June 10, 2008

Put Your Money Where Your Munh Is

Want to know if a celebrity is playing both sides of the fence? Whether that new guy you’re seeing is actually a Republican or just dresses like one? If your boss maxed out at that fundraiser or got comped? Whether your neighbor’s political involvement stops at that hideous lawn sign?

Hell, yes!

FundRace gives you the technology to do what politicians and journalists have been doing for years: find out where the money’s coming from, see who it’s going to, and solve the mystery of why that crazy ex-roommate of yours is now the Ambassador to Turks and Caicos.

Using public records filed with the FEC of all contributions greater than $200, FundRace calculates the who, where, and how much of hard/soft cash going to political parties/candidates/PACs. I’m all agog at the technological marvels that produce such transparency.

Nosing around a bit, I came up with:

Jhumpa Lahiri, Writer, gave $250 to the DNC
Kalpen Modi, Actor, gave $1,395 to Barack Obama
Atul Gawande, Surgeon, gave $250 to John Kerry
Aziz Ansari, Producer/Actor, gave $1,150 to Barack Obama
Vikram Pandit, (current CEO at Citigroup, then COO at Morgan Stanley), gave $2,000 to George W. Bush

Searching by last name only generates results like this:
$407,448 was given by people who identified their last name as “Singh”
$98,952 from 63 people to Republicans
$308,496 from 185 people to Democrats

$330,376 was given by people who identified their last name as “Gupta”
$42,850 from 28 people to Republicans
$287,526 from 96 people to Democrats

Rather amusingly, $4,945 was given by people who identified their last name as “Jindal”
$0 to Republicans
$4,945 from 5 people to Democrats

In my entirely unscientific survey, all the desi names generated more Democratic donors than Republican. Interesting since I thought the balance, based on political punditry and SM commenters, would tilt towards the GOP. Also found loads of PAC contributors, especially to energy/engineering/science based PACs like the General Atomics Political Action Committee. Time to see how that moron in your lab got all that grant money!

You can find relatives, neighbours, friends, co-workers, celebrities…anyone who donated more than $200, really. The map pinpoints addresses with rather startling accuracy. You can also search by occupation:

$86,577 was given by people who identified their occupation as “Mathematician”
$13,740 from 18 people to Republicans
$72,837 from 98 people to Democrats

I searched for donations from Astronauts, but, sadly, got no results. Oh, Abhi…

cicatrix at 01:40 PM in Politics, Tech · 51 comment(s) · Direct link

April 15, 2008

The Googlization of Everything

Those who know me well often joke that I’d make a good spokesperson for a Google ad. I can’t help it if Google has changed my life (and I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels that way). The google desktop app has saved my writing life more times than I care to mention, and google calendar is the means by which my husband and I can always convince each other to attend otherwise resisted events (“Oh, you couldn’t make it? I had no idea. Your google calendar said you were free!”)

So, of course, my curiosity piqued when I recently read about Siva Vaidhyanathan’s recent book deal with the University of California Press.

Per Publisher’s Weekly:

THE GOOGLIZATION OF EVERYTHING: How one company is transforming culture, commerce and community - and why we should worry, showing how Google is taking on governments, organizations and entire industries - and the implications of Google knowing more about us than we know about it.

(The book began as an open book experiment sponsored by the Institute for the Future of the Book, where Vaidhyanathan is a fellow, and was subsequently picked up for publication.)

Vaidhyanathan is a rising cultural historian and media scholar whose two previous books Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System have met with wide praise.

He is approaching the book as both a fan and as a critic, he says at his website: “I am in awe of all that Google has done and all it hopes to do. I am also wary of its ambition and power.”

In a talk titled “The Googlization of Everything” that he gave last week at Penn State, Vaidhyanathan used the example of a google search result of the word “Siva” (the #1 result is the Smashing Pumpkins 1991 music video for “Siva,” not the Hindu god of the same name) to raise the question of just how universal Google actually is.

From an article in Penn State’s campus paper The Collegian Online:

“The Smashing Pumpkins were a once relevant band from Chicago,” Siva Vaidhyanathan said. “There are a billion Hindus … You would think that would be the most important thing. This gives us some indication that the Google universe does not map to the rest of the world.” …

[If you run the search yourself, a list of his books comes up first under Google Books, then the Smashing Pumpkins, then a wikipedia write-up on “Shiva” (the more common spelling for the Hindu god of destruction), then his website. Hmmm….] From the same article:

“Google actually has a pretty profound and perhaps disturbing role in what we consider to be valuable, true and important … “Millions, perhaps billions, of people use Google everyday. We are not Google’s consumers; we are Google’s products. The advertisers are the consumers,” Vaidhyanathan said, [criticizing Google’s collection of detailed records and user information.] … “Google knows everything about many of us and a lot about almost all of us. Google knows your interests, your passions, maybe your fetishes.” Vaidhyanathan pointed to Google’s official mission statement: “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.” “It’s a stunning mission statement for any company,” he said. “But it’s the universality we have to question. How universal is Google? We know it doesn’t work exactly the same way in China.”

Vaidhyanathan’s starting point is that Google is a part of our lives and that we talk about it as though it were Divine — think of the good versus evil paradigm that has been set up in the google universe — but that it is something we need to take a closer look at, especially when it comes to consumer surveillance and copyright.

From another interesting article at the U. Va. website: “Discussing the role of the consumer, Siva notes another Google illusion - that of the free service. We pay for Google with our data - our searching habits, our surfing habits - and this fuels Google’s cash cow, personalized advertising.” [link]

The book will be out sometime next year, and in the meantime, we’ll all keep using our various google apps and accounts more than ever … won’t we?

Sandhya at 09:36 AM in Business, Tech · 21 comment(s) · Direct link

February 11, 2008

Facebook loves us a little too much.

Flying all over the intarwebs is an NYT article about Facebook— and how it is apparently the equivalent of a social networking roach motel; once you check in you can’t check out.

Are you a member of Facebook.com? You may have a lifetime contract. Some users have discovered that it is nearly impossible to remove themselves entirely from Facebook, setting off a fresh round of concern over the popular social network’s use of personal data. While the Web site offers users the option to deactivate their accounts, Facebook servers keep copies of the information in those accounts indefinitely.

The first flummoxed Facebooker quoted by la grey lady is brown!

“It’s like the Hotel California,” said Nipon Das, 34, a director at a biotechnology consulting firm in Manhattan, who tried unsuccessfully to delete his account this fall. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

It took Mr. Das about two months and several e-mail exchanges with Facebook’s customer service representatives to erase most of his information from the site, which finally occurred after he sent an e-mail threatening legal action. But even after that, a reporter was able to find Mr. Das’s empty profile on Facebook and successfully sent him an e-mail message through the network.

I understand that Facebook is ostensibly attempting to keep the reactivation process zimble, should one change one’s mind about one’s participation in this timesuck, but one might still find this policy douchey. (Now who has U2 stuck in their head? Just me? Meh. You kids and your tatti taste in music.)

Facebook’s Web site does not inform departing users that they must delete information from their account in order to close it fully — meaning that they may unwittingly leave anything from e-mail addresses to credit card numbers sitting on Facebook servers. Only people who contact Facebook’s customer service department are informed that they must painstakingly delete, line by line, all of the profile information, “wall” messages and group memberships they may have created within Facebook.

I love Facebook for its clean interface, glorious lack of blinking ads* and its illusions of privacy, but I am making the shame-shame gesture towards them for such selfish, self-damaging policies. You know the one. It’s the same one your Aunt made at you, when she caught you happily adjusting yourself too often. Or maybe that was just my little-cousin-who-is-not-related-but-with-only-three-other-desi-families-here-kinda-is.

If MySpaz and my quondam stomping grounds Friendster (2003-2007) let you delete your profile, that gives them one very significant advantage over Facebook. Who cares if you can play Scrabulous if you don’t have the right to walk away from the site? I have friends who are on the fence about joining Facebook and this article has pushed them right off— to the “no, thank you” side. Well-played.

“Most sites, even online dating sites, will give you an option to wipe your slate clean,” Mr. Das said.

Mr. Das, who joined Facebook on a whim after receiving invitations from friends, tried to leave after realizing that most of his co-workers were also on the site. “I work in a small office,” he said. “The last thing I want is people going on there and checking out my private life.”

“I did not want to be on it after junior associates at work whom I have to manage saw my stuff,” he added.

At first glance, it would seem to be in Facebook’s interest to flip us a collective bird, but is it? How much bad press and how many MoveOn.org protests do they want?

“The thing they offer advertisers is that they can connect to groups of people. I can see why they wouldn’t want to throw away anyone’s information, but there’s a conflict with privacy,” said Alan Burlison, 46, a British software engineer who succeeded in deleting his account only after he complained in the British press, to the country’s Information Commissioner’s Office and to the TRUSTe organization, an online privacy network that has certified Facebook.

Mr. Burlison’s complaint spurred the Information Commissioner’s Office, a privacy watchdog organization, to investigate Facebook’s data-protection practices, the BBC reported last month. In response, Facebook issued a statement saying that its policy was in “full compliance with U.K. data protection law.”

If you want help with walking away from things in your own past, walking away from, walking away from things that just won’t last, there is actually a Facebook group devoted to helping you do exactly that; join “How to permanently delete your facebook account” and you/one will discover 4,763 members who feel the same way you do. …

*I hate ads. Much to my elation, this site does not have ads. I want one ad-free oasis in my wirtual life. No eye-bleed-inducing blinking, no weird animation, no pop-under-over-throughs, no offers for NetFlix or 1,728 ugly emoticons. No. Just mutiny, and nothing but some mutiny, k thx bai.

anna at 12:25 PM in Humor, Issues, Tech · 42 comment(s) · Direct link

January 22, 2008

Scrabulous: Dead App Scrabbling

I’ve mentioned it before, but for those of you who weren’t aware, I’m addicted to Scrabulous, the Facebook application which allows me to play multiple games of Scrabble with several of you at the same time, and at our leisure.

Scrabulous is so fabulous, I ditched Friendster and MySpaz out of my desire for it; I had no need for such retrograde networks, not when Facebook was so superior— and the whole basis for its superiority is this stellar timesuck. If you read the message boards on the “official” Save Scrabulous group or under news articles about the game, I’m not the only one who has embraced Facebook out of my nerdier impulses, nor am I the only one who is twitching in a corner, rocking back-and-forth over this:

The saga of Scrabulous is nearing an end…[link]

I can’t bear to contemplate it. Better I edify you as to why this tragedy is occurring. Hasbro is not pleased that their game is suddenly so popular, not when they have no part in the fun. Never mind that they were stupid for not sensing the untapped desire of millions of word-nerds for protracted online Scrabbling, they’re using words like “licensing” and “stealing” to rain on our vocabulary-littered parade.

A flurry of behind the scenes deal-making has been going on between Hasbro, Scrabulous, and Electronic Arts, which has the license in the U.S. to the online version of the game. Hasbro is trying to get Scrabulous to sell itself for a song to Electronic Arts, or else shut down completely by the end of the day today. [link]

The Calcutta-based brothers behind the awesomeness, software developers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla are trying to find a way…

Scrabulous has been trying to shop itself to other buyers as well, but its legal liability is scaring away any potential white knights. Unless it gets some sort of reprieve or agrees to sell to Electronic Arts, Scrabulous will be no more, despite the more than 46,000 Facebook members who have joined the “Save Scrabulous” group. What choice does it have, really, but to sell? [link]

Lest you think this is a tiny sort of tempest, consider these numbers:

Scrabulous was started in 2006 as a standalone site operated by a pair of 20-something Calcutta, India-based brothers, Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, but the game exploded when they created a Facebook application that currently boasts 2.3 million active users and soon became the workplace productivity drain du jour. It’s currently the ninth most popular application on the site. [link]

Why can’t Hasbro focus on the good, which is what would benefit me…and you…and every other Scrabbling cubicle monkey?

With no official version of Scrabble available to play online, the move to shut down Scrabulous – which has renewed interest in the board game for a generation more familiar with electronic entertainment – could be seen as counter-productive…

Office worker Nastasia, 32, who plays Scrabulous at home and at work, said she bought a travel edition of the board game to take on holidays.

“We went overseas with some friends so I bought a travel version of Scrabble as I’d forgotten how fun the game was until Facebook revived it,” she said. [link]

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go finish the nine games I’m currently playing. I plan to go out in a blaze of glory, firing until there are no triple-word-scores left, TWL in my right hand, SOWPODS in my left…

anna at 12:58 PM in In Memoriam, Law, News, Tech · 25 comment(s) · Direct link

November 12, 2007

TimesOfIndia.com Has Advanced Adware/Malware

A web security service called ScanSafe has investigated the Times of India website (note that I’m not providing a link), and discovered that its advertising is stuffed with advanced Adware and Malware (thanks, Voiceinthehead):

Visitors to the IndiaTimes website are being bombarded by malware, some of which appear to target previously unknown vulnerabilities in Windows, a security researcher warns.

In all, the English-language Indian news site is directly or indirectly serving up at least 434 malicious files, many of which are not detected by antivirus software, according to Mary Landesman, a senior security researcher at ScanSafe. She said at least 18 different IP addresses are involved in the attack.

“The end result of the compromise is that the user, going through their normal course of activities, is subject to a really massive installation of malicious files,” she told us. “Coupled with the low detection by antivirus vendors, it does put the end user in a very vulnerable position.”

Visitors can be infected even if they have up-to-date systems and they don’t fall victim to tricks to install software or browser add-ons, she said. She urged people to avoid the site until it’s been cleaned up. (link)

A slightly more technical version of the report is at the ScanSafe website, here.

Frankly, I find it appalling that a “respectable” news agency would be using these tactics, and I won’t be linking to the TOI in any blog post unless and until I hear that this has been stopped. I also hope the report gets picked up by the general Indian news media, and TOI is called to account. This is simply not a business policy that is entered into by accident — somebody at The Times of India had to knowingly enter into agreements with these Malware vendors to begin with. (If this were a U.S. company, you can bet there would be a class-action lawsuit by users forced to waste time and money cleaning up their computers.)

One qualification: I’m a little unsure about how much of a danger this really is to people who are running Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, or computers with good spyware protection — ScanSafe may be magnifying the danger a little to drum up business.

That said, there are still plenty of people out there who are running Windows XP without the SP2 upgrade, who are especially vulnerable. One such person was me, until recently, and it became an issue when my mother-in-law was using our old desktop a bit when she was staying with us a few months ago. She likes the Indian news sites, and one day I came home to find that the old desktop was essentially rendered useless by a virtually unfixable malware infection [yes, even if you get into the Registry Keys and what not]. I was forced to reinstall Windows — though this time I made sure to update it to SP2, and haven’t had a problem since.

I don’t know for sure whether it came from The Times of India, or another site. Does anyone else have experience with Spyware/Adware/Malware infections from respectable Indian news websites?

amardeep at 09:24 AM in News, Tech · 47 comment(s) · Direct link

September 10, 2007

Boss, you don't have to be vellathu to be "cool".

Longtime Mutineer Desi Dude in Austin left a tip on our news tab, which immediately got my attention:

Rajnikath don’t need no Fair and Lovely…not when he has 25 CGI artists lighten his complexion frame-by-frame for a song-and-dance sequence in his latest sambaar-mix potboiler Sivaji.

Say what?! I neither know nor care about either Sivaji the fillum or its rotund ishtar, but following the link DDiA left took me here:

If you have watched Sivaji..You have observed the fair complexion of Rajinikanth in the song Oru koodai Sunlight.Everyone thought it was make-up that made Superstar Rajinikanth look like a European in that song, but the secret is something else. [Naachgaana]

Yindeed, the secret is far more time-consuming and technologically advanced than some pancake from Max Faktor.

The secret of actor Rajinikanth’s ‘white’ tan in the song sequence “Style” in the ‘Sivaji’ was not the result of any fairness cream or cosmetic touch-up but an entire year of Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) work by city-based firm Indian Arts.

The colour tone of one of the U.K.-based dancers in the background of the song was used to turn up the tone of the actor, frame by frame. The post-production for the 6,000 plus frames took a year to complete, as computer graphics artists from Indian Arts toiled to make Rajinikanth the “Vellai Tamizhan”. [The Hindu]

According to the article from our new tab, a total of 6,700 frames were painstakingly altered, to give the second-highest paid actor in Asia skin as pale as the complexion of one of his Gori backup dancers. Okay, that sentence was awkward as kundi. I’ll just quote something, instead, yes?

Once Indian Artist was selected for the job, Mr. Anand immediately knew that the CGI team would require a ‘reference’ for their work. So the team selected one of the dancers flown in from London for the song on location in Spain. So every shot that featured Rajinikanth was re-shot with the dancer and sent to Indian Arts. Mr. Anand explained that it was required because the skin tone would appear differently in indoor and outdoor shots, and a lot would depend on shadows. [The Hindu]

Apparently, this was the director’s way of “thinking big”:

Mr. Anand pointed out that it was one of the original concepts of director Shankar, who is known for his grand ways of shooting songs. “He was thinking about the way people admire Rajinikanth’s dark tan and wanted to show how the superstar would look had he been a European.”[The Hindu]

I know that colorism is a hotly-debated issue both on this site and within our community, so I promise that I am extra careful whenever I make statements about what I think is attractive and isn’t, especially after being on the receiving end of some unbelievably hurtful bullshit myself (another time, another post).

People on either end of the spectrum get nastiness hurled their way, so let’s declare decisively that this is not the special olympics of victim hood. I have uber-pasty, 100% Desi friends who get asked “And when or why did someone like you get interested in Indian culture?”, as if they were a White person, when they go to brown events. They feel just as miserable as I do when I’m told, “For a very dark girl, you’re pretty!”. This is sensitive territory and I hope that if lurking/commenting on or hating this blog inspires anything within you, it’s a sensitivity towards the colorS of our skin.

Whew, that was a lot of “fine-print”. ;) But wait— here’s more! What I’m about to state has nothing to do with either my own relatively dark, izhnerum skin OR my uncontrollable affection for hot-hot-hot chocolaty actor Sunkrish Bala, it’s from a pure place in my dil, I assure you— I think Rajnikant looks better dark, no diggity, y’all. Not that I find him attractive at any shade, but if he ever reads this post, and he asks me…

sivappaana aangal ingae silakoadi undu
karuppaana ennaik kandu kan vaiththadhenna

I will truthfully trill back, in my most high-pitched attempt at breaking the eardrums of small canines,

kadal vannam vaanin vannam karuvannam dhaanae
kadal vaanam kaanumboadhu unaikkandaen naanae

::

For those who don’t know Tamizzhrrzh:

There are a few crore fair skinned men here
Why did you pick me - a dark skinned man

The sea, The Sky, they are all dark
when I see the sky and the sea, I am reminded of you

anna at 08:05 PM in Arts and Entertainment, Film, Identity, Tech · 141 comment(s) · Direct link

September 06, 2007

A Potpourri of NPR

Not that you care, but I almost named this post A Salmagundi of NPR. However, I’m smitten with the way some Desis say “potpourri”, so I couldn’t resist the allure of that word. Oh, how do they say it? Like so: pottu-puri

None of these stories feels substantial enough to merit their own post; what does feel significant is perking up FOUR times during Morning Edition, because there are four different sepia-colored stories! That’s almost a fifth of the program! Here is what I (and undoubtedly fellow NPR-phile-Abhi, as well) heard:

1) Moray Eels are toothy!

Scientists in California have reported that Moray eels have a set of teeth within a second set of jaws, called the pharyngeal jaws, that help them capture their prey.

Once the Moray eel secures its prey with its first set of jaws, the pharyngeal jaws reach up from its throat, grabbing and pulling the prey down through its esophagus.

One of you already has an itchy-trigger-comment finger, I know it, so stop it— the brown angle is a-comin’…

Rita Mehta is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California Davis who studies the evolution of diversity in eel feeding behavior.

Like, whoa. Not only is there a female scientist to celebrate, this has to do with my alma mater as well! w00t Davis! We study Moray Eels!

“What we discovered is that the pharyngeal jaws of Moray’s have the greatest mobility of any pharyngeal jaws ever documented,” Mehta says.

There’s this legendary tri-Delt who might have something to say about that finding, but whatevs. Listen to all this and more (though it won’t include anything about the storied, jaw-less one), for yourself, here.

2) This is a story that some of you have submitted to the news tab:

Air travel has been hellish this summer. And Nepal Airlines was no exception. Technical problems with one of its two Boeing 757 planes has meant weeks of delays. Finally, the state-run airline turned to the gods for help. It sacrificed two goats to the Hindu Sky god Akash Bhairab in front of the plane, and afterward the 757 made a successful run from Kathmandu to Hong Kong.

I just quoted the entire piece, but you may find it here if you are being the desiring.

3) Turnabout is a great play for Wipro:

Indian software firm Wipro plans to open a big software design center in Atlanta. The Bangalore, India-based firm expects to hire around 500 computer programmers in the next three years. It’s a curious turnabout from the much more familiar story: a U.S. software company creating jobs in India. [NPR]

I’ve heard various versions of this news story, but until today, it didn’t occur to me that one of the biggest reasons for this is “National Security”. Now Wipro can work on U.S. Defense contracts, thanks to Amreekan yengineers who are also familiar with this country’s mores. Why that matters in a cube farm, you will have to tell me.

Finally, 4). Another recycled blurb about the “unpredictable” happening in the world of business. First, Wipro comes to America, now B-school grads are going to Infy in India! Like you didn’t already know that…

Hundreds of recent business school graduates from U.S. colleges are taking jobs in Indian companies. India’s second biggest tech company, Infosys, just hired 300 Americans to work in its Bangalore office. They say it’s more exciting than an entry level job in the slower-growing U.S. economy. And with a much lower cost of living in India, it doesn’t matter if they only earn a fraction of what they would make working for a tech company in Silicon Valley. [NPR]

Am I the only one who is starting to feel like they’re missing out, by being here instead of yonder and by yonder, I mean the country my parents left, because they thought America was all that and a bag of jackfruit chips? Anyone? Buehler?

anna at 06:40 PM in Animals, Business, News, Science, Tech · 68 comment(s) · Direct link

May 03, 2007

Do you know the importance of a skypager?

I know I should probably save this for either Sunday or Monday, when you are all hung over, exhausted, grumpy or all of the above, but I am in a playful mood and can’t resist.

According to an Anonymous Tipster on our news tab, picture number four in Fortune magazine’s online exhibit of photographs which starred in an offline exhibit in Manhattan entitled, “Fortune Celebrates India” is “awesome”. I wholeheartedly concur with that sentiment; I couldn’t stop smiling after seeing the image to the left. What a fantastic capture!

These pictures got some well-deserved (especially in this case) attention in preparation for the 10th Fortune Global Forum, which will be held in New Delhi later this fall. But none of this matters, because you are all well aware of why I have posted this picture. Wot? You have no idea? Of course you do! That’s right ladkas and ladkis…it’s time to play the “caption” game.

While the two desis in this photo aren’t as glamorous as Karan Johar and Preity Zinta, the stars of our last episode, I find them infinitely more interesting. :)

How ‘bout you? Leave your impressions of what’s going on in the comments below. If you’d rather see the rest of the photographs in the exhibit— I believe there are almost two dozen— click here. And if you want to suggest pictures for future editions of the caption game, then click here. And if you want further relief from ennui, deadlines or constipation…well, I have nothing for you to click (thanggawd!).

anna at 10:01 AM in Humor, Photos, Tech · 53 comment(s) · Direct link

April 30, 2007

Salt on wounds

I know I know that right now is the worst possible time for this story. I know we’re supposed to be all “ABCD-FOB Bhai Bhai!” but this is just too funny to pass up.

He said it, I just blogged it.

A mobile phone game … will be used to help international students cope with ‘culture shock’ and university life in Britain … The game - called C-Shock - is the brainchild of University of Portsmouth academic and games technology expert Nipan Maniar who, himself, arrived in the UK from India five years ago as an international student…
Nipan said the game would act as an ‘e-mother’ or ‘mobile mummy’ for new students. [Link]

When you hear e-mother you imagine a sort of Tamagotchi in reverse right? Something that nags you to eat enough, sleep enough, and call home? [Actually, you don’t need a mobile game for that, just a mobile]

“E-mother” could be expanded with modules to help explain how you do your own laundry, something my white American roommate could have used freshman year. (When asked how he had survived in summer camp he said he just looked clueless until a girl took pity on him and did his laundry, so he had never done a single load on his own. We mocked him mercilessly).

But no, Maniar means something else. He means the culture shock that comes from seeing people kiss in public and from seeing students (especially girls) drink:

The game’s opening scenario is a student’s first day at university in the UK. The student is shown a map of the campus and is given tasks to find specific locations. Clicking on images along the way warns the student about what to expect in terms of culture shock - for example, it is acceptable for students to drink alcohol and it is okay for people to display affection in public. [Link]

He’s basing this on his own recent experience:

He said: “I found some aspects of British culture very novel. When I first saw a couple kissing in public, for example, I was really shocked. And things such as interacting socially with others, say, in a pub, were very different to what I was used to in my own culture in India. Alcohol is banned in Gujarat where I come from, so the drinking culture came as a shock too. [Link]

Now maybe some readers might not understand why this is funny. Yes, culture shock is a very real thing and there are real cultural differences that have to be bridged. But of all the areas of cultural difference, this researcher picked the two which are to me the most minor, but also the most stereotypical.

I also don’t understand why he’s calling it e-mother rather than e-buddy, or e-yaar. This sort of cross-cultural translation is usually done by friends, not by mothers sitting in the homeland. Why not be honest about it? Have it say, after a couple of pints “Dude, you’re going to puke and I am not cleaning that up.” Or, “Mate, that’s the cheesiest line I’ve ever heard anybody use in their life. Here, watch how it’s done. This is how you chat up a bird.” Or “Stop studying so hard, and let’s go grab a curry - that’s what uni is for!”

Now that would truly be an introduction to UK uni life. As for the rest … most Indian students studying abroad have seen American movies and TV (my cousins watch far more than I do, the TV is never off!), I think they can figure it out.

ennis at 05:12 PM in Humor, Tech · 76 comment(s) · Direct link

April 04, 2007

Mega Malakar Mania-- yours for $9.95

Since a few of you mutineers adore the artfully tressed, usually well-dressed, remarkably unstressed SANJAYA, perhaps one of you would like to create an online shrine in his honor? The perfect domain is still available (but act soon!). Via UberDesi and eBay:

Do you love Sanjaya Malakar from American Idol?? In almost every broadcast Ryan say’s “Malakar Mania” and NOW YOU CAN OWN IT on the WEB!

This URL / Domain name is guaranteed to get 1000’s of hits!

This Domain name / URL has been appraised at over $2,500 due to the popularity of Sanjaya, thanks to Howard Stern and the craze called American Idol!

Bidding starts at ONLY $9.95

Have at it— and don’t say we didn’t get you anything for Christmas/Channukah/Diwali/Eid/Nowruz/Onam. ;)

anna at 02:12 PM in Short, TV, Tech · 21 comment(s) · Direct link

March 27, 2007

This will never sell in Thirunelveli

In an earlier thread, reader Sadaiyappan reminds us of the reverence with which many cultures in India regard paper and books:

Ok, I’m a tamil. Tamils were raised to respect paper because you get education through paper and all legal documents are of paper, if my foot accidentally touches a paper, I must touch the paper with my hands and then touch my eyes much like I am praying / being blessed. So we are not supposed to use paper to wipe our ass because it is disrespectfull to the paper… [Link]

Sheep poo paper, complete with flecks!

Here’s a question though - how would traditional desis deal with paper made from animal dung?

The Elephant Poo Poo Paper company makes stationery and related goods out of dried, odorless elephant shit:

We can make about 25 large sheets of paper from a single piece (or turd) of elephant poo poo!!! That translates into about 10 standard sized journals including the front and back covers! Neat, huh!?!?!?… [Link]

There is also paper made from Moose Droppings (site in Swedish), Sheep Droppings, and even Panda droppings. Yeah, I can’t see this going over in India at all …

ennis at 09:12 AM in Humor, Tech · 52 comment(s) · Direct link

March 26, 2007

That’s no way to make a geek

It’s no secret that Indian parents tend to meddle play more of an active role in their children’s lives than do American ones. Nor does this end when kids go away to University. Still, I was surprised to see how seriously even the IIT schools take their role “in loco parents” (which is Latin for “as crazy overbearing parents”).

The authorities in India’s premier engineering institute, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Bombay (Mumbai), have cut off internet access to students in hostels at night. They feel that 24-hour internet access is hampering students’ academic performance and overall personality development… “they preferred to sit in their rooms and surf the net rather than interact with their mates. Academics are of primary importance for us but we also want our students to have a well-rounded personality…” [Link]

Helloooo? Who are they kidding - it’s a geek factory and proud of it. If students wanted a well rounded personality, they wouldn’t be at IIT, they’d be out partying and enjoying the Bombay nightlife. Amazingly, they’re not even the first IIT to do this either, IIT Madras cuts off net access for a shorter period of time, from 1 AM to 5AM.

What’s it really about? Well, in part I think it’s about pr0n:

The dean of students affairs, Prakash Gopalan, said one only had to look at the hard drive of any of the students’ computers to see that bad content dominated over good. “In the end, this is the Indian taxpayers’ money as well as the IIT’s network and we have an obligation to ensure that it is not misused,” he said. [Link]

And in part it’s about exerting authority and making students show up to lecture:

… they were beginning to see a drop in attendance during morning lectures … “In the morning the students would not be fresh and attentive” … “It is working well for us now,” he said, “From personal experience I can tell you that I have two morning lectures beginning at 0800 and attendance is always 95%…” [Link]

Quite frankly, it’s absurd. If you’re training engineers, you want them to be able to work all night on their projects, and they need the internet to do so. This is like saying that you’re turning off electricity at night so that students don’t stay up all night studying, or worse yet, reading trashy novels. If you want students to show up for morning lectures, make them worth attending, and make the exams depend on in-class material. Otherwise trust your students to act like adults.

Yes, I know that few hostels in India give students all night internet access, and that in India it’s a privilege and not a right, but still they’re being treated like children. Amusingly though, they’re being treated in a way similar to Bill Gates’ children:

Bill Gates limits the amount of “screen time” for his kids. Not including homework requirements, he limits the time that his children can spend watching TV or using the computer. For example, his eldest daughter is only allowed 45 minutes of time on weekdays, and 60 on weekends. [Link]

Still, given that Gates’ oldest child is 11 years old now, and that these kids will never have to work a day in their lives, it’s appalling to me that multiple IIT campuses are acting the same way.

ennis at 12:02 AM in Business, Tech · 65 comment(s) · Direct link

November 15, 2006

A Cyber Farewell

It is with great relief and extreme sadness that I leave the mutiny today ending the sequel to my Mutiny-Wallah gig. I think there may have been a way to bribe the head macacas to hang around the bunker blogging some more, but my lawyer and I have decided against it. I came back on board to Sepia Mutiny months ago with the expectation of blogging on the 2006 elections and am leaving today having spent more time researching cyber law than should be legal (bad pun, I know). You didn't think I was going to leave without sharing some of the research I dug up, now would you?

1) It is a misdemeanor in the state of California to be sent multiple e-mails after you sent one that said stop contacting me, even if the perpetrator is in another state (check to see what your state's laws are). My advice: never block or delete e-mails until you've accumulated enough evidence, never respond to the e-mails except for a one liner that says 'stop contacting me' and file a report with the police immediately.

2) Those IP addresses are a tricky thing -- they are often anonymous to protect the bloggers and commenters. But IP addresses can be tracked with a court order, and sites like MySpace, Friendster, or Blogspot have a wealth of IP information that they have to give to the police if given a court order, especially if the perpetrator used those sites to contact you. Also, if you do blog, get a sitemeter, and monitor those IP addresses religiously.

3) If you Flickr, photolog, whatever -- copyright your pictures. According to blog laws, sites such as Brown People can post your pictures up legally as long as they link to the source. If you copyright your pictures, they are not allowed to take your image. The laws around image copyright infringement are pretty harsh (known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act), and the Google law team is standing by to make sure Blogspot users don't infringe this aspect of the law. You should copyright your blog too.

4) Save everything, take screenshots (go to File, Save page as...) of everything. In a world where the Internet can be so easily manipulated and deleted, it is important that you save things immediately. Not just saving e-mails in your inbox, but take screen shots of profiles, blogs, websites and accumulating your data. Both your lawyers and law enforcement will be pleased to see that you have evidence to back your claim.

The rest of the list continued after the jump...

5) Blog laws are just getting developed and they suck. There are more rules out there to protect the right to blog than to support cyber victims. As a future policymaker, I find it shocking that the definitions of some of the legal terminologies don't cover the realm of blogosphere. I also find cyber laws deep with misogyny considering the fierce protections against hate-crimes, liability/defamation, and violent threats, but minimal attention to sexual harrassment. This MUST change. Also, most states have cyber laws to protect only the under-18 crowd, not for adults. Luckily here in California, home to the Silicon Valley technology capital, the laws are more advanced, and the LAPD has a whole division dedicated to cyber issues.

6) Find a lawyer asap. The Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society has a legal clinic that specializes in cyber issues, and there's also the chance you can contact your local South Asian Bar Association to see if they have someone that can help you. Lawyers can write in the legalese that make service providers like Blogspot and MySpace, take down the perpetrator's sites.

7) Research. There are plenty of sites out there to help you along. To name a few, check out Working to Halt Online Abuse, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Chilling Effect, and Metrac.

8) Be anonymous in the blogosphere, when possible. Due to the civic purpose of blogging on Sepia Mutiny in conjunction with my chosen career, anonymity wasn't a choice that I had. If I could, I would have pulled an Ennis. Use search engines to monitor your name, make technocrati your best friend. Or if you have the money, use Reputation Defender.

9) Protect yourself and if possible, get a restraining order.

I hypothesize that due to the cover of anonymity provided by the internet, males are given a false sense of empowerment, much like the feeling street harassers get when whistling at girls. There is a DRASTIC difference in how males will react when I tell my tale, compared to women. I have had these types of conversations with way too many of my female blogger friends, who have had similar experiences. I wanted to share my data with you, because I know that there's always the chance that someone is seeking resources in very similar situations. I've said it often, and I'll say it again -- the Internet is an amazing organizing tool especially for the desi diaspora and SM has been amazing in being at the forefront of this. But the tight knit community provided on internet space can also be entirely risky when in the wrong hands.

+++++

I've been struggling for the past week on exactly how I wanted to close my time here in the North Dakota bunker. Unlike the last stint in April, these 4 months in this Mutiny Wallah gig confronted me with some scary shit. The other mutineers as well as myself, could never had dreamed that blogging on Sepia Mutiny could have led to what it did. I love the blogosphere, have made deep friendships through blogging, and heck, seems like we even have a 'SM gang' here in LA that I roll with. But really, how could anyone have predicted it would escalate to this?

I've always pictured myself as an accessible leader for the South Asian American community. I'm not quite sure how much of a 'leader' I am yet, but I definitely saw myself as being accessible, and have been spending many years making myself a better resource to serve the South Asian American movement. To organize my people for a voice has always been my personal mission. This Sepia Mutiny forum, as well as the act of writing for it, I've approached as an activist tool -- a way to make lofty research accessible, to make my organizing experience accessible, to contribute to the amazing desi database of the SM archives and to easily connect to an amazing virtual community. I always saw the accessibility as a benefit -- a good leader is always accessible to the people they serve -- but I never pictured the accessibility as the risk it has become. Which leads me to the questions that have been haunting me since all this began: How do I make myself an accessible resource/leader for the community, while remaining anonymous enough for safety's sake? Could I have been completely anonymous like former guest blogger TheBarmaid? Or would my research posts have lost SAA activist credibility? What do you do when the thing that keeps you sane (for me it was blogging & writing) is being used against you in the most vulnerable way? Where do I go from here and gain my sanity back?

Am I leaving? Yes. Am I disappearing? From the blogosphere, potentially yes. At least for a little bit. Will I still be writing? Yes, that is certain. I can't stop writing, it's an addiction. If it will be accessible on the internet may be another story, and likely under a pseudonym. Do I have a blog? Yes, but it will likely be shut down relatively soon. Is there some place you can read my writing in the near future? You know, I wish I had an answer, but at this point, I'm not so sure. Do I still organize? Yes, and I will continue to work for the SAA movement even if I'm not Internet-vocal about it. In what fashion yet, I'm not sure. But desi political organizing is one thing that I will always be a part of. And of course, if there's anything that I've written, you want to be on a list should I potentially write publicly again, or you simply want to keep in touch after my disappearance - you can always contact me. Just, you know, if I ask you to stop e-mailing me, I'd suggest you do.

So long Mutineers, bloggers, readers, and lurkers. I hope that you have gained something from my time blogging in the North Dakota bunkers. It's been an interesting journey. Peace, love and be safe.

taz at 12:15 AM in Blog, Issues, Law, Musings, Tech · 82 comment(s) · Direct link

October 27, 2006

Brahman Pimped My Site

An item in the November print issue of Wired drew my attention to the work of Dr. Smita Jain Narang, who has developed WebVastu, a system to design websites in balance and harmony with cosmic principles. According to the article (page 72 in the print edition), “Narang reports that on the 500 sites she’s redesigned, three-quarters received an imediate boost in traffic.” I took a look at Narang’s own site to learn more about this path-breaking technique:

We all know that the five elements that comprise the human and the world are called the “Paanchbhootas”. Similarly every website has its own “paanchbhootas” and a balance has to be maintained to achieve a desired result. Any disturbance in any of the element may result in negative consequences.

This is especially important for commercial sites, as you can imagine. Negative energies are never good for the bottom line:

For the websites to bring business the element in each quadrant must be honored and they should be kept in balance as this creates powerful and beneficial conditions, which draw business towards the owner. On the other hand, an imbalance of the elements can create negative energies, which may have an adverse effect on the websites.

Wired asked Narang, who is 30, to “diagnose one of our spiritual haunts, Slashdot.org,” and her assessment was mixed at best. It scored well for its address and graphics (good Water flow), but poorly on structure (too much Air), lead-off (inauspicious header), page length and footer, which should have been “brown, fawn or copper.”

Copperish colors must be extremely auspicious, as Narang’s own site involves white lettering bathed in a glowing, brown-yellow background that is nearly overwhelming to my bleary morning eyes. Then again, I haven’t been up since 3 AM performing austerities and contemplating the Divine. The site also lacks navigation; perhaps such tools only breed maya, and we must instead move about the site in an organic way. So should you, but if you don’t mind the spiritual shortcuts, here are a few highlights.

WebVastu takes its place in humanity’s long process of spiritual and material advancement:

Man has endeavoured to improve from time immemorial. Starting from the Stone Age to the 21st century, mankind has only improved and is keeping their step toward modernisation. But as we are becoming modern we are leaving our culture far behind and are overburdened by sorrows, unhappiness, mental tensions and what not. Thus all kinds of sufferings are taking place in the life and in order to get all the things back, we are trying to follow the path showed by our ancestors. In my book I have tried to formulate some principles for designing the websites on the fundamentals of Vastu science, so that the person can achieve the maximum benefit in totality.

I am only trying to smoothen the people business by making it more harmonious and thereby having gradual increase through websites. Destiny always prevails, but by implementing the Vastu concepts, one can enhance the business provided by websites. Therefore, it is advisable to follow Vastu to open the gates to a happy and prosperous life.

A detailed table of contents follows, leading the reader to the formulation and application of WebVastu’s principles, after, of course, studious analysis of the fundamentals:

3. A Deep Study of Internet
3.1. What is Internet?
3.2. How Internet Came into Being?
3.3. A Brief History of Internet
3.4. The Beginning

It was in the course of desiging building interiors that Narang realized that the same principles of balance and flow that apply to your home should also govern your website:

Dr. Smita Jain Narang is a science graduate from Delhi University and started her career as Interior designer after doing studies in Interiors. While practicing her career, she was equally engrossed in studying Vastu Shastra, the ancient science of direction. Being a computer wizard herself, she was keen in formulating a different science that brings the sciences of two worlds, the ancient with the modern together.

She continued her studies eventually obtaining an M.Phil and Ph.D in Vastu Shastra (I didn’t know you could do that!):

She made her seven-year flourishing practice of Interiors and Vastu consultation secondary and started her research on the new subject three years back of which this book is the result. She did her M.Phil and PhD in the same subject and extensively studied all concepts and of which arises WEBVASTU.

Long before the Wired item, her practice had earned her great recognition:

She is a renowned Vastu consultant and is a prominent author for many websites, has written hundreds of magazines articles, has introduced and promoted Vastu Shastra internationally by writing for many international magazines. She is a highly sought-after lecturer and has appeared on TV couple of times. Her major aim is to take Vastu Shastra, the science of directions to unlimited heights.

I shudder to think of what Dr. Narang would make of Sepia Mutiny. We would do well to consult her in the course of our much-rumored but as-yet embryonic redesign. I suspect we could use less Air and more Earth. I’m not sure what she’d make of the rotating banners. Perhaps they are a spiritually productive reminder that our lives are characterized by impermanence yet embedded in a stable Truth.

After all, there’s nothing new under Brahman:

The effect of the Vastu is permanent, because the Earth has been revolving round the Sun, in geo-stationary orbit for over 400 crores years creating the magnetic effect caused by the rotation.

Four hundred crores years! Now that’s what I call stability, an infrastructure that’s 99.99999% reliable. So fire those high-price Web consultants, with all their gibberish and obfuscation. Ancient wisdom has triumphed again.

siddhartha at 08:31 AM in Humor, Religion, Tech · 33 comment(s) · 3 reader(s) linked · Direct link

October 11, 2006

Online Power

I've often talked about the power of online organizing for the desi community. There have been many sites (besides our much loved Sepia Mutiny) that have attempted to faciliate this for our community; The now defunct DesiOrgs.us, the weekly profiles from The Desi Connect, and the still beta networking site Desi Page. Last month, a new site hit the inter-desi-networks, the South Asian Forum.

The South Asian Forum aims to tell the story of South Asians through the lens of its organizations and organizing work. From one-one-one interviews with community Youth Solidarity Summerorganizations to an extensive history and framework of South Asians in the U.S., this Forum hopes to capture the deep and rich history of South Asian collective action in the U.S.

In addition, the Forum brings together a collection of various resources and tools, such as an online directory of organizations and a census fact sheet, to aid those working in or interested in the South Asian community.

Through the collection of data, sharing of resources, and storytelling we can identify current and emerging issues, barriers and gaps, and develop sustainable strategies for the future. [link]

This website has a lot of potential, and is a wealth of information for anything related to the South Asian American diaspora. The website is well divided into different sections- such as the history of South Asians and South Asian organizing in the U.S., to the voices of our community with interviews and surveys that have been done, all the way to Census resources. Most importantly, at least when it comes to building networks and coalitions, is the South Asians Organizations Directory -- a database of various types of organization serving the brown community. This fabulous online resource was put together by a task force of leaders in our community.

The National South Asian Task Force is a group of local community-based organizations and individuals that work on labor, LGBT, women's and anti-violence, Youth Solidarity Summer and civil rights issues. The task force had initially come together in the winter 2002 to discuss the impact of September 11th and its accompanying policies on South Asian/immigrant communities.

[The work] culminated into the development of a documentation project that would highlight the history, work and issues as well as provide resources for and about the South Asian community and organizations. [link]

Check out the site, and tell us what you think. I think the user driven site has a lot of potential. If you work for a an organization that you feel should be in the database, you should add it in. Sites like these come and go, but it seems the ones that stick through are the ones which have the most community involvement. So get involved.

taz at 01:20 PM in Issues, Non-profits, Tech · 9 comment(s) · Direct link

July 17, 2006

The Terrorists Have Won

…because now, you can’t read Blogspot or Typepad-hosted blogs in India. That means no Barmaid, no Abhi, no MD, no Brimful, no Badmash, no Maisnon. Erstwhile Mutineer Manish has more (natch) on Ultrabrown:

For all the talk of India’s freedom and democracy, the Indian government has apparently just censored all of Blogspot and Typepad. For shame. Blogspot- and Typepad-hosted blogs are inaccessible from my Bombay ISP and many others and seem to be blocked at the Airtel Internet backbone in Delhi. Geocities is reportedly blocked as well.[link]

Sabahat Iqbal Ashraf pointed out the utter lameness of this action via the ASATA mailing list:

As I was saying all along, unenlightened Internet policies are not a Pakistani monopoly; the Indian establishment can be just as “efficient” in the matter. First it was only Pakistan blocking most blogs, now it seems the Indian establishment is getting into the act…

Apparently, terrorists are using blogs to communicate, but Ultrabrown notes that Dr Gulshan Rai, Director of the Computer Emergency Response Team—India (CERT-IN) feigned cluelessness when asked about this unwelcome development:

“Somebody must have blocked some sites. What is your problem?“…

Awesome.

I can’t improve on Manish’s response to that:

As the world’s back office, for India to blame overzealous techies would hardly be credible. It’s not yet clear which blogs the government was targeting, but the tactic of banning Blogspot is nothing less than outright repression — mimicking the tactics Pakistan used to shut down discussion of Danish cartoons critical of Islam. India is now in the august company of some of the world’s least free nations…

…because I’m too busy freaking out over the possibility he raises at the end of his post:

These repeated incidents are also a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on Web apps centralized on a small handful of domains. What’ll you do when your government blocks Gmail?

Shivam Vij has a detailed and worrisome post about his telephonic attempts to figure out what the hell is going on, here. He also has a grim sort of workaround, since not all platforms are censored equally:

Is there a moral of the story? Yes, there is. Shift to your own domain and your own hosting and most of all, to Wordpress. [link]

…or, click your ruby slippers together thrice and chant, “There’s no speech like free, there’s no speech like free, there’s no speech like…

anna at 11:54 AM in Issues, Issues, Politics, Tech · 130 comment(s) · 10 reader(s) linked · Direct link

July 07, 2006

But where is the virtual spitoon?

There is no sphere of life that is safe from the internet, not even in India. As proof, I bring you paan.com the website of Bombay’s most famous brick-and-mortar paanvala [via Amitava Kumar].

He’s probably the city’s most famous paanwala. It’s uncertain whether (as rumours suggest) he drives a Merc, but it’s clear for all the world to see that Prem Shankar Tiwari, the owner of Muchhad Paanwala paan shop on Warden Road, has his own website. It was built in 1998 by a devoted customer Vivek Bhargav. At paan.com, not only can you order paan online (a minimum order of 10 is required), you can also play a game that requires the participant to run from one end of the screen to the other to catch blobs of paan spit in a virtual bucket. [Link]

While you can order your paan online, there’s no word about whether you can spit it online once you’re done chawing it. [Whether ironically or not, right under the name of the store, the website exhorts the user to keep Bombay “clean and green”]

The website is quite amusing, and answered my burning question - why name a paan shop after facial hair?

His father Shyam Charan Tiwari established the shop thirty years ago. The shop was named Muchhad because his father Shyam Charan Tiwari had mustache so big and long that it touched his ears. And now it’s become a family tradition, all the four brothers have long mustache. [Link]

Click here to play the aforementioned game. It involves the player, holding a bucket at street level and trying to catch disgusting human head sized blobs of paan spit dropping from Bombay windows. Step aside Dante, I now know what hell looks like.

Related Posts: Tai-pan tries paan, Boing Boing discovers paan, Candy Cain

ennis at 03:40 PM in Humor, Tech · 8 comment(s) · Direct link

June 07, 2006

Computers Without Words

I have numerous jobs in addition to my writing, one of which involves working with new technology. I know it’s a stereotype to say that Indians are good with computers, but I welcome it in my case, mostly because it’s hilariously untrue. I’ve avoided technology as much as possible—I didn’t have an email address until 1996, and it’s still a crapshoot if my cell phone is working—despite coming from a family of technophiles. What they actually do to these computers, I have no idea, but despite being voted Most Likely to Spill Coke On the Keyboard Again, I find myself reasonably skilled at this new IT-oriented gig. Nature or nurture? Or dumb luck? Discuss.

But what about those who are not just computer illiterate, but actually unable to read or write? Microsoft has a plan: make computers that don’t depend on words. This March 2006 USA Today article talks about how a new breed of computers can help often-illiterate domestic servants:

Working with a local advocacy group, Microsoft has developed a prototype of a system that would connect illiterate domestic workers in India with families seeking their services. The system uses pictures, video and voice commands to tell women what jobs are available, how much the jobs pay and where they are.

Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before? For one thing:

they [the domestic workers] had trouble seeing why a computerized system for finding work was better than traditional word-of-mouth

Additionally, the computer’s images and pictures had to bridge language and cultural gaps, such as this one:

the women associated neighborhoods with landmarks rather than addresses, so an interactive map and verbal directions had to be tweaked to represent that.

Finally—the big hurdle: implementation. This CNET article discusses the difficulties poorer areas of India have getting computer literate. Apart from the most obvious issue of languages, there is problem of power:

To save power, the PCs run on car and truck batteries. Unfortunately, the batteries regularly need recharging and the public electrical power system can’t always handle the demand.

and crime:

Three weeks ago, the village transformer blew because too many people tapped into it illegally, a chronic problem here. The government refused to rebuild the transformer until the villagers promised to punish anyone who stole power.

and bad freakin’ luck:

The day after it was rebuilt, the transformer blew again.

That’s coupled by the fact that not enough rural Indians even own a computer—although, if Intel has its way, they’ll be a lot cheaper.

One option is to put up a kiosk in a community center, Toyama said.

Hmmm…there has to be a better way…but maybe it would work if it were manned by a techie-social worker type.

Check out the links…it’s an exciting project if it can be marketed properly—both for those looking for work and those looking for workers. In an ideal world, I’d want all these computers to teach literacy first, but reading a good novel is not always a priority to those struggling to feed their families. I remember what it felt like to realize that a computer was a useful tool working for me, not against me—it’s a nice feeling, and I hope these women get to have it too.

Also—check out an earlier post by Abhi…scroll down and you will see how some people are applying their tech knowledge to the illiteracy issue:

…consider a pedagogical tool, the computer-based functional literacy (CBFL) program, developed by Indian software pioneer Faqir Chand Kohli. Within a mere 8 to 10 weeks and at a cost of a mere U.S. $2 (provided a discarded computer is supplied for free), an illiterate adult using this tool can read his or her first newspaper. In the past 2 years alone, 40,000 adults from five states in India have been made literate. If CBFL is launched as the technical engine of a national literacy movement, in less than 5 years, 200 million adult illiterates can learn to read.

one can only imagine what that’s going to do to the comments section of this blog…

neeraja at 05:40 PM in Business, Non-profits, Science and Technology, Tech · 11 comment(s) · Direct link

April 11, 2006

The fanny state

Every time someone claims that there are no communists left in China, or that the Chinese economy will surpass India’s in the long term, I point out the latest example of China micro-managing its most entrepreneurial sectors. (In contrast, India tends to overregulate old sectors and jumps into new ones, which government babus comprehend dimly, only when the moral police perceive political advantage.)

The Chinese government has now inserted itself into multiplayer game design. Gamers who spend more than three hours online will be stripped of points. Gamers who spend more than five hours online will be kicked off entirely:

The government in Beijing is reported to be introducing the controls to deter people from playing for longer than three consecutive hours… The new system will impose penalties on players who spend more than three hours playing a game by reducing the abilities of their characters. Gamers who spend more than five hours will have the abilities of their in-game character severely limited. Players will be forced to take a five-hour break before they can return to a game. [Link]

… there’s the [South Korean] couple whose infant expired as they played games in an Internet cafe; there is the [South Korean] death that occurred from exhaustion; and there are even murders that have resulted from feuds begun online… [Link]

Even the U.S. may succumb, though more to tax than to nag:

In the near future, the IRS could require game developers to keep records of all the transactions that take place in virtual economies and tax players on their gains before any game currency is converted into dollars. [Link]

I actually see the wisdom in this. Maybe they can implement a one-hour cutoff on bad first dates, a two-hour cutoff on crappy TV, and a six-month term limit on despotic nanny regimes.

Personally I spend too much time in front of my PC. I look forward to the day when they send my ass a parking ticket. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’d have to park it on alternate sides of the apartment for seat-sweeping.

Related posts: The tortoise and the hare, The cost of progress, Why isn’t gold farming big in India?, BusinessHype, Fortune cookies, CIA has India surpassing Europe in 15 years, Indian companies hiring engineers in China

manish at 01:29 PM in Economics, Politics, Tech · 11 comment(s) · Direct link

April 08, 2006

Pimp my rath

A BJP leader is about to go on yet another campaign swing disguised as a yatra (Hindu pilgrimage). The tour features a rather pimped-out motorhome which the political party calls a rath (chariot). The party doesn’t even attempt to hide its appropriation of religion, but at least there’s a Batmobile factor:

The high tech rath has all sorts of conveniences for the leader of [the] opposition in Parliament, including a restroom, a toilet, wardrobe, satellite TV with LCD screen, wash basin, hydraulic lift for two persons [for campaigning from the roof], sofa set, bed, 10 floodlights, six speakers and a public address system…

… the vehicle [is] not bullet proof… [Link]

It has a hydraulic lift — imagine a politician rising up from the floor like some enraged gopher, theatrical deus ex machina or Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard. Dramatic.

The rath can’t possibly look any odder than the Popemobile:

The popemobile is an informal name for the specially designed vehicle used by the pope during public appearances… Several models have been used…

… yet another is a modified Mercedes-Benz with a small windowed “room” in the back where the Pope stands. Since the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981, the popemobile was fitted with bulletproof glass on four sides…

… it had bulletproof windows, bombproof parts and it was inspected by the Swiss guards… Past popemobiles were adapted Mercedes-Benz G-Class off-road vehicles, and current models are actually based on the ML-series of off-road vehicles sold in the United States. [Link]

Here’s how one past campaign bus looked:

manish at 07:01 AM in Religion, Tech · 30 comment(s) · Direct link

March 20, 2006

Sniff ’n scratch

A new breed of NYC subway card vending machines which can sniff trace amounts of explosives on customers’ hands is about to be tested in Baltimore.

K9 agent

Automatically scanning all subway riders is definitely the way to go, but IMO this is the wrong technical approach:

Two companies have teamed up to develop a machine that can detect whether the straphanger who just touched the start button or screen has recently handled explosives. Alerts - including a digital image of the person at the machine and the type of substance detected - can be quickly transmitted to law enforcement officials, company officials said. The device can be programmed to lock turnstiles at the station… A pilot project to test its effectiveness in a mass transit system is expected to be launched in Baltimore in the coming weeks. [Link]

The companies involved may be going this way because there are fewer card vending machines than subway turnstiles, and there’s more space inside each one to cram in sniffers. But this method so indirect, it’s like looking for a lost quarter under a streetlight instead of where you actually dropped it.

First, a terrorist smart enough to build a bomb is probably smart enough to buy a subway card from any newsstand or convenience store. Second, trace sniffing seems like it could be easily circumvented by using gloves and changing clothes (pure conjecture, this is not my field). Third, there’s a risk of false alarms from people who work with explosives-like substances, such as gardeners who use fertilizer, and those who work with explosives as part of their jobs, such as the mole-men currently digging new water tunnels in NYC.

NYC’s bag check security theater seem to have faded away after the post-7/7 hysteria, but subway cities still need to scan for actual bombs, not indirect conjectures of WMD-related program activities. Entrances and turnstiles are the right places to put these scanners, not easily-bypassed vending machines. And profiling is just as useless — based on actual empirical evidence in NYC, we’d be targeting white male software developers and Latino ex-cops:

The random bag checks were a joke, a simulation of security but nothing more. Little old ladies lined up to prove they were good citizens, while anyone smart enough to build a backpack bomb would also likely be smart enough to go to one of the stations where there weren’t any bag checks…

And what has that gotten us? Thousands of people panicking about discarded CVS bags and a whole lot of useless train delays—but nary a bona fide terrorist threat thwarted. Consider that in recent history two bombs have detonated on or near the city’s subway—and neither was planted by a Muslim extremist.

In December of 1994, an unemployed computer programmer named Edward Leary carried a homemade firebomb onto the 4 Train. The bomb prematurely detonated at Fulton Street, while Leary was holding it in his lap. Some 50 people in the car were slightly injured, and Leary (who was severely burned) is serving 96 years in prison.

In July 2004, Joseph Rodriguez, an ex-cop with problems of his own, made a small pipe bomb out of gunpowder and BBs and brought it to the Times Square Station. He was in the process of warning people away from it when it exploded. He was the only one who was injured. It’s reported that he “hadn’t been right” since 9/11, and just wanted to be a hero. [Link]

Look for the bombs, not the odors.

Related posts: The profiling myth, part 2, Muriel’s shredding, Banerjee wants bag search ban, A profile of cognitive dissonance, The profiling myth

manish at 03:24 PM in Issues, Politics, Tech · 9 comment(s) · Direct link

March 03, 2006

Bill Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars

New Internet censorship in Pakistan aimed at the Danish cartoons of Muhammed has inflicted more collateral damage than a wayward JDAM. All Google-hosted blogs have now been banned (thanks, SloganMurugan):

Pakistan telecom authorities have blocked several websites inviting people to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad… Bloggers in Pakistan became first became aware of the ban on 28 February when they were unable to access a popular blog hosting site, Blogspot. One of the blocked sites is hosted on [Google] Blogspot, which led to the blocking of all web journals hosted on the site… They say they have still been able to edit and update their blogs, but not able to read them… [Link]

… the govt. must have ordered local ISP’s to block certain websites. All the major ISP’s in Pakistan are blocking weblogs hosted at blogspot.com. [Link]

Blogger, the editing half, was spared the axe. There’s been no official announcement, although last week Pakistan’s highest court started ordering ISPs to block sites carrying the cartoons:

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the government to block internet sites displaying sacrilegious cartoons and called explanation from authorities concerned as to why these sites had not been blocked earlier… Two petitions were filed… seeking complete blockage of sites showing blasphemous depictions and… seeking registration of cases under blasphemy. [Link]

Any secular democracy’s least-favorite phrase: ‘injures religious sentiments.’ Disheartened Pakistani bloggers are blaming bureaucratic ineptness and going around the problem via proxies. With respect to freedom of speech, Pakistan is not China:

Pakistani bloggers agree the blocking of Blogspot cannot be intentional… [Link]

It’s not the Pakistan government’s first attempt at censorship:

Certain Indian weblogs have been banned for some months now… [Link]

A Karachi blogger talks about the ineffective Bollywood blockade:

Bollywood movies have more than 90% of the Pakistan market. Some things, like banning movies, are far beyond the reach of [government], even a dictatorship… the official reason is that allowing Indian films will destroy Pakistani cinema. [Government] policies achieved that goal a long time ago, so no one really knows why the ban still exists. The old chestnuts about morality, ethics, hate for they neighbour, Islam, loss of advertising revenues… are all trotted out depending on the occasion…

Sources said that approval of ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ will come soon as Musharraf… [checks for] Satanic verses and black magic — which is commonly used to ensnare… naïve Pakistani viewers… [Link]

The double-super-secret ban reminds me of Bill Clinton’s Pakistan trip, in and out in less than six hours on an unmarked plane. Silent but deadly, commando-style.

Global Voices has the roundup.

Related posts: ‘The Internet has crashed’, The Danish cartoon controversy

manish at 05:15 PM in Film, Politics, Tech · 5 comment(s) · 1 reader(s) linked · Direct link

February 04, 2006

How to befriend a vegetarian

This anecdote about Google cofounder Sergey Brin is part of a startup PR launch, but it’s interesting. I wonder what the dare was. ‘I cook, you eat’ doesn’t sound like a very interesting bet:

The victim

[Anand] Rajaraman and Harinarayan were co-founders of Junglee, an early Web database company… In 1994, Rajaraman proudly told Brin he’d acquired a new computer with the latest version of Microsoft Windows. Brin… went over to Rajaraman’s apartment and installed Linux… on his computer…

Brin even took on Rajaraman’s practice of eating vegetarian, a family tradition. One evening, Brin went over to Rajaraman’s apartment, baked a fish in his oven, and served it to him with some lemon. Rajaraman ate it. [Link]

Tamarind once served me the lamb version of the paneer dish I ordered, two large, flat white squares. I downed the whole thing thinking it was the worst paneer I’d ever had and didn’t catch on until I saw the bill. Gross.

By the way, your bagels contain an extract from human hair and chicken feathers, your milk contains cattle hormones and pus, your beer was clarified with fish extract, your miso soup may contain fish broth and your Kiwi Strawberry Snapple is colored with a dye from ground beetles. Perfect recycling. I see some aren’t taking this meatitude lying down. Bon appetit!

manish at 02:15 AM in Business, Food, Tech · 39 comment(s) · 1 reader(s) linked · Direct link

December 24, 2005

Not even a mouse

‘Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a mouse…

All along, I thought desis were good at forming cliques. Actually, it turns out they’re good at click farming — hiring people to click ads on your own Web site to earn pay-per-click payments fraudulently.

The Jan. 2006 issue of Wired mentions this widely-disseminated ToI scare story from last year:

With her baby on her lap, Maya Sharma (name changed) gets down to work every evening from her eighth-floor flat at Vasant Vihar [in New Delhi]. Maya’s job is to click on online advertisements. She doesn’t care about the ads, but diligently keeps count — it’s $0.18 to $0.25 per click.

A growing number of housewives, college graduates, and even working professionals across metropolitan cities are rushing to click paid Internet ads to make $100 to $200 (up to Rs 9,000) per month… “It’s boring, but it is extra money for a couple of hours of clicking weblinks every day…” [Link]

Because search engines make their money whether the clicks are from legitimate customers or from scammers, they are only weakly incentivized to prevent the fraud. Those being ripped off: the small businesses who advertise.

Clicks are bought to boost number of hits for web ads or online advertisers who are not tracking user location. [Link]

Users are careful to avoid triggering anti-fraud algorithms by not clicking too often:

“I have no interest in what appears when clicking an ad. I care only whether to pause 60 seconds or 90 seconds, as money is credited if you stay online for a fixed time,” says another user. [Link]

Similarly, spammers are using image captcha farms in India — hiring people to enter the anti-spam picture codes which Web sites require to prove that you’re not a spammer.

Against this backdrop of outright theft, gold farming starts looking legitimate.

Related posts: Why isn’t gold farming big in India?, With a little help from my friends

manish at 01:58 AM in Business, Tech · 3 comment(s) · Direct link

December 13, 2005

Why isn’t gold farming big in India?

Maybe get a blister on your little finger,
Maybe get a blister on your thumb
That ain’t workin’, that’s the way to do it

For some time I’ve been keeping an eye on gold farming, the business of paying kids to build up loot in online games and then selling it for real money to Western marks. Although some entrepreneurs use automated scripts, most use humans: 100,000 kids in China, South Korea and Indonesia supposedly work in the industry. In a recent crossover into real life, someone in Shanghai murdered his buddy for selling a virtual sword he wasn’t supposed to sell.

Most of the players here actually make less than a quarter an hour, but they often get room, board and free computer game play in these “virtual sweatshops…” “They say that in some of these popular games, 40 or 50 percent of the players are actually Chinese farmers.” [Link]

The economist Edward Castranova has calculated that if you took the real dollars spent within EverQuest as an index, its game world… would be the 77th richest nation on the planet, while annual player earnings [per capita] surpass those of citizens of Bulgaria, India or China. [Link]

Most stories I’ve read treat gold farming as a curiosity, which is a bit of a paradox. One, journalists think of valuable property in games as an oxymoron, even though they earn their own living from intellectual property. Two, many journalists are non-technical, even though their work is often published online:

The idea that sums of money are being paid for what appears to be an unproductive economic activity will cheese off traditionalists who believe that unless a job is located in an industrial factory, it serves no good purpose. [Link]

As long as gold farming doesn’t violate a game’s terms of service, I’m all for it. Even gaming sweatshops, 24/7 Internet cafés where kids sleep and work in shifts, are easier work than your average rug or shoe factory and no more repetitive:

“For 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, my colleagues and I are killing monsters,” said a 23-year-old gamer who works here in this makeshift factory and goes by the online code name Wandering. “I make about $250 a month, which is pretty good compared with the other jobs I’ve had. And I can play games all day.” [Link]

Some players complain that being able to buy your way to the top violates the spirit of a game, but if you want to bypass 100 hours of online drudgery by paying some kid thirty bucks, that’s your business:

Lineage 2

Please go read… about the Air Force jocks piloting arned Predator unmanned planes over Iraq from comfy armchairs at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada… then consider the possibilities for future techno-mercenaries. [Link]

But in all the stories I’ve read on this industry, I’ve never seen a mention of gold farmers in India. This is a country which has managed to get paid every time a parking ticket is issued in New York City. So why isn’t gold farming big in India? You’d think geek sweatshops would be right up their alley. As Russell Peters once joked, ‘My people were not built for physical labor… Accounting, yes.’

An obvious factor is the lack of broadband relative to East Asia:

“… the number of Internet users in India remains relatively low, but it has soared 54 percent over the past year to 38.5 million, and will jump to 100 million in two years… The number of cybercafes in cities and towns across India jumped from 18,000 in 2001 to 105,350 this year… In comparison, China already has 100 million Internet users… [Link]

And because more Indians speak passable English, call centers pay better than gaming. But these aren’t satisfying answers. Here’s a silly rhetorical question: are the Chinese intrinsically geekier than Indians?

manish at 03:50 PM in Economics, Tech · 22 comment(s) · Direct link

November 29, 2005

Don’t F#ck with my website!