Holiday Squashed!

A very happy new year to all followers, non-followers & accidental visitors. Being as this might be the last year civilization may survive(/s), I have decided to try some new things.

Today's new thing is to try and come up with a new dish. A recipe of my own. This has two fold advantages:

1. I get a backup career option.
2. I get to work with chips.

So without further ado here it is:

Recipe: Holiday squashed

Ingredients

2 or more consecutive holidays.

• 2 or more wanna-be social chipmunks.(aka Duckfaces, or those on the way to ADD)
• 1 tag-alonger. and Finally
• Chemical X - The deadly digital or compact camera.

(Source: www.flickr.com/photos/gummypiglet/5471150170/)

Directions 

1. Obtain a Mr Tag along, Pappu, who has a long weekend & wishes to combat the rising boredom levels that his slow office net can no longer kill. He decides to use the bank balance which he usually swims in to go on a small getaway with his social chipmunk friend Tina.
2. Tina is thrilled at the idea and asks if she could bring along Nina, social chipmunk no. 2. Pappu tags along not knowing of the horrors that await him.
3. The fateful day arrives and the trio land up at their intended destination.
4. At that moment, Nina removes from her purse an object so shiny it blinds our poor Pappu. It is none other than, Chemical X - The digicam. Tina asks if pappu has any water with him as she didn't have any room to pack in the bag.
5. From that moment onwards, to the rest of the trip Pappu's is the functional equivalent of a tripod stand capable of clicking repetitive "profile pictures" automatically.
6. Pappu's patience wears thin, but suddenly if God took pity on his plight, a glimmer of hope, the 8GB memory card is finally exhausted.
7. Even though both physically and mentally tired Pappu finally feels happy that he can enjoy the rest 47 hrs of this weekend.
8. At that moment, Nina brings out the bulldozer that rams through Pappu's soul like WWE wrestler Yokuzona rams through Anand Bhatia. Pappu faints and is rushed to the hospital.
9. The doctor informs his friends that their friend has suffered a stroke but wonders what could have caused such a thing on a holiday.
10. Nina casually wonders the same replacing the 32GB card she had kept as a backup.

The End.

Democracy derailed...

Banal is what the bored bourgeois would describe the brouhaha of the blarings between the two sides of the "Anti-Corruption" bill. Billowing steam and exchanging rhetoric is what seems to be happening between the two from ages now. A simple chart would show how levels of excitement peaked and are now visibly waning.

I'd like to make two distinct points which can be simply inferred from the above graph:

• Clarity of objectives and a focused approach when protesting are a must.
• Social media campaigns do not correlate with actual public groundswell. It simply reflects what is "cool". "Hey, that girl I like has a FaceBadge against corruption; let me get one as well."

Let me clarify from the outset, my stand on the whole "Anti-Corruption" morcha(Campaign). I am totally against this sort of "Blackmail politics". It is a very valid point that if two public personalities hold two fast on opposing sides, it is impossible to come out without being the bad guy. This was exemplified recently when two public figures related the Telangana statehood and United Andhra(If my memory serves me right) fasted to death until their demands were met.

In short, fasting, though typified Gandhiji's Satyagraha, is not a very useful tool in modern times. The "Anna camp" had an opportunity to rise and strike when the iron is hot(Around April 2011 as it appears from the graph), but then again, this would have set a very bad precedent shaking the very ideal democracy is based on: Government by the people i.e. the government is a reflection or a cross-section of the people. Instead of arm-twisting a lethargic government, a better option is to introduce a bill for MP recall, similar to what US politics allows for, and is currently being pursued in Wisconsin against Gov. Walker. This keeps the politician on their toes and not take their "gaddis" for granted, without needing to resort to blackmail.

Another spectacular failure(or on the way to failure) is the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Again, here too the demands and reasons are genuine, but lack of clear demands, and a strong united voice, allowed the movement to be derailed too easily.

What the organizers/participants need to understand is one simple term: Attention span, which brings me to my 2nd point: Social media campaigns are only as useful  as long as they fall within the attention span of the common public. That means the general urban populace, as the intricacies of the Lokpal bill would be lost on the rural masses(or instead to put it correctly, there are more graver things affecting the rural population). A very interesting research paper by Nicholas Carr, Wired magazine, May 24, 2010 12:00 pm. seems to suggest how neural pathways have been "rewired" with mass bombardment that the Internet yields us. But that's straying away from the main point. Basic funda: If you want to go outside of the constitution, try to finish your business before the movie gets too long. Like how the Egyptians did in removing their monarch swiftly. Too bad they went from jumping out of the frying pan to the fire.

Moral of the story: Make it quick & clean. But bear in mind, the long term repercussions of such unconstitutional fasts can be more harming than the short term illusionary benefit of a Lokpal.

My fair lady...

The other day I was reading an article written by a well-known Indian columnist. It tackled the admittedly dicey issue of the moral depravity of the peddlers of skin care products in India. I however, have a slightly different take on this.

In an age where mother earth is bursting to its seams with populations it cannot support, one needs of new & innovative ways to leave an indelible mark in the pages of history. The not so mentally gifted of Miss R Sawant ilk, tend to do this by being boisterous and noisy in general. Some others, being naturally talented find their lives ruined by unwanted media attention. There is however a vast majority in the middle: The common man.

The common man, is your average Indian, middle class upbringing, a bachelor's degree at max. and then thrust into the mileu of the Indian economic "powerhouse". He/She tends to have a steady job, a mundane life and not many growth prospects the "right" way. On the other hand, he is bombarded via the Idiot box with incessant stories of fame & fortune, the likes of which he can never hope to earn in his lifetime. All of those personalities, seem to have, an X factor one might say, which got them to their current positions. Some have family connections, while other have ravishing looks, while others are filty rich playboys with dozens of arm candy by the side.

Family connections are mighty hard to produce, and a lack of wealth is what drives the common man to seek out other ways to "stand out". So he/she pursues the 3rd option, albeit to a reduced degree. In a population of over a billion, wherein the skin color brown is as common as sand in the Sahara, an easy way to look "different" would be to be born fair. This again not being in one's control, one turns to miracles via  "fairness creams" sold by so-called "exploitative manufacturers". The common man acheives this to a fair degree and is more or less happy with the result. I must point out that the standing out bit does seem to work at least in job interviews and if one tries to gain that advantage then there is nothing wrong with that.

What escapes me however, is the claimed exploitative nature of this process.

The consumer had a need: I need to look different. Most people here are brown. So easiest way to look different is to be white, or fair.
The producer has a product: Take thee this, and thou shalt be fairest of them all!

A simple demand-supply pattern forms which drives the fairness creams economy. This is pretty similar to how tanning saloons work in the western hemisphere, where the common color is white. The people there desire to be darker, and tanning saloon meet this need. Nobody bellyaches about the "exploitation" of the masses there. Its the consumer making the choice, and consumers with TV watching such ads are knowledgeable enough to make an educated decision. The not-so-educated ones are pretty much those in non metro areas who tend to be well read in the holy books and know very well of the color of our holy Gods, and that if they choose not to look like their Gods is again completely their decision.

The product was advertised as shrewedly to exploit the demands as is any other product and I fail to see why it should be singled out or banned outright.

What are your thoughts on this?

P.S I am a grad student and am in no way related to any cosmetics company whatsoever. For what its worth, I don't use any cosmetics as a personal choice.

Access Android wirelessly without USB

In this small tutorial, I will show you how to access the contents of your Android phone wirelessly.

What I am using in this tutorial is a rooted Samsung Galaxy 3 running Froyo and a computer with Windows XP. Of course, there is Wi-Fi. If you want to know how to root a phone, you can read about it here.

I then installed an app called SSHDroid. There is a free version as well as a paid version available. The free version is ad supported - so it won't work if you have ad blocker app active. If you do have one, then just disable ad blocker for some time. (Restart the phone after disabling ad blocker to ensure it works. It hadn't worked for me before) Turn on your Wi-Fi.

Once you run SSHDroid, your phone is available to be accessed via Wi-Fi. Now you need to access it from your computer - There are various ways of doing this, including command line. I prefer to use WinSCP - The same tool that you use for iPods and iPhones after Jailbreaking. You can download WinSCP from here.

I download the portable version- you can download the other one too. Then just run WinSCP - Enter the IP address of your phone... If you don't know this, SSHDroid will tell you anyway. Enter the user name as 'root' and password as 'admin'. Connect!!

Your phone and computer are connected wirelessly without USB cable.

*CAREFUL*

You can access not only your memory card but everything - including system files! So be careful

In the path, click on the first slash or navigate upwards till you reach the root. Navigate to the SDcard folder - you can see your entire memory card contents there. You can use WinSCP for copying, moving and other operations...

You might also like...

How to root Android phone

How to connect to Linux from Android

Titbits and Not so general musings.

First post of 2011! A very happy new year to all regular and non regular visitors! :)
Posting after a  long hiatus feels very weird. Instead of a long, well thought out piece, I intend to post several small thoughts to get back into the groove.

• Conformism and related ideas.                                                                                                               

          Many a times I tend to see myself as too much of a conformist, a person who is influenced both by other people and by general trends, a bit too easily perhaps. Most of the times I am able to convince myself that most of these "beliefs/practices" I give into, generally have a good reason/logical foundation. However, there are times I feel like a bit of a wuss, and try to find comfort by trying to find out chinks in the ethos of anarchists, or more specifically, those who live by the credo of being different. Taking this thought further, one can see that such mavericks, who live by only their self beliefs, and not to please others, have arisen out of a general distaste with social pressures/politics. Hence,albeit in a roundabout way, they too have been influenced by the behavior of group, an implicit reaction of which, has been to tread their own path. So we see the non- conformists, in a way are conformists as well! :)

•  Corruption/Red tape saves our monuments.

           The other day in the bus as I saw the mess made by the recent metro project, I was reminded of how much time it had taken for it to go from the drawing board to actual groundwork( some 20 years). In the process, it had caused the closure of several historical places, from shops to gardens. In a way, the slow pace of development of the metro, had allowed us to enjoy those places longer than we could have, had the works proceeded efficiently and without red tape. One of the things which money and progress can’t bring back, is heritage of a place or the memories associated with it. One can now go from one modern city to another without making out much difference between them. Mostly this happens because progress tends to apply the same filter to all places. Ultimately, it makes all places look much the same. So thank our corruption for slowing down actual work, so that we still have enough time to cherish/save such important landmarks. :)


One parting thing I'd like to preach, which I've been practicing off late.

Be honest with yourself about everything. :)

Thats all for now folks!  Feel free to give me your ideas on current and past pieces.
See you soon with more.

• 
  

Chrome OS - Will it result in a paradigm shift?

Swami Nikhilaananda said:
"Pfffttt... all this hype about Web OS makes me wonder"

With the recent release of the Google Chrome OS, a web operating system, the whole world is geared up to see if there will be a paradigm shift in technology, in the way we use our computers and operating systems, and so on.

So, what's a web OS anyway?
If you use a desktop or a laptop, you make some changes in some files on your system. Then, the changes are only on your system. The files are saved on your system. A web OS however, stores your files on some thing known as a cloud, basically a central repository, and therefore becomes device independent - You will be able to access these files from anywhere.

That sounds cool, doesn't it?
It definitely does sound cool, but frankly it is not. Why you ask? Let me give you a simple example. In my company, we work on something known as a VM - A virtual machine basically. The actual system is centrally housed in the United States. I go to office, connect my laptop to the network, use Windows Remote Desktop tool and connect to the system in the US. I complete some work, close the session, shut down my laptop, and come back home. Once I reach home, I turn on my laptop, turn on the VPN, complete the connection and use Windows Remote Desktop connection to resume my work - The desktop of the Denver system again opens exactly in the same state as what it was in... Same as a cloud, don't you think?

We have always been using the cloud growled Larry...
Larry Ellison of Oracle has always said that cloud always existed and doesn't understand what the hype and hubbub is about. Frankly, nor do I. The Chrome OS is not going to be as revolutionary as it is made to sound. Yes, there a large number of great applications to use - But, I can do the same with Windows as well, just like what I told you about previously. Yes, there are some differences with the existing Remote Desktop and this one, in the sense that there will be a break in continuity the moment network goes off, whereas in Chrome OS, you can continue to work and the sync will happen when network resumes.

Hey, what about collaboration and simultaneous working?
Sure! But these things can be done with conventional operating systems using Chrome and its applications, or even with other browsers.

Conclusion
Chrome OS will definitely not result in a paradigm shift - Linux has a far far greater chance of dethroning Microsoft because it has a greater deal of power and is on the same lines as that of Windows. A web OS is for people, exactly as Google claims, who spend time on the web, sending emails, chatting, updating messages on facebook and blogging. And this will not replace everyone's systems - Sure, it will result in an add-on to the existing operating system, but nothing as revolutionary as claimed.

Debates - Logic and Emotions...

Swami Gulagulaananda observed:

"An argument without emotions clouding is a right argument"

An argument arises when there is a topic of discussion, and there are two sides to it - Each side will want to prove that they are right. Arguments are some times conclusive - In which case, something can be concluded. For example, murder mysteries, court cases, etc. Others are where there is nothing to be concluded - An example would be where opinions are concerned - I might find something nice, you may not. Here, there is no right or wrong, but there are still two sides.

However, there is one thing that is important - An argument is not flawed as long as emotions don't play roles in it. A debate is perfectly executed as long as people are logical in their approach. However, very often, emotions start creeping in - After this, personalities start getting attacked. A simple example would be where one person targets the other person's weakness... "Yeah, but when you went begging back to her, where was all your dignity huh?" That is an uncalled for statement in correct arguments. The purpose of an argument is to judge correctness - Not to win.

Often, people attack the opponent by making insinuations and tangential statements - Hinting something obliquely. And emotions creeping in is not just by making statements. It also plays a very important role in your way of speaking. Just yesterday I was talking to some friend of mine, who was talking about the irritating way in which a friend of his responds to a case where the other guy is wrong - You can say "Hey, that's not right because..." OR you can make a really disgusted face, make a mocking voice, indicating that the mistake is not a commonplace one thereby hinting that the other person is a fool, and saying "Haa what the heck is this? This isn't the right answer" With the former, the one who has made a mistake will analyse why it could be wrong, and thinks about the possibilities. In the latter, the ego of the person gets hit - Thereafter, he doesn't really care much about the correct answer - Instead, he will try to prove his point - Either by saying he is right, or by attacking personalities and using swear words. This is a poor way to proceed.

Unfortunately, another thing that we see is talking without facts - We end up making blatant statements, which are often unsubstantiated. We have no idea if it is true, but in the heat of an argument, loose comments are made. Another fallacy would be one where the location of arguments is not fully studied. Arguments in public is one that should be avoided (unless you are invited by Times Now :P) because, again, you end up trying to safeguard your ego because a lot of people are watching you...

An appropriate way in which a debate should flow is one where points are made, points are disproved, opposing points are made, and so on... An argument in which emotions start playing roles, raising voices, using swear words, hitting below the belt is a failed argument. Unnecessary rise in temperatures is involved. Another mistake is - Assumption. Certain meanings are taken although they might not even have been remotely intended.

Then there is the second type - Opinions. Every person is entitled to opinions. Now, unless the opinion is based on a false premise, such as anything misconstrued, one can never disprove that, and arguing against this is baseless and incorrect. A simple example is - A person says that doing MS is pointless because of very high costs involved. This is his opinion. Then another person tells him that getting funding is possible that will enable him to do it smoothly. Then, his opinion changes. An opinion of this kind can be changed, because he didn't know certain facts earlier. However, if a person says that he doesn't like a certain song, it is an opinion that cannot be altered. You cannot convince him because there is nothing there to convince. If YOU on the other hand like a song, then good for you - However, trying to say that the song is good would be pointless, because the first person clearly disagrees. An argument of this kind should be avoided as it results in nought.