Another definition for love.....

I define love as a four letter word with over 4 trillion definitions.

And here i found another definition:

True love is when you see the flaws;
overlook the imperfection;
understand the weaknesses;
and still; can't live without it.

Happy B'day - Sandil

Well, 17th October was the birthday of Sandil.

And i only came to know about it just now.

Well, for those who don't know Sandil. All i can say is that he a friend of mine who is carzy about music, photography,table tennis & computers(sorry if i forgot any).
He is even an amature Keyboard & gutair player(he is pretty good).

In computers, he is far more experienced than me & i keep bugging him frequently when ever i need some help.

Well, if to decribe him in detail. Its gonna be a long story and i am really busy.

So all i want to do is wish Sandil all the best.

Outsourcing Hurts Indians, too

Its a very well know fact that one of the most booming form of business in India is outsourcing. And of that, Call Centers are popularly know mainly for 2 reasons:

1. In India, its consider as one of the best jobs among youngsters because the only qualification is required for the job is the ability to speak in English which is a piece of cake for the Indians.
2. In US, UK & other countries were the jobs are outsourced to India. The whole thing is considered as a bane as the people in that country are going out of job.

Well, i guess there is a 3rd additional reason to the above . Read on..............

IT Sweatshops Breaking Indians

Outsourcing tech jobs to India has caused turmoil for workers in the United States and Europe. But it seems it's causing turmoil for Indians, as well.

An estimated 50,000 young English-speaking Indians who work in call centers here are exposed to a host of health problems. They are usually in their early 20s, just out of college and up all night answering tech calls.

Because of the time difference between India and the United States, the work day for these workers starts late in the evening and extends until dawn. Such odd work hours have brought on a host of health problems including digestive diseases, hair loss, back pain and stress.

"Two call center workers have suffered miscarriages," said Gurvinder Singh Bindra, a senior-level manager at Indus Teleservices, which employs about 250 workers earning $160 to $300 per month. "Some girls develop menstrual problems. Orthopedic problems and sharp increase in smoking are common features. I would also attribute extramarital affairs in call centers to the odd working hours, though it's my personal observation. When the husband comes home the wife is asleep. When the wife comes home the husband is asleep."

Some even claim assuming a foreign accent for long periods causes sore throats.

"We do try to make life better for the workers by buying specially designed chairs and improving the overall work environment," said Nirupama Hukku, who used to work at Indus Teleservices as a training consultant. "But there is no alternative to a good night's sleep.

"I don't feel fresh even after eight to 10 hours of sleep in the day. It makes you some kind of recluse at times, creating issues in relationships. You are never awake when others are, so no one can talk to you."

Laxmikant Purohit, a 34-year-old services manager at SoftTel Information Services who works from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., says he suffers from constipation and acid stomach. In the past eight months he has put on 29 pounds, he said.

"It's difficult to have a positive outlook toward life because everything seems dark and gloomy when you work at ungodly hours," he said. "It's the first month that is the most terrible. One or two weeks after joining, new recruits throw up in the middle of work."

At Infowavz, absenteeism on some days is as high as 8 percent. "On an average it is 5 percent," said the call center facility's President Vineet Mittal. Infowavz has introduced concepts like a "fun officer," whose job is to spot employees who look a bit down and try to entertain them with jokes.

"I believe call centers should do all they can to improve the lives of those who work there," Mittal said. That's why even though 10 out of 12 Infowavz clients are American, the firm never demanded that its workers perfect their American accents.

"Some call centers ask their agents, as the floor workers are called, to practice speaking English with a marble placed below the tongue to imitate the American accent better," Mittal said.

Apart from the health hazards, there is a minor social embarrassment attached to a distinct American accent slipping out of an Indian mouth. Some call center workers are so consumed by the accent they employ at work that they accidentally take it home, only to be ridiculed by their near and dear. Manish Raut, 26, who works at Transworks, said he takes great care to return to his normal Indian English accent with friends.

"But I cannot do anything about the fact that I fall ill for one or two days on a regular basis. Since I work from 10:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., my whole biological system has gone for a toss. I have a proper meal just once a day. If I eat well at night I feel sleepy. And in the day I am fast asleep."

Not surprisingly, the attrition rate is high in the call center business. Thirty to 40 percent of the workers quit in a year. But they are quickly replaced because there are enough English-speaking youngsters in India available for jobs that pay $160 to $300 per month.

They will learn not to call it easy money.

Mohandas Gandhi - A Hypocrite

Nuggets of truth often overseen by Indians & the world in general - Gandhi's Principle of Peace Was Bogus.

Gopal Godse, co-conspirator in Gandhi's assassination and brother of the assassin, looks back in anger--and without regret.

Fifty-two years ago, on Jan. 30, 1948, Mohandas Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. Godse believed that the Mahatma, or great soul, was responsible for the 1947 partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. Godse and his friend Narayan Apte were hanged. His brother Gopal and two others were sentenced to life imprisonment for their part in the conspiracy. Gopal Godse remained in jail for 18 years and now, at 80, lives with his wife in a small apartment in Pune. He is still proud of his role in the murder. Although Godse is largely ignored in India and rarely talks to journalists, he agreed to speak with TIME Delhi correspondent Meenakshi Ganguly.

TIME: What happened in January 1948?
Godse: On Jan. 20, Madanlal Pahwa exploded a bomb at Gandhi's prayer meeting in Delhi. It was 50 m away from Gandhi. [The other conspirators] all ran away from the place. Madanlal was caught there. Then there was a tension in our minds that we had to finish the task before the police caught us. Then Nathuram [Gopal's brother] took it on himself to do the thing. We only wanted destiny to help us -- meaning we should not be caught on the spot before he acted.

TIME: Why did you want to kill Gandhi?
Godse: Gandhi was a hypocrite. Even after the massacre of the Hindus by the Muslims, he was happy. The more the massacres of the Hindus, the taller his flag of secularism.

TIME: Did you ever see Gandhi?
Godse: Yes.

TIME: Did you attend his meetings?
Godse: Yes.

TIME: Can you explain how he created his mass following?
Godse: The credit goes to him for maneuvering the media. He captured the press. That was essential. How Gandhi walked, when he smiled, how he waved -- all these minor details that the people did not require were imposed upon them to create an atmosphere around Gandhi. And the more ignorant the masses, the more popular was Gandhi. So they always tried to keep the masses ignorant.

TIME: But surely it takes more than good publicity to create a Gandhi?
Godse: There is another thing. Generally in the Indian masses, people are attracted toward saintism. Gandhi was shrewd to use his saintdom for politics. After his death the government used him. The government knew that he was an enemy of Hindus, but they wanted to show that he was a staunch Hindu. So the first act they did was to put "Hey Ram" into Gandhi's dead mouth.

TIME: You mean that he did not say "Hey Ram" as he died?
Godse: No, he did not say it. You see, it was an automatic pistol. It had a magazine for nine bullets but there were actually seven at that time. And once you pull the trigger, within a second, all the seven bullets had passed. When these bullets pass through crucial points like the heart, consciousness is finished. You have no strength.

When Nathuram saw Gandhi was coming, he took out the pistol and folded his hands with the pistol inside it. There was one girl very close to Gandhi. He feared that he would hurt the girl. So he went forward and with his left hand pushed her aside and shot. It happened within one second. You see, there was a film and some Kingsley fellow had acted as Gandhi. Someone asked me whether Gandhi said, "Hey Ram." I said Kingsley did say it. But Gandhi did not. Because that was not a drama.

TIME: Many people think Gandhi deserved to be nominated TIME's Person of the Century. [He was one of two runners-up, after Albert Einstein.]
Godse: I name him the most cruel person for Hindus in India. The most cruel person! That is how I term him.

TIME: Is that why Gandhi had to die?
Godse: Yes. For months he was advising Hindus that they must never be angry with the Muslims. What sort of ahimsa (non-violence) is this? His principle of peace was bogus. In any free country, a person like him would be shot dead officially because he was encouraging the Muslims to kill Hindus.

TIME: But his philosophy was of turning the other cheek. He felt one person had to stop the cycle of violence...
Godse: The world does not work that way.

TIME: Is there anything that you admire about Gandhi?
Godse: Firstly, the mass awakening that Gandhi did. In our school days Gandhi was our idol. Secondly, he removed the fear of prison. He said it is different to go into prison for a theft and different to go in for satyagraha (civil disobedience). As youngsters, we had our enthusiasm, but we needed some channel. We took Gandhi to be our channel. We don't repent for that.

TIME: Did you not admire his principles of non-violence?
Godse: Non-violence is not a principle at all. He did not follow it. In politics you cannot follow non-violence. You cannot follow honesty. Every moment, you have to give a lie. Every moment you have to take a bullet in hand and kill someone. Why was he proved to be a hypocrite? Because he was in politics with his so-called principles. Is his non-violence followed anywhere? Not in the least. Nowhere.

TIME: What was the most difficult thing about killing Gandhi?
Godse: The greatest hurdle before us was not that of giving up our lives or going to the gallows. It was that we would be condemned both by the government and by the public. Because the public had been kept in the dark about what harm Gandhi had done to the nation. How he had fooled them!

TIME: Did the people condemn you?
Godse: Yes. People in general did. Because they had been kept ignorant.

Source: TIME Asia

Not every animal in the Jungle are dangerous.

Some short events in life leaves us with a ever-lasting memories. And these events have always been those from which i learned a lot. There is one incident like that which really helped me.

About 4-5 yrs back, this incident happened. But i remember it very clear even today.

One day, I was going for my tution by a cab. The previous day as the cabby took me to a wrong place(i felt it was on purpose just over-charge me) & as i was late i was really irritated. So this day i was repeatedly told the cabby the location(i was again late).

The cabby was an old Pakistani (Pattan). The third or fourth time i was telling him the location, i could not help but notice his disarming smile via the interior rear mirror. I did not finish telling him the location, but i stopped. And just stared outside the window.

Then after a moment of dead silence, i broke the silence by telling him what happened the previous day (the thing about the cabby taking me to wrong place).

When i finished tell him the incident, i reached my place. I just gave him the money & when he turned around to giving me the change, he smiled at me and told "Not every animals in the jungle are dangerous. Of course, there are dangerous ones and you should be careful about them. But you should not consider everyone as dangerous. You should learn to know who is dangerous & not".

He told it to me in Hindi. And even now as i am writing this. I can feel his voice echoing in me........

Some Geek jokes...........

1) There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

2) If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0

3) My software never has bugs. It just develops random features.

4) Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
All my base
Are belong to you.

5) Microsoft: “You’ve got questions. We’ve got dancing paperclips.”

6) I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

7) The box said, “Requires Windows 95 or better.” So I installed Linux.

8) In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?

9) Hand over the calculator, friends don’t let friends derive drunk.

10) You know it’s love when you memorize her IP number to skip DNS overhead.

11) Ethernet (n): something used to catch the etherbunny.

12) Linux, DOS and Windows…the good, the bad and the ugly.

13) Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

14) How do I set a laser printer to stun?

15) Failure is not an option — it comes bundled with Windows.

16) People say that if you play Microsoft CD’s backwards, you hear satanic things, but that’s nothing, because if you play them forwards, they install Windows.

17) Windows had detected you do not have a keyboard. Press “F9″ to continue.

18) Beware of computer programmers that carry screwdrivers.

19) SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue > 0
- returned 0 results

20) There is no place like 127.0.0.1

Taken from ttp://www.thecomputercurmudgeon.com

More on Blogging............

Just happened to come across some interesting details about Blogging. I was just recently learned that ring tones tell a lot about your personality. But its just now that i learned that blogging tell about your personality! Would suggest bloggers to give a shot at What's Your Blogging Personality?

And for those who really don't know what to blog about. Try 10 Ways To Create Content For Your Weblog.

But for those who don't have a blog but are seriously planning to have one, Top Free Blog Software / Hosting for Bloggers will be of your interest. But before that i would suggest reading Before You Choose Your Weblog Software.

But as a personal word. For those who really love to update your site but is not interested/don't have time in messing with your site & prefer a way to simply updating your site. Blogging is the solution as far as i know.

Hey Neighbour......

Well, today as i was going to the supermarket i met my new neighbour(has been my neighbour for 6 months) face2face for the first time. Just a casual smile & we walked off our ways.

After that, when i came home. I saw that my blog was loaded on my browser. That's when "Next Blog >>", on the top right-end of my blog caught my attention. I was curious to see who is my neighbour online as i know my neighbour offline :-)

Here i go, "http://transcendente.blogspot.com/". That's the address of my neighbour & his name is André Marques de Carvalho Mendes(wow!, thats long). A 24 yr old Portuguese student of Computer Engineering (nice to have a neighbour of your same interest).

Well, the best part is yet to come.

I once again went backed to my blog & tried clicking "Next Blog >>".

This time its not my Portuguese neighbour. Now its "http://painterlady.blogspot.com/". Now its a 42 yr old American lady who is an artist as well as a writer. On checking more about her, it seems that she has published a couple of books & has lot of personal interest varying from poetry to painting to belly dancing to Tarot studies. Well, there goes a list of a stranger's interest & i am no less to that.

Actually now i am more-than-ever tempted to explore around and see all my "Next Blog >>" neighbours. But unfortunately, the damn time is the problem. I got to go. Guess i shall visit my neighbours some other time. And i am sure that this is gonna be a journey that wouldn't end this lifetime.

Well, bye. Got to go.................

Trust a robber???????

"........but at the end of the day we think consumers want choice, consumers want openness," Glaser said.

Source: Yahoo News

Glaser is the Founder of Real Network. And the above statement was given by him while announcing his company teaming up with Microsoft to give Apple's iPod customers more CHOICE & OPENNESS.
Those two are the terms that cannot be found in the products of either Real Network or Microsoft. Really wondering who the hell on earth are two hardcore Proprietary companies gonna do that.
We will just have to wait & hope for the best.

Can you read this?

As i was just browsing around the net, i just came across something i believe is really interesting.
Enjoy;-)
>>>>>
Can you raed tihs? Olny srmat poelpe can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

The Conscience of a Hacker

The following was written shortly after my arrest...

\/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/
( The Hacker Manifesto)
by
+++The Mentor+++

Written on January 8, 1986

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers."Teenager Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank Tampering"...

Damn kids. They're all alike.

But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?

I am a hacker, enter my world...

Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...

Damn underachiever. They're all alike.

I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms.Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."

Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.

I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...
Or feels threatened by me...
Or thinks I'm a smart ass...
Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...

Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.

And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found.

"This is it... this is where I belong..."

I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...

Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...

You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.

This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.

Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.

I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual,
but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.

+++The Mentor+++

That was The Conscience of a Hacker (a.k.a. The Hacker Manifesto) is a small article written on January 8, 1986 by a hacker who went by the handle, or pseudonym, of The Mentor (a.k.a. Loyd Blankenship). It was written after the author's arrest, and first published in the underground hacker ezine Phrack in Volume One, Issue 7, Phile 3 of 10.

It is considered an important item of hacker culture, and it gives an insight into the psychology of early hackers. The Manifesto states that hackers choose to hack because it is a way for them to learn. It also expresses the satori of a hacker realizing his potential in the realm of computers.

Lazy or .......

Guess most of you are aware that i have a website "sreenadh.net". Its over 3 months that i bought it. And when i took it, i put up a coming soon page. And till now, the site is not up.

You might think i dont know HTML. But i know html, javascript, flash, css & php.
Then you might think i lost interest or i am lazy. But i spend atleast 4 hrs a day working on my site.

Then wondering were is my site??????

Well, here is the story. Once i start on the site i am so interested in testing stuff( i setup 3-4 blogs, 2 forums, 4-5 form-mailers), that i totally forget the fact that i am suppose to develop a site.

I am blogging this hoping that atleast now i will seriously develop a homepage.

Worth a thought................

I really enjoyed reading this paragraph. So, just though of sharing it with everyone.

Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous.
Love is never boastful nor conceded.
It is never rude or selfish.
It does not take offence and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delight in the truth.
It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.