The curious case of Mr. McAfee

" I'm constantly under attack, yet I use no software protection.

I protect myself by constantly changing my IP [internet protocol] address, by not attaching my name to any device I use, and by not going on to sites where you might pick up a virus.
Porn sites, for example, I just don't go there.

Secondly, I practise safe computing. If someone sends me an email with a link, I'm not going there until I can call the person to verify that they sent me the email.

It sounds absurd to live that way, but I would rather trust my own devices and thoughts than someone else's software."

Seems like the thought process of a paranoid Luddite, doesn't it?

No, in fact these are the words of none other than the founder of one of the leading anti virus solutions in the world - John McAfee.

Go figure.

Source: BBC News

P.S. - Didn't know Mr McAfee led such an interesting life. Check out the videos here (Screen grab below)

                 
                         THIS IS WAY MORE CRAZY THAN I HAD EVER IMAGINED!

Sri Lanka - Changing face of Buddhism

Buddhism stands upright as a religion of peace. Non-voilence or ahimsa is one of the basic tenets of the religion. The serenity on Buddha's face, sitting in meditation, can disarm even the most voilent of creatures. I had a similar impression about Buddhism, alas the picture perfect has been smudged with slurs.

Burma and Sri Lanka, two countries in South Asia, that share a common history of Buddhism are today center of what might be termed as 'Buddhist Terror'. Burma has had a history of Mujahideen insurgency in the west border adjoining Bangladesh, prompting the persecution of Rohingya Muslims, many of whom have fled to neighboring countries. Ashin Wirathu, the doe faced Buddhist monk, has been portrayed as the face of Buddhist Terror by Time magazine. So much so that even Dalai Lama issued an appeal to his Burma brethren to desist from making attacks on Rohingyas.

Sri Lanka has had no direct threat from Muslims but still a feeling of religious intolerance simmers. Earlier it was the Tamils, now after the rebels have been defeated, its the turn of the Moors. Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist has organized various campaigns against burqas, halal meat and end of mosque building financed by Middle East. BBS was founded by, guess what, monks! The most alarming fact here is the patronage and instigation by Buddhist monks.

The effects of this prosecution which is seen as being supported by Buddhist clergy were recently seen in the blasts at Maha Bodhi temple at Bodh Gaya. I fail to understand, why smoke belches in India when the fires are raging elsewhere!

Passing by
While other stuff is cheaper, newspapers are mighty expensive in Sri Lanka. Sunday edition of Sri Lanka Mirror cost me Sri Lankan rupees 60 (~ 30 INR). So, once I bought the newspaper, I made sure I read every single page of it :-)

Previous Entries:
Sri Lanka - Introduction
Sri Lanka - Cleanliness
Sri Lanka - Religion
Sri Lanka - History of Buddhism

Sri Lanka - History of Buddhism

Buddhism was brought into Sri Lanka around 2400 years ago by the great Indian king Asoka. He sent his son Mahinda to Sri Lanka to help spread the message of Buddha. Asoka's conversion to Buddhism after the battle of Kalinga is another interesting story, perhaps for another time. At that time, a sapling of the Bodhi Tree under which Buddha had meditated was also brought to Sri Lanka. The tree is venerated in Sri Lanka and is the site of a great pilgrimage for Sri Lankans.

Bodhi Tree at Anuradhapura

Sri Lanka has the longest continuous history of Buddhism across all Buddhist countries. India, where Buddhism originated and was once the state religion of the grand Mauryan empire, couldn't sustain itself. Although Hindu kings patronized Buddhism, a heretic Shaiva king chopped the Bodhi tree. The University at Nalanda, a treasure chest of knowledge, burnt for 3 months after being set on fire by Muslim invaders who also destroyed numerous stupas and viharas. Once it lost the support of the kings, Buddhism would find it difficult to survive.

Soon Buddhism faced an identity crisis. Vaishanavism abandoned the animal sacrifices that Buddhism abhorred in Brahminism and started practicing vegetarianism. Shaivites disregarded the caste-hierarchy inherent in scriptures. Overall, ideas were freely borrowed from Buddhism ranging from the Sangha (the Buddhist monastic order) to Tantrism. Shankaracharya stole the wind from Buddhism's sail and not much later, Buddha was one of the avatars of Vishnu in India. Its funny to note that Vishnu is one of the four guardians of Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka!

Princess Hemamali carrying Buddha's tooth in her hair

In Sri Lanka too, the Sinhala kings had to seek refuge from the invaders from South India - most specifically the mighty Cholas. Cholas under Raja Raja I and his son Rajendra I, creators of the magnificent Brihadeswara temple at Thanjavur, destroyed the city of Anuradhapura and established a new capital at Polonnaruwa. Eventually, they were overthrown by Vijaybahu I and Buddhism was reinstated as the state religion. Buddhism continued to florish under Parakramabahu the Great. After his death, the kingdom was again brutally sacked by Kalinga Magha who established the Kingdom of Jaffna in the north. Jaffna remained unconquered until the arrival of Portuguese in 16th century.

Sri Lanka has had a tumultuous political history. The claim to the throne was laid by the no less than the Cholas, Pandyas, Sinhalas, Kalingas and even a king from far away Kannauj! The capital was shifted from one city to another by one king after being destroyed by another. However, the light of Buddhism was kept burning with the support of ordained monks from Burma and the Buddhist clergy was cleansed time and again.

Crowd outside the Sacred Tooth Temple 

It was believed that the holder of Sacred tooth relic had the right to the throne of the kingdom. Even today Esara Perahara (festival of the tooth) is celebrated with great fervour in July/August at Kandy. It is attended by a large number of people who flock to see the relic. It is a very colorful sight with fire-dances and colorfully decorated elephants. I was fortunate enough to be in Kandy on the day , the Perahara started. However crowd, fire dances and elephants galore in India and hold no special interest for me therefore I moved on to Colombo.

Crowds lined up for the Perahara

Although, I originally intended to write about changing face of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in this post, I see that I have wandered too much into the history so I would put a stop here. I would write about that in the next post.

Passing By
Due to the Perahara, the Pizza Hut outlet near the Sacred Tooth temple was closed for dine-in. Instead, it had been converted to a gallery where one could book a seat and watch the Perahara pass by. The guy tried to sell me a ticket for 4000 Sri Lankan Rupees. When I told him that I was leaving the city he reduced it to 2000! I had to convince him that I was really leaving!!! And then he lightened up, beamed a smile and said, "You must be from Punjab".

Pizza Hut converted into a gallery (chairs can be seen)

Previous Entries:
Sri Lanka - Introduction
Sri Lanka - Cleanliness
Sri Lanka - Religion

Sri Lanka - Religion

Sri Lanka is a very religious country. Having said that, it is not much of a news for Indians who are perceived to be a highly religious community. That perception is not entirely true, considering there are at least 3 states in USA that think of themselves are more religious than Indians! However, there seems to be no doubt about the religiousity of Sri Lankans. An overwhelming 99% of Sri Lankans consider religion as an important part of their daily life - which is 3rd highest in the world (behind Egypt and Bangladesh).

Majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhists and unabashedly so. A small number of Hindus (largely Tamils) stay in the north province of Jaffna and were brought to Sri Lanka to work on the tea plantations. My hotel owner in Dambulla belonged to such a family of plantation workers who made it good. A part of his family, including his parents still lived in India. Actually, he was pretty happy, once he got to know that we were Indians. He tried to coax "kunchum kunchum" Tamil out of me but all that I could manage was "Taamil illa" or "Taamil Teriyadu".

Buddha and Hindu deities coexist peacefully in Sri Lankan society. Portraits of Laxmi, Karthikeyan, Vishnu, Ganesha or even Saraswati are to be found along side a meditating Buddha. Shiva, however is conspiously absent. I found the reason for that after I visited the Sacred Tooth Relic Temple in Kandy. Shaivaites have been historically portrayed in a negative light for having persecuted Buddhist Kings of Sri Lanka and attempting to destroy Sacred Tooth relic of Buddha. Shiva temples (kovils) are to be found most abundantly in Jaffna and sparingly in Colombo.

Mohammadans can be instantly recognized with their clothes - the long black dress worn by women who huddle together, the more progressive ones made out with bright colored salwar kameez. Men as always do not have to follow the dress code so they were busy herding a group of women and children. A marked contrast from the otherwise liberated and easy going Sri Lankans. I hardly saw any mosque around my trip except may be in Colombo.

There are statues of Buddha, Ganesha, Laxmi and Jesus in a glass case around the city squares. The glass cases are kept neat & clean and unlike India, not sprinkled with food grains, colors, flowers, vermillion or blackened by the smoke from incense sticks. Also, there are no priests who keep a vigil on these sites. There is no forced occupation of land after building a religious structure.

In the next part I will write about Buddhism in Sri Lanka and its changing face.

Image Courtesy - Wiki User Obi2canibe

Previous Entries:
Sri Lanka - Introduction
Sri Lanka - Cleanliness

Sri Lanka - Cleanliness

I imagined Sri Lanka as a third world country with a culture and society similar to southern states of India, specifically Tamil Nadu. This also lead me to assume that Sri Lanka would share our third world problems too. Yes, they do share our problems but not all of them. There are some problems that we seem to have copyrighted in this holy land of ours.

Let's take cleanliness - the country is amazingly clean! There are no open garbage dumps, no rotting food and organic products strewn alongside the road. At some places, there might be an odd plastic wrapper, polythene bag or paper lying around but that is not commonplace. I am sure there would be garbage dumps somewhere but I must say they have been well hidden!

I do not know the exact reason for this. Is it because people don't litter around or because the local administration puts a lot of emphasis on cleanliness or because the janitors are ultra efficient! Whatever the reason might be, it is a pleasant change from what we all are used to see in India.

Passing by

Indian (read Bollywood) movies and cricketers are quite popular in Sri Lanka. In fact, the first person I met outside the airport (a policeman) spoke of Shahrukh Khan. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, but then, at 3 a.m. in the morning it was hardly the time for that. Besides, he quickly moved on to Malinga and Kohli. So I had to let it go.

Also, this image is NOT from Sri Lanka. It is from Jaipur, India. Source - wiki user Marcin.

Previous Entries:
Sri Lanka - Introduction

Sri Lanka - Introduction

Ayubowan.

I am writing this entry to record my observations about my visit to Sri Lanka. I have made the observations on the country, its people, language, culture, socio-economic conditions, society etc. Whenever I fail to conjure some hullabaloo about such esteemed topics, I will write about some thing flimsier. I might have erred at times or been too judgmental about certain things which might lead the reader to a misconstruction. In either case, I would be happy to correct myself.

I am not writing this as a tourist guide to Sri Lanka although I won't mind if it serves such a cause. I will try to supply travel related information as well wherever I can plug it. If the reader has any specific question, I would try to answer, although LP/Tripadvisor would be a better place to start.

This entry is of more significance to me because my preconceived ideas about the country were challenged. Challenged is not the right word, 'destroyed' is. I am reminded of this quote by Mark Twain:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

My original thought was to avoid any comparison with India - to represent Sri Lanka as a discrete entity but I later realized that it would be futile. Comparisons are bound to creep in unconsciously so let me bring them out. What is a man, if not his prejudices! Alternatively, they would contribute some juice to the otherwise boring posts.

As I gather my thoughts, I think it would be better to divide this into smaller posts because primarily I don't want to write a long meandering post and secondly because I think each topic deserves a separate post. I have also decided to write these posts on my Hindi blog as well. Since I am lousy in both the languages, the reader should not observe any appreciable differences.

10 Most Popular Pakistanis in India

I am presenting a list of 10 Pakistanis who are most well known in India. They are admired, loved, idolized (and sometimes pilloried) by millions across the country.

Is your list any different?

1. Imran Khan
Surely the most inspirational cricketer to have come out of Pakistan, Imran had stunning good looks to boot. His leadership skills were pivotal in Pakistan lifting the World Cup in 1992.

He wasn't as successful in his political career where he was dubbed a 'Spoiler politician'. He still remains an inspirational figure well respected in India.

2. Wasim Akram
Akram was one of the best fast bowlers in the world and one of the finest exponents of reverse swing bowling. His two sublime deliveries to dismiss Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis in the 1992 WC final are etched forever in the minds of crickets lovers.

Although his career was later tainted with match fixing scandal he remains popular in India appearing in dance shows and commercials or even denying a marriage with Sushmita.

3. Ghulam Ali
Who can forget his heart rending song Chupke Chupke Raat Din in the 1982 movie Nikaah or for that matter his ghazal Hungama Hai Kyon Barpaa.

Armed with a baritone voice and subtle vibrations he used to convey a whole range of emotions in his ghazals. Along with Mehdi Hassan he contributed immensly to the revival of Ghazal in the 70's.

4. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Nustat Fateh Ali Khan is probably the most well known Pakistani musician outside of Pakistan. He was primarily a Qawwali singer who has performed in over 40 countries.

He collaborated extensively with western musicians producing exquisite music. His album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a Grammy in 1997 for best traditional folk album.

5. Shahid Afridi
Boom Boom Afridi is certainly a maverick. He started out as a leg spinner but made his mark for his explosive batting and now considers himself a better bowler! In his first international innings, he smacked 11 sixes to score a century in 37 deliveries.

He is the only player to score 6000 ODI runs with an average of under 25. When captaining, he likes to helps his team by chewing the ball or scuffing the pitch.

6. Atif Aslam
Atif Aslam is to the youth what Ghulam Ali was to the oldies. A soulful melancholy runs through his songs be it Pehli Nazar Mein, Kuch Is Tarah, Aadat, Woh Lamhe, Tera Hone Laga Hoon or Tu Jaane Na.

He is expected to make his acting debut this year. Lets hope he dazzles us again, this time with his histrionics.

7. Shoaib Malik
Shoaib Malik is perhaps known (in India) because of his marriage to Sania Mirza than for any other cricketing reason. He has currently been dropped from the team and perhaps will never get in again given Pakistan's seemingly unending talent pool.

His marriage/divorce with Ayesha Siddiqui left a bad taste in mouth. His subsequent marriage with Sania was given a cold shoulder by most celebs (other than Raja Murad of course). Shoaib's current pastime include cheering his wife along the ATP tour, feeding her with drinks during practice and getting banned from playing in Indian grounds.

8. Veena Malik
Veena Malik was not so much successful as an actress but much better recognized as a comedienne on a popular TV show Hum Sub Umeed Say Hain. In fact I saw her first time on this show parodying Shoaib and Sania. She was later charging enstranged cricketer boyfriend Mohammad Asif with match fixing charges.

However Veena Malik came into her own while appearing on reality show Bigg Boss 4. She was berated in Pakistan for her immoral un-Islamic behavior on the show. But she fought admirably well, took on a Maulvi and silenced him (You Tube clip). Hats off to this gutsy lady!

9. Asma Jahangir
I would be taking a bit of liberty saying she is Pakistan's Arundhati Roy. The fact is she gives them hell and we loves it. She is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

I think she is a very brave woman; a beacon in the dark age of Pakistan. Hope this beacon shines forever.

10. Pervez Hoodbhoy
It would be fair to call him one of Pakistan's greatest intellectual. Armed with a PhD in Nuclear Physics from MIT, he is also a prominent social activist.

He has written on a plethora of issues like feminism, education, environment, philosophy and nuclear disarmament. In 2001, he refused to accept the Sitara-e-Imtiaz award from President Musharraf. Also read his article on a month long lecture tour in India here.

Images: Courtesy Wikipedia

Diego Forlan is in India!

I am writing this post just to express my pleasure absolute delight at the news that my favorite player at the recently concluded World Cup - Diego Forlan is in India :D

He is in Kolkata to participate in a Football reality show. He said that he "had no idea about Indian Football" but "knew that cricket is very popular here". He also said that he "was loving India" and is "overwhelmed to see the enthusiasm here".

He believed his best goal at the WC was the one against Germany in the 3rd place playoff. He also defended his teammate Suarez's action of saving a certain goal with his hand.



Forlan is the Golden Ball Winner at the WC 2010 and is being approached by the top European Clubs to play for them. While in Kolkata he will join two Brasilians - Romario and Branco for the last episode of "The Match" - a football reality show. He might participate in an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan on Sunday. He is also scheduled to visit Mother Teresa's home.

English-Hindi Dictionary (Free)

Need to learn how to say Hello in Hindi? Or for that matter FISH ? Or better still if you are an advanced Hindi learner or even a native speaker and need to find how to say exchange in Hindi. Well don't scratch your head, go no further than Shabdkosh.com.

Created by an IIT grad Mr. Maneesh Soni in 2003 this website serves as an online English-Hindi as well as Hindi-English dictionary. It started out with a database of 15,000 words it has now expanded the base with the help of contributing users. Starting from Hindi it now contributes words from many other Indian languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.


It now features a User -Forum and sections like "Quote of the Day" and "Word of the Day". You can type in Romanised Hindi and even listen to the correct pronunciation of Hindi words. If you don't have an internet connection and intend to use it offline you can download the dictionary here. If you feel like it, you can contribute to the site.

It is a wonderful site, certainly one of the best available today for English-Hindi translations. I have been using it for more than three years and I joined as a member today. I hope to make some serious contributions to the website in near future. Right now, I just want to spread the word.

If you happen to register with the website, just drop by and say hello to me!

The Enigma of Pakistan Cricket

Pakistan Cricket is not stranger to controversies - from Woolmer's mysterious death to the terrorist attack on Lankan team bus, from ball tampering to drug tests, from Afridi's ball eating adventure to the fiasco on Australian tour - its a never ending story for the talented yet ill-disciplined team.

Now former Pakistan cricket coach Intikhab Alam has called the national players 'mentally retarded'. An inquiry comittee was set up by PCB to investigate the reasons behind the disastrous tour of Australia where they failed to win even a single match. Intikhab was the coach of the Pakistan team on that tour. While Younis and Yousuf were banned for life, others like Shoaib Malik and Naved-Ul-Hasan were banned for a year. These bans, according to Wasim Akram had made a laughing stock of Pakistan (as if it wasn't already).


Intikhab was quoted as saying,"I felt that they are mentally retarded people....There is a mental problem with our players. They don't know how to wear their clothes and how to talk in a civilized manner."

He revealed that six to seven players had taken an oath on the Quran that they will remain united against their captain Younis Khan.

Shoaib Malik, meanwhile has been practicing at the Gymkhana ground,Hyderabad with his Indian wife since he is not being allowed to do so at Pakistan. While not fetching tennis balls for his Indian tennis player wife, he along with Rana Naved have also been busy belting gully-cricket bowlers at Bangladesh.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Go(ld) Australia

Australia is a beautiful place. The Great Barrier Reef, the Uluru Rock formations, the Gold Coast never fail to lure tourists from all over the world (only if it was not so far!). Visiting Australia has become a financially lucrative option now with the news filtering out about the gold riches in Victoria.

GeoScience Victoria, a government agency that maps the geology of the region has reported "gold deposits still waiting to be discovered". An estimated 500 tonnes of gold, worth 20 billion USD lies in the north part of the state. During the Victorian Gold Rush of 1850-60,the population of the state experienced a seven fold increase. Victoria became the world leader in gold output. This event reshaped the society and politics of Victoria and led to emergence of Melbourne as one of the greatest cities of the world.



This event has also raised concerns about the environmental impact of increased mining activity. However all said and done, Australia is sitting on the precipice of another Gold Rush. Travelling to Australia was never more rewarding!


Image Credits: Wikipedia

Made in Bangladesh

With the onset of summer, I realised that I needed a new baseball cap after having left the last one on a bus. So three weeks ago I walked into the Reebok showroom at Jubilee Hills. Now this showroom was quite swanky and glitzy. In fact it happened to be the world's biggest retail outlet, spread over 15,000 square feet.



As usual, a sales guy followed me around the entire 15,000 sq ft of pricey real estate. I zeroed upon a nice and dainty sky-blue cap. After relieving myself of 800 bucks I walked out smugly.

Period.

Yesterday I was fiddling away with the cap, biding my time. I turned it under and found a black strap underneath. It had something written on it. I looked at closely, unconsciously hoping to find the washing instructions. Here is what I found:

Made in Bangladesh.

China is common these days, but Bangladesh? Would I have bought it if I saw it at the showroom? Would you?

Kashmir

Nations fight. Over land, water, oil, women, drugs,crime,women and sometimes ego. India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir. Like kids squabbling over a lollipop. Only this time the kids have missiles and nuclear weapons. They make a lot of hullabaloo. Whenever they meet, they manage to fight; embarrass themselves and others.

One day the Great Himalaya raised its hands and said, "Enough! I gave you this beautiful land of milk and honey,but you fight on it. You shall repent it". Lo and behold! He opened his mouth and swallowed Kashmir.




News was conveyed to the kids who were still locking horns at the UN. Not sure how to react, they ignored it at first. It was only when other nations maintained that K was no more, they retreated and vowed to fight for pride. The carpet had been pulled beneath their feet. What could not be achieved by years of talking, mediation and killings - was actualized in a whiff.

This piece was provoked by a recent news article that a tiny island in the Bay of Bengal, which was claimed by both India and Bangladesh for years was engulfed by sea.

Image Credits : Wikipedia

Alan Turing - a side note

"We had gay burglers the other night. They broke in and rearranged the furniture."
Robin Williams.

Ah... these comedians could plummet to any depth. But then what's life without humour -a pile of bread sopped in water, a bowl of cabbage, an insipid tale of mundane running around matters. Humour is the salt of life! But then lets save it for some other day. After a long time I have got some time to reflect and write and so must I.

Alan Turing - the man Winston Churchill dubbed as the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in WWII died in an not-so-honourable way - eating a cyanide laced apple. There's a Hindi saying, "Chirag tale andhera" (below the lamp lies the darkness) - very apt here.

Read on.


Turing - the ' shining-lamp' phase
I first read about Turing during my graduation days. He had an Indian connection - his father was a member of Indian Civil Service. His maternal grandfather was the Chief Engineer of Madras Railways. In fact he was 'conceived' at Chhatrapur, Orissa. He was the hero of WWII- the master code breaker of German Enigma machines. Father of AI, he created the concept of Turing Test to distinguish between humans and robots. In 1999, he was name by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Important People of 20th century.


Turing - the 'darkness-below-the-lamp' phase
So far so good for being a war hero, a celebrated personality (however eccentric), a poineer of computer science, cryptanalyst, mathematician, logician, chemist - we are still finding out. Add another adjective to it - and it all goes in vain - "GAY".

In 1952 Alan Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency. As an alternate to imprisonment, he was injected with female oestrogen hormones and chemically castrated - a known side effect of which was the development of breasts. His security clearance was removed and he wasn't permitted to continue his research with UK government. For two years he loomed between death and despair and finally killed himself by eating the proverbial apple. So much so for his service of the nation (and possibly of humanity). No wonder they forgot to mention this in text books :-)

Honour restored or too late?
Times have changed now - and how! This year after a petition signing campaign to urge the British government to apologize to Alan Turing posthumously, the government has finally relented. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown released a statement two days ago. It described the treatment of Alan Turing as "utterly unfair" and "appalling". It also noted that British government was "deeply sorry" and that Turing "deserved much better".

Ahem.


Image Credits: Wikipedia

Pizza and LHC!

“There is not the slightest indication that energy will ever be obtainable from the atom” - Albert Einstein.

The Large Hadron Collider might have disappointed many nay-sayers around the world. It did not spurn the Doomsday by spinning off 'micro black-holes' that engulf the world but looks like it certainly can cook up a pizza pretty fast.

The 'forward thinking' editors at Sciam made an estimate on how long it will take a LHC to de-frost a pizza. As per the calculations, it would take about 3 * 10 ^(-8) seconds to defrost a pizza. This is about the same time taken by light to travel 1 meter.

Pretty fast, huh?

Image credits : Wikipedia.

Americans and privacy

"When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else." - David Brin (American science-fiction writer)

It is amazing and indeed a paradox of our times that America is one of those nations with an absolute madness for celebrities (with scant regard for their privacy) and an equally tight-fisted resoluteness about government turning a Big Brother and hence violating their personal lives!

Here is an article about the History of Privacy in America and its timeline. An interesting read!

Change wins it for Obama!

As expected, Hillary Clinton finally ended her bid for a democratic nomination and endorsed Obama.

"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it," she said to a crowd of teary-eyed supporters in a emotional speech.

While Obama lay a little low letting her opponent bask in the glory. In a press statement he later said, " Obviously, I am thrilled and honored to have Sen. Clinton's support".


This marked a highly tipsy-turvy year - last year Clinton was seen as a clear front-runner and a sure-shot to win the top seat but she lies in a dump now - defeated by a black Afro-American! Also ended there-in a bitterly contested campaign battle.

CNN does a analysis on why Clinton's bid failed here. It reveals how her supposed strengths - a great campaigner hubby Bill, her so-public face, the massive and well-oiled Clinton-machinery all could not face up to the challenge for a 'change'.

In the race between 'Change' and 'Experience' - Change won again!

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

The perfect swing?

“Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.” - Winston Churchill

I must admit myself as a golf illiterate, having been routinely bamboozled by the birdies, putts,flops, bogeys, eagles, albatross and vultures ( what is it about the birds?). All I know about the sport is that you have got to put the ball into the hole with the help of a stick in the minimum number of attempts. I am also aware that a certain Tiger Woods has been running around with the dough for quite some time now.


United States scores over rest of the world with nearly half of the world's total 32,000 golf courses. But according to this article, golfing has seen a decline over the past several years in the US. The number of people who play the sport has declined from 30 million to 26 million since 2000. The golf boosters (number of people who play 25 times or more a year) declined from 6.9 million in 2005 to 4.6 million in 2000.

This is a part of the broader decline in the outdoor sports like tennis,swimming and hiking among others. The reasons vary from the ravaging hurricanes to family commitments to popular electronic games to the long duration of the game and related etiquette rules (like not using their cell phones on course).

So the game about which Wodehouse famously wrote, "Golf, like the measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious." in danger of losing its charm?

How safe is my data?

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” - John Allen Paulos

Imagine having your laptop stolen! It was insured alright ensuring you suffer no financial losses, but how about the data? No worries there.. my machine is password protected you might say or I use disk encryption softwares. Really? Read on... : )

According to researchers at Princeton University, data stored on your machine can be recovered - yes, even if you locked it - with the help of something as innocuous as a dusting spray!

How does it happen?
DRAMs (Dynamic Random Access memory) is a type of memory that is used to store data while your machine is running. It is a kind of "leaky bucket" (a capacitor) which has to be filled in periodically (charged) otherwise it runs out of water. It was believed that DRAM loses its data as the power is switched off. But actually it fades out over a period of seconds to minutes, depending on the chip manufacturer.

The researchers found out that cooling the DRAM chips with a spray of "canned air" would make the chips retain their contents for as long as 10 minutes! Use of liquid nitrogen would prolong this to hours. The chips could then be removed from the laptop and their data read from.


How they did it!




But I have Disk Encryption Software on my machine?
Very well! The disk encryption softwares store their master decryption keys in DRAM. This is something like handing out the keys of the locker to the thief! The attacker can easily extract the keys from your DRAM and access your data. In this process, the researchers were able to beat the commercially available disk encryption software Bitlocker that comes with Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 OS.


Security Risk
According to a report by Symantec, average laptop contains data worth approximately $972,000. Sometime back, GE reported the theft of an employee's laptop containing Social Security Numbers (SSN) of 50,000 employees. Ernst & Young, Fidelity investments, The Boeing Co., Ameriprise Financial are just some of those who suffered due to loss of a laptop containing sensitive data.

It is time the security experts do a rethink!

Cobama or Billary ?

“I will feel equality has arrived when we can elect to office women who are as incompetent as some of the men who are already there”
- Maureen Reagen (daughter of R. Reagen)

Its election time in the United States again. This time its a race between Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama to the top seat. Funnily enough the Republicans are counted out even before the voting takes place. Looks like the Democratic party's nomination for the Presidential seat is a sure shot. Just to re-emphasize the impression the "dumb guy" has made on the Americans.

Remembering 2000...
The elections in U.S. are generally hard fought and closely contested. The Presidential elections of 2000 contested (primarily) between Bush and Gore were certainly one of the closest in recent history with the State of Florida being the center stage. With 85 % of votes being counted in Florida, Bush had been leading over Gore by over 100,000 votes - leading the media to declare Bush as the next President. But with votes coming in from the remaining 3 heavily Democratic counties the lead dwindled to 2000 votes. The media retracted its predictions and Al Gore, who had conceded the elections to Bush, promptly took it back!


After first recount the lead came down to 500 votes - leading to cries of hand recounts and foul play. Finally the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in, ending the recounts and finally Bush's lead was declared to be 537 votes (out of 5.8 million cast). It was later found that 175,010 votes were never counted in Florida. Interestingly enough, under the recount rules originally requested by Bush, Gore would have won and vica-versa! (Source : Wikipedia)


2008 - Time for change?
The 2008 US Presidential elections are unique in many ways. This is the first election since 1958 when neither an incumbent President nor Vice-President is running for their party's nomination. This is the first time when You Tube viewers quizzed the candidates by submitting videos of their questions. First time the Americans abroad could vote online. If Hillary gets it right, she would the first woman in American history to be the President. The same goes true for Honolulu born Obama who would be the first African-American to go to the highest seat.

The Hillary Vs Obama debate is being played out on all fields - sample these You Tube videos.





So far the election has been dominated by themes of race,gender and faith with Bill Clinton saying, "As far as I can tell, neither Senator Obama nor Hillary have lost votes because of their race or gender". He also said that voting along race-gender lines "is understandable, because people are proud when someone who they identify with emerges for the first time."

Voting woes
But as far as technology goes, its back to the future this time. The voices against electronic voting machine's vulnerability to fraud received another boost when a computer science professor at Princeton published images of unattended e-voting machines on his web page.

On the "Super Tuesday" voters reported more than 1100 separate incidents of problems with E-Voting machines. This, however may seem trivial considering that almost 50 million used the machines this Tuesday. In addition there were problems of machines not booting or failing in several states. The state of California has made a decision not to use e-voting after serious flaws were found in the machines.


The Indian connection
The elections have already received a Desi tone with Obama labeling Hillary as "Sen. Clinton (D-Punjab)" or the senator from Punjab referring to the cash support from Indian-Americans to her campaign. At a recent fund-raiser, she reportedly joked, "I can certainly run for the Senate seat in Punjab and win easily." Whatever it might turn out to be, these are anxious moments for the Americans and exciting for the rest of us :)