Intelligent Design

A school in Pennsylvania decided that the biology books of the ninth graders were getting much too boring with the Darwian theory of evolution. To liven up things a bit they decided to teach the theory of intelligent design as well.
Only now, 11 parents have used the most basic right of Americans - they have sued the Dover Area School District to stop the teaching of intelligent design, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state (for a change maybe, this is not a useless case).

A bit abt the intelligent design theory...basically the term "intelligent design" was first used in 1897 by Oxford scholar F.C.S. Schiller, who wrote in an essay that "it will not be possible to rule out the supposition that the process of evolution may be guided by an intelligent design."
What it basically means is that whatever we marvel abt our body...capability to pick things...ability to process info could not have been achieved over time.

Proponents of the intelligent design theory say life is way too complex to have emerged on its own and needed a push by a higher, intelligent being a.k.a God.

This is from the nicely titled report God versus science debate continues in court that appeared in Reuters :-
"...The trial over teaching man's origins in U.S. schools pits Christian conservatives against teachers and scientists in what is seen as the biggest test of the issue since the late 1980s. It also echoes the famous Scopes Monkey trial of 1925, when lawyers squared off in a Tennessee courthouse over the teaching of Darwin's work."

"...The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that creationism -- the belief that Earth and its beings were created by God and not by natural selection -- could not be taught in public schools since it violated the separation of church and state. "

"...More than 30 U.S. states are considering measures to teach alternatives to evolution. The Harrisburg case is the first to challenge such initiatives in court and is widely expected to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, regardless of the outcome. President George W. Bush has said schools should teach both evolution and intelligent design."

I know one person who would be happy to back Mr. President...our good old Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi... :)
But seriously what is more interesting is the ruling of the SC of the USA clearly emphasising the separation of religion from state policy.
Once upon a time it was tried by our own SC and it was cutely overturned by the Parliament...the sooner we take our own secularism beyond paper (read constitution) the sooner our policies will focus on the core issue of eliminating poverty. It is vital that the state doesn't use religion as a tool to push its own agenda or as a shield to explain its own shortcomings.

World's 10 most expensive cars

Forbes has come out with a list of the 10 most expensive street legal cars in 2005 and the figures are mindboggling...

Saleen S7 Twin Turbo — $670,384 (Europe)

Pagani Zonda C12S 7.3 Convertible — $598,025 (Global)

Koenigsegg CCR — $562,659 (Global)

Koenigsegg CC8S — $522,120 (Global)

Porsche Carrera GT — $484,151 (Europe)

Maybach 62 — $457,991 (Europe)

Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren — $456,526 (Europe)

Maybach 57 — $389,226 (Europe)

Rolls-Royce Phantom — $328,750 (Global)

Spyker C8 Double 12 S — $325,560 (Global)

Some pics of cars from this list:

Zonda

Saleen S7

Porsche Carrera GT

Mercedes-Benz SLR

Koenigsegg CCR

Saleen at about Rs 3 Crore is also the fastest road car in the world....capable of clocking over 250 Mph or abt 410 Kmph....coooooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllll !!
Ofcourse we wont go into the fuel efficiency of any of these cars :) :)!
No Ferraris, no Lamborghinis, no Aston Martins or Jaguars...no Japanese manufacturer...infact the list is dominated by the Germans and... the Swedes (!!!@#$)

The article itself can be read at World's Most Expensive Cars 2005

This post is also a proof of how little work I have today!! :)

Hurricane Names

Hurricanes have been on my mind...I guess thats due to the fact that I am now days relying on Google for all my news updates and world news tend to focus more on the hurricanes in the US than say, Indian PM's visit to the US.

A friend asked me if I knew how these names were picked...Katrina first and now Rita...and I wasnt able to answer too satisfactorily...
I guess the people in US are more aware of it than here...the process is a bit funny actually...any depression resulting in wind speeds of over 39 miles/ hr (Categorized as a tropical Storm) gets a name.

Early naming conventions were individualistic in nature. Hurricanes have been named after saints, girlfriends, years, and even first ladies (one was named "Bess" after President Harry Truman's wife, I picked this from the net...:)).
Digressing a little (I read this on the net), according to one report the first use of a proper name for a tropical storm was by an Australian forecaster in the early part of this century, who reputedly named his storms after politicians that he didn't like. Maybe we can loan some names to the storms...:)...and knowing our politicians...they might even forward their names...
Then a more stable naming convention was needed as multiple agencies were following the progress of a storm...so female names were used but after protests...from 1979 both male and female names were used alternatively.
An international committee at a meeting of the World Meteorological Organization came up with six separate name lists for hurricanes. Each list is reused every six years, except for the names that are retired( names of storms that cause a lot of damage are retired, Katrina for example will never be used again!!)
The letters "Q", "U", "X", "Y" and "Z" are not used for naming purposes ( dont knwo why, probably there are not too many names starting with these letters...).

This is the atlantic basin list for 2005:

Arlene	Bret	Cindy
Dennis	Emily	Franklin
Gert	Harvey	Irene
Jose	Katrina	Lee
Maria	Nate	Ophelia
Philippe	Rita	Stan
Tammy	Vince	Wilma

There is another similar list for the Pacific basin...
There, thats the long and short of the naming convention for hurricanes...I hope Rita doesnt turn out to be as bad as the experts are saying...

The future of Storage Media

Not much work today...atleast as of now...so i was going through Engadget and came across this article that explains the 2 warring factions on the next super capacity disk...

I was having the same discussion with a friend a few months back...when the first peace talks between Sony and Toshiba started...

There are lots of issues ofcourse...how it will compare with the next generation streaming media, flash memory chips where Samsung recently announced a 32GB chip...backward compatibility issues,pricing...etc. But nevertheless one of these will very likely be the future standard...

here is the link to the article:
Blu-Ray vs HDDVD

Anthem's Importance....

Was going through a news site, and this little bit of news caught my eye...and made me chuckle...:)

"...61 percent of U.S. adults don't know the first eight lines of America's national anthem."

To change all this a National Anthem Project is on to celebrate the 191^st anniversary of the song. Under this schools across the nation will be getting together to perform the anthem on television.

"...Olivia Beaver, a Westergard Elementary School fifth-grader, advises that segment of the population to listen closer when they hear the song on television, or she'll work with them until they learn it."

"They would then understand what it means," said Olivia, 10. "It's a song that helps us remember the people who served our country."

I am glad that we used to sing the anthem in school...everyday...infact I used to look forward to it( I could sing then...:)) as it marked the end of the drowsy ritual...(I mean the school assembly)

New Firefox and Vista

Firefox, the browser that every Microsoft basher loves to use (though personally I still prefer the IE), has been updated and on Friday released a test version with improved security, navigation, and privacy features was released. Firefox 1.5 is expected to follow shortly.

7 different versions of the next OS from the microsoft stable:

Starter Edition: (like XP Starter Edition) aimed for anyone dumb enough to take it.

Home Basic Edition: (like Windows XP Home) a well defined system minus the things that a basic user (read net surfer, music listener, etc) will be happy to use.

Home Premium Edition: (like Windows XP Pro ^- ) Basic plus addons for gaming, Media Center capabilities ,HDTV, DVD etc will be thrown in. This might be the most popular verison in the end.

Windows Vista Professional Edition: (like Windows XP Pro ⁺ ) Aimed purely at the business environment, minus the frills in HPE but with addons for business use.
Microsoft is also planning both a Small Business Edition and an Enterprise Edition, which build upon pro by adding (seemingly minor) features aimed at appealing to each market. SBE, for instance, includes a networked backup solution, while EE will include things like Virtual PC integration, and the ability to encrypt an entire volume of information (go figure *sighs*).

Last but not least, there's Ultimate Edition: supposedly personalized on per user basis with the best of each edition plus personalized servicess (exclusive access to music, movies, services and preferred customer care). This version is aimed at high-end PC users and technology influencers, gamers, digital media enthusiasts, and students.

All these editions are just going to create confusion in the market and make it more difficult for MS to manage the products. Besides a key deciding factor would still be the pricing of the product. The wait continues...

Anonymous blog

"So whats the point of keeping your blog anonymous?" she asks...

"Its not anonymous really...I mean I haven't hidden any info...Its easier this way, besides who would want to read the boring rant that often turns out here..."

This is how a number of such discussions/conversations on the subject go....I was just remembering it so decided to write it down...

I'm not sure if I haven't told my friends because they hear most of my rantings anyway or if because not everyone truly understands the purpose of this...

Besides I dont visit too many blogs...apart from Neha's and Apurv's blog I probably stumble upon some random blog once in a while...and then maybe never return there again...

And I didn't start blogging with an audience in mind...it was just a way of archiving some thoughts that I might look back at someday...neither did I think I will continue doing so even a week after starting...
So maybe it wont be anonymous some day...or maybe it will become even more anonymous (hide it even from people who know abt it)...:)...or it might just die as suddenly as it started.....but until such time, I am happy to carry on this inconsequential drivel...

Katrina

Katrina such a nice name but what devastation!....a trail of death and misery lies in its wake.

The stories I have been reading from New Orleans are shocking...The city slipped under water and into turmoil as residents faced flooded neighborhoods, looters, and god knows what not.

Mounting racial tensions and allegations of slow response from the federal government have been reported in every article I have read.
Whats been most disappointing is the fact that this is happening in the US, the most developed nation in the world. Reading about racial tensions there leaves little cause for optimism on us rising over our own petty religious issues. It almost seems as if human species is incapable of living in harmony.

I hope and pray that the city and its dwellers make a speedy recovery!

Google the next Microsoft???

Google is on a major application launch blitz...almost every month a new tool or an application is being launched from the Mountain View, California based giant...

First there was the Google Talk instant messenger and then an upgrade to Google Desktop Search, which adds a product called Sidebar that pulls data from the Net and serves up a personalized panel of information such as e-mail, stock quotes and news. The browsing pattern information is sent back to build up a user database, which should raise security concerns...

Such rapid expansion in the range of services offered by Google has led to questions being raised about what Google wants and comparisons are being drawn with a certain Microsoft in its early years.
It has even led Google to change its core philosophy...(Its an interesting read, Googledom)

Microsoft's developer orientation led to the creation of applications that run on Windows and Office, its desktop application suite, promoting the adoption of its core products.
Some say that's exactly what Google is now trying to re-create on the Web, all of Google's services are accessible via application programming interfaces, or APIs, which give software developers the documentation needed to build add-on products.

The New York Times published a story last week that pondered whether Google was morphing arrogantly into "the new Microsoft" - poaching talent from other companies, trying to monopolize and eat up the competition. There is a belief that Google trying to live up to the expectations at the Wall Street is no longer the good guy.
Its interesting to note the shift in perception from being - the darling of the Silicon Valley, the underdog every one rooted for, the upstart that could do no wrong to being called overtly aggressive and arrogant. How times change!

But I don't see these developments in the same light. I welcome them. Big is not necessarily bad for us - consumers. Already we can see Google pushing Yahoo and Microsoft to innovate at a rate faster than ever before...Competition can inspire innovation and make technology more accessible to people (both require deep pockets).

So Google for me remains a fantastic success story like Microsoft and remains worthy of respect.

p.s: I know there have been pretenders before, Netscape comes to mind immediately...but Google seems better equipped and prepared. So I say Let the fun begin!!

A different World!!

Was struck by today's headlines in a newspaper here in Hyderabad.

Hyderabad teens elope to escape Arab husband

I started reading and the details of the story quickly unfolded....its a story that is often repeated, a story that leaves me shocked each time but doesn't stir any response from the people that matter...

This is what has allegedly transpired:

"...Two teenaged Hyderabad girls married off to an Arab, one 45-year-old Al Rahama Ismail Mirza Abdul Jabbar of the UAE, in a combined ceremony on August 1 under the fatwa approved by the Hyderabad-based Jamia Nizamia allowing a Muslim man to marry as many as four women in one sitting."

Now how unbelievable is that?? Not much if you ask the victims of the whole episode. Isn't this also a case of a girl child being sold for a few thousand rupees...(apparently the families got Rs 10,000) ?

Another fatwa issued, another woman's rights denied...another case of inaction from a soul less state...

Hail India!!!!

Fatwas right or wrong?

Thats the question that has been posed to the Supreme Court of India. The issue ofcourse in reality really is whether religious courts can be allowed to function in a secular (sic) democracy like India.

This PIL is a result of all the public outrage (umm I am not sure if there was any public outrage...) the Imrana controversy.

The petition, filed by advocate Vishwa Lochan Madan, urged the court to adjudicate on several questions of law, including whether Article 25 (guaranteeing religious freedom) includes the right to administer justice based on faith. (How can it??)

Notices have been issued to - the Union government, all states and the Union Territories. The court also issued notices to three Muslim bodies - the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the Dar-ul-Uloom and Muslims for Secular Democracy.

This is a public interest litigation worthy of its name ...I hope the court won't back off from giving a favourable judgement even though it burnt it fingers once before in a similar case (Shah Bano) earlier.

Opportunities as Reward

"...An eager group of about 300 employees sit doe-eyed in anticipation of the arrival of probably the single biggest reason they are part of this company !!!"

He came, he spoke, he answered questions and he got a standing ovation...That's our Mentor - in - Chief for you...
The atmosphere was amazing...I could hear comments like "Man, I am gonna finally meet him!!" "What an honour!!" and so on right across the hall...

Questions were asked freely...answers were given...sometimes freely sometimes tongue in cheek...and when the small big man rose to speak...everyone listened.
A very interesting little speech it was too. The thing that caught my fancy the most was when he talked of looking at success differently - asking the gathering to not feel satisfied with it...or measure it in terms of material benefits. Instead he proposed that success be measured in terms of the new opportunities created - opportunities that allow you to excel further and reach new levels of excellence....
I found this quite thought provoking...because I have often dwelled on what will constitute success to me...and I have my own theories on it...
To hear something new on this from someone who can be called successful(by most accounts anyway) was quite interesting....

Minorities

Two very different yet related developments have been on my mind today...

First the Nanavati report on the 1984 anti - sikh riots...and the other a Supreme Court ruling on awarding minority status to Jains.

The former shows how hollow the actions of our governments are...how little value is attahced to life. 3000 affected families still in search of closure 21 years after their lives were changed so brutally. 21 years after the massacre, this is what the victims get in the name of justice...from a government formed in the name of secularism...
Should the members of the community be blamed if they lose faith in the state? Who will be responsible if these people feel alienated and insecure? Who will be responsible if they feel threatened enough to seek their own land...isnt that what happened in 1947?? Doesnt this create an atmosphere of mutual fear and distrust posing serious threat to the integrity of the nation sowing of seeds of multinationalism or at the very least demand for even more special rights and safeguards?
I was talking to a friend and all he had to say was "God will punish them!"
Why should we have to wait for god's intervention (if such thing exists!)

Are we living in a civilized world?

The other news...the supreme court's ruling on everyone's quest to be called a minority is a welcome development. (Though in the light of the treatment meted out to the sikhs, I am forced to have doubts)

The ruling says that the practice of listing religious groups as 'minority communities' should be discouraged and the list gradually be done away with as it promotes divisive tendencies to weaken the nation. All this is true and this remains the ultimate challenge for the state...but before that maybe we need to overhaul this screwed up political system of ours..

"Mujhe Change Chhahiye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

First Impressions

Actually the title is a misnomer since I haven't seen enough to make my first impressions...the city bus stop is in the older section of the city and on the way to our hotel I found a distinct islamic feel to the city...all around are mosques and shops with names like 'Mumtaz' Furnitures and even a 'Karachi' Meat house...

This is something new for me, the hustle and bustle is all there but Hyderabad is not like other cities...reminds me more of Lucknow...
Now the DC is abt 30 kms from the hotel...thats a nightmarish thought for some one from B'lore but thankfully Hyderabad has roads (in the real sense of the word).
The city is not particularly clean, unfortunately....and the route to the office was surrounded by small settlements...quietly divided on religious lines... :(

But the city is inviting nevertheless..and i do plan to explore it with greater zeal than i ever felt for B'lore...

The food for a veggie, as expected, is just abt ok...the people are nice and friendly and so far everyone I have met speaks hindi...some with the more distinct hyderabadi flavour...

"Amaaa, kya bolte tum sir..."

Hyderabad

So I am off to a new destination...not bad in itself...Its always fun to see new places and the people that make it tick...
But leaving memories behind is not so easy either...

Anyways, The City of Pearls, lets see what you have got to show me!!!

Then And Now

I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity
I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva
I'm gonna go go go
There's no stopping me!!!

Eneumbered forever by desire and ambition
There’s a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we’ve been so many time

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk alone

Here a Blog, there a Blog...everywhere a Blog

I am not the only one to have caught The blogging bug in the past few months.

According to blog trackers Technorati in its latest State of the Blogosphere report, the number of blogs it was tracking now stood at more than 14.2m blogs, up from 7.8m in March.
That means a new blog is being created virtually every second...awesome...

Ofcourse most of these blogs die soon after...but still thats a lot of blogs..

some more excerpts from the report...

"...Thirteen percent of all blogs that Technorati tracks are updated weekly or more, said the report, and 55% of all new bloggers are still posting three months after they started"

"...What is clear is that the blogosphere is highly varied, with blogs coming in many shapes and forms, whether they be professional or for personal use. Blogs have been used as campaign sites, as personal diaries, as art projects, online magazines and as places for community networking.
Much of their appeal has been boosted because readers can subscribe to them, for free, to stay updated of any new posts automatically. "

Coooool.....

Dilbert

Someone forwarded me a cool Dilbert strip the other day in the mail...it was abt cubicles...kind of fits the typical IT employee...So I thought I will put it here and decided to take permission from the publishers.
I got a quick reply :

Dear Siddharth,

Thank you for your reply. There is a price involved with the usage of any strip. Please let me know if you want to proceed with this request.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

International Syndicate

Now I enjoy Dilbert series a lot so I was a bit disappointed with the price tag involved but what the heck.
Reading the mail reminded me of Bill Watterson (the creator of Calvin & Hobbes) . He had fought the syndicate for which he worked over licensing possibilities, which he stubbornly rejected.

"My strip is about private realities, the magic of imagination, and the specialness of certain friendships. Who would believe in the innocence of a little kid and his tiger if they cashed in on their popularity to sell overpriced knickknacks that nobody needs?"

One of his rare public appearances since he retired...

The Cheapening of Comics


p.s :
syn·di·cate (snd-kt)n.
1) A loose affiliation of gangsters in control of organized criminal activities.
2) An agency that sells articles, features, or photographs for publication in a number of newspapers or periodicals simultaneously.
3) A company consisting of a number of separate newspapers; a newspaper chain.
4) The office, position, or jurisdiction of a syndic or body of syndics.

:))

Lots happening in the IT world...

How many buttons should a computer mouse have?

Apple is coming out with a "multi - button" mouse...so to speak...even as it continues to maintain its one piece does it all design...
Continuing to remain at the cutting edge of user experience, the mouse will have five sensors, including touch sensors - to pick up left and right mouse clicks, a magnetic sensor to track movement for scrolling (that will allow for even diagonal scroll), and side-mounted sensors that act as a fourth button when the mouse is squeezed.

Internet Explorer 7 won't pass the ACID2 test

ACID2 examines a browser's support for W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) recommendations including CSS1 (Cascading Style Sheets), HTML4 and PNG (Portable Network Graphics) . As of now only Opera comes close to meeting these standards... It has been Microsoft's tradition almost - not to let standards come in their way...so it is not surprising that they are so far behind the others on this...
The test doesn't matter to ordinary users all that much but it is very crucial for web developers trying to have a common interface across browsers.

Cannonball.....

Distance between my PG and office : 20 Km (approx.)
Minimum time to reach office : 45 mins (30 mins on a lucky Sunday)
Maximum time to reach office : ??????? (3 hrs is the record at the moment)
(I can almost hear the city administrators singing "We will, we will, break it....")

Time taken to reach office today : 1 hr 40 mins

Life is goooooooddddd!!!