Next time you walk past a mirror, stop & reflect.

Look deep into those eyes for a glimmer of something real. Break through that facade that has taken several precious years to build. Through all the limits that the world has put on you. Take a good look at yourself.

The most interesting thing about you isn't the people you have surrounded yourself with. It's not the assortment of gadgets that adorn your fingertips, pockets or desk. Neither is it the long list of books you've read and several others you own, merely for others to comment upon. Nor is the rather eclectic taste in music that the pinball machine of life have bounced into you. The sips and dips you've taken, places you've gotten lost in or even whom you hooked up with & when.

It should've been you - just you. But you've lost yourself in incidentals. Thrown away yourself only to replace it with the byproducts of your existence. You became a showcase, instead of a person - with whatever you've got, perpetually on display. What you are suddenly was skin-deep and then it got ugly.

Maybe you were ashamed. Ashamed of who you were. It was fun to pretend you weren't anymore, but what truly changed? You or just a new mask? Wearing it, hoping that nobody ever comes into your life to whom you'd have to bare all? Keep it on forever?

Maybe you'll try. Maybe it was better than being nothing in the eyes of others. I said, maybe.

But just remember not lose all you've collected - at any cost. Because once you've lost yourself, that's all you got. That's all you got.

posted at: 02:13 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, rants, philosophy

Deepavali was yesterday.

And I'm sure I haven't lost my hearing (or what I'm hearing are just echoes).

Anyway, Happy Shabdavali !!

posted at: 12:43 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, festivals

I'm officially starting to refer to Microsoft Office Open XML by its new acronym - MooXML. Its progress through the ISO process looks like a salmon rush - but it looks like a fish, moves like a slippery slippery fish and steers like a cow (with apologies to the late Douglas Adams).

Superb Standard: And then Miguel goes and calls it a "Superb Standard". Basing most of his justification on the fact that a large quantity of existing OO.org code can be re-used to implement MooXML - take a guess why that is so. And just because the current code can handle "autospace like Word95" specifications (IIRC,the 'sz' node) is no reason to call MooXML a good standard. And multiple implementations only add to the mess, with everyone including the creator interpreting the standard as they please. Implementing it would be yet another game of 'chase the lamespec' (well, grep -i lamespec mono-svn/).

Most people who have complained about the specification has been struck down with the "let the implementors speak". But somehow it seems odd that such a specification which has been sped through ISO got a 'YES' vote from *Cuba* - a country where Microsoft (and any other US company) is prohibited from exporting any software to. A good, proper standard doesn't really need a ballot stuffing to get approved.

I mean, I've previously commented about Miguel losing relevance in the world of Free software. But this time, this is not about his opinion or Novell's patent protections - in fact, not even about the format, but about the standard for an editable document, which renders the same everywhere.

So, don't say MooXML, say NoOoxml.

posted at: 01:42 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, rants

No, this is totally different from sticking a crayon up your nose, but the results seem frighteningly similar. If I seem a little less than well disposed to people who flaunt an iPhone, want an iPhone or even worse "need" an iPhone, it all begins from the first few minutes I had an iPhone in my hand.

Sometime during OSCON, I dropped onto a sofa in the lounge. And suddenly, the cushion started to vibrate. I put my hand into between the cushions and pulled out a bright shiny iPhone. Despite multiple cries of "that's mine" from various unlikely sources, I was just holding it up for whoever to pick it up.

And then this guy in a suit walks up and says "I'll take that and thanks for not stealing it". I mean, with a self-satisfied tone, assuming I would want it ? And I wasn't the only one indignant about that, in fact, one of the women (rrichards's S.O ?) around actually took offense and pretty much demanded an apology.

And then the guy turns on his heels & walks away.

I mean, I've found phones in all kinds of strange places before. I've returned phones (yes, in plural) which have cost over a thousand dollars (in return for a coffee). I don't ask for any reward, but at least, I don't need to be insulted while I do someone a good deed.

I think one of the php dudes started referring to that particular person from that point onwards as "the guy who had an iPhone up his butt". And the name stuck.

As much as I adore the iPhone's multi-touch zoom UI, the early adopters who have slammed down six hundred big ones for the phone seem to have a large proportion of shallow hipsters, which automatically triggers a smug alert for me.

So, if you have an iPhone & consider this unfair portrayal, blame the guy who "introduced" me to this particular stereotype.

posted at: 12:42 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, rants

After much thought and inaction, I've compiled a quick list of basic things you can do at work to reduce your tangible value to the company (coming to a bank account near you, soon !).

• Answer questions on devel forums
• Write a technical blog
• Live the company values
• Write cool hacks
• Have a serious hobby
• Contribute to an open source project

All of these things shout out that you have too much free time. If you send detailed, well thought out answers to a question on a devel forum - you aren't working hard enough. If you've got time to write a decent blog about technology - you aren't working hard enough. If you actually live the company values (for instance, like I do) - your irreverance and sense of humour do not suit a professional in this business. So is going around your product managers to actually build something that you personally like, without any input from the product strategy team - that's not what you get paid for. And hobbies - they waste your time and cost you money. Without a hobby to spend your disposable income on, you won't need as much money as you're asking for now.

But the last one takes the cake. Assume your full time job involves working on an open source project. Now answer me this, "what *competitive* advantage does your work bring to this company ?". After all the code that you write automatically becomes available to everybody - irrespective of who paid for the development costs. Code thus released drops to near zero value and ergo, the process of creating it ...

These should just about work, but YMMV.

PS: I'm being seriously *sarcastic* (or tersely ironic) here - these things are a potential investment in your betterment, do them,
be a better person and as the Bhagavat Gita said - Karmanye vadhikarasthe, ma phaleshu kadachara (do your duty and expect no reward).

posted at: 23:45 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, rants, work

Really, I need a word for this concept. ESR might have gotten his just desserts with such efforts as Everybody loves Eric Raymond, but I still need a word to describe ex-programmers who have looped into their own brain-stem for feedback.

The urge to find a suitable word (in the spirit of The Meaning of Liff) came from reading Miguel De Icaza talking about Mono. I've been watching that project from its very beginnings and I've not been impressed by the way Miguel deals with anyone who doesn't toe the party line. Slashdot comments put it a bit more bluntly than I'll care to be.

A Sharp# Divide: I was quite saddened when I read jdub's blog post today about the gtk# ribbon SoC submission. Building new composite controls in C# basically makes the widget useless for other languages as it cannot be wrapped easily into C, python, java or $insert_language. But it does make sense for Miguel to suggest it as because it makes people want to use Gtk# over something like java-gnome or php-gtk (*cough*).

Wrapper Hell: Now, if you look back at the history of mono, you'll see that avoiding the multitude of hand-coded wrappers was the so called rationale behind mono in the first place. Read his 2001 interview and the part about "Making Programming Interfaces Language-Independent". Now pull yourself back to today and look at Jdub's blog post. I can see why Miguel is losing traction with the rest of the community, albeit after 5 years or so of work on Mono.

A GPL'd Java: With the emergence of Java as a proper f/oss VM subsystem, I don't think there is any need to introduce an unacceptable risk in the form of mono. When you combine a decent fork-mode java VM implementation (i.e start VM, JIT compile classpath, listen on domain socket, fork for each application to reduce memory footprint with multiple VMs), with a bunch of decent wrappers for C-based GTK widgets - you can create a non-sucky Java user experience. I don't see the point in pulling along mono in a world with Java, python and whatnot to develop gnome applications (read last three words again till the point is taken).

Honestly, I do have a huge axe to grind about Mono in general (because of my brushes with lupus and miguel while working on dotgnu) - but the project is doing some decent work in re-implementing .NET system libraries, which is in fact a good thing. My only beef is with pushing mono into gnome and peddling it as a target platform for F/OSS applications ( tomboy, f-spot, muine etc...).

So, like I said ... I need a new word.

posted at: 12:12 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, rants

Divisiveness is never something to be encouraged in any community - online or offline. Regionalism is one of those toys for those first crude attempts of Salami Tactics. The introduction of imaginary lines, dividing where no division existed, pulling in foreign boundaries into an otherwise level ground is one of the first seeds of discord that you can seed a community with - especially where physical meetups occur out of band. People who've met each other physically generally interact better and this can be easily misinterpreted as a regional or language bias.

God knows there have been wars fought over much less. And there was one on #linux-india because I got involved - with me getting most of the abuse. But here's some history behind the story - some idiot was spamming #linux-india in 2005 (*some names changed to protect the guilty (and/or innocents)).

**** Dec 13th 2005

*   vIkSiT has changed the topic to: crazy day at #linux-india the ban 
    list doubled in a matter of minutes || /bin/flame > /dev/chill

<lunatech>    vIkSiT: some people thought that the ops (i.e me) 
               were too leniant
<lunatech>    in not kicking people out at slightest provocation
<t3rmin4t0r>  slightest ?
<lunatech>    that was a major reason why I did not give ops to $culprit
<lunatech>    t3rmin4t0r: after the things spiralled out - he was 
              kicked out
<vIkSiT>      why?
<lunatech>    vIkSiT: why to which statement ?
<vIkSiT>      he was kicking people because they were flooding? :)
<lunatech>    no, he was asking for ops, but I did nit give it --
              he started ranting about how the channel was own3d 
              by north indians
<vIkSiT>      he actually SAID that?
<lunatech>    hehe - yes
<vIkSiT>      good god

Now, fast forward to present day - when things have not changed much, as the events would prove. But right now, it is quiet out in the west frontier.

** Chapter #1 - where tazz is a power hungry maniac ... NOT !

<tazz>         Lap_64, i would suggest you do a '/msg chanserv access 
               #linux-india list'
<techno_freak> tazz, for ?
<tazz>         for the good of the channel
<$culprit>     50 members - vow
<tazz>         so that you can see that my name is not in there and
               when the ops here ask woh wantes to be an op here 
               you can vote for me.
<tazz>         comeon Lap_64 i am just a power hungry maniac
<$culprit>     tazz are you from north of the vindhyas?
<tazz>         no i am from the west of the mumbais
<$culprit>     tazz: then you have no chance of becoming an op
<tazz>         hey i have dreams and hopes you know

Now, I've got a good memory - a very good memory. It is not like I've never been sour grapes about being denied anything - but sooner of later you've got to stop throwing tantrums and grow up. I'm nobody's personal shrink, but the above conversation drew a picture of someone pouring in tiny blue drops of bitterness (everyone knows jealousy comes in green) into the common well of wisdom (*narf*) that is #linux-india.

** Chapter #2 - t3rmin4t0r acquires magical op powers

*   ChanServ gives channel operator status to t3rmin4t0r
<tazz>        i wanna be op!, i wanna be op! :-S
*   t3rmin4t0r has kicked $culprit from #linux-india (I need to be born 
    exactly where ... ?)
*   t3rmin4t0r removes channel operator status from t3rmin4t0r
<brainless>   what did $culprit do ? !
<t3rmin4t0r>  heh, he said that you need to be born north of 
              the vindhyas to be an op here

There are a bunch of people in this world, whom you could respect, if only they'd shut up for a while - ESR comes to mind, immediately. These are people who are not only senior to you in age, but in terms of age in the community - people whom you expect to be calm, mature and mellowed. But there are often exceptions which prove the rule (or compensate for it) - even people twice my age.

** Chapter #3 - $culprit unleases his insults 

<techno_freak> omg, $culprit is saying he wont return back
<segphault>    techno_freak: I am damn sure he will

*   $culprit (n=$culprit@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) has joined #linux-india
<techno_freak> ahh
*   techno_freak grins at segphault

<$culprit>     t3rmin4t0r: in my opinion you are an immature rascal 
               unfit to be in this channel
<$culprit>     or any channel
<$culprit>     op is a priveldge given to people deemed to be mature 
               enough to protect a channel

*   segphault feels like nostradamus

<$culprit>     unfortunately at times ops are given to petty minded
               people with a chip on their shoulders who like to 
               flaunt their authority
<tazz>         t3rmin4t0r, was harsh in kicking $culprit out.
<$culprit>     not  harsh - a juvenile display of his unfitness to 
               be an op

<$culprit>     why the hell did they make a madrassi an op?
<segphault>    $culprit: t3rmin4t0r is a veg mallu - madrassis come in 
               different flavours -- like sambar
<brainless>    $culprit, well maybe they are not well represented in 
               the op clan ?
<segphault>    I propose a quota system to fix this issue of ops 
               representation.
<$culprit>     but no more madrassis - and t3rmin4t0r should be de-opped

Funny, isn't it that the same man who was b*tching about people from south india not getting ops is complaining about some madrassi being an op. Yes, the thing I like about these conversations is their consistency of content. But either way, I'm at the pool table (@office) for the period of that conversation - which leaves enough room for other conversations.

** Chapter #4 - "I am codier than thou" quoth the raven

<$culprit>    that woman is a girl who has not contributed a line of code 
              to foss - like her friend empty_mind
<empty_mind>  $culprit, she has contributed far more to Creativecommons 
              than anyone else
*   floyd_n_milan doesn't understand why only `code' is considered as 
    contribution 

<empty_mind>  $culprit, <blank> is not a computer geek she is a writer
<$culprit>    empty_mind: tell her to stick to writing
<empty_mind>  $culprit, it is stupid people like you who piss away serious 
              contributors
<empty_mind>  $culprit, she is sticking to writig and contributing more 
              than you have contributed
<$culprit>    what happened to that mallu  clown t3rmin4t0r ?

After the random quarter of the continent insults, it starts to get personal - so I'm putting that part off the RSS feed. Let those who want to dig into the steamy underside of IRC life in #linux-india click the link.

** Chapter #5 - insults get personal

<t3rmin4t0r>    what else can I talk about @ a college ?
<empty_mind>    t3rmin4t0r, loads of things
<t3rmin4t0r>    "Do as I say, not as I do" is so hypocritical
<$culprit>      $culprit kicks t3rmin4t0r
<$culprit>      t3rmin4t0r: is the ultimate hypocripte
<t3rmin4t0r>    $culprit: yeah, I took the Hypocrite's Oath
<t3rmin4t0r>    no run of the mill hypocrite, I am
<$culprit>      t3rmin4t0r: you are a cheap asshole
<t3rmin4t0r>    $culprit: exactly how am i an asshole ?
*   empty_mind watches $culprit's cheap rant again

<t3rmin4t0r>    for good, return good
<$culprit>      in every way
<t3rmin4t0r>    for evil, return justice
<t3rmin4t0r>    so if you think I'm a cheap asshole ... let me not be
                the one to judge
<empty_mind>    t3rmin4t0r, "return NULL " to $culprit
<t3rmin4t0r>    $culprit: I still don't understand what you've got against me 
                or anyone else in this channel
<t3rmin4t0r>    but what goes around, comes around 
<t3rmin4t0r>    if you can't deal with it, don't dish out and so on

*   HereBeDragon didn't get the feeling that $culprit has got anything 
    against anyone
<$culprit>      except that mallu asshhole
 *   empty_mind thinks $culprit forgets he is not in a court room
<$culprit>      t3rmin4t0r: why did you kick me from the channel?
<t3rmin4t0r>    because you said something idiotic about people's birth 
                places and channel ops
<t3rmin4t0r>    now, if you can't press /rejoin and take a joke ... I 
                don't know 
<t3rmin4t0r>    is your problem, I guess
<t3rmin4t0r>    drag politics into this channel and start saying 
                regionalistic things about "above the vindhyas"
<$culprit>      t3rmin4t0r: has licked bihari ass and got power and 
                showing it off
<t3rmin4t0r>    just to stir things up, I don't know what a decent ops 
                guy might do
<$culprit>      t3rmin4t0r: you are a sick son of a bitch
<HereBeDragon>  whoa $culprit, let's not be regionalistic
<t3rmin4t0r>    or personal ad hominem attacks
<Lap_64>        $culprit, may be he licked OldMonks arse

<HereBeDragon>  gawd

<HereBeDragon>  folks, no personal attacks or regionalism. Period. 
                That should be the rule.
<$culprit>      anyway i am leaving this channel - until that asshole 
                t3rmin4t0r  is kicked out
<empty_mind>    t3rmin4t0r, kick $culprit again for personal abuse
<t3rmin4t0r>    empty_mind: nah, I don't really take irc that seriously
<Lap_64>        $culprit, chill out 
*   $culprit (n=$culprit@202.56.231.116) has left #linux-india

The insults were so bad that we actually suspected whether it was $culprit himself or just someone else pretending to be him. The IP turned out the be a Bangalore IP, while last known location of $culprit was Chennai. Anyway, I don't really care whether it was the real one or an impostor, that kick was warranted as some conversation later proved - people pickup these biases quite easily.

** Chapter #6 - the influence remains 

<$kid>           Oldmonk is true bihari
<HereBeDragon>   $kid: what about Biharis?
<$kid>           HereBeDragon, lots of things
<HereBeDragon>   $kid: "no regionalism" you get it. Or else I'll 
                recommend you be banned.
<$kid>           HereBeDragon, can list them all here for a real example
                see any bihari talk to him for 5 mins and you will know

So that was friday on #linux-india. I hope I haven't made an enemy out of $culprit, he doesn't quite deserve my enimity - but just as a hint, mellow out, old timer. There are so many better things in life to do than mud sling my teflon coated soul - maybe get yourself a copy of the 70's Show DvD and watch The Cat Fight Club episode.

posted at: 06:42 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, rants, irc

So as it turns out Linux Asia '07 was sponsored by Microsoft and Novell. Even before this was announced, the local LUG - ILUG-D decided that they would boycott the event, and they went through with that decision. But what was to follow is probably competing for the longest single flamefest ILUG-D has ever seen - no holds barred. But the IRC conversations are getting more and more interesting.

<OldMonk> spo0nman: i have very high regard for his intellect
<OldMonk> didn't you see the subtle and suave way in which he insulted me in this channel?
<spo0nman> OldMonk: you stink of sarcasm.

<sm|CPU> Feel the power, know the wisdom
<t3rmin4t0r> "sudo intellectual" (n):
<t3rmin4t0r>       intellecutal whose facts are true because of who he is (or his uid)

<OldMonk> t3rmin4t0r: it strenghthens your argument if you blast your own side first
<OldMonk> after that you can be as rude as you like and no once can take offense

IMHO, except for the lone exception of bluesmoon, there were no other Indian speakers of note amongs the speaker panel. I think bluesmoon could've made a stand in the situation - but LinuxAsia paid for his flights (heh, more miles) and there are enough people in Delhi to meet. Amidst all the flame wars, Sudev seems to keeping his head - being clear about his worries.

The thread has spread to other mailing lists - where opinions differ from Freedom (capital F) of participation to Freedom to boycott.

I'd given LinuxAsia a wide berth because it has a definite CxO trend to it and is really a media circus, run by real media companies, with a definite slant towards appeasing sponsors (alright, explain away the Google Maps Api talk on day 2).

I really wish Freedel was happening this year in Feb, like it was suggested amidst the heat of September, last year.

posted at: 03:42 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, conferences, rants

There are no innocents in this war. To not have an opinion is treachery to a greater cause - for it needs nothing more for evil to thrive than good men to stay out of the battle. But when the battlelines are a line in sand, unclear & transient, only a vocal minority survives a twinge dissent in a dystopia which rewards disloyalty with a jingling bag.

The squeaking wheel always gets the grease, but does a wheel squeak for all others bereft of lubricant ? But there are wheels within wheels, connected cogs running this juggernaut that fulfils our needs, wishes and aspirations. This isn't a zero sum game, where everyone else has to lose.

But silence is golden. In fact, it will be bought with gold, spices and precious stones. The turncoats reap the profits of their new found discretion and the immorally inept, failing to curb their conscience, experience a re-run of Mr Carrot meets Mr Stick.

Like in the game in its simplest form, the winners always defect.

posted at: 02:17 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, rants, experiences

When Douglas Adams wrote about immortality, he talked about the impossibility of boring yourself to death on sunday afternoons. He wasn't kidding. Right now, I've hit the lowest spot I've hit ever since I left college. Even during the blindingly bright (and hot) summer days in Hyderabad, toiling away at a job I didn't like, did I feel so hopeless and lost.

Personally, financially, career-wise, health-wise or any other way that is obvious to me now, I've never had such a dark time before. I've come to terms to personal failure the moment I stepped out of childhood, the last year has taught me to deal with fall of those giants on whose proverbial shoulders I've stood. But these last few days have taught me that I have nothing left to rely upon - no anchor to hold me steady through the tumultous times ahead. Got nothing to hold on to, nothing left to aspire to, nothing to work with - I got nothing.

All I seem to have retained is my perspicacity.

The fates owes me big, she owes me a big one. Or maybe I should just give up like my old man and go down with captain & all. Quitting is easy ... just stop trying.

posted at: 13:13 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: personal, life

Last year, Atul had coined a phrase, "The Guru Shishya Syndrome", in a mail to the list. The year has passed us by and now in one of the recent posts, he has had to re-hash it, only with a little bit more sting in its tail (Crikey !). And I say that probably because it touches a few raw nerves - something which was probably more my fault than Atul's. But just so that you know what I'm talking about, let me re-quote that entry with my inherent biases and emphasis added.

For example, if you are involved in a FOSS project and have solved
a problem in that area that helped the project improve its performance,
...

stop believing that your contribution was too small to talk about, 
stop believing that your "overlords" in the headoffice in the USA
are the only ones who can think. 

I don't have a talk proposal for FOSS.in/2006. I had been vacillating about giving a podium talk for a while - I'd rather talk with a 10-15 member group than "to" 45. But eventually, I didn't have to make the decision. On Sunday as the deadline approached, I was sitting at a close relative's bedside, in Cochin hospital. But even without that twist of fate, I wouldn't have been talking about APC or giving a generic dotgnu talk. But before I go into the reasons for such unreasonable behavior, let me digress into some other territory.

'Jool Noret' effect: To give you some context, this is a character from one my favourite fantasy books - Dune. An excellent fighter who spent a life time achieving perfection with melee weapons. But what sticks in your mind, while you read about this character, lost in all that drama, is his philosophy - "I have so much left to learn, to start teaching".

And as I've previously blogged about, shining a light into the darkness of your ignorance only serves to highlight the shadows cast. In essence, what makes me good (IMHO) is what prevents me from stopping the journey to evangelize or pick laurels.

And even if I had actually gotten time on saturday or sunday - I wouldn't have submitted an APC: Maximizing Throughputness talk, I would've talked about something new, fresh & risky - something like Scripting your Application or probably about using lua or python to script your events and build plugins in (like this). Last year, I did a talk on Firefox: Plug it in - and I'd never written a single firefox extension till the talk schedule was out. But that was a good talk, because I understood and tackled a lot of the problems a newbie faces while writing their first extension. Compared to that, my contributor talk on dotgnu had a definite So On & So Forth feel to it.

I can't afford to experiment with topics or technology at say, LCA (here's why). For my LCA talk proposal, I'm actually planning to write a minimal basic-block JIT for PHP to show off libjit, but that's not quite pushing the boundaries for my personal knowledge - it is more of use than explore. FOSS.in, on the other hand, is as close to a home ground as it gets. That gives me a bit more confidence to do something which I'm not already an expert in. Rather than rehash what I already know, I'd like to pick up something new and run with it.

I'm quite aware that this is completely at cross-purposes with what a conference organizer would obviously want. Rather than have me skim the surface of a new topic, they'd want me to go deep and technical in something I'm really good at. But that sort of expert speak works only with a lot of audience involvement which just does not happen in a group of 50+ (hardly even in groups of 20). Bouncing ideas off others requires that you shouldn't need to wait for someone to shut up before you speak.

So all in all, I'd rather do a BoF with 20-odd people and end up with a new idea, than go the Attention Class! route that the podium talks force me to. If I didn't submit a talk, it had nothing to do with any bigshot from the US headoffice, but with fate keeping me offline on the weekend.

I didn't decide. It was decided for me.

posted at: 11:11 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, me, conferences

Ever since I've told my parents that I'm buying a bike, I seem to have moved into a different class of "accident probability", without actually having to own one. Over the last 6 weeks, I've had 3 accidents on the road. I was driving in only of those and the fault was entirely the bus driver's who pushed me off the road, though some might say going off the road at 60 KMPH was unlucky. But thanks to my jacket, I have only a couple of bruises, instead of the standard scraped arms (or worse).

All this has translated into a "Don't buy a bike" and "Driving is dangerous" sentiments in the centre. Which basically means - if I want a bike, I can buy it with my own money - A task, which is getting harder and harder.

All said and done, I spent monday with my right elbow in bandages and wincing everytime I had to use the mouse. I'm thinking seriously about writing to a couple of interface design teams about what they were smoking.

As far as driving is concerned - Buckle up Dorothy, 'coz Kansas is going bye bye.

posted at: 17:12 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, driving

We all sat down a couple of nights back to work on a hack - the Debt-o-Matic. But for spo0nman to have not written "I am going out of the country" in that entry, he would have had to be clairvoyant. He was headed for Euro-OSCON 2006 to talk about Nagios and about monitoring servers easily. Something he's thoroughly qualified to talk on, having done it day in & day out in the trenches, the on-call hard-hat in place, with a pager in one hand and laptop in other.

But right now, instead of packing his bags for his flight, he's in Delhi sweating it out (yeah, it is hot today) at Freedel with the rest of ILUG-D. With a visa, tickets blocked, hotels booked and yet he's not going to be on a flight tonight, polishing up his slides for the talk.

Nobody can force anybody else to pay up, but when an offer to pay for the tickets out of his own pocket is rejected, it repels me to even speculate about the reasons behind the rejection. If there is a financial crunch and the budget is trim, I can understand denying sponsorship for an employee going overseas. But if your own hard earned money isn't good enough to fix this, I don't know what is.

All said and done, the flight starts in 6 odd hours from now and he still hasn't got any tickets, despite the offer to pay for it from his own pocket. Personally I'd be happy to add my month's savings to that kitty as well, mainly because it is a matter of principle. A direct NO for the proposal at the outset would've been acceptable, but such a tease hurts like nothing else.

In all probability, his blocked tickets have expired by now and cannot be issued. And any attempt to escalate the issue will also probably have to wait till monday morning, which is when Euro-OSCON kicks off. All of which leaves hardly any point in the standard "Patience, my friend" from the-system-works-but-slowly department. Truly, sometimes justice delayed can be justice denied.

But the corollary to all this is even scarier. After all, if it could happen to him, it can happen to me. Go forward a few hypothetical months, substitute me for him and LCA for Euro-OSCON ... you get the point.

In conclusion - WTF !!!! ?.

posted at: 18:52 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, sad, wtf, yahoos

As I type out these words, I'm sitting in Trivandrum, a few minutes' drive away from Kerala's democractic power centre - the AKG centre. And if I read the weather right, everything is in place for Free Software to take educational and government institutions by storm. But this wind of changes wasn't a communist movement or empty promises in the wake of RMS' visit. Months before RMS visited or even the current government came to power, there were undercurrents in the administration towards using Linux (*sic*). Now, they might have been invisible to a lot of the readers of The New York Times, but I've certainly talked about it quite a few months back.

As you can see from the date of the Kairali Linux project, that it pre-dates the current communist government. The good news is actually, that the work done over the past year and a half is actually going into use, even though the power centres have shifted during the last election. The official, face of the whole exercise is CDIT's Open Source Technology Team and they seem like a sensible lot. The following excerpt is from their website :-

As a responsible Government organization, C-DIT does not
wish to involve in tirades against any particular company
nor wish to practice free software like a cult.

Take that, you commie blaming NYT news reporters, confusing a good decision with political opposition to big business. And there's yet a personal angle to it too - in November, I had in my hands a pair of installation CDs. Look at the pretty shrink wrapped software with a big GPL disclaimer on the back panel, price tagged 99 INR.

It also came with a manual titled (translated) - Swathanthra Software and GNU/Linux in malayalam by the Kerala Bhasha Institute and C-DIT. The document is in pretty good detail, explaining how to do simple wordprocessing to playing music or setting up dialup.

This is all on top of the educational reforms removing product specific tutorials from the syllabus and making them electives. Yes, they teach about Word Processors not Microsoft Word. Like somebody recently said, it is about the same as Home Appliance science - but with Oo.org, it at least doesn't come with an extra license fee per copy. Anyway, it's not like there's any engineering college here that doesn't use linux as part of the course curriculum.

Now, at lease one concerned mallu has expressed his concern about the government's policy on F/OSS tools. But I'm quite unconcerned [1] - the whole operation looks to be in very good hands indeed.

[1] Whenever I run into a strawman, I think about the Wizard of Oz.

posted at: 23:54 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, kerala, advocacy

I spent half of today hunting around for a 1 BHK house in Koramangala. The results were disappointing. I couldn't find a house that wasn't a bachelor's dive, which in a normal situation is nice, but not when you are expecting your parents to make long visits. So if you know of a good house somewhere in the vicinity of Forum, please email me at the address below.

And for the curious trying to copy paste that, take a look at cssplay and my pixeltext script.

posted at: 20:11 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, problems

Looking at this world is like seeing a movie. The events are dramatic, the villains evil and the heroes just. But recently the script's gone awry - villains are missing. I think we need a Goliath for all the Davids this century has given birth to. So let me introduce to you the third part of the trilogy - Gulf War III. And this time it isn't personal.

Basically, the political actions of the last decade can be reduced to a single line. If you have nukes, the world's policeman would negotiate and embargo you rather walk in with their marines. But assuming you forgot to buy the old russian nukes and those are hardly the stuff that could go off without lightnink and mad scientist included, you'd get stomped over by U N inspectors and then by the afore said marines.

Now that the oil-rich lands of Iraq are ruled by Freedom, we have basically run out of targets which are non-nuclear. Maybe we could try to nail that monster behind 9/11, hunt him out of home, bust every bolt hole and shoot him like a dog ? Or maybe we could bring freedom and peace to the war ravaged lands of Africa but where's the oil, bauxite or natural gas to actually require such a peace keeping effort ?

Anyway, there's enough artillery sitting somewhere in the Persian Gulf to turn Iran into dust. And it is even parked right next to the border that it only takes a hand wave to get the motorcade moving. But whose hand would do the waving and exactly who has his (even her) hands up this particular sock puppet ?

Somebody (yes, a US president himself) said that "Speak softly and carry a big stick". He was right about not hitting anybody in particular. The world will sit idly by watching one getting cut out of the herd and killed, just like all the buffalo on the veldt. Except when you destroy rather than defeat will this world be truly afraid enough to team up and send a message back.

Twice in this world's history have nuclear weaponry been used on innocent civilians. Let this jaded generation wake up to the truth and I don't think anything would do but the glowing horror of the mushroom cloud. So, I say - go ahead and nuke Iran.

Yes, this script's missing a villain.

posted at: 08:11 | path: /rants | permalink | Tags: public, war, rants