Should the death penalty stay or go?

As Dhananjoy Chatterjee's life hangs between revenge and redemption while the government considers his wife's clemency petition, an old debate has sprung up again. Should the death penalty stay or go?

Can death penalty be justified under ANY circumstances? Sorry, but I don't think so.
Me for one thinks, that death penalty must absolutely go.

I feel that it is a violation of the basic human right to life. And in this aspect India has a long way to go. And oh, the country lecturing everyone on human rights - the USA has miles and miles to go before it can be called a civilised nation.

Killing someone is not an answer to any problem and neither does it have any deterrent effect. In Britain when pick-pockets were hanged publicly, others were doing rounds picking pockets of the public that had assembled to witness the hanging. So much so for the deterrent effect.

What does the society achieve by killing an accused or a convict? Nothing. And just in case that at a later date he be proved innocent, he has lost his life to the uncivilized society that does not care for human life.

And of for those who say that and eye for an eye is the policy. Sorry, while a murderer can be called uncivilized because he killed someone, are you just as uncivilized to commit the same crime - killing someone?

Is the Indian IT pro skilled enough?

Is the Indian IT pro skilled enough?: "Is the Indian IT pro skilled enough?"

The numbers may be fantastic. But the problem lies not in numbers. For a thriving and dynamic industry, growing in leaps and bounds, it is the quality of labour that has come under scanner.

Antipiracy bill targets technology - News - ZDNet

Antipiracy bill targets technology - News - ZDNet

The proposal, called the Induce Act, says "whoever intentionally induces any violation" of copyright law would be legally liable for those violations, a prohibition that would effectively ban file-swapping networks like Kazaa and Morpheus. In the draft bill seen by CNET News.com, inducement is defined as "aids, abets, induces, counsels, or procures" and can be punished with civil fines and, in some circumstances, lengthy prison terms.

Under the Induce Act, products like ReplayTV, peer-to-peer networks and even the humble VCR could be outlawed because they can potentially be used to infringe copyrights. Web sites such as Tucows that host peer-to-peer clients like the Morpheus software are also at risk for "inducing" infringement.

Wonder, where are these guys planning to go. If someone is so afraid that someone else would copy his/her work, they should just not make it public.

If the current trend continues we could soon see all technology being outlawed becuase it can "potentially" lead to copyright infringements. Maybe we should return to stone age.

Rediff.com offers one GB e-mail space

Rediff.com offers one GB e-mail space

After Gmail and Spymac now Rediff mail also offers 1GB storage space. That makes it my third 1GB account.

Microsoft patents 'to-do' list

Microsoft patents 'to-do' list

US Patent No. 6,748,582, granted and assigned on Tuesday to Microsoft, covers the use of a "task list" in a software-development environment.
The patented technology essentially integrates certain comments left in the source code of an application under development with an accompanying checklist. Leave a "TODO" comment in the source code, and an authoring application automatically creates an item in the task list. Check an item off on the task list, and the corresponding source code comment is changed.

Hmm.... Maybe I too could get a few patents......

Govt will seek reservations in pvt sector

Govt will seek reservations in pvt sector

The government proposed to initiate a dialogue with political parties, industry and other bodies on how best the private sector can fulfil the aspirations of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

President A P K Abdul Kalam told a joint session of Parliament that the government is sensitive to the issue of affirmative action, including reservations in the private sector, and is committed to faster socioeconomic and educational development of the SCs and STs.

Reservation quotas in government, including those relating to promotions, will be fulfilled in a time-bound manner, he said adding appropriate legislation will be enacted to codify all policies on reservations.

Wonder why these guys want to destroy everything. Taking people for a job should be based on what they can bring to the job and not what caste they belong to. The reservation virus was unleashed by V P Singh, and seems to have infected government jobs and admission to colleges. It was only the private sector that was (fortunately) left untouched and now even that is threatened. Wonder what is it that these guys wan to do :(

No sex please — we're Japanese

Pretty Interesting.

Only in Japan would a popular weekly newsmagazine deem it necessary to exhort the nation's youth to abstain from sexual abstinence: "Young people, don't hate sex," AERA magazine pleaded last month in a report detailing a precarious drop in sales of condoms and in business at Japan's rent-by-the-hour "love hotels."

More and more Japanese men and women are finding relationships too messy, tiring and potentially humiliating to bother with anymore.

RIAA wants your fingerprints

RIAA wants your fingerprints. Makes me wonder how they manage to consistently come up with increasingly stupid ideas.

Not content with asking for an arm and a leg from consumers and artists, the music industry now wants your fingerprints, too. The RIAA is hoping that a new breed of music player which requires biometric authentication will put an end to file sharing.

Established biometric vendor Veritouch has teamed up with Swedish design company to produce iVue: a wireless media player that allows content producers to lock down media files with biometric security. This week Veritouch announced that it had demonstrated the device to the RIAA and MPAA.

Now this is what I call Developer Friendly ;-)

Didn't expect VB 2005 to be so developer friendly. http://www16.brinkster.com/messydesk/db/refactvb.asp

When govt controls your wedding list

When govt controls your wedding list

The Jammu and Kashmir government's decision to bring marriages under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, has thrown cold water over a lot of ceremonies planned this summer. The act empowers the government to "regulate the number of guests and menu at any marriage function in the state". Under the act, families have to inform police and the department of Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs about the number of guests and menu. Those violating the law can be jailed for three years.
"The minister has failed at every front of public distribution system in the state and is now trying to enforce his writ by reviving a dead law," says a state official wishing anonymity.

Wonder whats next - A ban on marriages itself??