Justifiable Kowtowing ?

[It's been a while since I have posted anything new. What usually happens is that I start a story but never actually have the chance to finish it, what with the other few hundred things going on in my life. However, I didn't think I could put this particular story in the Drafts folder given my level of disappointment and curiosity.]

"Don't be evil" - a motto that Google claims forms the basis of their corporate policies and business practices. What compounds my disappointment is that I actually believed it until I read that Google has agreed to create new versions of its search and news-aggregation websites that will censor all results that the Chinese government deems to be objectionable. Here's what the head policy counsel at Google had to say, "Google.cn will comply with local Chinese laws and regulations. In deciding how best to approach the Chinese --or any-- market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interest of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions."

Now, when I had read similar news stories about Microsoft engaging in similar reprehensible behavior, I was actually not that surprised. There were two reasons for that - (a) I believed that Google is still out there leading the charge against government censorship and intrusion, and (b) Microsoft, the company (I am not referring to Gates here), does not have a track record that attests to putting the benefits to the consumer above profits. I understand that - if they don't comply, they will lose millions, if not billions, by government regulation in the form of excessive regulation and non-compliance to drive out software piracy.

Google's stand seems to be that access to some information is better than no information at all. I am not sure how they expect that any reasonable person would stomach that. Isn't the logic simple ? In a country where the government already has control over most other media, the citizens would inevitably come to rely upon a service, such as Google, that can provide not only information but also a sense of connectedness to the rest of the world. If said service also kowtows to extremely unreasonable government demands, it is just a redundant source of government propaganda.

Let's try playing devil's advocate for a minute. Larry Page recently said that he has always wanted to change the world. I think he, along with co-founder Brin, has managed to make a significant difference in the dissemination of information. May be he actually believes that access to some information is better than no information. In that case, I will grant that he thinks a compromise is necessitated and that the company is still not violating their motto. However, just because you can't see the wrong doesn't make it right.

Strong words aside, I have an inkling of hope that Google will realize that sometimes taking a stand against an oppressive regime goes farther towards changing the world than pandering to their demands. I know other people share my feelings.

Google, Don't be evil.

Update: Here's an illustration of the censorship (a side by side comparison of google.com and google.cn search results for the same query). If you want to try some queries yourself, change your browser language to Chinese so that your default google site becomes google.cn.

Update 2: Google has finally spoken. They are not happy with the decision that they have had to make and they hope to be able to do away with the filtering one day. I appreciate the fact that Google felt it was important to provide a public explanation of their decision (unlike certain other companies that we know of). It indicates that they still believe they are responsible to the public at large, and not just a subset that holds Google's shares. I still don't agree with their decision but I am now willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

An iPod video after all ?

Looks like I might have to buy the drool-worthy iPod video after all. The main reason I was holding off is no longer officially a reason - video availability. Google just launched a video store as promised at CES 2006 [warning: flash intensive] and the cool things about it are that you can buy really cool shows such as CSI, I Love Lucy and an old time favorite, MacGyver, at about the same price point as the iTunes videos AND they now offer all of these videos pre-formatted for the iPod as well. Awesome !! I have to say I am much more impressed with Google's clean and simplified web-based interface. So I can now buy a video iPod and keep it stocked with lots of nice videos - both from iTunes and Google Video (which also has a collection of free videos like the ones catalogued here).

So that means I have to get rid of my 2.5 year old third generation 20GB iPod. Mike was interested in buying it off me but I told him I want to ask my sister first if she would like to take it off my hands. although I don't know why because she just got a brand spankin' new iPod Photo as a gift this past year ! Still, La Famiglia should always come first, no ?

Let's see what Steve has in store for all the mac geeks (including me, of course) tomorrow when he delivers the keynote at the Macworld Conference in San Francisco. Here's hoping that they have come up with a way to make an awesome product even ... er ... awesomer ?

[Update: Looks like Google's video store is being updated with more and more episodes as I type this post. Go Google !!]

Travel Writing

So, it's about 2 am CST. I was about to cozy up with a book and read myself to sleep as I usually do but then I felt something nagging me. I could not place my finger on it for 15 minutes or so and then it hit me. I wanted to write ! I know it sounds corny but it's true. I have not exercised my creative muscles in the last 2 weeks (save for the last post, which did not require that much exercise) and a fortnight is pretty long for a dry spell. Yes, I know it the spell happened more because of laziness on my part than anything else but that's just splitting hairs.

Anyway, so once I figured out that I wanted to write, I then turned my attention to what, if anything, was going to be the object of this creative exercise. A blog post ! Even if I ramble on sleepily, it fits within the blog paradigm and I will get that nagging feeling out of my head. Brilliant ! Excellent ! Umm ... err ... where was I ? Oh yeah, something about rambling.

So now I know I want to write and I also know what I want to write. That's a pretty good start, don't you think ? Now, I need to figure out what to write about when I am writing what I decided to write (try saying that fast more than once !). I know ... I will write about what I am currently reading - The Best American Travel Writing 2004. It's one of my favorite genres - Travel Essays - and one of my favorite series - The Best American Writing. I pretty much finished the rest in the 2004 set some time ago but had not gotten to this one until the flight to St. Louis.

I first got exposed to travelogues when I picked up a copy of the excellent City of Djinns by the brilliant and under-read William Dalrymple. Being a delhite myself, I really appreciated the wonderful account of Mr. Dalrymple's stay and exploits in the Indian capital. From then on, there was no stopping me. I went on to the mesmerising From the Holy Mountain - an account of his travel among the orthodox Christian population living in the Middle Eastern nations. I was so taken with his descriptions that I did something I rarely do - I looked up his email address from his official website and emailed him to express my sheer joy at having read such a wonderful piece of work. To my surprise, I got an email back from him within the hour thanking me for my comments and enquiring about what I was studying (I had mentioned I was a student). I also read his The Age of Kali during the summer when I was in NY and I was flabbergasted ! He had outdone himself. I emailed him with comments along similar lines and his reply was very heartening. He said that I had just made his day with my comments. He also encouraged me to read his latest, this time a work of historical fiction and critically acclaimed, White Mughals. Alas, I have not yet found time to read it but it has been on my list for some time now and I hope to relish it soon.

Anyway, back to the book I am reading now. It is pretty darn good and I think I have some new favorites whose columns I will attempt to track during the coming year. In fact, may be I can post links to some of my favorite pieces that were actually published online. Let's see if Google can help me out here ... ah, here we go - The heart-stirring Facing Famine (Tom Haines, Boston Globe), the personally resonating The People On The Bus (Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker), the pleasantly mis-titled (read it and you will see) Kashmiri Extremism (Kevin Fedarko, Skiing) and the hilariously entertaining Canadian Gothic (Douglas Anthony Cooper, Travel & Leisure). I would have liked to post links to all the articles collected in the book but the reasons for my reluctance are threefold:

• I think that sleep I mentioned earlier is catching up with me.
  
• I really want to convince you to buy this book. No, I don't work for the publisher. I just really like it when extremely well written words find a large readership.
  
• I have not finished the book yet.
  

So, if you have been holding off on reading travelogues, you now have even fewer excuses to do so. Happy vicarious traveling, my friends !

Update

I just received the best comment I have ever received on this blog - The exams must be over. Please blog!. It is wonderful to know that there are people that actually check my blog regularly. I am deeply appreciative of such nice people and hope that they continue to be regular readers.

Enough gushing. Let's talk updates. Exams are indeed over. I managed to pull straight A's again this semester. However, that's not the only good news. The clincher is that I am completely done with the coursework requirements of the PhD and now it's time for the most interesting part - the actual research and writing the dissertation. Oh, another bit of good news - my cumulative GPA is 4.0. Not a monumental achievement, but still a bit of an ego-boost especially because the CS coursework at UMCP is notoriously difficult.

I was giddy at the thought of not having to take any more classes (yes, they were fun but there comes a time when you just don't want to write any more exams) and so I went on a two day television binge, catching up with my large collection of yet-unseen DVDs - M*A*S*H, Frasier, Agatha Christie's Poirot. There were times I thought about blogging but those thoughts were soon pushed aside by the well-deserved laziness that had enveloped me.

And then it was Christmas time. Family, friends and lots of shopping - online and otherwise. One of my dear old college friends visited from Lansing, Michigan. As I already mentioned, I was otherwise unengaged and so I was able to give her a guided tour of the area - the district looking even more breathtaking during holiday season, the debauchery-drenched yet beautiful Atlantic City and the solemn views of the capital city of Annapolis.

I am typing this from St. Louis, Missouri. I am visiting one of my best friends from college, who has been in the US for a short term project. I will be here long enough to usher in 2006 and then I will head out to MD on January 1st.

That's a pretty long update, I think, and I don't want to test the patience of the few regular readers that I have, so I will end here. I apologize in advance for the lack of links in this post (I usually try and link to everything relevant in the post) but the wireless signal seems to be pretty dismal in this part of the apartment and I am too tired to hunt for a better spot. Therefore, a "linkless" post would have to do for today. Happy Holidays !

A compelling case for wanderlust

I don't think I have ever been more motivated to travel around the globe (other than reading this) than when watching this excellent video. Well done, Matt Harding ! You made me laugh, enjoy music and want to go trekking around the world with a handycam.

Ah, Morbidity ... I missed you !

[Note: If you don't know sarcasm when you see it, you are the ideal audience for reading the following post.]

Slashdot is reporting that SciAm is running a story about whether the world is prepared for a flu pandemic. Here's a little excerpt: One day a highly contagious and lethal strain of influenza will sweep across all humanity, claiming millions of lives. It may arrive in months or not for years--but the next pandemic is inevitable. Are we ready ?

Now picture these exact same words on a Star Wars style crawl. Cool, isn't it ? So, if the now infamous avian influenza strain (with the menacing technical name H5N1 ... hmm, I don't know about you but that does sound cooler to me than R2D2 !! A coincidence ? May be, may be not !!) mutates into a lethal strain and becomes capable of being passed from a human to another human, it might prove to be twice as deadly as the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed about a 100 million people.

My reaction to this story was actually three-fold. Here's my first reaction with my Calvin hat on :





Here's the second one with my George Carlin hat on :


Imagine that I am saying something like "Well, we deserve it !!" in a much funnier way.

And, finally, this one with my Homer Simpson hat on (which, I gotta say, is my favorite hat) :




So, you got great Star Wars tie ins, edge-of-the-seat suspense, a touch of helplessness (can't make a vaccine before the virus mutates and by then it's too late !!) and a pretty diverse range of emotional reactions. I smell a blockbuster !

And if nothing else, at least we got SciAm to sell more copies, right ?

This Just In: Kansas Education Board Is Nuts

So, the Kansas Board of Education has approved new science standards which would allow the theory of evolution to be challenged in public schools and also allow intelligent design to be taught along with evolution. Are you thinking the same thing that I am thinking ? Why is this news ? It's Kansas, after all, right ? They tried to do this once before in 1999 when they actually excised almost all references to evolution from text books. Well, here's the more interesting and scary part from the same CNN story I linked to before:

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

Isn't that ingenious ?! No more claims that ID is unscientific. Even science is unscientific ! This is so dumb, it's brilliant !!

*shudder*

Tim Bray likes Vikram Seth !

So, I was doing my regular RSS feeding and I read this in one of the posts:

This is the latest by Vikram Seth, best known for A Suitable Boy. Seth is one of only two or three authors whose new works I buy on sight, without waiting to read reviews (mind you, since he only publishes every decade or so, this is not an expensive habit).

I had not yet looked at the source of the post and when I did ... lo and behold ... it was Mr. Tim Bray's excellent blog Ongoing. Tim, in case you didn't know, is the co-inventor of XML and XML namespaces, currently working at Sun Microsystems. A very smart man with insightful posts. Well, it's good to have something in common with him. I have been waiting for a long time for Seth to come out with a new novel after An Equal Music and here it is - Two Lives. Another item for the wish list.

No More Danish Feta For You !

I just heard this on NPR: The European Court of Justice has decided that only the "white cheese soaked in brine and originating in Greece" can be called Feta - this inane decision goes into effect starting 2007. France, Britain, Germany and Denmark had applied were lobbying against this ruling.

EU, I have two words for you - Ay Caramba !!

Lasagna & Birdwatching?

I was just watching The Daily Show and saw a commercial for Ask Jeeves. It was interesting to say the least. Here's how it went: A bird-watcher is standing in the marshes observing what I can only assume are some very interesting birds - because why else would you be in a marsh? Of course, that's something for another post. A woman comes out with a child and says, "I need a recipe for lasagna". The bird-watcher makes a face and then ignores her. This is followed by a voice-over which says, "Don't ask a bird-watcher. Ask Jeeves." Now, I understand the point of this commercial. But is there an arcane relationship between bird-watching and lasagna of which I have been unaware all this time? Have I been kept in the dark when it comes to the one of the most boring pastimes on the planet and the-food-that-Garfield-loves ?

Speaking of the show, Alan Alda was on ! Even though it was just for 10 minutes, I found out that he has just written his memoirs - Never Have Your Dog Stuffed : And Other Things I've Learned. Oh well, another day, another book on the wish list.

They did it again !

I had forgotten all about the Booker Prize shortlist, which was supposed to come out on 8th September. I just remembered and looked it up, hoping that they had found their way to nominate Rushdie again. Of course, life is full of disappointments and therefore, no Rushdie. *sigh* Well at least, they did retain my other favorite this year - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Never you mind, Mr. Rushdie. You will always be no. 1 in my book !

But Groundhog Day was on !

That's how I excused myself the other day when what was supposed to be a 5 minute break turned into a 2 hour interlude and left 2 oh-my-god-I-need-to-read papers unread in its wake. Groundhog Day is a member of the set that I call "Black Hole Movies". They are the movies that suck you in no matter what you are doing. Once you turn the TV on, you are no longer a man of your own free will. The force of these movies is so strong that it even lasts across commercials, so you are not immune even if you are watching it on network television (Heaven help you if you are watching commercial-free television!). Now, here are some axioms about the Black Hole set:

1) There is one such set for every person on the planet.

2) If you deny the existence of such a set, you are pathetically deluded.

3) The set only grows with time.

4) As soon as you come across a movie from this set on the TV, you will experience a strong urge to put down anything that you are doing and submit to its will.

5) You will experience strong feelings of joy and giddiness after watching such a movie which will far outweigh any feelings of guilt about shirking work, if any.

6) If you actually try to use this set as an excuse to another person (esp. a superior), you will be ridiculed and laughed out of the room.

7) There is no requirement that all movies in this set be good movies. Some movies may derive their force from the atrocity of their scripts.

8) If you record yourself watching a black hole movie and play it back in reverse while you are standing on your head wearing a one-sleeved shirt, you will hear the words "resistance is futile" over and over.

I will now reveal to you some members of my black hole set. Judge not lest ye shall be judged. Groundhog Day, Godzilla, Jeepers Creepers 2, One Fine Day, Army of Darkness, Scent of a Woman, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Agneepath, The LOTR Trilogy, The Die Hard Trilogy.

[ P.S.- Yes, I do not have a social life. Thanks for asking. ]

Rushdie Rocks !!

So I have been really busy lately since these are the last 2 weeks of my internship and I have to present my summer research work to the whole group. So I have not had a lot of time to do other things like read or write. Of course I still have to take time out to feed this cute guy and take him for a walk:



So today I finally got to bed about half an hour early and had time to resume my re-read of Rushdie's Satanic Verses. I had first read it back in junior year of college and I have always been in awe of it. Now, before I get accused of supporting an anti-Islamic agenda, let me make it clear that I am one of those people who can appreciate a work of art without attaching any religious connotations to it. I watched The Passion of The Christ and I thought it was an excellent movie. A movie, that's it - not anti-Semitic pro-Catholic propaganda as it is claimed to be. Whatever Gibson's intentions might have been, I still see it as a piece of entertainment and therefore treat it as such. Same with Verses - it is fiction.

Phew, that was a long disclaimer. Where was I? Oh yeah, I was going to describe how much Rushdie rocks as an author! Well ... a lot! For those of you unfamiliar with Rushdie, here are a few pointers:

1) He was born in India but raised in the UK. He is British by nationality.

2) He won the Booker Prize in 1981 for Midnight's Children (my all time favorite book). The same book then won the Booker Of Bookers' Prize in 1993 for being the best work in fiction to have won the Booker in its first 25 years. He was nominated 3 more times for Shame, Satanic Verses and The Moor's Last Sigh but did not win. (A gross oversight, as I like to claim).

3) He has been longlisted for this year's Booker as well for Shalimar The Clown (which yours truly has already pre-ordered, of course. It comes out in September.)

Yes, I am aware that I am gushing like a school girl but when it comes to authors like Rushdie (or Ishiguro, Morrison, Desai and countless others), the gushing is pretty much involuntary. Here's a little excerpt from Satanic Verses:

"They hadn't been getting along lately.
He told himself that afterwards, but not during.

Afterwards, he told himself, we were on the rocks, may be it was the missing babies, may be we grew away from each other, may be this, may be that.

During, he looked away from all the strain, all the scratchiness,, all the fights that never got going, he closed his eyes and waited until her smile came back. He allowed himself to believe in that smile, that brilliant counterfeit of joy."

It's passages like these that make me glad I became a reading nerd.

[ BTW, the canine's name is Java. He belongs to my landlady. I apologize if the pic is not very good. I took it with my new cellphone (flash warning). Don't you just love shameless self-promotions ?! ]

InfoVis/Flash Excellence !

I was never a big fan of Flash but that's probably because Flash creativity was not as prevalent as it is now. The Flickr Tag Browser is an excellent example of good Flash and an even better example of Information Visualization. I should make sure and get this added to the InfoVis Collection that our class created back in Spring'05.

Man, this is addictive ! Oh, BTW, if you are not familiar with Flickr ... where ya been ?

Haiku

I have recently been bitten by the Haiku bug. They are amazing little things, aren't they? Here are the 3 that I wrote very recently. The last one is sort of a riddle. Try and guess if you can.

Broken heart yonder.
Life is empty and devoid,
Love does not answer.

War lives once again.
Death rides naked and merciless,
Men turn a deaf ear.

Intruder Alert.
Greek tragedy replayed.
Blue death imminent.

My favorite modern Haiku of all time is the one that won Salon.com's Haiku Computer Error Message contest:

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

Positively Brilliant !!