Etc Etc.

Not that I'd love the ones that I do,any less on any other day.
But V-Day seems  to have officially earmarked all the cliches of affection.
Pink,Pink,Pink.....wait a sec....Pink :-)
Coffee Shop Managers,Street Side Florists and the Shiv Sena
are gonna have a better day than most of the Love Birds out there.

Alas, that's not the case with the us students of the MCA dept.
Our exams begin tomorrow and even the most affectionate Valentine's Greeting,
would feel like a cruel joke.

It's been been a pretty hectic fortnight and it hasn't gotten any better.
My project's gotten fast tracked and while it's pretty glamorous to work with the world's most popular networking site....one has to remember that it's still work and it has to be done.
Like I've posted before,I always get more work piled up when my hands are already full,
and it's happened yet again.

Our college hosted it's BasketBall tournament last week and had 16 teams in the pool.
Our PD has been at me for two years to join the basketball team but I managed to dodge it everytime.
Not that I'm lazy or can't perform for the team....but I've got to focus on a lot of stuff in life and sports in our college doesn't get the perks it deserves.
In spite of that, I've nothing but respect for our PD for putting his heart and soul into building a sports platform for our college.
So he tells me that he want's me manning the Score table during the tournament.
Since I've been avoiding the team for two years,I figured it's the least I could do.
It wasn't until two days before the tournament that that I was told that the table had to be manned by a third party official and that I had to shift my duties to coach the B Team.


The B team was made up mostly of first years who had barely learnt to shoot and dribble.
They had never played a tournament in their life.
Bad news.....they had just two days to practice.
...worse news....they now had me as their coach...
Practice at what ?....I had no clue...
The best I could do was build up an offensive strategy and show them a few defensive formations.
Apart from that I told to play the game at their own pace while trusting each other and they would be fine.

I knew there wasn't much that the team could do with such little practice and not having played a tournament before....But I also knew they would give it their best shot and would learn something.
We lost all the matches we played but against veteran teams that had some of the best players in the university.
The last match we played was against Bhavan's that had African imports on the team.I was pretty amazed and happy to see our team take lead till half time,we lost be a large margin but showed consistent form throughtout out the game.
By the time our team was eliminated there was no sense of loss or disappointment but rather a sense of confidence and joy that the performed pretty well for their first tournament.With each match I could see their confidence grow and their game evolve.
I got appreciated by PD and the team for whatever little I could do salvage their efforts.Considering that many from this team will be in next year's A team makes me feel happy that I will always have the privilege of being their first coach (he he !) no matter how short a period of time.

Coming back to V-Day, I have always been aware that it's a day for celebrating love and not just lovers.
Friends and family and the special someones...all deserve to be under the pink umbrella.
Thinking about love and and what it means to me....
I've realized that I can love the ones that I do no matter what.
I would go out on a limb to look out for the ones that I care about without expecting something in return.

Hey Sneha...Hope you doing good :-)
It's been quite a while since I got to hear bout you or read anything you've written.
Nonetheless it doesn't change the way I feel bout you.
If I'm lucky...maybe someday you will know how much you mean to me.
And If I'm luckier....it will mean something to you.
Have fun.

Got to get back to my books for now.
I hope my exams go well, fingers crossed.

:-)

Fear China(or Fear Google(or Fear Both))

There is an certain image that goes by the name of 'TankMan'.
A Google Image search returns results showing a row of tanks being halted by a single Chinese student.
You Tube videos show him getting in their way with no chance of letting them pass.
While they are pretty hilarious to watch they showcase the stronger and finer side to human nature.

Not unlike a lot of stuff that shows up on the internet....
But why TankMan is so significant is that a month ago it would not return any results in China.
TankMan is a symbolic threat to the it's communist regime,
and has been censored for decades from the Chinese public.
Any search on google.cn is highly monitored,
and you could get into serious trouble 
if you were found digging up the wrong stuff 
at home or a cybercafe.

Nonetheless,China has risen from being a famine scarred,genocidal maniac
to a mighty Communist Giant reaping the sweet fruits of controlled capitalism.
The GDP(average income) of a citizen of Beijing is a close equivalent 10,000 USD.
China is the single largest investor in clean energy...
way ahead of any nation in the Americas or Europe.
They have the 4G spectrum ready for implementation while here in India,3G is yet to set foot.
The Chinese development model focuses on shifting industry to lesser developed areas of the country ,
once it becomes too expensive to continue in a particular province.
Roadways,Dams,Bridges,Ports,Nuke plants and still a long way to go before it we see it reach its summit.
Superpower of the 21st century and a monster to beware of...here's why.

China keeps it's currency value artificially low so that jobs from Ohio and elsewhere can keep coming their way.
They tend not to care about global opinion and could well be on their way to pushing other communist regimes(N.Korea and Russia) to call shots.
China as we know, is an iron clad communist that has ruthlessly suppressed any action or demonstration that speaks against it's principles.
It would not matter if the demonstration was peaceful or other wise.
It is a little known fact that Mr.TankMan was later arrested and shot(we only get to see a clipping of the video).
Thousands of democratic supporters were shot,arrested and doomed to disappear into the gulags.
Mr.Xiaobo was sentenced to 11yrs on Christmas Day inspite of gobal protests and the US lobbying for his release.
The Chinese govt is a tacit supporter of North Korea's Missile programme and is conveniently trying to grab Indian footing in the North East.
COP15 was a failure of global proportions with things going pretty much the China way.
The introduction of English into the Chinese curriculum as a compulsary subject is going to blunt the one edge that India had over China.
As Bill Gates said "In China,if you're a one in a million,there are 1300 just like you".
China has no shortage of people to run it.

So coming to the Google situation...why can we now  see TankMan on Google China ?
Here's the deal.....
China and Google have had  a long standing agreement that if Google was to be allowed in China it would have to censor it's search results.
It worked fine for both monsters until two weeks ago when Google's servers were broken into by a supposedly Chinese source.
GMail accounts were hacked and 'certain data' from secure servers was stolen.
Google was....well....'not happy' and broke the censorship agreement threatening to pull out of China if it's security could not be guarunteed.
To look further like the boss of the situation,it threatened that they would also pull out if censorship was forced on it's search results.
Sounds alright at face value ,
But it's a little odd that Google would threaten to pull out of the world's economic goldmine over a few stolen emails.

But here's the real deal.....
There's a a system called Cloud Computing that is well.....Google's Baby.
It is a Google N-Bomb that it plans to drop over Microsoft to break their monopoly in the Office applications industry.
Everything would be run over the internet and you would never need to install anything on your computer ever again much less pay for it.
And guess who would be running these services....well Google.
Now if Google is to win and secure the trust of all it's clients for Cloud Computing who are worth millions of billions...it has to prove that it's services are secure.
You would'nt want your personal videos or projects to be hosted on a server that could be stolen and viewed by a guy name 'Hu'.
That's exactly why the threat is very real...very much worth pulling out of China.

Google is a monster that feeds on information.
Storing all of your documents (personal or professional) on a cloud server would only give Google what it's hungry for.
Google's supercomputers run complex algorithms on user data to derive any kind of  results they need.
And I mean any kind. 

Think of a situation....
Where a certain computer could pull information on you from your You Tube, Gmail and Blogger account and be able to predict whether you would instinctively turn right or left to run if cornered....shocking but true.
Google has already acquired a controlling stake in two energy companies...why?....to power it's own Cloud Servers.

It's a little ironic but I'm posting this on a Google partner site.

So here's  the deal....we got two monsters...which one keeps you awake at night is your choice...or is it ?

Back (on) Track

A compromise of sorts.

"Continue with the agitation...but take a break for your exams",says OU.

Fair Enough.....I can live with a delay in my exams...beats having to lose a year.

The only irritating  part is that I'll have to take time off an awesome project to open my books again.

Kurnool plans went bust......no thanks to the agitation...
Will have to set eyes on something else...Lavasa Maybe.

Won't be playing basketball for a while...hurt my nose pretty bad in the last game.

It's swollen to twice it's size and is a glowing shade of bright pink.

I could use my nose as an indicator while making turns....

Better yet...could hang last year's Christmas decor on it for Extra Bling.

I've become a laughing stock everywhere I go...good reason to take time off from the project...besides the exams of course.

Let see how it all turns out.

Make or Break

Well...Here we are again...that time of the year...

Looking back and wondering...was that crazy or what???!

Looking forward with lessons learnt...plans and promises made.

....mostly to ourselves....but made nonetheless.

2009 has been a rollercoaster ride and I'm all charged up for another one.

There's an Optimist inside me thats smiling at the Sceptic.

Strange as it seems......I plan to play safe and take risks at the same time.

To keep pushing myself while making sure that I stay focused in the right direction.

With my cynical illusions fading to give way to positive possibilities.

Realizing the difference between knowledge and it's illusions.

That thinking that we "know" something is a greater ignorance than not knowing something.

That Respect goes a long way in getting things done.

That letting go...is sometimes the best way to to hold on to something.

That hard work and sincerity are a combination that seldom fails......

..........whether or not you are a genius.

I realized that I can love someone without expecting something in return.

I learnt that my perspective can affect peoples' lives.....not just my own.

I learnt that pushing yourself to excel......adds more value and endurance than success itself.....

Funny I should feel this way..but I've learnt quite a lot by watching our film and TV Stars and their amusing antics......2009 has had quite a few of them.

Resolutions made....Resolutions broken.....all said and done.....and a year well spent...  :-).

As we walk through towards a New Year and a New Decade...I pray that we put our lessons learnt to good use and work not just for ourselves but for all that is sustained and is a consequence of our actions and inactions.

Hi Sneha.. :-)

I pray for you and  hope you get all that You wish for......in this year and the years to come.

You mean more to me with each passing day.....You are the strongest reason for me to be.

Bless You....Have a Rocking Year !

Love,

Arthur :-)

Wishful Thinking....

Merry Christmas to one and all !

May the festive season Ring in Joy,Celebration and Peace :-)

EcoSystem Vs EcoSystem

The first being the system that we all have been learning about since we were 7 years old.The second being the Economic system that gets the last word in everything.COP 15 is more a summit of economies than a summit of nations that are concerned about the future of our planet.Following the conference,one can clearly sense the air of  heated political debate in the place of diplomacy or consensus.With everything in question....from the right of  developed nations to direct the developing ones.....to the issue of climate change data being compromised,the Climate Change Summit has dark clouds looming all over it.

Greenpeace has been a whistle blower for years about the effects of global warming and climate experts have busted the "myth" that it's just speculation.Its ironic that "An Inconvenient Truth" took home an Oscar for best documentary,while the very message that it delivered was left in the loom.While we find it  shocking to see polar bears cannibalize each other in the north pole,it still doesn't ring the bell for most of us.The oceans'  ability to hold GH gases has waned,while the clouds of smoke over cities get thicker every 6 months.Brazil is doing what it can to control illegal logging of its priceless rain forests but it's population needs somewhere to go and needs farmland to feed it's hordes.With all the bells ringing, a compromise on climate changing (read industrial and progressive) activity is a huge political and economic challenge.Leaders must make difficult decisions keeping in mind the interests of their own people for whom they are most directly responsible.

One has to admit, reduction in the carbon footprint has direct implications on the economies that bring them about.To put a cap on green house gas emissions would mean that a government would have to enforce new regulations on emission, reduce or halt the construction of new plants and pump more money into clean energy and public transport.The effects of these measures would radically affect  developing countries like ours and the Chinese.Thermal Power(Coal Based)  generators still stand as the primary energy infrastructure in these two countries.Not to mention the sizable population that is employed in coal mines and Thermal Plants. Enforcing regulations on these plants would naturally have a domino effect on the productive capacity of virtually all industries which again will affect prices without a proportional inflow of funds(unless our "friends" who are already recuperating from a financial collapse decide to play Santa).

Watching activists getting batoned and arrested is an unpleasant sight.But is trivial compared to the sights that we will have to see if the issue of climate change remains unaddressed.It's about time we stepped up and did something while we have a chance and while it's still a lot less expensive than it will be should we fail.
A collapse of the summit would put all nations and their economies in a situation where everyone would be right and yet, every one would lose.

City Interrupted

It's been 10 days since the TRS stir began.
With it's leader going off and on like a flickering city light....
A strange world shows itself in flashes...
A world with a helpless system....doing just enough to show all it's citizens that it still exists.

Not knowing enough about the sentiment that drives it's activists,
makes many like me, a curious bystander watching from the sidelines.
For their earnest...the movement paints a picture of their new world dawning.
...while for the larger madness...its the same as a dog chasing cars...
not knowing what to do even if it caught one.

For me...time seems to have come alive....
Whispering the words that I failed to listen while they were being screamed.
It has passed through the prism of the mind and shown it's manifold.
It's priceless and yet slips by your fingers...with nothing but memories to hold on to.

We have everything but time....

I'm glad that my work's still going on schedule.
It's a little risky....having to drive through a rally almost everyday,
...but the work draws me towards it.
Understanding the insides of FaceBook is something that totally works for me.
The best thing about it are not it's technical intricacies....
but the simple yet strong social values that that are implemented through them.

A lot has happened this week that has worked both for and against my plans.
From my exams being postponed....
...to a greedy graphics firm trying to charge in Pounds instead of Rupees.
Made some deals...dropped some.....but learned a ton and that is never a loss.

With so much having come to a stand still....
I have a long awaited opportunity to get organized
and bring a system into the way I do things.....
Will wrap some things up and head for Kurnool...
....where the need of the hour is a lot more clear.