Happy Diwali


Main purpose of this post is to try embedding a tweet into a post. :)

रौशनी

रौशनी कुछ ज्यादा है
कुछ नज़र नहीं आ रहा
थोड़ी हल्की हो जाती रौशनी
ज़रा कुछ नज़र आता ।

आँख चौंधिया गयी
जैसे सूरज चढ़ा हो
रात भी कुछ चीज़ थी
दिन से अँधेरी, फ़र्क थी ।

क्यूँ है इतनी ज्यादा
क्या काम है इसका ?
अपना अँधेरा छुपाने का
शायद पर्दा है रौशनी ।

-अनिमेष अग्रवाल

Salaried Wife. What an Idea Mantrijee!

जी मंत्रीजी !

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development is mulling to prepare a draft that would make it mandatory for the husband to pay a definite amount of his salary to his wife each month.

महिला एवं बाल विकास मंत्रालय में इस बात पे सोच विचार हो रहा है कि पत्नियों को पति की salary में से कुछ हिस्सा मिलना चाहिए। मंत्रालय इस सम्बन्ध में जल्दी ही एक प्रस्ताव पेश करेगा।

अच्छा है, हमारे देश में अकलमंदी के काम काफी तेज़ी से होते हैं। मंत्रालय की ये सोच है की इससे महिलाओं का empowerment हो जायेगा। Empowerment करने के लिए ये plan है कि घरेलू औरत का designation हाउस-वाईफ से गिराके हाउस-मेड का कर दिया जाए। पत्नी के पास पैसा आ जायेगा तो सब तकलीफ ख़त्म। आखिर सब problem ही पैसे की है।

इस idea को पूरी तरह से कारगर बनाने के लिए मेरे 7 सवाल हैं:
  1. विवाह के 7 वादों को हटा कर क्या offer letter सिस्टम लागू किया जायेगा ?
  2. हर साल का increment कितना होगा ? Annual Performance Rating कैसे निकली जाएगी ?
  3. पति के क्या क्या हक होंगे ? पत्नी की क्या क्या जिम्मेदारियां होंगी ? अच्छा खाना ? साफ़ सफाई ? अगर पति बीमार होगा तो पत्नी को दवाई लानी होगी ? बच्चों का homework कराना होगा ? क्या पत्नी को पति के साथ parties/dinners में जाना ज़रूरी होगा ?
  4. अगर पत्नी को खाना बनाना नहीं आता तो क्या उसकी पगार कम होगी ?
  5. साल में कितने दिन की छुट्टी मिलेगी ?
  6. अगर बच्चे फेल हो गए तो कौन जिम्मेदार होगा ?
  7. क्या कामवाली बाई को रखकर काम outsource कराया जा सकता है ? उसकी पगार कौन देगा ?
उम्मीद है कि इन बिन्दुओं को ध्यान में रखके सरकार एक सशक्त कानून बना पाएगी।

अपडेट : सुना है कि कामवाली बाई अस्सोसीएशन ऑफ़ इंडिया की ये मांग है की घरों में उन्हें भी पत्नी के बराबर के हक और सम्मान मिलना चाहिए।

जय हिंद !


My Expectations with Win8

Microsoft freezes 9200 as the official build. But are the features really given by MS need of the hour, of if its just a way to impose stuff of they call out of the box designs/features. Over the past versions of windows, MS has never really worked on a pattern of what user wants. I think they are too busy in getting a competitive edge.


I have some different expectations from Win8. I think instead of working so hard on getting a METRO UI layer, it would be better if they really fix long pending feature requests from consumers.

I also think that this time the marketing strategy has gone a bit wrong. Or may be i am wrong. But i feel that people are under a projection that Win8 is not a main stream OS but it only have some fancy metro ui which will be helpful for touch scenarios and will be well compatible for mobile devices.

I have really no doubt that this release will not be a failure, nor the products going with Win8 be failure. But i feel there will be a clear domain shift. What i mean is, the main stream users of Win8 will not care to spend few 100$ on upgrading there system just for a pink ui. These guys(like u and me) do not really care of what the UI is like unless it is fast. This OS is likely to be popular with specific devices like Tablets/mobiles.

Well, on the other hand it could be a marketing strategy too. I feel that in the coming years, the number of main stream PCs will drop and the hand held devices will be number one priority. We all can see this shift.


I don't mean to offend any of you, nor im saying that the engineers behind this massive release have done wrong. I'm just asking you to imagine my way. Cheers!!

Legacy Blogger Account Scam. Google hacked? [Warning]


I got this mail today from blogger-support@google.com
I guess this has to be a scam.  I would suggest everyone not to click on any links on this mail. Correct me if I am wrong. 



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Subject: Final reminder to update your legacy Blogger account
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Hello,

You are receiving this message because your email address is associated with an unmigrated legacy Blogger account. As we announced in April of last year, legacy accounts will no longer be accessible after May 30th, 2012 unless they are updated to the Google Account system. Any blog content associated with this account will also be unmodifiable after that date.

To transfer your blog to the Google Account system you need to visit the Legacy Migration page at http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/iMA2S1grKn3Zbo right now to make sure that your account and associated blogs are claimed. If you’ve forgotten the Blogger password that is associated with this email address, you can use our Account Recovery page at  http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/Jhgj7jqe5HauJY to request password information to be sent via email.

For more information, please see our initial announcement we posted to our blog at http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/RbroWLEb2H3GPo . If you have questions, please visit our Help Forum at http://www.google.com/appserve/mkt/grV44ag1ff9mB0 and create a message with [Legacy Account] in the subject line.

Regards,
The Blogger Team
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
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This e-mail is being sent to notify you of important changes to your Blogger account.
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Google has not responded yet on any forums or blogs and some googlingsuggests that very  few people seems to be doubting the authenticity of the email. I'll wait to see how soon the tech and security blogs pick it up.

On forums like these,
 http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/blogger/something-is-broken/l6QlxmXIfTU,
 http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/blogger/OtEOplMkE8Q

a guy called "Brett from Blogger" is replying to posts convincing people that the issue is real and collecting blog urls and locations from users. (!)
Screenshot :



When you google "Final reminder to update your legacy Blogger account", many blogs come up in search links that have just this email as the latest post. I assume these are the blogs that have already been compromised.


Here's why I think it is a scam.

  • It does not address me by my name but by "Hello"
  • I have multiple blogs but this mail does not mention the title or url of any of those blogs. 
  • This page seems to suggest that everyone who tried to  "transfer blog to the Google Account system" was unsuccessful
  • When I go to my blogger account @ www.blogger.com, I get no notification about any migration. 
  • I did not hear of any announcements that the email mentions. 

This is actually a well designed scam beacuse,


  • All pages linked in the email 'seem' to be on google.com domain and use https. I don't know how they did it. Are the google servers hacked? Chrome seems to suggest that the url is legitimate

  • The FROM address is blogger-support@google.com. 
  • There seems to be a fake forum on google groups which has a lot of posts regarding this migration. 


If this is a real email, then Google has really goofed up this time.


UPDATE:
Here are the screenshots of the pages i got when I clicked on the links in the email (click to enlarge).








--------------------------------------------
Now someone has taken advantage of the situation and is collecting email id's on a simple GoogleDocs form. Google's services being used to phish. Nice. Happy spamming dude!

Here's a screenshot.

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Someone set up a fake page on blogger (yes!) to make it seem like a known issue. 

This guy seems to KNOW how to really get your 'legacy blog' back. (!)
http://www.thoughtandmemory.org/2012/04/blogger-legacy-account-final-warning.html

---------------------------------------
UPDATE
There are other scam like things hosted on similar urls. Like this one 


Can't wait to know the truth. Till then I would suggest everyone not to click on any links on this mail. Correct me if I am wrong. 

It seems someone is going to win Google's Vulnerability Reward Program
 http://www.google.com/about/company/rewardprogram.html



So Rock, Mahatma!

Independence icon, father of our nation, global leader and now,
freedom symbol with a rock star touch


News: A Chinese underground magazine So Rock! has featured Mahatma Gandhi on its cover, complete with guitar-shaped glasses, fingers flashing the peace sign and Rolling Stones-like tongue sticking out. 

(The image seems to be originally from http://www.freakingnews.com which has a collection of many more such creative images

Let's see how quickly we can get angry about this. Let's see how quickly can Shri Kapil Sibbal get this this censored. Let's see how quickly can Shri S.M.Krishna get the Chinese to 'ban' this magazine (it isn't very legal anyways). 

But on second thoughts, maybe they (and we) won't react. After all, it does not hurt anyone's (read vote-bank's) religious sentiments. This is not a book about some satanic verses. This is not a Prophet Muhammad's cartoon, which would offend the Muslims. This is not even an obscene painting of a Hindu deity which could infuriate the Hindus.

This is just a photoshopped image of a man who has already been reduced to a symbol in India, one of the countries that he helped gain freedom. A symbol to adorn the banknotes. A statue to stand at crossroads. A name to give to roads and parks.

But there will be some who will feel it is our duty to respect the man and protect his image. They will file PIL's in courts and demand for apologies. Is the image of Mahatma Gandhi so weak that it needs protection? Can Photoshop edit the image that he built during 78 years of his life? If Gandhi was alive, what would he do about this incident? 

What would Gandhi do?