Siva's Blog!

2007-04-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

Arrest lovebirds, warn Hindu groups

If the CM wants the Youth votes he wouldn't be talking like that I guess.

2007-03-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

If this is true, is this a guinness record?

2007-03-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

This yr, getting into IIT a tad easier

Does this have anything to do with the 2007 Cricket World Cup?

2007-02-15T14:45:00.000-08:00

MySpace Not Guilty in Child Assault Case

IMHO, while sites like MySpace can be asked to take necessary measures to prevent such incidents happening, Parents should take up the necessary responsibility as well.

2007-01-31T15:02:00.000-08:00

Sidney Sheldon is dead

A sad day sure for readers

2007-01-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

'Dumb Terminals' Can Be a Smart Move for Companies

We offer 401k, dental plans and a smart terminal! I can see the future!

2007-01-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

The cop who fined Dhoni gets transferred

If there is no documented process of providing exceptions how would a cop know about it?

2006-12-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

Free flicks, art for Netflix users Subscribers of the DVD site are offered free movies from Blockbuster and free artwork from Netflix.

Is it the stupidest idea or what? Or may be desparate one. Why would anyone who already has a Netflix account want to also simultaneously have a Blockbuster account and go through the late fee hassle?

2006-12-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

Newborn dies as cops grill mother

Unfortunately, sometimes people forget their real duty.

2006-11-29T10:35:00.000-08:00

'Pigs eat child alive in New Delhi'

Horrible. Reminds me of Silence of the lambs

2006-11-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

US most unfriendly country to visitors: Survey

interesting

2006-11-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

Cop slaps techie in Chennai

Such cops should be removed from the job.

2006-09-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Lewd 'ragging' caught on cell

Glad to know that cell phones can get rid of this so called "ragging"

2006-09-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

Netflix Sues Blockbuster for Patent Infringement

Nothing original in renting movies online? Nice try Blockbuster!

2006-08-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060830/trackmenot_searches.html?.v=2

Interesting tool to regain privacy of online search

2006-08-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

No more adult content on TV

While this works for TV, how about the Net?

2006-08-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

First Blu-ray Drives Won't play Blu-ray Movies

q. Why did the chiken cross the road?
a. simply

2006-08-02T16:54:00.000-07:00

School to file libel suit against NDTV

Wow! 20crore lawsuits in India are new to me! Magic of growing economy there or what?

2006-07-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

Google Announces Open Source Repository

I am sure google knows that technology ad spend is probably more than other types and to attract technology related PPCs it should be based on a technology repository and that's what this effort probably is. Go hunting for a open source java embeddable database and you will see a whole bunch of ads next to the actual open source project!

2006-07-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

Blogger exchanges paper clip for house!

Creative idea!

2006-07-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

NRI donates college to University

Can't deal with the bribes? Donate it to the govt! Interesting.

2006-07-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

Students beat up college principal

If this happens everywhere, the problem of bribery can be reduced?

2006-07-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

Canadian lawyers outsource work to India

Excellent! If lawyers get paid less, all problems are solved :).

2006-06-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

Online database of unfaithful men gets sued Blog: It was only a matter of time before the Web site DontDateHimGirl.com, a database where women can anonymously add details about...

"Communications Decency Act"? Nice try? When anyone can put anything about anyone, then anything can happen. If it can happen to wikipedia, it can happen to this type of sites as well.

2006-06-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

New passport procedure for IIT-ians

Excellent!

Thanks to the technology, and the awesome President.

2006-06-29T11:37:00.000-07:00

Perhaps Ruby On Rails is screwing them?

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060629/red_hat_mover.html?.v=1

2006-06-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Google pulls student Social Security numbers from index Blog: A North Carolina public school district went to court to get Google to remove Social Security numbers and test scores for more...

For a company with "No Evil" motto, why does it require going to court for this type of issues?

2006-06-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Warren Buffett gives $37 bn to charity

Sweet!

2006-06-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

Arrest warrant against 4-year-old for running

The last such case of warrant against a child I heard was in the MP3 download case and the age was 13yrs I think. This beats that!

2006-06-07T16:53:00.000-07:00

Citibank fined Rs 10,000 for harassment

Shame on you Citibank!

Only in India such litigations can be gotten out by paying such low money ($200).

2006-06-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

Orissa woman marries snake

When the west is dealing with gay marriages, look at the east!

2006-05-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

Chicken and Egg Problem Solved

Good one.

if(egg before chicken) then
P = NP;
end;

2006-05-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

A Hindu woman claims she is Jesus

Does it take 2000yrs for a rebirth? Or may be it happened before also!

2006-05-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

Chinese couple gets baby made in India

Is this going to turn into a large industry by itself?

2006-05-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

Pope asks India not to ban conversions

It boils down to whether religion is by birth or by choice.

Irrespective of whatever it is, what is not appropriate is to explicitly trying to spread it. Especially in India by giving monetary benefits. Why should pope or for that matter any human care about turning someone into something explicitly?

2006-05-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sony bleeds, pulls 'Code' out

This is idiotic. When christian majority countries don't have a problem, why should India have it?

2006-05-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

No interviews of kids, parents for nursery: HC

An excellent move!

2006-05-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

MSN Has Google Grumbling

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/external/tsmfe/SIG=11tpvn3b0/*http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech/internet/10282722.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

As long as IE allows customization of the search engine, like in Firefox, this shouldn't be an issue.

2006-04-26T14:59:00.000-07:00

Condom in bottle costs Pepsi Rs 1 lakh

Wow, Pepsi got away with just 1 lakh (about 2K USD) in India. Imagine what it would have costed them in the US!

2006-04-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Black holes are actually 'green' A new study finds that supermassive black holes, located at the heart of some galaxies, are the most fuel efficient engines in the universe. The finding, made using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, is giving scientists insights into how supermassive black holes generate energy and how they affect the galaxies where they make their homes.

Green, red, yellow. All the same if you can't see it!

2006-04-05T13:37:00.000-07:00

Don't hug and kiss, we're Malaysians

"Right to express" vs "Right to view the expression"!

2006-03-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

Court takes raja's will after 173 years

Just a few days back there was this news about the Indian Tortoise, supposed to be that of Robert Clive, and about 250yrs died recently. Now this court case which is about 173yr old is no less amusing.

2006-03-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

Two foetuses removed from infant

Amazing!

No Time Travel, Sorry

2006-02-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

Let's say in the far far far future, someone invented a time machine that allows travelling. Would it allow travelling to future or backward or both? If backward time travel is possible, is there a limit on how back the travel is possible? If there is no limit, then we should already be seeing people from the future. Isn't it?

2006-02-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

Write an exam, earn Rs 60,000!

What a scandal!

2006-01-25T15:38:00.000-08:00

'Panda porn' to encourage mating After Thailand's most popular animal couple failed to mate, zoo officials are gearing up for plan B -- a DVD they hope will get Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui in the mood for love.

One more funny thing!

2006-01-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

No Shorts, but Skirts, for Boys in N.J. High School A high school senior in New Jersey has eliminated one more bit of discrimination, but he had to wear a skirt to do it. Michael Coviello argued the school discriminated against boys when they were banned wearing shorts for much of the year, while girls were allowed to show their legs in skirts. So he donned a skirt to protest the dress code, and was sent home. The ACLU defended him, with the result that boys still can't wear shorts -- but they can now wear skirts.

This is funny!

2006-01-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

Google Won't Pay Bell South

Obviously, what's the guy at Bell South thinking? They are going to be the carriers of information? But who is paying for the things bought on Amazon? The last time I saw, Amazon charges the users for the extra shipping cost (unless, ofcourse for qualified orders worth more than $25 or something).

Grease Monkey is cool!

2005-12-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today I came to know of http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/ through a collegue and it's awesome! I already installed removeFlash, Mailto Envelope, Google Ad Remover and Hide Google AdSense Ads from http://userscripts.org/ . Came to know of http://platypus.mozdev.org/ the wysiwig tool that is supposed to generate GreaseMonkey scripts for simple stuff.

2005-12-14T18:05:00.000-08:00

Sun: ODF needed to prevent 'corporate Alzheimer's' Having an open, stable document format is necessary to preserve the world's information, top Sun Microsystems executives say.

But 'corporate Alzheimer's' can happen either due to software or hardware upgrades. How many people have laptops/desktops that can read my 1.44" floppy? Or the 3.5" Verbatim floppies of the early 90s?

Google's shortcuts are not intutive at all

2005-12-10T22:56:00.000-08:00

I am just playing with Google's Reader and found that they have "j - next, k - prev". But j comes before k in the keyboard. So, shouldn't j be prev and k, next?

2005-12-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

The 3 Billion Dollar Typo

Costliest typo! Not really 3 bilion as the title of the aritcle says (those posters on /. don't seem to get facts right most of the time especially when it comes to picking the right titles)

2005-12-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

Get RSS Feeds on Your Toilet Paper

I am done here. But hae, what the heck, I might as well finish up what I am reading before leaving. Or before wiping?

2005-12-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

.eu Opens for Registration

Putting AI into virus/worm s/w is definitely dangerous.

2005-12-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

US colleges are not good enough

In US the profs have to slog their butt off till they are tenured and then they may slack off. But in India, there is no concept of tenureship itself. So, they slack off from day 1.

2005-12-02T12:11:00.000-08:00

Bicycle comes with built-in treadmill Blog: As obesity rates rise worldwide--even the French are reportedly tipping the scales past the red line of late--fitness experts...

I don't want to get hurt doing two things at the same time! Well, unless it is sitting on the couch, watching the TV, surfing the web on the laptop and with a bowl full of icecream! Wait a sec, that's 4 things? Should I including seeing, breathing, heart beat etc.

2005-12-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

Vista To Be Updated Without Reboots

That would be great! MS has come a long way from having to reboot for every small thing to having a glitch that automatically(?) rebooted every 48days or so(?) in early versions of Windows 2000(?) to being able to update the OS without having to reboot. The thing I hate most currently with their Update manager on Windows 2000 is it asks the user if he wants to install the s/w but if the user locks the screen and done for the day and comes the next day, it seems to have installed the s/w and from then on it keeps asking for rebooting, with no option to shut that message completely so that the user can reboot whenver he wants.

2005-12-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

GMail Adds Virus Protection

Hmm, I thought they already had some virus protection when they scanned my zip file and said that I am not allowed to send a .ini file. But then, I guess the gmail engineering team doesn't know that their Picasa team creates such a .ini file when you try to export the pictures into a webpage. It had been a pain for me to everytime blindly zip the entire web folder, eagerly upload the zip file only to realize that Gmail rejects it telling me there is a .ini file and I had to do the whole thing again by removing the .ini file.

2005-11-30T11:34:00.000-08:00

Beyond Java Book review Not everybody is convinced that Java, or even C#, are the languages of the future

I am quite happy with Java. The amount of libraries it has enables developers to put together a complex system in a few days. Swing and JDBC are two examples of what Java has brought to the developers by standardising on the APIs.

2005-11-29T10:08:00.000-08:00

AJAX or ACrash?

Recently I observed SmartMoney.com started updating the stock quotes in their news articles in realtime without the user having to reload the page. Twice it crashed my browser. First on Linux and then on Windows. Looks like people are going to abuse AJAX.

2005-11-21T11:44:00.000-08:00

Case filed against top Kollywood stars

Only lawyers can do this! As they are, lawyers!

2005-11-18T17:15:00.000-08:00

Google Sitemaps flaw fixed Blog: Blogs and discussion forums have been buzzing today about a flaw in Google Sitemaps, a service that lets site owners view...

Wow! That's two security flaws I am reading for Google today.

2005-11-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

Man flogs debt on eBay Updated Debt Free? Then buy some!!

Hmm, who is the lucky winner!

2005-11-16T15:46:00.000-08:00

Google: Fraud Risk Research Scientist - Mountain View (mountain view)

Looks like Google is running into fraud issues that they want a super smart guy who can be ahead of those fraudesters.

How long is it going to be before a worm can simulate clicks for those pesky text ads popping up every where on the net?

2005-11-14T09:54:00.000-08:00

I sent a well formatted HTML attachment with inline styles to Yahoo, Hotmail and Google. Only Yahoo displayed the content properly. Google ate the inline styles while Hotmail ate the entire text!

2005-11-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Google searches become evidence in murder case Blog: Remember the e-mails that ended up being used in court as part of Microsoft's anti-trust trial? Well, Google search histories...

interesting!

2005-11-11T15:40:00.000-08:00

Sony Pulls Controversial Anti-Piracy Software

I used to like Sony. Now I will be more careful with them!

2005-10-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

I just picked up this

"Mars will be 43,137,071 miles from Earth at around 11:25 p.m. ET Saturday.

That's 13,803,862,720 rods for the anti-science crowd."

on /.

But will that make sense to anti-math crowd?

2005-10-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

Breaking-up gets easy, via SMS

What's special about SMS? Even email will do. No? How about snail-mail?

2005-10-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

God asked me to invade Iraq, says Bush

I hope this is not true. Otherwise there is no difference between the policies of a large democratic country and those of who do anything in the name of the God.

2005-08-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

http://news.com.com/Google+balances+privacy%20percent2C+reach/2100-1032_3-5787483.html

http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020505,39212555,00.htm

Who cares? But the fact remains. Be it Google, MSN, Yahoo or whatever.

2005-08-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

Law is an ass for this panchayat

When you see movies like "Swadesh" you wonder if those kind of panchayat's still exist. But the reality is ...

2005-08-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

If Yahoo Messenger itself is annoying for it's freeze up during login, Adobe Acrobat is even worse. It freezes up everytime you open up a pdf file off the web.

2005-08-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with Yahoo Messenger?

We are so used to the web browsers and their ability to allow the users to do multiple things at the same time. They don't usually lock you up when opening a site. While that site is loading, you can continue to open up another site if you want or even work on other apps. But with Yahoo Messenger, as soon as you login, it freezes up the computer for a good 30-40 seconds. This is definitely a bad design.

2005-07-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Google hit with job discrimination lawsuit Former sales executive alleges her career at the search company was derailed while she was pregnant with quadruplets.

Once you IPOed, you can't not be "evil"!

2005-07-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

Amazon's Share The Pi is cool

Search has become a part of our life be it at home or work (or homework? :)).
But why do that at Google and make them rich when you can also get rewards by searching at a9.com?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/xs/sharethepi.html

Well, quality of search is important. But when the number of indexed pages run into billions, and any combination of keywords, mainly for products, or trouble shooting etc, retrieve millions of hits anyway, what matters probably is the first few and not that 8billionth page. Ofcourse, one can always toggle between A9 and Google (to make use of Froogle or Groups part of Google). But A9 seems to be cool too.

2005-07-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

IT battles India's Rs 21,068 cr corruption

I am glad that this is the case!

2005-07-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Snake dies after biting priest!!!

Interesting! Why doesn't Lord Shiv want both the snake and man to co-exist? :)

2005-06-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

I have been using the Gentoo distribution of Linux for well over a hear. Just came to know from a friend that Gentoo is actually a kind of Penguin! Cool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Penguin

2005-05-05T17:33:00.000-07:00

Interesting article on Microsoft's fight against Google in Search and beyond.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,1050065-1,00.html

2005-04-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

Samsung hybrid hard drive works while it sleeps The typical hard drive spins constantly, consuming power all the while. But by buffering a drive with flash memory, it can sleep most of the time.

Nice idea!

2005-04-23T19:40:00.000-07:00

This can only happen in America?

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200504240317.htm?headline=Video~captures~cops~handcuffing~5-year-old~girl

2005-04-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

Lesbian couple sparks debate in UP

Ofcourse, who said this is not an issue in India?

2005-04-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

Zoo wants chimpanzee to stop smoking

This is funny. Well, afterall they are our distant cousins. Isn't it?

2005-04-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Interesting!

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1321215,00050003.htm?headline=Ugly~children~get~less~parents~attention!

2005-04-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

Know why US wants to make India big power

Interesting

2005-03-30T13:52:00.000-08:00

Computer Crash Reactions Examined

Trying to "sweet-talk" to your computer? That's funny.

2005-03-29T15:28:00.000-08:00

Blockbuster Settles No Late Fee Suit

I never liked this company anyway. No wonder they got screwed by Netflix.

2005-03-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1052234.cms

'Apna PC' for less than 10,000 Rs. That's about $200. Now more people in India will be able to afford it. No details about the OS but it has to be Linux, otherwise who can provide a PC for $200?

2005-03-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

Harvard snubs 119 cybersnoop applicants

I think this is not correct. Not all the 119 ppl may be real hackers. If someone tells you there is a way to know if you are accepted or not, obviously most people will be tempted. That, I don't think is an ethics issue.

2005-03-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

Swingweb is an implementation of the AWT toolkit that enables an AWT/Swing application to operate inside a Web container and display as a Web application to a Web browser, purely in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. (SwingWeb 1.0.0-beta3 )

Wow! This seems to be so cool!

2005-02-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/28/opinion/28reich.html

Interesting article that discusses the inner conflict of interest as a consumer vs a worker/citizen.

2005-02-24T23:37:00.000-08:00

'Dual citizenship? NRIs should pay tax too'

This is the worst logic I have seen. How can one pay tax in two different countries when paying for one itself is so much burden!

2005-02-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

UK Government Launches Virus Alert Service

Just yesterday I heard news on radio (yeah, I listen to radio while driving to work) that there has been a spam to people posing to be coming from the FBI! Now, what prevents spammers to pose as UK govt and keep sending fake virus alerts which are embedded with ads?

2005-02-24T00:26:00.000-08:00

Smokers asked to cough up taxes for Web buys Michigan sends bills to more than 500 residents for cigarettes purchased tax-free over the Web.

That's a lot of smoking! Welcome to "Use" tax. Apparently, it had always been there (atleast since 1935 or so) and CA started allowing it to be filed as part of CA State tax returns since 2004. It's a matter of time all other states to start getting this additional tax dollars.

2005-02-24T00:18:00.000-08:00

Microbes Alive After Being Frozen for 32,000 Years

Wow, this beats the latest Stargate Atlantis episode. Probably not, as that involved time-travel as well!

2005-02-23T23:30:00.000-08:00

UP 'whizkid' bowls a NASA googly

Quality of Indian media!

2005-02-21T00:17:00.000-08:00

Consumers Search Before Buying Online

Ofcourse, they do! And that's only going to increase more and more. But then, I know people who just buy off of Amazon.com without checking for lower prices else where.

2005-02-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

The Return Of The Pop-Up Ad

Hmm, interesting. I haven't been getting popups for a while and just now I got a popup and immediately saw this article! Interestingly, the popup didn't even make firefox to do the usual warning!

2005-02-20T23:10:00.000-08:00

World Bank knew why Chandrababu lost

Interesting to note that the GDP increase can be due to decrease in population growth rate.

Well, Andhra has it's problems and I don't think Congress can deal with it any better. What the World Bank has to realize is, what they found in their report, are not entirely related to who the politician is, what the party is and such but a much bigger problem. False promise of free electricity was the major deciding factor.