quickgun_kc

Reference: Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar’s open letter to Nandan Nilekani in the Times of India, July 5, 2009 (http://epaper.timesofindia.com - Follow instructions there. Go to Bangalore edition of Sunday Times, July 5, 2009. Choose the 'All that matters' section).

Dear Nandan Nilekani,

This is one techie to another.

After reading Swaminathan’s open letter to you, I am beginning to feel sorry for the unholy mess you have bravely cast yourself into. Ofcourse, some of Swami’s concerns cannot and should not be addressed by you (an example being whether the ruling parties of West Bengal and Assam will actually use the smartcards to check illegal immigration – there is nothing you can do about that). At the same time, some of his other concerns certainly apply to your scope of work.

I have some suggestions . I know you are much more capable and experienced, and can think up all the necessary solutions. Besides, I am no expert in these matters, and some of my suggestions may be unworkable. But I believe a bit of open brainstorming can help.

1) Please run your outfit in private industry style. It should be performance driven, with NO job guarantees. At the same time, remuneration should be commensurate with private industry standards, with metrics-driven bonuses. If the GoI insists that your organization must follow Government employment rules with cushy job guarantees and Government pay scales, ask them to go take a hike, and return back to Infy.

2) Link multiple biometric data (retina, voice print, thumb print) as well as facial and full length photographs to a single smart card. This might increase the cost a bit, but it will also make it a bit more foolproof. The costs can be reduced by high-volume orders for biometric equipment, and intelligent tailoring of the data acquisition process.

3) Use two data entry operators to process entries for a single card. If one of the operators makes a mistake, the system can raise a red flag. This will increase accuracy, and reduce voter-ID style goof-ups.

4) The data base should also maintain records of the officials involved in issuing a given smart card. Post-issuance, the system should randomly choose some citizen IDs for a double check process. Vigilance officers will go out into the field do a check. If the biometric data/photographs associated with a smart card is found to be false, it will be followed up by initiation of punitive action against the issuing officials, and a bonus for the vigilance officers. I know this is beginning to sound somewhat draconian. But I am not talking about falsification of other records like address, etc, where the poor officials may sometimes get fooled by the applicant. I am talking about hard biometric data and photographs which are equipment-acquired. Also, error rates for biometric methods (FAR, FMR, EER,etc) should be taken into consideration here. Since a combination of biometric methods will be used, it will be easier to handle individual error rates.

5) Privacy: Please ensure very strict measures are adopted for protecting the privacy of the biometric data. If possible, use cancellable biometrics. This involves storing a controlled distortion of the biometric data. Even if it is leaked, it can be replaced. Refer to the following: N. K. Ratha, J. H. Connell, and R. M. Bolle, "Enhancing security and privacy in biometrics-based authentication systems," IBM systems Journal, vol. 40, pp. 614-634, 2001.

New edit: I am not suggesting storing the biometric data on the smart card. That would be far too dangerous. Rather, just some primary information like ID number, facial photograph, database linker tokens,etc should be stored on the smart card.

Traffic in Bangalore can be a huge mess on most days. It is tiring to commute to office if you are doing the driving. I prefer my 2-wheeler on most days, because I can get to office much faster (not to mention the huge savings on petrol). However, due to the rains, I am being confined to my car now-a-days. In the good ol’ days when I didn’t have to carry my laptop, I wouldn’t care. It tends to rain only in the evenings in Bangalore. I would slip on a raincoat, get home a little wet, get scolded by the wifey, and that would be all.

Well, now that I am ‘confined’, I have discovered a new way to pep up the drive – Podcasts!! I download free podcasts onto my iPod Nano, hook the Nano to my car’s audio system via the aux-in, and listen to the podcasts all the way. (I pause the podcast when traffic moves fast – safety first).

My favorites are ’60 Minutes’ from CBS News, ‘The Economist’, and ‘How Stuff Works’. ’60 minutes’ is particularly good – well researched, focused, and intelligent. No wonder it is one of the most respected investigative TV news-magazines in the US.

I am also considering fitting a coffee holder for my car. It would be nice to sip on a cuppa at red-lights while listening to this stuff. Highly stimulating.

I guess I have made my peace with Bangalore’s roads :)

Here is an email I sent to one of my wife’s colleagues:

Hi,

You had requested for a recommended reading list quite some time back. I am sorry I couldn’t send this earlier.

Thanks to job pressures, I am no longer the avid reader I once was. I can manage hardly a couple of good books in half a year. I am sure I have missed out on some really good titles in recent times. I guess the best places to get recommendations would be book clubs such as the Bangalore Book Club (http://bookclub.meetup.com/610/). Anyway, I’ll name a few titles which I liked. I’ll start off with a small list, and send in more when I get the time. Note: I won’t be focusing on hard-core stuff that wins Nobel prizes. I’ve attempted such books, but find that they take too much of commitment and sometimes tend to be depressing! I’ll recommend lighter (though not trivial) stuff. I admit that a lot of my reading was pulp fiction like John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, etc, just to pass my time. I won’t touch upon these. I’ll focus on more meaningful light reading instead.

I won’t be providing a review for the books, except a couple of lines. I’m sure you will find good, detailed reviews on the Internet. The same goes for other information such as Publishers, ISBN number, etc.

So here goes:

1) ‘India after Gandhi’ by Ramachandra Guha.
Category: Non-fiction, History
A magisterial work on the history of India after Independence. I found it very masterly, informative and entertaining.

2) 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' by Stephen R. Covey.
Category: Non-fiction, Self-Help
A great book which teaches you how to set your priorities right and live a good, meaningful life. (But the author admits that it is difficult to apply all the principles taught. Besides, my wife will strongly disagree if I attempt to claim that I have applied any of the principles myself :) ).

3) 'Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything' by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
Category: Non-fiction, Alternative Economics
A very intelligent and entertaining book which uses practical logic to dissect some seemingly mundane situations and reveal fascinating insights. Economics and mathematics applied in a totally freaky way. The best part was the dissection of Sumo Wrestling match results in Japan: The author analyzed the results to prove that there is a very high probability that the matches were fixed. You will gasp in amazement at the brilliant and cheeky analysis.

[The next one was not included in the email]
4) "On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors: John Z. DeLorean's Look Inside the Automotive Giant " by John Z. DeLorean and J. Patrick Wright
Category: Non-Fiction, Business
An insider account of the corruption and nepotism prevalent in General Motors in the 1970s. A very good book on how not to do business. This one has pizzazz!

5) 'The Complete Yes Minister' and 'The Complete Yes Prime Minister' by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay.
Category: Fiction, Political Satire
Very entertaining books about how a Minister has to deal with his bureaucrats. Though they are set in Great Britain, they could apply equally well to India.

6) ‘The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand
Category: Fiction, Philosophy
It advocates the philosophy of objectivism. I don’t agree with the philosophy, but it is interesting to get insights. A word of warning: This book is a bit of a heavy read. Attempt it only if you have the time and the inclination.

7) ‘The Company: A Novel of the CIA’ by Robert Littell
Category: Fiction, Spy wars
A very engrossing book on, you guessed it, the CIA-KGB wars. Read it even if you feel you have had enough of those spy wars. It is epic in nature. (And no, I wouldn’t call it pulp fiction).

I have also heard a lot of good things about ‘The Google Story’ by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed. I intend to read it as soon as I get the time.

Happy reading!

One of my colleagues at Mistral is trying to convert me from the Church of vim to the Church of emacs. Am finding that my ten fingers are not enough. I need my ten toes too to use this OS...err editor.

Here is a Gmail UI bug I found. It is minor, but such bugs should not occur in decently written code. I have reported it to Google. For the Yahoo folks on LJ- God gives us little pleasures everyday. Here is your little pleasure for the day :-)

Summary: If a large number of conversations are present under a filter/inbox, and all are selected, then when I try to 'deselect' one conversation, all of them get deselected.

Why it is bad: Obviously, I might want to exclude some conversations from the action I wish to perform on all the others.

Details:
OS: Linux (Fedora Core 5 distribution)
Browser: Firefox v1.5.0.1
Steps to reproduce:
1) Ensure label has lots of conversations, so that not all conversations can be seen in one page.
2) Click Select 'All'
3) You will get a message that goes something like:
All 50 conversations on this page are selected. Select all 205 conversations in "blug-tech"
4) Select all conversations using the hyperlink in the above message
5) Now, try to deselect one conversation - you will find that all of them get deselected

Addendum for some folks who asked: Yes, this happens in Windows+IE too

Discovered black tea with lemon. Simply divine.

I had seen people drinking stuff like black tea, black coffee, etc. I disliked the idea of even trying. I would imagine the possible taste of the brew, and would instantly get repulsed by what I imagined. But recently, I decided to get adventurous. I tried the black tea served here in Mistral. I got hooked, and how!

I hear there is a tea guru in my company who has experimented quite a lot. Black, green, herbal, and the list goes on. I think I should go get some gyaan from him.

Got this one from /usr/bin/fortune:

The five rules of Socialism:
1. Don't think.
2. If you do think, don't speak.
3. If you think and speak, don't write.
4. If you think, speak and write, don't sign.
5. If you think, speak, write and sign, don't be surprised.

Hehehehe....

Received 5 free CDs of Ubuntu (www.ubuntu.com). Saw a smile on the security officer's face when he handed the packet to me. Reason? The words 'ubuntu', 'kubuntu' and 'edubuntu' printed prominently on the package, I guess. Hmmm....waiting for the day he himself will be working on Linux based surveillance software, so he'll understand what's going on.

Did you believe the title?

Well, I had to attend some religious ceremonies back home in Mumbai. I booked tickets on Air Deccan. I was happy with the the cheap(er) tickets I got. And it turned out to be paisa-vasool, because I got to enjoy the following rides in Deccan-Land:

Swing ride:
May 24, Wednesday. Original departure time of flight: 9:40 pm. I get an SMS saying that it is preponed to 9:15 pm. Reach airport on time with great effort, fighting against Bangalore traffic. Flight does depart, but at err....around 9:45 pm.
(Side attraction: Opened magazine pouch in front of me – find disposed wrappers, foil, pieces of food. The flight magazine sure has a jolly good appetite).

Bungee jumpin' :
May 29, Monday.
Original departure time of flight: 7:25 pm
I get an SMS saying that it is delayed to 9:10 pm.
After sometime, I get another SMS saying that it is delayed to 10:30 pm.
Pack my clothes. Mobile phone beeps to announce that an SMS has arrived. Joke to mom that it might be another SMS from Air Deccan announcing another delay.
Open message: Wham! 11:45 pm.
Reach airport at 10 pm. Ask other Airliners if they have an asap flight to Blore. No such luck.
Proceed to check-in. There, I am informed that ....ya you got it...that the flight has again been rescheduled. New time: 00:30 am.

Did the flight leave. It did. At around 00:40 am.
Didn't open the magazine pouch to see if the mag had a good dinner.

So will I fly by Air-Dhakkan again? Answer: Depends on who is paying :-)

Purchased a Sony Cyber-Shot Digicam (DSC-W5). Pretty impressive piece of engineering. My first experience on reading the manual and trying out some of the features was very good. Will post a layman review in a couple of months. For a thorough, professional review, read:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/W5/W5A.HTM

Hope to become an active Flickr-maniac soon.

Are you jogging, or working out in a gym, or doing aerobics?
Well, I made a couple of interesting observations during my hour-long workouts. Its quite possible you are aware of these. But if you aren't, here goes:

1) Exercising on an empty stomach isn't a good thing to do. I have a light breakfast of cornflakes (30g), skimmed milk, and a few (just a few) pieces of fruit around 45 min before my workout. This gives me the energy to put in much, much more effort.

2) During the workout, I try to ensure that my heartbeat remains fast, and that my muscles remain warm. If I stand still at intervals and relax, and my heartbeat goes down, I only confuse my body, and the effectiveness of the workout decreases vastly. On the other hand, if I maintain the momentum, my stamina levels remain high and I can put in much more effort.

Of course, consult a trainer/doctor to find out what is best for you.

I saw it in front of my eyes...the sheer mayhem that was unleashed in Bangalore when Dr. Rajkumar died.

( Read more... )

Perhaps this is the first time I have felt so strongly about desecration of music. The Sufi Saints of yore must be turning in their graves, too.

( Read more... )

Its been a loooong time since I last posted. But I suddenly got this desire to feel the kick of posting at 3:00 am in the morning. So here goes...

Well, don't think I've gone loony or something. Its just that our team is facing some interesting deadlines these days (but that doesn't happen too often- most of us manage to wrap everything up by decent hours everyday). So I was stuck here creating a design doc. It was okie-dokie at times. At around 1:00 am, we went to the mini-pantry downstairs and got ourselves Diet Cokes, biscuits, and tea. It was relaxing to write a few lines of design, sip some Coke, munch on a biscuit, ruminate over whatever I had just written, and then go back to writing some more lines.

Well, the approval for the design will come tomorrow, and I'll have to start coding. I guess I'll have to down quite a few litres of Coffee to stay alive n' kickin.

Well, tough times don't last. Amen.

Waiting for the cab to arrive.

Puzzled? Read on...

My company (Mistral) had a half yearly presentation today. All the employees, from all over India were asked to attend.

And my team decided to go in for an item number on this occasion (err...hold on). Just today morning, we received some sporty T-Shirts and caps from our client company in the US. These bear the name of the client, and thus also that of our team, which is dedicated to this client. We decided on the spot that we would all wear these to the presentation.

Now starts the presentation. All around, there were people in spiffy coats and ties, or atleast decent formals. A few 'propah' T-Shirts too could be seen around.

Now troops in our team in our fun T-Shirts and caps, and the company I-Card hanging around our necks. Heck, we made one hell of a splash! Though most of the junta were trying to be nice and polite to us, we did get to enjoy a few barbs right from the time we started our journey from office to the time we reached the audi (no claims about the exactness of the words):

"2 pizzas please. Hope we will get them in 30 minutes?"
:
:
"15 minutes over"

"Oh...football teamaa?"
"No, Kabbaddi team” (thats me correcting someone)

"Urr...umm...sorry...baseball teamu"

"Hmm....you should have worn shorts too. Ofcourse, the issue with shorts is that you shouldn't get the logo at the wrong place"

And you should have seen the team at tea-time. Every one stuck together. Knowing well that in unity lies strength (strength to withstand the amused stares coming from all around) heh..heh

End comment from one of my team-mates when we were back at office after the presentation (in which he corrected one of the barbs so that it is 'technically more correct'):
"Well, with the caps and company ID hanging around our necks, we look more like football referees than players".

Heck, this was fun. Some of my team-mates were visibly uncomfy. But it was fun. The T-Shirts are cool, well designed, and 'jara hatke'. We also got some nice coffee mugs (though I fear these may be misused for beer by some of my team-mates). Would like to thank our client.

There are words which have multiple meanings depending on the context. 'Bangalored' already has the first meaning (describing the condition of a guy who loses his job cos it gets outsourced to Bangalore).

Well, let me add a second meaning for Bangalored: The condition of the guy who leaves his job in another city and takes up one in Bangalore. (Lets not bother ourselves with defining context based rules to decide which meaning can be applied where. English don't have no rulz.)

So, having made the necessary linguistic innovations:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I HAVE BEEN BANGALORED. VERY THOROUGHLY. And this is just the beginning. The traffic. The obscene amounts being demanded as rent for a little khopcha. The Kannada-obsessed bus system (Yeah, okay, I am from Karnataka, but I can't read Kannada- how many languages do I learn??)

But somehow, in a strange way, I am getting a kick out of all this. There is a matador inside me, yearning to say 'Hey Torro!" to the bull called Blore. Yup.

Well, I have to admit, Blore is not all that too bad. Cool climate. Many beautiful areas in the city. Well educated and cultured people. It has its own charms.

Guess I just need some time.

There is news: Am leaving NCST (or CDAC, if you insist). Am joining Mistral Software, Bangalore as a Sr. Engineer in the Embedded Design division. Have provided info about the company at the bottom.

On the upside, I can now regularly visit the Blore livejournal junta (and even when I don't visit them, I can perhaps get to keep tabs on their shady activities). On the downside, I am a little apprehensive about Blore’s infrastructure and the high rentals. Anyway, I decided to be brave and step into this city in the hope that I will be doing interesting work at Mistral. Besides, after being a hardcore Mumbaikar for more than a decade, Blore is a piece of cake (albeit an expensive one).

Having worked at NCST for 4 years, I feel like a tree that has been suddenly uprooted. My eyes actually went moist when I signed the resignation letter. But then, change is the only constant...so may God help us all.

( About Mistral )

Some time after I made this post we started for home. We had no idea that the rain and flooding would be as nasty as they later turned out to be. I reached 27 hours later. I have a harrowing tale to narrate. Keep watching this space.

Update: Looks like its going to take a looong time for me to gather the stamina to sit down and pen what happened that day. Life has started to move on...

It is a dark and rainy afternoon. Its almost like night. A couple of times, the thunder was so loud that NCST's windows shook.

Wish I could open the window, jump out, and get soaked to the skin. And then go home and get scolded by mom. And then have her dry my hair with a towel, scolding me all the while. Just like the good ol' days when I was a carefree, naughty kid.

Memories, memories.......

Background info: In some South Indian languages, 'Putti' is a term of endearment which roughly means 'Dear Little Girl'

Concerned housewife complaining to husband about their graduate daughter: "Our Putti is not working"

Techie husband (without looking up from his laptop): "Change the certificates"...(after sometime, he suddenly looks up from his laptop)..."Oh sorry, I wasnt paying attention. I just remembered- a security fix was released. Go to http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ "

Boy do I love to throw a few pathetic ones around! :-)