Monday, July 30, 2007
GOAN COCKTAIL
Goa, lord Parusharams land was the destination of our long awaited holiday, even though it was the height of monsoon no one had second thoughts about going to Goa. I boarded the train at Surathkal, the train was late may be signifying the nature of our whole trip. Abhinav Arun Mama and Ramps, boarded the train in Udupi. The time I boarded the train I was wet and soggy but had a smile on my face. The train journey was awesome, seeing the western ghats in its full monsoon glory was a treat to the eyes. The passing by tunnels signifying the great Engineering marvel called Konkan Railway. Madgaon welcomed us with a light shower, the taxi guy dropping us at our resort in Colva. The guys were jumping as they had not seen a beach in their lives, but i found it not much different from any beach around Surathkal(After all I live along a beach and visit it almost weekly) Then we hired the bikes from some guy Abhinav found out ,two pulsars and one Honda Activa, may be our most dreadful decision. The next we set out for Fort Aguada on the northern side of Goa, visiting Big Foot along the way, we all wishing for something (mama in fact wished thrice). But no one of us wished the rains to stop which wast the best possible wish at that point of time) facing the rains we reached fort Aguada, I crashed the Activa and it got a dent. On reaching Aguada we simply took a rest in it after the tiresome ride rather than enjoying the beauty of the Portuguese fort. Then we returned to Panjim along the same dreadful path. On reaching we took refuge in a Kamat hotel and had lunch. I and ramp explored the city and found it was absolutely dead as it was a Sunday but I finally found a liquor shop open and bought some Fenny to carry back to Surathkal. But on returning to Colva after driving a lot on the highway (which was awesome)(arun got rid of Hundered bucks from his wallet as he wasnt wearing a Helmet) we were shocked as the guy we rented out the bikes asked for rupees 2000 for the damage to his activa. This after a hrad round of bargaining came down to 1000 bucks. This was total damage. This was a crisis point and we all learnt our lessons, maybe I the most. After that we returned the other bikes. And I boarded the bus to Madgaon to catch my bus to Mangalore as I had the lab of He Who Must Not Be Named. On reaching Madgain I had 3 hours to kill. I went into a bata showroom and bought a pair of Slip Ons and then went and reported at the Bus pickup point. After that I went to eat some fish (which I had not yet tasted this time in Goa) and found a cool place and had some Lady fish fry. Then on the Bus I met one Mr. Sawant who worked in Mangalore we chatted for about 2 hours then went to sleep. This was perhaps the first time in my college life that I did not want to return to NITK. I did not know invisible tears were surely flowing my eyes. I think I have missed the best part as the others stayed back for two more days (that will be their story). By the way I dropped some guy on My activa which I think was another pretty cool thing to do.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Tradition vs Me
India the country of snake charmers, the land of IT outsourcing and Bangalore. India has its own unique, culture, traditions. In all India has its own unique flavor. And as an Indian I have respect for these traditions and cultures. But are not these traditions ought to change with time? When India has changed from the land of Snake charmers to the land of IT, shouldn't these age old irrelevant traditions change?
I would like to explain it with this example, once in a wedding ceremony a cat was causing a lot of havoc, drinking milk , breaking pots etc. So the Brides father caught the cat and tied it to pole, and from that day it has become a ritual to tie a cat to a pole in marriages in that town. The practice which was a need during that time is being followed till date. Now this ritual may have lost its importance as there might not be any cat trouble, but still people will follow it. If some people with a scientific mind try to object to it they are termed as ‘Nastiks’, or those having no respect for the religion. Well with this example I just want to say rituals take birth only due to need. They are not hard written rules which if not followed will cause any thing bad.
In ancient times in India people lived in close quarters with nature, so they developed a respect for the nature and they demonstrated this respect in form of religious devotion to the nature. Since the cow gave milk they started worshiping the cow. Since the Aryans were mainly situated in Ganga plains and its water was necessary for them for agriculture they started praying it and thus the Ganga became the holiest of Indian rivers. This respect was put forward in the story of Shiva giving birth to the Ganga from his ‘Jata’. But now people simply have no respect left for the Ganga, people who bath in the Ganga to rinse of their sins also defecate in the river. People may have a dip in the holy river at Benares , but they would not mind their factories releasing sewage in the Ganga and hence polluting it. So does not this double standard alarm you? This shows actually the people have no respect left for the Ganga. If they had any respect they would stop throwing corpses into it,instead of doing yagna on the banks of the Ganga. This is one of the numerous example available in the country. The people were wanted to thank the snakes for keeping rodents away from their farms so they started praying to snake gods. But now people catch snakes to worship them. Wherever there is a ant hill, people start putting milk in it. Now science has showed snakes dont drink milk still people dont stop. They pour milk into the ant hill making the ant hill useless for the snake. Now if the homeless snake comes to their house to take refuge, the people wont think twice to kill it. The people should change, btu when you explain it to them they talk all gibberish about tradition etc.
People violently protest against Valentine Day because they think it is anti social for boys and girls to go out together. It is against Hinduism and Muslims. But the same Muslim or Hindu can rape a women in broad daylight, the fault is of the girl because she was wearing scantily clad clothes? What ridiculous non sense is that.?
I don’t believe doing a pooja will cure somebody, without taking medicines. But I am not against any one praying for the well being of some one. Prayers are the emotional support people look towards when some of their near dear ones are in bad health etc. So I don’t object to it. But I don’t believe that it was because of the pooja the person got well. This takes away the credit from the doctors, from years of research for creating the medicine etc.Another rule I find absurd is the matching of horoscopes , I don’t know how matching of horoscopes can lead to a happy married life. This is ridiculous, and instead people should check the medical records of each other, or their genetic fingerprints so that they don’t have any complications in the future. Even educated people like Amiatabh Bachan follow it, it is absolutely absurd. Come on we are in the twenty first century.
Recently in news I saw that people were worshipping a pair of snakes in prakasam district, while they were copulating considering them to be Nag deveta, this is again ridiculous, I agree people have a respect for snakes and worship them but they should be left alone they should not be pestered around because we worship them. Elephants should not be kept at temples to serve the god like those in Guruvayur temple.
So much of money should not be spent on temples instead it should be used in eradicating poverty. But this does not mean that the temple like Tirupati should be destroyed or their funding be taken away, because they are the symbols of our cultural heritage. But spending enormous amounts on yagnas, or building new temples should be stopped. To counter this many people say that even Vatcian spends a lot. So what if some one jumps in well should we too?
The actual problem, with Indians is not lack of education its lack of Implementation Of Educatoion. Even IIT pass outs will check horoscopes of their brides. The social and moral values we are taught in school are only to be mugged and written in exam and then forget it. We are taught not to litter the road but the same person will spit paan in the open. We are taught science but it is again of no use. The other day on TV I saw the ISRO cahirman congratulating a boy who was claiming to be a dead american scientist. Come on give me a break if the ISRO chairman does these things what can w expect of we mere mortals. Celebs also influence people by follwing such non sensical rules.
These days on news channels we get all rubbish news like a pigeon from amarnath caves found in Ujjain, a girl claiming to be kali. I dont believe these stories are aired and people are watching it. This shows the extent of stupidity prevailing. How can educated editors and press people air such non sensical stuff.
Please leave your comments:
I would like to explain it with this example, once in a wedding ceremony a cat was causing a lot of havoc, drinking milk , breaking pots etc. So the Brides father caught the cat and tied it to pole, and from that day it has become a ritual to tie a cat to a pole in marriages in that town. The practice which was a need during that time is being followed till date. Now this ritual may have lost its importance as there might not be any cat trouble, but still people will follow it. If some people with a scientific mind try to object to it they are termed as ‘Nastiks’, or those having no respect for the religion. Well with this example I just want to say rituals take birth only due to need. They are not hard written rules which if not followed will cause any thing bad.
In ancient times in India people lived in close quarters with nature, so they developed a respect for the nature and they demonstrated this respect in form of religious devotion to the nature. Since the cow gave milk they started worshiping the cow. Since the Aryans were mainly situated in Ganga plains and its water was necessary for them for agriculture they started praying it and thus the Ganga became the holiest of Indian rivers. This respect was put forward in the story of Shiva giving birth to the Ganga from his ‘Jata’. But now people simply have no respect left for the Ganga, people who bath in the Ganga to rinse of their sins also defecate in the river. People may have a dip in the holy river at Benares , but they would not mind their factories releasing sewage in the Ganga and hence polluting it. So does not this double standard alarm you? This shows actually the people have no respect left for the Ganga. If they had any respect they would stop throwing corpses into it,instead of doing yagna on the banks of the Ganga. This is one of the numerous example available in the country. The people were wanted to thank the snakes for keeping rodents away from their farms so they started praying to snake gods. But now people catch snakes to worship them. Wherever there is a ant hill, people start putting milk in it. Now science has showed snakes dont drink milk still people dont stop. They pour milk into the ant hill making the ant hill useless for the snake. Now if the homeless snake comes to their house to take refuge, the people wont think twice to kill it. The people should change, btu when you explain it to them they talk all gibberish about tradition etc.
People violently protest against Valentine Day because they think it is anti social for boys and girls to go out together. It is against Hinduism and Muslims. But the same Muslim or Hindu can rape a women in broad daylight, the fault is of the girl because she was wearing scantily clad clothes? What ridiculous non sense is that.?
I don’t believe doing a pooja will cure somebody, without taking medicines. But I am not against any one praying for the well being of some one. Prayers are the emotional support people look towards when some of their near dear ones are in bad health etc. So I don’t object to it. But I don’t believe that it was because of the pooja the person got well. This takes away the credit from the doctors, from years of research for creating the medicine etc.Another rule I find absurd is the matching of horoscopes , I don’t know how matching of horoscopes can lead to a happy married life. This is ridiculous, and instead people should check the medical records of each other, or their genetic fingerprints so that they don’t have any complications in the future. Even educated people like Amiatabh Bachan follow it, it is absolutely absurd. Come on we are in the twenty first century.
Recently in news I saw that people were worshipping a pair of snakes in prakasam district, while they were copulating considering them to be Nag deveta, this is again ridiculous, I agree people have a respect for snakes and worship them but they should be left alone they should not be pestered around because we worship them. Elephants should not be kept at temples to serve the god like those in Guruvayur temple.
So much of money should not be spent on temples instead it should be used in eradicating poverty. But this does not mean that the temple like Tirupati should be destroyed or their funding be taken away, because they are the symbols of our cultural heritage. But spending enormous amounts on yagnas, or building new temples should be stopped. To counter this many people say that even Vatcian spends a lot. So what if some one jumps in well should we too?
The actual problem, with Indians is not lack of education its lack of Implementation Of Educatoion. Even IIT pass outs will check horoscopes of their brides. The social and moral values we are taught in school are only to be mugged and written in exam and then forget it. We are taught not to litter the road but the same person will spit paan in the open. We are taught science but it is again of no use. The other day on TV I saw the ISRO cahirman congratulating a boy who was claiming to be a dead american scientist. Come on give me a break if the ISRO chairman does these things what can w expect of we mere mortals. Celebs also influence people by follwing such non sensical rules.
These days on news channels we get all rubbish news like a pigeon from amarnath caves found in Ujjain, a girl claiming to be kali. I dont believe these stories are aired and people are watching it. This shows the extent of stupidity prevailing. How can educated editors and press people air such non sensical stuff.
Please leave your comments:
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Google is no saint
Google is not the perfect search solution on the Internet. (though it is the best available now). Google
is not a complete gateway for the Internet at least for Indian users. Indian users face a lot of problems
while googling (googling refers to searching the net), when searching for information about services
and shops in their respective localities. This problem is severe for residents of small cities and towns.
No person on the Internet can search on the net for his nearest medical store or a nearest bookstore.
Only the huge companies who have Internet presence can get to the customer via Google. This may be
disadvantageous to the nearby local book seller who cant afford to get on the net. In Indian conditions
it i really impossible for the local bookseller to get on the net. In this way Google is biased towards the
MNC and shop chains(crossword etc).
Googles shopping engine Froogle is also very incomplete it is only US centric providing options only
for American users.
While Google alleges Microsoft of dominating the software business, Google itself is doing the same in
the search engine business. Because of it many search engines have become obsolete. Though Google
supports the open software revolution it is only because it wants to fight Microsoft. It supports Linux vs
Windows, Gmail vs Hotmail, Firefox vs IE, everything is targeted against Microsoft.( I am not stating
Micorsoft is a saint). If Google were a true supporter of the open software revolution it would have
released the algorithm of its search engine so that it could be improved by the engineers from right
across the globe maybe even by those from Microsoft. Google is the biggest competitor for Microsoft
in hiring new recruits.
Google also has a shrewd strategy of making money by the malpractice of calling its ads as
“Sponsored Links”. Though making money from ads is necessary for Google to survive, it currently
makes money by misleading google users. People don't realize that the Sponsored links are actually
adds. In a survey people have voted that they wouldn't have clicked on the sponsored links if they had
known they were adds.
Google image search is a cool thing. But it is not again a perfect solution? but I cant figure out how
Google can rank images. Well it ranks sites on links leading to that site. But how can it lead to a image?
This needs some explaining.
Now the big issue, Google scans the net once in a while and stores copies of the sites on its worldwide
database which is also available on the cached page. But is google correct in doing so? Websites are
Intellectual properties like books. So is Google ethically correct in storing the the website in its
database and also producing just the picture for you to download from its database, where as the correct
thing to do on a image search would be to lead to the site rather than producing the image scaled down.
Take an example on google search I search for F1 wallpapers I get image results and download it to my
computer but on the site which is available the F1 official website you may have to pay for it.
Google is a gateway for pirated software and films. All the software can be searched and downloaded
from the net using Google. I wonder why the software companies are not taking any legal action
against Google for this. Its very simple you type Free Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 download and you
get thousands of links leading to it or maybe Free License Key etc. The solution to this would be
Google banning searches on its engine to word like “free License” or “Free Adobe Page maker
Download” etc. You Tube a Google subsidiary is an open piracy forum. Many episodes of many US
serials are available on it and no legal issues again?
On the technical side there are a few improvements that can be made on Google. Like searching for
abbreviations : when i search for IT i would like the result also including references to “Information
Technology” or at least include an option to include the words “Information technology”. Also the
sponsored links can be changed to adds. A relook on the image search can be taken.
All said and done I would like to mention I am an ardent google user and use it daily. It is a very useful
tool to get technical information. But may be not the best possible way to search for products or
services. Because I use Google so much that I have been able to make such observations.
I hope every user leaves his valuable ideas and comments here.
ThankYou
Abhishek K
is not a complete gateway for the Internet at least for Indian users. Indian users face a lot of problems
while googling (googling refers to searching the net), when searching for information about services
and shops in their respective localities. This problem is severe for residents of small cities and towns.
No person on the Internet can search on the net for his nearest medical store or a nearest bookstore.
Only the huge companies who have Internet presence can get to the customer via Google. This may be
disadvantageous to the nearby local book seller who cant afford to get on the net. In Indian conditions
it i really impossible for the local bookseller to get on the net. In this way Google is biased towards the
MNC and shop chains(crossword etc).
Googles shopping engine Froogle is also very incomplete it is only US centric providing options only
for American users.
While Google alleges Microsoft of dominating the software business, Google itself is doing the same in
the search engine business. Because of it many search engines have become obsolete. Though Google
supports the open software revolution it is only because it wants to fight Microsoft. It supports Linux vs
Windows, Gmail vs Hotmail, Firefox vs IE, everything is targeted against Microsoft.( I am not stating
Micorsoft is a saint). If Google were a true supporter of the open software revolution it would have
released the algorithm of its search engine so that it could be improved by the engineers from right
across the globe maybe even by those from Microsoft. Google is the biggest competitor for Microsoft
in hiring new recruits.
Google also has a shrewd strategy of making money by the malpractice of calling its ads as
“Sponsored Links”. Though making money from ads is necessary for Google to survive, it currently
makes money by misleading google users. People don't realize that the Sponsored links are actually
adds. In a survey people have voted that they wouldn't have clicked on the sponsored links if they had
known they were adds.
Google image search is a cool thing. But it is not again a perfect solution? but I cant figure out how
Google can rank images. Well it ranks sites on links leading to that site. But how can it lead to a image?
This needs some explaining.
Now the big issue, Google scans the net once in a while and stores copies of the sites on its worldwide
database which is also available on the cached page. But is google correct in doing so? Websites are
Intellectual properties like books. So is Google ethically correct in storing the the website in its
database and also producing just the picture for you to download from its database, where as the correct
thing to do on a image search would be to lead to the site rather than producing the image scaled down.
Take an example on google search I search for F1 wallpapers I get image results and download it to my
computer but on the site which is available the F1 official website you may have to pay for it.
Google is a gateway for pirated software and films. All the software can be searched and downloaded
from the net using Google. I wonder why the software companies are not taking any legal action
against Google for this. Its very simple you type Free Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 download and you
get thousands of links leading to it or maybe Free License Key etc. The solution to this would be
Google banning searches on its engine to word like “free License” or “Free Adobe Page maker
Download” etc. You Tube a Google subsidiary is an open piracy forum. Many episodes of many US
serials are available on it and no legal issues again?
On the technical side there are a few improvements that can be made on Google. Like searching for
abbreviations : when i search for IT i would like the result also including references to “Information
Technology” or at least include an option to include the words “Information technology”. Also the
sponsored links can be changed to adds. A relook on the image search can be taken.
All said and done I would like to mention I am an ardent google user and use it daily. It is a very useful
tool to get technical information. But may be not the best possible way to search for products or
services. Because I use Google so much that I have been able to make such observations.
I hope every user leaves his valuable ideas and comments here.
ThankYou
Abhishek K
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