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!!!

Rekindling an old dream...

[ Mood : Contemplative ]
[ Song : Roadhouse Blues ]

I know the song doesn't match the mood but thats what I am listening to right now.
Well I have taken the plunge, atleast for now...I am preparing again...for CAT. Even as i wrote that I could sense all the hesitation that has taken me over recently. I have found it difficult to commit myself to the effort and time needed...but commit I must!!
It will be difficult ofcourse...knowing that I may not have anything to show for it in the end. But there is no way out, afterall this is what I want and I wont get there unless I go for it, Right?
It is almost sounding like an incoherent drivel...:))

The future’s uncertain, And the end is always near.

Windows Vista

Microsoft on Friday finally brought an end to the 'Longhorn' and a new title is on the horizon...literally...Windows Vista.
Thats the title of the next version of the long overdue OS from the Microsoft stable. Its been 5 years since their last release, Windows XP (personally I am happy with my Win2K Pro).
The company stopped short of providing a launch date for the new version, though it won't reach us before next year.
The new software is going to sport a new graphical interface, giving it a new look and feel, and enhanced security and communications features.
Lets wait and see...

Communalism in the 40s

Have been reading "The Dicovery of India" and its been a great read so far. Especially thinking about the times it was written in...seems India was so much more dyamic then...in the sense that so many people were working together for a common cause...

I came across a passage where Jawaharlal Nehru discusses the communal issues...his understanding of the communal problem is so much superior to the leaders of today...or maybe the leaders of today just shut their eyes and make plans to exploit it (Mulayam Singh Yadav is a prime example). His writing brings out his love for the nation so clearly that I feel a bit sorry that I had reservations about his being the first PM....more on that some other time..

This is what he had to say :
"The Communal problem, as it was called, was one of adjusting the claims of the minorities and giving them sufficient protection from majority action. Minorities in India, it must be remembered, are not racial or national minorities as in Europe; they are religious minorities
... There is no dispute about the usual provision for minority protection, such as the League of Nations used to lay down. All those were agreed to and much more. Religion, culture, language, the fundamental rights of the individual and the group, were all to be protected and assured by basic constitutional provisions in a democratic constitution applying equally to all.
... What remained? Fear that bigger numbers might politically overwhelm a minority.
... Having assured the protection of religion and culture,etc., the major problems that were bound to come up were economic ones which had nothing to do with a person's religion.
... It was not clear how even a majority could injure the interests of a huge minority like the Moslems, concentrated mostly in certain parts of the country, which would be autonomous. But fear is not reasonable."

Planet with three suns!!!

How would it feel if we had 3 suns?? Sounds wierd but I guess that would have seemed normal then!!
Well apparently a planet, slightly larger than Jupiter, has been discovered that has a 3 - Star System! It orbits the main star of a system known as HD 188753 in the constellation Cygnus ("The Swan"). It is about 149 light years away... hmm thats close!!!...sometimes the sheer size of the universe overwhelms me, I mean what are we but a mere speck of dust in the scheme of things....
The picture is an artists' rendition of the planet and three stars, as seen from a hypothetical moon, courtesy ( http://pr.caltech.edu/media/trinary_sunset_small-1.jpg )

The Signs

Somehow the book 'The Alchemist' has been drifting in and out of my thoughts since yesterday...not that I am a huge fan of the book or anything...it just has been there somehow!!

Especially the part where the Alchemist tells the boy to follow the signs all around him, signs that will ultimately guide him to his destiny.......and I have been trying to understand the signs around me.
It seems to me that they are pointing to a direction which I once desperately wanted to take but now am hesitant to pursue. The hesitation is not so much in the choice as it is in the effort that will be required...which i once had put in with zero returns.
I have come to a stage where I can't postpone it any further...and need to make a decision one way or the other...
Which direction will I take??

To the Moon & Back

I am back from Delhi, back to this mundane lifestyle, back to this insipid existence.
It was good while it lasted, nine days of mega - fun with family and friends.

Now the clock is reset to zero and I start counting the days before I will get a chance to be back home...

Religion and State

Now this is a touchy topic, most people dont feel comfortable when discussing it.

Well educated and rational people often start defending the indefensible if it happens to be related to their religion.

These thoughts swirl in my mind as I think of Imrana bibi; raped by her father- in-law, the interpretors of Islam and Sharia suggest that she can no longer live with her husband or children as she has come in sexual contact with a blood relative of the husband. Hello? I thought she was the victim here...

Infact this is what the head of the local masjid of the village where Imrana belongs to has to say on the issue:

"After sex with her father-in-law, the girl has become haram for her husband. According to me she should accept her father-in-law as her new husband and her old husband as her new son."

Wasnt the torture and humiliation of the rape enough?

There is a debate raging through the country and different versions/interpretations of the Sharia are coming out almost daily. But my point is do we even need to have a debate on it? Shouldn't it be an open and shut case of rape with 7 yrs for the father-in-law as the law of the land perscribes? How can religious law take precedence over secular state law. Are we going to treat victims differently based on the religion they belong to? Isnt this the most blatant form of communalism?

Its nauseating to see a country with ambitions to participate in world matters and social justice across the globe not even able to handle such a basic requirement for her own internal well being.

As for Imrana, I can't even remotely imagine her plight. I wonder if she curses herself for even raising the issue in the first place...

Homeward bound

Homeward bound
I wish I was...AM
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting (Actually I will be waiting for her...:) )
Silently for me

Ok the song doesn't quite fit, but still this is the song thats playing in my head as i prepare to get going. A lot has happened since I last met my family and friends. My di is engaged, my dad is better, some friends have moved out of Delhi, etc etc...plenty to catch up on. Am feeling really upbeat about this visit probably because I am going back after 4 and a half months!!

Yay!!! Mamma I am coming home :))