Say Nah-NO to Tata!

The recent controversy in Singur about the land allocated to Tata Nano project received widespread criticism from all quarters of the society except people belonging to the Trinamool Congress party.

“Clearly Anti-Development” cried one newspaper. “West Bengal is pulling down India’s image as an investment friendly nation.” lamented an editorial. “The dream of millions of middle class people to own a car – squashed and murdered” said a thoughtful journalist.

It was as if the entire nation was up in arms against Trinamool Congress. Tata’s knee jerk reaction of “pulling out from West Bengal” was met with expected gasps from everyone.

As George W. Bush Junior once famously said, “You are with us or with them!”, anyone who is not excited by the very concept of a cheap car like Nano is automatically thought to be a Mamata Banerjee devotee.

I hate Nano. I am not a sympathizer of Trinamool Congress. And I don’t idolize Mamata Banerjee. If you feel this is an impossible situation, I don’t blame you. We have been brainwashed by the media for years that Small Car is Good for Middle Class Indians.

Why am I against Nano? To start with, let us talk about Global Warming. What exactly are we doing to arrest this menace? Sunderbans are going to disappear. The Government itself released a report a couple of days ago predicting a grim future for our coastal economic hubs such as Chennai and Mumbai. The report says that the “refugees” from these two cities will make the in-land cities such as Hyderabad and Bangalore even more congested.

Can the infrastructure of these cities keep pace with the incoming millions?

The answer is an emphatic no. When the ailing infrastructure of these cities (Chennai and Mumbai included) is unable to handle today’s crowd, how can we expect them to ramp up on a war footing basis to accommodate the multifold increase in the number of people?

Alright. Maybe you don’t believe that Global Warming is a reality. (There are people who say it is all hogwash.) Even then, the infrastructure vows of these cities are appalling. At six in the evening a drive from Tolichowki of Hyderabad to Himayat Nagar of Hyderabad takes about an hour. The distance covered is hardly 10 kilometers. Thanks to a booming economy and increased buying power of the metro Indians, traffic on the already choked roads is growing at an alarming rate.

Everyone wants to drive a car. Everyone wants to drive a luxury car. Public transportation is a taboo word – rightly so. The buses are in dilapidated condition. The local train service doesn’t cover even 1% of the office/school going crowd.

Now, imagine what Nano can do to this situation. A car for 1 lakh – a budget that quite a few motorcycle owners can stretch to. This will lead to an uncontrollable increase in the number of vehicles plying on our battered streets. If you think you’ve experienced bad traffic jams, wait till Nano makes its debut.

The Nano Jams…

At a juncture when the focus should actually be on improving the public transportation system, reducing the carbon footprint we leave behind and discouraging gas guzzling four wheelers, we are all awed about Nano – the potential death knell to the environment in this part of the world.

Mamata Banerjee may not have thought about all this. However she did the right thing. Nano should be driven out – not only from West Bengal – but from the entire world.

iPhone 3G, Steve Jobs and “I am Rich!”

I have been reading a lot of articles about iPhone 3G these days. Somehow I can't get enough of it. A couple of articles made me literally roll on the floor laughing.

Let me talk about them.

If you own an iPhone 3G, you can buy third party apps for it, through iTunes. However there is a catch. All such third party apps need to be approved by Apple first. And guess who approves these at Apple? According to a report, probably a rumor - It is none other than Steve Jobs himself. Apparently he cannot trust any of his deputies to do this highly skilled mission critical job. Hail the dictator!

Ok. Maybe we should not believe such preposterous rumors. What is evident is that the team which authorizes these iPhone applications is very small and is commanded by none other than Steve Jobs.

As a fall out of this, there is an insane wait period for getting your application listed on the App Store. It is around seven to eight months! There are hundreds of wonderful Apps and games out there waiting to be listed.

But maybe this is all for the greater good. When you buy an App from iTunes, you are assured that it is a great App and that it is not Joker! Yes? Hell no! A very creative App titled "I am Rich" has found its way on to the impregnable Apple iPhone Apps store. This happens to be the most expensive App ever - with a price tag of 999.99 USD. (Why this price? Because that the maximum price limit set by Apple for iPhone Apps).

All that this application does, is to display a bright red ruby on your phone. When you click on it, it displays a message "I am Rich." The idea is that if you have this application on your phone, it signifies how rich you are. You have spent close to a grand to earn that title.

What can be sillier than this? Guess what! Eight people actually bought it. Some of them were perplexed, it seems, because the application did nothing much. They complained to Apple whining that they didn't buy it intentionally and that it was a mistake. Last checked everyone needed to enter his or her password and confirm the purchase on the App Store. So how they ended up buying the App "unintentionally" is a mystery best left to Sherlock Holmes.

Well, finally Apple relented and pulled the application off the shelf. It reportedly refunded the amount too.

My opinion? It is a very creative thought by the developer. If there are people willing to buy the application why take it off the list? The application has already undergone a screening test conducted by none other than Steve Jobs!

"I am Rich" may not be missed by people but there are a couple of other applications that met the same fate as this one. There's an app that allowed your iPhone 3G to be used as a Modem so that you could surf the net from your laptop. This is in direct contradiction with the contract Apple has with AT&T. (Such a blasphemy! Intelligent Customers are taboo!) So the application was pulled out.

Question to Steve Jobs: How did it get into the App store in the first place?

The so called impregnable App Store apparently has a secret passage or two. Nothing else can explain the need for the "Kill Switch" that Apple put on the iPhone 3G. The phone calls home (Cupertino, 1 - Infinite Loop) periodically and checks a list of "Harmful" applications on the iPhone. If there are any such apps, the Kill Switch swings into action and kills the application on your phone - All this without your knowledge. (Till date, this list is empty by the way.)

Questions to Steve Jobs again:

1. If every application on the App Store is authenticated by Apple (Steve Jobs in particular), what is the need for the Kill Switch?
2. When you said "Harmful" who exactly is it harmful to? AT&T or the actual consumer?
3. What is the policy for killing an App or approving an App to be on the App Store?
4. If Apple can sell Apps to Indian Consumers, what is stopping it from selling iTunes music to the consumers in India?
5. Why disable Podcasts for Indian consumers?

Steve Jobs again is the talk of the town these days... apparently for non-technical reasons. His health has been called into question. The rumor mill is working over time saying Jobs has cancer. The investors are tense. The problem is, there is no strong second-in-line for Jobs. And if Jobs himself has to approve each and every App that wants to get on to the App Store, I don't know what will happen to Apple in the post Steve Jobs era. I hope Jobs is doing fine. May he live a thousand years healthily. But may he remove the dependency on him as soon as possible.

A hunch at the back of my mind tells me that the iPhone 3G is a great entertainment product... Not just for the users but for the entire media world. They are not going to stop talking about it for years to come. And there will be many a rich "I am Rich" App that will entertain us - iPhonians or Not!

Kuselan – Movie Review

I have a strange problem. I cannot watch a movie if I miss the start - even if it is just the display of the censor board certificate.

Therefore, I leave two hours in advance - to factor in the unbelievable traffic snarls of Hyderabad. However, as luck would have it, I do not actually run into any such jams and end up at the movie hall one-hour early feeling like a complete dufus.

The movie starts promptly at 7:30pm.

Before I go any further, let me state this: Rajni Kanth does not have much of a role in this movie. So if you are thinking that this is a Rajni paDam, wake up and smell the decaf! The hero of this movie is Pasupathy. Rajni only has an extended guest role.

The first hour is incredible. The titles are imaginatively shot. Pasupathy gives a stellar performance as a poor but upright barber in this fictitious town. You see only the barber and not Pasupathy. Kudos to him. He should win a national award for this performance.

The movie starts its downslide the moment Rajni Kanth enters the scene.

Did I just say that? Did I say that Rajni heralded a downslide? Never thought I'd live the day to tell you this but let truth be spoken. Rajni the superstar is the main reason why this movie will not be seen in the theatres after three weeks.

Where do I begin? Just to cater to the larger than life image of Rajni, a beautiful little story has been tweaked, raped, defeated - all in the name of "Commercialization". There are sequences that are meant to provide comic relief to the audience but they end up being crass. I have no idea how the movie managed a "U" rating but some of these "funny" scenes are downright X rated. Take my advice: Do not take your kids to this movie.

Vadivelu, I believe, is still a force to reckon with in the Tamil industry. Here he seems as if he is long past his sell-by date. It is excruciatingly painful to sit through his assault on our intellect in the guise of "humor".

But wait! The desert does have its oases. Now and then, you are transported back to what the movie is actually about - the barber. These nice little sojourns to the main theme provide you with the much needed relief and equip you with enough firepower to withstand the idiotic sequences coming next.

The so-called "moving" climax falls absolutely flat - Thomas Freidman would vouch for the flatness of this debacle. I never thought I would say this but Rajni's histrionics in the climax are painfully artificial. He delivers a speech and in the middle, he breaks down. Instead of pumping up the emotions, he successfully manages to send the audience bursting into laughter. You see Rajni Kanth there, "acting"... You do not see Ashok Kumar (the character he is playing) breaking down.

On second thoughts, I do not think it is acting at all. It is more like hamming.

And then, the actual showdown - the moment of truth - the coming together of the titans - the emotional clash of them - the disbelief in the audience - the tempting rage to pull your hair and run out like a rat set free from the cage... Alas! I am running out of adjectives and words. You have to see this movie to understand what the feeling is all about.

Here is a golden rule that the makers seem to have forgotten. There are no "art" movies and "commercial" movies. There are "Good" movies and "bad" movies. The good ones entertain people and keep them riveted to the seat. The bad ones too entertain people - in a clownish way.

Kuselan is one such clown. No offence to the original Kuchelan!

Pasupathy's brilliant portrayal is rendered useless by the insane script.

Stay clear. Skip the DVD.

My rating: 1 out of 5.

The New Way of Life

Of late my blogging habit has taken a beating. I am spending more time watching TV, reading news on the net, discussing movies on the umpteen discussion boards out there and watching movies on DVD than ever. Last night, The Divine Light spoke to me in a thunderous tone that I was ignoring my core competency. That set me thinking in the middle of the night.

I love blogging.

So why am I not blogging that often these days? There are reasons several. I have gone through a lot in my personal life in the last one year. My views on life, God and charity have changed drastically and simply put – I am a different person today. It is all like the transformation of Robert Pirsig’s Phaedrus (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - . Phaedrus memory is wiped out clean and he is given a new personality.)

OK, maybe not so much but you get the idea!

But I still love blogging.

Today, I am starting a new regime of life.

1. Wake up at six in the morning as against nine-thirty. (Check: Successfully completed.)
2. Go to the nearest park to do some brisk walking. (Check: Successfully completed.)
3. Shun coffee. (Till now, successfully resisted).
4. Update blogs! (A friend tells me that you don’t write blogs – you simply write posts on your blog. In other words, you keep updating blogs.)

There! That should explain why I am sitting in front of my laptop at seven in the morning sipping a God-awful green tea.

I must confess, the walk in the park was not exactly a cakewalk for me because my legs were simply not used to that kind of a physical exercise. It was a great enlightening experience though. I never realized I was physically this unfit! I should do this more often and I am sure it would do wonders to my bulging waist line Aha! That’s the main reason, you know. When all your life – you are slipping into 32s and suddenly one day you realize you need at least 34, realization dawns upon you and you are in the park before dawn breaks to fulfill your brisk walking promise.

I hope I would be able to sustain this new way of life. My friend has been quitting cigarettes for a long time and every time he breaks the vow, he sighs and tells me that he is able to resist the first sensation of craving but can’t handle the second one.

If I wake up early tomorrow and if there is another blog from me sometime this week, I consider myself traveling in a different boat. A better one at that.

The Mantra: Wake up and don’t smell the coffee.

Good day ahead to you folks.

Open Source India Week - Bangalore - Day One
This is Venu reporting about the opening day of Open Source India Week from Bangalore with no camera person :)

Woke up at 5:30am and got ready by 7am. Did not want to miss any part of the event. And did not want to underestimate Bangalore traffic. Got into a Celcab at 7:10am. Reached JRD Tata Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science by 8am.

They were sweeping the floors. I stand corrected. They were preparing to sweep the floors. The early morning sun was trying hard to squeeze into the dense trees found in the campus.

Never had the brains to get into IISc the student way. So I thought I would take a leisurely walk around the campus. The campus was beautiful. There is a marked difference between organized lawn/garden management (a la Infosys) and the forest like atmosphere found in IISc. I instantly fell in love with the surroundings. If only I could trade my cubicle for a desk under one of those trees... Sigh! I should have studied harder in B-Tech and got into an MS program here. Damn! Realization comes in ten years late.

The canteen was yet to open for the day. So I went back to the Audi.

Note to self: No Coffee! WTF!

It was around 9:15am by the time I completed the registration. I thought I would go to the Audi early and catch some nice seat. I was the first person to enter the premises. Three more followed suit driven by my courageous act of entering the deserted auditorium.

9:30am- Total strength: 8 members. No activity yet. The session by Klaus Knopper was supposed to start at 9:30am.

9:42am- Total strength: 15 members. Still no signs of starting the show.

9:48am- Total strength: 10 members. Somebody comes in and boots the laptop. The overhead projector comes alive and we are all treated to a nice looking WINDOWS start page.

9:54am- The Knopper couple is in. The fiasco with Windows XP was resolved and a more agreeable Mandriva session is projected on the screen. Well and good. Looks like someone is testing the Microphones too. Wow - I believe something's gonna start pretty soon.

10:00am- Klaus steps on to the stage; apologizes profusely as he fumbles with the connections to his laptop. Couldn't this have been taken care of by the organizers?

Note to Self: Klaus has an Ubuntu laptop!

Alas! The projector won't budge; won't work with Klaus. It flatly refuses to show what Klaus has on his laptop. No one has a clue. All are standing on the stage white faced.

Klaus then perfectly rises to the occasion; ditches his presentation; walks to the middle of the stage and talks eloquently about Open Source. He doesn't require a presentation and has a mesmerizing speech up his sleeve. The topic? "Why Use Proprietary Software?"

He rattles off quite a few reasons but only the following two stuck with me.

1. Everybody is using it. Hence every other body wants to use it. (Windows)
2. Unavailability of Games!

And I thought he would tell me something really serious! His speech basically explains to the informed audience the various meanings of the phrase "The Power of Habit". He says that Games are not popular in Open Source because of the following reason: <i>Open Source guys don't pay for a copy. They pay for an upgrade or for the future!"</i> Game Industry works at the other end of the spectrum. Each copy is supposed to be bought by the customer - because that's their business model. Since this model is not in line with the Open Source philosophy, there aren't many games out there.

I am impressed Klaus. I really am. Actually you should have paid more attention to the balding guy standing right next to the stage when you were uttering those priceless comments about Microsoft and Windows. That guy is from Microsoft and he is waiting patiently to deliver his lecture on Open Source. (WHAT?) To his credit, the MS fellow managed to keep a straight feace when Klaus was skinning Microsoft alive.

Now it is time for Q&A. One VIT fellow asked the cheeky question: "Do you really think Linux UI is as good as Vista UI?"

That brings in a period of complete astonishment and silence. After recovering Klaus tells the VIT fellow about how KDE/GNOME is far better than Vista UI. He tells him - excited in the same way as a five year old kid would who has just been exposed to XBOX 360 - that "3D desktops are cool". Uber cool you know!

Another question from a Linux geek: "Why offer Windows versions for Open Source softwares like Open Office? Aren't we compromising by doing that?"

Klaus answers: "We'd like everyone to have absolute choice. Moreover it makes the eventual migration to Linux - fast and easier!"

He signs off with a nice comment: If it is Open Source, anyone can support it. (Anyone who knows it). If it is proprietary, only the vendor can support it. (Because others won't know a thing about the software.)

Amidst thunderous applause he leaves the stage and Mr Rohit Kumar Rai - from Microsoft walks into the limelight. I am skeptical about Microsoft's presence in this forum. However they are one of the Diamond Sponsors of the event. So they should get a chance to voice their opinions. I try to be as neutral as possible.

Microsoft's Talk: "Open Source @ Microsoft"

Rohit talks about Open Source quite eloquently. To his credit he is a great orator and knows what to talk and what not to divulge. He is quite candid about Microsoft's interest in Open Source. "We are not a charity organization. We are profit oriented. All our objectives should be aligned with our company goals." he says. In his opinion, Microsoft is genuinely interested in working closely with Open Source community to resolve interoperability issues and to ensure these open source products run well on Windows.

So Microsoft's real interest is in ensuring that people can stay with Windows even if they want to use the Open Source products?

He tells us all about programming for multi core processors. He talks about Hashkel programming language which is supposedly Open Source. Microsoft has obtained two Open Source licenses approved by the Open Source community. They are almost the same as LGPL and BSD. In fact I am yet to find a difference. If any of you have an idea where these licenses differ from LGPL and BSD, please let me know immediately.

Microsoft has its own cute little open source team, which takes care of their own version of SourceForge - CodePlex. This was launched to fill in some glaring gaps found in SourceForge it seems. There is no version control of the projects and there is a lack of a good repository for documents and file management in SourceForge. CodePlex supposedly addresses all those gaps. "It was a need that we had to address" Rohit says. (Not his exact words but that's the meaning.)

I have a question on this but a gentleman in the penultimate row throws a tantrum before I voice my opinion and tells Rohit in a quivering voice full of emotion that Microsoft is doing a great disservice to the world of interoperability by bringing in a new document file format OXML when there is already an established ISO format ODF readily available. Yawn!

Rohit plays the usual line: Customers expect choice. These two formats can coexist. We are committed to support ODF too. We have converters available.
Yawn again!

That gentleman firmly says that he is happy India voted against Microsoft's format. Rohit smiles and tells him everyone is entitled to his/her opinion.

When I finally start with my question, the organizer hurriedly steps in and closes the session as we have already crossed the grace time.

Anyway - my question is this: Why didn't Microsoft offer to plug in those gaps found in SourceForge? Why did it have to come up with an entirely new "Open Source" project repository? It could have worked with SourceForge people and made SourceForge a better product!

Alright - I will send him an email :) and hope to get an answer.

If you are interested in knowing more about Microsoft's Open Source initiatives, please head to http://www.microsoft.com/opensource

Don't just write them off. The last speaker of the day has a lot of good things to say about Microsoft.

I come out of the Auditorium and visit the stalls there. First stall belongs to Microsoft and the reason it attracts me is the attractive young lady womanning the stall. I go there, she gives me three puzzles which I solve. She gives me a Laser Pointer as a gift. Thank you sweetheart. How about a cup of coffee tomorrow?

Then I head to a talk about John Smedley, from Ingress. He is quite a guy! He gets all irritated if questions are asked. He growls and swears at people "Lunch time! I am starving." Yes I know he is kidding and I know it is all in good humor but he overdoes his part there and gets on to everybody's nerves.

In his marketing talk about Ingress (Titled misleadingly as - Open Source Software Appliances - while in reality it is nothing but "Ingress is best; Ingress is best; Ingress is best") he says that his company delivers high performance "software appliances" that solve all the problems of his customers. Suppose you are looking for a Data Warehousing solution, earlier you would have to buy a system, load an Operating System on it, hunt the market for the perfect RDBMS solution (Ingress is the best) - get all the reporting tools for the RDBMS - customize them and deal with a whole lot of vendors for support. Now Ingress in all its wisdom has come up with the concept of a "Software Appliance" - which is nothing but an OS, a Database, All the reporting modules and the support required for all these - in one single installable package. (How does one install support?)

"What do you do when you get a problem with the OS? Dial our friendly call center. What do you do when the DB doesn't work. Dial the same friendly call center. We are 24X7. It means that if you get a problem on Friday evening at 7pm, you don't have to wait till Monday morning 9 o'clock to get it resolved." John Smedley has a twinkle in his eyes when he says "24X7". He is so proud of it. Come on John! This is the 21st century and we are in 2008!

The question by one of the irritated listener - "John do you have a software appliance for document management too?"

For this question, John is wide-eyed first and gapes next. After this dramatical theatrical histrionics he says in a la Phoebe Buffet - "Yes and No". He then explains, "Yes, we have an appliance ready. No it hasn't crossed Alpha stage yet."