5 Star politics

It is a well known fact in my friends circle that I am an ardent Congress supporter. I have been a fan of the party even during the lean period of the late 90's. Now, I am really proud to say that the party is moving from strength to strength. This is very evident from the fact that the party has decided to ask two of its ministers to move out of 5 star accommodation. How does it become a great thing? Its true that other parties such as BJP are facing deep organisation issues while the Congress can focus on developmental issues. But beyond that, I believe that this was a strategic move and a signal to the members of the government and the senior bureaucracy as a whole - that they need to be the role models for the entire nation. It also sends out the message that this government is damn serious about its intentions. A lot of commentators do say that this is a non-issue. But I believe that this is really good PR. This is bolstering party's image with out causing harm to any body. What's wrong in them going for good accommodation, as long as the burden is not on the exchequer? Also, please note that both the ministers who were apparently reprimanded belonged to the INC, and of the same ministry. Sorry, too much of Steven Lewitt and Malcolm Gladwell there.

I hope that this effort by the party is for real and for ever.

Just Another Blawg entry

It has been a long time... It has been 100 week days since my last blog entry. Yeah, I counted that. I double checked the same using Wolfram Alpha. Since, Google announced their OS, Microsoft intoduced Bing and my roomies are getting married.

In the mean time, I had my first ever promotion. Now I am the IBM's CEO...what? that is not true? just another senior engineer? My manager was talking to me as though he just gave me the CEO post. Hmm.. Still, I will take it. But not happy with the hike. Screw the recession.

Swine flu is rampant(?) even in Bangalore. Masked citizens every where. Yet to find a proper mask. It seems the N95 mask(mask? really?) is not effective against the virus. "Usage of these masks is like protecting against rain with an umbrella made of mosquito net."

A curious case for Biometric Security

The concept of user name and password may have been introduced to protect the personal information that belongs to an individual human being from the rest of humanity. So it is supposed to be a useful concept. Except that, these days it has become a rather irritating one. The sheer number of the user name and passwords is the problem. I guess I have a minimum of 15 user name password pairs. The pain of remembering them, and the procedures that you have to follow if you forget them... Aaargh!

Let me try listing the names of user id password pairs I have. Please note that these are the ones that I regularly use.

Official

1. The IBM intranet uid/password

2. The lotus notes uid/password

3. The uid/password of the client network that I work for from IBM

Personal

1. Google account uid/password

2. Yahoo account uid/password

3. MoneyControl.com uid/password

4. Cricinfo.com uid/password

5. facebook.com uid/password

6. linkedin.com uid/password

Banking/Finance

1. ICICI Bank account uid/password(2 accounts with different uid/pwds)

3. Citibank account uid/password

4. SBT account uid/password

5. SBI account uid/password

6. ICICI Direct account uid/password

7. ICICI credit card account uid/password

8. BSNL online bill pay uid/pwd

9. ICICI Prudential account uid/password

10. LIC account uid/password

11. MoneyCenter account uid/password

That makes it 20, at the first glance. But it gets even tougher. Remember that for each of these bank accounts, we need to remember their ATM card pins. That makes it +7. Besides, some banks have the concept of separate account and transaction passwords - ICICI is one. So, that makes it 29. This number still isn't a complete one. Because, at work, we will need uid/pwds to various systems such as databases and servers. But thankfully, we can write them down. Still, they keep changing, and we have to keep track of them.

I have mentioned this problem of mine to a lot of people. Amazingly, most of them don't find this to be that much of a problem. Some suggest me that I should use a single password, or a couple of passwords and toggle between them. Some others suggest that I keep a single string fixed and append another string which is a variable one. To me, I have tried both and failed in the long term. The problem is that, some sites ask have their own password policy - that the password should be changed once in every few weeks. This has caused a lot of trouble to me, as you won't try to change all the other passwords. Finally, it becomes a giant password chaos.

In order to solve this, I created a Yodlee MoneyCenter account. I was hoping that this will help me remember my uid/pwds. But I ended up having an extra uid/pwd. Now, I really am out of options. I have already forgotten the passwords of my yahoo, SBI, SBT and credit card accounts.

I really want all the systems to have bio-metric identification facility. I want to use my finger prints, my voice pattern and my eye pattern to be able to do the entire authentication for me. But when is that going to happen? Till then, it's hard time.

P.S. : In the last post, I had blamed the commies for all that is wrong. Mrs. CPM (or should I call her the true representative of the working class!!) told us in a TV show that "The Left has done all the good things that the UPA government did and all the bad things were done by Congress". Yeah, right. Atleast you should take the blame for the fact that you have driven industry out of Kerala, and that her jobless people are here in Bangalore trying to steal my cell phone.

The Great Conspiracy

Friday was a holiday in Bangalore, all thanks to Ugadi - the local New Year. On thursday, my friends and I planned a Wonderla trip to great detail. We planned to start at 8.30 AM on Friday and reach Wondela by 11 AM. But none of that materialised as every body slept till 10 AM, and the Wonderla trip became an M.G.Road visit later that day. Our quest for the 'Colors of India' was fairly successful at Garuda mall. But, all the talk about office politics, life, cricket and election was even more wonderful. As usual, our managers, marriage, IPL and our own favourite political parties were the most active topics. Exhausted, we returned and had food from Kairali Resaturant near Forum mall. Mallus are always at war with chicken, mutton and Fish. We contributed towards increasing the head count of chicken by one each. Satisfied, we left the scene. I had to travel alone as all other guys are staying near electronics city and I am staying in Taverekere. Little did I know about the conspiracy that had been plotted against me!!

I started walking towards Taverekere road. To get rid of the boredom of walking alone, I was talking over the mobile phone to my cousin. This dude was learning Java. Even though he don't need my help, I always try to help him. May be, my ego gets its satisfaction that way. At that time, I was telling him what 'Abstraction really is'. I was explaining the concept in detail citing the Black Box paradigm (huh!). After all, I had all the time till I reach home. Suddenly some guy patted me on the head from behind. At first, I thought that some of my roomies were teasing me. With in seconds, I came to my senses and realised that it was a robbery attempt. There were two guys in a Yamaha RX 100, trying to steal my mobile phone. Fortunately (for me), he could just scratch my hand. There was a small bleeding. But my mobile escaped the kidnapping attempt, unhurt. In hindsight, I realised that it was a planned attempt. Those guys were following us from the restaurant. Since I was alone, I was targetted. When those guys approached me, they didn't even reduced the speed and just sped away after the attempt. All I could see was the first line of the number plate. It was KL-09. Bloody mallus!

The next day, we attempted to locate the bike by roaming around the whole area. But, of little use. I think I know now, who those guys are. They are the comrades revolting against a 'bourgeois' who works for the capitalist America. Aargh....the commies, they are to blame for every thing wrong.

Et Tu Aravind?

You too dude?... this was the first reaction of my close friend when I told him that I am starting my blog. But later, he started encouraging me because he no longer has to pretend that he listens to my ideas. So, here I am stealing your time.

But then, why now? These days, I have plenty of time to think; thanks to the long commute to office. Not that I didn't have any time earlier. It's just that I ended up sleeping more. Also, some sort of amnesia has gripped me. I tend to forget even what I did the previous week. If I scribble down some stuff here, I should be able to come back here next year and realise what a stupid I was during the previous year.

I don't want to spoil your mood by writing about some bad experience. I would rather focus on the brighter side of the same thing. This is a promise to myself.