Urs Siva

Can this composition of Indian Constitution Work ?

Admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:16:57 +0000

Can this composition of Indian Constitution Work ?

1. Instead of relying on the unrelated and unqualified ministers for approval , now the head of each department , for eg , Head of Nuclear department can propose plans in the parliament .
2. The People elected representatives can either approve or disapprove the said plans based on the merits / demerits .
3. Retired SC Judges can give great insight into the legalities of the proposed plan.
4. Concerned civil groups can make suggestion , point out the flaws etc.
5. Opposition which is now largely a speed breaker in almost all proposal by the ruling party will be now removed from the equation , yet still be given appropriate representation. Also its no longer a matter of this party vs that party.
6. Now the HOD`s have to propose and describe each plans in detail , their merits, demerits , cost involved , sectors benefiting etc to the entire members and similar to current system , the voting will take place at the end of the proposal and possible amendments to be made.
7. This will largely remove the "ignorant" factor posed by the unqualified (education wise) politicians in blocking good proposals
8. The civil group will be changed or willing citizen can participate ,register their thoughts and appropriately vote.
9. All proposals will be announced in advance and civil groups / citizens who wish to register their thoughts will be selected at random.
10. No more can a party simply pass laws after laws without any opposition (mostly walked out) , each one has to be discussed now.
11. As Ruling party will be no more than a voting / opposing group , corruption , scandals , imo can be reduced (They will find loop holes at the end of the day) , and when the money making capabilities are reduced , it will be no longer seen as a profession for making money , and greedy will eventually quit , at least that's what i imagine !!
12. All HOD`s will be elected in a transparent manner by the usual election process which happens via respective departments.
13. People now have direct say on their society and for their jobs as they now elect two representative.
14. This also removes the brains behind each minster (currently) to propose their plans independently without the interference of ministers. This IMO , is the greatest benefit of all

IMHO , one shouldn`t be authoritative over a subject ,if he doesn't know that subject or have experience in it

Shall I speak ? Will it offend you ?

Admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:06:02 +0000

Recent months have seen increase in freedom of expression and freedom of suppression from one side !! Many of you by now should have known the timeline of events concerning Kapil Sibal`s efforts to censor internet and High courts pathetic display of ignorance and arrogance towards Social media sites and Constitution as a whole! Internet, unlike anything in the past, is a spectrum of ideas and it can’t be defined with particular ideology. One is quick to compare it with news medias, books etc. Internet can be anything depending on what you want to see it as. It can be from online gaming portal , place to gather information , a bank (don’t remember when I last visited my bank in person) , a place to meet friends , discuss and solve issues , to meet your loved ones who are on other side of the planet , a stage to spill all the dirty beans (scams , scandals ) and much more. So putting a blanket term for internet is plain stupidity. Internet has been very effective in one thing , spread of information. For a person from rural area , if there was no internet , it would take ages to find even the simplest information. Today I can not only find the information I want , but also relevant , agnostic information pertaining to it. For eg , difference between Jan Lokpal and Govt`s Lokpal. It has also made world news and world events more reachable. Previously we used to depend on 5 minutes “World news” section in local news channel, which won’t even give enough emphasis on the issue. Or one page allocated in newspapers for world news. And world news coverage usually was given to entertaining news, rather than pressing issues. Today I can track any event happening in the world with minute to minute update, in-depth details, and varying thoughts about it. Internet in the hands of the rural villagers is a boon which no government or education system can achieve, bringing entire knowledge of this universe upon few click of a button.

Image Credit : Hindu

So why censor such technology? The very reason it unloads entire information on your screen, is the very reason our rulers are afraid of. A single tweet is all that is enough today to bring out a major issue to the public domain. Previously it has to pass through various mediums, like reporters, editors etc. And already with many news agency in the hands of powerful and rich , the effectiveness of such major incident could be down played , or totally suppressed ( Occupy wall street , SOPA , Paid news , allocation of homes by indian govt to reporters , etc etc..). And for the rulers it was easy to handle countable number of media outlets . But with the increasing number of users online and the anonymity it offers, anyone can be whistle blower! And it becomes even more difficult when the content one posts , could not be taken down by the rulers , since it is no longer within their reach. Google transparent report is all one needs to look at if one wants to know the real motive behind the recent censoring crusade carried out by our rulers! Obviously our rulers cant parade on the media stating, many are posting critical stuff of us on internet and we want it removed , which will eventually lead to more coverage of such posts. That is where religion comes in. Religion on the other hand is a spectrum of stupidity and irrational ideology. When we have plenty of religion and particularly in india , anything and everything , one way or the other , in one religion or the other can be taken as offending , sinful and outright objectionable. It is also very easy to draw the lines of “It offends me” ,where one sees fit , mainly because it is their personal “Wall of rationality” , smaller it is , more offending anything can be for them. Religion as such in my opinion is evolving too. Many of the practices in many of the religion are now considered “Too medieval” . It is the hard-core fundamentalist who want these condemned practices to be upheld ,even if needs sacrifice of Freedom of speech , expression. What they forget is this very freedom that enables them to carry out such speech , moral policing , upon others is possible because other secular citizens have allowed them to do so. This very fact is always forgotten. Minister Sibal has knowingly or unknowingly have unleashed the war for rationality. The core issue will now have to be scrutinized , ie the religion itself ! Will the courts take the words of medieval books to uphold ones faith , at the same time suppressing the freedom of expression and speech ? How far are we going to sacrifice freedom of expression and speech to soothe the fundamentalist ? Today few photoshopped picture offend the fundies , tomorrow it will the atheist who will be in spotlight for speaking against religion . By saying that “God doesn’t Exist” , even today in some rural places and hard core fundies , can and will elicit a undesirable response. Actually in recent news , one person posting the same on facebook have resulted in 5 years of jail in Indonesia, Even though we are from it , but we might well be laying the foundation for it today. For them , what they know is the sanctity and sacred field . Anything against it or opposing it cant be tolerated that easily. Mainly because, search to seek the truth is almost died in them. If you have been a frequent viewer of “Neeya Nana” program in Vijay TV (Tamil Channel) , you will come across such deep rooted , undeviating ideologist and practisers on the show. However well you tell them its not true or doesn’t work ,it will not have any effect , mainly because , their mind is so tuned and fixed to the thought , it doesnt works. Call it a placebo effect or repeated exposure to false information and false stimulus to attain a fixed response and thought towards the stimuli. It so happened with my grandma , when I told her that Sai Baba`s ash formation is a trick , she didn’t believe me , but when I showed her the video , she was first taken aback , then later resorted to “ But he does good , who cares if it’s a trick or not “. I don’t blame her , its years and years of BELIEF , which cant be changed overnight. Even though I don’t totally support the morphing stuff , because to oppose to these medieval practices doesn’t necessarily need extreme content . At the same time , as one quote says , which I love too

“Even though I disagree with what you say , but I will fight till the end for the right for you to say it “

If religion has any effect on these true believers, then its time they show it with love and affection. They should even have the courage to say that “ Those photoshopped materials have ZERO effect on what we believe” , ie , in my opinion is the honest and truthful faith. Nay speakers will continue to spill venom , and they cant be stopped on a medium such as internet. What might be small victory , if the websites in question are blocked , will be the starting point of moral policing in large scale supported by politicians for vote bank !

Stop SOPA

Admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:23:07 +0000

THIS WEBSITE IS DOWN TODAY

TO OPPOSE SOPA

Want to know more ?

Visit this website for more detailed information :

http://americancensorship.org/

Songs I Liked in 2011

Admin — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:07:28 +0000

List is of no particular order.

7aam Arivu - Innum Enna Thozha

Velayutham - Molachu Moonu

Vaagai Sooda Vaa - Sara Sara Saara Kathu

180 Rules Kidaiyathu - Santhikkatha Kangalil Inbangal

Veppam - Mazhai Varum

Deiva Thirumagal - Vizhigalil Oru Vaanavil

Engeyum Eppothum - Chotta Chotta

Kaavalan - Yaarathu Yaarathu

Vedi - Kadhalikka Pennoruthi

Engeyum Kathal - Nenjil Nenjil Itho

He will be missed – Hitchens Dies

Admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:44:32 +0000

The outspoken atheist and author of great many books passed today.. Sir , we all will miss you.

Asking for the impossible

Admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:04:24 +0000

The rage over IT Minister Kapil Sibal was very evident on twitter than any other social sites. Indians were quick enough to create a Streisand effect and almost instantly proved how Sibal was wrong on all fronts. The very idea of controlling the social site contents met with enormous amount of “could be Deemed Offensive” contents via tweets starting with the hash tag #IdxotKapilSibal.

(Image courtesy : Labnol )

The very idea to raise this issue during the parliament session would raise doubts about the intention of the minister. People are now more aware than before and quick to see through these political smoke screen. UPA tried to create a diversion with FDI which met with backlash from all quarters and now this censorship diversion. Even if we take it in its face value, the concept of pre-screening is a Himalayan task to achieve. He also said he didn’t want it to be automated, but to be screened by humans. Many recalled this to the emergency period of India, during which all press publishing office used to be filled with party people and each line should be approved by them before it gets printed. The very nature of putting someone or some group to screen a traffic which is almost amounts to at least 20-40% of world`s user generated comments / pictures could be considered a punishment. That doesn’t include the personal bias one might have on a comment and also regional language one has to deal with. This very idea is laughable at most and anything similar to word filter could be bypassed within seconds using # , or * or whatever and our human minds are now well programmed to grab the core with just few starting letters .. like “SH^T” or “ A$% H@#$ “. If then, govt should openly come out in public and spill out the words it intend to censor , which I think would be epic to look into. That was the easy part , what about pictures and video ? Even though there are rudimentary tools to deal , like “similar images” from Google image search , but then a computer simply doesn’t know in what context the picture of someone or a thing is used . It could be an event , a genuine party press meet , is this govt going to censor it ? And where does the govt draw the line on which photo to be included and which not ? [ad#ibig] This is all pure fantasy by a minister who simply doesn’t understand the working of the internet and its more about personal (party) fulfillment to take down contents which is critical about their party. With so many farmers dying daily , inflation soaring to new heights , rupee plunging to new low , corruption rampant at every corner , Does this govt has any point of concern to these than sticking out their head where they are very eager in taking away the peoples liberty ? These people (illiterates of technology) should know that we netizens are already up in arms if any such socially offensive stuff pops up and we also make sure those kind of stuff doesn’t reach the “casual users”. Also to create a myth that internet will serve as communal violence planning hideout is too hilarious. Even if such people who are determined to do so wont able to create enough momentum from a 5% population (net users) . These people , whatever screening you do will find ways to send out the message . When this tech-savvy population is even reluctant to come out to vote , the myth of them going out on street to start a communal violence is just too good only to be in movie , possibly starring Ar!ndham Chow… Its time IT minister gets his priorities right than creating myths and possibly using it as a tool to suppress critics upon his party. How about IT minister call upon ISP`s and order to bump the basic speed upto to at least 1MBPS within 4 months for a start ? How about asking them to launch feasible 3G plans for people ? Or even setting up or encouraging Host providers to have their servers wholly in India rather than in U.S ? and cut the peering cost within India to half ? When you can easily take something lightly when a opposition says seriously and in turn give a funny rebuttal , its not too much to ask to a national party to take things lightly of these petty stuff and carry on with much larger picture of making India a better place. Also I would happily say “Welcome to Internet !! “ . It is also high time for net users of India to know about Net neutrality , Right for Privacy (read UID ), and spend little time on politics , economics and world events , as they have serious repercussion in India directly or indirectly (Eg : Fall of rupee ) I will leave with this picture :

Why Airtel ? Why ?

Admin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:31:37 +0000

I ordered a premium pack - South Ultra HD pack - 5950 Rs 7 days back through online. This is the timeline of incident : 17th - ordered the pack. 18th - received a notification about my package [Took one day to confirm :( ]. 19th - CC(Customer Care) called me and said the details of the pack and customer ID was generated. 20th - Nothing happened. 21th - Evening around 4:45 i got a call asking " Has the installation has been done ?" . i said "no" and he told he will check and call back immediately - Didnt call me. 22nd - Called me again at the same time and asked the same question. He said the same reason .. but luckily he arranged someone to come for installation . Nearest dealer (about 100km ) called me and said they will come on Sunday for installation . LOL :D 23th- As expected , none showed and the dealer phone was switched off . How comfortable ? 24th - Called the same dealer and asked whether they will come today ? To my suprise , they said "What ? No, sir , we wont come" , I replied that "sir you only gave a call and confirmed that you will be sending your guys on sunday" , He then replied "No sir , we wont come to install and if you want, you can call to delhi CC(from where i got call at the evening) and ask them to install themselves" . WTF ?I tried CC and no use. They kept stonewalling and was cutting my calls in between. One CC guy gave me another dealers ph,no and asked me to ask them for installation, Really ? WTF AIRTEL ? Customers now have to arrange themselves for installation ? I asked them the same thing , but was cut short again. I called them and to my great suprise , that guy seems to have left airtel dealership long time back.lucky for him. He was generous enough to give me a district officer no . I called him and he said he doesnt deal with online purchases and gave me another Ph.no. This time the guy spoke clearly and put me on a conference call with the same dealer who denied to install for me . He took my ph.no and address again and said , he will CONTACT me for installation . Its almost 8 hours or so , still havent got a single call from them.. [ad#ibig] In this whole issue , the CC no 12150 is a F()cking joke.. it doesnt work !! and 12148 wont even listen to you ,as they are booking dept , really ? atleeast have the courtesy to direct me to concerned dept instead of ending the call abruptly .Dint forget you were the guys who gave all the sweet talks while asking for new connection. [caption id="attachment_40668" align="aligncenter" width="645" caption="Airtel customer care DTH HD"][/caption] Dealers seems to take least interest if you purchase from online. They seem to loose commission. Backend service in Airtel is F()cking joke.. no one knows what the hell is happening. And one more thing , airtel automated CC doesnt even recognize English language selection , it keeps on redirecting me to Hindi CC (15 times or so... ) Since i will be going out and will be returning back few days later , the installation process will be postponed , also since its diwali , no one will come for installation. But if the installation is not done by this week end , i am going to annoy the nodal officer ,every 1 hour and if that becomes fruitless , I will be cancelling my order and moving to TS HD. I still dont know what will happen if something goes broke after some time.

How Relevant are DTH Packages for South Indians

Admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:07:53 +0000

DTH Packages for south Indians have become totally irrelevant and clubbing channels which are relevant can cost you twice as much as the package. The problem here is , even for the premium package offered by most of the DTH Players which are specifically created for south Indians dont have more of South Indian channels and are given option to select only few channels or packages. Look at the picture. this is the Premium package Airtel can offer. Ohh I tried the La-Carte and ended up with almost 650Rs / month , compared to 450 pm this premium pack is offering. [ad#ibig] -Urs Siva

A Small Comaparison of Plans among ISP`s of India

Admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:15:10 +0000

This is a small comparison between various ISP`s (Internet Service Providers ) and thier plans . Only few plans and plans which are above 512kbps ( Base for to be called as Broadband) are taken into account. Mostly 512 kbps , 1 mbps speed packages are taken from the heap of plans each ISP`s are providing and average downloadable data each plan can provide and FUP (Fair Usage Policy ) applied by each ISP and thier average Cost for per GB is calculated . This is not a accurate calculation , a minimum of 80% of usage alone is taken. [ad#h5t] Comparison chart here : ISP PLANS The document is updated and possibly keep it updated. Plan to cover all ISP`s and all plans are in place , how well it will span out , I have no clear idea. :D Contribution greatly done by Mathew Carley from Hayai BB. If you want to contribute to the document , please leave a reply in the comment section. -Urs Siva

Mega Troll Govt

Admin — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:47:11 +0000

Past Few months have shown how really our govt is dragging on key issues and gives us a peek into how laws for this country are made , without giving any rational to it. I am also wondering the state of other bills , laws passed by this government. Luckily we had the chance to look indepth about this bill. I simply cant understand this stupid govt. 1.) First they call only one civil society group on framing the Lokpal bill , not giving a F about others who have other says on the bill too 2.) Omits key issues , promises the team anna to table both bill , but the end becomes D-Bag and tables thier bill 3.) Then after pressure , now calls the same team to frame , now includes all but few points from jan lokpal , If so where they blind and deaf at the first meeting ? [ad#h5t] 4.)Then they call upon all-party meet to discuss upon the bill 5.) When they first tabled thier retarded bill , didnt they know it was flawed ? and if they are so sure about thier bill , why did they now include points from Jan-lokpal bill ? 6.) Now they are reluctant to remove their flawed bill stating few rules , If its retarded bill , why waste the time in reading it out, making others listen and waste precious time of the standing committee ? This govt should be awarded the MEGA TROLL AWARD . I wonder the precarious state of other similar bills passed by this govt.