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

This particular phishing mail was very interesting. It claimed that I got a refund from Income Tax Department. That too of Rs 820.50. Here is the complete mail for you. Dear Income Tax Department of India customer, After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are going to receive a tax refund of $820.50 Rupees. Please submit the tax refund form and allow 3-5 days in order to approve it. A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.For example submitting invalid records or sending the form after the deadline. To complete the form , please Click Here . NOTE! For security reasons your ip may be recorded.. Thank you, Income Tax Department of India Online Department. I love the fact that they are ignorant about me being a customer of Income tax department. I think I am more appropriately a victim of IT Dept. But I was more in shock for the whether I am going to get $820.50 or Rs...

Well its was well known that mobile numbers with 8 are going to start soon . But it so happened that my dear friend Daaku took a new Tata Docomo connection. Now the amazing thing was that it starts with 805xx-xxxxx. So now if I try to call this friend of mine, my Vodafone network tells me that its an invalid number. I was confused and so I asked my friend daaku to call me. I got his number in caller ID but calling it was again not possible. Obviously its not mistake in dialing the number, rather its a stupid things that Vodafone and possibly other networks too have done. So here is my guess what has happened. Vodafone, takes the number +91805xx-xxxxx as 91 for country(that India), 80(Code for Bangalore) and 5 would be Tata Indicom as they provide landline with that series. Interestingly Vodafone seems to have not configured its network to this change which happened for mobile numbers starting with 8. I tried contacting Vodafone customer care, they seemed to be unaware of the issue...

Times of India has again done the unthinkable. Its misguiding its readers completely by its flawed headline which says Opt for e-fling tax, get discounts But whats there actually is an advertisement straight out of a leaflet from some company called Taxsmile. It says, pay Taxsmile for e-filing of your tax and you will get a lot of discounts and prizes. Thats outright stupid to have as a story. If I have to e-file my taxes should not I head over to https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/index.do . Why should I bother to pay someone else for it. And as I have for previous two years, I have found it really simple. So Times of India instead of simply explaining how to do an e-filing, has advertised for a company. Smart people. I guess Times of India is getting itself into a reputation of being an untrustworthy news source, the latest being http://wearethebest.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/25-years-moved-so-quickly-it-seems-like-just-12/ . Probably its good enough for the Page3 a...

I now try to introduce this Bill for Prevention of Moral Policing. Now the most obvious question is that why? Well moral policing is becoming a menacing problem in India now. We need to create some sort of a law for prevention of this menace. But then isnt it that nothing is going to change if I put this Bill in here. Well that anyways happens, look at Women Reservation Bill for starters, its pending since eternity now. So here I present the Bill for you. By this Act, every citizen of India is given the right to dress, act and speak as he/she wishes to unless he violates any of the laws of the Indian Constitution. Any act by a person/group/organisation to forecfully stop or intimidate any person or group from acting according to his/her will be punishable under this act. Any such action would lead to the group/person/organisation being declared guilty and would be punishable with minimum 6years to maximum of 14 years of rigorous imprisonment and/or fine upto Rs 50lakhs or actual...

Well Nanavati Commision Report is out and there it goes, as expected proving innocence of Narendra Modi and validating the BJP stand. And as expected, all the hue and cry from Congress. Well it was a similar scene, with only the roles changed when Banerjee Report came. Similar hue and cry. I wonder if they talk sense and prove things instead of making empty noises. No I am not trying to support any one, but fact is that truth has died thanks to all the politics around the death of so many. I find it even more weird that most journalists never fail to mention that more than a thousand people died and most minority(it seems like only minority in India are the muslims. I wonder where do Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians go. I dont know where the fault lies. I dont know if these reports actually did any kind of study. I dont know if any of these reports did some scientific research and tests. I dont know if all these reports were written as any Sci-Fi writer does with all the research...

Barcamp Bangalore is one of those events which I just wait for. Its a time when I rejuvenate my thought process which is drained thanks to the often hectic work at office. Also this is one place where geeks can feel at home and talk about anything under the sun. Its pretty cool that its not just Tech thats discussed but also other topics close to us, like politics and life. Like most times, the paper wiki was filled completely as soon as it was put up. I actually saw a few people going disappointed with not being able to put up their talk. And like most other times, it started with the intro session for the first timers. This time it was Pradeep BV taking charge and explaining it to the first timers, what barcamp is all about. After that it was realized that one of the four rooms were actually not available for Barcampers. Anyways another great thing that happened was that an Impromptu Sessions paper wiki was put up. Amazingly it too was filled in a matter of minutes, it was put up...

Wow this was something I did not expect. But this surely did hit me hard the first time I got through it. It seems like I could access most Airtel Broadband users routers using simple telnet. Once I was connected, all that was required was username and password. Boy and I am in. I have access to the router now and I sure can do a lot of crazy stuff with it. Wait a minute, did I say you need username and password. How would I get the username and password. Well actually not very difficult. Is it. No one ever changes the username and password of their router. Actually no one expects anyone to be able to access the router without their knowledge. But the sad fact is, anyone on the internet can access their router. Most people do not even realize that their internet connection can be easily compromised. How? Well simple steps to follow 1. Press Window Key + R  to open the Run Command Dialog 2. Press cmd (Enter) 3. Enter 'telnet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx' Where 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx...

I some time ago wrote about the amazing news stories covered by some Indian news channels . Now there is this amazing channel called IndiaTV, which will put any Indian to shame. An awesome story that it was running of late. I think a picture is worth a thousand words. So..            

I saw this amazing headlines from Economic Times, 70% Indians worry about outliving retirement funds . Well my first reaction was "Oh my God" . Most Indians would be unable to sustain themselves once they have retired. More likely they would kill themselves or die of hunger or may need government support. But then I read the fine print there. Well its a survey by MetLife. They sure do see a big market with 70% Indians not having retirement funds. But then another truth is that 50% Indians do not have funds for the next month too. Most of them survive on a daily basis. Mind it survive not live. Then again there is still a large majority who do not invest in retirement funds. Well that reminds me of people like my dad. He has no retirement funds. But then he does not need it either, just like my grand father. He did not need it. My dad is there after all to support him since he has retired long time back. Obviously same applies to my dad of course. The truth also is that yo...

Well that a provoking first line, but then thats exactly what I have to say about this company. Tata Elxsi should be blacklisted, but wait a minute by whom? Well the software developers fraternity. Its a blood sucking corporation which is right documented in the documentary The Corporation . Ok why am I telling this after almost one year of leaving it. Well when the fact is that I have nothing to do with it. I have already let out my personal experience here , here and here . Well it was not just me as its obvious from the comments but then it was general feeling of my friends there. Well all I can talk about is friends because I dont know how each and every employee of Tata Elxsi felt. Anyways heres one more story about the kind of harassment and employee of Tata Elxsi might have to suffer . Though I had read it earlier but am blogging now about solely because I wanted to confirm the news being true. And sadly it is true. An employee was indeed made to resign. And indeed its legally ...

In what could be an amazing move, the UPA government is looming over the option of revising, what means a creamy layer. This new income limit is may be upto 6lakhs Now expect loads of unqualified and spoilt kids getting into the premier institutions only to be dropped or just managing to make hoola. Beware, they might even be your boss one day thanks to reservations. I dont know how reservation and equality go hand in hand.

If you thought Indian newspapers were crass then wait a minute, the news channels are better than them. They are in a mode of one upmanship and each channel does its best to get the breaking news first. Here is a small sample of it taken from here . Breaking news 1 : Rahul Gandhi has dal-puri and veggies. Wow thats an awesome news and a must breaking news. This news has surely made my day. Now I can indulge in Pizzas to my heart content.     Breaking news 2 : Mr Bacchan has got cold. Oh so sad. May be I should do something immediately, like hang myself. Probably I should have done it before watching this breaking news.     Breaking news 3 : Ok enough of celebrities, this breaking new is about a common animal. Well the household cat aka Billo Rani and her adventures at the roof.     Breaking news 4 : If cat could be in news, then dogs cannot be behind. Here is a more celebrated dog, the Police Commissioners dog in news. This poor dog...

Well I had been to Calcutta for a few days and am back. On the trip I came across some amazing things. This is the most awesome one. At Vijaywada railway station, there are a few juice stalls. Awesome thing but heres the amazing part. But they are cannot serve all customers with fresh juice . So keep juice made from fruits in a container. But the customers want fresh juice. They have devised this unique plan. They pour juice from containers to mixer jars, give it a run and serve. The unsuspecting customers believe thats its freshly prepared and are taken for a ride. This is observed not only in the unknown stalls but also at the Comesun outlet. They all talk about selling fresh fruit juice. Well technically they are right. They are selling juice from fresh fruits but then this is an awesome art of selling or fooling. Now days theres even a better term for it, presentation skills. Obviously marketing and advertisements are out now

Well I read this story sometime back I thought it was some sort of rumor. But it seems that the software is now available to the general public via the rapidshare.com . Heres the page which has the complete application which can create gmail accounts for you in a jiffy. Though I am not sure of reliability of this app because I dare not install apps from such location for the fear of malwares and rootkits. After this report I dont trust my anti-virus to be of any help in identifying these. I would not recommend you to use it either. Here is what the application claims to do. Create Unlimited Gmail Accounts in Seconds Flat. Setup Auto-Responder automatically! Setup Forwarding automatically! Use random or custom names! Enable POP3 automatically! Proxy support: HTTP/SOCKS4/SOCKS5 Multiple exporting options! Automatic self-updating software! From the image its clear that you can either create a single gmail account or a number of them with letters or n...

A picture is worth a thousand words. Obviously simplymarry.com went overboard with the ad campaign.   Common yaar every body knows there are no beautiful girls in Software. By the way never heard anyone say Software Engineering as their qualification. What do you think of simplymarry.com now??   A few other ads which they may have A hunk describing himself as havaldar or constable. A hottie posing as PhD in science. Another hottie posing as Women Welfare executive Can u think of any other situations??

For those who do not follow news or anything let me point you to his blog . First of all he has this terrible Web 0.0 type of blog which basically sucks. Add a dash of the usual dramatics and you have a super blog. Super not because its good or thoughts are good but there a fan following of his. Thats the only reason I could see why anyone would follow his life force sucking blog. I had great respect for this guy until he wrote this post. I thought he was different when he came in support of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. He was very right. But now he has made monstrous decision. HE HAS DECIDED TO GO AHEAD WITH OLYMPICS TORCH RELAY. Wow when the world realizes to protest something we have a supporter in India other than the spineless mindless communists. I was rather happy with BJP in this regard, at least they showed some spine. Lets examine some of the finer points which Mr Khan had to make. I would like to state that I have the highest regard and respect for the struggle that th...

The current Congress government is anything but secular. You cannot be secular just because you support a minority more than the majority and other minority communities. I have always believed that BJP was more secular than the current government. Now Taslima Nasreen has given her certificate of communality to the Congress Government. "I was put under tremendous stress but I could not speak out as I was under their (government) surveillance and could be harassed by them," she said in a choked voice. "The government is no better than religious fundamentalists," she said. If you want more proof of it, you can just look at whats happening in Andhra Pradesh. Total nationalization of all communities other than muslims and the mullas are given total control. God please help us. These guys are worse than anything they can be. Please give good sense to the people of India that they kick these people out of places of power and reverse the act...

It seems like the Indian judges have got a new sense of humor. As long it had only been speculated by humorists that Court will send notices to the Gods. But a court in Dhanbad has done it . Seems like really no one is above the law. Lets see if 'Kaanoon ke haath, kitne lambe hai'(how long is hand of law). Can it bring the Gods to court? Great going India. Now look who is making a mockery of law.

A win in Australia could not be better timed. It was indeed a terrific win, but not without controversial umpiring decisions which went the India way. But surely the umpires did not ask the Captain for judgement. Seems like the Indian Mind games have finally worked. They forced the aggressive and abusive Aussies in the shell. From arrogant to subdued, Ponting and his team made good move. This is what Aussie media Courier Mail has to say "Remember that scene in one of the Rocky movies where Rocky's trainer tells him he's no longer feared by his opponents? 'Kid,' he says, 'the worst thing that could happen to a fighter happened to you. You got civilised.'" "In the space of a week the Australians got civilised...So instead of a confident, arrogant, winning team, we get a nice, civilised one. Maybe a losing one," "They should share their pay cheques with their bullying officials back home, the weak-kneed administrators at ...

I came across this article on Deccan Herald which explained the festival of Makar Sakranti or Pongal which fall on 14 or 15 of January. My initial reaction to this article was Wow. So guys before reading any further I would request you to go through the article.  Following is my criticism for the lady because I feel she has gone overboard with the scientific explanation. Something which VHP leader as well as other politicians are too good at. Prof Dr Geetha Viswanathan says All that is not meaningless tradition. There is hard-core science behind it. White-washing the house with calcium carbonate (collected from molluscan shells) helps to kill spiders and other insect vectors in house. Fresh cow dung in presence of sunlight produces methane which forms a thin film in front of our house and prevents entry of bacterial pathogens and also kills microbes. Red mud will close all pores in the house which are breeding place for many vectors. There is no way I would disagree with...