G1TalkShop

Answer ain't blowing in the wind

How many puppies must a car run over
Before it stops to shed a tear?
How many sweet lies must float
Before you see the tip of bitter truth?
How many thefts
Before one real thief is caught?
How many encounters to go
Before some light on one cold-blooded fake?

The answer, my friend
Sadly, ain't blowing in the wind!
Wool, my friend, is all over your eyes
It ain't what it seems
But the din of lies
Lies: colorful and white
Tweeted, posted, printed and, liked
Streamed, shared, re-shared, flashed
And, doubly faked
Richly cooked
Optimized on search engines
You'll never know
But, answer, my friend, we got to find!

[With apologies to Bob Dylan]

Comments

Welcome LibreOffice! A time to move on

For some time I have truly been a bit out of touch with developments in Open Source software. To me, the flagship Open and Free application was OpenOffice. There are of course, mightier and more beautiful ones like MySQL. But this one is closer to one's finger tips, purring on our Laptops and Desktops. Quite unlike others enthroned on the arrogant servers or known only to developers. OOo (OpenOffice.org) was for me a good enough substitute for MS Office. It was steadily improving. But sadly, our worst fears – of commercial greed choking this great effort – seemed to have come true. As many are aware, Oracle, the database major, acquired Sun Microsystems some time back. Sun had developed Java. Sun had placed the licensing of its Java implementation under the GNU General Public License in 2006. Java had, by then, already become the hot favourite on the web and on all sorts of devices – from big computers to cell phones. Hmm, Yes! I do mean – Java everywhere! It was too true. ...

Is there a Spartacus out there? Among the IPL gladiators?

The irony is that film stars 'own' the team – i.e., the players! Our sports icons are now like gladiators. May be, not so brave. In awe and with fluttering hearts they mix with the glamorous stars of the show business and real business. Occasionally they remember: Hey boy! This one really owns me, my God! What have I got into? The gladiator partying with his owner! They do it, not because they always like to party after a bad defeat, but so be it, it is part of the deal, you know. It is the new Compulsive Relaxation Therapy, prescribed by the IPL. Partying in prescribed doses is a lot more than mere fun. Also, it is good to party if the defeat was, perhaps, well and truly expected. May be, even anticipated. You know why! No rewards for guessing! If still in doubt, ask your bookie. It just happens that the celebrations get a bit wilder when the results go against the odds! In this format of the game, both losers and winners can rejoice! It is a great game, come o...

India's Bullet Train - A Misplaced Priority

Hastily putting together some of my scattered comments on the Bullet Train project into one single note. Bullet trains are not the kind of infrastructure India needs now. Incidentally, globally nobody wants these expensive bullet trains that are not economically feasible anywhere, including Japan. Reports note that nowhere in the world is a bullet train profitable on its own. To make it profitable, a company that runs it must also develop land around the train stations to make it work financially. India surely has the need for both fast and high-speed trains on a large number of routes across the country. Criticism of the bullet train does not mean a negation of that need. The ultra-high speed trains (bullet trains) that are not economically feasible do not fit into the kind of infrastructure development required. The bullet train will have to be subsidised for ever. Instead of such trains, by spending equivalent sums, taking loan from multilateral agencies if need be, there a...