LoTR - One weekend to skew them all

Some claim that history is actually propaganda by victors - in a war, business, society or elections.  But seeing the interest the Yankees - or at least the Rednecks - have expressed in the writings of Sarah Palin and her TV shows, there may be reason to think that people have started to look beyond such official, accepted history and into the story as seen by the losers.

With such thought, I ventured out to read the (fan) sequel to the J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy named tongue-in-cheek, as ‘The Last Ring Bearer’.

To be frank and to my reading taste, LoTR, is a gripping tale but reflecting the times it was written in,

• too long winded, wearisome and quite exorbitant in its use of poems, invented language, customs and descriptions; 
• places in the story, even with the given map was confusing and mind boggling';
• it didn’t get better by watching the movies.  I still have a doubt about how many readers (apart from aficionados) actually can tell where exactly Mirkwood and Fangorn forests lie in relation to each other or to Isengard;
• the whipping boy attitude of Samwise towards Frodo and the constant depressing, wailing, ‘I am no good’ attitude of Frodo are nauseating;
• by one calculation, Gandalf rides about 700 m (~1150 km) in 6 days on Shadowfax - from Rohan to the Shire, at an average of just about 115 mpd or 190 kmpd.  Now a horse ‘can’ do that speed for one day - not for 6 days in succession, without rest; but I pity Gandalf more or rather Gandalf’s backside more, after riding for 6 continuous days.  Here is a nice analysis on LoTR travel times here [http://www.theoriginalseries.com/traveltimes.htm].
• To my mind, there was always something suspicious about Gandalf and he always will be Gandalf ‘the Grey’ to me.

So with all these reservations, it was time to try out the story from the loser’s perspective, from the view point of Sauron the Great - in reality it is the Nazgul who initiates the last ring bearer by giving him ‘his’ - Nazgul’s ring.

To cut it short, the original LoTR is summarized in a few chapters, from chapter 5 to 8, but on the last ring bearer and his time is about how

• Mordor under Sauran the VII was scientifically more advanced;
• that Mordor was expert in metallurgy, chemistry, with steam engines, no less, and was experimenting with electricity and aeronautics.
• the Palantir is actually a communication line, more like the modern hotline;
• the Galadriel’s mirror was something like spy satellite, giving the victors a huge advantage in winning the war. 
• the Mirror itself was ‘loaned’ by the wizards led by Gandalf the Grey to the Elves to keep the magical middle kingdom alive
• the Elves wish to enslave the mankind and the trolls so that the elves can be masters;
• that Aragorn becoming wise, a little a late, actually was trying to usurp the science for himself - to be used against the elves, in future;

and what not.

The story was written in 1999 by a Russian Biologist Krill Yeskov and was translated in English only late last year, in Oct 2010 by Yisroel Markov and is available for download at Markov’s LJ site [http://ymarkov.livejournal.com/270570.html].

Since Tolkien’s estate led by his son is actively threatening copyright violation on anyone who is using the Tolkien name anywhere, even on buttons, I don’t know how long that download will be left on.  So, grab your copy and read it now. 

BTW, like the original LoTR, here too the ring bearer, on completion of his mission, walks off, to disappear - not to some imagined land, but into a Monastery and what we hear are from his ‘trusted’ co-conspirator, who too, similar to the original LoTR, goes on to lead a contented life.

And if the Nazgul does appear in your dreams, next time, give it a patient hearing.  Or not - if you don’t want to be the new ring bearer.
;-P


God knows (or perhaps Nazgul knows), whether this blog is going to get hit with a copyright notice!
:-)

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Already like Tweaked Google search

Two days back every news organisation worth its salt went to town about the changes Google has made to its search algorithm.  The news and the impact was considered so serious that one company which makes about 41% of its money by supposedly acting as a ‘content farm’ lost 5% of its market cap , when investors hammered it.
8-O

This algorithm tweak is supposed to give higher ranking to the so called ‘high quality’ sites - sites which have ‘original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on’.  Wait a minute!  Those words are exactly what the mad.madrasi is all about, isn’t it?

Even though Google themselves stated that the change would impact about 12% of the sites - or 1 in 8 websites and it was supposed to be first tested out in the US, before being gradually introduced worldwide, I was curious to know whether it would have an impact in practice?

So today, I Googled, what else, but ‘monkeyshines’ and lo and behold!  The monkeyshine nutworks came out 17th in the search results.  Earlier, it used be on the 7th page - if at all.  So, seems like the new tweak is chasing out all the loonies and buggers out - giving a chance for us mavericks.
:-D



Way to go Google!  Keep it up and Thank You!

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Discovery’s final launch is a new Venture

Perhaps the final launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery (my favourite Shuttle) should have been christened as ‘New Venture’ instead of the routine, bland, conventional designation of STS-133.

Though it might have slipped the news this time, Discovery has the first humanoid Robot R2 or Robonaut 2 on board.  We might not appreciate the importance of the event right now, but this is really a historical moment.  For the first time, Man has sent a robot ‘in his own image’ - okay, it is only half his image ;-E - out to space.  Follow his tweets @astrorobonaut . (I like the one ‘small step for robot, giant leap for tinman kind’)



What it means is that the next humanoid form to actually make a landing (from space) on a planet other than Earth or its satellite might very well be the successors of Robonaut 2.  Just think about it.  How much money, time, detail and care which would be spent on developing a space module to safely transport a human from Earth to Mars (or even Moon) could be saved by strapping a Humanoid Robot into a cargo module and shooting it out!?!  Oops!  I forgot!  NASA is already on this job with Project M, aren’t they?

Though strictly not equal, it is akin to the difference between launching and operating a Remote Sensing satellite versus maintaining a space lab with an astronaut to take photographs and readings to transmit back to Bangalore.

BTW, Robonaut is ‘not’ the first robot to go out in space; it ‘is’ the first ‘humanoid’ robot to do so.  Incidentally, there s a Canadian robot presently on board the International Space Station - Dextre, which successfully completed it first job on Feb 4th.



Again, both Dextre and Robonaut 2 neither possess ‘Artificial Intelligence’, nor or ‘Autonomous Robots’ but are just ‘remote controlled’ robots (Robonaut 2 claims some semi-autonomous capability), which require Telepresence.



Great Job guys!

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Why you should never negotiate with Terrorists

It may make a great copy to pop off humanist nonsense that ‘Our’ terrorists are ‘Our Own’ people, and hence we will have to employ a soft-touch policy.

All the while trying to create an illusionary argument that terrorists of ‘other’ (nations) are not ‘their’ own, and so ‘they’ should deal with ‘their’ terrorists more harshly.

How can we even think of mouthing such abjectly wretched argument?

A terrorist is a terrorist, irrespective of:

• wherever he was born, or
• wherever she is operating from, or
• whoever he is acting against, or
• whatever ideology she professes to believe in

Instead of fixing these collective determinations in mind and acting accordingly, while facing terrorists,

• We free confirmed terrorists just because, true to their name, their co-terrorists start to ‘terrorize’.
• Keep wringing our hands when the terrorists don’t ‘keep’ their word, and instead go pleading and begging to them to change their colour.
• We crow that terrorists  are getting their just desserts - death sentence - under due judicial process.
• But continue to safe-keep such terrorists without punishment, and without missing a beat, defend the decision as the ‘correct’ one.
• Suddenly wake up and in a flurry of activity start running hither and thither, and claim that we’ve cleared so much area of terrorists.
• And slink back, tail between the legs, when the terrorists hit back.

No wonder for last 60 years, we’ve been plagued by ‘externally-fostered-internal-threats’ and have been unable to throttle them once for all.  All our enemies have clearly understood our (military) strength and our (soft on terror) weakness and are exploiting it to the hilt.  And we are being suckered in, every time.
:-(

My Mischievous Half murmurs, ‘Whatever, this excellent cartoon by Chip Bok, on the Mumbai terror attack may be up-in-your-face, but is truly reflective of the reality.

A Lathi against an AK-47.’



LOL.  I just love the depiction of the terrorist ‘face’ vis-a-vis the cop’s.

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Is Ryan ten Doeschate next Tendulkar?

Well, that’s a bit of a joke.  No doubt that the Netherlands has given England a run for their money in today’s game, but calling him next Tendulkar is a bit of a stretch.

No one can be as good as Tendulkar, but looking at the performance and temperament of Ryan ten Doeschate, he looks like a very, very good cricket player, a credible all-rounder, at least in the short forms of the game.

With his all round performance and the ‘man of the match’ award, apart from the ‘ten’ in his name, I hope my home team in the Indian Premier League, the CSK have been watching and have already lined up, if not snapped him up for this edition of IPL.

O-:)

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Ratmen of Rodencia - Man, you are an Animal too

It was sometime in May 2004 that I planted in front of my apartment complex the tree featured in the Easter Sunday post, (an Indian Soap Nut tree) which the good friend who got me the sapling from the ‘tree-planting-drive’ informed was about 5 months old.

Which makes the 1st of January the adopted date of birth for ‘my’ tree.  This new year’s eve, since all the brats decided to celebrate it elsewhere, I decided to celebrate, decorate the tree for its New Year ‘birthday’.

Incidentally some friends helped to string up the balloons, the paper streams and the serial lights.  The serial light sets are almost 9 or 10 years old, the ‘brand’ new product of that time - the Chinese Rice Bulb sets.  Low on power consumption, but bright all the same.  Thus commenced this New Year’s eve. Then, I found that all of those friends and colleagues had drifted away at the approach of the bewitching hour.

So,
At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world partied, mad.madrasi stood still and alone.  That moment came, which comes but once in an year, when I move from the old to the new, when an year ends, and when the hope of a person, long wished for, is striven again.
(no pun intended - definitely, absolutely, sincerely, truly not)

And found myself alone with the stray - Red, written about earlier.  Comfortable in each others company, she kept munching on a titbit lying at my feet, while I had a quiet smoke. 

I guess we were both contemplating the state of the universe, global warming, peak oil, water management, species extinction and food security.
O:-)

Thus we parted company - me to a simple dinner and a cozy bed and she to her night haunts, wishing each other a Fine New Year, under the ‘birthday’ tree. 

All photos taken with my Nokia 3500 classic mobile phone.  The 1st image is in normal mode, while the other two are with night mode on.  Notice how the serial lights resemble the sub-continent (with Af-Pak) at a particular angle - purely unintentional. 

Have a nice year India and all who reach and read here.
         
                       India at midnight                                 
         
                     India ‘Shining’
       
        the hanging gardens of mad.madrasi

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They are actually trying to shut me down

Ever since my post about the Czar there have been some suspicious activity going on.  My mobile which for convenience has been on a pre-paid mode, has been blocked from being recharged - in effect, I cannot use my mobile to post of Facebook or Tweet, when I want to.

Three days back, I was called up by my ISP asking for proof of my identity and residence - a requirement in India - and which I’d furnished when I’d taken my broadband connection 5 years back.  And which I’d kept ready and which I was informed would be collected day before or yesterday, but never was.

Today, again, I was called up by my ISP and informed that such proof is required.  When informed that it was ready for submission, it was told that it would be positively collected today.  But sadly, inexplicably, it was not done.

Strangely, when I approached the ISP’s local office to submit the proof, I was told that ‘no such requirement has been called for’ on my broadband account and they wouldn’t take it.  Even more strange, none of my friends and colleagues who had taken a broadband connection along with me (at the same time, 5 years back), have received such request.

While conspiracy theory is anathema to me, such a series of coincidences affecting my ability to connect with and blog about issues, is, to put it mildly, unique.

So, in case you don’t see any posts after a few days - know that I’ve been effectively shut down.

My Mischievous Half murmurs, ‘Hey Maddie!  Now that you’ve gone public repeatedly (here and here) about these attempts and it has not had (their) desired effect (of keeping me quiet), what do you think the ‘Prime Mover’ is going to do next?  Physical intimidation or actual physical restraint, perhaps?’

To which my Wicked Half whispers, ‘They might do that yet!  Why not?  It seems to be season for all the despots to try and repress questioning, liberal voices’

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Google Doodle on Cricket - too much of a buzz

Not for nothing is that said that Cricket is a game which 11 fools play and 11,000 fools watch.  Today’s blogosphere, the sub-continental sub-sphere at least, is going to town about how Google has released a special Doodle to commemorate the beginning of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.



If one didn’t know better, with all the hype, we would think that Google has suddenly started promoting cricket, world over.  The truth is something much more simple.  That Google Cricket Doodle is displayed only in the Google India home (google.co.in) or when people from India visit Google.com, which is the same thing.

All other sites, all over the world display the Google Doodle commemorating the 135th birthday of the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi.



The Brancusi Doodle is what you’ll find in the Google homepage of Pakistan (google.com.pk), Bangladesh (google.com.bd), Sri Lanka (google. Lk) and even at the homeland of Cricket, the UK (google.co.uk)

So much for the hype.

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Sacrifice of Eight legged baby, who has become a headache

I am certainly not the Prime Minister of India to get out in front of the Press and moan that

• ‘I am not to be blamed’;
• ‘I did not know about it’;
• ‘It was someone else’s jurisdiction’;
• ‘I had no control over it’

And the like.

Hence, I have to admit that I had noticed that for the last few weeks an inordinate amount of queries, searching for and hitting this blog, had this ‘8 limbed baby’ photo (of the post My Farmer is making me a junkie) as search keywords.
 
For example, here is the snapshot of the traffic sources and referring URLs for the last month.  The stats show that out of 39 searches for mad.madrasi, which hit, 8 referred to the 8 limbed baby, either by name or photograph URL or post URL - the numbers 3 and 7, marked in the snapshot.



While that point was niggling at the back of my mind, 3 days back, was this BBC report that the European Union has moved to update Child Porn Laws.  The most important recommendation was the action to ‘remove’ such images at source.  While I am neither a citizen or a resident of EU or other Western democracies, my own sense of social morality and responsibility is nothing less.

To be honest, without any further investigation capacity, resources or intent, such a search on a particular term might in fact be innocent and not be of any immoral, anti-social or illegal behavior.  However, I do not wish to allow such doubts on this issue and have removed all the images from the post as of today.  This is also in inline with my own PISS code for Bloggers.  So what If I lose 20% of visitors?
:-(

My Mischievous Half murmurs, ‘Move on, Maddie!  It is for a good cause.  Any how it is easier to type mad.madrasi in search box rather than 8 limbed baby; or bookmark mad.madrasi rather than search for an archive’.
0:-)

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Junk Adobe Reader, Use Google Chrome as PDF reader

It has been almost two months since I started using Google Chrome as my default, favourite browser, and demoting Firefox as the just-in-case browser.  At first it was difficult to get used to Google Chrome, especially the lack of the Menu bar.  But gradually, as I became adept at using the Keyboard shortcuts, it stopped being a bother.

Chrome has grown so much on me, that I find that using Firefox has become disconcerting, whenever I run across them on other PCs.  (IE?  You mean you still use that crap?)

Two days back, after repeated warnings that my Adobe Reader was out of date and a security risk, I decided to pay heed and update it to the latest version.  I was still using the unofficial Adobe Reader Lite 9.4.1 and was actually waiting for the unofficial Adobe Reader Lite X version to be released.

It seems that the Lite version is under heavy ‘scrutiny’ and there is not much hope of seeing anything more on that front.

Which really bugged me, since the official Adobe Reader X is about 35 MB of download and is primarily a bloatware - the main reason for enthusiasts to develop the unofficial ‘Lite’ versions.  Even the AcroPDF’s PDF tweak tool, ‘PDF SpeedUp’ doesn’t work on the Adobe Reader X, leaving you with a bloated, slow and irritating PDF reader.

I could have (and have in the past), used the free Sumatra PDF or the Foxit Reader, but at 3.5 MB and 7.5 MB respectively, would be another headache to keep up to date.  Which led me to see whether Google Chrome can be enabled as the default PDF viewer on my PC, as Chrome comes with built in PDF viewer plug-in and runs it in a sandbox minimising security threats.

Yup!  The idea worked great and I can view all the PDF files, even the ones in my PC,  using Google Chrome, and it is fast;  As Chrome gets updated, the plug-in would also get updated, so one less headache. 

To make Google Chrome as the default PDF viewer:

Open any Folder (eg. My Documents) -> Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types -> Scroll Down to ‘PDF’ -> Click ‘Change’ button.

In the ‘Open With’ dialogue box -> select Google Chrome -> Mark ‘Check Box’.



In case you cannot see ‘Google Chrome’ under ‘Recommended Programs’, minimize all windows:
on the Desktop -> Rt. Click Chrome Shortcut -> select ‘Shortcut’ tab -> copy value in ‘Target’ box (like

"C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe") ->  open ‘Open With Dialogue box’ -> click ‘Browse’ button -> paste in ‘File’ box. 

Whew! :-P

Once you have done that, Google Chrome will become the default PDF viewer.  Here is the rendering of the Counter Terrorism Calendar 2011 in Chrome.

Note:  The link itself leads to the Interactive Multimedia Calendar, but the link for the PDF version is on the webpage Menu.



Those were the Pros;  now the Cons:

• The PDF file icons were all changed to showing a Chrome-in-page icon, which is slightly bizarre, as one does not associate PDF files with a browser icon.
• Chrome does not have the navigation bar in the PDF plug-in.  So if your file doesn’t have page numbers on it, you’re screwed if you want to leave an especially long file midway and come back to it later -  endless tapping on the ‘page down' button.
• Chrome’s PDF plug-in doesn’t support form filling, highlighting, annotations or security features - if you need them, then the Chrome way is not for you (at least not yet; till Google updates with a fully featured plug-in).
• As Chrome does not yet have a full fledged ‘print preview’ options, you’re stuck with all unnecessary headers, footers and all, if you want to print out the file.

BTW, did you notice the Windows 7 like ‘SuperBar’ and Pinned applications on the snapshot above?  Here is another snap with an ‘almost’ bare desktop, pinned applications and thumbnail preview of running instances.  Here, the Explorer shows ‘My Documents, Downloads and a JPG file’ as open.  Cool, ain’t it?

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How Paul Krugman got it wrong on purchasing power?

The Indian Prime Minister is going to take live questions from the ‘press’ tomorrow at 1030 IST.  The major question is not whether he will make clear the present government policies - which I think, even the government is not clear about.

There is only one solution to arrest the present rise in prices of food items, and which the PM might himself should have perceived by now - being a far better economist than I would ever or hope to be.

That is to announce tomorrow that in 6 months, as the future trades permit, the online trading on food, and the precious metals - the Commodity Exchange - will be shut down.

As much as I admire him, I have my disagreements with what Mr. Krugman has to say [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/opinion/07krugman.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss] - that the price rise is because of purchasing power or production shortages.  If it was due to production shortages, onion or other food prices should not have shot up so high from end-December 2010 till mid-January 2011, as we have seen in India or have recovered so soon.

After all, there was no harvest between these two dates to either get the prices up or down.  And purchasing power does follow the same argument - hasn’t gone up so appreciably; or where it has, it has been offset by rising food prices.

OTH, I wish Mr. Krugman would actually do an analysis of what the effect of Commodity Exchange of India has had on World food prices.  It is actually beyond my capability and reach or resources as of of now.  Because there has been only one even which has changed from before the Wall Street Crash and now - and that is the Commodity Exchange of India has become an active player. 

For once, I think Mr. Hu Jintao is worthy of my thanks.  (Although Mr. Hu Jintao must be laughing at the way one of the World’s best economist is tying his nation’s growth in knots with rising food prices - without him raising a hand - as this rise in food prices is going to impede economic growth, by tying up scarce resources)

As Mr. Krugman himself has to say, it has been ‘rising from 2009’, whereas actually the World economy has shrunk, or rather has not taken off so spectacularly to offset what had happened before the Wall Street crash.  If prices didn’t reach this before the crash, why should they do so now?

Nothing Mr. Krugman has stated in the article has convinced me.  It needs a very closer look and my instinctive, niggling feeling is that a study, if done correlating the inception and active trading on Commodity Exchange of India with the World Food Prices is done, it would become very clear that what has gone wrong - in short speculation.

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Pitches like these, India can kiss World Cup goodbye!

The 2 matches of consequence involving South Africa against Zimbabwe and Australia against India, at the warm up stages.  Both these matches at Chennai and at Bangalore were played on tailor made pitches, which made batting in the 2nd innings, next to impossible.

That South Africa did it in less than 25 overs is more because of the inabilities of the Zimbabwe bowling rather than any great batting by the South Africans.  The South African captain has raised doubts over the pitch.

The Aussies had no such luck.  They had to bat second and they had the full measure of what playing under spinning, breaking pitch can be.  That Bangalore pitch was not a Kangaroo hopping pitch but one with spitting, spinning Cobras.  No wonder the Australian Captain Ponting hoped that the tournament pitches would not be so ‘under prepared’.

He even had support from the Indian Captain M.S. Dhoni, who said it was a tough pitch to bat on.  As per the Australian report, he (Dhoni) also said that it is not that we (India) are going to win the toss every time - meaning that India would have found it tough to bat second on such a wicket.

Back of his mind must be the Cricket World Cup 1996 semi-final fiasco where India were undone batting second on an impossible pitch.

But if the pitches have indeed been prepared or under prepared with the intention of screwing with the non-sub-continent teams of Australia, South Africa, England and West Indies, there are 3 others who can battle under such conditions - Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In such a case, it is easy to see who the top 4 of the ‘Group A’ qualifiers will be:  Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

What is not easy to predict who the top 4 of ‘Group B’ would be, in such under prepared wickets, where winning the toss might make one the winner.  India, South Africa, England and West Indies would normally be expected to make the cut - but in the sub-continent with under prepared wickets, Bangladesh can be expected to pull a surprise or two.  And Pakistan might just well create an upset in the knockout stages.  I have already blogged about this.

Even though today the Aussie greats grade Sri Lanka as biggest threat in this World Cup (Fox Sports, Australia), if this stupidity with the ‘spin friendly’ wickets persist, I have a niggling feeling it might be Bangladesh’s day out.

If that happens, India might well kiss their chances at this World Cup goodbye!  Or more likely someone would cry, like Vinod Kambli did at that semi-finals.



My Mischievous Half murmurs, ‘God!  Maddie, only you would wish for a team with such undisciplined, rowdy, rubbish like Yuvraj ‘double chin’ Sing, Shantakumaran ‘Cry Baby’ Sreesanth and Harbajan ‘Chucker’ Singh, to win the World Cup!  Give me soft spoken Sangakara anytime!’

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This is the savant who will deal with the Pakistan

Just 4 days back there was this bizarre announcement of resuming the India-Pakistan dialogue - a dialogue which had been frozen ever since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.  As blogged earlier, it has been an insidious longing of a few Indian Prime Ministers who have had the misfortune of being born in present day Pakistan, before Independence and partition, to somehow produce ‘peace’ between their birth-land and homeland.

On which they are often willing to be extraordinarily understanding about the ‘Pakistan’ positions.  The dialogue was broken off after the 2008 Pakistan sponsored Mumbai terror attacks.  Now if that dialogue has to be resumed there has to be some forward movement - something that the Pakistanis have done or said, which would give a hope for some peaceful solution.
So, what have the peaks done over the last few months?

• Last week of Jan 2011 the Indian Foreign Secretary criticized Pakistan for not doing enough to combat terror.
• First week of Jan 2011, the Pakistanis stopped en-route onion exports, which were meant as a crutch to divert criticism of the Indian government on food inflation.
• The Basmati rice exports from India to Europe are expected to drop this year because of competition from Pakistan
• The Pakistanis don’t even want to accept, instead disparaged flood aid from India
• Even their protector, Uncle Sam has broken off trilateral talks with the Pakis, right now

I have been wondering ever since the announcement, that under such circumstances, why resume a dialogue?  The answer to that question was revealed yesterday.  The one and the only, incomparable Foreign Minister, Mr. S.M. ‘Intellect Scholar’ Krishna, while addressing the UN Security Council, read out the speech of the Portuguese Foreign Minister, instead of his own.

To add insult to injury, a day later, he even had the gall to pooh-pooh away the goof-up.  Wonder if he has a habit of waking up and putting on his wife’s panties, the scholar intellect.  Thus the original line must have been ‘NOT talking’, which with such a smart incomparable person at the helm, must have morphed into ‘WANT talking’.



My Wicked Half whispers. ‘Oh!  Gee! Maddie!  He only got his lines crossed; not his dress or his head. (as far as you know)’
:-)

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I am not the Home Minister’s speechwriter

Trust me, I do not write speeches for the Home Minister.  Or for any other Minister or Political figure.  In fact the only time I give the politicians is the time spent on this blog.  Whether they read it and take heed is left to their good sense.  As it says in the Licence page - take it, leave it or disregard it - but don’t blame me for the consequences.
:-(

So when the Home Minister admits to ethical and governance deficit in the present administration, it must be that he has arrived at that conclusion on his own, independently.  Nothing should be read into the fact that barely 4 days before, my post about the Incompetent PM spoke of the same thing - in a more blunt manner.

The Home Minister himself gave the game away by admitting that it is time to take note of concerns expressed by ‘captains of industry and business’.  More singular clarification that I had no hand in it is not needed any more.



My Mischievous Half murmurs, ‘Whomever prompted the confession, it goes into my account as a Hit.  It is not every day that a blogger post is reflected in a Cabinet Minister’s confession, anywhere, within a week!’

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Keep Windows XP updated – the easy way

I still come across PCs installed with Win XP SP2 and guys without any thought about SP3 or post-SP3 patches.  All had automatic updates disabled, but that is understandable (the haphazard connection speed and on-line-time makes automatic updates fail or partially install hotfix – leading to OS corruption).

updated: new post with updated patch file till Oct 2011 here.
update: April 2014.  This post is outdated as MS has discontinued support for WinXP this month.

This post is not about SP3 installation or about slipstreaming SP3, but about applying post-SP3 patches.  There is not going to be an SP4 for Win XP, but the OS is not going to die off too – at least as long as extended support phase isn’t over in 2014.

• Problem 1
• Every patch Tuesday, Microsoft will (may) release security patches for Windows OS and there is no easy way keep the system patched, without automatic updates.
• Problem 2
• When we format & reinstall the OS for various reasons, we need to patch those machines.
• Problem 3
• As of Feb 2011, there are 100 security fixes (Critical, Important and Moderate) for the bare OS (Windows XP SP3, 32 bit) alone.  Depending upon the versions of IE, .NET and WMP, there could many more.
• Problem 4
• Depending upon the patch and PC security settings, installing a patch may involve 4 to 7 clicks (‘Double click + Run + Next + I agree + Next + Reboot Later + Finish’).  If it is painful now, think about the next 3-1/2 years of patches left!  No wonder people don’t bother to patch.

Solution
The obvious answer is to download and store a copy of these hotfixes for patching the OS at leisure.  And a way to auto-apply those patches, without endless clicking.
;-)

So, here I give away the two mad.madrasi ways to apply the patches – easy and too-easy.  Both are an unattended, one reboot way to patch the OS and get up to speed.


The easy way:

• Download all the post-SP3 patches to a folder on the PC. My own is in “D:\XPonlyOS”.
• Create a list of files in the folder.  The easiest way to do that is by typing ‘dir /a /b /-p /o:gen >filelisting.txt’ at the command prompt.  Only make sure you are in the ‘XPonlyOS’ folder.
• Edit the filelisting.txt  to reflect this MS support article and save it as a batch file.  Use the ‘Replace’ command in Notepad++:
  • Replace >>> .exe^p >>> with >>> .exe /u /z^p >>> Replace All
  • Replace >>> WindowsXP >>> with >>> %PATHTOFIXES%\WindowsXP >>> Replace
• • All
• The f
• inal file has to resemble this: (Replace last line ‘/z’ with ‘/forcerestart’)
  • @echo off
    setlocal
    set PATHTOFIXES=D:\XPonlyOS
    @echoon 
    %PATHTOFIXES%\WindowsXP-KB######-x86-ENU.exe /m /z
    %PATHTOFIXES%\WindowsXP-KB######-x86-ENU.exe /u /
  • PATHTOFIXES%\WindowsXP-KB######-x86-ENU.exe /u /forcerestart
• M
• ake sure the batch file is in same folder (‘D:\XPonlyOS’) and run it. (read ‘Notes’ below)

The too-easy way:

• Download the XPonlyOS.7z or XPonlyOS.zip from my MediaFire account. 
• Extract it to a convenient location like ‘C:\XPonlyOS’. 
• Open the folder and run ‘patch_xp_onlyos.bat’.  (read ‘Notes’ below)

Either way, watch the system being patched without bothering you.  It takes about 1 hour in my PC.  After that scan with the free Belarc Advisor to check whether the PC is up to date.

Note:

1. The XPonlyOS.7z file is ~53 MB and extracts to ~92 MB
2. The MD5 Hash is : 82cb70fa73623f2b8adc5e2ffcf40fba    XPonlyOS.7z
3. The SHA-1 Hash is: 0534677820ef256e45bd119dcfcc1f6997a7473c    XPonlyOS.7z
4. The XPonlyOS.zip file is ~90 MB and extracts to ~92MB
5. The MD5 Hash is : 71c48291bf3370d677a3bd7d29a4311e    XPonlyOS.zip
6. The SHA-1 Hash is: 78ea325ba958323f4640882e9bed8b9d15b17b55    XPonlyOS.zip
7. If your firewall protests too much, add the batch file to ‘trusted file/zone’.
8. Modify the ‘PATHOFFIXES’ as per your download/saved location (The default is ‘C:\XPonlyOS’).
9. If Belarc Advisor warns of more missing hotfix, download and install them.
10. This applies to Windows XP Pro SP3, 32 bit edition only & not for other editions.
11. Includes only the hotfix for the bare OS and not of IE, .NET, WMP or XML etc.
12. Read the Licence page – it applies in full - don't blame me later.
13. The Batch file ‘patch_xp_onlyos.bat’ has a ‘pause’ command before the last hotfix - (inserted Feb 2011) to review if all patches have been applied without error.

updated:  zip file added 02 Nov 2010

updated:  patch file updated till Feb 2011

updated: new post with updated patch file till Oct 2011 here

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Internet and the Intellectuals at Cricket Council

George Bernard Shaw once remarked that ‘Cricket is a game where 11 fools play and 11,000 fools watch’.  Whether the 11,000 count was the highest or the lowest number in his estimate is not known, but today, on the eve of the ICC World Cup 2011, the cricket authorities claim that the total viewership will be more than 11 million.

These TV viewership counts are doubtful in my view, as I have espoused earlier based on the ‘The Independent’ investigation.

What ever the count of the idiots who will be viewing the ICC World Cup 2011 (which includes me) there is no doubt that the mandarins in the ICC have absolutely no idea of about how the internet (www) works or how to go about doing things in the net age.

It is difficult to understand what actually these blokes hoped to achieve by publishing in their website a ‘redacted’ and ‘encrypted’ version of the recent spot-fixing report (determination) on the Pakistani players - the news release is here and the report has the following restrictions.

1. The report will be available to the public for only a week (till 16 Feb) and after that will be pulled off the website. 
2. Since there is a criminal case being pursued in England, the people ‘residing’ in England and Wales are prohibited (under the threat of the British Contempt of Courts Act) from reading the publication. 
3. To ensure that people adhere to the condition, the viewer is asked to fill out a form, giving the name, address and email etc. 
4. The webpage clearly states that the ‘print’ function on the report is disabled (as is copy/paste function).

Now to see how these restriction add up:

1. Haven’t these guys ever heard of webcitation?  I am not even going to go into free web hosting sites like mediafire and others.  So what is the point of pulling it down after 7 days?  And why that specific 7 days and why not after 1 day or 1 month? 
2. The way my IE8 has been set up, it automatically downloads the report.pdf, which I had to delete later.  Even though I don’t live in England or Wales, I have no inclination to tangle with the courts - variety British or variety Indian. ;-)
3. The name and address form does not even have basic check protocols.  It is not so bad that it allows null entries, but it does not even check whether the name or address do follow some sensible pattern.  Just typing ‘a’ as name and ‘b’ as address seems to suffice.  It did not accept ‘c’ as email address thank god, but then ‘ab@abc.com’ was more than enough to get around.
4. Disabling of copy/paste and print is not of much use when Ghostscript and GSView are available for free, and which *does not* require you to do something to the password protection.

What ever their intentions were, the report, a determination of guilt and punishment by the Tribunal on the issue of spot-fixing by Pakistani cricketers (no more alleged) makes fascinating reading.
 
It is a great eye opener on what to look for, how to interpret, determine and if guilty, punish, and what standards to uphold while doing it.  The redacted report is just over 100 pages long (by my count - others have put it at 97 pages) and some 20 odd pages are reproduction of telephone conversation and texts between the co-conspirators.  The last 10 pages are so are Appendices, of not much interest to us, normal cricketing public.

But the other 70 odd pages make a very fine, interesting reading.  If you do want an example of how fine a tribunal finding can be - its objectives, search and determination of facts, evaluation of evidence and recommended punishment or solution - this report is it.  Even if you don’t need one such, it makes great reading.  Head out, fill up and go!

And here is one of the subject no-balls as captured on TV - it sure is a big, big no-ball.



My Mischievous Half murmurs, ‘Why is ICC’s official website address http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/?  Every bloke who sees that address immediately doubts whether it is actually ICC official site or not!’

update:  From http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/ it has been changed to http://www.icc-cricket.com/.

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PM of impregnable Integrity and most Incompetent

It is time to get off my gardening and get into active blogging in light of another spectrum scam.  And why these particularly happen!

This government under the Manmohan ‘Bureaucratic Bumbler’ Singh has outlived its utility and has proven to be the worst ever in the history of India.

Not even the sacking by foreigners can be held as a precedent to the utter incompetence displayed by the government under this bloke.

From tomorrow, we will see a series of posts, not underlining the scams themselves, but the reasons, the causes which have engineered an environment where such scams can take place.

My Mischievous half murmurs, ‘Of late, it had become a fashion to prefer private sector - read Info. Tech. - career instead of Government jobs, perhaps this is the Bureaucratic Bungler’s attempt to bring back the interest in government oriented jobs!’

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How to Go Green for less than a dollar!

The last Green post made me to deeply think about becoming a more serious container gardener.  Fortunately, there is about 10m by 2m (30 feet by 6 feet) of unpaved bit space in the backyard of my apartment complex.  Actually it was intentionally left unpaved for just such an eventuality.  At present there are a few saplings in it -

• a Guava tree which is about 6 years old and starting to fruit,
• a Bael sapling of similar age,
• a Curry Tree almost 12 years old,
• a Henna plant almost 10 years old (update: died in the summer heat of 2012),
• a Bauhinia sapling of about 6 years (species B. tomentosa) (update: died in the summer heat of 2012)
• couple of Banana plants, re-growth of the original plants,
• a recently planted Drumstick Tree, (update: did not survive the summer of 2013);
• a recently planted Mango plant, (not the Will and Kate tree)
• and a couple of Jamun Plants, (update: died in the summer heat of 2012).

You can’t see the Curry Tree, Henna plant, Drumstick or Jamun trees, but rest all are here.

The Papaya tree blogged about earlier, and before that, has died out;  Its place has been taken over by the Drumstick Tree.  Just after the Well which you see at the end, I hve planted a couple of Sugar Cane cuts - on seeing the cut growing shoots on the Terrace (update these did not survive beyond 2012).

This week is time to clean up the rubbish you see, square and level up the ground and plant some vegetables like climbing beans, french beans, ladies finger and brinjals.  And unlike earlier, I am not going to use kitchen discards or refuse for seeds.

I managed to locate a seed seller locally and have bought a few packets of seeds, which I plan to use both in the back yard and on all those pots you see in the picture.  The pots are to be shifted to the Terrace to power up the Terrace garden.



Watch this space!

Oh, BTW, the whole lot of 8 packets cost Rs. 40/-; which is where the dollar comes in!

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