munimkazia.com

This blog has been relocated to munimkazia.com. Since I got my domain name and hosting together, I have not pointed my domain name here. I will configure a redirect soon. In the mean time: munimkazia.com

This blog has been relocated to munimkazia.com. Since I got my domain name and hosting together, I have not pointed my domain name here. I will configure a redirect soon. In the mean time: munimkazia.com

This blog has been relocated to munimkazia.com. Since I got my domain name and hosting together, I have not pointed my domain name here. I will configure a redirect soon. In the mean time: munimkazia.com

The future is not very bright. Our freedom is at stake, and it is being held by the balls by the very people who are the supposed to be the protectors of freedom: technologists and government.
I always thought technology was always supposed to be a means of giving us more freedom. But in today’s world of TPMs, DRM, ebook readers which don’t allow you to listen to the book being read or doesn’t allow you to import any PDFs you want, phones which don’t allow you to install the applications you want or use the service providers you want, technology which doesn’t allow you to move your music and movies around, email service providers that “read” your email to show related ads, and social networks that claim all your data, I find it really hard to hold on to this view.

Soon, you won’t be able to install the applications you want on your computer. A TPM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module) will be inbuilt on each computer to invade your privacy. Corporations will own your photos and decide if you can publish it elsewhere or print it. Who knows, you won’t able to listen to the music you want to, watch the movies you want to, or read the books you want to. It will be in the hands of the manufacturers of your device. Severe licenses will restrict how you use every bit of your computer. Canadian ISP’s are out there openly opposing net neutrality and saying we need “protection” rather than freedom.

These corporations run for making a profit and to extract every penny out of you. So atleast these acts can be understood, if not justified. Its the governments and political bodies who are failing in their basic duty.

If things don’t improve here in India, I am sure that in the near future: I won’t be allowed to make friends or date the people of other communities, I won’t be allowed to drink what I want, I won’t be allowed to go out and enjoy in the nights, I won’t be allowed to hold a live rock concert or attend one, I won’t be allowed to hang out in malls, I won’t be allowed to openly criticize any political body on a blog or internet community, girls won’t be allowed to walk in public wearing jeans or party, I won’t be allowed to be affectionate to my loved ones in public, and what not!

And this is in what is supposedly the “largest democracy in the world”. Not in any extremist nation ruled by so called “fundamental” religious leaders, not in any communist nation which actively resists freedom of speech and expression. Largest democracy my ass.

If you are not an Indian and all this seems too crazy to believe, everything I mentioned here is actually based on events which occured in the past month or two and what political bodies here actively resist and plan to shut down.

And to top it all, the BJP conducts an anti-terrorism rally for students in Bangalore yesterday. Believe it or not, students and teachers of Bangalore University who have 100% attendance in college HAD TO COMPULSORILY ATTEND THE EVENT! (source: TOI on 28th February) Advani gives us crap and says “attacking women is not a part of our culture”. This, when there have been repeated attacks on women in Bangalore for the past few days and police have done nothing about it. And lets not forget our great Muthalik and his Ram Sena.

Its time to stand up and act, if we want our country to live up to the title of “the largest democracy in the world”, and to openly promote open-source and libre software and philosophy in technology.

Okay.. I am back. There is no new domain name and I haven’t posted anything here like I promised. Big shit.. It’s not like I am getting hordes of hits per day.. but if you happened to be one of the few who cared to check back, I suggest you start using an RSS reader and subscribe to this blog!

Hmm.. So. There will be a few changes from my regular blog posts from now on.. and a few changes about me that you should know, if you happen to know me outside the Inter-tubes. You can call them new year resolutions, although one doesn’t need a year to pass by to make changes!

• All posts related to programming, technology and other potentially boring topics will be clearly categorized and tagged, so that they don’t disturb the general audience.
• I won’t write a lot about general current issues, except when its something I feel very strongly about.
• I won’t write useless posts to get blog hits.
• I won’t advertise here. Never.
• I will mostly write about me and my experiences. Call me self obsessed. But hey, its my blog.
• I will write about potentially disturbing and controversial topics, including NSFW/NSFC topics.
• I may post more photography from now on.

And my “New Year” resolutions:

• I am going to stop being a “people pleaser”. Enough pushing around!
• I am going to be more polite to my friends: the people who don’t try to push me around.
• I am going to study more. No, I am not joking. Bitching about the system never works. I am going to get my act together and take college seriously.
• I am going to work more. And it feels nice to submit work to my clients on time. They appreciate it!
• The code will be more readable and maintainable.
• I will use my phone for calling and SMS, rather than twitter and facebook on the move. People appreciate it when you call them up once in a while, I have noticed. A postpaid connection might help in this regard.
• I reduce my twitter activity, if not completely stop using it. Ditto for facebook. If you know only know me online, tough noogies. Try email or giving me a ring. Commenting on this blog is not a bad idea too. Twitter texts me all the DMs so that will work too.
• I am going to stop hiding information and revealing false or incomplete information. The truth may be bitter. But it won’t be hidden. At the same time, I won’t simply start blabbing about things which you may not be interested in, and that may include things about me.
• I am going to stop acting like a sociopath and start communicating with everyone around me. No one is perfect. People make mistakes, and so do I. That shouldn’t make me into an introvert.
• I am going to take a genuine interest in the people and events around me. Sort of related to the above point, but deserves a separate bullet.
• Another kinda related point: I am not going to let a few people get me down if they don’t seem to approve of me. I shall introspect if this becomes a trend, but otherwise, I won’t give a rat’s ass.
• I am going to stop blowing cash where complete enjoyment/satisfaction is not the outcome. And spend it on avenues where they are the outcome!
• Going back to techie stuff: I am going to use, promote and contribute to open source software. This is my original new year resolution which I decided minutes before 12:00 AM and I am proud to say I have stuck to using Ubuntu and Fedora, except when I wanted to play GTA 4, which only runs on Windows Vista. I still haven’t decided which open source project I should devote my time to. Symfony is a natural choice because I am deeply involved in web development and I happen to love Symfony. Other options are gnash and gnome do plugin development. Please feel free to suggest any other project.

If you happen to know me and think there are areas which I need to improve on or if you simply have some suggestions which I can add to either of these lists, please feel free to comment here and troll this topic. I promise that no comments (except spam ads) will be deleted.

Okay.. so I decided to start blogging again!
I will get to you guys after I have configured and set up a nice theme and a few plugins.
Since this is a “personal website” rather than simply a blog, I have to write some static pages too.
And get a domain name.. Most likely munimkazia.com
And get back to studies for the exam later today!

By the way, Wordpress 2.7  simply rocks!