My blogs on telecommunications, the internet and everything else...

Google: We can't get our free email service to work, but screw that, let's blame all those solar non-innovators and do...

2009-09-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

Gmail goes down. Blogger goes down. And ~~Nero~~ Sergei plays the harp, while Rome is burning (metaphorically of course, with their pedophile Catholic Priests of which you can read here).

And you thought discombobulation was just for politicians.

Google is now where Microsoft was roughly between 1995 - 1998. Serendipitious with one product, they think they own the world, know better than everyone else (so does Yours Truly).

And, I am just letting this blog be here, so that I can come back here and sing "I told you so...". I sing with a great voice. I am telling you so.

Google - stay the course. On one day, Gmail failed, and you got enough of a bad rap. Yes, it may not look like it now, but just wait till it fails the next time.

Also, the whole blogger story I mentioned in the last post: If you go to the Google Help url there, you will see that many users are still facing issues. Yes, it has not gained a lot of the "fluffy" Silicon Valley press attention, but, it is a good sign that Google has failed to integrate the various companies it has been buying. Throw Solar into this mix and you know where it is going...

If Google really chooses to innovate, why won't it simply do that, and spin those ventures separately?

Me-thinks it is all a Washington attention-grabber

Blogger craps out, bloggers panic and Google's community leans in to help

2009-08-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

A very good friend of mine likes to read my blogs on Medical Devices, Biotechnology and Bioengineering as I flamboyantly call it at http://chaaraka.blogspot.com .

She emailed me today asking "Did you take your blog down or is the FDA finally on to you?"

In case you never read my blogs before, they tend to be not so kind of our Government and the way it handles medical devices, Indians at airports and allows Republicans to exercise first amendment rights (okay, I didn't blog about that last bit, but who here disagrees?).

As a result, when I could not locate my blog and was informed tacitly by Google that visiting a blog that had been composed by a near-permanently financially insolvent Stanford alumnus who doesn't drink, smoke, use Ad~~non~~sense, or charge for consulting, resume reviews and whatever else...could potentially be harmful(!) I panicked... with a capital P.

After frantically emailing a whole bunch of folks begging for any help in restoring or just accessing my archives so that I can take my blogs elsewhere, I found out that a lot of people are very, very helpful - as many did forward my requests around. I am thankful to them first of all.

Then, I also found out why we all love and rely on Google so much. Through one of the community members (Thanks Again!) on the "Blogger Help Forum" I found out that this happened to a lot of bloggers around, and Google is making an effort to resolve the situation.

At this point all users need to do is to submit their affected blog address to a Google spreadsheet and Google/Blogger will take care of it at their end. Very nice!

All is well that may end well sooner than later. Here is the link to the forum if you wish to know more:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=7ad1d2f6e077ca6d&hl=en

Aside from being grateful to the community member and Google employees as well, I am both very pleasantly surprised at how much trust I have unconsciously put into the GOOGLE brand and also wary of it.

A great lesson learnt - no one is above risk! Nothing is above being backed up!!!

Good stuff from gmail

2009-07-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Now that Gmail is out of beta!, things seem to be chugging along nicely.

The biggest frustration for me used to be that I would accidentally click on "Report Spam" and have to painfully undo it (although, undo itself was cool!).

Look what I found today morning when I accidentally clicked on "Report Spam" again:

Awesome, n'est pas?

What inspires a blog to be revived? Elephants of course!!!

2008-10-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

[Click on title for link to external article referenced in this blog]

Years and years ago (yes, 2 years is now considered once upon a time..) I used to publish about my views on telecommunications, the interwebs (Thanks Colbertt!) and what not...

However, it all sullied after I had to leave the US on travel and by the time I came back, life had taken some obviously downward turns (just when I thought it couldn't happen...)

In any case, I wanted to blog on this "renames" blog (I didn't know what the hell would be a good name, and if people were really particular they could blow their heads off trying to acronymize the fake abberivation "renames" you know).

Well, what did inspire me?

Telecommunications has becoming boring in the last two years.

WHAT DID I JUST SAY?

Look at it this way - it has mostly been about teens txtin' each o'ter or however the heck it is that they talk to each other. You could watch video (read po..) on mobile phones, videocon' with your mum and yada yada yada.

For someone who is not a teen (by that I remind you I am still about 9 years old on the human maturity scale) this was all pretty dumb.

And, let me admit this. I have owned a phone since September 2001. So that's what 7 full years now? I still don't have a great use (I have good uses, bearly tolerable uses and my creditors have awesome annoying uses) for one.

Its irritating to have to pay scat loads of money for a thingamajig that might be causing brain cancer, may contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause reproductive birth defects (and so the unborn demons weep!) and so on and so forth.

However, all that is in the past now.

I have newfound respect for SMS and mobile phones.

Really?

Yes! Its like the time you find out that you may have "good" bacteria in your stomach!

I love the article - click on the title to read it!

----
All jokes aside, its time that mobile phones got past photographs of cops tazering students and people changing clothes or sms messages announcing Vice Presidential candidates (for God knows what fracking reason, we will never know - it's only time till frack becomes unmentionable too!)

The elephants need saving, just as much as the crops need protection and vice versa. The biggest problem in Africa is that we still have something left to save, and of course extreme penury can cause some sticky situations with the "saving" business.

So unlike the idiotic animal "lovers" of the west who decide to assassinate Professors, a lot of real brilliance (not the fluff white brick "Apple" type innovations) is being exercised in Kenya!

An sms message from the elephant alerts the rangers of its approach to the village, which they can then use to strike fear into him and chase him away!

We won't know if it will work, but it is one of those "low tech" "high worth" solutions out there!

Of course, don't try this in the US - T-Mobile, AT&T and Spring are likely to push prices up and then Congress will have a "talk" with them (not over the phone please, otherwise we tax payers have to pay for that too!).

What next?

Congress will "ground" the erring over-chargers?

Till next time!

Okay, sender authentication is here...so what?

2006-04-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

The amount of spam continues to grow. The amount of spam, assumed to be good email is growing. The amount of good email, trashed and stashed away as possible spam is also growing.

There is really no use to huddling together in five star hotels (other than for the hospitality industry's sake), instead of worrying about real solutions to real problems.

While industries, and standards groups keep talking of the next big thing, it is presumed that soon, if not already, 80% of all email will be junk....

Where there is goodwill...

2006-04-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

.. there is Microsoft trying to steal it..

Why would you want to use "free" code to a(n) EULA that you later use to go after people that won't pay for your software...hmm, the big blue (their blue screen is bigger, and appears more often than IBM's ;) ) slipped on this one...just like it has, on pretty much everything!

The DVD Wars begin, I am bored...

2006-04-19T11:23:00.001-07:00

Long long ago

In a galaxy far, far away

There were two stupid Japanese companies

That were trying to make everyone buy their expensive crap

and so goes the story. What I now really wish, is that people would ditch both formats, and buy another one. This is going to become a debacle like the Laser Discs, or the much cliched Betamax.

I would like to start a company to build DVD players. In Star Wars, they talked about the "Empire" and the "Resistance". Not about people who laughed at both sides and made some cheap cash....

If you build products, people will write bad articles about you..

2006-04-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

Something, of course, Microsoft doesn't care about. I was quite interested to read that the MS Mobile OS was not "working properly". This is quite fresh, new and disturbing to the IT and phone-user world I guess. When has MS ever built bad products...

Jokes aside, the sad point in the article is how the author writes very briefly, doesn't actually get technical at all, and then goes on to peg the whole point about the security patches on the desktop operation. Whatever happened to studying journalism before getting into it?

Now can we complain...? This person is writing about MS, from, in all probability, a Windows computer, or one that runs it, even as a dual or triple boot...these gaffes are understand-able!!!

iTunes is not the end and beginning of digital music

2006-04-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

There is more..and this is the point we want to stress!!!! Is someone listening out there, for crying out loud..or singing out loud!!!!

Oracle - still embracing the old style business model...let's make a little of everything

2006-04-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

And they are worried about patents, and intellectual property of Linux. Here is a scary scenario. One of these days, Microsoft will buy a Linux distribution. Then all the big ones would have been bought out, hashed out as proprietary, and then they will go after the guys still using Linux in the Open Source format. This cannot be good news for the Linux world.

I always thought it was bad business to build something for free. I have forced to change my opinion over the years. Now, I think it is bad business to build anything without protecting intellectual property -- you never know whose hands what you create and set free might land on.

Something has to be done, and quick. Otherwise, the work of so many engineers will simply be stolen by the likes of Ellison, and that, is for people to worry if it is good or bad...

How to bring crap onto yourself..Apple style

2006-04-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

It gives me great pleasure to open my mailbox and find that Apple is being sued. It actually doesn't!

The problem with Apple, something I have been screaming for years, is that they are the best at "stealing" innovation, and then crying sour apples (or grapes, whatever) when others steal similar technology. Starting from the GUI to the iPod, none of their products are really their own.

Nothing wrong in "borrowing", "adapting", or as the latest cliche goes, "synergizing" others' ideas, but wait a second, you also want to sue them? This one might go into the next edition of "The hundred stupidest business blunders ever". Maybe, I will write that book...and hope its not a blunder too.

Oh well, now to grab that much needed coffee...

Yell into the searchbox..Google's way

2006-04-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the wierdest things could be assumed to be innovative. I have just one thing to wonder..does 511.org have to pay Google everytime I pick up the phone and shout "Karamba" (in my thick accent, whereby, once a woman thought I was referring to water, when I said "mug")!

Uh, Oh! One more thing google didn't think of...

2006-04-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, champion of peoples' privacy. How are you going to guard the secrets of our users from Uncle Sam?

This is the question being asked by EFF. It makes you wonder. Yes, Google, somehow seems to have defended your privacy in court, this time, but will lightning strike twice in a country where nine men can change the way you deal with life anytime?

I would not, I repeat, would not feel comfortable using Google, if I was doing something shady and hence, would use devices or strategies that would hide what I do, from others to find...good logic. But what if I was doing something today, that I did not even know was wrong....

Google has to think and re-think its strategies, before jumping into anything and everything headlong. It has not been receiving a good grade from EFF on several fronts...

Dark secrets of MySpace...storage hero, or offenders' haven?

2006-04-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

This one will go down, deep down in our minds as a very disturbing story. It has the overtones of several types and kinds of shady deals in it. Nothing mixed in so many lawsuits can be good. One would only hope, News Corp. sets right some of the things that seem to have risen out of the purchase of Intermix.

The internet is a very strange place to tread. What propels you up with an immutable force, could bring you down with equal fervor!

Oh, how the haughty have fallen...

2006-04-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

Speaking of IBM and its security. I am not against hardware encryption, but to think you would be able to fool the hacker, is a bad idea. Never assume so much power. EOM.

Don't waste your money, no one wants to listen to you - atleast yet!

2006-04-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Podcasts are becoming the "in thing". Well, it has the word pod in it, doesn't it. However, Forrester would have you believe that those pots of gold will be found in 2010 if at all, and you should not throw good money after bad for this. After all, why listen to stuff that is yammered about, when pages of this is already available after the net?

I believe there are other factors:

1. You cannot listen to it in crowded offices.

2. Podcasts are probably not readily and/or well streamed into hand-held media players.

3. People still really don't know about podcasts. You would think...

Some fads are hot to catch on, some are not. Especially, with the internet and handhelds, its only the "yung uns" that catch on sooner. And we are talking of a population that would rather watch "The Daily Show" and not real news. So, it will take time...

Till then, keep yelling into the microphones and upload all those mp3 players. Someone, somewhere, wants to listen to you....

Yet another thing for Microsoft to be worried about

2006-04-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

Zimbra Office -- honestly till today I had not heard of this name, but this seems to be an application that is an MS killer. A few years ago, Linux looked like one. Then, google looked like one - till we realized they can never get much stuff out of the beta phase. Lets hope, Zimbra offers a better threat to the giant, so that it will carry on and innovate...!

Disney: Enjoy two months of free videos..who knows what the future holds?

2006-04-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

As the future hangs on an anvil and Disney experiments, you can try and find out what is happening to the televised desperate housewives across America. Though, I personally, am not interested in what they are upto, I might download and watch a couple of these free vidoes while, I am at home. Let us see where this experiment leads us to...

Blogs enter new revolution: Syndication

2006-04-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

Boy, is this big news. In a major marriage of media dissemination methodologies, newspapers will now be able to syndicate blogs written by above-the-board bloggers. Lets see what happens...I submitted my medical devices blogs to see if these guys will approve of my blogging skills. That will be a good test of waters, atleast from where I come.

It would be great to be part of this grand media experiment!

MySpace: Google is not the only storage hero

2006-04-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons why we all used to rave about google, was not search -- it was their humongous achievement in storage. With hardwired storage, virtual storage and a blend of other concepts, MySpace is truly chalking the path, or etching it, rather, for future companies to handle storage problems as they explode into an ever-growing, bandwidth hungry internet population.

Go ahead, and start a company with that meaningful ideas of yours. You never know, what real problems you might end up solving!!!

Gmail...

2006-04-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

http://googlewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/default.aspx?kc=ewnws040706dtx1k0000599

MS - Hell bent on putting Sony to sleep

2006-04-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

In Sony's sad long death, one will also see MS as the owner of several niche gaming companies. In the short term, as Sony dies, we will see two things...

1. A sumptuous war on price and creativity.

2. A later stage death of all creativity as MS just buys up anything in sight.

Won't it be fun, if gamers encouraged two things...

*.1 The entry of Apple into gaming.

*.2 Modding xbox and ps3 to interchangeably play games.

Don't know if *.2 is even possible!!!

Desktop Virtualization -- a promising warrior in the battle of viruses?

2006-04-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

This is like running an armored guard machine. What is the guarantee that standardization the only problem of virtual machines?

What if someone runs a virus that sits as a virtual machines and refuses to die, as you kill it?

Is it even possible?

Here is another story, worth looking at..

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/4612311

Free Internet for poor people who can afford wireless laptops...

2006-04-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060330GooglePatentsBringWiFiDownToEarth.html

http://www.sfgov.org/site/tech_connect_page.asp?id=38562

Aside from being a marketing fad, what does this offer for free internet do? First of all, it begs the re-use of the cliche, "There is no free lunch". Free, would imply free.

Not free, if you look at all these ads for internet-savvy hookers down the street.

It doesn't matter. Do what you want.

Why tout this as a tool to aid the poor? How many homeless, or almost homeless people can afford wireless laptops?

Now if only Dell would come up with free, wireless laptops that plays songs in praise of Dell...oh and by the way if they patented that method.

Really, sometimes, it makes one think that everything worth patenting was patented long ago!

Internet Law: Net Neutrality?

2006-04-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

[Department of Homeland Security. Net Neutrality. Who names these things in the US? First off, they need more creative people to come up with better names. Somethings just look awful when officials of surreptitiously named "departments" get caught peddling porn to children.]

Moving right along, why did this law get struck down? Why wasn't it in the news when the law was stuck down. For being giants, Google and Amazon don't seem to be doing a good job of protecting the interests of neutrality. Why won't they take a bus to the district like Billy Gates does, whenever something he doesn't like is the offing.

Yes, maybe its a good idea to have Nosey Parker FCC in the game, but doesn't that just make the situation just volatile. Is neutrality going to be neutrality that the FCC assumes?

Inconsistency in law, is a bad idea, especially when dealing with equality. Be rational internet giants. Be something, atleast!, if you want to be called giants. Otherwise you might soon be called "oversized, self serving morons", along with the telecommunication companies you failed to stop...

Bad News for Open Source: Scare Tactics

2006-04-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

If you are afraid of the dark, and scream out to the world that you are, people will tease you, play with you, and if possible and necessary, harm you using your fear.

Yes, we do agree that Steve Balmer indicated he would go after Linux with patents. But he also said Google wont be there in five years.

Why listen to someone who still believes in the "Huff, Puff and Blow" model of fighting competition?

I guess whoever this Peren fellow is, likes the limelight like our erstwhile JBoss hero, and is constantly digging up the issue of patent lawsuits against linux.

Let us say there is a threat. Why not take the calm approach, examine what those patents are, and how they would affect linux and produce an actual case study? Why do you need to yell, and scream, and kick and everything, instead of actually spreading out before the world, what those physical threats are?

How is the RIM case related to the Linux - software patent problem? Or is he just expressing his antipathy to the USPTO. The tree-hugger approach has not helped Linux in 20 years, it suddenly wont start doing so, tomorrow.

Grow up!

Interesting Open Source Views on Software Licensing

2006-04-06T10:10:00.000-07:00

I have always struggled a bit to understand the modus operandi of the Open Source mechanism. This one seems to be a good example. I am glad I came across this. I hope you read and benefit as well.

Somebody wake up Sony please....

2006-04-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

Look at the ridiculous price comparisions as projected in the article. There are two possible scenarios coming to play here:

1. This is a big lie, and an industry rumor.

Well, wake up, Sony! People are spreading lies about you. What happened to your PR department? Did you forget to hire any?

2. This is true.

Sony, someone buried you alive. Looks like it was you. And from inside the coffin, you are nailing yourself. No one wants to buy emancipated walkmans. No one wants to buy your UMD disks. No one wants to sell your eBook readers. If you price it this way, soon no one, or atleast not many will be buying your sorry little Playstations....

Google takes aim at multimedia, and soon will do trash cans, soft drinks, fumigants, apples, cocoa chips and anything else....

2006-04-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

Or, I could say,

"All the betas you want".

Why cannot Google stick to its game? What is it trying to do? Prove that any cash happy idiot can hire all kinds of smart engineers and create half-baked products that can be doled off as beta.

Google seems to have taken the word beta to a level, where its like you stick a page that says "Student Driver", and drive like heck froze over all across the city.

Bad practices beget bad results. This is the lesson from the Newest Testament of the Computer Industry.

Why is everyone mad at MS? Why do their products fail to pass even a fair test of quality?

It is because they ignored to secure their core, and continued to build incompetent products, and will do so forever.

It looks like Google is pushing the buttons on several fields and does nothing with them after it. Lets recap, it took them forever to get out of the beta on their search engine - the basic product. Admittedly, it is the best ever built.

But what happened to -- News, Groups, Froogle, Gmail, Orkut to just name a few?

When, then can we see the messenger, finance and other crap get anywhere?

What will be the status of the pagebuilder, or the office software?

Why can't they stop bloating like an obese mammoth gone mad, and take care of things, one at a time. Maybe not, maybe that will help the competition, but when will they finish building these products that are in the pipeline?

We will never know. This is what I predict. Google, maybe none of you will read this, but if you don't get your act together, and keep releasing useless products - yes, users will flock initially for the Google name, but will eventually, go where the services, work atleast some of the time...

Now if only the idiot orkut can maintain to have its password rememberd on my computer....

Don Quixote is back -- and he is funding crazy slingshot programs to space

2006-04-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hmm. nothing much to say. I do think its a good idea, unless someone disproves it, or a large pack of meshuga nuts falls on an African village, making everyone raving mad, because they don't like the nuts, and Europe will have to pay the fines, which they will refuse...having run out of funds after all the crazy a* programs they helped support!

Just kiddin' y'all. I think its a good idea to experiment with science and its borders, especially if you are only building models and not prototypes.

Hope, prisoners don't try to escape into space this way...

Good juju for nameless company -- The New Alcatel-Lucent Dinosaur

2006-04-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

[Click on title for link to original article]

Poor 'saurs. They are now the namesake for anything large and ugly. I am impressed, that most people are impressed by this merger. After all the press is thrilled everytime to large dysfunctional organizations become even larger, and throw their employees on the streets....

I am never impressed when an organization grows even larger just to "consolidate" things. Never has meant good news. Lets see, Chrysler did it, Oracle's done it...and so on. Have the products ever improved? Has the customer been happier? Has the customer been bothered with.

Still, this merger may seem a little bit rosy like it is meant to be. Let's wait, watch, and find out!!!

US govt. sides MSFT on EU - High Time!

2006-03-31T14:05:00.000-08:00

[Click on title for link to original article]

"We have complied, and we are willing to do more," he said. "But we cannot do it alone. Interoperability in our industry happens through dialogue and engagement, not through fines."

This should make sense. Why is the EU suddenly so flagrant about compliance? Are they trying to mimic George Bush's pre - emptiveness? For several reasons, that would be a bad idea.

Why is Europe becoming the nag of progress? They seem to have a history of having a problem with anything that does not originate in Europe. This seems to escalate when it comes to US and high technology...microsoft, Apple, Apple and more Apple.

Why?

I think its mostly the risk of non - retaliability. What good comes out of the EU nowadays? And, democracy and people's choice seem to be forgotten and ignored themas nowadays.

If people didn't like MS or Apple, if people thought they were unfair, then the people would worry about it.

Yes, it makes sense to bring antitrust trials.

But what kind of a clownish system of justice does it become when you fail to run it in open. Exactly what could have been in those letters that the EU commissioner won't release it? Were they sending the analyst happy, old MS jokes to humor him?

What is going on EU? You know you are an old horse, the only reason why people are interested in you is because, you are still a market, dead or alive. Don't make people lose any interest they may have in you..

This problem is also partly because the idiot press in the US pays too much attention to China, crying about how the US companies are pussyfooting to the demands of the Chinese Government.

Well what about the EU?

$2 million dollars a day? It is not just funny, it is hilarious...

Barely understand this..IBM boffins unlock atom-scale magnetism

2006-03-31T10:31:00.000-08:00

So we can measure magnetism at the atomic level and then build a computing method around it and build better computers using spintronics....have to watch this. Don't understand the field or its implications....

A tale of two DVD makers...

2006-03-31T10:12:00.000-08:00

Links to articles..

A birth with Toshiba's next gen DVD player

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1944803,00.asp

A death of Sony's UMD. One we can all be happy about..if it were not a slow, painful, death.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2153140/sony-umd-movies-chopping-block

So, Toshiba has braved it. We now have next generation optical disc players...well maybe you do, I can't even afford most of the current ones. So, we now have a new phase in the war. May the stronger win!

Why does Sony have so many problems? Did they hire a bunch of evangelists from Microsoft? Why would I pay for $20 + for the dvd of a sad movie, that I may or may not watch, and cannot even play on my television.

We live in the world of pay - per - view, cher Sony... there is more to understanding customers than installing rootkits. May the stupid perish!!

Who's winning, where, and who is not?

2006-03-30T12:51:00.000-08:00

First, our friendly, neighborhood, Google....
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2153020/google-continues-gain-market

When was the last time you used google, that is, how many minutes ago? So, who uses Yahoo! and MSN (MSN??)? I would like to meet those people...

However, Microsoft has nothing to fret on another end...XBOX!

Sony can go on and on about how PS3 will win it back, but for now, MS is taking over Nintendo, and eyeing the big game. Will this be the end of innovation in another area of our lives?

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2153084/xbox-launch-hit-australia

Look out, here comes Jajah...

2006-03-29T11:31:00.000-08:00

The internet has done one good thing -- it has made wierd names sound okay and cool. Exactly what this translates into, we won't know, until someone starts naming babies as Lebose, Jokey, Yipkey and so on..anyway, coming back to our main topic, looks like buying Skype was a really bad idea for eBay, while the Skype people got their asses saved through the move.

I am also sorry for a bunch of other start ups that involved hardware solutions. Looks like soon, your mobile number will become as important as your SSN.

Combine products like Jajah with Origami, and you have some real hands - on magic...

China - the land of some seriously smart people

2006-02-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

[Click on title to visit external website]

The way this works out is this. You are the Chinese government. The following are some of your objectives:

1. How do we assert our tyranny and absolute lack of respect for any democratic form of existance?

2. How do we assert being the unwarranted cynosure for capitalist companies?

3. How do we abuse this unique position rendered to us by stupid companies?

4. How do we help our legal system, our cyber-squatters, and in general anyone who will benefit, grab money from these companies?

The answer: The New Law. While one country goes around abusing the internet with stupid laws that disallow you from "annoying people anonymously", another is being very smart.

Now you own a company called cBay. You become very famous in the US. The erstwhile Wall Street Journal publishes a snippet that you might be eyeing China, the next big market (always the next, for the last guzillion years). And then, lo and behold, some dude in Shangai registers your domain cBay.cn .

Across the ocean, somewhere in Europe, say, someone does the same thing with .uk

You hire the UK government and its laws, if necessary the EU and its laws to beat the crap out of this guy and wrestle the domain from him, and maybe, also get him to pay the legal charges for the whole tussle.

Roll back to China. You sue this guy using China's ridiculous if nothing else, legal system. You fight for two years. Who ends up the loser?

If only the Indian government were 10% as smart as the Chinese government.

But given how the Indian Judiciary system delivers rapidfire justice.....

AT&T - Public Enemy No. 1?

2006-02-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

[Click on title for link to article]

Or is it the US Government? The EFF, an interesting group, seems to be taking a lateral approach to taming the US Government's enthusiasm to look for the pin in the haystack.

It is funny how I am reminded of Archie Bunker's line "American Thugs and Thieves" on "All In The Family".

Whatever your opinions on the US Government's overzealous "monitoring" programs might be (I have none, you can listen to what I talk - I talk very less over the phone, and it means business and has nothing to do with blowing people up), why help Sony with collecting people's information?

Its probably time for AT&T and all its little 'Bells to review their privacy policy, or create one, where there is none!!!!

The RIAA loses it - again

2005-09-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Music is all about creativity. So why does the West have no creativity when selling music? Are they trying to use the court as a collection agency? No, I think, in fact the idea is that the court will eventually become their music store. So what will beat the iTunes music store? The DoJtunes Music store - atleast if they will have their way with it. Doesn't look like a lot of people, especially judges agree.

Get your act together RIAA. It shows that they have so much money to go around suing people, then they really don't need the money, other than to sue more people.

It is now at the hands of the people selling the music. I know a few artists have moved away from these "big" record labels. More and more people have to move away. If you are not selling anymore honey, that means you are old, and your model is old, and you either shed your skin, or move on!

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2142832/riaa-beaten-teenager

At last, a new name

2005-09-19T00:39:00.000-07:00

Now why do I keep creating blogs? I don't know. And what is with blogger.com? Choosing a name is like a bad dream...anyway, I will soon have to keep track of my blogs and also find something to blog!

Srihari