Life is like a war, you have to pick you battles.

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An amazing idea!

It is true when you searching the whole world for ideas to increase literacy, one is sit right there in front of you. Please check out PlanetRead. Planet Read is supported by Google.org (a humanitarian initiative by Google). It aims at increasing literacy by telecating TV programming with subtitles in local languages. The good thing is it really works and has also contributed upto 15% is the viewership rating of the sub-titled program. The brilliant thing is that it costs 1$ to giving reading practice to 10,000 people. Kudos to Cornell educated Dr. Brij Kotari. Larry Brilliant the executive director of google.org has also given an interview. I need to contribute! So do you.



PS: Interestingly, Larry Brilliant was hired by Dev Anand to play an extra in the famous "Dum maro Dum" video!

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Lal badshah is in a 'majhnu' mode. Of the the many modes our lalbadshah has, I like the poetry this mode has inspired. Do not miss this.

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Ruined

I pretty much lost the whole of my hardisk. Lost a years work of photography. I am very sad.

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My little mountain

Deprived of any physical activity I have acquired a nice little
semi-noticeable belly. So, in the endevour to reduce to the belly. I
decided to go swimming. I was gasping after just one lap, hmm...slightly out of touch. I managed to pump my confidence and put 10
breadth laps (that is 210 meters). I would have put more but I had to
get to office.... ok thats a lie, I was too tired and my hands would've
given up and my body would have dropped the pool floor ... the IT
industry would've been faced with another recession (oops, too far...I guess
;) ). Anyways, that is my little mountain for today. I did it.



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Microsoft Vs Novell

Microsoft and Novell made deal last week. Of the many things it included two things
1 > Microsoft will go ahead and distribute 350,000 licenses for SUSE Linux Eneterprise.
2 > Novell and Microsoft each promised not to sue the other's customers for patent infringement.
Then Mr. Steve Ballmer went ahead and claimed that Linux users owed Microsoft. ( I could not stop laughing at this). I could not believe he said it.

Ballmer did not provide details during his comments today. But he was adamant that Linux users, apart from those using SUSE, are taking advantage of Microsoft innovation, and that someone -- either Linux vendors or users -- would eventually have to pay up.

"Only customers that use SUSE have paid properly for intellectual property from Microsoft," he said. "We are willing to do a deal with Red Hat and other Linux distributors." The deal with SUSE Linux "is not exclusive," Ballmer added.

Why will a quality product like Linux steal IP from an old, badly written, non-standard, unsafe, fragile, shoddy OS like Windows. Linux is after all, open source, based on open standards. Go ahead Microsoft try to cook up some bad law suit and try slapping it on the community. BTW the Linux community has obviously been irked. Check this.
The day before Novell and Microsoft and Novell came out with an "open" letter to the community.

We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents. Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual property. When we entered the patent cooperation agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents.

Back-stabbed and bruised Novell concluded well.

In closing, we wish to be extremely clear that Novell is committed to protecting, preserving and promoting freedom for free and open source software. We recognize that the community of open source developers is essential to all our activities in Linux, and we welcome dialog with the community as to how we can continue to work together toward these common goals.

The fact of the matter, what most people have failed to acknowledge, is that Novell is a good citizen of the Linux. It has toiled hard and contributed to the Linux community. It is a good win for Linux ( no not the agreement ), but the fact that "Linux is something Microsoft has to partner with", as put by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. Read more here.
Its only fault being trusting Microsoft too much.

Another reason why one should not trust Microsoft. Some old references.

I am a regular software engineer. I wake up at 8, in office by 9 and (try and ) leave office by 6, work hard to earn my increments and keep my job. Every now and again I am plagued by many questions regarding my purpose, my plan, my place in the world, my future. Although these questions may seem too abstract when you put them in a context of a software engineer working in India, the questions seem to have a rational answer.
                       I recently got a copy of "The World Is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. Friedman, explains in good detail how the globalisation is changing the world. And, perhaps trying to answer the questions posed above. It is an "un-put-downable". Although, I still have to get through 40% of it I can safely say it is what every person who has been touched by globalisation should read.


Thanks, Mr.Friedman.

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