Sunday, July 26, 2009

An Interview Memory

I was watching a satire TV show. Someone gives an application to the agriculture department for financial aid since he lost his crops during floods. He faces many hurdles (getting lots of certificates like proving he is male, he is the person who actually files the application etc) and the show ended this way – after seven long years, the funds get sanctioned and the officer visits the applicant's house to disperse the money. The officer meets the son and asked him to call his father to sign the paper (so that he could handover the money). Son shows a picture on the wall and says that his father is no more. Then the officer tells – now there is another issue, please bring a death certificate. And then the dead man in the picture asks – Sir, should I myself come with that certificate?

Then I told my wife that I too faced similar situation to get the insurance money (though it was a small amount) when my father died. That thought lead me to an interview I attended and then to my student life.

The interviewer (the boss) goes through my certificates and asked:

“What I notice is your academic performance went down and down after every course... your 10th, pre-university and degree. And you said you dropped out from your masters. Why?”

“I had personal problems that time”

“Like what?”

I thought I better start from pre-university since 10th grade is the starting certificate with him.

“I had developed some severe eye allergy before my PUC final exams. It took long time to cure thus I was unable to study well...... It was during my second year degree that my father died. There were many complications and I had to run around getting many certificates and it was very hard to concentrate on my studies”

I was telling the truth. Those were years of disappointment and frustration. My father’s post death events were something really odd considering it was a normal death. Police, postmortem, spelling mistake in a crucial certificate which messed up many other things… migraine during the exam days too played a spoilsport…

No need to say that I lost that job.

[Later, I met many of my schoolmates on the road/bus/sales tax office etc. Many of them became post-graduates, including those guys who were not near me in the class ranking (I stood at 2nd or 3rd position, most of the time, during high school days)].

If fate can come in the form of a human, I want to invite him/her for a cup of coffee. It would be a silent conversation, isn’t it? Me looking with ‘why?’ face and fate sitting with a smile face…

Thursday, July 23, 2009

I Spy You

“Jay, can somebody spy on me, including my activities in my home, if I use my computer?”


I was asked this question by a friend of mine, since one of her friends told her that it is possible. Or may be she really suspected that this particular friend is doing that. I did not take her seriously that time. But I asked his credentials and she told me that this guy is a Russian spy working for the US (waahhhaa). I did not believe her but the stuffs she told about him made me think that he knows something. I gave her some general tips about internet security.


Ok, how can we secure our computer 100%? There is only one way, don’t use internet. Keep it standalone and use only genuine software. Is that practically possible?


The answer is ‘No’ and this means there is nothing like 100% privacy if we are using internet. Our browser discloses some basic information about us to every site we visit. But my friend’s fears were much deeper. She wasn’t bothered about her IP address or browser type or location or operating system details being exposed. But she suspected that her camera and microphone is spying without her knowledge. Is that really possible?


Almost everyone who use computer know that there is something called ‘cookies’. Some people don’t know why it is there and some know why it is there. There are cookies which spy on us and there are cookies we need for normal functioning of most of the ‘considered safe’ sites (like an e-news paper ). And most of us delete these cookies very often and thinks that that is the end. But that is not the case.


The lion’s share goes to the lion. In the same way the giants in the internet are responsible for lifting information from our computer and many a times, we might have given them the right to do so when we accepted the terms and conditions without reading them. Most of the animated stuffs in the net is flash based and for that we need to install flash that comes from Adobe. This is free. Here we need to understand that anything that comes free in the net has something attached to it, in general.


There is something called LSO (Local Shared Objects). There are similar to cookies; like a bunch of cookies in a single file. (LSOs are not kept by individuals but by websites and can be deleted using some tools or browser plug-in, that is not my topic here, this time.)What do they do?


-they are never expiring - staying on your computer for an unlimited time.

- by default they offer a storage of 100 KB (compare: Usual cookies 4 KB).

- browsers are not aware of those cookies, LSO's usually cannot be removed by browsers.

- via Flash they can access and store highly specific personal and technical information (system, user name, files,...).

- ability to send the stored information to the appropriate server, without user's permission.

- flash applications do not need to be visible- there is no easy way to tell which flash-cookie sites are tracking you.

- shared folders allow cross-browser tracking, LSO's work in every flash-enabled application

- the company doesn't provide a user-friendly way to manage LSO's, in fact it's incredible cumbersome.

- many domains and tracking companies make extensive use of flash-cookies.


(courtesy :Netticat)


This is controlled by Adobe’s flash and unfortunately, a normal computer user can not delete it (well, anybody can do a Google and find out how to delete it. but most of the normal users might not have even heard of LSO, in the first place. Then how can they delete?). Secondly, we can not make any setting changes at our end. When flash is installed for the first time in the computer, it asks for some settings and it will be stored as our default setting for every site we visit. These LSOs can lift more information than a normal cookie. So, how can we control them?


Either we need to make changes for every site we visit individually or we need to go to Adobe’s site and set the Global settings for our flash. Most of us are not aware that there exists such a site from Adobe where we can set our privacy settings related to flash.



Adobe's Global Flash Privacy setting site:


http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html


Global Privacy setting gives us two options – Always deny and Always ask


What is Always deny? Adobe says:


“If you select Always Deny and then confirm your selection, any website that tries to use your camera or microphone will be denied access. You will not be asked again if a website can use your camera or microphone. This action applies both to websites you have already visited and to those you haven't yet visited.”


This shows that using flash programming, a web site can access our camera and microphone (that is how web based video and audio chats work).


So, it is better every one of us visit Adobe’s Global flash setting page and make sure that our privacy settings are fine. And we can have a look at the present LSOs sitting in our computer too.


Back to my friend… I told her to not to worry about that kind of spying. Just because you have a mic and cam in your computer does not mean that anybody can access them without you knowing it. Logically, it is possible to un-mute our mic using a script (using the mixer API, in the case of windows). That is not at all a kid's play.



Even an embassy got hacked the other day, so what privacy we normal people can expect with our free anti-virus and firewalls?


Well, if CIA has not kept their server in our house, there is not need to worry too much about somebody trying to spy on us using our own cam and mic (that too with out we knowing) provided we are not discussing super secrets that can trigger some nuclear weapons, sitting just in front of our computer.


Always follow some general internet safety measures when visiting web sites and most importantly use common sense !

Monday, July 20, 2009

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Change for a Change?

We have seen this happening – a popular book going the silver- screen way. I had watched many such movies, after reading the book. When the movie goes in a different track than the book without any solid reason, I used to ask myself:


“So, the real story teller don’t know how to tell the story?....even after making his/her book so popular and gaining such a fame?”

Same thing happened with some Harry Potter Movies. What makes the script/screenplay writer or the Director think that they are one step ahead of the original writer in telling stories? Do they think that they know how to make it more appealing on the screen? I don’t know.

I was thinking the same when I watched the 6th Potter movie – Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Every one of us, who had read the books know that Potter is damn courageous. Sometimes even reckless. When he is up to something, he will go to any extend. Look at a situation in this movie:

Dumbledore and Potter go in search of a Horcrux. When one has to give something that weakens them (blood), Harry asks why can’t he give it. Then, when one of them has to drink the magical liquid, he is ready to do that. That is how the real Harry is as per the creator, J.K.Rowling.

Now look at the death scene of Dumbledore. Harry stands there just like a spectator (though he was hiding), when he sees Draco attacking Dumbledore, when he sees the death eaters, and even when Snape killing Dumbledore. It is very hard to digest this. Yes, Harry swore to Dumbledore that he would obey him, but still, its hard to believe that Harry will stand there just watching Dumbledore getting killed. Coz that’s not the real Harry Potter we know.

Lets go back to the original story…

‘Go and wake Severus,’ said Dumbledore faintly but clearly. ‘tell him what has happened and bring him to me. Do nothing else, speak to nobody else and do not remove your Cloak. I shall wait here’

‘But-‘

‘You swore to obey me, Harry – go!’

Harry hurried over to the door leading to the spiral stair-case, but his hand had only just closed upon the iron ring of the door when he heard running footsteps on the other side. He looked around at Dumbledore, who gestured to him to retreat. Harry backed away, drawing his wand as he did so.

The door bust open and somebody erupted through it and shouted: ‘Expelliarmus!’

Harry’s body became instantly rigid and immobile, and he felt himself fall back against the Tower wall, propped like an unsteady statue, unable to move or speak. He could not understand how it had happened – Expelliarmus was not a Freezing Charm-

Then by the light of the Mark, he saw Dumbledore’s wand flying in an arc over the edge of the ramparts and understood. Dumbledore had wordlessly immobilised Harry, and the second he had taken to perform the spell cost him the chance of defending himself.

See, that’s Harry and Dumbledore knew it (so is the case with all those who read the books). He would have taken ANY risk to save Dumbledore and that’s why the Headmaster immobilized him. Harry is a boy of exceptional courage than a boy of exceptional magical skills.

Unlike many other books (that became movies) Harry Potter has a super-high reader base. One need to consider that. Of course we need to add or remove something when we want to fit a book into a 2 hour movie. But changing the very nature of the main character does not sound good for me. Was it more appealing than the book?

Sorry, those who rewrote the situation did not look like smarter guys than J.K.Rowling, at least for me.

Footnote:

Did I like the movie?

Of course I did.

Do I recommend the movie?

Yes, I do.

Emma goes Britney?

The new Harry Potter movie is out. When we like Harry Potter (in this case), it is natural for us to like those who played those characters on screen. Once again, thus its very natural we showing some interest in whats happening with those actors.

That was the reason I checked out ‘what is latest’ with Daniel, Rupert and Emma (that was the order I checked). I watched/read some interviews with them, saw some pictures etc. When I reached Emma, it was a shock. I went to Google images and typed Emma Watson and (just above the pictures Google show related search) Google suggests : Emma Watson wardrobe malfunction!

What happens when we are in such a situation? We would check what happened to our favorite actor. Those who respect Emma might even pray to God since they don’t want to see some ‘kind of’ pictures of hers. But…

Now in a Harry Potter related Quiz, even if there comes a question like “what was the color of the panty Miss Granger was wearing……”, there is no wonder.

Was that a real malfunction? Well, her that particular robe behaved as it should behave on any windy day. But still, we can call it as a wardrobe malfunction…but

What about the ‘other’ malfunction? We all know that the paparazzi, media men, fans... all love taking pics of celebrities. More rare the picz the more happiness/money it gives. The whole world knows (or should I say ‘saw’?)what happened to Britney spears when she stepped out of a car wearing a mini-micro (I don’t know the name of such a dress) and not wearing any…

Emma, who is known as a bright girl, should have thought of this when she stepped out of a car in a similar fashion. Yes, there was a difference. Britney had nothing to cover but Emma had something made of ‘see-through’ material..

I was a person who had respect for her…

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A Mulla Story

Mulla Nasruddin was sitting on a river bank. Then someone shouted to him from the opposite side:

"Hey! how do I get to the other side?"

"You are already on the other side!" Nasreddin shouted back.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

In the name of Gays !

We have seen enough human killings in the name of religion and it still goes on and on…So religions and religious people always fight with other religions and religious people?

Last week witnessed a strange unity among the religious sect…..Lets fight our common enemy – the gays !

A high court gave a ruling favoring the gay community and this was the reason for the unity.

Religion believes in God, irrespective of which religion it is. God is the base of a religion (There are exceptions like Buddhism, I understand... but there Lord Buddha got raised into the level of God, isn't it so?). I have never seen religions uniting in the name of God. Instead, many religions grew like cell division (eg. There is only one Jesus and there exists approximately 38000 [Thirty Eight Thousand] Christian denominations). Somebody approached the Supreme court to question the High Court’s ruling. Many religious leaders said in unison that they don’t accept the rights of gays. Someone even said it’s a ‘disease’ and can be cured..

Whatever it is, it was nice to see these god-guys hugging each other..

Monday, July 13, 2009

A Rambutan got Fined :(

“…..why can’t you do that?” my wife

“Because I am a law abiding citizen” me

“If that is the case, it will be very difficult for you live in this world”

“You started seeing me some 11 years ago…Before that too, for about 30 years I was living in this world just like this”

“Why are you shouting?” To son “your dad is in a bad mood from the time he got into the car”

"And look at the way YOU are talking.."

(she was poking me for every word she said)

That was yesterday…yesterday is past…

Today is today and it’s a new day…but still I am the same law abiding citizen, you know.

I had a lot of chores to attend. I wrote it down in a small slip and started ticking it out one by one….one of the items was

Buy Rambutan

I had inquired with a fruit seller the other day about Rambutan and he said it will come next day. But the problem is this guy’s shop is about 7 km away from my home. So today I decided to buy some. Oh man it is really costly. 200 bucks for a kilo. So far, my Rambutan memories were sweet and now that this price tag is adding something sour to it. But I swear I did not feel jealous about a friend of mine who has even a small ‘Rambutan plantation’ of her own in her native place (Laguna). If the Rambutan I bought were exported by her, she better return my money..grrrrrr

I was thinking whether I should try one while driving or not. Then I decided that I will eat one as soon as I reach home. I proceeded to my next destination with lots of Rambutan memories that took me miles and miles away and that made me feel happy.

I was waiting at a traffic signal. The light became green and vehicles started moving. I was just behind a government bus. As soon as I crossed the light, I heard some beep sounds and then looked at the light…it was Red….it looks like the camera caught me…I am sure about that bus. Since it’s a government transport bus, nothing will happen to the bus or driver. But what about me? will I receive a notice very soon? I got a little worried. I really didn’t mean to jump the signal. I wasn’t able to see the light since I was just behind a tall bus…

With this thought in my mind, I moved on and reached another cross. I was bit cautious this time. I need to go to the right and I saw a ‘No Entry’ board ahead of me. There was small road ahead of me and I thought may be we are not supposed to go ahead and hence I turned right. When I proceed a few meters, there stands a policeman. He asked me to stop the car. I parked my car and approached the Inspector with my papers. He smiled at me. That was a real shock to me coz usually these guys are rude, corrupt and non-co-operative. And he said:

“Sir, I don’t stop vehicles unnecessarily. There is no right turn from there..you have violated two rules.”

“Two?” asked me.

“Yes.. Obstructing traffic and breaking No Entry…so, you have to pay 200 rupees. Will you pay?”

“Is there any other choice?” I asked

“ No” he smiled at me

“Then I will pay. But Sir, I really did not know that there is no right turn”

(There was right turn sometime back and it looks like this new rule came after there came a new fly-over near that road.)

“OK, I will do one thing. I will make it 100. And charge you for the No Entry”

He asked me to handover my license and said he don’t need the registration paper or insurance (how sweet !). These guys have got new Blackberry equipment which can generate a receipt and keep the data on a centralized computer system. Thus they can find out how many times a particular person broke rules. After some limited time, the drivers’ license will get cancelled.

“Thank you sir….sorry for the trouble” I said to him. He smiled again (No wonder he is in traffic and not in law and order)

……wife came back from work

“See, this is what happens when you break rules…”

No comments from her..(it could be because she was hungry)

See, even law abiding citizens get fined…

What was the cost of Rambutan? 200 bucks per kg...What was the fine? 200 bucks !

This world is…

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Pakistan and the Real Face of Terror

Finally, it is official. It was Pakistan governments’ policy to promote terror. India knew it from the beginning. The US knew it. Almost every intelligence agency in the world knew it. But all others except India kept mum coz none of the countries in the world want India to emerge as a super power. They all liked to see India being troubled by terrorists. Countries like the US supported it by supplying money and weapons.


This is what the Pakistani President Mr.Zardari said the other day:

“Militants and extremists emerged on the national scene and challenged the state not because the civil bureaucracy was weakened and demoralized but because they were deliberately created and nurtured as a policy to achieve short-term tactical objectives. Let's be truthful and make a candid admission of the reality….The terrorists of today were heroes of yesteryear until 9/11 occurred and they began to haunt us as well..”

-Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan/Zardari-admits-terrorism-nurtured-by-govt-for-tactical-use/articleshow/4755029.cms

The US and the west will never allow India and China to become friends. They don’t want India and Pakistan to be friends either.


India said it very clearly, long ago - Pakistan did not become a victim of terror but it has become a victim of its own policies.

Now Muslims started killing each other. Mosques are getting bombed by Muslims themselves. I believe most of the common people in Pakistan do not support terrorism. The US has no right to kill the innocent Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the name of fight against terrorism. Now the US live in fear. They fear that some attack will come from somewhere. If at all any such thing happens in future, I am not surprised. The US need to understand that every nation is a proud nation for that country’s citizens.

This reminds me of a saying in my mother tongue ‘ Valeduthavan valale’ which means something like - the one who raise a sword will face a sword, one day. Its like a goon who killed getting killed by another goon.

Let us support peace and not war.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Seek, and you will find...

'…And God said “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food” '

- Genesis 1:29 (The Bible)

Monday, July 06, 2009

Petrol price hike

The petrol price got hiked by more than 4 rupees per liter. But we the common man with some common sense knew it, isn’t it so?

At least I knew it and I had mentioned it somewhere in a blog, when there was price cut. The cut came before the general elections just like many other election stunts. The ruling party wasn’t sure about a come back and they just took a chance. If some other party comes into power, the headache goes to them or if they win again (like what has happened now), they can increase the price and the common man would pay since there is no other choice.

Many of us already faced salary cut…many others lost jobs and now the price of all the essential commodities also will go up, naturally.

Long time ago, politics was considered as public service. But now, it has become just a (dirty) business and we find political entrepreneurs and employees and not social workers.

Once again it got proved that politicians will go to any extend to grab the power, to any dirty extend.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Garlic Thoughts

My garlic connection started when I was a kid. On those days, whenever I fell ill, the first thing I could expect was my father coming with some fresh garlic juice (in a kind of measuring cup [made of stainless steel] called ‘gokarnam’ in my native language). If I spit it out, he used to scold and threaten me harshly or even beat me. I really hated that. Cold, flu, fever, stomach ache… it all attracted garlic, the smelly garlic. Even now, it stays like traumatic memory somewhere within me.

Why did my father do that? I hardly think he had a clear idea about the medicinal effects of garlic. But almost everyone living in my State that time had some idea about many herbal plants. These were passed on to us by tradition. Because my place was the land of Ayurveda, the herbal system of medicine. Thus, garlic, cardamom, ginger (both raw and dry), honey, neem, basil, turmeric….they all played other than culinary role during my childhood (and even now).

India is the second largest producer of garlic in the world (first being our neighbor China) and its part of many traditional dishes. How do science and religion see garlic?

Raw garlic has the following (found out as of now):

Carbohydrates
Sugars
Dietary fibers
Fat
Protein
Beta carotene
Thiamine
Riboflavin
Niacin
Pantothenic acid
Vitamin B6
Folate
Vitamin C
Calcium
Iron
Magnesium
Phosphorous
Potassium
Sodium
Zinc
Manganese
Selenium

Scientifically, it has been proved that garlic is capable of preventing some cancers (eg. gastric cancer; one can refer studies/materials by the United States National Cancer Institute). It is useful to control cholesterol too. There are so many other uses of garlic, including repelling many insects and mosquitoes.

But most of the religions are not that friendly with garlic. People from some sects of Hinduism and the Jain community avoid garlic. Yes, they don’t eat garlic at all (some don’t use even onion). Till the time I am writing this, I don’t know whether any particular Hindu scripture talking about garlic (I mean asking us to avoid) other than some books on Yoga.

There is a Christian myth. When Satan left the Eden garden, garlic arose from his left foot print and onion from the right. And it became part of white and black magic among the Europeans.

And in Islam, Prophet Mohammed said whoever ate garlic should not enter the mosque.

My father used to crush the garlic to take the juice. Why? I am 100% sure that he just did that without knowing the science behind that. It might sound strange, but one can find Allicin (this has antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and many other properties) in garlic, only after crushing it (some chemical changes happens then).

Since garlic has proven medicinal effects, it may interact with some medicines. Too much of garlic can lead to bleeding (hence should be best avoided at later stages of pregnancy) and thus affect a surgery or a child birth. Thus its logical to avoid too much garlic during periods too. Over dose of garlic can poison us. We might even get headache, diarrhea, nausea etc as a result of eating (too much of) garlic. The immediate after effect of eating garlic is halitosis or bad breath. Even our sweat will become smelly. So?

So, if we want o avoid dating somebody, the best bet is garlic !!!… An apple may be able to keep the doc away, but garlic in the morning can keep almost everybody away from us, the whole day….

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Wound and a Kiss...

"Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful"

- Proverbs 27:6

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

in ME

"As the mighty wind blowing everywhere rests always in the sky, all created beings rest in Me"

- Bhagavad Gita 9:6