishing
What is Phishing?
Phishing is simply an attempt to fool a person with fake data to get him to send you his(real) data. It can be done in various ways. Some of the ways are to send a fake official email or create a fake but official looking webpage.

Examples
You receive an email that claims to be sent by the bank NatWest. It tells you that your account has some issues and you should login to your account and check the account activity or something like that.

Another example could be when you by mistake type a URL incorrectly and land on another website which is reserved to trap people who mistype a well-known website, like typing 3 O's in Yahoo.com or an extra O in google.com. The resulting page would look almost exactly like the one you were going to visit but would be fake.

There are different variations of both these approaches including combining the two.

How to recognize the fake
Even though the fakes are getting better and better, it's still possible to recognize them with a few common sense precautions.

1. Check the source of the message. If you regularly receive messages from that source that'd be one thing but if this is the first time, be extra careful. When I say "source" I don't mean just the name of the sender. Dig deeper. On the internet it's ridiculously easy to make an email appear to have come from "NatWest Customer Support" when the email address it was sent from is info@natwestphishingscam.com.
So, when you check the source, look at the actual email address. There's usually a button on most email sites to expand the "To:" field and look at the email address not just the name of the sender. If you know how to check the email headers look at them as well, they tell the real story. (It's just a question of finding the button that say something like Full Headers).

2. Read the message carefully, the spelling and grammar on these emails is usually far from perfect. It used to be terrible, like an instruction manual translated from Japanese to English but it's been getting better. Still, the language would not be as letter perfect as it would be coming from a big corporate like NatWest.

3. Do NOT click on any of the links in the email. Instead, just HOVER your mouse pointer on the link. In most web browsers when you hover your mouse over the link you'd see its target address in the status bar at the bottom of the window. Just like the email address, it's extremely simple to make a link that looks like www.natwest.com/security when it actually it goes to a totally different address that has nothing at all to do with NatWest.

4. When looking at addresses pay attention to the DOMAIN name. In http://mail.yahoo.com the domain name is yahoo.com. In http://yahoo.scam.com the domain is scam.com and has nothing to do with Yahoo. Also understand that http://www.yahoomail.com may have nothing to do with yahoo.com. The address has to be literal not just similar to the correct address. It's not very hard to create a website called www.yahoosecurity.com and make it look like it belongs to Yahoo. A real address would be more like either http://security.mail.yahoo.com OR http://www.yahoo.com/accountsecurity. Get the drift?

(And please for God's sake do NOT go to any of the fake addresses I am using as an example. Not even to the yahoo ones, I am just making them up to make a point.)

What to do
1. First thing for you to remember is that you do NOT have an account at NatWest. Just delete the email. These emails are sent en masse to a huge number of people, on the assumption that some of them will have an account with NatWest. Another similar email may be sent to another million people purporting to be from HSBC.

2. If you do happen to have an account with that bank, do NOT click on any of the links in the email. Think about whether that issue could really be true or you just used your account 2 hours ago and it was fine.

3. If you are really concerned that the problem might be real (it would seem really urgent and serious in the scam email) call the bank directly and ask them about it. Call the regular number you have called before or find it from directory assitance. Do NOT call any of the numbers in the scam email.

4. If for any reason you cannot call the bank and must use the web, do NOT click the links in the email. Instead, open a new browser window and type the bank URL yourself. And still be on the lookout for any suspicious behaviour.

5. For the second type of scam where the web page is fake, remember to type the URL correctly when it's something as important as your bank's online banking URL. Save a bookmark and use it every time if you are prone to tyop's.

6. Delete the scam email, of course. Remove it from the Trash folder as well.

Just this weekend I received an email from Homebase.co.uk that annoyed me. It said "Thank you for confirming your subscription to our weekly newsletter." That, of course, would annoy me since I didn't ask for any such subscription in the first place so how could I confirm it! I knew I would have to unsubscribe. There were a couple of helpful, conveniently-placed links in the email including an Unsubscribe link. Having never asked for this subscription, I was still suspicious although I had never had such a scam tried on me before.

I hovered my mouse over the links first and noticed that the link went to something like homebaselife.co.uk etc. etc. NOT to homebase.com or homebase.co.uk. Now, I don't KNOW of my own knowledge that homebaselife.co.uk is a bad site, but since the email pretended to be something else while being something else, I would NOT click on those links!

Trojans
What are trojans?
The term Trojan comes from the old, legendary Trojan Horse, the wooden horse which was a gift from Troy but had soldiers hidden inside. Trojans are like that as well. They claim to be some workable, usable piece of software but inside is a virus that would infect your computer and cause damage.

The software coule be as simple as a freeware photo viewing tool or as big as "MS-Office - cracked and registered". Yes, I mean illegally downloaded software from the net. No, I am not saying they are all infected, I am just saying that's how trojans are spread in the market.

How to avoid them?
1. Well, one way is to always buy software from known retailers and buy them on disks. Since disks are read-only, they cannot be infected, even if you put them inside an infected computer. That's how we reinstall Windows if a system is infected.

2. Install a good, reliable anti-virus and keep it turned on. In that case, it will catch the virus in any other software. If you try to download anti-virus from any but the authorised site, remember that it can also be infected. But there are some free anti-virus software available as well (yes, legally free), AVG and Avast are two of them. These are usually free versions of the full software which can provide you basic antivirus functionality.

3. Whatever software you download from the web, any software, scan it with your antivirus before installing it.

Keylogging
Some malware comes in the form of keyloggers. A keylogger is a little piece of software that can monitor, and store, all the keys your press on the keyboard then it can forward this data to someone else who can then have access to ALL your usernames and passwords. A really, really dangerous and damaging situation.

There is some more information on the link below about keyloggers, how they work and how to avoid being trapped by them.
http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204791931/Keyloggers_How_they_work_and_how_to_detect_them_Part_1

Hacking
This is a more active form of malicious behaviour and usually involves someone targeting a particular system or network actively. Although these are usually targeted at big websites and servers including industrial espionage, in some cases individual systems can be used as a victim or a pass-through. I would not go into the details of things like man-in-the-middle attack and Denial of Service attacks, but I would say that it's better to have a firewall running with all unused ports blocked. And a good, up-to-date antivirus system running.

Other threats
1. Downloading movies and videos. Some of the ways people download movies and TV shows are illegal while others are perfectly legal. I am not going to judge how people should do it, but I can give you a few hints that might be handy in any case.
When you download vidoes, be careful what other files are downloaded with the video files. AVI and JPG files are safe enough (at the time of this writing) but any other files like .htm, .html, .com, .exe, .js etc. can all be used to deliver viruses to your system. Delete these.

A really good way (for scammers) to infect your system is by including a "Media Player" software with the video. The media player will actually work but it would also infect your computer.

If the video comes with a text file of instructions and it tells you to go to a certain website, or download a certain software to play the file, do NOT do it. Simply delete the video and all the files it came with.

2. Do not click on links in emails without being extremely sure that they are legit even if the email is from someone you know.
These days there are several viruses that infect your system then send email to all the contacts in your mailbox with a link. Anyone who clicks on that link will be infected as well. And then the virus will send emails to all THEIR contacts with the link. Yes, it is like the Zombie M.O.

These emails used to be very dumb. Just a link in the otherwise blank message. So easy to spot. But these days they have become smarter. Now, there can be a paragraph of text before the link, talking about the link. At once glance it might seem like written by a human, but if you read through carefully, it's easy to spot that it's a fake.

3. An important variation on the above is an email with an attachment. These used to be dumb too, like the link emails, just an attachment with the email with no or little text in the message. Now these come with a message that describes the attachment.

The one I received 2 days ago purported to be from UPS telling me that the delivery of my package had failed, and details were in the attachment. Since I wasn't expecting any UPS delivery I deleted the email. However, if you are expecting a delivery, you can still go to the UPS website directly instead of downloading the attachment and see what it says when you enter your tracking number.

Real official emails are easy to spot if you know what to look for. For one thing, they would quote your name and order number as well as other details about your order. Secondly, the email would be formatted much more differently. Third and most important, you can hover your mouse on the links and check where it leads to BEFORE clicking it.

Best Practices
Firewalls
- Either install a firewall or at least turn on the Windows built-in Firewall.
- If you know how to do it, block all unused ports on your system by creating firewall rules.

Changing passwords
Banking websites and other security experts usually advise changing your password frequently. I don't.
I have my own philosophy about it. Again, it works for me, if you use it, it's at your own risk.
Here's my rationale behind it.
- Any time you type your password it can be captured by a keylogger.
- If the password is saved in the browser, it is encrypted and harder to get at.
- The frequent change can be useful only if you do the change very frequently, like every day. Then you have a risk of forgetting your own password or creating a pattern which can then be guessed by the hacker.

But if you use this method which I do, you need to follow some other guidelines, very, very carefully in order to stay safe.

Physical security
- NEVER, EVER leave your computer unlocked. Not even in your own home if you live with other people.
- Never write down your password. Instead use a memorable password. If you are afraid you'll forget it, write down a hint to the password but not the actual password. Write that hint in a personal code if you can.
- Guard against leaking your password by social engineering. What it means is, if you are talking to a stranger in a pub about computer security don't start giving examples of your own "very secure" passwords. Not even the process you use to derive your password.
- Use passwords that are easy to remember for you, but hard to guess for a computer. For example - "Monty Python is a hoot & and a 1/2". Still guessable but harder than the "1A82$590#" type crap that password generators spew out.

All this discussion about security has reminded me of a scene from "Enemy of the State".

Will Smith is being hounded by the FBI for reasons of their own. They are using all the technology at their disposal from tracking satellites to phone taps and physical cars on the road. Will meets Gene Hackman who knows all this security stuff. Gene gets Will to lose all his sensors that the FBI planted on him. Then he takes him with him. Gene stops at a store on the way to buy some food. Will uses the time to make a phone call to explain to his wife...never mind what. But his home phone is tapped and FBI pick up his lost trail from there.

Gene doesn't about the phone call. He takes Will to his secret hideout. It's a well-hidden cabin where Gene has no outside links, he has no phone, no power lines, he makes his own power and connects to the internet via hardware firewalls only when he needs to.

While they are talking the FBI arrive on the scene. Gene sees them via his monitoring cameras and asks Will, "What did you do?"

Will: Me? Nothing!
Gene: WHAT did you DO?
Will: I called my wife...
Gene: You idiot!

Gene takes the car and both Gene and Will get out in a hurry. Behind them Gene's cabin blows up in a big explosion. Will looks at Gene.

Will: Your cabin!
Gene: I blew it up!
Will: but..but why?
Gene looks at Will and says bitterly, "Because you made a phone call!"

The moral of the story is that it takes one leak, a single leak to ruin everything. So, don't be silly, don't make that phone call!

What Android can do

2011-11-20T10:41:00.001Z

Because Android is open and available for anyone to play with, these kind of things are possible.

A Norwegian company FXI Technologies has invented a dual-core 1.2GHz Android-based computer that is the size of a USB stick and can be plugged into a USB port on an HDTV, a PC, a Mac, or even a tablet. When plugged into a computer, you can run both your PC's OS and Android in windowed mode. Amazing, isn't it?

Full story here:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/usb-stick-contains-dual-core-computer-turns-any-screen-into-an-android-station

Rahim Cyber Remix

2011-11-15T11:28:00.001Z

I don't know what got into me, so don't ask. But I felt like writing some dohe of Rahim in the modern context. So here they are. They are absolutely silly and have no purpose other than to entertain (if that). See if you can remember the originals these are based on.

Bandwidth itna deejiye jaa mein kutumb samaay
Torrent bhi chalte rahein, YouTube bhi na rukaay

Aisi email bhejiye man kaa aapa khoye,
Receiver bhi hans hans padhe, sender bhi khush hoye

Server niyare raakhiye, firewall lagaay,
Aisa waisa hacker bhi panga na le paay.

Rahiman yeh ghar chat ka khaala ka ghar naahin,
Naam badal side kare tab paithe ghar maahin

Happy Children's Day!

2011-11-14T14:47:00.001Z

This is the risk in reading other people's blogs. Bikram has done a great post on the Indian youth who took part in India's struggle for freedom and it inspired me to write something as well on the occasion of Children's day.

Not that I can talk from a grown up's point of view, never having grown up myself. I have grown older but still a child at heart.

Since I have lived in the western world for a few years, and I am quite immersed in the western culture by way of movies and books, I have wondered more than once how my life would have turned out had I grown up in the US or UK. It would have been different!

For example, I would not turn pink every time I talk to a pretty girl since social life even in school days is quite mixed in this culture! But alas, I went to a boys-only high school. There are a lot of other things too, like Indian schools have hardly any extra-curricular programs. Or so it was when I was in school. These days with the sprouting of private schools everywhere and the evolving curriculum things are changing a little.

Then there are other things like learning to drive before you are 18, learning to dance, learning to throw a party etc. etc.

But then there is the flip side. There is no doubt that we had a hard life living in India and in a middle-class family. But that same condition taught me so much that I cannot begin to describe how much it contributed to the development of my character. The adverse conditions and hard life made me stronger physically and mentally. And even at that I cannot use the words "hard life" for my life without feeling a bit ashamed. My life was a patch of clover compared to what my dad started with and what a lot of Indian children didn't have and don't, even today.

Plus, I don't forget the things that I didn't learn not growing up in US. I didn't learn to drink beer, I never learnt to smoke, weed to me is still a form of vegetation that you need to root out, MJ for me was only Madan Jain. Those are some mighty important things never to learn.

So, on Children's Day I just wants to wish all the children in India a happy, healthy life and help them realize that they are really lucky to be growing up in one of the best, probably THE best culture in the world.

Casette and pencil

2011-11-13T17:45:00.003Z

My nephew recently shared this picture with me which sent me back to the past in a flash. Indeed there was a wondeful world of cassettes and cassette players. Unlike most people I didn't use the cassettes just to listen to music, I loved to record. No, I didn't play any music myself back then (yeah, like I do now!) but I loved to record from the radio, or record conversations, chit-chat anything that took my fancy.

In the name of progress we have moved away from the progress and adopted the CDs into our lifestyles. But is it the same thing? I won't go all nostalgic on you and cry about the "good old days" but as a software professional and a man with experience of dealing cassettes, VHS, CDs, DVDs, DVD-R's, DVD-RW's, hard drives, flash memories and the like, I would argue that cassettes were better. Let's examine the evidence without emotion.

Cassette's were fragile, a spool of reel in a platic casing. But CDs are worse. Not only are they bigger and flimiser but they have to be protected even against stains and dirt. Do you know that the label side of the CD is much more fragile then the shiny side the data is read from? Yes, if you wrote on the label side with a normal pen you could damage the data. On the other hand, a little inkblot on the shiny side can ruin your CD. Compared to that cassettes were much sturdier.

Then, talk about recording. Now there was a question that both I and my brother Anil had to face frequently in our respective cities. Whenever we tried to buy a device to record audio, or tried to buy supplies for it, people would say, "Who does recording these days!" and we both had the same answer - "*I* do!" So before you say the same thing to my objection, keep that in mind, I still record a lot of audio, all kinds of stuff.

But CDs cannot record without special hardware. When was the last time you saw a CD-recorder outside of a computer context? Me? Never. But it was so easy to find a cassette recorder in the same size as as a cassette player. I had one that was very easy to pocket. And I have done all kind of recordings using in-line cable and even speakers-to-mic. Yes, bad quality but oh, what fun.

We weren't rich enough afford VCR and tapes but I had my portable little tape recorder so I used to record movies and TV shows from the TV. I particularly remember recording Raj Kapoor's "Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai". I, my brother Anil and his wife, we were watching it together late at night. My recorder was propped up next to the speaker against our big, black-and-white TV. (yes, we had only one TV for the whole family, imagine that!)

I listened to that recording many times in the following years. It recorded not only the movie's sounds but also our own comments and laughter in context. That was such an imperfect recording, but it made the recording something special.

I also recorded the Doordarshan serial "Phir Wohi Talaash". I had an almost complete collection of it. I hope it's still there in my room in Delhi where the rest of my cassettes are lying collecting dust as I can't find the video of that show anywhere no matter how hard I look.

The point is nowadays you can't record because you can't record on the CDs that easily and recording on mobile phones is not the same, the quality is not that good.

Then, the question of repairs. When a cassette had problems, you could fix it with the help of a small Philips screwdriver, a pair of scissors and a bit of cellotape. And of course, the pencil. I have taken complete cassettes apart and put them back together when one of my precious recordings was endangered by a bit of problem. I have spliced over a lot of audio jumps like that.

That's where the pencil comes in by the way. When a cassette developed a problem and the reel started to get sucked into the player head, or if it was wrapped the wrong way around by some mechanical issue you took the cassette out and found a pencil. Then, carefully pulling out as much of the tape as you had to, you straighted it out and then used the pencil to wind it back into the cassette by hand.

With CDs, it either works or you throw it away. But, I guess that's the kind of disposable culture we live in these days. Anything that doesn't work is on a direct trajectory to the trash bin.

Anyway, that's the story of the cassette and pencil. As usual, I took way too much space to tell it. :)

Movie Review - Rum Diary - More like crap diary

2011-11-13T13:28:00.001Z

[The image is not from the movie. I just like Amber Heard.]

Oh my god, what a shitload of crap!

Okay, let me be clear here first, any time I spend doing a review for this pile of garbage is a waste of my life just as the two hours of watching it were.

But I am still doing it, as a public service, so I can save some other innocent, unsuspecting people from wasting 2 hours of their life on this bilge.

(Hmmm, if I insist on writing this as a full review I will need some more synonyms for crap.)

First step - motivation. Here's a fact list based on the trailers.

I don't Johnny Depp at all.

I didn't think the story had any promise.

I didn't like the backdrop of the story.

I saw a very hot looking Amber Heard in the trailer.

I love Amber heard.

Clear enough? Even on that score the movie disappointed me hugely, and I do mean that..hugely, like in a big way...like I wanted to put a chair through that screen when it finished! And I am not a violent man outside of martial arts classes.

When we entered the theatre, it was almost full to the capacity. So full indeed that I and my friend couldn't find two seats together, the only seats available were across the aisle frome each other.

That wasn't a big deal. Since it was not a girlfriend I went with but a male friend. It was okay. Only it became a big deal, later, when he wanted to ask me if I wanted to leave, but couldn't because we were sitting apart.

Looking back at it, that should have been my first clue. I don't know what it is about this town, but the audience here seems to be stupid. With the exception of Real Steel, the last few times whenever we have found the theatre full, the movie has turned out to be a colossal bore, a huge waste of time, a crapfest. Every time!

Next time I see the theatre full when I walk in, I am gonna walk right out!

So, because of the seats situation and my overall low-expection from the film (and the fact that I would have to watch Johnny Depp) put me in a foul mood and I started watching it with a "Okay-try-and-make-me-laugh" attutide.

And would you believe that in 1 hours 59 minutes of movie it could not make me laugh even ONE time?? The best it got was a half-smile on one dialogue by Aaron Eckhart but that's it. And before you say nobody can make you laugh unless you want to, I'll say you are wrong. I have watched movies and TV shows in worse moods before and a good show can not only make you laugh, it can make you forget what you were upset about. This movie actually put me in a worse mood than I had started in.

Let's get into detail now. And I will discuss the story in detail including climax because I don't WANT anyone else to go see it.

So, the story? Is very simple. A plan by a few poweful people to despoil and dominate an uninhibited island in Puerto Rico.

The plot is unfolded quickly and simply. No surprises.

The acting? Hmm, let's see. I don't know what Johnny Depp thinks he is but he couldn't make me like him. Thoroughly unimpressed by his performance. I really like Aaron Eckhart, but his role was so straightforward and boring that he had no way to do anything special in it. The only performance I liked was the guy who plays sidekick to Depp in the whole film. I am not gonna bother to look up his name.

Amber Heard is a really beautiful girl, but she has like 5 or 6 small scenes in the whole film. Based on the movie's synopsis, I was expecting her to have a role that dominated the film alongwith Depp but here she seems like window-dressing, an afterthought. You can cut her whole role out of the movie and not miss anything. She looks pretty, but I hated her character.

To be fair, audience did laugh in about 4-5 places in the movie but they had come to laugh, and maybe they liked Depp for some perverse reason. The strangers sitting in my row on my right didn't laugh either. The situatiosn that could have been funny had either been used up in the trailer or were so cliched that you needed 5 drinks in you to actually smile at them.

The climax was the clincher. The climax has some good (good as in long) build-up, one lone man against the authorities and all that, but it lets the audience down horribly when the hero just gives up.

No, I am not kidding you. That's exactly what happens. Depp wants to print the paper one last time with help from disgruntled employees, to expose Aaron's plot. The people do not come to support Depp. Aaron comes and takes away the machines of the newspaper before Depp gets there. So, Depp steals Aaron's boat and goes to New York. Credits roll.

What the hell makes a good hero? It's not good looks, it's not physical strength, it's not his charm with the ladies..it's his character. A hero is a hero because he pokes trouble, he fights the good fight.

In Die Hard 4 Bruce Willis explains to the nerdy young guy that he doesn't want to do this but if doesn't nobody else will. "And that makes me that guy!"

Later in a climax scene, when bullets are flying and the villain has the upper hand that nerdy guys saves the life of Bruce's daughter at his own peril.

Later still, when Bruce thanks the nerd for that, he replies, "Hey, what was I gonna do, let her die?"

And Bruce says, "And that makes you THAT guy!"

But this guy is not that guy, he just tucks his tail between his legs and leaves town. That's when I felt like I wanted to pick up a chair and hurl it at the screen. Fortunately for me, they were all bolted down.

If I didn't have an unlimited movie card, I'd have gone to the counter and asked for my money back!

In conclusion, it's a piece of shit, a pile of garbage and a load of crap. Don't go see it. Don't even buy a pirated copy. Tell your friends, not to go see it and to tell their friends not to go see it...

This review will have lots of grammar and spelling problems because I am not going to re-read it before posting. I refuse to waste any more time on this crap of a movie.

'Nuff said.

Sindoor - A symbol of suhaag or slow poison

2011-11-12T12:04:00.001Z

I feel like I must write this post. I just read Pooja's post this morning on the Jain religion. Most of it was okay, those are the normal kind of questions that would come into the head of any thinking adult once they grew up past the mass hypnosis of religion. But there was one part of it that horrified and disgusted me as I read it.

Here is the link and an excerpt:
http://lotus-n-peacocks.blogspot.com/2011/11/rational-religion.html

"Recently I was reading a book on Hinduism and vedas, ya sometimes I pick up these books by mistake too, in which I was shocked to read about the tradition of applying sindoor. The main component of traditional sindoor is usually vermilion. A component considered to be toxic by nature.

As most of you must be aware that Hindu wives are expected to fill sindoor (for me it always looked like a stamp of being taken/sold/unavailable!) along the parting of their hair, thus applying it on the scalp (where the pores are most open), so as to let it seep inside slowly. It is a sacred and most prominent symbol of a Hindu married woman. Like I’ve said earlier, Vermilion is a toxic substance, you might now wonder why a Hindu married lady is made to apply if it is a known toxic, and well that’s the precise reason for making her do it.

A female’s life span is comparatively longer than her male counterparts, as we all know, and that’s exactly why this practice was incorporated, to slowly poison the wife so that both the partners can die with each other, and for the ones who dint die a natural death, they were made out to be satis. (An abolished tradition of Hindu wives burning themselves alive on their husbands’ pyre).

Doesn't it sound like that applying sindoor is more like killing someone slowly and painlessly? Most of us are not even aware of the meaning of some traditional rituals that we are made to follow. We just do as we are told, as again asking for logic or questioning our age-old praths (religious ceremonies) is considered to be a taboo in most Hindu homes."

I did some research on the net and it was easy to find that she had her facts right.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

"Modern sindoor mainly uses vermilion, which is an orange-red pigment. Vermilion is the purified and powdered form of cinnabar, which is the chief form in which mercury sulfide naturally occurs. As with other compounds of mercury, sindoor is toxic and must be handled carefully. Sometimes, red lead (lead tetroxide, also known as minium) is also added to sindoor.^[8] Red lead is also toxic and a known carcinogen for laboratory animals, though its carcinogenicity to humans has not been established. Traditional sindoor was made with turmeric andalum or lime, or from other herbal ingredients.^[9] Unlike red lead and vermilion, these are not poisonous.^[9]^[10] In early 2008, allegations of high lead content led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to recall batches of Sindoor from several manufacturers.^[11]"

^{And here is one from a site that sells vermilion:}

"Some authorities consider natural cinnabar to be non-toxic. Anita Albus writes that the deadly poison of mercury becomes harmless when it is stably bound with sulfur. However, we consider cinnabar and vermilion to be toxic and urge caution in handling the dry powder pigment, as well as the pigment dispersed in medium."

Once I had grown up and understood the nature of religion, I have never been a fan of religion, but this makes me positively disgusted. This is one of the reasons I don't like organized religion. Most people are reasonable and reasonably smart, but when it comes to religion they turn into sheep. They stop thinking for themselves and they stop being their reasonable, sensible, kind self. How else would you justify the justified killing of innocent people in the name of religion by kind-hearted, good people who wouldn't even hurt a fly otherwise?

Even if you publicise this fact and take a survey on how many loving husbands are willing to buck the tradition and stop their wives from using sindoor I think you would find that the number is not more than 2%. And 2% is just the exception you can find for any rule.

Sometimes I wonder if Man was God's best creation or his folly!

11-11-11

2011-11-11T13:48:00.001Z

So, this is a unique day. It's not going to come again for a 1000 years as pointed out by Blogfriend Bikram. Since this is unique day I am thinking of doing something unique and new to me. Any ideas?

There is a movie also called 11-11-11. But I have seen the trailer and I don't fancy wasting 2 hours of my life on this unique day.

I was thinking of doing something crazy, but then I just remembered. Next year it'll be 12-12-12! And that will also be a unique which won't repeat for a 1000 years.

Moral of the story is that each day in your life is a unique day as it gives you an opportunity to do something new, to start over, to make a fresh start, to create new dreams, to build on old dreams and to let go of the past and create a wondeful future!

It's going to be Legen-wait for it-dary!

Movember Day 2 - 8th Nov 2011 - Update Fun Fact

2011-11-08T09:20:00.002Z

In most cultures in India a moustache is considered a sign of honour. Most men grow a moustache when they are first old enough to shave and never shave it off. Legend has it that in the olden days a man could secure a loan from a moneylender keeping nothing but a few hairs of his moustache as the collateral.

Even in the contemporary society, it is not uncommon for a man to bet his moustache on a matter or pride or just debate. An example can be seen in the recent Bollywood hit "Dil Bole Hadippa". The movie is centred around a girl who plays great cricket. In her mind, she's as good as any male player. A professional cricket player (male) bets her his moustache against money that she can't hit six sixers on six balls. She does! :)

A video of that clip below. Sorry, the sound is in Hindi, I couldn't manage to burn the subtitles on it. I'll try that for the next video.

And head on to my Movember page to see the photo from today. ;)
http://mobro.co/sunnygoswami

Grow a MO -Save a Bro

2011-11-07T16:29:00.002Z

This is how it happened. I was in the kitchen in our office and the drinks machine wasn't working. So, I ended up standing there and listening to one colleague telling the other what he could or could not do with his moustache. That was weird and me being the curious creature I am, I asked what they were going on about! Turns out that there is this charity, called Movember, which organises a campaign around men's moustaches every November.

The basic idea is that you grow your moustache for 30 days and raise funds for the charity. Both my colleagues were growing their 'tashes for that and I decide that that was the kind of thing I should try too. I used to have a moustache long time ago. Had it for about a decade or so and then one day shaved it off. After the initial ridicule died, my friends admitted that the look suited me and made me look younger.

I still have an old US driving licence that has my old photo with that hideous moustache. I show that to people only to scare them or make them laugh. To be honest, I am quite proud of my current look sans the unseemly growth. So, you see, growing a moustache again is something that's slightly out of my comfort zone. But I am always looking to shake things up and increase my comfort zone.

So that's story in brief. The charity is about increasing awareness about prostate cancer in men. Here's my pitch from my Movember page.
======================================================
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men.
Each year in the UK about 36,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer.
It accounts for 25% of all newly diagnosed cases of cancer in men.
Approximately 10,000 men die from prostate cancer every year in the UK.

I have decided to donate my upper lip in order to raise awareness about prostate cancer. In simple words, I am pariticipating in the Movember UK campaign and as part of the campaign, I would be growing my moustache for the month of November.

To make this campaign interesting I will be keeping a regular log of my growing moustache with a daily picture. And before you say anything, I do know that my face doesn't look good with a moustache, that's the reason I had shaved it off in the first place, but that's my sacrifice for the cause.

What can you do? I don't want to be one of those whiney, needy friends who are always asking you to please, please, please do something for them. But take a look at the page and if the spirit moves you and you want to make a donation, you can use the link on the page or talk to me about making other arrangements. And of course, any amount, no matter how small, is welcome. It's not really the money but the thought that counts!

I will also post a moustache related fact, joke, anecdote, image or video every day.
Here's the link: http://mobro.co/sunnygoswami

Whether you feel like donating or not, I hope you check back daily for the fun facts and enjoy the campaign with me!

Cheers!
======================================================
Here's my starting photo - Day 1

If you are interested in helping in other ways or joining the campaign yourself as a Mo Bro or Mo Sista, you can also use the same link to join my team. I hope you do! Let's make this fun!

Two and a Half Men - Charlie's thoughts

2011-11-04T00:16:00.000Z

A great performance by Charlie Sheen, very funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5_HgTLnUg0

I miss Charlie!

2011-11-03T22:35:00.000Z

I just finished watching the first episode of the new season of Two and a Half Men and ....meh! I still have more material to watch, I watched just to see how it looks without Charlie Sheen. Like everybody else I knew that he was replaced with Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher is one of those actors who I am neutral too. I don't love him like I do Jason Statham nor do I hate him like I do Leonardo diCaprio. So, I had an open mind towards him, but not towards the show to be honest. I checked it now instead of keeping it till later because I didn't expect it to be very good.

My verdict? I was right! The writing and direction is the same and I suppose if someone just started watching it from here they might like it. I don't. I am seriously considering deleting the rest of the new episodes I have.

What's wrong you ask? On the surface, nothing! But people who have seen the original seasons would know that Charlie Sheen was the life of the show. It was his sheer presence that created the humour. He played that character so well that it felt like that he was Charlie Harper.

Charlie Sheen did some stupid things with substance abuse and made some really bad public statements about the show's producers and studio a few months ago that made it impossible for him to stay part of the show. On the other hand, a conspiracy theorist did tell me that actually Charlie said something politically bad on some topic which resulted in him being railroaded in an attempt to destroy his credibility. I don't know which one is true, but I do know the power of the media, esp. when it comes to show business.

In this season, they have tried to keep things going and made a big effort that shows that they are desperate. They killed Charlie off so that makes it kind of permanent though artistic licence can always take care of those things if things ever work out between Charlie Sheen and the producers.

The episode opens with Alan giving a eulogy for Charlie. This is interrupted by Charlie's ex-girlfriends and ex-lovers and here is where I started feeling that they were desperate to create humour anyway they could. Didn't really work for me. Throughout the show some of the gags were predictable while some were weak. There were a couple of smiles in the whole episode but on the whole I felt like I wasted 21 minutes of life.

It might be just my bias but I felt like they used canned laughter in addition to studio audience or in place of. I don't know. They used ALL the characters, all main characters plus some from the past, again that desperation to make it work somehow.

The rest of the cast did okay. Kutcher did okay in his role too. But let's face it, he's no Charlie Sheen and he won't be in 10 more lifetimes! He's a stand-in, an understudy, and Charlie left some pretty big shoes to fill. The writers apparently knew this and tried to compensate for it. They made Kutcher larger than life, he's a billionaire while Charlie Harper was always spending more money than he made. Kutcher is also mentioned to be well-endowed, a fact that was never mentioned in Charlie's case either way. Kutcher's character is also committed to one girl, while Charlie was mostly commitment-phobic (mostly). But all these subtle tricks, didn't do the job!

You know when they say, "Let's make magic!"? (Who says it? Well, I do!). That's because it is magic. There's no formula for a successful show or movie. Huge multi-billion projects fail, and simple, small-budget things, films shot on a mobile camera..make an impact. It's just magic. And in this show, the magic is gone!

So, ultimately I just want to say, I miss Charlie Sheen on the show and I am really sorry that one of my most favourite shows has gone to seed! :(

Here's a video from the original series to remember and enjoy the old times!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVkWONQeYcY

New Android Kid on the Block - Samsung Galaxy Note

2011-11-02T15:40:00.002Z

I have already posted my experience on Samsung Galaxy S II but now here is another great contender for the first place in the smartphone world. It's called Galaxy Note.

When I bought the Galaxy S2 I decided that while a 4.3 inch screen is good, there must come a time when I would have to draw a line in the sand to not upgrade to a bigger screen. I decided that point will be a 5" screen. But the Galaxy Note has a 5.27 inch screen and I am thinking, hmmm, it's not ALL that more than 5!

Other attractive features of the Note which are like the siren's song for me are - a 1.4 GHz processor in the world of 1.2 GHz smartphones! Super AMOLED screen, it's not Super AMOLED PLUS like the Galaxy SII but still very good. A whopping 1280X800 pixel resolution! And a unique stylus called S Pen. I don't know how you feel about stylii in this world of touchscreen phones but I love them. Since I retain the option to use my fingers as well, I like the idea very much. Sometimes an stylus can give you the fine edge you need.

While I love the sleek 8.4 mm thick body of my Galaxy S2 I think I could rough it with a 9.65mm phone as well if I had to. The same thing goes for the 178 grams weight as opposed to my 116gram lightweight Galaxy S2. Needless to say, it has all the connectivity options bluetooth, wifi, 3G, 4G, HSPA+ etc. etc. and since it's Android and not Apple, nothing will be crippled or disabled.

The camera is a 8MP rear and 2MP front, same as S2. It also has NFC built-in which I was hoping to get in the S2.

So, am I going to get it when they launch it tomorrow? No, not yet. My Galaxy S2 is very new and I am extremely happy with it. It has everything I need plus the sleek size, so I'll stick with it a while longer. Also, there are some other great Android phones/devices in the offing. By the time it's time for my regular mobile grade (every 6 months) there will be something super-awesome in the market that I'd be able to get.

But I do like the Galaxy Note despite it's huge size!

A rational discussion on Apple's claims

2011-11-01T16:26:00.001Z

I found this article that I think is a really good, objective, informative write-up on the subject of Apple vs. Android.

http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/comment/jobs-was-wrong-to-call-android-a-stolen-product-43374#comment-190599

WHO are these people!?

2011-11-01T15:59:00.000Z

I read these two articles on this site called "good.is", and basing my opinion entirely only on these two articles I think the name is a misnomer.

In the first one a guy is talking about how he decided to dump his iphone because it was too distracting and taking up too much of his life. In the second one, another guy talks about Facebook in a similar vein.

And to both of them I want to say - "What a crock of shit!"

Since the first one is talking about iphone in a generic sense, let's substitute "smartphone" in place of "iphone". Any smartphone is a tool, it's up to you how you use it. If someone gave you a sharp knife for a gift, would you cut your throat? You'd use it in a sensible way in the kitchen. At least, I hope you would. Same thing applies to any tool, you use it properly, it's a great asset, you misuse it, it's a dangerous possession.

He says since he dumped his iphone for an old non-smartphone Nokia, he is reading more. I ask you, does a smartphone stop you from reading? I have a smartphone, have had one or the other smartphone for several years, and I do read when I can. My phone actually helps me read more because I can buy electronic books and read them on the phone. When I was working in Central London in a big company, I used to read going up and down in the elevator! Even now I use my phone to read audiobooks while walking to and back from work, while cooking, while doing the dishes etc. etc. I can't do that without technology of some sort, smartphones just make it so convenient that I have no excuse for not reading!

Then he blames internet for being a time-waster. Well, isn't that up to you? You can spend 3 hours POKING people on Facebook or you can read up on something really interesting on Wikipedia. I didn't even know how to fry an egg, I googled it and found a video tutorial. Since then I have come up with my own recipes around eggs, leading to a better diet and a better quality of life. All thanks to internet.

Ironically, this idiot was reading Theareau's Walden on his phone which lead to this epiphony! Funny, isn't it?

He says he used to have arguments with his wife because he used to check his phone for blog comments and such during dinner. Well, some men watch sports on TV during dinner, some follow news on radio, some read newspaper on breakfast table...all leading to the same kind of argument. To paraphrase the great Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men - "Devices don't piss off wives, idiots do!"

The same thing applies to the Facebook basher. It's a social network, dummy. Network! Like you have a network of real people around you. Do you go around calling every number in your phone diary every day just because they are in your network? If not, then why do you go around wasting several hours on Facebook when you should be working?

He talks about Facebook's terms around IP content without knowing what it means. He claims that Facebook owns your content, when the link that he himself has posted to the Facebook terms page says clearly that you own the content. Facebook takes a non-exclusive licence when you post any IP content like photos and videos. Without that Facebook cannot display them and cannot make them searchable. I am not going to argue the fairness of Facebook's T&C agreement, I would just say if you don't agree with it, just don't upload any IP content to FB. Who's twisting your arm to upload your girlfriend's bathtub photos to share with the world?

Funny thing is the moron starts the article with "I gave up on Facebook the day it kicked me off for using a fake name." I mean talk about not having a case.

I have a Facebook account and my average time spent on it is an hour a week. (No, I am not a super-disciplined person, I waste the rest of my time in Second Life, but I don't blame Linden Labs for it!)

Anyway, that's all my rant. I just hate it when people don't take responsibility for their actions and blame everybody but themselves. If you don't have the discipline to manage your time and your life in a sensible manner don't go blaming Apple and Facebook for it. Yes, evil as Apple might be, even they don't MAKE you use the phone 24 hours a day.

So, my question is who are these people?! Were they born in a cave or raised in a household where they never had to take responsibility for anything they did?

If you are curious, below are the links to the original articles I am ranting about.

http://www.good.is/post/why-i-dumped-my-iphone-and-why-i-m-not-going-back

http://www.good.is/post/the-new-dinosaur-why-i-m-not-on-facebook-and-why-you-shouldn-t-be-either/

Apple Product Lifecycle

2011-11-01T12:57:00.000Z

Apple's marketing

2011-11-01T12:51:00.001Z

Apple sues Samsung

2011-11-01T12:12:00.001Z

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-10-18/

Dilbert burns Apple

2011-11-01T12:03:00.001Z

Android Vs. Apple

2011-11-01T12:00:00.000Z

Android for happening people

2011-11-01T11:24:00.000Z

This is how the enlightened people take control of their life with Android's help.

One of my favourite bloggers posted this slice of life type post about Android and Google calendar.
Unlike my one-track posts on the topic, hers is funny and cute. You should take a look. I am sure women will especially identify with this.
http://itsaneetasblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/mobile-appointments.html

Golden Jubilee

2011-10-25T09:19:00.000+01:00

So now I have 50 followers on this blog. Actually 51, but it took me that long to decide that I did want to comment on it. First I was thinking why make a big deal. But in fact, it IS a big deal! There are blogs that have 100s or even 1000s of followers so why is it a big deal? Well, mine is a very humble little blog. I am not a celebrity so it's not a status symbol to follow my blog, nor do I have a team that could publish 7 psots a day making it imperative that you check every 2 hours. I write about simple things and I write as and when. So each follower is someone who liked something in my blog, in what I write about or how I write about it. And that, my friends, is a warm feeling. So excuse me while I enjoy this moment!

Essentially, all writers, including myself, write for the sheer pleasure (?) of writing. It's kind of like a disease, they can't help writing, whether anybody reads it or not. But would they continue writing if nobody ever read it? Well, Dev Anand is still making movies, isn't he? But seriously, would I continue to write, if nobody read my blog? I doubt it.

Even though the writing habit is like a disease and I write when I think of a topic where I want to sound off it still is wonderful to get comments from the readers. To get a comment that makes me think or one that makes me want to snub the commenter (only happens if it's an Apple fanboi being himself), it is a lot of fun when the blogging is more interactive than just one-sided.

There are several bloggers whose blogs I myself follow and admire their writing. Irfan(http://irfanurs.blogspot.com), Bikramjit (http://mannbikram.wordpress.com/) , Purba(http://purba-ray.blogspot.com), Always Happy (http://dilkibaatblogkesaath.blogspot.com/), Red Handed(http://anuglyhead.blogspot.com/), The Technical Author (http://thetechnicalauthor.blogspot.com) are just some of them. It is such a joy to be able to share ideas and interact with such people so easily because of this wonderful thing called the Internet. Did you know that the internet was originally invented for porn? No, just kidding! It might well have been though, don't you think?

When I was a software faculty I used to give these seminars to my students, one of the topics was the internet. And one question I was always asked, "What can we do with it?" This is way back in the 1990s when the net was not so widespread, especially in India. And my answer was, "There are 3 million users on the net. What can you do if you have access to 3 million people?" And here's the answer - interact. To share ideas, to tell jokes, to regale them with the stories of your childhood, to ask advice and to bore them with your discourse on why Apple sucks.

So, you see it IS a big deal that there are 50 people who think that my blog has what it takes to make it into their reading list.

A big thank you to all of you!

Purba's Sita

2011-10-21T13:34:00.000+01:00

Fellow blogger Purba has written a 3-part story of Sita that is so hilarious that it'd be a crime not to share it.

Therefore, here are the links. Warning: You might fall off the chair with laughter, so if you are reading in office, be careful!

Part 1
http://purba-ray.blogspot.com/2011/10/when-sita-clicked-write.html
Part 2
http://purba-ray.blogspot.com/2011/10/sita-travels-abroad.html
Part 3
http://purba-ray.blogspot.com/2011/10/this-is-sita-reporting-live.html

Apple King - A Royal Story

2011-10-19T14:25:00.000+01:00

It's from an iphone owner about the App store. A good read in any case.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/serving-at-the-pleasure-of-the-king.html

An Apple Rant - Not from me this time

2011-10-19T14:19:00.000+01:00

Apple-made stuff never actually changes, just things get unlocked. I have a 2nd gen iPod Touch, and it came with built in Bluetooth…. It wasn’t until I applied the 3rd gen firmware upgrade (for $10) that the Bluetooth was actually active. That really pissed me off that I had to spend extra to use something that was built into the device by default. Did you know that if you bought an Apple MacBook or MacBook pro before mid-2008, it came with built in 802.11n support, but you had to pay about $5 for the 802.11n drivers… Otherwise you’re stuck with 802.11g.

Apple sucks ass, their business practices are shady and greedy, and their devices are childish. I’m never buying an Apple product again, I’d rather buy a MP3 player that uses BASH as it’s interface before using another Apple interface that is so over-simplified that it insults my intelligence and technical superiority.

What is the absolute worst though is how restrictive Apple is with their devices. By default, you can only use Apps that Apple explicitly approves, meaning that even though you purchase the device, they dictate how you use it. I shouldn’t have to jailbreak something that I rightfully purchased and fully own. It should allow me to do what I want to without me having to modify the OS. Hell, Apple hates flash so much that they actually blocked a program that converts flash to an iPhone OS friendly format, just to be certain that you can’t use Flash content on an iPhone/iTouch no matter what.

What were we talking about again?

Credit:

http://blog.computerant.com/2010/04/17/an-apple-rant/

Apple's 3 Laws of Developers

2011-10-19T14:15:00.000+01:00

Apple’s Three Laws of Developers

A developer may not injure Apple or, through inaction, allow Apple to come to harm.
A developer must obey any orders given to it by Apple, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A developer must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

— I. Developer

Credit: Isaiah's weblog

http://yourhead.tumblr.com/post/3320228508/apples-three-laws-of-developers

MixReq.com - Please don't get taken in

2011-10-18T09:44:00.000+01:00

Not that you would be naive enough to be taken in by this but just to be safe I am posting this warning here.

You can read more about this on the link below. There are some good reasons to suspect that it's a fraud and the same points you should keep in mind any time you come across a website that looks like a real great opportunity.
http://ptc-investigation.com/mixreq.aspx#idc-cover

In the same article you'd see a screenshot from the mixreq.com saying, you get paid $4 for doing a survey and you can do the same survey 3 times a day. That made me laugh. No legitimate data-collector would let you take a survey more than once. Once you fill the form, second time around you will either enter the same data or untrue data, both are useless for statistical analysis.

So, beware. Please be careful on the internet. Not everybody is as honest and truthful as you are, tread with caution!

Funny Quotes from Wayne's World

2011-10-17T09:31:00.000+01:00

Just some funny quotes from the classic 90's movie - Wayne's World. They are so hilarious, I had to share them.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105793/quotes

Jagjit Singh - Koi Chaudhvi Raat Ka

2011-10-11T11:41:00.000+01:00

Koi Chaudhvin raat ka chaand bankar, tumhare tassavvur mein aaya to hoga.
Kisi se to ki hogi tumne mohabbat, kisi ko gale se lagaya to hoga.

कोई चौदहवीं रात का चाँद बनकर तुम्हारे तसस्व्वुर में आया तो होगा,
किसी से तो की होगी तुमने मोहब्बत, किसी को गले से लगाया तो होगा

It's a wistful ghazal. And a little bit vindictive. The poet is addressing a proud beauty who has been admired and proposed to by many including, presumably, by the poet himself. But the poet says that even she must have loved someone. Someone must have been on the receiving end of her hugs.

This is a ghazal from Jagjit Singh's album Mirage. And I will never forget that name because I had to hunt long and hard to find the name of the album from the song. And after that I had to hunt to find the song itself. All for this last sher:

NigahoN mein shamm-e-tamanna jalakar, taki hongi tumne bhi raahen kisi ki,
Kisi ne to waada kiya hoga tumse, kisi ne tumheN bhi rulaaya to hoga.

निगाहों में शम्म-ए-तमन्ना जलाकर, तकी होंगी तुमने भी राहें किसी की,
किसी ने तो वादा किया होगा तुमसे, किसी ने तुम्हें भी रुलाया तो होगा.

With the light of hope in your eyes you must have waited for someone.
Someone must have made a promise to you, someone must have made you cry.

Goes without saying that it's a million times more beautiful in the original Urdu. But the beauty of this ghazal is in the words that create an image in your mind. Just the words are enough to put you in a wistful mood but when sung by Jagjit Singh in his smooth, velvety voice, they come to life and become a thousand times more powerful!.

Finally, the video.

Two Obituaries

2011-10-11T10:16:00.000+01:00

Despite not following the news I came across these two items.

Steve Jobs

Recently, Steve Jobs passed away. People, my friends who know only too well how much I hate Apple, expected me to have a position on it. I don't have one. Simply stated, I didn't hate Steve Jobs as a person, but I did hate what he stood for. Nothing has changed. He was good for Apple, he was good for the stockholders as he did the company good and made money for the stockholders. I can't deny that and I am not going to try. He was horrible to the users of his devices and perpetuated a shitty device or rather a piece of crap range of devices. I hated that and I hated him for it. Nothing has changed. So, I would say that it's a great loss to his family that he passed away. I refuse to accept that it's any loss to the technology world, in fact, nothing is going to change, for better or for worse.

Jagjit Singh

I came across this item through a friend's Facebook comment. And was shocked. Jagjit Singh, for those who don't know, was an Indian music composer and singer who was an institute in himself. He took the Urdu poems known as Ghazals, composed music for them and sang them. He made this form of poetry popular among the common man. Even before him, there were other composers, other artists who used to sing ghazals. The difference was that they selected ghazals that were in pure and difficult Urdu and they sang them in Indian Classical style. Both these things made it harder for the common man to understand and enjoy this form of poetry/music. But Jagjit Singh started the trend to select ghazals in simple langauge, so close to Hindi that anyone could understand them, and he composed the music for them that was close to the film music but retained its unique Indianness. He introduced Western instruments in his music which made it ever more popular without losing the original charm of the poetry or music.

I myself started enjoying his ghazals while I was very young and that made me a regular listener of ghazals. So much so that I started discovering and enjoying other artists as well and could even enjoy the classical style of ghazals, as sung for example, by Ghulam Ali.

Now Jagjit Singh I consider a real loss to Indian music and to humanity. I feel that artists are real humans, because they are not propelled by the primal need to feed themselves or to make loads of money. They are motivated by the inner spark, the urge to create something beautiful and that something connects them to the high spiritual powers. I just wanted to devote this space to Jagjit Singh and say that we will miss him terribly! May God bless him!

Filtered News

2011-10-11T09:03:00.000+01:00

Most of my readers know that I don't follow news. I don't read newspapers and I don't watch newscasts. Most definitely it's not the right thing to day. But then when did I claim to be a doer of right things? I do things as they suit me. As do most people, they just delude themselves. If you didn't like reading newspaper, you wouldn't.

My contention is still the same - reading newspapers doesn't make you feel good. If there's bad news, being a good person you feel bad about it. If there's good news, it happened to someone else, and you would feel jealous or at the very least, envious.

But still, I miss some things by not following the news. Each news item aside from being good or bad also gives us new things to think about and sometimes opportunities to learn something new.

There have been times in my life when I did make a conscious effort to follow news. For example, the time when I was trying to learn the stock market. The share market is impacted by all things so it's useful to stay on top of the world news if you really want to be good at it. I never got anywhere with it. It was too boring to follow news even with that extra incentive.

There was that time when all my classmates were reading newspapers in order to improve their English. I stuck with stories and storybooks. Worked great for me. Much better than the newspaper readers.

There have been periods in my life when I did read newspaper regularly. But I only read two sections - the comics and Bollywood. The latter for the photos, the articles and gossip bore me even in that.

However, even though I don't follow news, I do get my news, indirectly. I read blogs almost regularly. And I look at the Facebook newsfeed from time to time. And I do talk to a lot of people on the internet. Through these and other such channels I get my news, filtered as it were.

Tower Heist - Waiting for it

2011-10-09T11:43:00.001+01:00

Some movies you go, see and forget. Some movies you wait for. Tower Heist is one such. Even though I hate Ben Stiller (I find him annoying, I don't hate him like I hate Apple) at the same time, I admire and adore Eddie Murphy as a comic genius. And for that reason, I am going to watch this movie as soon as it comes out which is announced to be 4th November 2011.

I loved Eddie's performance very much even in this trailer. Watch and listen for the very last thing he says. It's so simple and yet hilarious!

P.S. I also love Tea Leoni

Quote - William Penn

2011-10-05T15:20:00.000+01:00

"If you protect a man from folly, you will soon have a nation of fools."

- William Penn

Causal Loop - An Essay

2011-10-04T13:53:00.000+01:00

I am going to talk about something technical but fun. No such thing? Yes, there is. It's called Science fiction!

In science fiction exists this thing called Causal Loop or Causality Loop. I will explain this slowly and simply, even at the risk of sounding patronizing. :)

In regular, non-sci-fi life, there is something called cause and effect. For example, you walked to office and hence reached the office. Someone buys a car, and then they can drive in that car. Two lovers have a fight and as a result they break up. These things are simple and straightforward. Jake talked back to his wife and had to sleep on the couch. It's easy to see what is the cause and what is the effect.

In a causal loop, these lines are blurred. Causal Loops, so far as I know, can only be caused by time travel. At least the ones I have seen are. In a causal loop,it's hard to say which event is the cause and which one the effect. Both are both actually. If you have heard the question, "which came first, the egg or the chicken?", then you have heard of a causal loop.

Let's take a fun example. Have you seen the movie The Terminator? The first part I mean. Do you understand the story?

When I saw this movie the very first time, on a rented VCR with a bunch of my friends, I don't think any of us understood more than 50% of the story. We were just happy to see the "hot" scene in addition to all the fast-paced action and shooting by our friend Arnie the Terminator. So,let's recoup the story for all of us in simple terms.

-A defense firm Cyberdyne creates a computer network called Skynet.
-Skynet is an artificially intelligent network and becomes autonomous.
-As Skynet tries to take over the Earth and kill all humans...
-One man, John Connor leads the resistance against it.
-Skynet sends a killer robot, a Terminator, to the past to kill John Connor's mother Sarah Connor so that John connor is never born.
-The humans, at the same time, send a human, Kyle Reese, back to the same time, to protect Sarah Connor
-While Kyle Reese is running around with Sarah Connor, trying to keep her safe from the Terminator robot, the two have sex, Kyle and Sarah, not Sarah and Robot, ok?
-From that copulation is born John Connor...
-Who later leads the charge against the machines and...
-Sends Kyle Reese back to the past to save his mother who....

See what I mean? If John had never sent Kyle back, John would never have been born and so on. It's a circle. cause becomes effect and vice versa.

It's also called the Predestination Paradox. You can read more on the topic on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_paradox

Crazy, Stupid, Love - Funny and stupid

2011-09-28T15:15:00.000+01:00

Out of the 3 movies I watched last weekend this was one.

For me the main attractions were Steve Carrell who is a good comic actor and Julianne Moore who is good actress and a cute one at that.

The plot was fairly obvious from the trailers. Steve's wife wants a divorce and he is plunged into the single life willy-nilly. He gets a mentor in the form of fast-speaking, skirt-chasing, womanizer Ryan Gosling.

It's a good movie in the way that it makes you laugh. That's the only redeeming quality.

The story is the old formula - dating guru teaching a novice, you have seen this many, many times. The plot is simple and predictable, though I have to admit it managed to shock me twice with a twist.

Performances are good as expected. Steve Carell lives up to his reputation. Julianne Moore looks and acts beautiful as always. Ryan Gosling does alright in the role of dating-guru on his own, but he's not even 10% of Will Smith in Hitch in the same role. Marisa Tomei looks older and acts fine, but doesn't look anywhere near as hot as she did in "My Cousing Vinny". Emma Stone does okay. I am not a big fan of hers. Julianna Guill looks so sexy and yet so good in her role as schoolgirl that I didn't recognize her as herself. I thought she must be one of the popular teenage actresses and not the adult (grown-up, not in an R-rated way) actress that she is.

Other supporting cast is okay, nothing remarkable.

I was not very impressed by the pick-up scenes of Gosling though they were decent. His patter is okay, not as well-written as Will Smith's in Hitch. And for God's sake can we have at least one Hollywood film where the divorce is NOT the husband's fault? The wife sleeps with another man behind her husband's back but it's the husband's fault that they are getting divorced! I try to keep the battle of the sexes out of my blog, but come on, this is too much! Is the whole Hollywood so pussy-whipped they can't dare to show a woman ever being in the wrong? It was not this movie's fault, but this was like the last straw. I have just seen it way too many times now.

The climax is as predictable as the rest of the movie. Happy ending, Hollywood style.

My conclusion is that as a romcom it's entertaining enough to be watched once, but don't go in with expectations too high. It's light entertainment to keep around on DVD even, to watch when you don't want to get too deep into a movie and just want something to make you laugh.

Google+ - Can you believe it?

2011-09-27T10:37:00.000+01:00

43 Million users in one week!!
According to this story, Google plus got a 1269% increase in users since it was opened to public.
I, of course, was on it weeks before when it was in invitation-only stage. *smug smile* So I guess I would be one of those "influencers" and "early adopters" that the story talks about.

Now that Google+ is open to public I am expecting to have a bigger friend list and a more active Stream. So far I like Google+ as compared to Facebook, with the only problem being having more friends on Facebook as of now. That will change. Even though I use Facebook, I really hate it. It's only because of boredom that I ever even open it, mostly on my phone .

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_plus_traffic_went_up_1269_last_week.php

Why iPhone sucks - Fact List

2011-09-27T10:30:00.000+01:00

"We put the Ape in Apple"

I don't have an irrational hatred of iPhones or even Apple. I do hate both, but it's based on facts. While hatred is an emotion, it comes from real, factual reasons.

Just to be clear I don't own an iPhone, I have never owned one, and I probably never will but I have researched them several times when I was looking to buy another phone. They never measured up to other phones for features and never could fulfill my requirements.

I have seen iPhones, I have operated them and I know what their appeal is, we'll discuss them along with the issues they come with.

I am quite vocal in dissing iPhones and many times been told by iPhone owners "You can jailbreak it!". So, I will be covering that in this thesis as well.

First of all, if you jailbreak it, it's not covered by warranty. Technically it's still an iPhone but really it's not, not the way Apple intended, so let us say my criticism applies more to out-of-the box iPhones, not a jailbroken one which I'd say is a custom device. The same way, you could root an Android phone and get even more functionality than you already get.

Secondly, the iPhone is known and praised for its ease of use and user-friendliness. Rooting or jailbreaking a phone is a risky, non-user-friendly business. If you have to jailbreak it to make it any use, purpose defeated.

Thirdly, even after jailbreaking most of the problems or lack of features in an iPhone remain unchanged.

I hate it when people compare iPhone with latest model Android phones or come up with terms like iPhone-killer! Even the first model of Android phone, G1, could do things that the latest model of iPhone can't. So no need for a new model, no need to kill it, it's a piece of crap, you don't kill a piece of crap.

Let's look at a list of things that iPhones can't do or won't do. The common theme in all these will be a lack of choice and freedom for the user as you'll see.

Flash -

I'll dispose of the most obvious and popular one first. Flash. iPhones cannot play flash, never have and possibly never will. Poor iPhone owners try to convince you that Flash is on its way out and HTML5 will replace flash in the very near future. While that maybe true I haven't seen this happen yet and until that happens I enjoy Flash on my Android phones while you can't. True story.

I have heard that Apple (Steve Jobs) decided to keep Flash out of iPhone for perormance reasons. May be true. But it would delay things when you open a Flash-rich website, isn't it? Then it's up to the user to make that choice, not the company.

Now you are serving up a fast internet by not loading part of the websites. I call that cheating. The company claims in their advt's that it's not "Watered-down internet". I call that false advertising. I am surprised nobody has taken them to court for that.

Bluetooth -
I was surprised to learn that while iPhone does have a bluetooth radio, it can only connect to bluetooth headphones. ALL of the other functionality of bluetooth is suppressed. Why? I have no idea. But you can't send and receive files over bluetooth, you can't use your phone as remove control to control other devices and you can't use it to exchange information like contact cards.

USB - Even with an Apple cable you cannot use your iPhone as a USB drive and just copy files. No, you always have to use iTunes and you always have to "sync". And you know what's wrong with iTunes? It sucks!

iTunes - I used it the first time (and last) when a friend of mine, idiot as he was, bought an ipod and asked me to put some songs on it as his own computer was back home in India. As soon as I started using it, I was apalled and infuriated by the asinine way it works!

Do you know that you cannot transfer MP3's, you can only sync? Let me take an example, suppose you had 999 songs on your computer. You connected your i-device (iPod or iPhone) and copied them, oh, excuse me, sync'ed them to your portable device.

At a later date, you moved those songs off your hard drive to an external hard drive to make space on your internal hard drive.

Later you bought another song from iTunes online store and want to copy it to your ipod or iPhone. When you connect your device to your computer and sync it, it'll DELETE the 999 songs from your device and copy the 1 new song to it!

Do you see how much fun that'd be?

So what it means for an iPhone or iPod owner is that every time he wants to copy a new song to his collection, he'll have to first gather all his music collection to the computer, all hard drives, all CDs, all MP3s etc. etc.

What if instead of taking a backup your hard drive crashed? I don't know if you'd still be able to re-download the songs you bought from iTunes but I know that any MP3 that were on your computer would be gone forever. But you think, "Oh, thank god, I have them backed up on my ipod."

No, you don't. The next time you connect your ipod to the computer, iTunes will DELETE the songs from your ipod. Stupid, isn't it? And again, the user has NO control over how it works.

Apparently, after you jailbreak it, you can use iPhone as USB drive.

Compatibility - Be it Mac or iPhone or iPad, Apple users always bring this up as a big plus point. "Everything just works!", they are fond of saying. Well, all the devices and their peripherals are made by the same company, for the same device to work in that specific way. I'd be really shocked if they weren't compatible! It's like saying I and my brother are related! Well, d-uh!

Or like saying that my Samsung TV remote works perfectly with my Samsung TV. Well, it was made to work like that!

The flip side of it is that the Apple devices are not extensible. In my Dell laptop I can install a Western Digital hard drive and extend the storage. I'd still be covered for warranty except for that hard drive. But Mac Users must pay a huge premium to Apple for a part replacement when they even can get a part replaced. Most times they have to buy the new version of the item. But we were talking about iPhone.

Adapters - Every lead, every cable, every adapter for iPhone must be either made by Apple or be Apple specific. If I forget my charger home, I can just borrow somoene's mini-USB charger or PC-connector cable. These days so many phones have mini-USB chargers that I'd have a good chance of finding one in the office. iPhone owners must find the proprietary cable. This doesn't change even if you jailbreak the phone.

Camera - There was a time I was looking for a second phone just to use as a pocketable camera with the phone attached. At that time, I looked at iPhone spec's as well. Today I laugh at my misguided attempt! iPhone camera has always been behind time. (At that time I ended up buying a Samsung Pixon12 for the camera. A Non-android phone and my last non-Android phone even though it was great in itself.) That time iPhone had a 3.2MP camera with no flash.

Even in iPhone 4 you get a 5MP camera, when most camera phones have 8MP or better cameras.

What Apple fanbois will tell you though is that it's not megapixels that matter in photo quality, it's the camera sensor. What they would conveniently forget to tell you is that Samsung Galaxy S2 comes with an 8MP camera sensor while the iPhone4 comes with a 5MP sensor.

The Samsung Galaxy S II can take 1080P video but Apple fanbois will try to convince you that it doesn't matter. Having seen both 1080P and 720P let me tell you - it does matter! Open both on your laptop and you'll see for yourself.

New versions - This is my beef with the company for all their products. They release a device with very limited functionality and just as people start buying them they announce another one with some of the missing features added. Like the iPad had no camera but the iPad 2 had one. So, they didn't have the technology to install a camera in iPad, but got one in two months? How come Samsung and other manufaturers had no problem installing a camera in their tablets? And how come Apple call themselves innovators then? What do they innovate - new, flashy ads for their crippled, over-priced devices?

Just to set the record straight, I could do copy-and-paste on my Sony Ericsson non-smartphone phone 2 years before the iphone was launched. But the first iphone had no such capability. But the new version had copy-paste.

I am sure this makes the iPhone buyers feel like idiots when they see the announcement for the next version a week after they buy theirs.

With Android also there are lots and lots of phone with varied capabilities, but they are all very powerful and feature-rich, and the technology is always state-of-the-art not suppressed for marketing reasons.

Battery - iPhone battery life is supposedly great. Nothing compared to SGS2 though. But even with the first Android phone G1 I had the option to replace the battery. iPhone owners try to sell the idea that a replaceable battery is not a big deal, so let me prove why it is.

Extra power for "those" situation - Sometimes you don't have access to a power outlet..for example, I won't say getting stranded on a desert island, but beach trips, long flights, long train journeys, cruises, picnics, day trips...you get the idea. In all those situations and places, an Android owner can simply slap in a spare battery (cheap to buy) while the iPhone owner can only use their run-down device to crack nuts. Actually not, from what I have heard, it's not a very strong device, physically.

Then there's the question of repairs. If the battery dies, as in die forever, any normal phone can have a replacement. For an iPhone you have to send it to Apple and get the whole phone replaced. With a cost of course. I am sure you can guess that replacing a phone will be much more expensive than buying a battery for a tenner and putting it in yourself.

MicroSD card - The internal storage in iPhone is okay, but you never get the option to add an SD card. Again, it might make things easy for Apple, but doesn't help the user. No matter how big the internal storage an additional card slot can always outdo it.
No jailbreaking can fix this hardware limitation.

Form factor - iPhone models right from the beginning have been OK to Ugly. Ugly being iPhone 4 with sharp corners, heavy body and unwieldy feel to it. It pisses me off when people call it a "good-looking" phone. It's not. It's the magic of marketing that makes it look attractive to people.
Jailbreaking can't help that.

Body - Can you believe that this is something the Apple fanbois actaully defend and praise? It's a glass-and-aluminium body. Glass not only adds weight, it makes it fragile as well.
Once again, jailbreaking won't change that.

Screen - At one time 3.5 inch screen was a good screen. But no more. If you doubt me, put your iphone 4 next to my Galaxy S II and play a movie. We'll see who can see more detail. But the retina display was quite good and is still comparable to the current phones. So I'd give it that.

Customization - On my Android phone, I am the king, I have so much control it's scary. On iPhone you can't even control how your application icons will be displayed. My phone desktop is customized for maximum efficiency. On iPhone you can only have your icons as Steve Jobs wants you to.

App Store - The AppStore is another argument that Apple fans try to use in a debate. While on paper it does look much better than Android market, in reality it's not. The Android market beats is on a couple of points.

Just in sheer numbers there are more apps in the AppStore. Granted. But now that the number of Android apps have crossed the 100,000 mark with the growth continuing the difference is losing its significance. In reality so many of the apps are either useless or duplicate on both platforms.

From personal experience I know that a lot of apps on AppStore are paid while their Android cousins are free of cost.

Then comes the question of censorship. You simply cannot install a 3rd party app on the iPhone. On Android you can download and install from anywhere you fancy.

While the censorships is applied under the guise of security and decency, it doesn't just stop adult apps. Anything that Apple or Steve Jobs don't like can be blocked from the iPhone. Like Google apps. You can't have them. why? Because they said so!

After jailbreaking you can get around this.

There are some iphone Apps that are not yet available on Android. But the reverse is true as well. The caveat here is that while the missing iPhone apps may ultimately be developed for Android, the reverse is not true.

Here are some stories about Apple-banned apps that would surprise you:
http://www.iphonehacks.com/iphone_apps_banned_or_removed
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159887/rejected_10_iphone_apps_that_didnt_make_apples_app_store.html
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/reasons-to-jailbreak/
http://www.edibleapple.com/a-look-back-at-the-itunes-app-store-part-iii-the-bannings-and-the-rejections/

Apple can ban an app for politicial or commercial reasons, trying to keep their competition out. Case in point, the app Podcaster that provided the user more functionality than the Apple itunes was banned. Same is true for Google Voice.

Problems - There have always been issues with the iphones. "You have to hold it exactly like this or it won't work." was the famous one, but there have been many, many others. Yet, Apple tries to suppress them and does manage to keep them out of the press, trying to maintain the image that everything works.

Lawsuit - In order to keep their market share, Apple doesn't just spend money on marketing, they also try to browbeat anyone else to suppress competition. The latest example is the lawsuit against Samsung for the design of their 10.1 tablet. How many of these are bonafide cases? Probably none.

The Cult - iphone fanbois have their cult. It's not allowed to say anything against Apple or iPhone. If you start pointing out things that are wrong with the iPhone the fanbois start frothing at the mouth and spouting profanities.

Unfortunately, this is becoming true of Android as well. I myself would get red in the face if anybody in my earshot defends Apple. Unless it's a girl.

Price -

Hype -

Movie Review - RED

2011-09-21T14:01:00.000+01:00

My system of finding and acquiring movies is quite varied, so I don't remember what criteria I used for getting this movie but I am very glad that I found it.

It's an action film, and as happens with actions films the direction is everything. This one has been directed very well by Robert Schwentke!

RED is a CIA abbreviation (in this film) that stands for - Retired Extremely Dangerous.

This is how it starts... Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired agent, he should be called superagent actually. He calls the CIA pensions department and talks to his case worker Sarah about his pension check that is incorrect. She assures him that she'll get another one sent in the mail right away. They have a pleasant chat during which we see Willis tearing up his original check which had nothing wrong with it.

Then he makes another call to her, another time, and tells her he's coming to New Orleans. She tells him to give her a call when he's there.

Next scene, we see him getting up at about 3 am and going to the bathroom. The camera retreats through walls and we see a unit of commandos with guns ready to raid his apartment.

But here is when we see the true colours of Frank Moses! He's not a gentle retiree from some paper-pushing job, he's a man with reflexes like a tiger and he's deadly like the tiger's mother.

After disposing off the agents, his next item of business is to travel as per his plans but instead of meeting Sarah, he kidnaps her.

The story is not slow up to this point, but it picks up good speed from here on. Actually, maybe that's not right, but you do get a sense that the story is going to take off now.

What I really loved about the film is that despite being a formula action film it's different from the typical action movie. It progresses at a good pace without getting boring and somehow it manages to avoid the usual cliches.

The plot itself is quite good, simple but with enough twists that you don't get bored. The action unfolds nicely as well. No slack anywhere, but still the film moves at a comfortable pace, entertaining and amusing all the way through. It's a 2010 movie so technology is pretty current, stunts are very good.

The cast of characters is quite good. Apart from Bruce Willis there's Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, Karl Urban, Helen Mirren, Richard Dreyfuss and John Malkovich.

It's easy to identify with Bruce Willis. He is shown to be a man of action and thought as the situation demands. His romantic side is quite endearing and makes it easy to like him despite his habit of going around killing people.

In the beginning I thought Mary-Louise Parker was "kinda ok" but by about halfway through I realized, she's very cute. I wouldn't call her "hot" but she's very cute!

Karl Urban makes a very good antagonist as a CIA agent. John Malkovich - as soon as he appears on screen you know he's a seasoned actor. He does a great job of playing a paranoid ex-CIA agent. Helen Mirren I liked on sight. She's a bit old for me to think of her as "hot" but there is something loveable about her and the way she portrays Victoria.

The film, despite being an action film with a good amount of violence, is light and fun. I don't want to give too much away in case my readers decide to watch it but there were a few good stunt scenes and a couple of nice drama scenes that would be memorable.

Even as it was running, I was feeling quite happy that it was still going on. Despite being a violent film it has a feel-good factor. When things go wrong you feel confidence in Bruce and his team.

The plot has some good twists and turns which keep one entertained and lead to a normal, enjoyable conclusion. Although I don't mind the gruesome, gory violence that you see in some films, I prefer the "Red" kind of simple violence without too much focus on blood and breaking bones.

All in all a very watchable film for fans of action films.

Samsung Galaxy S2 - My experience

2011-09-21T08:43:00.000+01:00

I was going to write two posts one for my Samsung Galaxy S2 and one to list out how iphone sucks (yes, another one), but I decided to do the SGS2 post first. I think there are a lot of review sites for mobile handsets but most of them work either from paper spec's or an early review unit or sometimes just on a display piece in a technology conference. Not a whole lot of user reviews based on actual experience. So I decided to do one.

I am not gonna do a long and detailed review of all the features and settings because that would take too long. This phone does have a LOT of features! I will just talk about the few things that I really dig about this phone and how they influence my life on a day to day basis.

First off is the shape and size. Samsung boasts of this being the thinnest smartphone on the market and I think they are right at 8.49mm thickness. It feels really nice to hold in the hand because of this shapely body.

The downside is that you have to be really careful when texting one-handed or when taking photos. Also the body is plastic, which people seem to have something against, I don't. The back cover is textured plastic which feels good in the hand.

The first time I opened the back cover to install battery, I hated it. It looks so flimsy and cheap, plus it has hooks on 3 sides of so it was hard to open. I was worried I might crack it any moment. But I didn't. And I realized later that having hooks on 3 sides it fits really snug and feels safe when closed. No wobble or play in the back cover. I like that classy feel. Also being light it doesn't add much to the overall weight which is just 117gms.

I received the phone on 22nd of August, (a nice b'day present for myself), and since then I have gotten used to the weight a bit, but if I pick up my old Desire HD and then pick this up, it feels so light! The shape is still pleasing after 3 weeks. I love to pick it up!

Now let's talk about the screen. The resolution is same 800 X 480 that I have seen on many devices so far, but this is a Super AMOLED Plus screen, and while that sounds good to the ears, you have no idea what it means until you see the screen! It's gorgeous!

Just this morning I turned off my morning alarm on two devices, my old Desire HD and then on the new SGS2. And I noticed the difference in colours and vibrancy of the display even though I was half-asleep and wasn't looking for anything like that.

Also, in practical terms, I have to keep the brightness of the screen lower than I used to on the Desire HD otherwise it is too bright to be comfortable. In the direct sunlight, I jack it up to full bright and it's comfortable to use outdoors.

Last weekend while I was traveling, I forgot my tablet in the office and had to watch videos on my SGS2 in the trains. I didn't mind at all! The 4.3 inch screen is great for watching movies and TV shows esp. in HD!

Speed.
It's one thing to say that the SGS2 has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and it's a totally different thing to see it in action and be wow'ed by it. Right from the home screen you begin to see and feel the difference that a fast processor makes. This effect continues as you keep working with the phone, opening documents, launching applications, interacting with various dialogues, it's all amazing!

I haven't used the camera a lot, esp. not manipulated the taken pictures on the computer but whenever I have taken any pictures, I have absolutely loved the speed. The settings available for the camera are also really impressive. Mobile cameras are not meant to replace the digital compacts but this one comes very close.It's a 8MP camera with an LED flash. Works well enough to snap on-the-spur shots, for really great shots you'll take your camera with you anyway.

There's no use talking about Android as that is common across both my phones, but this one has version 2.3.4 which does feel improved. There are small enhancements that you notice as you do stuff.

And now, the battery life. SGS2 has a 1650 mAH battery which is a big improvement on the Desire HD but the real difference is in the real life performance. With the Desire HD I used to get a day's worth of use at light use. I could not use it as a replacement for my Tab because it would run down quickly. When I used to go to London, by the time I got back at night, my battery would be below 10% or sometimes already dead.

With SGS2 I made a 3 hour train journey, used it continuously, to watch movies, play games, and make calls. Battery expenditure was slightly less than 40%. I am happy with that.

In daily use also, I check battery level often and the way it goes down I will get about 20 to 50 hours of use in a typical light use pattern. I have never used it straight 20 hours yet, I charget it when I get home. But as I said, I look at the numbers throughout the day. Usually when I get home after a working day. In about 14 hours, it has lost about 20-50% depending on how much I used it through the day.

What the great battery life means to me in real terms is that I can have live wallpapers and other widgets and background applications that would be nice to have but do use more battery. Now I can enjoy them all without worrying. When I go out, I don't carry a charger with me (to office, for example). And I don't take an emergency charger when travelling by train. Sometimes I can leave the tablet behind when travelling.

With SGS2 I also got Swype pre-installed which I was enjoying very much on my Samsung Tab. So that's a big plus for text-entry. You don't know what you are missing until you try it.

There are some bad things also. But I don't whine about them as I knew them before I bought the phone. (Unlike iphone buyers, I don't say "Oh, that looks pretty!", I do my research.)

One bad thing is the absence of the search key on the handset. I didn't use to use it a lot before, so I am not missing it much. Or at all. There's always a soft search key in all programs where I can search.

Another bad thing is that it gets too warm in certain conditions. It doesn't happen a lot but it's a shortcoming. Happens esp. when I make it a wifi hotspot and use it for extended periods of time. Also sometimes when downloading a really big file on the phone. Doesn't happen often enough to make me annoyed.

The third thing I hate in phones is the location of the SIM card and microSD card slot. In this phone both are under the battery cover which is hard to open, so that does annoy me. Recently I found a solution to transfer my files without using cables. There are two solutions actually.

One is to use Kies Air by Samsung that comes pre-installed. It's really cool. You connect the laptop and phone both to the same Wifi hotspot, then start Kies Air. It gives you an IP address, you enter that IP in your browser on the laptop and voila, you can see a huge amount of information from the phone on your laptop - photos, files, videos, text messages, call history, a lot. You can do a lot of things from there, but the shortcoming I found is that I can't transfer a file bigger than 100MB. So I searched for another way.

There are a lot of free FTP servers available for Android. Using them is like using a normal FTP server. Start the server on the phone, then connect to it, using the browser or an FTP client from the laptop. I am very comfortable with FTP clients and prefer them, like Filezilla (also free). This was fine for transferring movies across, a lovely interface.

But if I gave that solution to an iphone owner, they might faint. All they know how to do is to sync using iTunes. And they love staying within those limits. *evil grin*

I am going to stop here it's gone on much longer than intended it to be anyway.

Next, expect a post from me on why Apple sucks. ;)

You have to play by Apple's rules

2011-09-21T08:29:00.001+01:00

That's not me, that's what Apple says to its consumers and rest of the community:
If you don't believe me, read this new item captioned

Norway declares Apple’s iTunes illegal

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1fc40360-abe9-11db-a0ed-0000779e2340.html#axzz1YPqHYtli

It's like you buy an audio CD from a shop and are told that you can play it ONLY in the CD players bought from that shop. Or that you buy a pen which will write only on the pad you buy from that same shop.

And watch the arrogance of the company to call the French law (a year before this) "state-sponsored piracy"! How is it piracy to want to listen to an MP3 you bought and paid for? Just because you want to listen to it on a device not made by Apple? Jeez, this company makes me sick!

Reblog: 8 Things that Suck about iPad

2011-09-19T09:45:00.001+01:00

Just 8? I can add a dozen more:

http://gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad

25000, baby!

2011-09-19T08:55:00.003+01:00

This week my visitor counter hit the 25000 mark. It took almost 5 years to do it, but for a personal blog it's still a big deal for me!

I would like to thank all my visitors, especially my blog friends whose regular visits have helped me achieve this Silver Jubilee number.

At this point I want to mention why I still keep blogging. There is no one single reason but the strongest reason is that I enjoy it. Ultimately, I would like people to read what I have written, but just the act of writing a post is also quite enjoyable and gratifying. Another reason is to share stuff. It could be a movie, a funny picture, a touching poem or an amusing anecdote, I love to share these with my readers. I sometimes also use my blog to archive things. For example, my hatred for chatspeak or Apple Inc., my love for Android and books and TV shows. Many times instead of repeating myself I can just give someone a URL to my post for these things.

I don't want to make this unneccessarily long, let me just say I am quite happy about hitting the 25000 mark and thank you again to all my readers. I hope you will keep visiting and leaving your comments.

Smartphone comic

2011-09-16T13:12:00.000+01:00

It's quite funny.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/smartphone

Apple Sucks Once again

2011-09-16T13:09:00.002+01:00

Oh, look, a whole blog dedicated to the universal fact that Apple sucks.

http://applesucks.wordpress.com/

Reblog: Why Apple sucks

2011-09-16T13:01:00.000+01:00

Just to remind, most of these reasons are valid for all Apple products. Enjoy :)

http://techbu.com/2009/06/20/15-reasons-why-i-hate-apple-and-why-ipod-touch-sucks/comment-page-7#comment-289629

Top 10 things iCrap owners say

2011-09-16T12:49:00.000+01:00

1. "Flash is on its way out.."

2. "iphone is good, it just can't do this one thing..." (Repeated 329 times in a half hour conversation)

3. "I don't really need that feature."

4. "Yes, I know Apple is evil, but look how good this looks!"

5. "Apple is a great innovator." (Yeah, right!)

6. "I don't really need third party Apps."

7. "Apple protects me."

8. "Android did look better but all my friends had an iphone so I bought one as well."

9. "I hate it but it looks so nice."

10. "I am a girl."

Shayri 101 - Ghalib - Koi din ghar zindgaani

2011-09-16T09:42:00.000+01:00

Once again I have picked a favourite ghazal of mine. (The image contains the same ghazal in Urdu)

This is written by Ghalib and it's very popular as expected. It is one of his simple-language ghazals, but still has a few tough words. Let's get into it.

koii din gar zi.ndaganii aur hai
apane jii me.n hamane Thaanii aur hai

Meaning: This is very simple. The poet says that if he has any more days to live, he has some different plans for his life. Don't we all do that? We keep making plans for our life. After every mistake or every adverse event, we make some different plans. I think it's a good habit.

aatish-e-dozaKh me.n ye garmii kahaa.N
soz-e-Gamhai-nihaanii aur hai
[dozaKh=hell; soz=passion/heat; nihaanii=hidden ]

Meaning: The fires of hell don't have the same heat as the burn of the hidden pain. So true man, so true!

The beauty of this sher, IMHO, lies in the long word - soz-e-ghamha-e-nihaani. It's a compound word, joining 3 words together. Soz = burn or fire. Gham = sorrow and ghamhae = plural of gham, sorrows. Nihaani comes from the word nihaaN meaning hidden. So the whole word means fire of the sorrow that is hidden. The hidden pain is more painful because the world doesn't see it but it eats awat at you inside. And because it's hidden, you do not get any sympathy from your friends and family just bear the pain in silence. You see why it's worse than the fires of hell?

baarahaa dekhii.n hai.n unakii ra.njishe.n
par kuchh ab ke sar_giraanii aur hai
[sar_giraanii=pride]

Meaning: I have seen her angry mood many times, but this time her anger seems very different. Sar giraani literally means heavy head, but it's expression for anger, naraazgi.

deke Khat muu.Nh dekhataa hai naamaabar
kuchh to paiGaam-e-zabaanii aur hai
[naamaabar=messenger]

Meaning: This is my favourite sher. "The messenger is watching my face after handing me the letter. There is something she has said to be delivered verbally. "
Even though the literal meaning is quite clear the hidden meaning has to be derived from it. I mean, why is the messenger watching his face, what is he waiting for? His expression on reading the letter? His reaction? What is that verbal message and in what condition will the messenger deliver it? For example, consider the following scenario. when she wrote the letter, she was not free to say what she wanted, written under duress, you know. But then she was able to whisper something to the messenger before he left. And now the messenger is waiting to see his reaction before delivering the real message.

I should mention that all these things only make sense in the context of Indian culture.

ho chukii.n "Ghalib" balaaye.n sab tamaam
ek marg-e-naagahaanii aur hai
[balaaye.n=calamities; marg=death; naagahaanii=sudden/accidental]

Ghalib says that he has seen faced all the trials and tribulations of life except one. The unseen, unexpected trouble of death, that's the only one he's waiting to face now.

The beauty of this sher is that it can be interpreted in two radically different ways. It can be interpreted as a show of confidence. The poet has handled all the problems of life and is ready to face even death. Or it can be interpreted as the sigh of a man who is tired from life after being subjected to all the troubles in his life and is just waiting for the final trouble - death, that would deliver him of all the other pains and sorrows.

I have tried my best to translate and interpret it, but it's Ghalib's poetry, research scholars work on things like these and thesis are written on each of Ghalib's sher's. So, my humble attempt may leave a lot to be desired. Still, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to put them in the comments.

Top 10 Characteristics of an iCrap owner

2011-09-15T08:42:00.000+01:00

Top 10 Characteristics of an iCrap owner

1. The last time you took a risk was when you were 2 and tried to stand up by pulling yourself up to the couch.

2. When you need to make a choice, you look at others to see what they are doing then follow suit.

3. Technology scares you.

4. You start frothing at the mouth when you see someone coming towards you holding an Android phone.

5. The words iPhone-Killer give you nightmares and you wake up in cold sweat during the night.

6. You are quite happy for other people to make your choices for you.

7. You pray to Steve Jobs in private and hope that he will bless you with "Flash" some day.

8. Logic and reason are not your strong points.

9. You no longer take offence at being called "sheeple".

10. You consider it a privilege to be made to buy inferior technlogy at a higher price because you think it's "cool".

Android Wallpaper of the day

2011-09-14T11:07:00.000+01:00

iPhone wallpaper of the day

2011-09-14T10:42:00.000+01:00

Also check out the post:

http://mylilpwny.tumblr.com/post/2135946218/apple-sucks-reason-5

iPhone 4 Vs. Samsung Galaxy S II

2011-09-14T10:40:00.001+01:00

Warning: The following article may (and will) cause serious heartburn in iphone owners. While the comparison by the reviewer have been made based on paper spec for SGS2, I can vouch that the specs are true and the real life experience for all these features is as he expected, in most cases it's better than expected.

http://www.androidauthority.com/iphone-4-vs-
samsung-galaxy-sii-10109/

Edit: Even after posting this I was reading the comments on that article. And believe me comments are the real fun where Apple fanbois come out and try to discredit the review with really great comments like "iphone is more fun". This one comment really impressed me, well done. My favourite line I have put in bold. ;)
I'll post more if I like any other comments..

Anonymous

CAN’T wait to ditch my iPhone 4 for this beauty!!! Apple is about to be SPANKED, and most deservedly so. This thing is a BEAST. Can’t wait to make the leap from stupid non-innovative, oversimplistic, money-grubbing, mass-appeal/brainwashing blind-sheep-herding Apple to Google and Android. Good riddance Steve Jobs. Getting rid of my iPad 2 for a Galaxy Tab 10.1 as well. To quote the inimitable Captain Jack Sparrow, “Gentlemen…I wash my hands of this weirdness.”

Friends with Benefits - Must Watch

2011-09-13T16:59:00.000+01:00

Now that I have been to see it twice I think I should review it as well. Don't worry I won't review it twice.

I have seen it twice so you can guess that I love the movie. Here I am just going to list out the things I loved.

First and foremost Mila Kunis. She is a petite girl, but man, what a body! She's absolutely gorgeous! Even in simple sleeveless shirts and tank tops she looks very hot! Acting wise....huh, acting? What acting? Just kidding. I did notice the acting and she has done very well.

The second thing is casting. All the characters in the movie are well-established actors, I am not talking star cast, I am talking character actors who know their craft. Justin Timberlake has done well in his role as the male lead. All the characters have been cast well and they have all done justice to their roles. Jenna Elfman plays the role of the hero's sister quite well. She is an experienced actress and it shows in her performance.

The third thing is also casting. The casting director is obviously a man after my own heart. Wherever he has to have a female extra, he thinks - let's bring in a real hottie! Well done, Lisa Miller Katz. Oh wait! It's a woman, who did that casting?!! Honestly, I checked the IMDB page for the crew after I wrote the beginning of this para. And now I see that there are a lot of women on the crew.

Including Tia Nolan who has done the editing. And she has definitely done a great job. It's not often that I am impressed by someone else's editing these days without try to find faults, but Tia has made her mark there.

Another one of my favourite characters is Woody Harrelson. I saw him first, like most people, in the American sitcom "Cheers". He has done well in his films as well since then. But in this one he really shines. He plays the gay sports editor who works with Justin and he is hilarious!

The story in itself is simple but not weak. If you had to plan a movie on the theme of two friends who try to add casual sex to their friendship I am sure you'd be able to plot it along similar lines. But still the direction and editing are fast-paced and the story doesn't lag.

Dialogues are extremely smart. They are witty and quick and quick-witted as well. (You see what I did there ;) ) I loved the dialogues right from the first scene.

Justin's father has been shown to have Alzheimer's and I am glad they have treated the disease with dignity and restraint. They have managed to introduce humour into the situation without disrespecting either the father character or people with Alzheimer's. In fact, there's a scene where Dylan (Justin) supports his father in public and the scene is both humours and touching, esp. to me.

Soundtracks are very well-chosen, even the phone ringtones.

The "small cute thing" and the "big romantic gesture" type things have been done well with good direction. They are corny as any Hollywood romcom would be but not cringeworthy.

There's some male nudity in the film. This was my biggest complain about The Inbetweeners even though I liked the movie on the whole. In FWB, it has been more than compensated by the female nudity (Mila Kunis, man!) so I am looking the other way on the male nudity (notice the pun!).

The bad things about the movie? That'll be hard, but I'll try. Everybody in the movie makes a big deal about the difference between L.A. and New York. Almost like LA people are hillbillies. They are both modern, American cities of considerable size. I don't think there's that much difference in the cultures. But I have only been to NYC not LA so I won't sue anybody based on that.

In the beginning of the movie, Mila is trying to sell Justin on NY and he gets taken in very easily. It's like he was just waiting to be sold.

Mila and Justin become good friends a little too quickly. I found it hard to buy. Though I might be just jealous that the bastard got to bang Mila. ;)

In conclusion, it's a good entertainer and well worth going to see. Another beauty of the film is that you can go to see it either with your special someone or your mates. You'd enjoy it either way. Piece of advice, the first time you see Mila's legs on screen, don't say "God, I want her!" out loud if you are seeing it with your girlfriend!

Enjoy!

Sahir Ludhianvi - Favourite Songs

2011-09-13T10:36:00.000+01:00

I found this post by chance and I am quoting it here because it contains 10 really great Sahir songs with good information about them. They are not my top 10 but 9 of them are very high on my list of favourite songs. One I have never heard - Pighla sona door gagan pe.

http://dustedoff.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/ten-of-my-favourite-sahir-ludhianvi-songs/

I will just list my 3 top most favourite songs from this list:

Tum apna ranj-o-gham
Man re tu kaahe na dheer dhare
Aage bhi jaane na tu

Please feel free to add your favourite songs in comments. I always love to find or be reminded of great Hindi songs.

Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein..

2011-09-12T09:22:00.001+01:00

The original nazm by Sahir Ludhianvi a part of which you have heard in Amitabh's voice in the film Kabhi Kabi.

Kabhii kabhii mere dil me.n Khayaal aataa hai..
.
ke zindagii terii zulfo.n kii narm chaao.n me.n
guzarane paatii to shaadaab ho bhii sakatii thii
ye tiirgii jo merii ziist kaa muqaddar hai
terii nazar kii shuaao.n me.n kho bhii sakatii thii

ajab na thaa ke mai.n begaanaa-e-alam ho kar
tere jamaal kii raanaaiiyo.n me.n kho rahataa
teraa gudaaz badan terii niim-baar aa.Nkhe.n
i.nhii.n hasiin fasaano.n me.n maaho rahataa

pukaaratii.n mujhe jab talKhiyaa.N zamaane kii
tere labo.n se halaawat ke ghuu.NT pii letaa
hayaat chiikhatii phiratii barahanaa-sar, aur mai.n
ghanerii zulfo.n ke saaye me.n chhup ke jii letaa

magar ye ho na sakaa aur ab ye aalam hai
ke tuu nahii.n, teraa Gam, terii justajuu bhii nahii.n
guzar rahii hai kuchh is tarah zi.ndahii jaise
ise kisii ke sahaare kii aarazuu bhii nahii.n

zamaane bhar ke dukho.n ko lagaa chukaa huu.N gale
guzar rahaa huu.N kuchh a.njaanii guzar_gaaho.n se
muhiib saaye merii simt ba.Date aate hai.n
hayaat-o-maut ke pur_haul Khaarazaaro.n se

na koii jaadaa na manzil na roshanii kaa suraaG
bhaTak rahii hai Khaalaao.n me.n zindagii merii
i.nhii.n Khalaao.n me.n rah jaauu.Ngaa kabhii khokar
mai.n jaanataa huu.N merii ham-nafas magar yuu.N hii
kabhii kabhii mere dil me.n Khayaal aataa hai

Beautiful, isn't it?

I am not going to translate it as I myself don't understand all the words exactly, and because it's so poetic it'll be hard to translate exactly, and even then it'd lose all its beauty and depth of emotion.

Random quote from Osho - The Drop

2011-09-12T09:05:00.000+01:00

One drop has just fallen.
It is a precious moment, and one that is full of poignancy. In surrendering to gravity and slipping off the leaf, the drop loses its previous identity and joins the vastness of the water below. We can imagine that it must have trembled before it fell, just on the edge between the known and the unknowable.

-Osho

Random Quote from Osho - The Seed

2011-09-08T12:42:00.000+01:00

Read it and tell me it doesn't inspire you.

The seed cannot know what is going to happen, the seed has never known the flower. And the seed cannot even believe that he has the potentiality to become a beautiful flower. Long is the journey, and it is always safer not to go on that journey because unknown is the path, nothing is guaranteed.
Nothing can be guaranteed. Thousand and one are the hazards of the journey, many are the pitfalls - and the seed is secure, hidden inside a hard core. But the seed tries, it makes an effort; it drops the hard shell which is its security, it starts moving. Immediately the fight starts: the struggle with the soil, with the stones, with the rocks. And the seed was very hard and the sprout will be very, very soft and dangers will be many.
There was no danger for the seed, the seed could have survived for millennia, but for the sprout many are the dangers. But the sprout starts towards the unknown, towards the sun, towards the source of light, not knowing where, not knowing why. Great is the cross to be carried, but a dream possesses the seed and the seed moves.

-Osho

My Teachers: Kaushik Sir

2011-09-08T09:37:00.001+01:00

I have this great way of starting new series and then abandoning them. So, let's start another one - my teachers. May be 3 days late after Teacher's Day but better late than never.

I think you'd agree that teachers play a defining role in our life. I have been blessed with some great teachers in my life. Actually most of them were great for one reason or another, but some were outstanding! When I decided to write about Kaushik Sir, I thought why just him, I have had some other teachers as well that I would never forget, so why not make it a series? And so, here we start another series, My Teachers, with the first instalment as Kaushik Sir.

He was my English teacher. I had him in more than one classes but the most memorable was the period of 11th and 12th standard. During these 2 years most of my classmates who were serious about school were focusing their energies on Physics or Maths and the interest in English was quite low. It was stupid of them, no matter whether you go for engineering or medical, you still needed to pass English and get good marks in it. I saw several of them suffer because of this shortsightedness when the results were out.

But the low attendance didn't bother Kaushik Sir. He loved to teach and he taught with the same enthusiasm if the number of students was 4 or 40. His period was 4th, the last one before recess and by 11th class the fear of teachers and school discipline kind of wanes. We think of ourselves as almost-college students, not school students. So people used to feel quite free to leave before the 4th period started.

However, Kaushik Sir never missed a class, even if there were 2 students in the class he would teach. I know this from experience. There was one time when only I and another student were there in the class but Kaushik Sir didn't even raise the question of "Should we continue the class?" He just took out the book and started teaching with a smile.

That was another thing - his equanimity. Never a shout, never a temper tantrum, and never a harsh word. Always a smile on his face and always a dedication to doing his best in making us learn.

His teaching style was simple and effective. He always went beyond mere translation of the lesson and question-answer. By that time I was good enough in English that I used to read all the stories in the text books in the summer vacation itself and then enjoy them immensely when they were taught in class one by one.

For me, after wading through Physics, Chemistry and Maths, English was like a picnic! It was a reward! It was a joy! So, I never missed a single class.

I don't want to keep repeating that Kaushik Sir was an amazing teacher and a great person so let me illustrate with a couple of examples.

We were studying this story called "The Coin Diver" which is a great story. I still think of it as one of the best stories we read in school. In the story, there is scene where the 3 main characters of the story, Diamond Jim, Nancy and Charlie (names from memory) are on a single path and their placement relative to each other was important to the story.

When Kaushik Sir started explaining that passage he changed their positions from where they were in the story. I interrupted and called him on it immediately. When the discussion started, another student, the other guy who never missed a class, also supported my view.

Kaushik Sir said he would get back to us tomorrow.

Now here's the beauty part. He didn't forget, and he didn't try to roll past it. The next day, right as rain, he just ambled into class, opened the book and in front of a full class (about a dozen or so students) admittedthat we were right and he was wrong! I mean who does that? What teacher sets aside his ego like that and just concedes so openly? He told us that he had read the book last year and was thinking he didn't need to again this year to teach.

More than The Coin Diver, that was the lesson I learnt, be willing to admit your mistakes and don't get bogged down in ego!

Next instance was also during the same story. In the last passage the author used the word "breast" for the male character. That confused me. So I asked Kaushik Sir and he told me that sometimes the author goes by the quality of the person's body as in, it is a female quality to be able to love so much, and here Charlie has shown that quality so the author used the feminine word for his body. I accepted that.

He repeated that with slightly different words that gave me enough of the clue that I realized the difference later. (In both males and female the bone structure etc. is called chest and the flesh part on top is called breast). It was not him bullshitting me, it was just him stepping around a sticky topic, but not at the cost of leaving me in the dark. That was another lesson I learnt from him, though later, honesty in a difficult situation!

My memories of Kaushik Sir are like that, a man with immense knowledge, a really mature character and a great teacher!

If this reminds you of your teachers or a particular teacher, feel free to share with us in comments.

Android Market's Refund Period

2011-08-31T13:50:00.001+01:00

Android Market used to be a wonderful place where you have a plethora of free apps for your phone and quite a big selection of paid apps starting from under 1 GBP to 20GBP and more. Something that I really liked about this market was that you could download and install an app, try it out and if it turned out that it was not suitable for you, you could uninstall it and get a full refund quite easily right from your phone. Within 24 hours.

Today I downloaded an app from the Android Market, noted the time as just after 10 AM and proceeded to check the app out. This was a lock screen app so I locked/unlocked my phone quite a few times to test it, and then suddenly realized that it was letting me unlock the phone without actually using the unlock slider. That's not what I wanted! So, I tested it a couple more times, confirmed that it didn't work and decided to return it.

Oh, I was in for a rude awakening! I uninstall the app but didn't get the "Uninstall & Refund" button, just "Uninstall". I didn't think much about it. But then, I checked my email and the "refund confirmation" email didn't arrive. Hmmm, curious!

I checked the email that was sent to me when I bought the app and in there was a link for the Refund Policy. I clicked that and suddenly was confronted with this text:

"You have 15 minutes from the time of download to return an application purchased through Android Market for a full refund."

15 minutes?!! Now that's what I call absolutely ridiculous! The 24-hour window for refund was reasonable, you could try out all kinds of apps in that time, even complex ones. 15 minutes is not nearly enough for anything like that. Of course, there are enraged Android users all over the world!

Much as I love Android and Google in general this is absolute bullshit!

Needless to say, I wouldn't be buying any more paid apps from the Android Market unless they have a trial version I can use first.

Rant over!

Addendum:
About the same time as when I wrote this post I sent the app developer an email stating the facts and saying that I am aware of the new refund period but I want a refund. I asked for their policy on the matter.

In response, a few hours later I got two emails. One from the Android Market telling me that my app purchase order had been cancelled. Second also, from the Market informing me that I was refunded in full for that purchase.

So, despite the 15-minute policy I got a no-quibble refund from the app developer company which makes me happy. It was not a big amount of money, it was just the principle of the thing. And I am happy to see that developers have good ethics and cooperative policies.

However, this doesn't change my decision to not buy any paid apps from the Android Market as long as the 15-minute refund period is not changed to something more reasonable.

Just Another Day - Part 2

2011-08-23T09:48:00.000+01:00

I don't want to leave my readers with a depressing picture of me moping around the house on my birthday, so an update is required.

while the reasons for me being sad and lonely yesterday were quite valid and real, by late afternoon I decided I had had enough of that. And I decided to try and cheer myself up.

Remember Barney? "When I am sad, I decide to stop being sad and be awesome instead! True Story!"

First good thing was that the phone I had ordered was going to be delivered today, but to my home address. I had been obsessing about it all day and tracking it on the web hoping they wouldn't try to deliver before I got home to sign for it. They did. But fortunately, instead of it going back to the depot, a nice neighbour signed for it. So I had it as soon as I got home. Step 1 done.

(If you are wondering, it's a Samsung Galaxy S2 and it's amazing!)

Once home, I called my Mum. And as I had said before my kids keep the spirit alive. So my Mum wished me right off the bat. Then I talked to the kids who had been bubbling to wish me and hoping I'd call. Then I talked to my brother as well. That took care of the homesickness, kind of. Step 2 done.

Then after my evening nap (remember I am still biphasic), I went out to the leisure centre with a couple of new colleagues/friends, who, by the way, are great! We watched The In-betweeners, a movie I had been planning to miss. But it was surprisingly good! I enjoyed it very much!

Then we played pool which I love especially now that I am getting a little better at it with all the practice I am getting. When we got hungry we faced Pizza Hut. But they were closing in 15 minutes. So we bought a couple of pizzas and used their outdoor tables to have ourselves a picnic dinner. With the weather so nice and cool, it was very good.

Then we played some more pool until they kicked us out at closing time. I got home past midnight,having used up every minute of my birthday time.

So, even though I started the day feeling sorry for myself, with help from friends and family I closed it on a higher note! Take from it what you will!

Just Another Day!

2011-08-22T14:42:00.000+01:00

That's what I have been telling myself since this morning. But the emails and messages from friends and family kind of bely my attempts. Actually the messages started last evening, when it struck midnight in India.

Yes, for all of you who know from previous years, today is my birthday but I have not been feeling very celebratory. There are two big reasons for that - one, having lost my father just 3 months ago, I don't feel up to celebrating anything lately. Two, last birthday I was at home with my parents and my kids (yes, I mean my nephews and nieces) and my close friends. This year I am stuck in England far from home! I do have some new friends and I could go out and celebrate with them, but they don't know and I don't tell.

Well, that's the sad part. The good part is that my kids are growing up and they don't let anyone at home forget my birthday.:) Also,I have been getting emails, texts, IMs, Facebook messages etc. etc. from all over the world to wish me. Even in this melancholy mood I cannot help being thankful that I have been blessed with wonderful friends and a loving family. And that is something that gets better every year!

Today is also Janmashtmi in India. That, as you know, is the only day in the year when I fast. But not when I am not in India. Still Krishna is my role model (can you guess why?) and I am glad that his birthday has coincided with mine this year. :)

So, Happy Janmashtmi, everybody! :)

GiffGaff - A Shocking Mobile Network!

2011-08-22T09:03:00.001+01:00

I have been meaning to write about this for a few days. I came across this mobile network last weekend. You see I was looking to buy the Samsung Galaxy SII and not finding any offers that looked really attractive. And during that research on one mobile network review website I saw this sidebar of a ranking of top mobile networks. I was quite shocked to see that the top ranking network was none of the big names but just an unknown contender called GiffGaff!

So, curious creature that I am, I did some more research into it and found that this is really a virtual network. Meaning that they don't have their own network infrastructure, they use O2's network. Apparently that's something that's done. More than one company do that but they are all companies. This network, GiffGaff, is like a co-op of mobile networks. They have a total of 16 employees!

Two things that attracted me to this network immediately. One, their rates were really, really good. For a tenner I could have 250 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited internet. And their mobile internet is really unlimited, no fair use data policy! Two, people can actually earn cashback by providing customer services, posting in their forum and other things like that.

I ordered a free sim right away. But it took 5 working days to arrive. I got it last night when I got back from my weekend.

Right from the packaging you can see it's different. Unliked a big envelope filled with marketing material that you get from a major network, this was a simple, small envelope made out of a single sheet of paper. Inside was only the sim, nothing else, not even a single paper for marketing! Who does that!?

I activated mine immediately with a £10 top-up. But it was after 10PM so it was activated this morning. I checked the internet first and the speed was deliciously good! But I get good O2 signal where I have moved to.

So, finally here is a link where you can order a pre-paid sim (they don't do postpaid) from GiffGaff. It's an affiliate page which means that if you order and activate a sim, you and I both get £5 phone credit! In the spirit of fairness I should mention that you get the same credit even if you order a sim directly from their website, but if you order it from my link I also get £5 credit. Isn't that great! A network that treats people fairly, who would have thunk it?

https://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/sunnygoswami

Cowboys and Aliens - Quick Review

2011-08-18T23:18:00.000+01:00

It's not a secret that I don't like Daniel Craig, part of it is the prejudice that comes from the fact that he replaced Pierce Brosnan as James Bond who I think was the most perfect Bond. But also I think Craig is an ugly boy pretending to be a ruggedly handsome man. But still I went to see this movie because I do like Harrison Ford and I knew this movie will be okay for watching once.

I was right. The plot is very basic, very sketchy. Aliens coming down in their flying machines and abducting people to study them. Also they are after gold, for whatever reason, not really explained in the movie. Craig is a cowboy with amnesia and an armgun. Btw, I don't like it that they couldn't come up with a name better than "armgun" for that cool weapon.

In short, there is some action in the film which is worth watching, once. Nothing very remarkable, just action. The profound scenes are not really profound, emotional scenes fail mostly. The performance are fine, not a whole lot for them to do in there anyway.

Couple of sexy girls in there but not utilized well. There are quite a few chuckleworthy moments. That's all the comedy there is.

The redeeming feature of the whole film is that armgun which looks damn cool.

In conclusion, it's okay for a timepass if you like that sort of thing, but it's nothing remarkable. So if you decide to spend your Saturday afternoon with a good book, you won't lose anything.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - Ad Video

2011-08-13T14:51:00.000+01:00

I haven't yet made up my mind if I want to have it or not, but I am intrigued by this new device (duh!) just considering whether it'd be useful for me given that I already own the 7 inch Tab.

Let's test your Hindi

2011-08-03T17:31:00.002+01:00

So you think you know Hindi? Let's see how much....

What is this sign called...in HINDI!!

Another clue

2011-08-03T16:20:00.001+01:00

NOW can you guess where I am... :D

Movie Review - Buddha Hoga Tera Baap - AB's still got it

2011-08-02T12:06:00.000+01:00

To be honest, I was apprehensive about this movie, I could see from the trailers that the whole burden of carrying the movie was to be on Amitabh and sometimes that kind of thing fails miserably. Thankfully, not this time. The burden is indeed on AB's shoulders but he has proved that he is the original Coolie who can carry many such burdens with ease.

My most favourite thing about the film is AB's character. From the trailers I was expecting a formula film full of stereotypical scenes and typical Bollywood dialogue. I expected AB to be the archetypical gangster, an angry old men with guns ablazing and kicks flying. I was pleasantly surprised to see that his character had much more depth than that.

The film is still a formula film, but the story has been crafted cleverly around some good scenes. AB's character is deep and mature in addition to being strong and violent. There are several twists in the story, some small some big, but mostly unpredictable.

I really loved that AB's solution to all the problems is not fists and bullets. There are many of these problems - an obstinate father who wouldn't let his girl have a love marriage, eveteasing baddies, eavesdropping landlady, an old girlfriend, an amourous fan... AB handles each situation in a different way as it should be handled, always using his mind, his suave manner, his inner strength (sometimes outer strength too) and his charisma to solve problems. The last time I loved AB's on-screen character so much was in Mukaddar Ka Sikander. Well, I liked him in Cheeni Kum as well.

Other than AB, rest of the cast is quite good as well. I always like Hema Malini opposite AB. Raveena looks fine as AB's die-hard fan. Sonu Sood carries off the angry cop well. Sonal Chauhan is a beautiful girl and in the role she has, she does alright.

Dialogues are quite good and real-life. AB's dialogue "Main bullet se hi marunga, BP ya sugar se nahin." is quite good though weakened by over-exposure in the trailers. But we all know AB's dialogue delivery is amazing. Remember - "Main aaj bhi phenke hue paise nahin uthata!"?

The sequence where he does a parody of his own old songs is very filmy but I can see the public going wild on each of those songs in the theatre, he just has the presence and charisma.

I liked the climax. It doesn't drag on too long, has a mix of action and romance and doesn't resemble Disney stories. There's a minor discrepancy where they have taken artistic licence but I can't talk about it without giving things away, so let it be.

In conclusion, an entertaining film and unlike most recent films, it's one that can be watched again.

What is this place?

2011-08-02T00:31:00.000+01:00

Guess where in the world have I gone to....hint, I am still in England.

Pyar Ka Punchnama - The Conclusion

2011-07-18T23:53:00.000+01:00

I haven't watched it to the end so I won't do a full review. I just watched almost an hour of it then decided I had had enough.

It's not a bad movie, it's a simple story of 3 guys and the 3 girls who come in their lives. The story is quite true and very realistic. But the thing is it's too realistic. Anyone who has ever had a girlfriend or been married (poor chap) would feel like it's the story of his life. But why would you want to watch it?

Let me put it this way, if you have had a tooth extracted you know how painful that is. Would you watch somebody getting a tooth pulled out? The realistic version I mean, not the version with funny music instead of painful groans of the patient.

The conclusion - if you have never had a serious girlfriend in your life, definitely watch this to know what to expect. (It won't help you ONE BIT but you will know what to expect.). On the other hand if you have had a girlfriend or wife ever in your life, don't watch it!

The Shock of My Life

2011-07-08T15:26:00.000+01:00

I have been off the blogging grid for about 2 months now. There was a reason.

On 16th May I got the biggest shock of my life when I suddenly lost my father. It was the biggest tragedy of my life and I was not capable of handling it. It was very unexpected which made it that much harder to handle. I think we never really absorb a shock like but with time its intensity reduces slightly.

My dad was a great person and I loved him very much. Losing him suddenly shook me to my core. I went to India for the last rites and with the support of my family and friends, I was somehow able to bear the shock and pain of it all.

I don't really want to say a lot about it for obvious reasons, but I want to get back into the blogging habit and even though I considered it I realized that I could not just roll past this huge incident without mentioning it. I mean this is the place where I mention even small things like my sleeping habits and my love for ice-cream, I could not go on and not mention this.

Anyway, I am back, I am here and you'll hear more from me in the near future.

My addiction can kick your addiction's ass

2011-05-07T15:39:00.001+01:00

"Do you know they remove rust with that thing?", my colleague says incredulously
"So what, at least my insides will be rust-free. Rust is not a good thing you know?", was my flippant reply.

The topic under discussion was Diet Coke which my colleague couldn't believe that I even touched. An intelligent, sensible guy like me? Drinking Diet Coke? Ugh! That was the gist of his reaction.

And this same guy doesn't count 2 beers as drinking, actually he just doesn't like to count when he's drinking. I wondered what they remove with that!

The point I am trying to make is that none of us is free from addiction, though we do have our own choices and we think that those are okay while the rest of the world has gone mad.

Now that I have given up Diet Coke and all other sources of caffeine, (mostly because of my biphasic sleep) I don't understand how people can have those big glasses of strong coffee! And I have always wondered about how can people smoke when there is a clear warning right on the pack! Even some doctors smoke! I mean, come on!

But I still eat sugar, love ice cream and oh chocolate..mmm, don't even ask me about chocolates! I don't drink alcohol at all and try not to judge the people who do drink.

The funny thing in all this is that while we all have our sinful addictions, we don't usually give them a second thought and are very quick to judge others who are also human like us.

Reminds me of an old joke,

A political leader is delivering a speech in a college and he says: "...so my dear students, you must resolve to stay pure and serve your country...repeat after me, you will not drink and smoke."

Students repeat: "We don't drink and smoke."

Leader: "Repeat after me, you will not gamble."

Students: "We will not gamble."

Leader: "You will not chase girls."

Student: "We will not chase girls."

Leader: "And you will give you life for your country."

One student: "Sure why not, what's left to live for anyway."

The whole point is that we need to find a balance between an addiction-riddled life and a meaningless existence. I am sure we are smart enough to figure out a way to enjoy life without ruining it completely with our weaknesses.

Think about it, having an icecream once a weak could be something you could live with but how can you tell your teenage son to not smoke when you smoke a packet a day?

There are harmless (less harmful) alternatives available for most of the common addictions these days, caffeine-free drinks, menthol cigarettes, non-alcoholic beverages...everything is there, but somehow because it's not sinful, it doesn't taste so good. I think we are tempted not by the actual product but its allure as a guilty pleasure.

Enough lecturing, let's finish with a sher:

ए शेख न कर इस तरह रिन्दों को नसीहत

सब नेक बनेंगे तो खता कौन करेगा?

हम तेरे मिटाने से तो मिट जायेंगे लेकिन,

फिर तेरी अदाओं पे मिटा कौन करेगा?

शेख is teetotaller, रिंद is a kind of bad guy, addict, नसीहत of course, means advice.

The second sher has nothing to do with addiction but is one my favourite sher and belongs to the same ghazal so why not. :)