My open letter to Mr. Manohar Parrikar- Chief Minister of Goa

Dear Mr Manohar Parrikar,

I have been visiting Goa for nearly two decades now. Never before I was stopped at the Patradevi check post while exiting Goa. However, this time all vehicles (both private and commercial) were stopped and asked to go to the excise counter (picture below). 

The cops (or look alike in Khaki dress) asked for my driving license and car number- which was OK and I complied. They also asked if I was carrying any liquor. I had none. The gentle man then asks me to give him Rs 50/-. I asked him why, he said for "chai pani". I blasted him and demanded to see his identity and name plate. He became defensive and ran out leaving the counter, apologizing.

Anyway, the point is you ( Government of Goa) already charged me (and others, visiting Goa by road) Rs 250/- while entering- can you not buy your officers some "chai pani" with the money collected or will they have to resort to begging like this?

Please look into this matter- it is serious and destroys the image of Goa Govt (and indirectly you too, being the Chief Minister).

Also, please display the contact numbers of higher ups at the check-post who can be contacted to report such cases.

If you need anymore specific information, please feel free to reach me (by commenting on this post or sending a DM) and I shall be happy to help.

Best Regards,
-BJ

Kitchen Garden

First harvest of green beans :)

Buffalo 320GB MiniStation

Got this portable disk yesterday. As expected, it worked fine straight out of the box, on my IBM T42 running WinXP sp3. However, it did not "plug-n-play" when hooked into the USB port on my home PC . The PC is pretty old (circa 2002) and has a Intel 865GBF board. It is running windows 2000 sp4 and RedHat Linux 9 in dual boot mode.

LED was blinking, but, the disk did not seem to spin. Googling around did not help much. Connected the extra USB power supply cable too and lo, it started working!

What is the issue? My old PC can not power a 5v USB device?

Anyways, all seems to be fine now (yet to test on Linux though). I am enjoying this new toy and using it to carry stuffs around.

Final Day

Today is my last day at EIPL. I will cease to exist at this office from tomorrow. I am moving to a new start-up which is being setup in Pune and will be functional probably by early next month.

More later...

Two wise men on MS, Yahoo and Google

pkbehera: does yahoo use LCS now?
BJ: they seem to have married with "msn msgr" ...if you mean it is LCS...then yes
pkbehera: well MSN is LCS
BJ: I believe LCS is lot more than MSN messenger
BJ: messenger is a front end to LCS
pkbehera: perhaps they have opened up some web services like stuff on LCS for YM to talk to
BJ: IMHO lcs is a middleware + backend
BJ: perfect
pkbehera: right
BJ: btw web services are "default" mechanism for IPC in .NET
pkbehera: well yahoo tried best to enter enterprised and did not have much success, so LCS is one route of getting into enterprises for them
BJ: possible...
BJ: the main magnet for both MS and Yahoo is the following
BJ: 1. Large existing user base for yim
BJ: 2. large existing users for msn IM
BJ: take union of 1+2 ...and get even 10% to click on the ad links...a potential million $ mkt for them
BJ: and many orgs already using yim unofficially for their multi-site collaboration
BJ: now both yahoo + ms want to exploit that potential too
BJ: btw...did u notice unprovoked apperance of ads in latest YIM tool?
pkbehera: yes
pkbehera: thats irritating
BJ: yeah...call it "ad sense" in yim
pkbehera: and keeps shouting at me "u fool, swith to ggle talk"
pkbehera:
BJ: yeah...but all ur peers too need to move to ggle talk then...i see that happening very slowly
pkbehera: which much less lightweight, less fancy
BJ: these IMs are a sticky tool...my father and your father if they are used to yahoo...will not switch to ggle talk easily
pkbehera: thankfully that adsense is limited to the main ym window
BJ: next version will be those popping on and off as u type
pkbehera: yes
BJ: i have a feeling that ggle wants to come out with a whole suite of tools for "collaboration on the web" and go to big enterprises and reduce their bills on MS Office licenses ...
pkbehera: yeah thats their plan
pkbehera: ggle docs is already very impressive
pkbehera: there is few other such players too
BJ: and all these nuts and bolts like gmail, talk, picasa, calendar etc...are pre launch feelers to get the mind share of peple on the web
pkbehera: yes
BJ: yeah...ggle is acquiring small players in the arena ...
pkbehera: with gmail they introduced a whole new concept of conversations, rather than messages and folders
pkbehera: thats getting hugely popular
pkbehera: www.thinkfree.com, seen this?
pkbehera: and www.zoho.com
pkbehera: they give a little more than ggle docs as of now,
pkbehera: MS office has got serious competition
BJ: yeah...billy has already set his best drivers to steer them home with "windows live" adventure

Loosing patience!

I have not received my renewed passport yet and it does not look to be happening in a near future either. For past three weeks, I see the same poster: "It is to regret that due to unavoidable circumstances the despatch of Passport has been delayed and will now be despatched in a week's time". Mails to rpo DOT pune AT mea DOT gov DOT in are not answered !!

Anyone (other than me) stuck at the same damn status?

:-(

Patience Pays

Once again I checked the status today. But, unlike last time now it says:

"Police Report is clear and the passport is expected to be despatched by 18-02-2006 Subject to all documents being in order."

I have not paid any bribe to get it cleared. Which makes me believe that our government agencies can really work. What you need is an 'honest' patience to wait (I have waited for over ten weeks now) for the results to happen naturally. Most often it is only us, who try to catalyze the process by greasing with bribes, in order to 'accelerate' results.

Hope my trust in the system is not betrayed.

Hats Off to The Metro Man

Chief of Delhi Metro, Mr. E. Sreedharan finds a spot in top 25 newsmakers list of US. Indeed a very rare tale of honest deeds in a country despaired by corruption and scams.

What lies ahead

This is basically a compilation of some interesting links I found around the web which tries to reveal futuristic things.

Check out Microsoft's vision of the future.

A peek into futuristic computing; slightly dated, still worth a dekko

IBM's Autonomic Computing

Google's ten golden rules to get the best out of knowledge workers in order to be a successful business in the next quarter century.

An excellent pictorial summary by Don Paragon about evolution of mankind and man made society.

Sun's vision of the future of programming- a nice compilation and commentary on how programming might look like in future!

Let me be honest; I am still biased towards Java :-). Here is a link, that has Q&A type information on future of Java.

Look at Future Web Technology. Don't sulk and hide your face if you find it Greek and Latin! Here is a more palatable version from W3C.

Since, I don't have these

• Bullet Electra 5S
  
• Alloy shoes on my WagonR
  
• Wharfedale SW-250
  
• Onkyo TX-SR702
  
• Honda CRV
  
• 42" Plasma (just have a 29" Pixel Plus; Yuks!)
  

I feel needy..., despise and pity myself :-(

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away!

This line by Beatles is a perfect way to describe my state yesterday. God was suddenly benevolent towards me. He cleared three events from his backlog and made my day.

• Got income tax refund. Was waiting for eons...need separate space to brood over it
  
• Pleased with work, my employer offered me timely confirmation
  
• Finally, long wait was over. Maiden issue of Better Photography arrived after two months since, they debited my credit card

Oh, I believe in yesterday...and today is Friday :-)
Cheers!

Post lunch chat

BJ: howdy
BH: good, u?
BJ: good
BJ: I have a wonderful weekend planned for you...wanna hear? ;;)
BH: ??
BJ: why don't u accompany us coming weeknd to G'pule? Shirin would love to see the ocean and the matter that occupies more than 3/4 of the globe...and u get a chance to drive to the country and a much needed vacation...sounds good? :D
BH: u guyes are going in bus
BH: i will be bored to drive alone
BJ: no...i am driving and planning my own acco/food etc...MTDC resort...probably i mite just join the fun there...:)
BJ: they are returning next day...i plan to spend the nite on saturday there itself and return on sunday :)
BH: ok.
BH: sounds great
BH: so u need a company car or company passenger?
BJ: nah..:-/
BJ: I'm driving my wgnR
BH: ok
BJ: u can drive ur matiz
BH: i then have to buy a car seat
BJ: hmm...good idea...u can actually buy 1 u need it for 2-3 yrs least to think
BH: ok, i will ask jaya and then confirm
BH: when are u doing the booking
BJ: don't 'ask' X-(
BJ: u have to 'sell' the idea :P
BJ: wednesday...Poushali can do the MTDC booking
BH: ok, i will sell, but it requires approval.. otherwise she would not let it happen
BJ: ok...the plan is :
BH: what is the journey plan?
BJ: 1. Book Konkani House at MTDC 700-800/- per day per family for twa nites (Friday and Sat)
BJ: 2. Leave on Friday morning arnd 6AM...reach there arnd lunch
BJ: 3. spend friday nite and saturday nite on the beach
BJ: 4. return on Sunday morning ...start after BF
BH: ok
BJ: On friday night and saturday morning...in between I will join the EIPL gang for Boyish fun :P
BJ: ok...check and update
BH: ok.. i will update tonite or tom morning
BH: is home loan @ 7.75% fixed rate from SBI sounds good
BH: is it good enough to swith from HDFC to SBI, (I already have hdfc approval and paid them 5k as processing fee)
BJ: may be...
BJ: i don't know how difficult it would be to deal with SBI...I have a S/B account with them at NCL branch and its a nightmare dealing with them...i just use it as a conduit for trfring money to my father :)
BH: this is some corporate deal with TIPL
BJ: i wud go for HDFC than SBI...if the diff in money is not by 50k at the end of loan tenure
BH: and they say that they would surve me in office
BJ: think of your years when u r not at TIPL :)
BH: :)
BJ: ur housing loan will follow u for 15yrs...?
BH: i may soon be out of TIPL
BJ: got a place to go? ;)
BH: a virtual resignation is already been sent
BH: :)
BJ: Ahh...now whats this VR?
BJ: and whats ur backup plan?
BH: its a threat, unless they do something about harassment in parking, i will resign
BH: i followd up with a reminder
BH: they said they will take it once my boss return from vacation (today)
BH: backup plan is to find a job in 1 month
BJ: hey negotiate a damage claim of 10k...and replace wheels :)
BJ: in US...technically u cud have got a claim under similar circumstances :)
BH: lets see what my boss has to says
BH: they ignored my first mail ( no reply)
BJ: u shud see at "what ur boss has to Offer" :D
BH: i sent a reminder saying that if this mail is ignored, i assume my service is no longer needed
BJ: ah great :-h
BJ: i meant =D>
BH: i can get a job in 1 month, i believe a better pay too.. 7 years exp in c++ does have some demand in market
BJ: oh sure...u do have a chance...let me know if u wanna try VSIL?
BJ: or EIPL :P
BH: it depends on my meeting with boss
BH: it will happen sometime this week
BH: he has not show up till now..suppose to join office today
BJ: in EIPL...they will hire u for c++ and most probably make u work on .NET :(
BJ: ok
BH: :))
BJ: b.t.w. i gladly continuing...since they are funding my .NET learning :)
BH: here too they hired me for c++, i have additional work in perl, unix shell script and core java
BH: c+= is only 10% of the job
BJ: yeah...thats the world...pick squares and fill them in circles :(
BJ: and that 10% may be just abt grep *** and replace with && :D
BH: :)    

Sun and Google to co-promote Google Toolbar

http://sun.systemnews.com/articles/92/1/news/15246

Interesting development...lets see how M$ reacts!

Pampered myself

Yesterday was auspicious for following two reasons.

1. Arrival of Lord Ganesha
2. Gifted myself a Canon EOS 350D (a.k.a. Digital Rebel XT). Bipul and me dashed off to JJM and brought this home at an investment of 49.5k along with a 18-55mm kit lens and a 512 MB Silicon CF card.
   

More later.

Ganpati bappa morya,

-BJ

Salary and govt. freebies for a Member of Parliament in India

Saw on a newsgroup...

(All figures are in INR)

Monthly Salary : 12,000
Expense for Constitution per month : 10,000
Office expenditure per month : 14,000
Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km) : 48,000 (for a return visit to Delhi: 6000 km)
Daily bhatta during parliament meets : 500
Travel in I class A/C train: free (for any number of times all over India )
Travel in Business Class in flights : free for 40 trips / year (with wife or P.A.)
Rent for MP hostel at Delhi : free
Electricity costs at home : free up to 50,000 units
Local phone call charge : free up to 1,70,000 calls.

Total expense for an MP per year: 32,00,000
Total expense for 5 years: 1,60,00,000

For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years : 8,54,40,00,000 (nearly 855 cores)

...and they are elected by the people of India through a largest democratic process in the world :-(

What is Training?

Here is an excellent quote from Mark Twain:

"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education."