{Sajith M}

This blog has moved

2006-06-06T01:24:00.000+05:30

This blog has moved to http://blog.sajithm.com/

No Quota

2006-05-30T14:21:00.000+05:30

PIL hearing in Supreme Court

2006-05-30T00:34:00.000+05:30

The proposed increase of OBC reservation would divide the great nation on the basis of caste.

This is what the Supreme Court of India had to say during the hearing of the PIL opposing the reservations.

Are our politicians listening???

BJP speaks... finally... (Part 2)

2006-05-30T00:22:00.000+05:30

TimesNow reports:

Addressing the National Executive Committee meeting of the party in the capital, BJP President Rajnath Singh said that the BJP supported the constitutional amendment to provide reservation but has asked the UPA to ensure that merit does not get squeezed once the quota regime gets implemented.

Is this supposed to be some kind of a joke?
The BJP is trying to say that implement reservation but don't deny the deserving... Does it not understand that reserve and deserve can't go together? Or is it just an attempt to be pro and anti reservation at the same time?

What Jawaharlal Nehru thought of reservations

2006-05-29T02:10:00.000+05:30

On the 27th of June 1961 wrote to the Chief Ministers of the day as follows:

I dislike any kind of reservations. If we go in for any kind of reservations on communal and caste basis, we will swamp the bright and able people and remain second-rate or third-rate. The moment we encourage the second-rate, we are lost....
This way lies not only folly, but also disaster.

Arjun Singh Interview

2006-05-29T01:37:00.003+05:30

Karan Thapar in an exclusive interview to the Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh

BJP speaks... finally... (Part 1)

2006-05-29T01:37:00.002+05:30

Zeenews reports

Breaking his silence on the quota controversy, Leader of Opposition L K Advani on Sunday demanded setting up of a specialist committee to study the impact of reservation and examine alternative remedies for affirmative action which would not undermine merit or excellence. Addressing a function here to mark the opening of a park in memory of late Hindi litterateur Gopal Prasad Vyas, the senior BJP leader said, "merit and excellence should not be undermined while addressing the legitimate concerns of sections of society that have lagged behind for centuries."

Senior leader and former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee accused the UPA-led government of trying to create social tensions.

Another report in The Hindu

Reservation in institutes of higher education or government jobs should be abolished, but benefits of quota system should be offered till higher secondary school, the BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha said today.

"The quota system should be done away with in institutes of higher education and government jobs. We have been talking about it within the party and making suggestions to governments," Morcha President Ramnath Kovind told reporters here.

Aliens in our own country!

2006-05-29T01:37:00.000+05:30

Most of us would have seen the Honourable Prime Minister saying that the reservation issue is settled. We think we need to remind the PM that we fail to see how it is settled. This country is supposed to be a democratic country and not a country ruled by a dictator. A person siting in his Air-Conditioned room on a leather-backed chair suddenly gets into his mind that he will give reservation to garner votes in the next election and at the same time keep his plush office to himself. And the PM says the issue is settled? Maybe the PM needs to get himself checked by an Ophthalmologist for he doesn't see so many of us protesting all over the country or maybe he doesn't trust the doctors in India! We all will like to remind you, Sir, that we are the people who deal with lives here. We do not get second chances like you do in elections. And we also fail to understand what you were laughing at! We think this as a very serious matter. Unfortunately, you seem to disagree. Are we supposed to believe that you laughed at your own inability to get things under control? Or was it a satirical laugh at us? Any which way we didn't like it.

With all due respect Sir, we think you could have done better. Infact you could have done something. We are feeling like aliens in this country. Have you suddenly decided that India is over-populated and you need to get rid of a part of the existing population? We can give you better ideas to control the Population Growth Rate.And where is the hyped up Opposition? We thought you were supposed to question the Govt. on such things. Maybe you are afraid of opposing the Govt. for fear of becoming un-popular with the backward castes! We'll grant you that. But maybe you forget that we are part of the electorate too. If none of you have the will to oppose this then why are you in Parliament? Maybe you forget that you draw salaries from the tax we pay.If the Govt. is so concerned about the upliftment of the under-priviliged, why don't they open up primary schools and middle schools in the bacward areas? For whom are we talking about higher education when the majority of the backward castes are still not literate. Would the people with power take the pain to explain this question?We are seeking answers from you. We are seeking justice from you. We are supposedly the cream of the society! Have you developed a sudden distaste for this cream? If yes, it explains your actions. If no, why the injustice towards us? We are waiting...

Youth For Equality

2006-05-29T01:11:00.000+05:30

Youth for Equality is a forum which was initiated by the students of the 5 medical colleges of Delhi, to bring together those Youth (irrespective of field/caste/class) who feel strongly against populist measures (reservations on basis of caste/religion) which are wrong, unjust and harmful to India's future.

Checkout the Youth For Equality site and do whatever you can to stop this reservation monster which is threatening to gobble our nation.

India Chapters:
Youth For Equality (Main Site)
Delhi
Gujarat
Punjab
West Bengal
Banglore, Karnataka
Baroda, Gujarat
Belgaum, Karnataka
Chennai, Tamilnadu
Davangere, Karnataka
Kota, Rajasthan
Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Mysore, Karnataka
Pune, Maharashtra
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

USA Chapters:
USA (Main Site)
Bay Area
Chicago
Oklahoma

Corporate support sites:
Corporate Protest
IT Professionals (Mumbai)

Indians to Moon

2006-05-29T01:06:00.000+05:30

What the moon mission will look like post the quota raj.

Manmohan Singh to Bush
Singh: We are sending Indians to the moon next year.
Bush: Wow! How Many?
Singh: 100
25 - OBC
25 - SC
20 - ST
5 - Handicapped
5 - Sports Persons
5 - Terrorism Affected
5 - Kashmiri Migrants
9 - Politicians
and if possible
1 - Astronaut

Reserved

2006-05-27T16:41:00.000+05:30

Save the Internet

2006-05-19T16:39:00.000+05:30

Support the Campaign

Why We Have't Met Any Aliens

2006-05-10T12:39:00.000+05:30

Why We Have't Met Any Aliens

The story goes like this: Sometime in the 1940s, Enrico Fermi was talking about the possibility of extra-terrestrial intelligence with some other physicists. They were impressed that life had evolved quickly and progressively on Earth. They figured our galaxy holds about 100 billion stars, and that an intelligent, exponentially-reproducing species could colonize the galaxy in just a few million years. They reasoned that extra-terrestrial intelligence should be common by now. Fermi listened patiently, then asked, simply, "So, where is everybody?" That is, if extra-terrestrial intelligence is common, why haven't we met any bright aliens yet? This conundrum became known as Fermi's Paradox.

Pramod Mahajan No More

2006-05-03T17:12:00.000+05:30

Image Courtsey: The Economic Times

Pramod Mahajan: A tribute

May his sould rest in peace...

Fixed Width Clear Type Font - Now Available Free

2006-05-03T15:03:00.000+05:30

Download Consolas

Consolas is intended for use in programming environments and other circumstances where a monospaced font is specified. All characters have the same width, like old typewriters, making it a good choice for personal and business correspondence. Optimizing the font specifically for ClearType allowed a design with proportions closer to normal text than traditional monospaced fonts like Courier. This allows for more comfortable reading of extended text on-screen.

The download page says that only licensed users of Microsoft Visual Studio 2006 can install this. It works fine for me though ;-)

You don't have to know everything

2006-05-02T13:08:00.000+05:30

You are subscribed to way too many blogs and read too many books. And needless to say you feel inferior to all the other great souls even though you do a pretty good (or maybe even wonderful) job.

From SecretGeek

You do NOT have to refactor all your code.
You do NOT have to keep up with the latest news from microsoft, and know everythnig there is to know about longhorn, whidbey, avalon, XAML, indigo and star wars III.
You do not have to have perfectly de-coupled tiers in your technology independent SOA software.
You do not have to comply to every standard, achieve the perfect balance between maintainability and performance. Usability and familiarity.
You don't have to do "first things first every day"
You DO NOT have to memorize and understand every patten the gang of four have catalogued.
You do NOT have to read every technical blog, print out every technical article and learn every technical thing there is to learn.
You are beautiful just the way you are.
You are brilliant, interesting, wise and fun to be around.
You rock.

Don't give out your passwords

2006-04-28T00:54:00.000+05:30

To Those Concerned:
Ok Guys, maybe someone needs to tell you that you are not supposed to enter your email addresses and the corresponding passwords into strange and unknown sites. You know who you are and I don't want to take names...

Now My Extended Rant:
Ok guys, why (why why why) do you type your username and password for email services into strange looking pages on unknown sites?

Got this email with subject "Check it out" from one of my Yahoo! contacts inviting me to play online bingo. Pretty cool except that I cant understand why they need my AOL, Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo usernames and passwords. Hmm....

Further probing reveals this wonderful mode of operation:

You get an email that looks like it came from one of your friends, with the subject "Check it out". It contains a link to a web page that lets you find out who invited you. You then enter your first name, your email address at Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo!, or Gmail, and your password. Great! You just managed to provide your first name, your email address and your password. And from that, your contact list. So now your contacts all get "Check it out" emails from you, and the circle of life is complete.

The page in question is http://followhere01.com/go.asp
Go have a look, its perfectly safe as long as you do not enter your details.

Read this touching blog from a poor soul who managed to get scammed.

For the adventurous they also have a downloadable version of the game at http://www.playbingolive.org/download/PlayBingoLive_Install_v32.exe
Don't want to take a guess on what it could be. Some brave (or foolish) soul can install and let me know the results.

Spamhaus Project has this listed:
Reference SBL40491, SBL40492, SBL40493

Condom Free with Pepsi ;-)

2006-04-26T23:34:00.000+05:30

Rediff reports:

Soft drink giant Pepsi has been ordered to pay over Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000) compensation by a Delhi consumer court after a man found a condom inside a sealed bottle of the company.

Complete report here

Is Premji right to go against job quotas in Wipro?

2006-04-24T17:34:00.000+05:30

The Economic Times has opened a debate on "Is Premji right to go against job quotas in Wipro?"

As expected most of the posts agree with him... Edward Edezhath manages to put his point across in a wonderful and greatly readable way... Read it here

I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting Reservations. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 percent reservation for muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player. The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century. We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib aktar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.

Also we should have reservation in Olimpics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.

There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help the country.. )

Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country..)

Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward.
Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country. Let's be proud of being an INDIAN..

May the good breed of politicans like ARJUN SINGH long live.

Visual Studio 2005 Express will be free permanently!

2006-04-21T18:00:00.000+05:30

Visual Studio 2005 Express will be free permanently!

Effective April 19th, 2006, all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions including Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer Express will be free permanently!

The Development Abstraction Layer

2006-04-18T16:46:00.000+05:30

The Development Abstraction Layer - Joel Spolsky discusses the importance of having a great corporate infrastructure so that developers can just get on with writing code. Well, that's one model, and developers certainly find it a seductive one. But it's not the only model; some companies run successfully with a much leaner profile where the yacht drivers also get their hands dirty in the engine room.

A photographic time capsule of computing

2006-03-28T11:40:00.000+05:30

A time capsule of computing. Find it here.

Features tube panel from the Whirlwind, first RAM, IBM 360, 333rd workstation ever shipped by Sun Microsystems (a SUN 100), Commodore Pet, TRS 80, Apple II and the first Google storage system.

Top Ten Database Mistakes

2006-03-09T15:05:00.000+05:30

Ten of the Biggest Mistakes Developers Make With Databases
Thanks to Mikhail for the link.

Finally a phone to hold all my music

2006-03-09T14:24:00.000+05:30

Ok, at 7.2GB my music collection is just about average. But that would nicely fit onto this phone - the Samsung SGH-i310 with 8GB hard disk (yeah that leaves about 800MB of space for other uses)

The SGH-i310 runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphones and features an 8GB HDD, 2MP camera with flash, video recording and playback, TV-output, audio playback, dual speakers w/digital amplification, A2DP stereo Bluetooth, Picsel document viewer, USB 2.0, and microSD memory card storage.

New live.com

2006-03-08T16:32:00.000+05:30

www.live.com has had some major upgrades, and they are WOW!!!

Read this post for more info, or just go live :)

Blank media tax

2006-03-08T16:01:00.000+05:30

Who came up with this absolutely crazy idea of Blank media tax?

Here is a thought provoking article on this Media Tax by cessu who extrapolates the tax to cover airwaves and even water molecules...

Seven Secret of Successful Programmers

2006-03-07T09:16:00.000+05:30

cessu writes about Yet Another Seven Secret of Successful Programmers
Great Reading... Pretty practical as well...

Too much money to tax

2006-02-02T17:19:00.000+05:30

Too much money to tax

MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, said today the tax office in the US has to store his financial data on a special computer because his fortune is so vast.
"My tax return in the United States has to be kept on a special computer because their normal computers can't deal with the numbers," he said at a Microsoft conference held in Lisbon.
"So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven't paid something when really it is just on the wrong computer," he added in comments broadcast on television.

Wish I had the same problem ;-)

IE7 Beta2

2006-02-02T14:06:00.000+05:30

IE7 Beta 2 is out public.
Tabbed browsing, the cool Zoom tool and better print support make it worth the download.

Need to be in charge?

2006-01-31T14:33:00.000+05:30

This page says that I need to be in charge. Hmm...

You're dominant and powerful. You always need to be in charge. While others respect your competence, you can be a bit of a dictator. Hard working and serious, you never let yourself down. You are exact and accurate - and you expect others to be the same way.

Your strength: You always get the job done

Your weakness: You're a perfectionist to a fault

Your power color: Gray

Your power symbol: Checkmark

Your power month: April

Karnataka's lessons for the Congress

2006-01-31T09:44:00.000+05:30

Karnataka's lessons for the Congress by T V R Shenoy

I have no idea, at the time of writing, who the next chief minister of Karnataka might be. But there is a possibility that two taboos might have been broken by the time you read this. The minor one is that there could never be BJP ministers in any South Indian state. The major one is that the Muslims shall always shun the BJP. And it is the second that should provide more food for thought to the Congress high command.

C# Versus VB

2006-01-23T12:06:00.000+05:30

Its not about the capabilities, its about the culture.
C# vs VB. Oh, a looong article, but how very true...

Not Another C# Versus VB Article

Being Microsoft CEO for One Day

2005-12-08T14:51:00.000+05:30

Being Microsoft CEO for One Day
As part of the reality TV show "Three Wishes," a 10-year-old from Simi Valley is able to realize his greatest wish.

On Friday, Dec. 9, there' will be an extra CEO at Microsoft – just for the day. His name is Kiyaan Vazirzadeh. He hails from Simi Valley, Calif. And he's 10.

Vazirzadeh made his wish to spend a day being CEO at Microsoft on the NBC Television reality show "Three Wishes," which follows recording artist Amy Grant on visits to communities all over the U.S., where Grant and her team grant wishes. These wishes range from the simple and light-hearted to the more dramatic and involved, and all feature people who get to witness some of their hopes and dreams made into reality.

Asked to name his heroes when he was still in the first grade, Vazirzadeh wrote about Bill Gates. That did not change through the years, and a compelling essay, coupled with his goal of being a CEO at his young age, prompted Microsoft and the "Three Wishes" team to make his wish come true.

Linux is Doomed, Thanks to Microsoft

2005-11-28T18:27:00.000+05:30

The Linux community was left stunned when Windows Server software outsold Linux in the server market. Gartner, Inc. recently reported that sales of Windows systems accounted for nearly 37 percent of all server revenue in the last quarter while Linux accounted for 31.7 percent. Windows has a 5+ percent lead over Linux, which should be the cause for celebration at Microsoft.

Source: CoolTechZone::Linux is Doomed, Thanks to Microsoft

30 fashion statements to make before you turn 30!

2005-11-21T11:15:00.000+05:30

Interesting article on Indiatimes People.
Written with the female of the species in mind though.

Arghhh!!! Now a Perfume phone

2005-11-21T11:01:00.000+05:30

Just when you thought that the phones were becoming bloated with features that no one wanted to use, here come Hyundai MP 280 - a Perfume phone
And worse, this phone targetting the females plans to sell for more than $1200 (USD)

Intel new logos revealed

2005-11-17T16:53:00.000+05:30

If X86-secret.com is right then Intel is gearing up for the some important rebranding campaign. The picture shows an updated Intel corporate logo, with the "e" no longer dropped, and the swoosh wrapped around.

Syntax Directed Quality Processes

2005-11-15T15:19:00.000+05:30

If you are confused and bewildered by the jargon behind Software Quality; if the acronyms NCR, VOE, and KPA inspire in you fear and loathing; if you find yourself doing meaningless things at work in the name of Quality; then read on, enlightenment is at hand.
Syntax Directed Quality Processes by Joseph Koshy provides great insights.

Grads or school dropouts: no disparity

2005-11-15T15:06:00.000+05:30

Grads or school dropouts: no disparity from The Economic Times
Sample this:

Salaries drawn by sweepers, attendants, drivers and helpers working at power giant NTPC can arouse strong envy among students from IIMs and IITs as the packages offered to school dropouts comes very close to what top MNCs might offer B-school graduates.

Lal Beni, who perhaps never went to school and works as a sweeper in National Thermal Power Corporation, draws an annual package of Rs 8,68,146. One Safal Ram working as a helper in the company enjoys a handsome package of Rs 8,98,369 per annum, according to the annual report of the Corporation.

List does not end here. Raghu Nath Sharma, a school dropout (quit studies after 4th std), enjoys a remuneration of over Rs 6.5 lakh per annum. Prem Singh, could not continue studies after 6th standard, brings home Rs 7,89,821, which is well enough to embarrass a highly educated person.

Satbir Singh, a driver who discontinued studies after 8th standard, earns Rs 9,18,941 per annum which is few thousands less than R D Kapoor, Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) and holds an MBA degree, and serves as Director in the same company and takes home Rs 10,62383, the report says.

After having struggled to acquire MSc and PhD degrees, one D N Roy, Deputy General Manager in the company, could only manage half the salary (Rs 5,21,903) as that of Satbir.

A senior driver Rumal Singh earns Rs 5,67,447 which is few thousands more than that of Roy's.

Thirty six years of experience and BSc (Engineering) degree could fetch only Rs 8,79,658 per annum for one S S Chakraborty, who serves as Chief Executive Officer in one of the units under the company, the report says.

DNA to solve the world's pending energy crisis

2005-11-08T11:05:00.000+05:30

Synthetic Genomics, a start-up with J. Craig Venter as its Founder President and CEO hopes to exploit the properties of DNA to solve the world's pending energy crisis. It plans to create new types of organisms that, ideally, would produce hydrogen, secrete nonpolluting heating oil or be able to break down greenhouse gases. The initial focus will be on creating 'biofactories' for hydrogen and ethanol, two fuels seen as playing an increasing role in powering cars in the future. Hydrogen also holds promise for heating homes and putting juice into electronic devices.

Sony "Rootkit" and DRM "Removal"

2005-11-07T14:59:00.000+05:30

Barb's Connected World reports about the "removal kit" that has not been offered by Sony BMG here

Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far

2005-11-03T11:31:00.000+05:30

Mark's Sysinternals Blog makes for very interesting reading

The entire experience was frustrating and irritating. Not only had Sony put software on my system that uses techniques commonly used by malware to mask its presence, the software is poorly written and provides no means for uninstall. Worse, most users that stumble across the cloaked files with a RKR scan will cripple their computer if they attempt the obvious step of deleting the cloaked files.
While I believe in the media industry’s right to use copy protection mechanisms to prevent illegal copying, I don’t think that we’ve found the right balance of fair use and copy protection, yet. This is a clear case of Sony taking DRM too far.

Yahoo 'helped jail China writer'

2005-09-09T15:28:00.000+05:30

Internet giant Yahoo has been accused of supplying information to China which led to the jailing of a journalist.

Most popular functions for frequently used mobile devices

2005-09-09T14:59:00.000+05:30

Most popular functions for frequently used mobile devices: picture taking, location information, TV
Well, thats the result of a survery conducted by Parks Associates amongst mobile users.

Making calls and Text messaging don't even feature on the list (too obvious I guess).

Here is what I would like to see on my mobile device:
1. A GOOD camera: Something that I would be able to use to take picture at 1600x1200 at least
2. A Music Player + FM: WMA, MP3 format playback and the ability to listen to and record FM radio
3. Explandable Memory: Becoming pretty common now, but still some devices dont have it
4. Bluetooth Connectivity: Need to transfer all the info to other decices.

Any phones that I should be looking at?

Buy porn, free Tripura

2005-09-07T12:53:00.000+05:30

Buy porn, free Tripura
Well, Sex Sells. And this sure is an innovative way to fund the terror campaing.

Back to Basics

2005-09-05T14:17:00.000+05:30

It takes a lot of belief in your ideas to write something like this (especially when you know that you could be fired for this)

we're going to have to be a smaller, agile company keenly focused on shipping end-user wow'zing software on-time, shedding ourselves of any groups or leaders who can't deliver.

Its not just Microsoft, the ideas could be used by other as well.

The full article is here: Back to Basics

India's first legal music downloads, on Rediff

2005-09-02T17:59:00.000+05:30

India's first legal music downloads, on Rediff

Am not too sure how this guy sounds, but at Rs.9.99 (yeah right less than 10 rupees), I think its a great idea. And the price is right as well :-)

Sanjay Maroo has his songs available for Rs. 9.99, the question is will the labels follow suit...

Am Black Coffee

2005-08-25T15:20:00.000+05:30

You are a Black Coffee

At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable
At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty
You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it
Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Tabbed IE with MSN Search Toolbar

2005-06-10T12:02:00.000+05:30

Now get Tabbed IE with MSN Search Toolbar

Pretty cool I must say :-)

Interesting products for service-oriented delivery organizations

2005-05-31T15:03:00.000+05:30

Centrata seems to have some interesting products for service-oriented delivery organizations.

Outsourcing Management Accelerator seemed to be especially useful (at least for the organization that I work for)

Infidelity on the rise in India

2005-05-30T10:15:00.000+05:30

Infidelity on the rise.

So what is so surprising about it?

Anthropologists have long argued that monogamy goes against the deepest seated evolutionary inclinations in homo-sapiens.

Smalltalk had a completely extensible syntax

2005-05-27T11:17:00.000+05:30

Interesting finding at this page

You will be interested to learn that the very first version of Smalltalk (Smalltalk-72) had a completely extensible syntax (in fact the writing of a class also automatically supplied the grammar). This worked very well, except ... that too much freedom here leads to a Tower of Babel as far as other users are concerned. This has also been the experience with the few other really good extensible languages (like Ned Iron's IMP).

Extreme extensibility was removed in the next major design of Smalltalk (Smalltalk-76) in favor of a syntax that could read by anyone, regardless of how many classes had been defined ... i.e., getting stronger meanings turned out to be more important in the end than making language structures fit the task.

Computer Languages History

2005-05-27T10:59:00.000+05:30

Brad Adams had a link to Computer Languages History

It is great to see the long heritage of Lisp and it’s GC technology from 1958 and SmallTalk and its extensible framework from 1969… There are really no new ideas in programming languages, it is just about how you stitch the ideas together that makes the magic.

A must visit page Computer Languages History

President rule in Bihar

2005-05-26T11:57:00.000+05:30

On President rule in Bihar

Democracy woke up this Monday morning with a stab in the back. The dark night before, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh advised the President to dissolve the Bihar legislative assembly. Because, let’s get this right, it was no longer possible for the Congress and its tainted partner, RJD, to form a government in Bihar. The numbers would no longer add up. And Bihar faced the threat of a saffron takeover.

Could not have agreed more....

Why does petrol cost so much for me????

2005-05-26T11:42:00.000+05:30

I am buying petrol at about Rs. 44.5 (INR)
And was just reading an article about how gas (petrol) prices have gone UP in the US. A quick search tels me that its about $2.15 (USD) to a gallon - that is about Rs. 24.7 (INR) a litre. Now thats cheap.

So why this government thinking of incresing the fuel prices??? Any good reason for a further hike when we are already over-paying for the fuel we use...

Strange and Sad :-(

Lawyer nears end of record-breaking speech

2005-05-25T18:34:00.000+05:30

Lawyer nears end of record-breaking speech (after 119 days)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050525/od_uk_nm/oukoe_odd_britain_legal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050524/od_afp/britainjusticeoffbeat_050524233049

I'm 89% freak!!

2005-05-11T11:27:00.000+05:30

I'm 89% freak!!

Basically this means that I have a perfectly average need to be the actual me.

Are You a Freak? Take the freak test at http://www.outofservice.com/freak/

How LG became No 1

2005-04-05T15:41:00.000+05:30

How LG became No 1
Interesting story on how LG came to dominate over the white goods market in India.

Coding Standards

2005-03-15T09:05:00.000+05:30

Any Advantages?

Though at initial stages it seems like a burden to follow standard, its advantages become visible once the software grows to few thousand lines spanning few hundred files. Some of the advantages are:

Programmer feels comfortable with the code written by others, as it is similar to what he himself would have written.
Person joining the group at later stage can pickup the code easily (once he is familiar with the standards).

So says http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~karkare/Gc/coding/

Whom to follow?
It's hard to argue that any one system has a huge advantage over any other system. But consistency on some of these things has a big advantage over inconsistency: everyone on a team can read code easily and make parts of the system refer to other parts of the system easily.
Hmm.. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CodingStandard

The solution
Get the first draft done, and then work on it till you are satisfied.

When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. -- R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983)

The Cash tax would make no difference to black money

2005-03-07T10:51:00.001+05:30

Intersting read...
Cash tax? No difference to black money

The Cash tax would make no difference to black money

2005-03-07T10:51:00.000+05:30

Intersting read...
Cash tax? No difference to black money

Laziness Is The Key To A Long & Happy Life

2005-02-23T11:24:00.000+05:30

Laziness Is The Key To A Long & Happy Life

Ah, what I always knew :-)

The Dangers Of Blogging

2005-02-21T11:38:00.000+05:30

Abnormally Normal People: The Dangers Of Blogging

History of Valentine's day

2005-02-21T11:33:00.000+05:30

Red Kitten has this on the history of Valentine's day.

Abnormally Normal People: Let's Bring Back The Foot Races!

Isn't rights management an oxymoron?

2005-02-09T15:41:00.000+05:30

Isn't rights management an oxymoron?

Couldn't have agreed more.

Strange Sex Laws, Weird Funny Laws About Sex and Sexuality

2005-02-04T17:52:00.000+05:30

Dribbleglass.com--Strange Sex Laws, Weird Funny Laws About Sex and Sexuality

Abnormally Normal People: Make Love Not War

2005-02-04T17:51:00.000+05:30

Really funny post on Sexual laws in USA
Abnormally Normal People: Make Love Not War

Nine Reasons Not To Use "int"

2004-10-20T15:10:00.000+05:30

http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/9reasons.asp

2004-10-13T13:20:00.000+05:30

According to this survey, my personality type is The Prime Minister.

Your distinct personality, The Prime Minister might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. You are a strategist who pursues the most efficient and logical path toward the realization of the goal that you perceive or visualize. You will often only associate with those people who can assist you in the implementation of your plan. Inept assistants may be immediately discarded as excess baggage. To do otherwise could be seen as inefficient and illogical. On the positive side, you can be rationally idealistic and analytically ideological. You can be a bold decision maker and risk taker who can move society ahead by years instead of minutes. On the negative side, you may be unmerciful, impatient, impetuous and impulsive. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today's corporate kingdoms.

It's In The DNA Of Men To Stray

2004-10-13T13:16:00.000+05:30

http://people.indiatimes.com/articleshow/881126.cms

Well...well...males - looks like you have scientific evidence on your side; as another research shows that men have always moved far and wide to sow their seeds. That it is part of man’s DNA to seek fresh pastures. So is it a fact that man’s promiscuity is ‘hardwired’?

The New Improved OO PHP5

2004-10-04T11:39:00.000+05:30

Been trying to figure out what was the big need to give PHP all the OO features. PHP is good at Hypertext processing and its biggest advantage is that its extremely easy and satisfies most requirements. Now I do understand that OO is something nice to have, but not too sure if PHP requires it. Is this just to give me bPHP (Bloated with feature I would never use) ???? Hmm.....

A Virtual Girlfriend on your mobile

2004-08-24T13:02:00.000+05:30

BBC reports

For men without a partner, help may be at hand - in the form of a virtual girlfriend.
The Hong Kong company Artificial Life, which developed the new game, says the girl will appear as an animated figure on the video screen of a mobile phone.

But there is a downside to the virtual girlfriend - she will require more flowers and gifts than many real women.

Artificial Life is hoping to launch the new game later this year, on the latest 3-G mobile phones.

All virtual girls will look the same - but each girl will behave differently - depending on how much money is spent on her.

On top of a general subscription, men will be charged a fee to buy flowers and gifts for the virtual girlfriend.

In return, she will introduce them to different aspects of her life, like letting them meet her female friends - also electronic images.

If players neglect her, she will refuse to speak.

The company says the amount of money players will have to spend has yet to be determined.

But unlike other computer games, it seems that cash, not skill, will enable players to climb the different levels in the game.

Oh an this is what she would look like

Oh! Sorry you cant host the national flag

2004-08-23T13:37:00.000+05:30

Or you could have a non bilable warrant issued against you.

Dammn it, you should be free to host the tricolor anywhere in India.

Indonesia executes Indian

2004-08-05T20:25:00.000+05:30

A police firing squad on Thursday executed an Indian national found guilty of smuggling heroin into Indonesia the first time Jakarta has carried out a death sentence since 2001.

Ayodhay Prasad Chaubey's execution came despite pleas for clemency by the Indian Embassy, the European Union and rights group Amnesty International, who had complained his trial fell short of international standards of fairness

"Ayodhay was shot in the heart from a distance of 10 meters (32 feet)," said north Sumatra prosecutor chief Sudibyo Saleh.

India decides to kill one of its own citizens, and now an Indian is killed by the Indonesian authorities. Guess legal murders are becoming commonplace.

Yet Another Legal Murder

2004-08-05T20:19:00.000+05:30

With President A P J Abdul Kalam on turning down Dhananjoy Chatterjee's plea for clemency on Wednesday, its almost certain that one more murder would happen. The difference this time: this murder would be legal.

Capital Punishment is just not suitable for any civilized country. Wonder when India will wake up to this reality.

Patterns of successful software projects

2004-07-28T15:33:00.000+05:30

Raj Wall blogging on Patterns of successful software projects.

There are five basic truths that make a successful software project: regardless of what development environment or programming language is used, no matter whether it is managed using an “agile“ or a waterfall process, OO, SOA, AI or punch cards.

They are:

The customer/user has a reason for the project (based on their need, a demonstrated ROI, “it sounds cool“, etc)

The developers know what they are building (there is some mechanism for requirements specification)

The developers know how they are to do it (knowledge and usage of tools and “process“)

The development team will know when they are done (there exists some “exit“ milestone criteria)

The customer/user agrees (they accept or purchase it)

My claim is that all software project “failures” can be traced back to a violation of one or more of these.

My claim is that all software project “failures” can be traced back to a violation of one or more of these.

Programming data in C# 3.0

2004-07-28T14:57:00.000+05:30

Anders talks about a feature he's working on for C# 3.0 that aims to make data programmable in a general purpose and truly object oriented syntax; something that just doesn't exist today.

Watch it on Channel9

Jenny18 - A Cybersex Bot Implemented in Eliza

2004-07-27T16:17:00.000+05:30

It turns out that pornbots are among the class of Eliza-derivatives that can pass a Turing Test (or rather, horny sex-chat boys are among the class of human beings that can't tell a chatterbot from a person)

'eliza' is a program that talks to you, pretending to be a psychologist. its script of possible responses is super tiny, so it doesn't fool anyone. or so i thought.

so i replaced eliza's tiny, boring script with a massive dumb blonde script that has like 3,800 responses on all sorts of topics, but mostly sex. jenny18 is very horny and she loves talking to horny guys. and everyone knows the best place to talk to horny guys is on dalnet irc sex channels.

More on Jenny18 (Contains links to transcripts of IM-based sex. So be warned.)

Move Over DataGrid, There's a New Grid in Town!

2004-07-26T12:42:00.000+05:30

A good article on GridView control by Dino Esposito.

Download Lookout here

2004-07-26T12:17:00.000+05:30

Lookout for Outlook is now available at MSN Sandbox. Downlaod Now!

there's just nothing left to buy

2004-07-26T10:28:00.000+05:30

Microsoft stunned investors yesterday with the announcement that they were distributing 75 billion in cash because they had run out of things to buy. According to Microsoft CFO John Connors "With the acquisition of Lookout, we've crossed every single item off our shopping list. Frankly, there's just nothing left to buy.

Hmm... Wish me too could say that here is nothing more left to buy... ahh... just wishing :)

The environment required for you to be a Productive Software Engineer

2004-07-17T12:58:00.000+05:30

For a written test in the hiring process, I saw this question:

Write in about 200 words, the environment required for you to be a productive software engineer. Your answer may touch the following points:
1. Supervision
2. Process
3. Measures

Hmm… I was thinking on this when I discovered that more than Supervision, Process and Measures I require some more basic thing to be productive. This would include things like some good coffee/Pepsi, a nice fast (fast means you don’t have to take a break while the compile happens) machine and so on. Anyway, I thought “Hey, not attempt answering the question?” and here is the end result that took me about 15 minutes.

A software engineer to be productive requires a good work environment (related to work he is doing) and a good organizational environment (related to the organization he is working for).

Looking at the first part of the puzzle, an environment that is challenging (to the grey cells) and is also a fun environment – something that invites you to be there in the morning and you are not there just so that you can earn your salary. The direct conclusion is that the person has to be interested in the field of work and the projects. He should not feel that his talents are being wasted in this environment as he is not working on anything challenging.

After having put the first part of the puzzle in place let’s turn our attention to the second part, that is the organizational part – Processes, Measures and Supervision (??) The endeavor is to understand what would be a good environment in this sense.

Software is still very much an infant field and processes and measure have been a very new concept in the field and would take some time before it gets engrained in. However, the most important thing on this front would be to understand the fact that processes are fine so long as they assist people in doing what they need to be doing. If the processes become a road block, then it’s the processes that need to change and not the people. The processes should serve the people; if it goes the other way round it would be sure recipe for disaster.

Measure again can be very useful towards improvement and if applied incorrectly or if wrong measures are chosen it could be worse than no measures. Interestingly some very common measure (time worked, Lines of Code produced etc.) are really a very bad measure that does not indicate productivity. A good measure would be function points implemented.

And finally, there is the question of supervision. Supervision (as in a production line) is an impossible to achieve dream. What most software engineer would look for is not supervision; rather it is help and guidance. A project manager would therefore need to be a facilitator and not a supervisor or manager (Project coordinator might be better).

The understanding that software development (which keeps the developer happy) is something that is not the same as factory production line and the differences are important. If we attempt to apply the same methodology to this field that is very different, we could end up very badly. This was an attempt at identifying some differences and how they can be resolved.

Software That Lasts 200 Years

2004-07-15T18:22:00.000+05:30

Likewise, human societies also create infrastructure that are built once, then used and trusted for a long period of time. By contrast, software has historically been built assuming that it will be replaced in the near future

Hmmm.....
http://www.bricklin.com/200yearsoftware.htm

Digital disgust

2004-07-15T03:05:00.000+05:30

Thomas Sowell has this piece on how difficult it is to use software. As a developer, I don't know if to agree with him or just say that "the software is perfectly normal and anyone with an IQ greater than that of a flowerpot can understand it". But I guess the truth is somewhere in between.

DotNet 2.0 Beta1 SDK Available now

2004-07-15T01:08:00.000+05:30

Dot-Net SDK 2.0 Beta 1 is now available for x86 and IA64. The runtime that has been available for quite some time now can also be downloaded from the same location.

Will Compasses Point South?

2004-07-13T19:52:00.000+05:30

The collapse of the Earth's magnetic field, which both guards the planet and guides many of its creatures, appears to have started in earnest about 150 years ago. The field's strength has waned 10 to 15 percent, and the deterioration has accelerated of late, increasing debate over whether it portends a reversal of the lines of magnetic force that normally envelop the Earth.

This computer simulation shows the Earth's interior as its magnetic field reverses, perhaps because of changes in the flow of molten iron in the core.

From New York Times

You can vote, but can't drink

2004-07-13T12:11:00.000+05:30

When Dickens wrote, ‘The law is an ass, an idiot,' in Oliver Twist, he wasn't writing about Delhi's drinking age limit, but he might well have been. One can get a driver's licence at 18, vote a government into office at 18, get married at 18 if female and 21 if male. One can even be hanged at 18. So shouldn't one be able to legally drink at 18?

Read the IndiaTimes article here.

DMCA says you can't fix your own tape-drive

2004-07-12T12:56:00.000+05:30

DMCA hammer comes down on tech service vendor

A district court in Boston has used the DMCA to grant a preliminary injunction against a third party service vendor who tried to fix StorageTek tape library backup systems for legitimate purchasers of the system.

How is this a DMCA violation? Well, it turns out that StorageTek allegedly uses some kind of algorithmic "key" to control access to its "Maintenance Code", the module that allows the service tech to debug the storage system. The court found that third party service techs who used the key without StorageTek's permission "circumvented" to gain access to the copyrighted code in violation of the DMCA, even though they had the explicit permission of the purchasers to fix their machines.

Maria Sharapova Inc!

2004-07-12T12:49:00.000+05:30

Maria Sharapova Inc!

Move over, Anna. Move aside, Williams sisters. Gabriela (Sabatini), you are only a distant memory. The next big thing has arrived. And it has arrived on really long legs.

Sex once a week=$50,000

2004-07-12T12:23:00.000+05:30

Read it here

The economists compared the happiness levels produced by a vigorous sex life with other activities whose economic values had been calculated in prior research, allowing them to impute, in dollars, how much happiness sex was worth.

They also estimated that increasing the frequency of sexual intercourse from once a month to at least once a week provided as much happiness as putting $50,000 in the bank.

A lasting marriage, by comparison, offers about $100,000 worth of happiness a year — that is, on average, a single person would need to receive $100,000 annually to be as happy as a married person with the same education, job status and other characteristics.

Divorce, on the other hand, imposes an emotional toll of about $66,000 a year, though there may be a short-term economic gain from the immediate relief provided by leaving your spouse.

World's First Cyborg! Challenge to God?

2004-07-12T12:22:00.000+05:30

If Professor Kevin Warwick has his way, then 50 years from now most human brains will be linked electronically through a global computer network.

According to The New Zealand Herald , the professor and his wife contacted each other through implants in their arms, through what can be termed as the first direct link between nervous systems.

Read the complete article here.

Advice to Young Brides

2004-07-09T15:53:00.000+05:30

After the The Good Wife Guide.., here is another one - Advice to Young Brides.

INSTRUCTION AND ADVICE FOR THE YOUNG BRIDE

To the sensitive young woman who has had the benefits of proper upbringing, the wedding day is, ironically, both the happiest and most terrifying day of her life. On the positive side, there is the wedding itself, in which the bride is the central attraction in a beautiful and inspiring ceremony, symbolizing her triumph in securing a male to provide for all her needs for the rest of her life. On the negative side, there is the wedding night, during which the bride must pay the piper, so to speak, by facing for the first time the terrible experience of sex.

At this point, dear reader, let me concede one shocking truth. Some young women actually anticipate the wedding night ordeal with curiosity and pleasure! Beware such an attitude! A selfish and sensual husband can easily take advantage of such a bride. One cardinal rule of marriage should never be forgotten: GIVE LITTLE, GIVE SELDOM, AND ABOVE ALL, GIVE GRUDGINGLY. Otherwise what could have been a proper marriage could become an orgy of sexual lust.

On the other hand, the bride's terror need not be extreme. While sex is at best revolting and at worse rather painful, it has to be endured, and has been by women since the beginning of time, and is compensated for by the monogamous home and by the children produced through it.

It is useless, in most cases, for the bride to prevail upon the groom to forego the sexual initiation. While the ideal husband would be one who would approach his bride only at her request and only for the purpose of begetting offspring, such nobility and unselfishness cannot be expected from the average man.

Most men, if not denied, would demand sex almost every day. The wise bride will permit a maximum of two brief sexual experiences weekly during the first months of marriage. As time goes by she should make every effort to reduce this frequency.

Feigned illness, sleepiness, and headaches are among the wife's best friends in this matter. Arguments, nagging, scolding, and bickering also prove very effective, if used in the late evening about an hour before the husband would normally commence his seduction.

Clever wives are ever on the alert for new and better methods of denying and discouraging the amorous overtures of the husband. A good wife should expect to have reduced sexual contacts to once a week by the end of the first year of marriage and to once a month by the end of the fifth year of marriage.

By their tenth anniversary many wives have managed to complete their child bearing and have achieved the ultimate goal of terminating all sexual contacts with the husband. By this time she can depend upon his love for the children and social pressures to hold the husband in the home.

Just as she should be ever alert to keep the quantity of sex as low as possible, the wise bride will pay equal attention to limiting the kind and degree of sexual contacts. Most men are by nature rather perverted, and if given half a chance, would engage in quite a variety of the most revolting practices. These practices include among others performing the normal act in abnormal positions; mouthing the female body; and offering their own vile bodies to be mouthed in turn.

Nudity, talking about sex, reading stories about sex, viewing photographs and drawings depicting or suggesting sex are the obnoxious habits the male is likely to acquire if permitted.

A wise bride will make it the goal never to allow her husband to see her unclothed body, and never allow him to display his unclothed body to her. Sex, when it cannot be prevented, should be practiced only in total darkness. Many women have found it useful to have thick cotton nightgowns for themselves and pajamas for their husbands. These should be donned in separate rooms. They need not be removed during the sex act. Thus, a minimum of flesh is exposed.

Once the bride has donned her gown and turned off all the lights, she should lie quietly upon the bed and await her groom. When he comes groping into the room she should make no sound to guide him in her direction, lest he take this as a sign of encouragement. She should let him grope in the dark. There is always the hope that he will stumble and incur some slight injury which she can use as an excuse to deny him sexual access.

When he finds her, the wife should lie as still as possible. Bodily motion on her part could be interpreted as sexual excitement by the optimistic husband.

If he attempts to kiss her on the lips she should turn her head slightly so that the kiss falls harmlessly on her cheek instead. If he attempts to kiss her hand, she should make a fist. If he lifts her gown and attempts to kiss her anyplace else she should quickly pull the gown back in place, spring from the bed, and announce that nature calls her to the toilet. This will generally dampen his desire to kiss in the forbidden territory.

If the husband attempts to seduce her with lascivious talk, the wise wife will suddenly remember some trivial non-sexual question to ask him. Once he answers she should keep the conversation going, no matter how frivolous it may seem at the time.

Eventually, the husband will learn that if he insists on having sexual contact, he must get on with it without amorous embellishment. The wise wife will allow him to pull the gown up no farther than the waist, and only permit him to open the front of his pajamas to thus make connection.

She will be absolutely silent or babble about her housework while his huffing and puffing away. Above all, she will lie perfectly still and never under any circumstances grunt or groan while the act is in progress. As soon as the husband has completed the act, the wise wife will start nagging him about various minor tasks she wishes him to perform on the morrow. Many men obtain a major portion of their sexual satisfaction from the peaceful exhaustion immediately after the act is over. Thus the wife must insure that there is no peace in this period for him to enjoy. Otherwise, he might be encouraged to soon try for more.

One heartening factor for which the wife can be grateful is the fact that the husband's home, school, church, and social environment have been working together all through his life to instill in him a deep sense of guilt in regards to his sexual feelings, so that he comes to the marriage couch apologetically and filled with shame, already half cowed and subdued. The wise wife seizes upon this advantage and relentlessly pursues her goal first to limit, later to annihilate completely her husband's desire for sexual expression.

© 1894 The Madison Institute.

The Good Wife Guide..

2004-07-09T15:39:00.000+05:30

dhempe brought this to my attention in his blog.
Makes interesting reading :)

How google helps you meet people

2004-07-05T15:14:00.000+05:30

Someone was trying to find a "Sajith M" and of course to do so did a Google Search. And fortunately (for me) Google decided to put me on top and this person ended up contacting me. Of course she almost immediately knew that I am not the "Sajith M" that she is searching for, but for me I ended up with a new friend thanks to Google :-)

Should the death penalty stay or go?

2004-06-30T19:46:00.000+05:30

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?

2004-06-28T17:30:00.000+05:30

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

2004-06-18T16:17:00.000+05:30

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

2004-06-17T20:13:00.000+05:30

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

2004-06-09T19:17:00.000+05:30

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

2004-06-07T14:47:00.000+05:30

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 :(