Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The MBA Problem

Scenario 1: IT Company

Our profit margins are falling... What to do?

BE: We can use this new framework, that will reduce lot of effort and rework.

BCom: There are lot of pending payments from this customer. We can put a little pressure on them.

MBA: Fire all senior developers and hire freshers for lesser salary. To ensure quality hire MBAs from top B-schools

Scenario 2: Hospital

Our patients are leaving in a very short duration, even before the treatment is completed.

MBBS:
We need to keep the hospital clean. Also we need more equipment to diagnose and treat ailments correctly.

BCom: We are buying over-priced medicines from foreign companies. We can buy from domestic companies and that will reduce the cost for patients.

MBA:
Increase the shift timing of doctors; reduce spending on house-keeping. Also change the uniform of nurses to mini-skirt.

Scenario 3: Pickle Manufacturing Unit


We have a new competition. Our sales are expected to go down!

BE:
We can use the latest packaging to enhance shelf-life and aroma.

BCom: We can give discount on season specific pickles like mango to keep up the market share.

MBA: We can file a patent for "adding chili powder to pickle" and sue the competition for patent infringement.
***
Love it or hate it! MBAs are ruining our lives in all aspects. Hospitals are not run by doctors, hotels are not run by cooks, IT firms are not run by techies, even labs are not run by scientists. Every imaginable business/service/manufacturing/establishment are run by MBAs. They fix poor quality with fair skinned receptionists. They fight price competition with in patent courts. They gamble by firing highly experienced people for short-term profits.

Lifesaving drugs and vaccines are patented and priced so much so that even rich find it costly to afford. Noble professions like medicine and research are now seen as opportunities for sure cash, where people have no other choice but to pay what these profit hungry demons fix as price.

Education is refused to the poor. There is a need to differentiate the syllabus between what children of poor and children of rich study. Parents are brainwashed to an extent that they feel humiliated, if their children study the same syllabus (not even in the same classroom or school) as the children of poor people. Now parents are ready to pay hefty amount, just for a different syllabus!

Even essentials for life like water are packaged and marketed. 10 years ago, every teashop had a pot with a tumbler. You can drink as much as you want. Now every teashop has a fridge with water-packets and bottles. You have to buy according to your budget.

Seeds of food crops are patented and farmers threatened with lawsuits. Natural healthy foods are replaced by sugary, fatty junk foods and drinks on one side. On the other side, problems like obesity, malnutrition etc caused by these foods are used to advertise some other products as natural/organic/herbal etc.
Products are intentionally manufactured with poor quality and are less durable to ensure that people will be buying new items again soon. Some features are not included intentionally, so that they can be included in the next version and force the users "upgrade". In computers, later versions of software are designed to make older hardware obsolete. TV, set-top box, AC, fridge, invertor and every stupid thing around you is designed with one thing in mind. "People should buy this. But should be satisfied only for a short time, after which they should buy new."

Cars and bikes are forced on us with loans, adding to our economic burden as EMI, fuel cost and maintenance. Not only our economy is destroyed, our environment is also devastated. Just for those sales managers of banks and showrooms to reach the target, our future is made bleak. On the other hand, some corporate NGOs try to save the planet by taking your money.

Meaningless restrictions on second-sales of goods, sharing of information/artworks/software and improving an existing idea are imposed to cripple innovation and increase profits of few elites. Even the authors, musicians, software developer and scientists are cheated by these gimmicks.

Women (now-a-days men too) are used as mere sex objects for their advertisements. Existing superstitions and irrationalities are encouraged as they provide even more control and opportunities to exploit people for more money. Making people feel inferior for their skin tone or height etc may sound politically incorrect. But they are perfectly fine when it comes to marketing!

Everything is auctioned and over-priced by creating virtual demand. Earlier, over-pricing was a crime. Now it is the norms. If you ask, they tell you that they are not running a charity. But the truth is they are not even running business within the limits of business ethics. They are gambling with no rules. They are running mafias.

Due to this natural resources are exploited, our environment polluted and our livelihood destroyed in irreversible ways. All of these are done for one thing. Profit. More profit. But at what cost? Lives of millions. Hunger of innocent children. Sufferings of the diseased. Extinction of several species. Invasion of weaker nations. Exploitation of labor. Families caught up in never-ending EMIs and impossible to pay debts. Suppression of women and people considered low by caste/race/religion.

If I say, unethical quest for profit and rabid competition to take the market monopoly by people with MBA (and people without MBA but have the MBA mindset), is the reason for all of these problems, that can never be an understatement. Before MBAs, Newton didn't worry about patents. Bach had no copyrights for his music. Vaccines and anti-biotics were invented/discovered and made available to all for cheapest possible price. Doctors and teachers served people with so much dedication as they served God. Industries competed in terms of quality and price.

I am writing this, not to attack any individual or group of people. But a course that teaches people just to make and maximize profit at any cost is surely NOT what the world wants now. This type of mindset has crept in to almost all branches of education. This is a dangerous infection. Once if a person finds out almost everyone around him are acting ruthless for profit, then the person assumes that it is the new trend and starts doing it. That is how Lays and Coco-Cola took over not only star hotels but also roadside shops. No wonder your house owner or auto-driver is ruthless to you. Because they see you keeping calm about overpriced potato chips. They know that you are proud about your Rs. 40,000 mobile. Don't think you are highly paid and hence safe. You are well fed to be slaughtered for their feast!

Don't think you are highly paid and hence safe. You are well fed to be slaughtered for their feast!

We need a more ethical and moral approach to address the problems we face today. We can't fix things by throwing money at them. We can't save the world with guns and bombs. We can't settle our problems with lawsuits and economic sanctions. We need co-operation. We need collaboration. All of us should work together. Not for money. For betterment of everyone.

Disclaimer: If you are an MBA by accident and don't subscribe to the MBA mindset, pardon me!

Saturday, April 26, 2014

My Experience with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

I installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS in my new laptop due to laziness. (Yes, that was to top most reason as I was not in a mood to download a new distro. My USB drive had Ubuntu 12.04 as I used it lastly to install the same in my friend's laptop.) The laptop originally came with Windows 8. But I am happy only after wiping all the traces (installation, hidden rescue partition, drivers partition and even the Windows sticker) of it from my laptop. Now let me share my experience in upgrading and using 14.04 LTS.

First I did a normal update and made sure that all things are up to date. Then I opened update-manager through terminal and it showed that 14.04 is available. I chose to upgrade. It downloaded some 2300+ packages (around 1 GB) and took nearly 2 hours to get completed. Occasionally it asked few things like which display manager to use (as I have installed 4 desktop environments) and there was a change in only one conf file. So everything went fine.


After the reboot, I was taken aback by the speed. But on the other hand, the brightness control stopped to work. All other hardware drivers like bluetooth, Wi-Fi, touchscreen, volume keys, suspend/resume were working fine. So I did these simple changes to get things working! Overall the UI and the system are optimized and they run faster than earlier version. Also the UI is polished to work well with touch devices. So it is a great deal for people having touch laptops.

It packs lot of goodies and everything you need from media player to office applications are readily available. With Ubuntu LTS, you also get enterprise quality, robust and secure OS, which will be supported for another 5 years. Hope my laptop will live longer than that!

Boot speed has greatly improved.I logged in to the default Unity interface for the first time. I was greeted with a screen detailing how to use Unity. Fine. The UI is smooth and as a Gnome user, I like Unity too. Only thing is that, whatever you search in Unity will be sent to internet for searching other service providers, especially Amazon. You can easily disable it though! Just type privacy in the search box and turn off Internet search. You can also remove Amazon extension from software center or through command line.


Now my favorite, Gnome 3! It too was awesome. Clean and responsive. But due to my low end processor and lesser RAM, there were some occasional lags. But still it is usable.
 
Gnome Classic modes are also available in the login screen itself. Both Metacity and Compiz options to play with! It too is polished and less resource savy. I usually choose this session, if I am going to kill time with games and media.


LXDE desktop offers a old style but lightning fast experience. The LXDE needs some touch-ups to make things like screenshots and brightness control to work. But thankfully, they are all easily configurable!


XFCE experience is also smooth. I prefer this for most of the times as it is bit heavier than LXDE but lot lighter than Gnome or Unity, perfect for my laptop configuration!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Lenovo S210T - Brightness Control Keys Under Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

With the default Ubuntu 14.04 installation brightness control keys won't work. To fix this follow the steps below:

1. Open terminal (press Win key and type "terminal" and choose terminal)

2. Type the below code (you may be prompted to enter password)

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

3. In the grub file, edit the following line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"

4. Make sure you have not done any other change by mistake as it will mess up your booting. Save and close the file.

5. Then execute below command

sudo update-grub

6. Edit blacklist configuration file for modprobe

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

7. Add the following lines to it

# Added to make brightness control work
blacklist ideapad_laptop

8. Restart your PC
Brightness control working in Gnome session

For LXDE and XFCE, the keyboard keys won't work. But alternatively you can use the xbacklight command. Follow the below steps after doing above changes.

1. To install xbacklight

sudo apt-get install xbacklight

2. To decrease brightness

xbacklight -dec 5

3. and to increase brightness

xbacklight -inc 7

The numbers can be anything But be extra careful as it may fully reduce brightness if you give large numbers.

Any other comments/feedbacks/improvements are welcome! Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

What GnuTLS and OpenSSL Teach Us?

Recently there are lot of news about security issues in the Open Source software. GnuTLS was the first to come in light followed by OpenSSL (so called "Heartbleed" bug). Some people are completely unaware while some others (corporate slaves) use this to attack the free software movement itself, saying open source is insecure.

First, being  an open source project won't make the code superior or free of bugs automatically. Only with repeated review and testing along with highly skilled programmers, quality software can be written. So, who is going to review? Who is going to code? Most of the free software are developed by comparatively good developers and frequently reviewed by maintainers and communities. Most of them have an active base of beta testers too. So the free software are, most of the times, superior in quality compared to proprietary software.

BUT, there are many projects where the maintainers accidentally overlook a programming error, which may or may not be intentional. In such cases, there is a chance for the bug to get in to the released version. It will stay there for longer time after this phase as mostly the review will happen for new code. So, unless a biting issue shows up or someone by chance catch the bug during reviews, the bug will stay.

This is what happened with GnuTLS and OpenSSL. But there is a solution for this problem. As we discussed earlier, college students and hobby programmers can be encouraged to review, test and write code for free software projects. That will surely improve a lot. The next is, the corporates who use the free software should show some social responsibility by providing software engineers to test, review and bug fix the products they are using. OpenSSL bug was uncovered by Google's review thankfully. I know, there are smaller companies who can't do that. They can contribute by donating whatever amount of money or time or resource they have for the projects they rely upon.

Quality and safety won't come for free. Especially, in a community, it is everyone's responsibilities. But what people expect is much like, "I am a user and they are the developers". That mindset is the worst problem here. Everyone should think we are part of the free software community and whatever we create or use should benefit all of us.

By the by, for those corporate slaves, Free Software developers are resisting government pressure to create backdoors for the security agencies. But corporates gladly open doors for some money. With closed source tools, who knows how many such bugs exists? Don't think that as the source is closed, nobody can exploit it. Malicious hackers will use disassembler to do the job for them. So unavailability of source and rigid licensing will only delay or prevent identifying and fixing the issues while won't impact those who exploit the issue.

When there is a bug in the free software or open source software, it becomes news because they are rare. But millions of proprietary software bugs are exploited day in and day out without much noise because they are usual thing and even serious issues are covered up by corporate lobbies.

If you still feel that free software are inferior in quality, then it is time to do something to change it instead of sitting and complaining.

Talk is cheap. Show me the code. -Linus Torvalds

Sunday, April 6, 2014

10 Ways to Help Free Software Movement

1. Use Free Software

First thing you can do to support Free Software Movement is to use free software. Why use a proprietary software when a free software alternative is available? Don't use proprietary formats for documents or codecs for media. For example, go for .odt file format instead of .doc. Go for .ogg file format instead of .mp3 format. By this we can reduce the market share and dominance of unethical companies behind the proprietary software. Once their cash flow is cut off, they will not be able to stop the Free Software Movement by lobbying or through lawsuits and other cunning tactics. So we should show the world that free software are not used by few people in isolation but by everyone who wants to preserve their freedom. Some free software alternatives may have lesser functionality or a bit tough to use. But still they are superior because they respect your freedom. Which is better? curd rice prepared by mom or briyani given by politicians?

2. Release Your Code Under GPL

Whatever code you write, release it under GPL v3. This is the most apt license to release your code in most cases. In some rare cases, you may need other licenses. Please visit http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-recommendations.html to know more about the license that suits your need. By doing this, you are directly contributing to the Free Software Movement. Now a days people are lured to use the so called open source licenses that don't do justice to users or the developers. Some licenses allow others to include your code and yet release their software with a different license. This results in misuse/abuse of your code. For example, lot of corporate IT companies steal code from open source projects and never credit the real developers or donate the projects. In some cases they even try to compete and destroy projects from which they stole the code. To avoid all these along with hardware locking, you MUST use GPL v3 or any other license by FSF in future. Don't think your project is worthless or your code is not good. There is no wrong in releasing it under GPL v3 than letting it die in your PC. Someone may take it up and improve it or it may find relevance in some other place.

3. Code for Free Software Projects

The next thing you can do is, if you have time, then you can take write code for existing Free Software Projects. You can take up small bugs from their bug tracking systems and fix them. You can also go through the code and optimize/add functionality. This is relatively easier if you have lesser free time. You can just take a bug and try to fix it on a weekend. By this, you can improve the quality and robustness of the free software. Also you can improve your skills by knowing to do things in better way. If you mention that you are an accepted committer in a well known free software project, think how weight your resume will be!

4. Review Free Software Code

The other thing you can do is that, you can review the free software code in your free time. By this, you can spot previously unknown bugs, inefficient or non-standard code, malicious commits etc. Due to this activity, the overall quality of the free software projects will improve. Your skills will also get polished as you read more code and learn from rights and wrongs of others. This is one of the easiest way for anyone who can understand code, even if they don't have time to write code, to help Free Software Movement.

5. Report Bugs

Points 2,3 and 4 are only applicable for people with programming knowledge. But how can a person from different background help Free Software Movement? You can use free software and when you encounter a bug, don't curse and switch to proprietary software. Just report it in the bug tracking system of the project. Sooner the bugs will be fixed by someone else. Nobody will accuse you for reporting a bug! No! They won't come and ask "How dare you can report a bug when I gave it for free?". But they will thankfully see it as a help and try to fix it. By this you are helping the free software less error-prone. You can also become beta or even alpha tester by using the versions under development and actively reporting issues you face. Your contribution as a tester is always welcome!

6. Write Documentation

The other way to help without coding is to write documentation. Many good Free Software projects need good documentation too, so that new users can easily use them. So, if you are a person with good understanding of working of an application, and if the application lacks proper documentation, you can help it out by writing/editing/reviewing the documentation. Even you can fix spelling/grammar mistakes in the documentation. Every small help, when accumulates, results in great changes!

7. Translate

If you are a person with good command of language, then you can translate the documentation or the software itself in to your local language. By this you are making the free software more appealing to people from various countries and cultures. You are not only helping Free Software Movement, but also your local language by making technology available in that language.

8. Professional Advice

Not all free software developers are experts in various fields. For example, a very good C++ developer may be writing a free software for accounting. He needs expert advice in some aspects of accounting to make his software function in the right way. So, if you are an expert in any field like medicine, chemistry, music, electronics, language etc, you can provide your valuable ideas and suggestions to improve free software projects. By collaborating across various domains of expertise, we can innovate in ways we have never before in human history.

9. Spread The Word

You, as an individual you can introduce free software to your friends and family. If every free software user introduces at least 5 persons to free software, soon, we can put a full stop to the proprietary software. Already many such groups are active across the world. So, search for such local groups in your area and join them. Else, start one! Also don't stop just with talking about free software. You can help others installing free software and guiding them to use it. You can push your government/school/office to switch to free software by outlining the benefits of doing so. Write blogs about free software, put banners supporting frees software in your sites/blogs. Free Software Movement is mostly run by donations. So they can't afford costly advertisement campaigns. So, it is up to us to do it for freedom!

10. Donate

The last thing you can do is by donating money or material for the free software projects. You can donate to specific project or to Free Software Foundation itself! Check out the FSF donation banner at top right corner of this blog! Not only money. You can donate by distributing CDs/DVDs containing free software. You can sell free software or books on it and give part of profit to free software projects. You can donate hardware for free software projects. You can buy merchandises, books and other stuffs sold by FSF or other free software projects. If you are not wealthy for all these things, at least you seed torrent downloads of free software projects. By this you are offloading their servers and helping someone who is downloading free software!

Conclusion:

These are not the only ways. My knowledge is limited. So there may(should)be many other ways I have missed. Please share your ideas. Also share your experience of helping Free Software Movement in comments. Thanks for reading.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

What Recent Changes in Microsoft Mean?

What do the following statements mean?

  • Microsoft to give Windows OS free to Indian Phone Manufacturers

  • Microsoft to give Windows OS free for phones and small tablets

  • Microsoft to give Windows OS free for laptop OEMs

  • Microsoft to give Windows OS for "Internet of Things" for free

  • Microsoft open sources large portion of .NET

Let me share my opinions on each of the above statements here.

Note: People are so confused with the terms free software, open source and freeware. If you are one such person, please read this post for clarity!

Microsoft to give Windows OS free to Indian Phone Manufacturers

Microsoft wanted some Indian phone manufacturers to make cheap Windows mobiles so that they can compete in low-end market. But who will be able to pay around Rs. 1,200 extra for every phone to get the license of the OS when a costless alternative is available? This is the reason Google made Android available for free of cost. As Android is free of cost, most phone manufacturers adapted it to their phones and now Android is the clear market leader. Now Goolgle is earning through ads, app purchases, by selling songs/books/movies etc.

Windows thought that the same tactic that worked on PCs of desktop era will also work on mobiles of smartphone era. But their market share was (and is) so pathetic that at one point they earned more from Android phones than Windows phones. Very few people are developing Windows phone apps. People in developing nations are buying cheaper alternatives. So they tried their best to push their OS to the world's second largest developing market with their Microsoft tax. But the Indian companies rejected Microsoft's offer until they were down on their knees and accepted to give the OS without licensing fee. The funniest part is, even Nokia can't get Windows for free. Why Microsoft did this? Are the Indian companies so clever to bargain and strike such deal? I think no! The Indian companies are the reality that every other company is going to end with. With increasing demand for higher hardware specs in a lower price range, sooner or later, companies should let go the unwanted load of paying for OS. So, it is much like Indian companies telling Microsoft what reality is and Microsoft accepting it without any other option left!

Microsoft to give Windows OS free for phones and small tablets

The previous happened by February/March 2014. As noted, all companies, no matter how big they are will follow the Indian manufacturers in opting for a free of cost operating system to cut cost and stay competitive in the market. So Microsoft can't tax every phone produced and expect their market share to grow or even sustain. It is just Microsoft realizing the truth again. But here is a catch. Microsoft will charge tablets with screens larger than 9 inches. So, it is much like, they will give the OS for free to smaller devices and increase their market share and bring more people to develop their apps, while on the other side, they will gradually start charging license fee. Once a market monopoly is attained (that will never happen!), they will charge the fee in full swing and from everyone. Remember, they are giving it for free of cost, but the source is still closed. So for everything like updates/upgrades/bug-fixes/optimization/customization etc, the companies need to depend upon Microsoft as the code is not open.

Microsoft to give Windows OS free for laptop OEMs

Now Microsoft is also considering a free of cost version of Windows for laptops so that laptop manufacturers can bundle them without paying the fee. Again, this is a honey trap to trick many users to buy laptops running crippled version of Windows. If they want a better version, they should pay. They may restrict the number of applications that can run at same time.They may not provide options to do critical administrative tasks in Control Panel etc. And if a user wants that, Microsoft will ask them to pay for a professional or ultimate edition.

Microsoft to give Windows OS for "Internet of Things" for free

Nobody can imagine an OS that runs on every electronic/electrical equipment around you as a paid software. If you have to buy a bulb or coffee maker running Windows (or any other OS that has license fee) the cost will be doubled or tripled or quadrupled due to the cost of license fee. So a paid OS for Internet of Things will never work. If that is the case, the manufacturers will come up with their own Linux based or BSD based or home grown solutions. And mark my word, the Internet of Things OS will most probably be open sourced. Unless it is open sourced it can't be modified and adapted to everything around you from your bike to bulb and your AC to mosquito repellent. Only exception will be Apple, who will still insist that their hardware and software are unique and that will drive the last nail on their coffin.

Microsoft open sources large portion of .NET

Microsoft has open sourced lot of .NET projects under an unbrella .NET Foundation. Mostly they will be released under Apache 2.0 license which is FSF approved and GPL v3 compatible. So this from the same company that called Linux a cancer and took extreme measures like secure boot to lock laptops and not allowing users to install other operating systems. Why? I think the major reason is, they can't maintain the crappy code their highly paid and poorly skilled developers are making. So they are releasing the code to public so that they can just oversee the activities while hobby programmers and others like college students, freelance programmers etc can take up review, bug reporting, fixing and enhancements. So I feel the motive behind open sourcing too is selfishness. Let us see how things unfold in the long run.

Conclusion:

Microsoft, like Apple and Google is a corporate that tries to become a monopoly in digital world. Apple and Google are also known to release some software code as open source but still their activities prove time and again that their intention is to keep people without any real freedom. Android, Chrome, Darwin, Webkit etc are open sourced not to benefit the public. There are two reasons. Either these software are lifted from existing open source software or their nature itself forces the source to released, without which, development/maintenance becomes costly and problematic. Now Microsoft has joined them. It may be the new CEO or the dying industry! They have taken a 180 degree turn. But the real freedom loving people should try their best to ignore these gimmicks and go ahead with truly free (as in freedom) and open software.

References:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/microsoft-to-stop-linux-older-windows-from-running-on-windows-8-pcs/9589

http://wind8apps.com/windows-free-phones-small-tablets-iot-devices/

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-open-sources-more-of-its-net-technologies-7000028031/

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Microsoft-offers-Windows-Phone-OS-free-to-Indian-players/articleshow/31924651.cms

http://www.osnews.com/story/24800/Microsoft_Earns_More_from_Android_than_Windows_Phone_7

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/03/microsoft-launches-net-foundation-to-foster-the-net-open-source-ecosystem/

http://searchengineland.com/battle-for-books-evil-google-versus-the-altruistic-open-content-alliance-10115

Free Software, Open Source and Freeware

There are lot of confusion about the words Free Software, Open Source and Freeware. I try my best with my limited knowledge to explain things in layman's terms so that people from non-technical background too can understand.

1. Free Software (கட்டற்ற/சுதந்திர மென்பொருள்)

Many people confuse that Free Software is the one that is available for free of cost. But that is not true. Most free software are available for free of cost but the word "free" in the free software stands for freedom. Free software respects your freedom by allowing you to study the code, modify the code, redistribute or sell the copy or modified copy to whomever you want and to give back your changes to the community. All of these good things come with one condition. If you modify the code of a free software, your code should also be released to the public (whenever the modified version is distributed). So with all these good intentions, Free Software becomes the morally superior choice of software for anyone! If you are a programmer, then you should release your code under GPL v3 or any other FSF approved software license to protect your and everybody's freedom. If you are an ordinary user, still you can help Free Software movement by using free software alternatives, avoiding proprietary software, reporting bugs, helping with translation, asking for new functionalities, donating money and by introducing others to use free software.

2. Open Source (திறந்த ஆணைமூல மென்பொருள்)

These are the software in grey area. These software have their source code open but the motive may be different than respecting user freedom. For example, a company may throw a small tool as open source to boast about the code quality and by that gain popularity. Or else they can give a software as open source but the software needs to consume their service which may be paid or ad supported (as in the case of Android). Still some other companies release their outdated or hard to maintain projects as open source so that the community will take over bug-fixing and enhancing the same. There are some open source licenses that restrict forking. So we can't say that all open source projects respect the user/developer freedom. And there are some developers who release their source code without any proper license and these code can be misused/abused by corporates. As the source is open, we can be sure that there is no backdoor or provision to steal your data. So not all open source software are free software but all free software are open source. Even though open source software are superior than proprietary software, they are still inferior to free software. So they can be used sparingly and if possible, the open source project maintainers should be educated to release their code with a more freedom respecting license.

3. Freeware (இலவச மென்பொருள்)

Any software that is given for free of cost is called freeware. The Tamil name says more clearly what it means. Most of the Windows users think about these software when we tell them about "free software". Examples are µTorrent, AVG Antivirus, Winamp. These are given for free of cost but with no freedom attached. For example, if you find a bug in the software, you can't really do anything about this other than contacting the creator even if you know the programming language with which the application is developed. This is because the source code will not be available. Also if you make modifications to their software there are good chances for you to get sued for "intellectual property" (which is non-existent) infringement. Also you can't be sure that these software are not spying you by collecting your data or allowing back doors to others like NSA to spy you or take control of your machine. So one should try every possible way to not to use any freeware.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Why I Am Not OK with What OkCupid Is Doing

First, I am not against homosexual relationships and my opinion on that subject is neutral. Second, recent changes in Firefox like plan to include ads and consuming lot of memory etc made me some what upset with Firefox. So don't think that this post is by a Firefox fanboy defending whatever crap Mozilla is doing.

OkCupid, an online dating site, is now asking visitors who use Firefox, to consider changing their browser as the new Mozilla CEO donated $1,000 out of his personal wealth for a campaign against gay marriages. Brendan Eich is not only Mozilla's CEO. He is the main designer of JavaScript. Will OkCupid go clean of JavaScript too? All they wanted is cheap publicity. I assure them that they got it because, someone sitting here in India, who never knew that a stupid dating site named OkCupid existed before, is now writing a rebuttal.

Everyone is entitled to have their own opinion and views. Like fingerprints, no two persons have exact set of views and opinions in this world.That is what makes us humans. Any person's view should be kept as personal and should not affect his/her work. With that said, Brendan Eich can have any opinion as long as he doesn't allow those opinions influence his work.

Up to my knowledge, Firefox has not done anything against homosexuals. None of Eich's works or decisions as CEO of Mozilla were against homosexuals. Even Mozilla reaffirmed their support for equal treatment of homosexuals. The donation supporting gay marriage ban, in question was made 6 years before. Eich had just mentioned Mozilla as his employer and he didn't make the donation on behalf of Mozilla.

So is that like no person can have a personal opinion on trivial issues while holding top level positions in organizations? Should Christians boycott Apple product as Jobs was Buddhist? Instead they should boycott it for its closed nature and patent lawsuits which violates freedom. Should Muslims stop using GNU/Linux as both Dr. Stallman and Torvalds are Atheists? Instead everyone should use GNU system to tackle NSA like surveillance. Where will we be if we take personal views and opinions of people behind a product in to consideration before using it, even when the view or opinion has nothing to do with the product?

Mozilla is not having child labor. It doesn't run sweat shops. It is a non-profitable organization with community support. They are people from different countries, speaking different languages, eating different foods etc joining hands to build a free software. So to oppose a collective effort just because of a personal opinion of a member of that group is morally wrong and outright stupid. I am OK if OkCupid or anyone else opposing Firefox for their shorter release cycles or larger memory footprint or anything else related to their product or organizational decisions. Instead of that picking a person's individual opinion to undermine the collective work of thousands is unacceptable.
Ironically, OkCupid's homepage has JavaScript on the first line of code itself!☺

Now, I know that there is almost no probability for any OkCupid user to read my blog. But still, if you are an OkCupid user, please consider using any other dating site, not because the people running OkCupid are scumbags, but their mean tactics to gain popularity sucks!!!

Update: Sadly Brendan Eich has resigned :-(

References:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26830383

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript

Photo Credit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brendan_Eich_Mozilla_Foundation_official_photo.jpg

Skillet – Music Review

I like to hear Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). Especially Christian Rock and Christian Metal. My favorites CCM artists/bands include Paul Baloche, Delirious, Third Day, Don Moen, Ron Kenoly, Day of Fire and you know, the list never ends :)

But I had missed one of the best Christian Rock bands till recently. They are the Skillet! I bought one of their CDs in 2008 (Comatose) but I misplaced it along with old driver CDs. My bad!! Then one day I happened to hear their song accidentally while watching some CCM videos in Youtube. They were awesome! Then I listened many of their songs and almost all of them are great.

Three days later, I was cleaning my room and stumbled upon the “Comatose” CD. It was like a blessing for me! I really didn't remember that I bought that CD at all. So I added it to my CCM collection in PC and also transferred it to my mobile. With little effort I purchased few more of their albums. Now I hear their songs almost daily and their song “Hero” from their album “Awake” has become my ringtone!

Music Style

The music style of Skillet is a kind of fusion of Hard Rock, Nu Metal, Progressive Rock and some times even Grunge. Especially the songs in Awake album sounds much like Nu Metal. If you are a fan of Linkin Park, then surely you will like Awake! The drummer of the band is a woman. You can't find such fast paced powerful drum beats from a woman usually. But believe me, their songs have such good drums. Guitar and keyboard needs special mention too. The lead male singer is the one who plays Bass. WOW! Only few can manage lead singing along with bass like Sting. The rhythm guitarist also sings a good part of the songs. Together, they put everything they can to treat our ears with great music.

Lyrical Style

Their lyrics have very deeper meaning and each sentence echoes the Christian beliefs and values. The lyrics for most part lack explicit mention of God or Christ and it lacks Christian jargons too. But the theme is Christian to the core and without explicit reference, they have delivered the Christian message right to our hearts. None of the songs are self-centered and glorify men. Mostly the songs talk about the inabilities and shortfalls of human nature and our need for Divine help to set things right. The lyrics make the songs suitable for hearing any time, any place.

My Favorite Songs

1. Hero

This song is from the album Awake. It is a nice song with Nu Metal like music. Its lyrics talks about we are not super humans and special, just another ordinary person who needs a saving hand in everything we do.

2. Awake and Alive

This song is also from the Awake album. The music is rich with violin and keyboard along with usual rock instruments (guitar, bass and drums). The song is like slipping in to sleep/unconsciousness in a state of inability and to wake up with full life and kicking.

3. Live Free or Let Me Die

This is song is from Comatose. With very heavy guitar power chords and awesome riffs, this song packs the message of freedom. Without freedom, what is the use of living like a cyborg? With fast paced drum rolls, the song will make you bang your head for sure.

4. Rebirthing

This song is also from Comatose album. This song talks about the rebirth in to a new life. Dying to the old self and the first breath we take in Christ. Like a butterfly waiting to come out of the cocoon, everyone of us are living a life inside shells we ourselves have created. We should realize that we are not made just to stay dormant inside that shell but to fly and enjoy the world like a butterfly! The video of the song is also very nice.

5. Comatose

This song, is obviously from the album Comatose. The song has very good music with touch of fast paced piano notes and heavy guitar riffs. “I don't wanna breath, I don't want to live” This is the usual mindset we go in to when we face tough situations. This song talks about How realizing Christ is with us will make us feel comfortable and give us strength to go on with life.

There are lot many songs I like from other albums like Alien Youth and Rise. If you want to try some songs, just go to Youtube and listen to some of their songs. If you like their music and their themes, you can buy their CDs too. If you are a Skillet fan, please share your favorite songs and your experience in comments. Thanks for reading.