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Ye hai Gadhagiri

Let me take the honor of introducing the term ‘Gadhagiri’. It means stupidity coupled with stubbornness. I guess since the inception of Humans and Asses (Donkeys) in this world, we have been making remarks at fellow humans with the analogy of Asses.

‘You smart ass’, ‘Gadha kahin ka’, ‘Ass*o**’,etc.

A lot of outrageous and even obscene remarks have long been associated with this poor animal. So much so that the fleshy part of the human bottom that we sit on have become a synonym appearing in all dictionaries. Today the ass-word is so common that one may find its usage in all age groups from Kids to Grannies and Grandpas. Such is its popularity despite the tag of taboo and vulgarity still hanging with it. But who cares, at times we take a deliberate pride in using against others as a satirical remark.

The big question still remains unanswered. Why did we choose the beast of burden- the donkey (Gadha) for such derogatory remarks? In spite of the fact that it helps people especially rural forks and Dhobis (Washer-men) in day to day activities like carrying baggage and burdens. Since time immemorial we have been distorting the image of this innocent animal. But since the damage has been already done nothing much can be done to restore the pride of donkeys by merely writing a blog on this subject. Rather I have now started perceiving the whole idea of the ‘Gadhagiri’ in a different context. With Sigmund Freud’s evolutionary theory working out to be true and thereby donkeys attaining more capability to exercise its brain, I am sure this animal should take this as a matter of pride of being compared with superior animal – the humans!!! Also they would have to accept the fact that their stubbornness is also the cause of their notoriety. After all humans are not stupid enough to blindly use anything or anyone as an analogy or simile. The donkeys shouldn’t be much offended and ought to realise that ass-words are hardly used in the context of extreme evil or bad as social or domestic animals like dog, bitch, etc. Think about any movie and dialogues, one may rarely find the actors, in a high emotional frenzy roaring like ‘Gadhe main tera khoon pee jaunga’, ‘Maa Kasam main ek ek gadhe ko chun chun ke maroonga’. A goon or gunda is never treated in equivalence with donkeys.

Let me elaborate more on the special term which I have coined “Gadhagiri”. Its usage and meaning is more close to “Dadagiri’ than ‘Gandhigiri’. The former is used highly with negative connotations while the latter is used with the ‘Gandhian ideology’ which is very positive, sometimes too idealistic to be followed by many in today’s world. On the other hand, Gadhagiri is like being obstinate to take a stand on some foolish idea and stupid enough to fight for a petty cause with an air of arrogance. Displaying bossism like a dada and being firm or stubborn (like Gandhigiri) but for an irrational cause. Irrationality becomes the principle and ego takes the prime front in one’s personality for people who are inflicted with ‘Gadhagiri’- syndrome. Some are born with this syndrome, some acquire it and few just excel in this without ever realizing that they are suffering from this syndrome. One may find such people in all walks of life. It seems it is so prevalent that sometimes we resort to ‘Gadhagiri’ without even realizing it. This behavioral pattern can be found in streets, busses, trains, homes, schools, etc. – almost everywhere.

 

But as I said, most of us display this behavior occasionally. And for those with this innate quality in them, just can’t help it. It gets pretty difficult to deal with them and only option left for us is to defend ourselves with ‘Gandhigiri’- a weapon to make the person realize that he has become more of an ass than a human.

Monday Blues

~ ‘ ~ wElCoMe tO “THE” BlOg ~ ` ~

today i got up early at 9:30 AM…..

though v hav regular lecs today going on in college we consider it a TERM END. i.e no lecs..only pracs/submissions..

i think the term ends at 17 april…

so here i am  blogging away to glory…

i have to take printouts today for NIS network security subject… coz i am already late for the first two assignment submissions..

well the pracs start at 12:30 pm so i must take off now..

considering that i”ll be travelling on PUNE ROADS..

my bro just calld up n told me to get my HDD at his place.he’s got lots of new movies.

that’s it for now

signing off(logging off)

cya

avi

hmmm..my 1st personal post

Right now i am enjoying the summer heat…

actually today i ahd my C#.NET class but bunked it coz i was feeling really bored…

who”ll go out in the sun ..ride the bike…then park it..pay 2 rupees…then jostle for space in the already overcrowded class..where i havent seen 1 single babe in the entire time i was there..

uhh 4get it!

btw i have paid some 3000rs/- as fess and attended some 6-7 lecs out of a probable 25-30..

i feel  very bad wasting money like this..

well this is the last semester and submissions approaching soon ..

DS submissions wer supposed to be today but the madam’kapali’ dint turn up.it seems she’s ill.

good for me.

ok bye for now..

so will have to go to college on Monday(i hate that)

How to save BSNL dataone broadband bandwidth

Yes.. you get a bandwidth of 256 kbps and monthly data usage limit of 1 GB, for BSNL dataone connection. You got to save your bandwidth, if you want to get 100% from it.
I am going to give you various tips to do that.

Tip # 1:

Disable automatic update to most of your windows programs.

You can increase your online security to some extend by turning on the automatic updates !!!!

But what you ask is for more bandwidth, then turn them off !!!!!

You can safely turn it off for the following programs:

** Your windows Operating system

( he he you can turn it on only if you have a genuine version on your system !!!)

** Firefox browser
( it sliently downloads a file of about 9 to 10 MB in background without your consent as a serious security update !!!)

** Adobe products (like acrobat reader)

** Any other product you know…

BUT I recommend to turn it **on** for your Anti virus program !!!

I guess by doing this you can save your BSNL Dataone broadband bandwidth to some fairly good extend

Use Firefox + Adblock + Flashblock for net browsing.

Yes… Firefox is a wonderful browser and it has useful extensions too…

So download firefox first to save your bandwidth.

After installing firefox, now install an extension called adblock.

Then install another extension called flashblock.

Both of these stop unwanted flash adds from showing in your browser and thus save your download time and save bandwidth for you !!!

How to be an Arjuna not Eklavya in the IT world

Lore has it that Dronacharya, the guru of the Pandava clan, feared the tribal Ekalavya would one day defeat his favourite student, Arjuna. The wily guru circumvented Ekalavya’s pleas to become his student, by asking for his thumb as guru dakshina.

If you look back on this incident, do you really think Ekalavya would have defeated Arjuna, even with his thumb intact? Possibly not.

Before you flame me, let me set out my reasons: Arjuna was a warrior—he was taught to overcome opponents with numerous devices, including swords, sorcery, and fist fights. Quite like the way many of us showcase all those technologies we work with—software, hardware, quality assurance and so on.

Ekalavya—as far as we know—knew only archery and that too against one target, the dog. Arjuna thought like what he was groomed to be—a ruler. He would have foreseen potential pitfalls in a clash with a lone, wild tribal prince, and would have planned well in handling the meeting—if at all it had come to that.

He was part of a large network— gurus, four other brothers, a shrewd mother, a thoughtful wife, other councilors and royal princes, all of whom would have opened up a vista of plans…

Now, tell me, would Ekalavya have won?

What does this have to do with us? Today, technology has rendered us Ekalavyas – hard core technology people who work in lone cubicles on pieces of projects: quite like the tribal prince who knew only how to shoot arrows at a single target.

Job markets in the technology world have taken on some unique cycles—you are flooded with offers when the market is on a roll, or are laid off without even a goodbye, when the market is down. When you are in a market high, how do you choose a perfect fit?

Or when you are laid off, how do you get back to equilibrium?

Let us learn from Arjuna. What did he have on his side?

Learning: He was an artful warrior and kind ruler, with a host of skills finely honed to perfection, and years of grounding in arthashastra—the art of ruling.

Leverage: He was constantly using his network of contacts in finding out what happened in his kingdom—trends, people’s moods, thefts and murders. He was in the know of things to paint the big picture.

Leadership: He was always taking on the initiative to do things—acting messenger for his brother, winning contests…At any instance of hardship, Arjuna offered to take on responsibility.

How can you apply these to your daily job in the technology world? Simple. Open your ears, close your mouth, and think deeply.

Learn: When you are on a project, spend an hour with the team in learning what the rest are working on, speak to your manager and learn what the project has to do with the company, the customer, the business, the market Get the big picture. You will immediately know what this project is a trend for, and can plan to learn new skills. If you plan to learn a new tool or software simply because your neighbor got a job in that field, you may not get very far.

Leverage: When you are stuck in a project, you think it is your duty to solve it all by yourself. Wrong! If you have spent sufficient time in building your network of people (not technology!), all you need to do is throw this problem onto a network and wait for solutions to come pouring in. Ignore this free education, and you are shutting yourself in Ekalavya’s forests. But if you can return this by contributing towards solving someone else’s problem, you have won a name for life.

Lead: The normal career path in any large firm seems to be like this—code for four years, become a senior coder, code some more, become an expert, then a project lead, and finally a project manager. It is almost routine, and you are disappointed when your next cubicle occupant has become an expert in three years, whereas you haven’t. Promotions are a sign of leadership—unless you are already acting like an expert, don’t expect to become one or be granted such a position.

Find out opportunities within your project where you can show your style of expertise—which in turn demands that you have learnt quite well about this project and can leverage all resources to lead the team to solve a problem. MBA degrees, skill sets, technologies all matter. However, in the long run, what matters is what you bring to the table—your learning abilities, your leveraging abilities, and your leadership abilities.

Technology serves a dual cut—while it unites businesses to customers and revenues, it has isolated the people behind it from each other. If you think your PC, coding, and your cube are the best friends in your world, come on out and take a walk.

The world is still full of people who wish to know you, and be known to you. Ask yourself, “Am I an Arjuna?”

Improve the broadband performance in Windows XP/2003

Well, before doing this….do this test

1) Goto http://www.testmy.net/ and click on Download Speed Test, and then on Smart Test….(and while conducting this test, don’t forget to close all Instant Messagers, and there should be no other web activity, other than the test)

2) Note down the speeds.

Now, lets see, what all changes to be made…..

This tip is designed for increased BROADBAND speed in Windows XP while using standard Network Interface cards (NIC) that are connected to ADSL modems, or when using any directly-connected USB ADSL modem.

To speed up the Internet connection speed we need to configure a special buffer in the computer’s memory in order to enable it to better deal with interrupts made from the NIC or the USB modem.

This tip is only recommended if you have 256MB RAM or higher.

Step #1 – Identify the IRQ used by the NIC/USB modem

1. Open the System Information tool by running MSINFO32.EXE from the Run command.
2. Expand System Summary > Hardware Resources > IRQs.
3. Look for the listing made for your NIC (in my case – a Intel® PRO/100+ Management Adapter). Note the IRQ next to the specified line (in my case – IRQ21).

In case of USB modems you will first need to find the right USB device used by your modem. Follow these steps:

1. Open the Device Manager tool by running DEVMGMT.MSC from the Run command (or by right-clicking My Computer > Hardware tab > Device Manager button).
2. Scroll down to Universal Serial Bus controllers and expand it.
3. Right-click the USB Root Hub and select Properties. Note that you might need to do so for all listed USB Root hubs (if there are more than one) in order to find the right one.
4. In the Power tab, look for your USB ADSL modem.
5. In the Resources tab look for the assigned IRQ (in this case – IRQ21).
6. This is the IRQ we’re looking for.

Note: IRQs and modem names might vary…

Step #2 – Modify the system.ini file

1. Run SYSEDIT.EXE from the Run command.
2. Expand the system.ini file window.
3. Scroll down almost to the end of the file till you find a line called [386enh].
4. Press Enter to make one blank line, and in that line type IrqX=4096 where X is the designated IRQ number we found in step #1, in my case it’s IRQ21.

Note: This line IS CASE SENSITIVE!!!

5. Click on the File menu, then choose Save.
6. Close SYSEDIT and reboot your computer.

Done. Speed improvement will be noticed after the computer reboots.

NOW DO THE SPEED TEST AGAIN (MENTIONED IN THE BEGINNING) AND NOTICE THE CHANGE IN SPEED

The most speed improvement is visible with USB.

WARNING:- It worked for me….am not sure whether it will work for you…

Global Voices Round-Up: What do bloggers have to say about India?

So far this month the major topic of discussion in virtual India was the world cup cricket match in the West Indies. Now that India is unceremoniously bowled out of the world cup, bloggers have turned their attention to other issues.

Yesterday the Indian Supreme Court temporarily stopped the implementation of Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota or affirmative action in higher educational institutions. The Supreme Court basically said that there was insufficient data available about the OBC demographics.

Bloggers have been busy writing about this hot button topic.

Rahul Gaitonde of 2 Paisa worth writes that the celebration about the SC verdict is premature and writes:

They say the Communists have the best brains in Parliament. Well, Prakash Karat made a very valid point today when he opposed the Supreme Court’s judgment staying the 27% reservation in institutes of higher education.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist also had strong words on the judgment with party general secretary Prakash Karat calling it ‘ unfortunate and uncalled for.’ He said that already several states had implemented reservation on the basis of OBC lists even in Central services and wondered what the problem in extending it to educational institutions was. Karat’s right.

Over at a legal blog called Law and Other Things they write:

Its still a bit early to comment on what the Court has said – we may have to wait a while before informed analysis of the Court’s decision starts pouring in, after people have had a chance to read the actual text of the order issued by the Court.

Nipon at BongBuzz is skeptical of the Supreme Court’s order and writes:

So much for the Supreme Court! So much for India! Living in India, how can we expect justice? This is the land where caste-based reservation will continue and Lalu Prasads and all will continue to rip political benefits out of that. There is only one way out – leave the country!

From an action packed Supreme Court blogs, we move to Bollywood and Bombay and how does one make sense of it all?  Maybe Mark Emmert, President, University of Washington has the answer. He is currently visiting India and writes:

I now have a better sense of why Bollywood movies are so immensely popular. They fit the pace, the rhythms, even the melodrama of Mumbai. One factoid puts the bustle and scurry into perspective: Seven million people ride the train into Mumbai daily. Think of moving all of greater Chicago by train each morning and evening. New York is actually calming compared to the constant movement of Mumbai. 

Have you ever heard of Communist peanuts and Congress peanuts? Well, there is a store in Bangalore that sells peanuts named after the Communist and Congress (India’s oldest political party) that sells them. Watch the video clip and find out how they got their names.

Bollywood Film Music Banned?

Bollywood film music banned? Unthinkable right given the Hindi film music has become a part of the Indian social fabric. But, yes there  there was a time about 50 years ago when Hindi film songs aka Bollywood film songs were banned and not allowed to play on Indian air waves. And, this ban in many ways led to the growth of the popular radio station: Radio Ceylon.

Mr. Ameen Sayani, the eminent broadcaster was in many ways the voice of Radio Ceylon and in this podcast interview Mr. Sayani talks about the ban of Bollywood film music, and how Radio Ceylon came into existence. This is Part-2 of our conversation with Mr. Sayani, who is arguable India’s best recognized radio and broadcast personality.

How does Google make money?

Recently Google held a press day, which has been widely covered by MSM, bloggers and others. There exists reams and reams of data on Google from non-Googlers to find out more about this great little start-up that has become increasingly tight-lipped on many things. We know all kinds of fluff data about Google, but that is it…

The LA Times in an article titled The One Bit of Google Withholds: How it Works (May 22, 2006) makes some interesting points. This is what it says/asks:

“Google’s unwillingness to disclose little more than the legally required basics of how it does what it does — and where it’s headed — has left advertisers puzzled, partners confused, competitors nervous and investors frustrated… All search companies are secretive. But as the largest and most idiosyncratic, Google has drawn the most scrutiny…So Google has kept its ranking formula — which the company says includes more than 200 signals — more secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola….All that depends on imponderably complex mathematical formulas, a sophisticated accounting system, an aloof corporate culture and a growth strategy secret to all but the upper echelon of the company — making Google one of the most mysterious companies of this century or last.”

I guess the pressure is mounting on Google to become more transparent, and as the LA Times article points out people  want to know on how it made over $6 billion in revenue last year.

What do you say?