Idle/Random/whatever Thoughts of a Demented/Idle/Whatever Mind

Will jail for Salman Khan deter wildlife poaching? Thats the most stupid of the questions to ask actually. But still the CNN-IBN dared to ask . Amazing stupidity. Did Sanjay Dutt's imprisonment prevent people from helping mafia and terrorists. Its stupid that the very same people who made huge hue and cry over imprisonment for Sanjay Dutt are considering jail for Salman. Its kind of a hypocrisy to ask for imprisonment for killing a Blackbuck and not for plotting to kill hundreds of Mumbaikars . I just cant imagine the value of life of humans is lesser than the animal. Strange ways of media in India. Will anyone talk??

After two post http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-would-you-do-if-traditional.html http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-as-blogger-has-affected-someone.html I finally get to hear what I wanted. The confession of a journalist...NO A 'feature article writer' . Here is what Mrs Priyadarshini Nandy has to say in her post today And btw, I didnt form opinion on what the TEL guys told me.. It was a feature article and not a journalistic piece. I just wrote what they told me.. if you come and tell me that you have fun at work, I don't know why I should'nt believe you - then, I'd have to mistrust everyone.. What a life that would be! This statement makes it clear for everyone each of the points I had made in my first post regarding this. Let me make that once more. Do not trust Mid Day as a reliable source of information. You never know when they are writing a feature article and when a real review. Tata Elxsi made up all those stories. Tata Elxsi does not trea...

Last time around I had promised Ramjee about writing a post on Open Coffee Club and my thoughts on how to improve it. So here it is. Well I feel that OCC is a good concept. I think there may be some other similar motived events happening in Bangalore itself. But surely many do not know about it. One thing could be we could coordinate with those people, if any. Another thing is that if we are meeting fortnightly then its better we meet with a theme. Lets plan for whats going to be discussed at the meet. The interested audience would definitely be present there. Also it gives the member time to prepare themselves with ideas and questions before hand. This I think is also necessary considering we are going to meet a lot more often. I loved the one to one discussions that we had as a group after the initial talks. Though they are fruitful but then a starter is required by means of the initial talk. I will give you the example that the introduction laid ground for further discussions at the...

I had put Google Analytics code on my site. I was just going through it and I found some amazing result. It was related to the Browser usage statistics. Here it is for you. 1. Firefox 50.79% 2. Internet Explorer 44.13% 3. Safari 2.22% 4. Mozilla 1.59% 5. Netscape 0.63% 6. Camino 0.32% 7. Opera 0.32% Amazing isnt it. Firefox users pip IE out of the top slot, as far as my blog is concerned. Well my blogs is not all that famous. It definitely has its own audience. In fact a large number of those are new for my site and are from India. And my audience is more inclined towards Firefox. I myself am a big Firefox fan. I run a fully loaded Firefox with something like 39 extensions installed. Now next time somebody says that IE has a larger share then my friend you may be right, but people who surf the net most prefer Firefox more, may be marginally more. I think these...

Well I had written about the bloggers affecting other professionals . I can now very well add one more group of professionals to the list, the journalists. Yes thats another set of people who were the voice of the people, the fourth pillar of democracy are under serious threat. Had it not happened to me I would not have had got impression of that. Blogging is making the voice of the people heard directly without the the "censorship" by the so called responsible people. I had read something utterly rubbish written about life at my ex-Employer, Tata Elxsi. I just wrote my thoughts about it. Of course I would never trust Mid Day on any news, unless confirmed by some other sources. But this blog post by the journalist(I just realized its Priyadarshini Nandi who did that awesome job for Tata Elxsi), made me realize the power of blogging. Though I am not a supporter of flame blogs(This would be my first and last post with regard to this thing), I had to write this blog. Because i...

Well this is the gist of the talk that I gave at Bar Camp Bangalore 4 or BCB4 . I am sorry I am very late for that but at least I am writing ;-) It does not require some rocket science to say that bloggers are affecting some professionals. Its obvious that butterfly effect will play its role in this world. There are professionals who are really feeling the heat due to the blogging community. Well lets look at things that we, the people read blogs for. Technical Articles Rumours( All kinds) Travel Ideas Reviews The above is definitely not an exhaustive list. I wish you could suggest me some more. So who get affected by the action of the users. The very first professional who get affected are the technical writers for magazines. But then there is always the hard copy that sells. Probably thats the reason why all the magazines are moving online. They all have a online subscriptions. Sure blogging gives people the power to spread information in a more productive manner. Users do not have ...

Well this was one event I was skeptical about. I thought may be 10 odd people will turn up. To add to it a few startup people, and probably a VC. But when I reached there, 30mins late, I saw there was a large group. 60 around, thats what Ramjee told me. Anyways after the introductions there was that useless debate on how to take it forward. So many people saying the same thing, in different words obviously. Instead of taking the current thing forward people got lost in future, not very different from what all startup guys look at. Anyways the real fun started right after the event was over. People actually split into a number of groups. There was more of one to one interaction rather than a formal one. I think that was one of coolest thing out of the entire event. Well I did have interaction with a lot of people. Some of those really stuck out. One was muziboo by Prateek Dayal. I think its off to a good start. Probably he does not make mistakes that most startups do, not having a lo...

I had talked about bloggers not being trusted source of information. But its not just the bloggers or the new media which needs trust of its readers. The traditional media too needs it. But the traditional media has to its advantage belief of its reader set to trust mode. But there are several newspapers who are losing their trust each day some readers at a time. The latest one being Mid Day. I am sure that if not anyone else, it has lost my trust. All for this one article which was published on 14th August 2007 on page A21 and A23 in Mid Day, Mumbai. I being a ex-employee of Tata Elxsi know that this whole article is a fairy tale. The fact of the matter is that all the photos are nothing but a shoot just like for some movie. Tata Elxsi does not promote anything that was quoted in the article. It just seems to have come out of fantasy of the writer Priyadarshini Nandy. I having the first hand knowledge and I know the culture and the environment in which people work there. That itself ...

The true goal of the pro-quota politicians has been moved out of the cupboard by the senior advocate K Parasaran, appearing for the Tamilnadu Government. He made the true statement in court today. He said "They (upper caste) dominated for centuries and now they should suffer" Here comes the divide and rule policy of the pseudo-socialist politicians of India in full public view. Yes the Brahmins dominated the scene for centuries, now they should suffer. The cruel kings and nawabs must made to beg on the streets of India. They must realize that what they did was wrong. Bloody hell !! Ya thats the place from where you need to get these souls from on earth. What the fucking wrong did these young children do, that they should suffer. Gone are the days when the loan taken by a man continues to be paid by seven generations to come. Today a son is responsible for a loan taken by father. Well in true Deewar style I think I would like to tell Mr K Parasaran, "Jao pehle us aadmi k...

Well we had heard for long from different sources that Pakistani and Pakistan trained terrorists cross the Indian border and infiltrate to create a state of unrest. Also it was a common report that on occasions such as Indian Independence Day or Republic Day or India-Pakistan cricket match there used to cross border firing. But this time around there was something reverse happening. There were no such reports of firing across the border but there was infiltration of Pakistani air space by Indians. No it is not a bird, it is not a plane, it is a kite. With the Indians having the habit of celebrating Independence Day by flying kites. Inspite of Mrs Menaka Gandhi having strict reservations on it because it harms so many birds. But then who cares for BJP now days. Well it seems that Indian tricolour kites are among the many which are flown on the Independence day by thousands of Indians. Why thousands, simply because not all Indians fly kites. Now the point is what can be done with these ...

I wish all a very Happy Independence Day. On this occasion I wish to put on some interesting info about our nation anthem Jana gaṇa mana adhināyaka jaya hē Bhārata bhāgya bidhātā Pañjāba Sindhu Gujarāṭa Marāṭhā Drābiḍa Utkala Baṅga Bindhya Himācala ẏamunā Gaṅgā Ucchala jaladhi taraṅga Taba śubha nāmē jāgē Taba śubha āśisa māgē Gāhē taba jaya gāthā Jana gaṇa maṅgala dāyaka jaya hē Bhārata bhāgya bidhātā Jaya hē jaya hē jaya hē Jaya jaya jaya jaya hē I think everyone knows that it was composed by Ravindranath Tagore. But it was initially composed in Bengali. Later it was translated in Hindi. It was first dung on 27th December, 1911 at the Indian National Congress session at Calcutta. Interestingly there are two versions of it which are often sung. The full or the longer version takes around 52 seconds while the shorter version with just the first and last lines of the stanza is sung for around 20sec. The english translation of the same is O! Dispenser of India's destiny, thou art ...

I saw this particular article on ibnlive.com which talks about people giving their own views about freedom. I know anyways my article is never going to be featured there. Let me put it right here at my own blog. To start from whats is freedom. To tell the truth I really dont know. To realize what freedom is, you must first be in a position to not have it. But thankfully I have been blessed with freedom. I was born in a free country. My parent gave me total freedom to do whatever I wished. I took up the profession of my choice. Unlike some of my compartiates who took a particular profession because they had no other choice or their parents forced them. I have been actually blessed. Now since I have very little idea to what freedom really is I dont really feel all that confidant about blabbing about it, although this blog is meant for that purpose only. But I feel that independence is about doing what you wish to but not hurting or pushing others behind for the want of your progress. ...

It is just another of those random thoughts that keep coming to me once in a while. I was just wondering how we people instinctively typecast people into good and bad. It is usually that we make a decision within the first 30 seconds according to a research. Yes there is some research please google it out. I did not want to do any time wasting on that I leave that to you. But I am sure that this research exists. I think that a lot of factors come into play when we typecast a person as good, bad or useless crap. Profession being one of them. Now lets look at some of the professionals who give you an immediate WOW. Doctor Journalist Software Engineer(I believe this because I am one :-) Defence Personnel Sports Champs Teachers And some that get an instant thumbs down. Police Personnel Lawyers Politicians Boss, probably just yours. All kinds of brokers and agents The immediate question that came to my mind is that why is that we take people into the given cast. It is really a mind bogg...

I have read the Dilbert principle N times. And each time I have read it I have known that most profitable corporations are run not by the smartest of the people but rather the dumbest of the breed. The people who have no regard to others working under them. I have an experience of just 2 years but with added advantage of experience from Scott Adams (This link may not open as typepad is still banned by a few indian ISPs so use a proxy) via his Dilbert series of books, comics and not to mention his blogs, I consider myself competent enough to make comments about it. Say I give you this hypothetical situation where your boss is good enough to not bug you for anything at all irrespective of whether you do things right or wrong(I believe that everyone goes wrong at some point or the other). Would you do things with all that liberty that is given to your. Would you work your ass off and finish off the job, in process making some stupid mistakes(According to the Hypothesis of Scott Adams, w...

Well one of the non-tech collective that got a lot of focus was Investors Collective. I too went to get a wind of what is it all about. When it started, it was all fine. He talked about the various investment vehicles available to us. He talked of mutual funds, kinds of mutuals funds and blah blah blah. It all made sense. But then came the big opening. That guys talks of why should we invest. How many invested and made money through stock market. It was a site to see just 3 hands going up. But considering the fact that most had come to take some knowledge of investing, I did not feel uncomfortable with that. Anyways then came the real motive of that elderly speaker. He started making use of the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. The weapon which is most often used by the politicians and insurance agents. Fear, Yes fear is the most devastating weapon. It does not kill a human in true sense but the power of reasoning and understanding, something that really makes us human, is destr...

Well the first impression when you read the wiki about "Bar Camp" , I thought it would be all technical with all the geeks talking of the WOW stuff. But as it turned out, it was not all that geeky. It was a whole lot of fun and extreme sporting involved too. There were collectives like UnBand Collective Gaming Collective Investor$ Collective Bicycling in Bangalore Collective Bored of Collectives Collective Psychics Collective Eating out in Bangalore Collective Weekend getaways collective Photo Collective Bloggers Collective wow cannot call them technical, can you? Well obviously I could not attend all of those and I dont know if all of them took place in the first place. Let me tell you about some of the collectives that I did attend. Well first of all let me tell you about Bicycling in Bangalore. Well it was one of those fortunate collectives which did not get a room for good. It was held in the place where none could, it was in the corridor. It was just the right place...