Before we get into further details, it is important to understand that the Parliament in India was designed in 1919 to have Legislative Supremacy over all other political bodies in the country. Well, the British would have loved that anyways! It appears that the Indian Government is also enjoying the supreme status as of now.

The problem as I see is that the people in power do not represent the majority of the country. Out of 550 odd members, 73 have serious cases registered against them under CRPC and over 150 Lok Sabha MPs have cases against them. I refuse to believe that a third of the country is made up of criminals! No political party in India was able to get over 50% popular vote in the 2009 elections. Is this a case of Highest Acceptance of the Least Despise?!?

The State is different from the Statesmen. This is one of the reasons that all parties accept that the Prime Minister should be included under the ‘jurisdiction’ of the Lokpal, on the post according the JanLokpal, and after stepping down, as per the Govt. Lokpal. No individual is above the law and that is the point that the Civil Society wants to make. If the Prime Minister is and will be honest, there is no reason for anyone to fear the law! There have to be reasonable checks in place to ensure that there are no frivolous complaints, and that should solve the purpose.

That said, the people of the country understand that the Parliamentary processes are right, and they will take time. ‘How long’ is the question. Is there a reasonable time limit to present and pass the bill in the Parliament? What would motivate a parliamentarian to approve of an authority that will question him? This is like asking the inmates of the prison to approve of a warden!

Parliament is the supreme authority on law making. All bills should be tabled in the Parliament, discussed and passed. Well that happened – way back in 1968! (Source – HERE)

Team Anna should respect the authority of the Standing Committee. Which one, the one formed in 1996, 1998 or 2001?!? Or the most recent one, that was formed after Anna Hajare threatened to fast in April?!? (Source – HERE)

There may be numerous arguments in favor of or against the Team Anna or the Jan Lokpal bill. The core issue is that whether the Government, the Opposition and the Bureaucratic fraternity of the country are motivated to bring a Lokpal that will have the fangs and teeth to allow a common man to be able to resort to an authority that will help and support him against corrupt practices of the office bearers.

Once again, this is not a fight between the Office and the Civil Society, this is between the Office-bearers and the common man on the streets.

I am writing this post on the iPhone 4 WordPress application. The good part of iPhone is that the app-store has so many applications that the device is much more than a phone. Actually, sometimes I think that the phone part of this device is less important than everything else here. I can say this because I am still using a locked phone and the only connectivity I have is via wifi at home or in the office. I am still unable to part with this device!!
More updates with tech and other issues later.. Now that I have the device, it should not be difficult!!

I knew that I will have to do a fresh install when Windows 7 will finally be available, as upgrade from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 Release is not allowed (yet). I knew that my license allowed me an upgrade to Windows 7 Home, which meant that I will have to do away with my installation that I was about to perform on the system as RC was available only in Windows 7 Ultimate. I knew that the Windows 7 RC will stop working after sometime, the bi-hourly shutdown to begin on March 1, 2010.

Even after all this, I chose to install Windows 7 RC on my laptop.

Windows means a ‘life without walls’. After using all the operating systems that I could put my hands on, I can say that I love Windows. I have used Windows Mobile on my HTC Touch Diamond, and when I changed it to Nokia E71, I missed the convenience of doing things the way they were meant to be done. Cut, Copy and Paste were so much easier on Windows Mobile, am glad IPhone users are also able to experience it now!!

Windows 7 seems to have been designed for the latest machines. Adding my Canon Printer or the E71 or HTC Phone was not even a task. I connected them and the Device Manager automatically installed the required Drivers, else told me what was required. Before installing the Windows 7 RC, I forgot to make a driver-disk, which would have all the drivers of this new laptop. I was amazed to see that everything installed perfectly and there were no conflicts whatsoever!

Windows 7 makes the online life easier. With Windows Live Essentials and the Internet Explorer 8, there is not much that I would require for working on the Internet. I have an instant messenger, blog writing application, email client, movie editor, networking utility, safety and security software, Fax and Scanner software and everything that I will require in a Home PC!

I didn’t have to do anything except give a couple of details and press next. It was smooth and it works perfect. I am not in a habit of shutting down the laptop anymore because the wake-up time from Sleep is about 2 seconds, and it doesn’t consume any battery on Sleep. I can move between my work and home wireless without worrying about establishing connections and the networking with a wired connection is also painless. The Action Center keeps on telling me about the problems ‘and’ the solutions, which taught me to create a Backup of my important files.

I don’t know if I have any reasons to move to any other Operating System. I have Windows 7 and I am very happy!

Sochta rehta hoon tanhai main anjam-e-khuloos
Phir usi jurm-e-mohabbat ko dobara karkey

Jagmaga di hain terey sheher ki galiyan main ne
Apney askhon ko palkon pe sitara karkey

Dekh letey hain chalo hosla apne dil ka
Aur kuch roz tere saath guzara karkey

Aik hi sheher main rehna hai magar milna nahi
Dekhtey hain yeh aziyat bhi gawara karkey

Found this on the Internet. I’ve translated this according to my little sense of language and tried to retain as much meaning as possible. 

His words meant that he wanted to part ways,
He cried a lot too after he separated.

I wonder what was the reward of my sincerity,
But I think love is a sin and I did it again.

I have lit the entire city, each alley and street,
by placing my tears as stars on my eyes.

I wait to see the will of my heart,
I won’t stop thinking of you for some more time.

To live in the same city and not meet,
will be torture but I am willing to test.

The applicants for this contest by Mitsubishi Motors, called the Great Driving Challenge, will have to prove their mettle in a four step contest.

The first phase of the contest is the registration and public voting, where participants register and vote for their favourite applicant, on the website.

The top 100 contestants from here will be judged by an independent jury, on the basis of their profile and their travelogues, posted on the same website.

They will shortlist 9 couples, who will have to go through various aptitude, driving and other tests, to confirm their ability to participate in this kind of a journey.

Finally, three couples will go around the country driving a Cedia for 3000kms. They will have to click 5 pictures a day, create 5 blog entries, and also shoot a video, to be in the contest.

The couple with the best travelogue will win a cash price of Rs 1 Million.

I have decided to participate and have created My Profile HERE. I need your support for the purpose and would request you to please vote for me, to get to the contest! You can vote by clicking here.

I will keep you posted of the events and my progress at the voting.

About 10 minutes ago, I stumbled upon a great tool – WordMobi . I was directed to this site by an unofficial Nokia E71 blog – E71.wordpress.com. WordMobi is available here . The developer claims that the application will work without any trouble on Nokia E71 and has also been tested on Symbian 5 series . It requires Python to be installed on the phone before WordMobi is installed and there is a very good installation guide here .

I particularly like the insert options. There is no need for you to know HTML anymore. The application has everything set for you, in form of start and stop. So if you want to insert a link, all you need to do is select Insert Link , and type the address. You can continue o write your text after that, and once you are done, again go to Insert Link and select it!

This post has been created using WordMobi!

Posted by Wordmobi

I managed to AIESEC in Jaipur to provide me with information on the city. They have interns coming to Jaipur for short durations and they need a central repository for their documents. They also need to provide information to their interns about the city and I believe Jaipur.ws can be a good start.

I am still trying to figure a plan for navigation through the website. It is not easy, given the various places of attraction in the city. Another trouble is to find out more about the history of Jaipur and the monuments and provide information that is not generally available. I do not wish to create this into a run-of-the-mill travel website, which partners with a tour operator and gives the usual stuff to people. I am trying to design something which can be used by the visitors in planning their trip, or by people who want to learn more about the city.

Work is on! There is no contact form on the website yet but if you have any comments then please feel free to post write here!

I got hold of a domain, www.jaipur.ws and I knew this was my chance to do something. I anyways wanted to try Drupal and build a site using it. I started to work on the website of my dreams and have been able to collect a little bit of information about the city. The best part is the history of Jaipur, which I guess was not known to many. The design of the city is not new as most people would think. This is based on the design of an ancient Chinese city called Chang’an. The division of the city in 9 parts, with walls surrounding the city and gates for public that would close at night to protect the citizens, is all based on the principles from Chang’an.

I know that there is a lot to add to the website and what I have compiled till now is not even a decent overview. I am still trying to get more information and should be able to get it with time. I am also trying to think of a Photography competition for people with pictures of Jaipur, so that I am create a decent gallery of pictures on the website. I am sure it should incite people to participate and we will ultimately have a ‘fair, non-sponsored’ resource of information on Jaipur.

I am hoping to compile it all soon and will post updates as and when possible.

There was a generous Canadian lady who owned this domain for about 10 years. She got this first registered in 1997 and then in 2007 I first got to see it (because that was when I started the company!). I contacted her via the form on her new website and requested her to let me know if she was interested in parting with the domain as she was not using it at that time.

She surprised me with her quick and pleasant response. She politely refused to give me the domain at the moment because she didn’t know if she wanted to give it to me, or to anyone. I told her that I am starting my company and it will be a great boost to me if I have the TLD. She probably understood and told me that she will think about it and let me know when she has decided something.

I mailed her a couple of times and she promptly responded, telling me her situation or point of view. In the beginning of the year 2009, I wrote again and she said that she was leaving for a vacation. She told me that she will decide about transferring the domain once she is back, finally. She was back in a couple of months and wrote to me saying that she was all prepared to transfer it to me. I could send the payment to her and she will ensure that the domain is transferred without any trouble.

I didn’t know if this was the right thing to do, it was a decent amount by any means. I was sure that she genuinely wanted to give me the domain otherwise she wouldn’t have written to me. I knew my money was safe but I was only unsure of the registrars as I had never transferred a domain comfortably before. I moved 2 of mine from Rediff to Znet and it was a horrifying experience.

Well, I did transfer the money and she sent me the authorization code in less than 12 hours of receiving it. I tried to move the domain to my registrar and as I had expected, something went wrong somewhere and the transfer didn’t happen. I was really troubled and anxious to get it all happen. I wrote to the support staff and they were as usual, clueless.

She was a great help in the meantime. She kept on writing to me to find out about the status of the transfer and she also ensured that I was comfortable during the entire process. She didn’t disappear after receiving the money but let the transfer complete till the end. It was a great relief and I am really thankful to her.

So, don’t forget to check techspeak.com in a couple of days. I am trying to figure out the best CMS at the moment and will ensure that the site is up before the end of next week. Fingers crossed!!

I was trying to look for a nice template for Zen Cart, which I have installed for the new domain, ITShopIndia.com. This site is supposed to be a place where the buyers of Computer parts and Accessories can connect directly with the suppliers and manufacturers and get products at wholesale prices. I reached the site of Kuroi Web Design, which has demos of free Zen-Cart templates. To appreciate the service by Kuroi Web Design, I decided to Tweet the page using Twitthis. I started to browse the top twitted pages and found a nice article by Seth Godin, the marketing guru. Phew!

The article is about personal branding and the Google effect. It talks about three people who applied for a job and how Google revealed the truth behind their claims. It is important to realize that privacy has a new meaning in the Internet era. People may think that they can disconnect their lives by not signing up to FaceBook, Orkut, MySpace and the likes, but it is not true.

Recently, I was seeing my own profile on FaceBook and realized that someone had tagged me in a photo. With over 2 billion photos uploaded, almost everyone in the world who has ever been clicked must have been tagged at least once, or will be tagged soon. It is true that you can restrict people from tagging you in pictures but you need to have a FaceBook profile for that!

You need to be on the network to ensure that you are not on the network!

It is difficult to remain behind closed doors when there is someone on the prowl all the time. The crawling spiders will not let any stone unturned. It is better that you are in control of the situation and manage your Online Profile judiciously. Even if you consider your privacy very important, just ensure that you have a decent public profile available to those who seek it, lest they will have to settle for what is made available to them.