Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Eid Mubarak

Let Peace Prevail !

The Digsby Affair

For my blog on Digsby, I got a comment from their side:

The beginning of that sentence says "depending on how you use Digsby" - from within Digsby you can store email addresses for buddies so you can IM them from within the IM window. You can also store SMS numbers so you can send SMS messages from within the IM window. In those cases this information is stored for the feature to work and we wanted to make that clear. We don't just go and store the email address of every buddy we can get to :)

It was Mr.Steve who made that for Digsby. And this is comment back.

Dear Mr. Steve,

First of all, thanks for reading my blog.

In the start of my blog, I clearly mention the situation. Somebody suggesting me digsby to use it as a single application to handle multiple IMs (or mail accounts). I wasn’t discussing about a scenario of two people communicating using the feature within it.

I created an account with digsby and a new yahoo account too. I added my yahoo id and my son’s and wife’s id into it as buddies. Then I linked the new yahoo account to digsby. By default, I can use yahoo to IM with my buddies and even sent mails coz, it stored the mail ids . Can I remove the mail id from it? Then my purpose of getting in touch with my yahoo buddies won’t serve. Is there any other way where I can keep my buddy list private and still be in touch with them using digsby? So what is the choice here? And we are providing the usernames and passwords to third party.

So, if it’s all just for the feature to work, what is the role of digsby here? How does it run as a business organization? How does it bear the costs? Or is it a social service? I don’t think they are registered as a non profit charitable organization (I am not telling that you should not run a business and make profit. Everyone has the freedom to do so)

I believe that majority of its users did not read the privacy policy at all.

And if one clearly goes through my blog, one can find that I am not telling anybody to stop using it or not using it. About the title, I agree that it’s misleading. I can title it as ‘Drums and oranges’ if I want, that’s my freedom. At the end of my blog, what I tell is just my reason for not using it. If anybody wants to use digsby, it’s up to them, and I know very well that it’s none of my business.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

My First MRI

So far, I had three fractures and lots of physical injuries in the past 25 years. But this is for the first time that I am undergoing an MRI. My physiotherapist had told me that MRI is kind of scary thing (may be coz she is a she). When she told me that, I did not understand why. May be coz, we will be taken into that ‘cave’ and we are all alone….I don’t know..


(Yes, for people with claustrophobia – the fear of enclosed spaces – MRI can be really scary and MRI machines are very noisy too)

But my personal experience was different. The radiologist asked whether I had taken any MRI in the past and I said no. The MRI room looked clean and neat. The equipment was a SIEMENS make. There was music in the room which wasn’t soothing. He asked me to lie down in the table kinda thing and kept some stuffs here and there so that my leg movement will be minimum. And then he gave me something to hold, it looked like a pump used in the BP apparatus. He told me to press it if I want to communicate with those people, at any point during the scan.

Then the table got lifted and there I go inside the ‘cave’ (it had a similarity to the dead body being moved into the furnace of the electric crematorium). It was amusing for me and I liked it. And then he left the room.

Nothing happened for sometime, so I stared here and there and then I read a warning just above my head


“Do not stare in to the beam. Class II Laser…..”

I said to myself: yep, LASER is not friendly with our eyes, I know, common man, let’s begin.


Well, then started the ride… am I in a gaming room? Funny sounds started coming, one was similar to the gunfire in games. Yes, this is the scary part, at least for kids. I enjoyed it. It came every now and then. Then it became boring to listen to it. So I started thinking many other things and finally it stopped. It took around 20 minutes. And the guy came to the room and took me out from the 'cave' and asked:

“Are you alright?”


I smiled at him and said “ yeah, I am”


So, overall, I enjoyed my first MRI, though it wasn’t that friendly for my wallet!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Why You Should Not Use Digsby

When I said I use yahoo and google talk to keep in touch with people, somebody suggested me to use Digsby. Yes, it has lot of good features, there can be so many reasons why you should be using it, I agree. But the first thing I did was reading their Privacy Policy and it clearly says :

Collection of Your DIGSBY Information

Your DIGSBY information consists of personally identifiable information collected or received about you when you register to use DIGSBY or log in to DIGSBY as a registered user and interact with DIGSBY Products. Depending on how you use DIGSBY Products, your DIGSBY information may include registration-related information (such as e-mail address); information about your visits to DIGSBY Web sites and pages; information about contacts on your Buddy List (such as alias, SMS numbers, and email addresses); information about the features or offerings from DIGSBY that you use, and how frequently you use them; customer service information about you as a DIGSBY user; and other information specifically related to your use of a particular DIGSBY feature or offering.

So, by using Digsby, not only we are exposing some of our info, but we are exposing our contact’s details too to which I have strong objection. We don’t have any right to expose our friend’s mail id or phone number without their consent. That is not ethically right. (Plus, it is to be remembered that we are providing our user ids and passwords of all the connected accounts to a third party) And I don’t know how these information is practically used by them.

That is my one BIG reason why I don’t use Digsby…

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Keeping the Hopes Alive !

Sometimes it is like that, things won’t go in our way. After all, why should everything come in our way? There won’t be any fun or challenge in our life, in that case. Now that my elbow welcomed an injury. Right knee and left elbow..it looks like a nice combination. God, sometimes you are really funny. But do you know how frustrating it is? Sometimes it even can give us disappointment and even depression , that too when other things around us go in a not-so-good manner.

Is there any state of mind in our lives where people grow to a level where they gets tired of somebody? I don’t know, may be people grow to such a level. But I never thought I will start thinking in that direction at least at this stage. Isn’t it too early to think so? It’s not a period of clarity but of confusions.

I got reminded of a moment in the past.


I was working as an Audit Assistant with a Chartered Account (CA/CPA). I wasn’t decently paid. Why should I be, in the first place?

(When I approached him, he said he don’t need any staff. I was a fresher. Then I gave him an offer which he could not easily resist.

“You don’t pay me for three months, then if you like my work, then you take me and pay me”

He took me, and he decided to keep me and pay me from the fourth month)

My senior decided to quit all of a sudden since he got a very good offer. In that firm, I was known as his assistant, since I was handling some of his private work and after all it was he who introduced me to my boss.

The day my senior put up his papers. Boss passed me. He stopped for a while and said to me:

“You too can try for another job if you want, you will be paid much better than this” was he bit sarcastic too?

May be he was in a confusion. May be he didn’t want to take another chance. May be he was thinking of a plan B. May be he just expressed his frustration over me. May be he was even my well-wisher, who knows?

Yes, it’s a state of confusion these days. What to do or what not to do… should I or shouldn’t I…… that’s how things will look around you when you are confused. Lack of sleep is a nice thing to help you, if one wants to oil the fire. So I straight away asked a friend of mine:

“i hope you will be my friend even in the years to come..”

Came a reply:

“i will. i promise you”

And she looked confident and smiling.

That made me happy. It’s a nice feeling being happy. But I thought of promises and the act of keeping the promises. Can we keep all our promises? May be the newer situations in our life could dilute it. Or may be those dilutions are acts of necessity.

So?

So , there is at least hope. After all, we don’t have to pay tax to keep a hope in our heart..... After all, that’s why I fixed an appointment with a new doc, this weekend…, coz, my hopes are alive...



Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Yahoo 9

Yahoo IM 9 is no more in Beta. Other than the old security issues, the beta had new issues like showing wrong status message – offline contacts shown as online after log off - (may be coz of some refresh issue). In version 9 they changed the appearance of the emoticons, which most of the users, including me did not like at all. I had written this to Yahoo. And was even thinking of switching back to previous version.

But there came an update (ver. 9.0.0.1912) and Yahoo fixed it and those good old emoticons are back.

Thanks Yahoo!

Migraine Trivia

  • Migraine sufferers lose 1.5 days of work in every three months
  • Women migraine sufferers lose 2 years life due to disability
  • 18% of women and 6% of men has it
  • 3000 migraine attacks occur every day for each million of population
  • Those who remain at work with migraine are less productive by 40-60 %
  • Businesses lose 2.4 hours of productive time per week per migraineur
  • It always may not be one –sided headaches

Who Is A Christian?

“If conversion is under duress, I will not call that person a Christian” – Archbishop Rev Bernard Moras

Monday, September 22, 2008

Forced Conversions - Beginning of the End?

When I wrote about the attack on Christians, I had mentioned the politics behind it. But I never thought next day’s news paper will surprise me.

Today’s headline was that some Churches got attacked, that too in my own city! In the previous episodes, some Hindu outfits openly took the responsibility (and got arrested by the police). But this time they said they don’t have anything to do with the attacks. Some seven culprits got arrested and one policeman got suspended. For what? They not just attacked, but even stole some valuables. Who is behind them?

I also read the news about opposition asking the government to quit (though its only 100 days old). And they demanded President’s rule to be implemented since the government failed to control violence.

Another police officer turned politician had joint meeting with the Christian group who were accused of forced conversions.

Chief Minister openly tells there is conspiracy…

Well well well… overall, It looks like somebody with the help of somebody else is making Christians a scape goat to play some dirty politics, taking advantage of the first incident. Sometimes it even can be those politicians who visited those churches and offered their help! That is politics !! Cheap dirty politics..

It is high-time for people to identify/understand those cunning dirty political animals.

I had also mentioned forced conversions are for real. Today’s news paper also carried the news of 4 such Christians being got caught while they were allegedly trying to take children to admit to a church. They admitted to the police that they already took 56 poor kids (Hindu) to the Church’s hostel (to embrace Christianity). They also admitted that they are getting funds form Andaman (they named a person by name Varghese Mathew) for these activities.

Didn’t I also mention about the ‘pedigreed’ ones not getting involved into the dirty game?

Today’s Times of India carried another news. It was a statement from a Catholic clergy (deputy secretary and official spokes person of the Kerala Catholic Bishop’s Council). He accused the Pentecostal groups and the New Generation Churches for forced conversions and thus bringing bad name for the entire Christian community. Why did he talk to the press in such a way? He said:

“The Catholic Church believes in peaceful co-existence. We want to dispel the notion that Catholics too were involved in converting people”

He also said that the council had decided to enter into a dialogue with Hindu groups to remove any ill will and usher in peace in the country.

Finally, it looks like things will go in the right direction and it will be a tough time for those who are after conversions…

A Friendship Surprise..


Yesterday I got a mail from my sister, which had in interesting story.


She was at a rice mill (a shop where they powder the rice, wheat etc) and there comes a lady in a Honda Scooter (who also came there to grind something) and asked her whether she is my sister!

It was a surprise for my sister since she could not remember who that lady is (my sister knew all my fiends I had at native place). She told my sister that she was my classmate. She mentioned the names of some other students too and then asked her about my whereabouts.

This really was a surprise for me coz, I don’t remember her at all, even after getting her name. She even remembers that I was kind of silent boy and used to come in a bicycle. This lady is now working as a teacher in a school.

Anyway, I liked the overall thing. It is a nice thing to know that some long lost classmate remembers me.


Thank you God for this little pleasent surprise..

Gemma Atkinson and the Truth !!

We all know for what Gemma Atkinson is ‘extremely’ known for.



Today, I read in the news paper that somebody created a fake Gemma Atkinson account in Facebook and she faced some issues coz of that. That news was what made me look into what happened to her. But I ended up reading something interesting.

“In early 2006, Atkinson underwent breast enlargement surgery, which took her bra size to a 34E. She said in an interview that she lost weight due to a fitness regime and her bust size declined. The surgery then gave them the original shape they once were.”

So, what she mean to say is that ‘those’ were like that before she started her fitness regime and she just fixed it back to its original state with the help of a doc !!


I don’t know what (excuse) Pamela has ….

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Forced Conversions and Karl Marx


This time it got noticed when some Hindu outfits and some anti-social elements attacked some Christian establishments in Orissa. I thought it will end there. But to my surprise, it happened in some others parts including my State too, like Mangalore.

In Orissa, it wasn’t a reaction against forced conversion which is happening there since decades, but it all started when some Christian groups killed a Hindu Swami ( a religious teacher or mystic or yogi) and some of his disciples. Some Christian places of worships got attacked, hundreds of houses (of the converts) got torched and many got killed. In Kandhmal (Orissa) clash between Hindus and Christians weren’t new. And this has a long history too. And yes, forced conversions play a big role in all such incidents.

There are two tribal sects in this area Kandhs and Panas. Over a century, there was competition between these two tribes. What they had in plenty was nothing but poverty, illiteracy and deprivation. And there comes the missionaries for the ‘rescue’. Most of the Panas decided to embrace Christianity (how a whole community change faith? Well, the missionary approach is to lure the community head/chief offering anything he wants and thus he changes faith and then asks his people to follow his path). The newly converted became prosperous. ( it is money that helps to change the faith and not faith in Jesus). This is one major factor that leads to fights, the sudden financial difference. And not just that, many of these converts preferred to remain as Hindus in the official records to avail the Tribal minority benefits ( this clearly shows what rules, money or faith).

Thus, it’s natural for any human to feel jealous when they see their rivals becoming rich and prosperous, all of a sudden. Here, the Kandhs had limited choice. Either embrace Christianity and become rich or express their frustration thru agitations. They chose the second.

But something good happened at the end. Yesterday, The Orissa State government decided to implement the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act which makes forceful conversion illegal.

In my State, what triggered the violence against Christians was a literature issued by one Christian group called New Life Fellowship Trust which had contents directly attacking Hinduism. But here, something funny happened. It is these new brands of Christian faith groups who are into conversions (most of the ‘pure blooded’ and pedigreed Catholics like Roman, Sero Malabar, Syrian are not into forced conversions) and unfortunately for them, many catholic bishops spoke against them and even some Christian communities accused them of forced conversions and finally those people said they did not distribute any such book (The Times of India reporter was holding a copy of that book and showed it to that New Life Fellowship man, during the press meet). Here, the protests were carried out by the Hindu outfit called, Bhajrang Dal.

Is that as simple as that? Nope, there is this elections coming and some politicians need cover and some others need some weapons against their main rival parties and they all know that playing the minority card is the best thing to gain mileage. The trump card that can be used against any BJP ruling state is to start some communal violence and then fuel it….blame them, frame them and ask them to quit.

Some politicians (obviously Hindu) came in support of Christian organizations by telling that we should consider their contributions in the field of education and health. But was that out of love to humanity? Did they think beyond religion?

They also used these places for spreading religion and it wasn’t an act of kindness. My father-in-law owns a lodge. Can we find any picture of Lord Krishna placed in every room? Can we find a copy of Bhagavat Gita in the drawer, casually placed? Nope (btw, he will call it as wasting money). When I stayed in many hotels during travels, I have observed such things if the owner of the hotel is a Christian (may be not in all cases). And talking about the more number of orphanages run by these institutions, the idea is that they can raise these kids as Christians. So, in every act by the missionaries, they did not forget to leave a religious mark and gained/achieved something in their way/view.

But it’s not fully politics. Proselytisation (by Christian missionaries) are a reality which started centuries ago, not just in India, but in general. We saw what happened to the Serbs during the Second World War(Serbs got forcibly converted into Roman Catholicism). We know how Philippines became the only Christian country in Asia (Spanish Missionaries successfully converted almost everyone - 80%?85%? -, though it took 300 years for that) . And in India’s history, may be it was the people of Goa who suffered a lot.

“Religious Persecution took place by the Portuguese in Goa, India from 16th to the 17th century. The natives of Goa were subjected to severe torture and oppression by the zealous Portuguese rulers and missionaries. This persecution by the Portuguese in westerns parts of India has resulted in more then 5 million Christian faith followers in India today.”

(Courtesy: Wikimedia)

So, Christianity here did not flourish just coz people believed in that faith willingly but it started rooting here through third rate healing dramas played professionally, physical intimidation and threats and luring with money, jobs and overseas settlements.

These days , it’s that new brand of faith groups who are into conversions. It’s a big and highly profitable business these days. It’s very easy and simple. If one stick to ones ‘original faith’, there is little scope for ‘growth’ . There are lots of people in the hierarchy (like Fathers, Bishops, Arch Bishops etc etc). So, it’s not easy to access the funds, or impossible in most cases. So, form a new faith group, or take a franchise of already established and successful group and recruit people using tricks (there are professional people who can arrange healing camps and there are many TV channels to support) and ask the members to contribute at least 1% of their income. Have some trustworthy people around and offer them ‘benefits’ (money or money’s worth ) and you are ready. One can become richer and richer day by day (remember, slow and steady wins the race)…..

Funds will start flowing from abroad (the funds Indian missionaries receive from abroad amounts to billions, every year). These people ‘save’ only poor and illiterate village people. Thus it’s easy to achieve their yearly target. With educated mass, its not easy to sell their products. The latest in this is an Indianized Bible where Joseph and his family looks like poor Indian villagers. Mary wears a Sari and even a bindi (the religious Christians don’t wear that) and Joseph is in a loin cloth and he even wears a turban. To make things clear, this Bible takes help from Upanishads, The Ramayana , Bhgavat Gita and even Mahatma Gandhi! The translation liberally uses Sanskrit words like ‘moksha’, ‘punya’ , ‘karma’ etc and when its distributed wearing kind of saffron cloths, it becomes more appealing and convincing.

Joseph, Mary and Jesus in the New Bible


Here is a news report from The Times, about the all new Bible:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4402482.ece

(Those are the realities and not my personal allegations, personally, since I love Jesus, what I think is, if he comes for real, looking at these new firebrands and the methods they use, he would say : “Thank God, I am not a Christian”).

Whatever be it, the fact is that many humans lost life, buildings got damaged, there was tension, it affected the peace….all coz of religion.

Dear Karl Marx, I stood on the opposite side of Marxism when I was into politics. Thus, theoretically, you (your principles) were my political rival. But you were right. Religion is like opium, especially when it falls in the hands of those who sell faith and God.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Express your Love ?

What do people do when they feel very emotional (positive, like love) about somebody? I remember the dog in our house becoming so expressive and jump up on me when it sees me back from school. Humans too express it in different ways. Sometimes we might feel like giving them a pinch. Yes, people express it that way too. Some might feel like giving a hug. It is very much applicable in friendships too. But sometimes we better don’t show any such thing coz, it can even be fatal…

Well, it has nothing to do with any of my friends. And there is no fatality in this incident, but it still holds that danger element.

I was wondering why my right knee is still not in control compared to my left knee. Did I give more pressure on that knee while playing badminton? I don’t think so. So, what happened to my right knee?


Lets rewind…yesterday, day before yesterday, day before and before yesterday…..

I was sitting at the end of my bed, legs stretched. No idea what made my wife feel ‘so much of love’ to express. She came and tried to sit on my lap. I warned, but it was too late. I fell down hitting my right knee on the floor and she fell on the other side of the knee (about 55 kg). There was terrible pain ….my knee got bruised and started slightly bleeding. That was more than enough to give a PCL or ACL or LCL tear. But I did not think that way and hence did not take it seriously. I just had couple of anti-inflammatory and analgesic tabs. When I realized the seriousness, it’s too late

See, so, sometimes it is better to be not expressive…

(posting it after many re-thinks)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Soliloquy? I don't know..

It was kind of festive season for people like me who are from that particular part of this planet. Thus for a couple of days I had a change as far as my food is concerned. A relief from our cook and my wife (am sorry, if you are reading this) and even from myself. This became possible coz we got invited and had feast from (my) in-laws place. I think I ate a little more than I used to. And thus I got an extra reason to thank God…. Thank you God for the food I eat….thank you God for the lovely treat…

Things around me weren’t stagnant these days. I wrote at least a dozen blogs in my mind. Every night, I thought I will write next day morning.. but I could not.. Were I that busy? I don't know..

Being busy is something funny. But most of the time, I am bit lazy when it comes to my personal things. During this festive season, we bought new dress. Wife has some idea about me and hence she said I should buy some new cloths first and then we will buy for others, fearing that I might not buy for me. I preferred to go ahead and buy for others. But when I got accused of cheating, I had no choice but to buy something for me too. I went alone….. yes, I remember, many a times, I am alone….No, I wasn’t busy for others, may be I was just worried..

I was mostly worried about my knee. I used to climb up and down 200 steps and all of a sudden, stairs became a fear factor… I was a good runner and now I struggle to walk… if there was no choice but to walk, at the end of the day, I limbed…

I spent lot of time with me. Sometimes I felt calmness…I thought of my old best friend…there even was happiness…thoughts took many different ways and directions, leading to somewhere or nowhere…. I felt heat…there was fear....sadness, helplessness, insecurity feeling...... I saw fumes…....I became soo happy when I got a call from a swim buddy. One day, I wrote a mail to one of my friends. It was a ‘Thanks mail’. I thanked her for not being my best friend ! . Did she take it in the right sense? I don’t know.

There was another set of serial blasts killing more than 50 and injuring about 250 people. An act of terror. That too during the Holy month of Ramadan. There were attacks on some Christians and missionaries. These made me think of Karl Marx. Was he such a visionary? Or was he just an atheist? I don’t know.

But I understood that even after eight weeks, my knees are not normal. Even after completing physiotherapy, it still is not normal…was it just coz of badminton? I don’t think so…. Will such prolonging injuries lead to arthritis? A possibility….


Jay Jay Jay, What are you going to do now?

I don’t know.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

A Workaholic Lesson..


Being with a workaholic helps you learn lessons. At least a lesson.

“Why are you working like this?, don’t you know it’s a Sunday today?”

“I like it, this one looks challenging” Workaholic


“Do you think you are paid accordingly?”

Workaholic gives a kind of look and prefers to be silent

“There is no point in working like this”

Workaholic started getting irritated

“Look, we are humans. And hence we need money to live in this world. To get money, we need a job. That is, we need a work to live. We should not live to work.”

“OK…OK” workaholic responded in an unfriendly tone which sounded like “you don’t understand”

“That doesn’t mean that you should not be sincere. You have to be sincere and you should put your 100% when you work..... With your present attitude, all the critical and urgent work will come to you by default , skipping people who were actually supposed to do that. “

Workaholic looked like “what you are telling is right” . But did not express it.

Workaholic did not drink water at times, did not eat at times, did not take breaks at times…and even sat at awkward positions with laptop…

“This will end up in trouble”

Workaholic sat as if nobody said anything…

One day workaholic slowly touched the back of the neck…it looked like there is pain

“This will end up in cervical spondylosis…and then you wont be even able to turn your neck. I had already gone through that, so I can tell you how irritating that will be. And then you will be FORCED to take a break. And that time, will your company take care of you? You know what happened to that colleague of yours ”

Workaholic did not ignore it. But paid attention…

At the end of the day, workaholic said:

“I have pain with my neck…Can you give me a massage? what should I do now? Can you teach me those neck exercises?”

“I don’t think you will do those exercises regularly, but I don’t mind showing you those”

Workaholic goes through what was suggested….giving proper support for the neck while sleeping, heat fermentation and light exercises….

Next day workaholic feels very much better and from the way things going around, it looked like workaholic wanted to give it a try…

Give what a try? Precautions?

Let me try working like yesterday and see whether it pains !

Sometimes people learn only thru hard lessons…






Monday, September 08, 2008

Billboard !

Written, rewritten
I got written, rewritten
Coz, am just a billboard
For many, I wasn’t visible

Written, rewritten
Painted, repainted
People did not see me
They saw only written


Thinkable, laughable
Snortable, WOWable
The squall, the pain
The tear, the love

People did not see me
Coz am just a billboard
Written, rewritten
Painted, repainted

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Friends of Google Talk

If we want to chat with somebody who is using a Google Talk, do we need to install Google Talk?

No need.

The protocol used by GTalk is XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). So, if any other IM client uses this protocol (in simple words, a protocol is a set of rules and regulations or dos and donts or hows and hownots that are considered as a standard by respective bodies, in connection with connection, communication and data transfer between two computers) they can be in touch with a GTalk user.

So, is there any other IM that uses XMPP? There are a lot. Jabber’s messaging technology is based on this. Thus we can use any Jabber client (like Psi…but there are a lot now since its open source.. Gajim, Jabbim, Miranda, Spark, Tkabber, Pandion, Exodus, Mchat, Jeti , Pidgin, etc etc). The iChat, which comes with Mac also uses XMPP.


(some of these IM clients (eg. Pidgin) support multi-protocol and hence thy are compatible with most of the IMs like Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, etc)

Is there any advantage or disadvantage in using some other application to chat with a Google user? One major advantage of using an open source client is that its code is open and we can make sure that its not spying on us. Another advantage is the extra features many other clients offer. For example the Psi offers lots of emoticons and more status message options. If it is open source, nobody else is putting their head (server) into your affairs or sniffing your passwords.

The major disadvantage is that we can’t use voice chat. But that is still the case with Google Talk Labs edition too. So, if one is not into voice chat, there is choice.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Why I like Gals? Coz They Are...

(24-Aug-08)

I still remember a doc of my childhood, who was a general physician. He only had the basic medical qualification like MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery). This qualification is equivalent to the Doctor of Medicine or MD in the US and some other countries (here in India, MD is a Masters degree which is to be taken after MBBS). In the present day scenario, docs with MBBS don’t dare do any surgery and they refer surgical cases to specialist surgeons. But that doc used to do almost all general surgeries.

Today there are lots of specialists. Some people, who believe in a holistic approach, say there is too much specialization. But I think its coz the science is developing very fast and hence there is lots of scope for specialization. Well, that is not where I want to put my head into. The quality aspect of these ‘professionals’ these days.


Here, almost every old temple is an architectural wonder and I wonder how many of the modern architects can do such a work. This deterioration is seen in every field, especially in teaching field in professional colleges. This happens coz those who are good prefer to practice than teach. I think this will be the case in most part of the world, especially in Medicine and Information Technology field. For example, a fresh computer science professional can earn many times more than a lecturer....so why should one teach?

So, there is a quality issue here. Sometimes it really surprises me, the ignorance of some people in their respective fields.


............................................. ***** ...........................................


I wasn’t doing any physiotherapy for my knees coz of two reasons. The new doc did not ask me to consult their physiotherapist and then I fell ill (they wont do current/sonic/shortwave therapies when there is fever). So, I met the orthopedic doc again to discuss about the progress and the scope of physiotherapy at this stage. I had some disagreements with him, but he is a qualified doc and I am not. And we don’t know each other well. He is not a type who likes to explain things and I did not like that, naturally.

“I still have pain” me

“Still? Let me see….where?” doc

“here”

“here? I see, that’s a bone”

(“well I don’t care what it is….don’t tell me that I developed some bone related issues”) me in my mind

“so, should I go for a physiotherapy like ICT and Ultrasonic?” me

From his face, I read that he did not like me suggesting what to do…and I did not say any sorry…

“Yes, it helps. I will put you under physiotherapy for a short period”

He wrote Short Wave Diathermy and Ultrasound….but he did not suggest ICT/IFT which is very effective in healing ligament injuries like what I am suffering from (LCL tear/strain).


I met the therapist. A talkative guy who thinks I should have started therapy bit earlier. I asked him whether he know why the doc did not suggest ICT. He asked me in return:

“ICT? What is that? Traction? You don’t need that”

“ICT is not traction, its Interferential Current Therapy”

(“ you fool you don’t even know what ICT is?”)

“That is not ICT but IFT..that is not used for injuries like this…what the doc wrote is the right treatment for this”

(“you fool, you go and learn the uses of ICT..”)

I realized that I am with a wrong guy. Ligament strains respond well with current therapy and I have experienced it. And when he started doing ultrasonic, it was confirmed that he is not good at his job. I had an impression that men might be better than women at this field and he proved me wrong. He did some of his ‘skills’ and asked:

“How is the pain now?”

“I think when you do that, I get more pain”

Still I can’t believe that a qualified therapist can use such a machine in a nonsense way. Every one of the therapists (all ladies) with my old doc knew how to use it properly. I never used to get pain (coz of therapy) and some of them were friendly with me and hence I had asked lots of questions about that therapy and how it works, how to use it and all. But this guy !

He might have thought that I don’t know anything about this stuff and he is an expert. I thought that might give him an edge over me and he wont change his attitude. So I told him:

“One of my friends is a physiotherapist, he works with the defense hospital…I happened to talk to him and he said they use ICT or IFT or whatever, in such situations…”

“Oh really? He might have understood it in a different way….. He has got a nice job then…it’s a central government job”

So, he is interested in that guy’s position!

(02-sep-08)

I knew that there is one more therapist, a lady. I decided to meet her one day to check how good she is with her job. Luckily for me, this guy went on leave and thus I had no choice but to fix an appointment with her.

Her approach was bit surprising. I was telling myself ‘don’t tell bad things about that guy to her’. When she kept the diathermy pads properly, I asked her:

“so this is the way it is to be done?”

“yes, what happened?”

“but that guy wasn’t doing it this way”

and I showed her how he did that. And I saw she smiling and shaking her head in disagreement. And then the ultrasound. I was waiting for it and she did not hurt me at all. I could not help telling her:

“am not making any complaint against him, but he used to press very hard and finally my bones started paining”

And I explained to her what happened. At the end, she gave me her card and told me:

“if you have any problem, just call me… you can come and consult me directly..”


She evaluated my injury and extended the period of therapy and all my happiness got wiped out when she said:

“you need to keep away from badminton and such physical activities for the next three months”

“THREE MONTHS?”

“yes, what happened?”

“Nothing! I just…I mean I never expected that”


Green Chat

Some people always chat in SMS mode (not to save the world). They use ‘hav’ for have, ‘tc ‘for take care, GB for God Bless etc and some use these abbreviations only when they are busy. So, what is the right way of chatting?

I did not see the documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ but I read somewhere that this is mentioned there too. When we type a character, it takes one byte. When we sent one byte through the networks, it results in the release of 0.0000000000000000034 metric tons of CO2. This might look like a silly figure, but when we consider the actual data being sent, its not silly.

Lets look at a small fact, based on some US data:


“ It takes about 2.5 Watts to power a 1Gb/s link . 2.5 Joules/s / 1Gb/s = 2.5e-9 J/b * 8 b/byte = 2e-8 Joules/byte. The average emissions cost of electricity in the United States is 0.605 metric tons of CO2 per MWh. 1MWh is 3.6e9 Joules. So to produce 2e-8 Joules, we emit about 3.36e-18 metric tons of CO2”

(Courtesy: Google Inc, International Journal of Network Management and US Department of Energy)

So to the extent possible, it is a good practice to use standard abbreviations when we chat. But there is no need to save the world in a hurry by typing everything in short form resulting the person at the other end not understanding it and then he/she asking for explanation.

So, let us cut at least a couple of characters a day (NO, not by cutting the chats but keeping it alive) and make a little contribution from our side to support the GREEN move..