US Vice President Dick Chenney told someone to f*** off on the floor of the US senate. And that has made headline news across the world. Senior Representatives of the Government are not supposed to use such language.

I wish someone will communicate this to our politicians -especially those from the RJD and SP.

Coming back to Chenney’s outburst - i wonder whether the pressure is getting to him. Afterall, he is second in command of a nation where even the deadliest of political enemies are frigidly polite towards each other

Tags: US

In an attempt to rein in filesharing, the US sentate has introduced a bill to bring heavy penalties, including upto 10 year jail sentances. In an attempt to stifle p2p, they plan also to impose penalties on devices that enable filesharing. This could include devices like ipod.

Wired reports

Technologists and copyright activists were most alarmed by the Induce Act, backed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who in the past five years has received $158,000 in campaign contributions from the television, movie and music industries, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Critics say the bills would make computer and electronic companies think twice before introducing any device that could conceivably distribute copyright works. Even existing devices and software — like iPods and FTP servers — could run afoul of the law.

“The reality of this is that you’re going to have a world where Hollywood controls technology,” said Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “If you don’t get Hollywood’s approval, no one will fund your project out of fear of the lawsuits.”

At a very fundamental level, the legislators have lost it. Unless you monitor every computer, every electronic device - including the mobile - you are not going to get rid of file sharing. If you introduce that level of monitoring, then there are major privacy infringement concerns. Placing a blanket ban on the development of technology - harks back to the dark ages.

The really serious file sharers seem to be in Europe - Germans, Russians, The Brits, The Dutch , Spainish. There seems to be a growing trend in Asia with Koreans and Taiwanese being fairly active. Most of the stuff on these sites are verified links that let you download films, music, anime, porn, comics, books, programmes, and games. Most of these sites are built around fairly tight knit communities. Extremely active social groups. These are the guys who rip, verify and upload hole chunks of matter.

The way most P2P works today is files shared on 1000’s of hard disks across the world. Each file has an identifier. You click on it and your P2P client starts simultaneously downloading it from other machines sitting in other parts of the world.

How does the US plan to prosecute someone sitting in Australia who downloads a German film - whose rights lie with a US studio - from hundreds of different hard disks across the world? How is the piracy going to stop

Remember the stupid foreign currency and taxation regulations most nations had a few decades ago. Well, the way people used to subvert it was a numbered account in Switzerland or Cayman islands. These nations offered extremely secretive banking arrangements.

Soon, we probably would have a whole bunch of P2Pers’ booking ‘numbered ’space on servers in similar countries - where cyber privacy is maintained

Tags: P2P, Social Software

It is with a certain amusement that I see the BJP behaving like the Congress.

The Congress since the death of Mrs.G has been a factional party that sways between abject sychophancy and acute back stabbing. Party stalwarts didn’t seem to know when to speak out and when to hold their silence. Furthermore, they used to repeatedly contradict each other on every issue of importance. Watching the news last week brought back visions of the old Congress Party. Except that the party in question was the BJP

Today, the BJP should be a worried organisation. A day after their Chintan Bhaitak, the perception is of a deeply divided party led by aging dinosaurs. They can’t take a moral stand on anything - not on Modi, not on reasons for defeat, not on privatisation and most importantly not on the direction that the party is going to take. The current official scapegoat are the NDA allies - who have already blamed the BJP for their loss.

Although the BJP Chinta Baithak has agreed on Hindutva as an agenda - do they realise that people may not really want Government sponsored God - they want jobs, roads, water - ordinary things. Unless, the BJP plans to whip up communal sentiment and polarise the nation - to achieve its ends - it is going to be very difficult to get convinced by either Ram or Somnath. The country can be played for a fool once, even twice - but the people aren’t stupid enough to fall for the same ploy over and over again.

Let’s look at the rest of it. The Hindutva economic agenda is probably closer to the Communist agenda than it is to Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie or Arun Jaitley. Their policy on women is closer to the 18th century than to the 21st. Does anyone recall their tacit support of the Roop Kanwar issue. Their views on caste are closer to the 12th century than to the Vedic age or even today. They openly endorse separate temples - Swastik temples - for SC and ST converts to Hinduism - during their regime, it was open season on Dalits drinking water at wells, or praying in temples. Their views on minorities are more similar to those held by Aurangazeb than a Shivaji.

Given that most of us want a India Shining and believe that it will happen during our life times - their message to lure us seems very different from the message that we want to hear. The people would want to hear how can we have Ram Rajya - an ideal state - in the next 40 years. They want to tell us how Ram Rajya - the kingdom ruled by Ram -was in the a time long gone by. AS the rickshawalla would say : ‘usse mereko kya farak padta hai (what difference does it make to me)

Today the Congress looks like a party of experienced statesmen who will sacrifice their interests in the interests of the nation. A remarkable transformation from a rudderless party a couple of years ago that was most identified by its auto canibalistic behaviour. Today, the BJP looks like a party adrift in a sea of chaos, confusion and political canibalism.

My own prediction is that sooner or later the BJP will split. There will be one part of it which would be the Hindu Fundamentalist part- backed by the Sangh Parivar - which will be feared by the minorities and ingored by the majority. The other part would be a economic right wing party akin to those one sees in the West - Margret Thatcher’s Conservatives - strong on fiscal prudence, family values and thrift. The former will attract the Uma Bharatis’ of the world. The latter the Arun Shourie’s.

Last month, a survey was conducted by the U.N. worldwide. The only question asked was - “Would you please give your most honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?” The survey was a HUGE failure.

Reasons -

In Africa, they did not know what “food” meant.

In Western Europe they did not know what “shortage”meant.

In Eastern Europe they did not know what “opinion” meant.

In the Middle East they did not know what “solution” meant.

In South America they did not know what “please” meant.

In Asia they did not know what “honest” meant.

And in the USA they did not know what “the rest of the world” meant

…. (if you kill one of ours, we will kill four of yours) - or something very close to that - were the immortal lines spoken in the film Sholay.

The scene is stark - Ahmed (Sachin) on his way to town for a job has been murdered by Gabbar Singh and gang in cold blood. Gabbar (Amjad Khan) has demanded the heads of Jay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra). 4 villains ride in to the appointed spot where Jai and Veeru are playing possum. They shoot the 4 dead and send their bodies back to Gabbar with a note - tum hamara ek marega, to hum tumhara char marega..

Today’s Saudi Raid on the Al Qaeda terrorists reminded me of that scene. Except for one difference - the village in Sholay did not throw up Gabbar and his gang. Saudi Arabia has created, nurtured and unleashed both Wahabi Fundamentalism and the Al Qaeda on the rest of the world.

It is also ironic that a day after an unarmed, civillian - Paul Johnson - is murdered - the Saudi Military miraculously figures out where to go to get the bad guys. Even Bollywood can come up with better scripts than that.

With news coming in that large chunks of the Saudi military being subverted by the Al Qaeda, and abetting the murder by decapitation of American Paul Johnson, it seems that the Saudi terror chickens are coming home to roost.

For long the Saudi funded groups have been fostering hate through out Asia and much of the Muslim world. Recent unrest in countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been fostered by Wahabi madarassas that provide cannon fodder for the Al Qaeda. The saddest part is that before they turned their sights on westerners, they have been spreading the same kind of terror amongst ordinary Muslims. Indian soldiers have come home in body bags because of the Saudi Policy.

The Saudi’s have to take a long hard look at what they have become - and possibly start some measures of allowing basic freedom in that part of the world. This does not necessarily mean Democracy. It could simply be the freedom to express your views without being sent to the concentration camp.

Tags: International Occurings, Middle East

My mom went off to Chennai (formerly Madras) today - leaving me in charge of Dad, Bro and a devlish pup called Rani - the next ten days are going to be hell.

I went to Chtrapati Shivaji Station - as opposed to the Chatrapati Shivaji Airport - to drop her off.

Scenes from a day at the station here

Tags: Society

… the marvels of digital technology via Outlook.

If you are from a generation that grew up watching Star Trek , then you will probably read this with the same excitement that I did. The BBC reports that Scientists in the US and Austria - working independently - have managed to teleport atoms.

Princeton defines teleportation as

a hypothetical mode of instantaneous transportation; matter is dematerialized at one place and recreated at another

If you remember your Star Trek, this is the bit when the crew members can be transported - to and from their transporter room -anywhere.

While scientists may be quite a way away from transporting human beings - materializing and dematerializing - and other large objects - they have made the begining.

In other merging of science fiction and science, a scientist in Japan has invented invisibility cloak and is working on x-ray vision - the ability to see through walls. What ever next? warp speed will be cool…:)

Tags: Science

With the many wonderous things that come into my inbox on a daily basis, is a standard media offer brought to me courtsey Indiantelevision.com. This is one of the better TV sites in India - and it is free. So I guess if they send me some hazaar HBO, CNN, Star offers and promos on mail, I shouldn’t really crib.

Today I got a masterpiece - truly the most innapropriate message header– the show ain’t over till the fat lady sings - I honestly thought it was a show on Shobha Mudgal. The mail had the funniest copy I have ever read. Someone was trying to write like Sidhu:)

The legend reads:

Be prepared to be bamboozled, mesmerized and let your emotions fly like the fare of an Indian Taxi, as the show ain’t over till the fat lady sings. Mohinder Amarnath, Ravi Shastri, Azharuddin, Saurav Ganguly and Harsha Bhogale are going to help you know Novjot Singh Sidhu better.

Truly funny:))