Thursday, October 20, 2016

Reflections Part 1

As I was trying to cover the past three days newspapers I could see my thoughts reflected in the opinion of media about many things and how one thing led to another and I just couldnt keep myself away fro penning it down.
It all began in my head when the issue of rubber pellets used indiscriminately on the protesting youth of Kashmir was making rounds in the news...I was seeing the entire nation was responding to it together for the first time. Maybe the response happened before too but I didn't notice.
It was a serious issue but then somehow the issue got diverted to some riots here and there in other parts of the country and soon followed posts of salutes to fallen heroes of Indian Army..
This might all sound like disconnected things but if we look at the past few months from top, it all looks interconnected to me.. Like a deliberate attempt to divert attention of masses.
Even the membership of NSG looked like its part. To divert the attention from more important issues like raising cow vigilantes, growing rate of caste based atrocities, release of major criminals from jails, it felt like the govt of the day was showcasing membership into MTCR and NSG push as big achievements. As a matter of fact(no... as a matter of my opinion), though entry into MTCR  may help us import and export missile tech, looking for entry into NSG is plain bulllshit.
NSG and CTBT were born as a response to and against India's nuclear test. Also, we do not have enough reserves of Uranium to source our own needs that we import it, so joining a suppliers group sounds ambiguous. If entry into NSG would open up gates to access of military grade radioactive material that could be used for progress in nuclear strength, then its just a rumor spread to make half-knowledged common man feel powerful. Entry into NSG will demand a sign on CTBT which means no nuclear testings. How can you use something without testing it?!
India is never gonna sign CTBT . Its just a show off to shift attention.
Coming back to the saluting posts on fb, I dont know who started it and why.. I am not against showing love and support for the unsung heroes but it began with pretty odd timing.Why praising began all of a sudden and started spreading like wildfire ust when there was trouble brewing throughout the nation?! hmm... interesting.
After URI attack's response in the form of a surgical strike, (which thrilled me too filling me up with a gigantic amount of pride), the government showed it off like the playschool kid showing off his toys.But what followed is what's been troubling me.
I saw two major mass opinions emerge out of this surgical strike:

  1. The army is to be worshipped and no actions of the army are to be questioned or inquired into by the citizens. It is time to boost their morale. (Is their morale so weak that it would break with mere questioning?I  thought they had the strongest of the mindsets. Infallible determination is what I thought)
  2. The government of the day is more patriotic than the entire nation put together. (Praising the army and spreading bans and hatred among citizens/encouraging it , do not amount to patriotism.)

I see some dangerous points here. The Army, no matter how good they perform and how much we respect their sacrifices, cannot be declared unquestionable. In a democracy, everything can be and should be questioned. That's how people can exercise control on overreach of any institution.
The Army is an instrument of the government , one of many it may use to maintain peace and order.
The decision of the Army means the decision of the govt executed through it.
The overuse of army for what it is not meant, from something as minuscule as rescuing kids falling into service pits to emergency/disaster management and public order, instead of their original function, allocating soldiers to do household work of higher officials and trying to compensate it all by praising them, massaging their ego's is not the way a responsible government is expected to act.
Worshiping Military may help in the outcome of upcoming elections but it is not going to help solve everyday internal issues of a nation. Instead,  there is a big chance that we might be heading towards a garrison state like our neighboring nation.
Speaking of neighboring nation,the govt not discouraging people who are spreading a ban of trade and commerce , any kind of participation from Pak, indirectly spreading hatred , is equal to encouraging it. It is silently adding strength to the already haywire mobocracy that has been pushing liberals into cave and others to align with the current fever of nationalism which is a tad bit tilted to fascism.
When senior leaders of the govt of the day made statements saying they never asked any business to be stopped but it was a voluntary reaction of the people, I could literally see their inner self peeping out and smiling "But we did not stop them from doing so."
All I am saying is the situations currently prevailing could be handled in a more mature, responsible and diplomatic way( I never said diplomacy means no war ), than making hatred run as ropes gripping the nation that can be used as reigns to sway the entire nation to the wish of the one holding the reigns.
We do not live in a world of Monarchs and war heroes anymore but the masses and the rulers are giving me nothing but a picture of the same with modern clothes, ways and equipment.
From where I am standing, this does not look good. It looks more tangled than ever... It looks like a bubble just waiting to burst and then, boom...
Maybe I am looking from a different side but this side needs to be addressed too.

Any and every point mentioned in the above article cannot be used as a fact . It is purely the opinion of the author which has no intentions to influence anyone.


Thursday, February 11, 2016

"FREE" ... But with Strings Attached 0_0

Do you remember the huge hoardings hanging on the walls of shops and malls that shout out "FREE!! FREE!! FREE!!" but then have a small clause in insignificant font size below them that states the conditions on it?!....
Many of us fall for it at-least once to realize what it is or maybe learn from others who already fell for it... Yeah I was one going to be one of the victims.. almost on the verge of giving in to the idea of "Free" but then, fortunately I got to see the flip side of it.. And no I am not talking about shopping anymore ... its about the "Free Basics" of Facebook.
Once upon a time, FB stood as a revolutionary social networking site that stood by the concept of universality and positive globalization with minimal 'ad-pop-ups' on your screen. Then all of us got so addicted to it that most of us gave into the idea of Zuckerberg's idea of free internet to the poor. Especially when his marketing team craftily advocated it as an  ALTRUISTIC motive of Mark to reach out to the poor and internet-deprived lot of the world. It seemed really like a noble motive , however, they forgot to mention two things :

  1. There will be pretty restricted access which bars audio & video sites, surfing through search engines, social networking sites(except fb ofcourse), and a huge chunk of internet (to be crude) in the name of BASIC INTERNET. Only FB gets to decide whats BASIC INTERNET.
  2. It might look ok at first but when we think a little on it, it shows many loopholes in the ALTRUISTIC theory. It is no less than colonizing the choice of people and slowly gaining monopoly over internet, in the process, killing the basic nature of internet being the only space which is close to "absolute freedom of choice".

HOW ?

  • The pricing... Its offered at zero price, but, only on few select set of sites. That means a large chunk of people will be driven to use only that part of internet which FB permits them to..It says the choice is left to people to opt for free basics or not and they can choose to browse restricted sites( in the name of Free Basics) by paying a small amount. This amounts to violation of net neutrality. Net neutrality in its simplest terms says no part of internet can be priced differently.
  • This means I might have to pay extra for wanting to blog on internet one day..
  • It will give push to the idea of differential pricing to all ISP providers.


THE PROVOCATION:

What shocked me even more is how FB used its platform to show its muscle power in the form of numbers. When the TRAI(Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) asked for opinions of all Indians on the issue of free basics, Mark and team  tried to flood the opinion gates with peoples love towards Free Basics by dubbing their opinion as truth.. The gate was to express ones concerns regarding Free Basics.Its nothing less than misleading the public by presenting ones opinions as truth.
It also makes me think that the huge power over the people should come with some sense of responsibility too... who ensures responsibility? hmmm.. we will discuss that some other time.!

SHOCKER:

The shocker this time is how TRAI, a governmental body stood up against a social networking giant like Facebook(for whatever reasons) . That was just a WOOOOW!!!
I mean I never expected a govt organization to be an active part of the generation X issues , especially relating to the virtual world. The way it stood its ground on net neutrality, showcasing the huge potential of monopoly and exploitation in future, against the sheer numbers of mass hysteria driven mails of FB customers, ah that was commendable.
While many of the nations gave in , succumbing to "Atleast something is better than nothing", rather than looking at the flip-side, Indian citizens proved to be far more sophisticated than Mark would have guessed.
Though the awareness campaign was on a small scale , by techies, students and you-tubers like AIB,  it was creative enough to give a complete picture to the people.

RESULT:
For now, TRAI has been successful at stopping Free Basic's entry into the Indian market. It also suggested that we need to start making laws regulating internet pricing and maintaining net neutrality to prevent harm rather than acting after it.

It might sound long and boring and stuff but I was late to know and you have a right to know so I had to write this up :)


P.S:
This note is only my reflection and opinion on the burning issue of net neutrality violations expressed in my own terms ^_^ ...
There could be over simplification of facts and biased statements found.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Are Smartphones eating up our Smart Quotient?!!

Yes I finally came to this topic after so many people going ga-ga over it!
I always felt that there is a smart way of doing anything. Be it getting tasks done or using a smartphone. If we are too dependent on something then we will repent eventually . So when using a smartphone, dependency should be reduced is what i thought. Felt pretty smart thinking that up too!
A small accident and the crash of my So-Smart phone was what it took to open up my blog and get writing again.
I don't think it made me any less smart than i actually was. But it did eat away many small chunks of time that I used to spend on other things. For example, I haven't played my guitar in almost 3 months. Haven't blogged in past few months, There were so many things to blog about : the Tesla Home Battery, the new s6 edge, The lollipop, the Sony Xperia Z4, the beginning of many more things and the end of many many more things. I lost track of all those.
I knew them but since I was busy clicking and checking my smarty all the time, i couldn't produce a good article every-time i was awed by some other technological marvel!
I have used so many "haven't and couldn't " words that even my spell checker is crying to put apostrophe's!!!
I fell down a bike on Friday and crashed my head and phone to the hard concrete road!
Head seemed fine with a small scratch but smarty went into coma. Had to send it to its Company ICU till further notice.
But, after sending it home, I played till the battery died on my wikipad, I tuned back my guitar and played it till my fingers said no-more, I helped mom fix her kitchen light, I read something! and Yeahhhh I am finally blogging.
If a painting was done based on the tasks in my day to day life, I'd definitely see the vivid colors used in it without my smarty and the normal bland painting with smarty in it!
The Verdict : Smartphones might not make you any more smarter or dumber than you actually are! But, they do eat up a lot of small time chunks from ur life that might add up to a biggggg loss!!
The smarter the phone, the more are the time chunks disappearing.


Monday, September 9, 2013

BITCOINS THE NEW DIGITAL CURRENCY!!

With good news streaming one after another for bitcoins in India, I think there is much to be known about it!

Bitcoin is a digital currency used to pay for a variety of goods and services. In many ways, it works the same as paper money with some key differences. Although physical forms of Bitcoin exist, the currency's primary form is data so you trade it online, peer to peer, using wallet software or an online service. You can obtain Bitcoin's either by trading other money, goods, or services with people who have them or through mining. The mining process involves running software that performs complex mathematical equations for which you're rewarded a very small portion of a Bitcoin. When you actually have some of the currency, you can then use it to purchase anything that accepts it. In some cases, Bitcoin is the only accepted form of payment and you'll have to acquire it in order to complete a transaction. While this basic explanation might answer most of your initial questions, it likely brings up quite a few more. Let's discuss how you can acquire Bitcoin and why you'd use it.

How to Acquire BitcoinsP

Getting your hands on even a single Bitcoin can take a bit of work, but you have a few options. Purchasing Bitcoin takes less effort than mining it, but obviously comes at the cost of your hard-earned cash. Mining, on the other hand, takes computer processing power and often bears very little fruit. First, let's talk about how you can buy a Bitcoin and then look at the mining process.P

How to Buy a BitcoinP

What Is Bitcoin and What Can I Do With It?SEXPAND
As previously mentioned, storing and using Bitcoins requires wallet software or an online service. The wallet software requires quite a bit of disk space and you have to find a Bitcoin seller in order to acquire any of the actual currency. An online wallet, on the other hand, makes the entire process much easier. As a result, we're going to focus on that process. To set up an online wallet and purchase your first Bitcoin, just follow these steps:P
  1. To create a wallet, sign up for an online service like My Wallet (UK) or Coinbase (US). For these instructions, we'll use Coinbase because they provide a simple, integrated purchase process with two-factor authentication for added security.
  2. From the lefthand menu, click "Linked Accounts" and add a bank account. It can take several days for Coinbase to successfully link a bank account, so if you intend to purchase any Bitcoins you should plan ahead.
  3. Once your account is all linked up, click the Buy/Sell Bitcoins link. The page will default to the Buy Bitcoins section so just enter the number you want to purchase, choose your bank account (if you linked more than one), and click the Buy Bitcoins button. The transaction may take a few days to complete, but you'll receive a notification when the Bitcoins have been safely transferred to your wallet.
The purchase process doesn't take much effort, but rather just involves a lot of waiting. The Bitcoin exchange rate changes over time, so while at the time of this writing you have to spend $75.93 USD for just one you may find them cheaper next month. Of course, you can come across Bitcoin for the cost of your CPU cycles by engaging in the mining process instead.P

How to Mine BitcoinsP

What Is Bitcoin and What Can I Do With It?SEXPAND
Mining Bitcoin involves running software on your computer that processes complex mathematical equations. If your computer solves one of these equations, you get a payout in Bitcoins. The issue, however, is that your computer is up against large groups of computers that will likely solve the problem before you. That means your machine may end up doing a bunch of work and it will be a very long time before you ever see a payout. As a result, you want to join a mining group. This makes it much more likely that you'll receive a payout, but you'll also receive only your much smaller share. Nevertheless, without a farm of supercomputers you'll earn more in the long run by mining with a group. Because mining is a very complex process, we don't have room to get into the details in this post. Business Insider offers a very simple method you might want to try (it didn't work for us due to Java issues), or check out popular mining pool BitcoinCZ (also known as slush's pool).P

What to Do With BitcoinP

What Is Bitcoin and What Can I Do With It?SEXPAND
Now that you have a wallet and a Bitcoin or two, what do you do with it? If you signed up for an account with Coinbase or My Wallet, both services allow you to sell your digital wealth. Because Bitcoin prices fluctuate, if you're simply looking to make some money you can attempt to buy them low and sell them high. I bought a Bitcoin a few months back for $15, and if I sold it today I'd earn nearly $61. If you invest wisely and remain patient, you can make a decent amount of money by simply buying and selling Bitcoins.P
As Bitcoins are a currency, several businesses accept them as payment. In fact, some businesses only accept Bitcoin. Why? Some services provide tools that may or may not be used for piracy, such as a VPN or Usenetindexer. Multiple Usenet providers shut down last year because their payment providers were pressured into dropping them as clients by major film studios. Without any way to accept payments, they couldn't afford to continue and shut down. Because Bitcoin conducts transactions peer-to-peer, there's no intermediary to prevent the funds from rolling in. As a result, many of these services utilize Bitcoin as their only method.P
That said, you can use Bitcoin for more than just questionably ethical services. Bitcoin Magazine offers a long list of options that includes everything from music downloads to gift cards to clothing. While you can't spend your digital cash anywhere, several options exist for you to use your Bitcoins as you please.P

This only scratches the surface of Bitcoin. It's a very complicated, involved system. It's also got company in the form of rival digital currencies, such as RippleFreicoinNamecoin, and more. Hopefully this gives you a better understanding how Bitcoin works, but be sure to check out theBitcoin Wiki if you want to learn more.

Credits:LifeHacker

Saturday, January 5, 2013

ELECTRONIC COTTON

As i was going through the inventions of last year i found a very interestsing invention in the first week of january 2012. About cotton fibers that can conduct electricity,. yes natural cotton fibers... 
At first even i thought its all some electrical thingy.. no its pure natural fibers doped with gold nano particles . The cellulose which form the fibers is naturally insulating, so to make it conductive they doped it with gold nano particles.
Think of the wide range of possibilities it opens to us. 
Carpets that can count how many people waled on it, t shirts that can show you the amount of pollution or the level of various gases in air at the place you r standing.. Almost all the electronic equipment can be built up in fabric level. It might revolutionarize the fabric/ textile industry around the globe. 
Electonics of cotton.. Who might have a problem!!
This is the link to the IEEE aritcle.
WOW.. YEAH thats what i felt on first look.. But on giving it a deeper thought I had some doubts... 
>> What will happen to those carpets when people start walking on them.. wont the fibers break?
>>Are those clothes resistant to water or detergent? come on!! i wanna wear a clean shirt~
>>What if the devices made of these fibers get dirty?can they be steam cleaned?
>> What about the resistance and sustainability to the natural weather conditions?
>>Can i use vacuum cleaner on it??
>> Many other similar doubts were not answered in the article.

The thing is it is just the beginning of something big , if it gets big!
A lot of research is to be put into the field. a lot of experiments, lot of improvements, research, findings, failures, success and a lot of so much.
Then the expectations that i had in the first lines of the article may be satisfied!!!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

My Samsung Galaxy S3

Ya it is costly but sure it is worthy.. From the moment i bought the phone i am nothing but amazed.. sometimes at its speed s, sometimes at its smartness .... 
It actually is designed for humans and can be called "smart" for its various distinct features.
Lets see some of the features that i felt made it stand out in the competitive android mobile phone market ,followed by the formal set of techinical and non-technical specifications .

1. Smart Alert: When we leave our phone for a while to do some work and if the phone is in silent mode .. then? we should come back and check the phone for what we have been missing.. With the new Samsung galaxy s3 you dont need to... all you have to do is come and hold your phone and if you have been missing anything it vibrates to let you know that you have a missed call or messge or a mail that arrived.. I loved this feature.

2.SVoice: This is another amazing feature.. Many of you might have heard of the "Siri voice recognization software" . Well this is something similar. It allows you to do a lot of things without using complex controls and yeah no need of hands. Want to set an alarm? go to s voice and tell " set alarm at 6 am tomorrow".
Now that sounded common didnt it? Morning when the alarm is buzzing, you can lift your phone n say postpone alarm for 5 mins or 10 mins and thats it .. it will let you sleep for 5-10 mins more :) pretty amazing right? You can use it similarly for getting directions using google maps , can call the camera to take shots, can call someone, send a message to someone.. all you have to do is talk to it.. Its a big asset to all the lazy people out there and hey lazy is no more a slang.... its an asset you know... not everybody has it !! ( both s3 and laziness :P )

3.Direct Call: This is not what you think... When you got a message from someone or you r messaging someone and suddenly you decide to call the person... now all you gotta do is, with the message of that person open, just hold the phone to your ear and the "Direct Call" feature automatically calls the person without the necessity of using any fuzzy commands on it .. tin tin ti din :D

4.Smart Stay: This is the feature they've been showing on tv about "designed for humans" wala tag.
What mobile phones generally do is the screen light stays on for a certain period of time( 1/30/45 seconds) and then turns off if there is no user activity.. But image how irritating it feels when u r reading a book on the mobile and you have to stay on the same page for more than a minute but your screen light keeps going off... errrrrrr... i know... the new Samsung galaxy s3 offers the smart stay feature which uses the front camera to check if the user's eyes are on the screen or not.. if yes then the screen light stays on and if n it goes puff....
Saves  battery and temper :D

5.S Beam: Another interesting feature but only if your friend also has the Samsung galazy s3.
You can share anything and everything just by touching the back of both the mobiles... It works great and you will be amazed by the speed of transfer . The only requirement being the other person should have it too.
But another very interesting feature.

6. Design: Its obviously not an application based feature but it is very interesting that inspite of the huge screen and size of the mobile it weights only 133 grams.. Feather light!! Ans the rounded edges are beautiful. The gorilla glass prevents it from any kind of scratches and it wont easily break. Believe me... it is coming from a person who is very careless with handling a mobile phone!! ;)

Other notable feature is the camera. Absolutely stunning clarity of the rear camera of 8 mega pixels, amazing addons to the shots. The best thing about S3's camera is the burst short. You can take a bunch of photos within milli-seconds of time and select a best photo out of the burst lot.
the front camera also offers more than it promises to. With a 1.9 mega pixels it gives unexpectedly great clarity... Pretty much clearer than a normal mirror... For close up shots of self, there is no bad in using the front camera.The video quality is hd and very reliable. The final verdict on the camera is that it gives crystal clear clarity even when in motion and the quality of photos is no less than a digital camera :)
 Applications... there are millions of apps that you can download free of cost using "samsungapps" or "google play" . And the quality of display and touch and motion display is out of the world... No other android mobile in the market can offer so much as S3 has to offer.

Other formal features are listed below:
GENERAL2G NetworkGSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G NetworkHSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G NetworkLTE (regional)
SIMMicro-SIM
Announced2012, May
StatusAvailable. Released 2012, May
BODYDimensions136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm (5.38 x 2.78 x 0.34 in)
Weight133 g (4.69 oz)
DISPLAYTypeSuper AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size720 x 1280 pixels, 4.8 inches (~306 ppi pixel density)
MultitouchYes
ProtectionCorning Gorilla Glass 2
 - TouchWiz UI
SOUNDAlert typesVibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
LoudspeakerYes
3.5mm jackYes
MEMORYCard slotmicroSD, up to 64 GB
Internal16/32/64 GB storage, 1 GB RAM
DATAGPRSClass 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGEClass 12
SpeedHSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
WLANWi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot
BluetoothYes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR
NFCYes
USBYes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go
CAMERAPrimary8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
FeaturesSimultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization
VideoYes, 1080p@30fps, check quality
SecondaryYes, 1.9 MP, 720p@30fps
FEATURESOSAndroid OS, v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), upgradeable to 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)
ChipsetExynos 4412 Quad
CPUQuad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9
GPUMali-400MP
SensorsAccelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
MessagingSMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
BrowserHTML, Adobe Flash
RadioStereo FM radio with RDS
GPSYes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS
JavaYes, via Java MIDP emulator
ColorsPebble blue, Marble white, Amber brown, Garnet red, Sapphire black, Titanium grey, La Fleur
 - S-Voice natural language commands and dictation
- Smart Stay eye tracking
- Dropbox (50 GB storage)
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
- SNS integration
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
- Organizer
- Image/video editor
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input (Swype)
BATTERY Standard battery, Li-Ion 2100 mAh
Stand-byUp to 590 h (2G) / Up to 790 h (3G)
Talk timeUp to 21 h 40 min (2G) / Up to 11 h 40 min (3G)
MISCSAR US0.55 W/kg (head)     1.49 W/kg (body)    
SAR EU0.21 W/kg (head)    
Price group
TESTSDisplayContrast ratio: Infinite (nominal) / 3.419:1 (sunlight)
LoudspeakerVoice 75dB / Noise 66dB / Ring 75dB
Audio qualityNoise -90.3dB / Crosstalk -92.6dB
CameraPhoto / Video
Battery lifeEndurance rating 50h