Why I hate hanging around with most people

Quoted from Cynical Cyanide by xero0ne.blogstpot.com :

We love criticizing others to hide our own shortcomings.
We contrive faults in them, find excuses to mock them, conceal our hypocrisy as tafri.
We feed on their misery to make ourselves feel better.

If sitting in a group and speaking foul about those not present is what having "fun" in Social circles is all about, I despise You.

 And my comment there:

AGREED!
Another bone of contention : They keep repeating the exact same things again and again!
Understandable that nobody's really listening and they're all just there to look cool, because they laugh at the same crap the next time it's said as well.

AID Gurgaon

Featured website : Movavi

Wow! Free video conversion online -- That too, it does what all the softwares I'm trying have failed to do -- it COMBINED 2 videos into one!

Ovation 2010

Check out the pics on:

RangDe.org - an investment I'll always cherish

>>Update: My post got feattured on RangDe.org's blog! Click here to see!

A year ago, I had invested Rs.2000/- in a passionate 5-minute debit card transaction, with http://www.rangde.org website through which we can make small investments directly to help small entrepreneurs in some far-off places in India where we otherwise could not travel.

Friends and family I later talked with about this, had cast doubts on the trustworthiness and effectiveness of such setups, they poo-poohed my unwise decision and our conversation had ended there...

One year on, I'm proud to announce good news : performance is a better indicator than status and appearance.... while the huge banks of the world are having such a rut from their lending and then sucking money from taxpayers, it looks like micro investment options like RangDe are getting almost 99% of all the money lent out, returned on time.

I will let the screenshots below speak for themselves - and am glad I was able to help out a small time entrepreneur in Andhra Pradesh. I now have nearly all my invested money back and am re-investing part of it with a breakfast vendor in Maharashtra.

Climate Change vs. Armageddon (movie)

I talked recently with a quite rich and very smart shares trader who talked about the Global Warming "conspiracy" in the same way he talks about Shares - purely speculating on everything, and all his points being centered around what this and that company is Doing, rather than talking anything about what's actually happening!

People need to draw the line between speculation and reality, they need to step out of their air conditioned home, office and car when they have to think about this issue, or else it all ends up in "I don't think there's any problem! It's all a bunch of profiteering! In winter we had record cold temperatures!"

I then asked him if his parents had ever experienced a heat wave like the one right now (North India), what duration of the day it used to stay hot earlier, where did the cool summer breeze go (we only have hot wind now), and about the fact that the crops can't last when it's both hotter than usual in summer and colder than usual in winter. No reply to that, and then he returned back to speculative talk about the economics of switching to green, and how since it's about a 1000 bucks costlier, he'd rather not do anything, and there was no talk about what he plans to do When the tipping point is reached.

How do we tackle this zero-sum crap? How can people keep talking about money matters and comfort level when the food supply itself is in peril? I mean, you can have millions in stock options, and an air conditioned car and fabulous house and gadgets and everything, but with no food you're dead just the same! And the first thing that's going down in this climate change scenario is that the crops are going to die off the very day the extreme temperatures cross their max OR min limits, no matter what the "average" year-round temperature is!

And then there's the other party - "It's a natural phenomenon - all Sun related!"
Alright, so for a minute I believe you, it's all a *natural* cycle, so THEN what??

The temperatures are still going over the max and below the min limits. Storms are getting worse and more and more often. Fine, so it's all natural, Not Man-made. Ok, you win.
This question I'd like to target at every American :: YOU made the Armageddon movie. The problem : a meteor is heading for Earth. We're all going to die. So what did the people in the movie do? Did they spend the years in the run-up debating whether this meteor is man-made or natural? Did they mope around like the pussies we see today, arguing about the economics of saving the world - did anyone point out that it's cheaper if they just let it happen and not do anything about it? Did they dismiss the whole thing just because the experts were unable to establish exactly which spot on earth it would hit?

No. They loaded up some rockets with the baddest bombs ever, and blew the mother-****er out of the sky. And they didn't do it 20% or 50% or 80% - they didn't wait for complete accurate data to come in and be presented in a nice manner before they lifted a finger, they didn't wait for the thing to cross the danger zone before deciding to act. They just went ahead and saved the world.
And THAT's how you solve a problem when it threatens all life as you know it.

So how about we turn this climate change problem around as well? If it's a Natural phenomena, are YOU going to sit around and watch your world crumble? Are you going to keep postponing real action until the Economics justify it - meaning until the petroleum, coal and natural gas reserves all run out? Here's a nice quote from a TED talk : "They didn't move out of the Stone Age just because they ran out of stones."

I'm sick of these pussies nit-picking endlessly. Simple questions they can't answer, and then they start off on word quests, all resulting in nothing. I don't CARE who created the problem or about its little details - but the problem IS HERE and it's right in my face. There's a time when you gotta do what you gotta do. Solve it, or get out of my way.

Short poem for a friend leaving for further studies

A new journey awaited,
with breath bated
and dreams aloft in the air

though depart you must,
in this you can trust
as your friends we'll always be there.

Keep the faith in yourself,
leave your doubts upon the shelf,
as you step over a new threshold

Excel you will
so enjoy to your fill
the adventure that will now unfold!

10 Ideas that will change the world

Presentation I used for my 16th Speech : 10 Ideas that will Change the World

Imp info for India broadband users : many sites being blocked for no reason - change your PC's DNS addr to resolve

IMPORTANT info for all Airtel, Data-One (and maybe other) broadband users in India:

THE PROBLEM: Of late, more and more websites are becoming inaccessible - the internet is shrinking!
Just search for some random things on google images, and you will see that many of the results are leading to error, as if the site is down.
There is no real problem with the websites -- it's our ISP's (Internet service providers) that are at fault!

HOW can we know there's a problem with our ISP?
Go to a proxy browsing website like www.proxybrowsing.com, enter the same URL from there and if it works, you'll know you're on to something. The same addresses are also working fine from my cell phone's GPRS connection and mobile internet providers like Reliance. But it seems all fixed line Broadband customers in India are being affected.

Example: http://static.websimages.com/static/motifs/Waveform/yellow/yellow.css (my website was using this and has gone DOWN since last 3 days!)
If the above link returns an error, then that means you too are one of the many internet users in India that are being blocked from selected websites! (originally, it's a small text file)

WHAT TO DO : There is a way to get around the problem in just 5 mins :
Replace your network adapter's DNS servers with OpenDNS server:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
Credit to this site for the addresses. See the walkthrough below for details.

I don't know when our ISP's will wake up to fix this issue - my own website had been inaccessible since night of 7th May 2010. I replaced the DNS addresses, and instantly the problem was fixed. Please spread this simple fix to all your friends who are using Airtel Broadband or other services.


WALKTHROUGH: Follow these simple steps, for those who have Vista / Windows 7 Operating System: (for XP, skip to step 3)

1. Right-click on your connection icon (wireless as in my case, or could be LAN or other in your case)

Choose "Open Network and Sharing Center"

2. In the window that opens, click on "Change Adapter Settings" on the left pane

3. Now the Network Connections window will open up (XP Users may have a different way of directly reaching this).

It will list the various adapters etc you have in your comp, most usual being Local Area Connection and Wireless Network Connection.

4. Choose the one you use for your internet. Right-click and select Properties. The following window will open up:

Double-click, (or choose and click Properties) on "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)"

5. In the next window, in lower half, choose second DNS option ("Use the following DNS addresses")

Note down the exisitng ones in case you may have, and replace them with these OpenDNS addresses:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

6. Press OK, then OK again, and now you're done!
If needed, disconnect your internet (or switch off your laptop's Wireless) and reconnect again to complete the changes.

7. Acid test to check: Browse to this URL: http://static.websimages.com/static/motifs/Waveform/yellow/yellow.css
And you should be able to see some simple text written instead of "taking too long to respond" or other such error.

I don't know when the broadband ISP's will fix their problem, but till then, this is a good work-around. There must be some legal recourse, because by blocking selected websites they are unlawfully restricting Internet freedom and that is illegal in India as of now. (Now I know how the Chinese feel!)

Please forward this to all your friends who are using Broadband internet in India!

Idea for selling Electric cars

My comment posted on http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/nissan-leaf-battery-pack-cheaper-than-competition-375-dollars-kwh.php :

Idea for selling electric cars even at current prices:
1. A = cost of a fuel car of the same level.
2. B = fuel, + other oils, maintenance cost per month calculated depending on the customer's average driving distance.
3. C = Electric bill + maintenance cost per month if we replace the fuel with the electric car for the same distance.
4. D = Cost of electric car

Now, have a finance / EMI scheme wherein the customer pays in installments over a period of M months, such that
D = A + (B-C)*M

So for the customer, there is NO difference between having a fuel or electric car since the installments equals the fuel costs they'd have to bear. But after M months, they'll suddenly see themselves driving a car and not having any fuel expenses - whereas with their purportedly "cheaper" fuel car they'd be shelling out the dough for the whole life of the car.

So equate the fuel costs with installments and reduce the first price - There! We now have an electric car that's cheaper. I'll leave the calculations to you. I guess the value of M is key here, could you please calculate the payback period? Within reasonable limits, we can leave it to the customer to vary the installments they pay per month and so increase / decrease the value of M.

I don't think this is any original idea - for me it's a logical conclusion given that I'm replacing a high-monthly-cost product with a low-monthly-cost product. It's akin to moving from a rented residence to one I've bought. I don't think we even need to bring the environment into the picture when we try to sell this - the economics is attractive in itself.

Extract embedded flash / other file from any MS Office file

http://www.walkernews.net/2008/03/22/how-to-extract-swf-flash-from-excel-or-word/

Way to extract the SWF or other embedded file from any MS Office file!

The little things that make it count...

New look!

I've totally revamped my blog using Blogger's new Template Designer - It is So AMAZING!!
This is like a Beta feature, so it's available on Blogger in draft instead of the usual blogger. Due thanks to http://nishantranka.blogspot.com/ and http://ithinkshuffled.blogspot.com/ for the idea!

We can customize EVERYthing with this - from backgrounds to width to layout to the littlest detail! And we have a live preview of our own blog to actually see how stuff will look before applying it.
I think they've actually stolen the march over other blog sites with this tool! KUDOS to the blogger folks!!

The Illusion of security, and the disaster of chasing it

This is an extract from a TED Talk delivered by Eve Ensler, creator of the Vagina Monologues.
Although part of a different talk, I found this entire section so profound because it has a universal truth to it : We must stop chasing the illusion of security.

Here's the video. It'll be great if you can play it while reading - makes a big impact.



"I'm very worried today about this notion, this world, this prevailing kind of force of security. I see this word, hear this word, feel this word everywhere. Real security, security checks, security watch, security clearance. Why has all this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure? What does anyone mean when they talk about real security? And why have we as Americans particularly, become a nation that strives for security above all else? In fact, I think that security is elusive, it's impossible. We all die. We all get old. We all get sick. People leave us. People change us. Nothing is secure. And that's actually the good news.

This is, of course, unless your whole life is about being secure. I think that when that is the focus of your life, these are the things that happen. You can't travel very far or venture too far outside a certain circle. You can't allow too many conflicting ideas into your mind at one time as they might confuse you or challenge you. You can't open yourself to new experiences, new people, new ways of doing things. They might take you off course. You can't not know who you are, so you cling to hard-matter identity. You become a Christian, Muslim, Jew. You're an Indian, Egyptian, Italian, American. You're a heterosexual or a homosexual, or you never have sex. Or at least, that's what you say when you identify yourself. You become part of an "us." In order to be secure, you defend against "them." You cling to your land because it is your secure place. You must fight anyone who encroaches upon it. You become your nation. You become your religion. You become whatever it is that will freeze you, numb you and protect you from doubt or change. But all this does actually, is shut down your mind. In reality, it does not really make you safer.

I was in Sri Lanka, for example, three days after the tsunami, and I was standing on the beaches and it was absolutely clear that in a matter of five minutes, a 30 foot wave could rise up and desecrate a people, a population and lives. All this striving for security, in fact, has made you much more insecure because now, you have to watch out all the time. There are people not like you. People who you now call enemies, you have places you cannot go, thoughts you cannot think, worlds that you can no longer inhabit. And so you spend your days fighting things off, defending your territory, and becoming more entrenched in your fundamental thinking. Your days become devoted to protecting yourself. This becomes your mission. That is all you do. Ideas get shorter. They become sound bytes. There are evil-doers and saints, criminals and victims.

There are those who, if they're, not with us, are against us. It gets easier to hurt people because you do not feel what's inside them. It's easier to lock them up, force them to be naked, humiliate them, occupy them, invade them and kill them because they are only obstacles now to your security."

Quoted from TED Talk by Eve Ensler

And the winner is....

Quoting the Area Governor Swastika Acharya's email:

Subject: It's raining Winners!

Dear Toastmasters,

 

As you might be well aware, yesterday was the Division Contest of our Division (Div I) at the TCS premises.

 

And literally so, it was raining winners for Area I -1 with 3 out of the top 4 honours coming to the contestants of Area I-1!

 

Here are the results for you

 

International Speech Contest

 

Winner: Nikhil Seth (TCS Maitree Gurgaon , Area I-1)

1st Runners up: Amanpreet Singh Marwaha (Fluorators , Area I-1)

2nd Runners up: Saborna Kumar De (Toastmasters Commune Burdwan Club, Area I-5)

 

 

Table Topics Contest 

 

Winner: Mandeep Bagchi (SKIT, Jaipur, Area I-3)

1st Runners up: Nikhil Seth (TCS Maitree Gurgaon , Area I-1)

2nd Runners up: Danish Banerjee (BE@T, Area I -2)

 

Please put your hands together for the winners who competed with Area winners from other clubs in Gurgaon, Dwarka, Jaipur, Kolkata and Burdwan.

 

It is not possible for everyone to go back home as winners in a contest, but it was indeed a laudatory effort from everyone who came and contributed!

 

Of course none of this would have been possible without the tireless efforts put in by the Host Club, TCS Maitree Gurgaon for organising the event so brilliantly well . Fabulous work done by everyone!

 

Thanks to the support we got from the IBM team and the Fluorators team that came to support the area contestants!

 

Thanks & Regards

 

Swastika Acharya

Lets Do it Delhi on CNN-IBN

From: Let's do it! Delhi

Date: Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 12:15 AM
Subject: Lets Do it Delhi on CNN-IBN

Let's do it! Delhi

You must be the change you want to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi

A message to all members of Let's do it! Delhi

Friends

CNN-IBN will be covering the Lets Do it Delhi initiative where Anita Bhargava will be the citizen journalist. The show will be telecast on Saturday 10th April at 9:30 pm and Sunday 11th April at 5:30 pm.

The show will cover the our first clean up at Rose Garden, the clean up at Bhikaji Cama Place and our future plans. CNN-IBN has informed us that it will follow our initiative all through till our final clean up day in September.

Do not forget to watch!

Monica

Visit Let's do it! Delhi at: http://letsdoitdelhi.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

A Bottled Conundrum

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kerala-panel-holds-coca-cola-guilty/111863-3.html

Due thanks to my friend Neha for sharing this article on facebook!
It's About TIME! Every Bottled drink seller has been ripping us off, taking away the precious natural resource from right under our feet and selling it back at insane profits! Why else would it be a multi-billion dollar industry.. guess who's bearing all those costs! Thanks for sharing this!

A few months ago I came across a disturbing fact and delivered a speech on it : the groundwater levels in our country are vanishing; and strangely enough, they're vanishing by nearly the same amount as the increase per year in volumes of sales of the various bottled drinks in the country!

Some not-so-common common sense applied:

You cannot create drinking water out of thin air.

(at least not in these volumes!)

The bottled companies - every one of them - coke, pepsi, bisleri, tropicana, frooti, fana, sprite, red bull - yes, EVERY single drink that you can buy off the shelf in liquid form : Where do you think their main ingredient : Drinking water : is coming from? If they were purifying an unpotable resource (like, say, industrial waste), the COST of purification alone would send their costs up way over affordable levels. Even rainwater harvesting cannot account for the total volume that they're selling today. So what, do you think, they do?

It's simple. They suck up all the groundwater. Now finally some research has gone into proving this simple common sense fact - They are sucking out the nation's LIMITED groundwater supply for FREE (no one is charging them on quantity of water taken - they just install a pump on a well and that's it!), bottling it and selling it back to us!

The real cost?
Have you noticed that drinking or even bathing/washing water has been getting scarcer and more and more expensive? Where I stay, we need water tankers delivering it from far, far away. And when do you think this trend started?
Wake up! We're already PAYING for it! And then we're... #$#@$#@$ paying them AGAIN for buying the bottled drinks that they filled by fleecing us in the first place!!! AARHGHGHH!!

And guess who pays the ultimate price in this game: It's the common man, and the lower strata of society. They lost access to naturally available groundwater due to burgeoning middle class India's thirst for soft drinks and bottled water which the poor cannot afford. We are KILLING our own PEOPLE everytime we buy a soft drink! You're not going to like reading his, but this is what it is.

So what can we do? Well, it's simple, isn't it? We must stop buying what these bastards have been pushing into our faces, that too with our top stars endorsing them all the way to the bank! I can live without a soft drink, but my less fortunate brothers and sisters will DIE without drinking water. This much is simple and no SRK or AB or Roshan or Kapoor even Tendulkar can counter it. (now here some people will altogether forget the whole issue, get completely side-tracked and start rattling, "hey! don't attack my fav celebrity!" This is why these companies hired them, silly! To distract you! Think about it!)

The road ahead:
1. Aquaguard, PureIt, Swach, and a host of other water purifiers actually give better water than any bottled drinking water. Check out: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled/bottled-water-illusions-of-purity So go get one if you don't have it. They actually work better than you think!

2. Need a tasty drink? Make your own! The flavor ingredients are readily available in powder form - these companies just create the illusion of quality to make you buy only their drinks. Cola, rasna, Tang - it's all there - buy it, mix it with the water you got from point 1 and voila!

3. Make this the law of the land : Declare Potable groundwater as a limited national resource, just as fossil fuels are. Taking the present-day cost of drinking water, put that price on every single profit-making company that extracts groundwater - price them by the Volume that they extract. The data on absolute volume that every bottling plant produces is readily available - these guys cannot hide it - Send them the bill - the REAL cost that they were passing off to the nation's poor! Then you'll see how that pepsi bottle shoots from Rs.20/- to well over Rs.100! Don't crib when this happens - you're not supposed to be wasting your children's future water for your personal leisure anyways.

4. Like that panel in Kerala has done, start taking action against each and every bottling plant in the country - the data of how much water they've sucked out is already available (in their own published reports, that too!). Blow a litigation hole into this multi-billion dollar fleecing project so deep that every MBA and professional worth his/her salt thinks twice before joining their ranks ever again!

We can shift our Indira Nooyi's to other industries that don't suck the nation dry. But the country's talent needs to know that THIS, is just not done. All the best aerated sodas in the world will not quench your thirst when you really get thristy; they will not wash your hair or your body or your clothes nor keep you hygenic. We need our water more than we need this stuff, no matter what your favorite celeb tells you. Make the choice today, or our kids are going to suffer the consequences tomorrow.

What is Toastmasters?

http://jpkutoastmasters.webs.com/abouttoastmasters.htm

Toastmasters is the world leader in helping people become more competent and comfortable in front of an audience - offering a proven – and enjoyable! – way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills.

Most Toastmasters meetings are comprised of approximately 20 people who meet weekly for an hour or two. Participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian.

How Does It Work?

Toastmasters makes learning fun!

This non-profit organization offers a proven – and enjoyable – way to practice communication and leadership skills. Here's how it works

• A Toastmasters meeting is a learn-by-doing workshop in which participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a friendly atmosphere. A typical group has 20 to 40 members who meet weekly or biweekly to practice public speaking techniques. The average meeting lasts one hour.

• Members learn communication skills by working in the Competent Communication manual, a series of 10 self-paced speaking assignments designed to instill a basic foundation in public speaking. Participants learn skills related to use of humor, gestures, eye contact, speech organization and overall delivery. When finished with this manual, members can choose from 15 advanced manuals to learn skills related to specific interests.

Why Join?

Survey after survey shows that presentation skills are crucial to success in the workplace. Many people pay high fees for seminars to gain the skill and confidence necessary to face an audience. Toastmasters provides an option that is less expensive and held in high regard in business circles. This organization has been around for more than 84 years and offers a proven – and enjoyable – way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills.

You will…

• Learn to communicate more effectively
• Become a better listener.
• Improve your presentation skills
• Increase your leadership potential
• Become more successful in your career
• Build your ability to motivate and persuade
• Reach your professional and personal goals
• Increase your self confidence.

How you do it. . .

• Build speaking and leadership skills with time-tested methods
• Focus on areas of interest in our self-paced curriculum
• Receive suggestions for improvement through constructive evaluations

Toastmasters programs are . . .

• Inexpensive
• Interactive
• Convenient
• Friendly
• Supportive

 

What Toastmasters Can Do For You

Whether you work in a corporate environment or from home, whether you are a student or retiree, Toastmasters is the most efficient, enjoyable and affordable way of gaining communication and leadership skills.

Become a Better Speaker

Toastmasters will give you the skills and confidence you need to effectively express yourself in any situation. By learning to formulate and convey your ideas, you open a new world of possibilities. You will be more persuasive and confident when giving presentations and you will improve your one-on-one dealings with others.

Become a Leader

Leadership is the art of persuading others to do what you wish. To succeed, you need to communicate, and you need to work as a team. In Toastmasters, you’ll do both. And you’ll find out how to vary your approach to suit the needs of different people, be they the audience for a speech, the committee for a fundraiser or your coworkers and managers.

It Really Works!

Don’t worry! Everyone in a Toastmasters club was once at the level you are now. The environment is friendly and supportive, and the self-paced program allows you to build confidence with each speaking assignment.

And you’ll love the applause! Constructive evaluation is the heart of the Toastmasters program. Each time you give a prepared speech, an evaluator will point out strengths and suggest improvements.

Learn to Lead – Guaranteed!

When you visit a Toastmasters club you’ll see more than people giving speeches. You’ll see members performing various jobs in the meetings that help them develop leadership skills

One of the tools Toastmasters use to learn about and practice leadership skills is the Competent Leadership manual. This manual, which all new Toastmasters receive as part of their New Member Kit, guides you through the learning process and focuses on leadership skills you can learn simply by serving in various meeting roles. Some of the skills you’ll learn as a member include: how to listen effectively, think critically, plan a meeting, manage time, facilitate a contest, motivate listeners, mentor a member and build a team.

The manual offers 10 projects. You will perform several meeting roles to gain experience and complete each of the projects. With each role you carry out, you’ll learn an aspect of the skill covered in that assignment. Most projects let you choose which roles to serve in.

For example, one of a leader’s most important qualities is to be able to listen effectively. Active listening helps you acquire information to identify and clarify issues, make decisions, resolve conflict and be creative. There are several roles you can perform during a meeting to practice and develop your listening skills.

After you’ve served in a meeting role, a supportive evaluator gives you feedback on each role you complete in the manual. The evaluator will point out strengths and offer suggestions for improvement for your next role. And there are no deadlines for working through the manual. You complete the projects at your own pace.

Communication and leadership abilities are only a fraction of the skills you can cultivate in Toastmasters. Other opportunities include experience in marketing, public relations, event-planning and many more! You have to see it to believe it – visit a meeting today!

Sounds Interesting?

If you would like to join a club in your area, give us a call, or send an email. Is your company, university or organization large enough to support a club of its own? We can start one for you - just contact:

Nikhil Sheth
nikhil.js[at]gmail.com
9911-479900
VP Membership
JPKU Toastmasters Club, New Delhi
Website: http://www.wix.com/jpkutoastmasters/home
Blog: http://jpkutoastmasters.wordpress.com
Find our and other TM clubs' address on this map: http://tinyurl.com/delhitm

Why are you getting so offended over a horny old man's scribblings?

See here to get a grasp of the extents of this ferocity - a perfect example of what unending hatred can make normal people do.
And have you actually seen those paintings?
They look like scribblings of a child. I see only sillyness and immaturity in them, no malevolence nor any hidden agenda.

Are we justified in getting worked up over the imagination of a horny 90 year old? I think I have better things to get worked up about.
That old man has absolutely no influence over how I perceive my nation. Then why am I seeing so many otherwise normal people getting crazy about it... it's as if their religion and their patriotism is so flimsy and weak that a simple scribbling can endanger it. Sorry, but I am made of sterner stuff - these things don't have any effect on me.

At most, can you please just equate the 90-yr old to a silly child (we know for a fact that many old people's intelligence becomes like that of a small child), throw away this email, forget about it and move on with your life? Why do you want to either respect or punish the man? Just ignore him, he doesn't deserve your attention!

And why is this email demanding that the artist should paint prophet's daughter also nude... his own mother also nude.. some other countries also nude... already something was wrong, you want to make it more wrong? Is this your way of solving a problem? Are you sure you will be satisfied if someone does that?


I get 10,000 times more offended by the fact that we all turn a blind eye to this REAL painting of Mother INDIA:


Is your Campaign going to ever help these children?? They are your brothers and sisters. It is pure chance that you were not born in  their condition. Will your efforts give them clothing and food and shelter? Do those paintings have any say over these people's lives?

I am an Indian, a Hindu and I am not an extremist. I do not give a bloody crap to what anyone paints - it is the REALITY of our stupidity that offends me the most. My fellow Indians are being raped, exploited everyday and you people want to spend so much time, money and effort on a 90-year old silly old man's scribblings. First solve the REAL problems of my country, after that please go around chasing horny old men and their scribblings.
If you didn't like the paintings, don't look at them, don't attend the galleries exhibiting them. If indeed you are right in your stance, then surely majority of Indians will also do the same, and these things will go into the dustbin. But why spend so much effort in trying to ban them - it's like watching a TV channel because you hate it. Just take the remote and switch to something else! Find something better to do with your life! Make a painting more glorious and beautiful, depicting Mother India in the way YOU want it to be. And if you hate that frail old 90-year old so much, make a Nude painting of him ;). Eye for an eye, right? So painting for a painting! Forget about respect for elders or turning the other cheek - you have already been victorious in chasing a frail old 90-yr old human being out of your country, because you didn't approve of his scribblings. What more do you want? Do you want to kill him now? An old man who can't even fight back? Over some paintings? Is that all your dharma teaches you to do?

Please bring some semblance of PRIORITY of issues back into your life, solve the more pressing ones before getting engrossed in silly paintings!

PLEASE!

We need to find the truth

Watch this : Loose Change 9/11.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8510748876310097541#
It's a 2 hour video - here is the direct download link , i recommend you watch it at leisure with your eyes and ears open.
We will have to explain each and every single anomaly to prove that it wasn't a setup; and so far I'm completely at a loss. It just makes sense. This guy isn't croaking - The physical facts can't have different versions - jetfuel is jetfuel and it CANNOT vaporize titanium, that is it. Those buildings could NOT have fallen that way due to an external blow - it just makes sense. This could be the biggest lie... and if This was a lie, then everything else hence has been too. When you think how many people have died, how many billions wasted... even if wrong, this deserves a thorough investigation. I'm expecting a new war coming up soon to distract us from this revelation, but we need to press on, the truth must be revealed, or our children and the spirits of those killed will never forgive us.

Why am i bringing this up? For the first time a nation's leader has come out and stated that 9/11 was a lie. There are already plenty of intellectuals, NGOs, societies in US itself crying foul since quite some years. Read all about it: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100306/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran

Check out more on : http://www.loosechange911.com/

If this pans out to the worst, then we as Indians have a duty to do something about it, regardless of any economical or political considerations. After all, this is OUR nation's slogan: Satyameva Jayate - "Truth shall always prevail".

Where there is a will...

I'm reading lately about botnets and zombie pc's....
For the uninitiated, u can read more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet
What I want to discuss is one queer statistic - they're most widespread in the Middle East ( I read in the paper a few days back... but can't find a similar site now.)

What's the connection?

Now, I'd like readers to think beyond the obvious. This has nothing to do with fundamentalism... directly, that is. But I have a theory that may explain it, if you bear with me..

1. Mid-East is specially prone to this stuff - viruses, hackers, botnets... How? The same net-surfers that are there in India, West, etc are there as well. So how does that place have so many botnets?
2. For this, we have to look at what makes a computer a zombie pc. It happens when a user like you or me, inadvertently activates a program made to surrender all or some of the comp's controls (or at least just send a log of the inputs like keystrokes) to a remote user.
3. Where do we actually stumble across these programs? In obscure, underground, difficult named sites.
4. Now, why would a simple net user go to these sites? Yep! U guessed it - they're sex-related sites! And it's a known statistic - the most visits happen from Middle Eastern countries. Why?
5. It's because the govt's there block off access to the mainstream (and hacker-free) sex-related websites; so the users (you can count ALL the male users and most females too, please let's not imagine everybody's a holy cow!) have to go to the alternative - non-mainstream sites to fill their quota. So, more clicks to danger zones - more chances of the comp falling to hackers. The statistics say it all.

And so an interesting analogy with reality comes to light, one that I have seen for myself : When you block the sexes from mingling and PDA - they'll do it anyways, in hiding, in unsafe places and even riskier circumstances - and that is much more dangerous and harmful. I guess it comes true for virtual world too - in an unexpected way!

So what's this about? Are we right in banning the public, hacker-free "inconveniently hot" websites in the Middle East, and curtailing public show of affection (in India too) ? We cannot stop the human mind from going where our very genome takes us. With such bans on open, legitimate and safe means; people will turn to unsafe media. And then we'll end up hurting the very people we wanted to protect. There is a saying :

Where there is a will, there is a way

The reason why these quotes are universal, is because they are. When you ban a certain medium or thing, another way will be sought. And in these two cases, the alternatives do more damage than the previous one could have.

If you truly want to stop something -whether pornography or public indecency or even terror, a ban or similar method is a silly knee-jerk reaction. We must use our minds, find better alternatives, engage the mindsets of the people we want to protect. Tackle the will, or those you wished to stop will certainly find another way.

Invention by Indian scientist : Bloom Box - to generate electricity at home 24hrs

An Indian scientist based in US is about to launch the "Bloom Box" - a device capable of generating very cheap electricity 24X7, using his special fuel cells. The details are very secretive; and the official site launch is in....

http://www.bloomenergy.com/

http://www.dailytech.com/Is+the+Magic+Alternative+Energy+Bloom+Box+for+Real/article17752.htm

CBS 60 minutes managed to get a sneak peek: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

It turns out companies like Ebay, Google have already bought the product on a large scale; Ebay says they saved $100,000 in electricity bills in 9 months.

Killed for no reason

List of those dead in Pune terror attack

Most of them were around my age, enjoying a fun Saturday just as I was at the time. Why did they have to die, and for whom, for whose bloody cause? What is the use of having a culture, a religion, when it kills these innocents? I would rather be rid of it all than watch more people perish. I feel like we are the least evolved of all species on this planet, because unlike the others, we still keep killing our own. It doesn't matter how many verses you've learnt, how much you give to charity, how regularly you pray. When we kill an innocent, it's OVER. That very instant the perpetrator loses his/her religion completely. The very first tenet of every religion is "you must not kill". That is number one priority. Everything else comes second. When will these people get it? It doesn't matter what else you do, if you violate this law, you are OUT!
This has to stop. I don't care for what cause, I don't care for what reason, can we please just stop killing and try something else instead?

TED - Ideas worth spreading

This site is just amazing ... inspiring ... mind-blowing!
The talks here are literally life-changing! Stop watching TV, switch to TED and don't stop until you've devoured each and every talk you can click on!

www.TED.com

The latest talk I watched : an inspiring speech by J K Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure

Why Dell Laptops aren't for geeks

We recently came across this problem when trying to create a partition on a friend's DELL Laptop in addition to C: Drive. We shrank the C: Drive using Vista's Shrink Volume feature in Computer Management > Disk Management. That - worked perfectly. (surprised??)

What happened next was frustrating for the friend. There was a nice big unallocated space just waiting to become a shiny new drive; but we couldn't bring it about. We'd right-click it, Create Volume.. select all the options, and finally couldn't do anything.

Here's a screenshot from a very similar laptop. (posted on forums.techguy.org)

The reason for this was the Dell Laptop's pre-configuration : It's already made a whopping 4 primary partitions! Of these, first and last ones are stupid small ones made for the laptop. And then there's C Drive and the Recovery Drive.

Don't blame just Vista for this - you can only have 4 maximum primary partitions on a hard disk. No matter what OS you're using. To break that barrier, what you need to do is to make the 4th partition not as a primary one but a logical one, wherein you can put in as many logical drives as you want. This is related to boot sector hanky-panky stuff, not worth DELLving into here...

So, it seems all Dell laptops - at least the Inspiron ones - come with 4 partitions created, leaving literally no room for multiple partitions. And that is why it's now a brand on my Blacklist! How can they do that?? How DARE they do that??

Anyways, the last partition - pre-set by DELL and invisible with no name - is 2.5GB's and it's for MediaDirect feature - playing DVD's without starting windows.
So, you want to sacrifice the multi-OS, multi-partition potential of 1000s of laptops for the sake of a "play DVD without booting!" feature. Very nice.
You can read more about it here.

Anyways, since all 4 partitions are DELL-made, my friend is currently very reluctant to delete any partition. With that, with 4 primary slots taken, there's no way we can use all that nice unallocated space. No backup, no alternate storage, no dual OS.

But, I'm advising my friend to DELETE the annoying last partition - the 2.5GB MediaDirect one. There are debilitating fears of impending doom... "Nooo, don't mess with the established order! I might lose everything!"

Well, thankfully now I've found someone who went ahead with it, deleted off the annoying bugger, and had a system stable enough after that to create a brand new drive, and lived to post the screenshot!
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/719064-mysterious-hardrive-partitions.html

This post is a tribute to all those not afraid to mess with the status quo. No Guts, No Glory!!

And now, to all my friends investigating new laptops for purchase, Please, make this little check:
1. Right-click My Computer
2. Click on Manage
3. Click on Disk Management in the left pane.
4. Check if you see 4 dark-blue-topped blocks next to Disk 0.

If yes, WALK AWAY!!

Ambi Freeze!!

Take a look at what I recently took part in!!

AMBI FREEZE: Delhi's First Biggest Flash Mob Freeze:Go Green or Go Freeze: GO SCREAM

My Favourite Firefox Add-ons

Using Firefox without add-ons is like... a cake without creammm... mmm....

Tab Kit - blessing for wide-screens, it turns the horizontal tab bar into a vertical one (that can also auto-hide) and color-codes and groups them. Now having 30+ tabs open isn't a headache at all!

Screengrab - screenshot tool right in your browser! You can copy to clipboard or save direct to file. Choice: Grab the screen, just an area you can mark, or, the WHOLE PAGE (however long it is!!) into one single image!

Firefox Throttle - place a speed limit on bandwidth usage (browsing and downloading) - so your youtube session doesn't retard the net speed for others sharing your net connection. Also, keeps a count of MB's, very useful if you have a limited net connection.

Flashblock - replace all flash with a Play button - see it only when you want to! Ideal for conserving bandwidth!

Adblock Plus - Live a web life free of all annoying, intrusive ads! If everyone had this, the www would totally cease its ad profits!

CoolIris - Browse image and video galleries on a 3D wall - you have to see this one to believe it!

Flashgot - Integrate with any download manager!

DownnloadHelper - Download ANY streaming video or mp3 from ANY site! If you can cache it, you can download it!

Nuke Anything Enhanced - Remove anything on a web page  while keeping everything else intact.

Auto Shutdown - set the computer to shut down as soon as downloads complete

..and many more...

Red Alert :- Global Warming

WHAT WILL CLIMATE CHANGE DO TO OUR PLANET ?

If global warming continues at the current rate, we could be facing extinction. So what exactly is going to happen as the Earth heats up?
1c Increase :- Ice-free sea absorbs more heat and accelerates global warming; fresh water lost from a third of the world's surface; low-lying coastlines flooded.
2c Increase :- Europeans dying of heatstroke; forests ravaged by fire; stressed plants beginning to emit carbon rather than absorbing it; a third of all species face extinction.
3c Increase :- Carbon release from vegetation and soils speeds global warming; death of the Amazon rainforest; super-hurricanes hit coastal cities; starvation in Africa.
4c Increase :- Runaway thaw of permafrost makes global warming unstoppable; much of Britain made uninhabitable by severe flooding; Mediterranean region abandoned.
5c Increase :- Methane from ocean floor accelerates global warming; ice gone from both poles; humans migrate in search of food and try vainly to live like animals off the land.
6c Increase :- Life on Earth ends with apocalyptic storms, flash floods, hydrogen sulphide gas and methane fireballs racing across the globe with the power of atomic bombs; only fungi survive.

Multiple uses of solar lamp transform an Indian village — Doc Channel

Multiple uses of solar lamp transform an Indian village — Doc Channel

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology | Video on TED.com

check this out!!!
Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology | Video on TED.com