Gun control!!!

I am sure the very title will get people up in arms. Every time there is some major mass shooting incident in the US the topic of "Gun control" is brought up again. People always say do not politicize a tragedy, and a tragedy should never be politicized. Why do people think that the concept of gun control is political. I study at Virginia Tech, the school witnessed one of the worst mass shooting incident in a US school so I for one knows how these incidents can affect a person. I personally feel that whenever there is an opportunity to we should learn from it. After the shooting, Virginia Tech installed an emergency alert system and it has proved its worth when there was another incident of shooting on campus. Other universities have installed similar system. I hope there are some positive changes with regards to gun control after this incident.

The argument that people who are against gun control present are sometimes like "we should all carry guns as we can protect ourselves against people who go on a killing spree" or "guns dont kill people, people kill people", which are all in my opinion just stupid. In my opinion the root cause for this is the easy access to gun that people have. No one says take the guns away, it should be harder for one to access to a gun. In my opinion it is harder to obtain a drivers license in the US than it is to own a gun. Why not make it harder to own a gun, make people go through a process to own a gun. Something similar to what people have to go through to get a drivers license — take a test before you get a learners permit, followed by waiting period and finally a driving test. It is very important to educate people about guns because they are really dangerous, unlike vehicles. The other issue one needs to consider is the kind of guns people are allowed to own. Why are people allowed to own automatic or semi-automatic assault rifles. Yes, their ownership is regulated but why should one own it. Nobody would go out and kill a deer with an AK-47, they are issued to soldiers in the army for war. I can keep going on about this, but one gets a general idea of what I mean here. The other equally important aspect is the mental health of all these people who went on a mass murder. I am no expert in this so will not comment on this. To summarize I believe if it is made harder for people to get a license to own a gun there will be fewer such incidents. I am really hoping some positive changes happen with regards to gun control in the US.

Spirit of the game!!!

On the third day of the 2^nd test match of England vs. India series Ian Bell was run out for leaving his ground thinking it was tea before the ball was called dead. Ian Bell made what some may say a school boy mistake of leaving his ground and deserved to be given out. The English captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower requested Dhoni to reconsider the appeal. Indian team and Dhoni withdrew the appeal and Ian Bell was given a reprieve. Dhoni kept the "Spirit of the game" with this action, and has been praised by media and retired players. What he did is truly commendable.

Why is that India is always expected to keep the "Spirit of the game" and not others especially England. If this had happened with India at the receiving end would English team and Andrew Strauss withdrawn their appeal, I would bet that they would say that player committed a school boy mistake and deserves to be out. Let us consider the in 2008 New Zealand vs. England one day game Grant Elliot collided with Ryan Sidebottom mid-pitch and guess who removed the bails none other than Ian Bell, the fielder who threw the ball was Kevin Peitersen. Where was the "Spirit of the game" with the then English captain Paul Collingwood not withdrawing the appeal even when asked by the umpires.

Lets take the jelly bean incident in 2007 series between England and India. The English player were trying intimidate Zaheer Khan by placing jelly beans on the pitch. I am sure that was part of the "Spirit of the game". Why do we have to dig into the past, lets just stay in the same game but the previous day. The English team appealed for a caught behind agains VVS Laxman, which was not given out. English captain requested a review of the decision and Hot Spot technology failed to detect any edge and the third umpire didnt have any undisputable evidence to over turn the decision. Stuart Broad admitted that he "cheekily inspected" Laxman's bat for traces of vaseline, which some people claim obscures Hot Spot technology for fine nicks. Does what Stuart Broad did fall in the "Spirit of the game". Why are there two scales when it comes to the "Spirit of the game" — one for India and one for others, especially England.

Netflix alters pricing dramatically

Netflix announced a dramatic price hike in this latest press release. I am currently on Unlimited DVD 1 DVD out-at-a-time plan with Blu-ray option and unlimited streaming for which I pay $11.99 plus tax. The updated price for me to keep this plan would be $17.98 which is a good 50% hike. Basically I would be signing up for two plans in their new system, the unlimited streaming and unlimited DVD 1 DVD out-at-a-time each costing $7.99 each and an additional $2.00 for Blu-ray option. The idea of splitting into two plan is perfectly fine provided both offer a similar catalogue. Unfortunately this is not true, the streaming catalogue is not as diverse as the DVD catalogue.

I would be perfectly fine with the hike if Netflix offered some form of a lowered bundled deal. First, not all the content I would like to see is available for streaming. Second, I would rather see movies from a disc than using streaming because the streaming offers only 2.0 audio at the moment on my Oppo. I prefer watching TV shows as streaming rather then getting discs because I take forever to watch a season and dont want to be stuck with the option of not being able to watch a movie. It would be appropriate if Netflix charges a lower price for the bundle around $12.98 with an additional $2.00 for the Blu-ray option. I am sure that many of the long standing customers would be considering to jump ship with this hike. I am sure people would be more understanding if Netflix offered a lower bundled plan.

What is the driving factor behind this move. Netflix has a higher profit margin if people just stream the content as opposed renting them on discs. If they do not improve their online streaming catalogue they are going to alienate a lot of customers. If every one of the Netflix customer just boycott the online streaming option and take the option of just renting discs it surely will have a huge impact on Netflix. One could then add the streaming option back when they got their senses back. I am sure the folks up at RedBox and Hulu are extremely happy and would surely gain a lot of customers.

VLC app removed from App store

VLC media player is a widely used free and open source media player. In late October a port of the VLC media player for iOS devices was available in the App Store. There was a controversy with regards to the GPL (license used for a lot of code in VLC) and the App Store terms. One of the core contributor to the VLC project Rémi Denis-Courmont decided to write to Apple with regards to the GPL violation. It was predicted that Apple pull VLC from the App Store and as expected it happened on January 7^th. Obviously this has made many people upset.

As usual the Apple fan boys who still believe that Apple can do no wrong decided to give it a spin that Nokia is responsible for the removal through Rémi Denis-Courmont, who happens to be an employee of Nokia. All the Apple fan boys on the web decided to paint Rémi Denis-Courmont as the devil incarnate himself. Of course the fan boys will never force Apple to change its draconian terms but would rather spend their time polishing Steve Job's knob. With that said, I am happy to see that VLC app has been removed from the App Store, Apple fan boys do not deserve to use this awesome media player.

Apple decides how you should hold your iPhone4!!!

The internet is full of posts, videos and discussions about the iPhone4 antenna issues. I just could not pass this opportunity without giving my 2 cents. Every antenna designer knows this for a fact that touching an antenna will cause signal attenuation. When Apple decided to tout the antenna as feature in its release presentation of the iPhone4 people were talking about Apple having the answer for AT&T's issue of signal and coverage. Instead of spending time and money on such important aspect of the iPhone Apple decided it would be more fruitful to invest the same on breaking down Jason Chen's door. Apple's response to this issue is that you are holding the phone incorrectly or get yourself an Apple bumper paying $29. I have a feeling Apple decided to make this antenna issue a feature so that they can sell more bumpers (I know this sounds far fetched, but I will not be surprised if it is true).

Renewing your Indian passport!!!

Everyone has always expressed nightmarish experience when renewing their Indian passport. I am going to share my experience of renewing my passport, surprisingly it was a pleasant experience. I had gone to apply for the passport in person; if you apply in person you have to collect it in person too. I am not going to go in detail about the documents required as I believe that all required documents are clearly mentioned on the website. Take copies and original of all required documents. One thing to keep in mind is that the consular section is not located along with the Indian embassy. It is located at a different address, mentioned on the website as the mailing address for application of passport by mail.

One and only rule that you need to adhere to is to get to the consular office as early as you can. The doors of the consular office open at 9:30am but the counters do not open until 10:00am. I would suggest getting to the consular office by 9:00am. If you plan on driving, like I did, you will have to park on the street parking available on one of the side roads. Majority of the street parking are 2 hour limit, plan accordingly. Read the signs on the road regarding parking twice before actually leaving the car, signs can be confusing at times.

Once the consular office doors open you need to go in and get yourself a ticket from the ticket dispenser at the center of the room. You will be served only if you have a ticket, do not believe in the appointment time given on the website. When your ticket number is called go up to the counter, there is a middle aged Indian lady who will check you application and give you receipt. If you need you passport under the "tatkal" scheme you will have an interview with the passport officer. I will not go into the details about the "tatkal" scheme as it is quite confusing and it is best left to the lady at the counter. Be nice when you talk to the lady, she is just doing her job and it is pointless to behave like an idiot. Aggravating her does not help your case in anyway nor does it help the others who are waiting in line after you.

I applied for the passport under the tatkal scheme. The lady noted my name down and called me once the passport officer had come between 11:00 - 11:30am. The passport officer checked my application and asked me the reason for applying for the passport under the "tatkal" scheme. I wrote a letter stating my reason for applying and once he double checks everything you go back to the counter and hand in the application form and the fee and collect your receipt. The passports under "tatkal" scheme are given the same day at around 4:30PM.

I hope that this does help you if you are applying for an Indian passport, feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I am not an authority on it but will help you to the best of my knowledge. Please note this experience is accurate as of June 1st 2010, when I renewed my passport.

What is Jobs smoking???

Steve Jobs recently took a shot at Adobe with his Thoughts on Flash. After reading it, the first thought that came to my mind was --- "What was he smoking?". Lets take a look at some of the aspects that Jobs presented in it. I am not going to quote anything from what Jobs wrote, I am just going to write what my take is on each of the reasons as to why Apple doesnt want Adobe Flash on its devices.

Adobe Flash not being "Open". Probably what Steve Jobs doesnt know is that Adobe Flash is actually quite open, both SWF and FLV are in fact open standards. On the contrary the entire iTunes App store, iPhone and iPad are all as closed as the Great Chinese Firewall.

Jobs position on the "full web".  Adobes claim that Apple iPhone and iPad users are missing out on a lot of web content is in fact the brutal truth. There are tons of Adobe flash based games which would ideal for these devices. Why would Apple not want Adobe Flash is so that they can in reality make iPhone and iPad users depend solely on the iTunes App store and thus they can drive the sales up and with iAd generate revenue from placing advertisement inside the Apps.

Reliability, security and performance. Jobs claims that Adobe Flash is responsible for majority of Macs crash and the reason why they dont want it on iPhone and iPad, fair enough. Just before that he states that according to Symantec Flash has the worst security record in 2009. All software's have security bugs always, doesn't OS X and and other Apple technology not have security bugs. Have people noticed the size of security updates that come out from Apple each time. So should we stop running Apple software on Apple devices because of this.

Then there was touch. Probably Jobs doesnt keep himself updated about features of Adobe Flash or he is just a big fat liar, I would put my money on the latter. Adobe Flash 10.1 does support multi touch.

The most important reason to top it off. In reality Apple wants to complete control on what you can do with its technologies. It doesn't want you to use cross platform compilers as then developer can reuse code and companies can reduce costs. In essence Apple wants developers to develop only for Apple products, an indirect way to keep you from other devices. Oh yeah Adobe has just adopted famed Cocoa now after 10 years but iTunes still hasn't. Probably Apple should be worried about its backyard before it starts pointing fingers at others.

To conclude, in my opinion Steve Jobs is a big fat liar and Apple is the devil in disguise. I am no Adobe evangelist, I am just a guy next door.