Time to De-Link

 

The Supreme court of India yesterday ruled…well…50-50, on the validityvalidity of the Aadhaar act. Politicians are busy still discussing which side won, but one thing is clear: Private entities can no longer ask for Aadhaar related data of Indians. Aadhaar is now meant to be used for government benefits. So basically Aadhaar has now become one of the fifteen thousand other documents in India that are compulsorily optional.

 

 

So no need to provide aadhaar number for services like mobile phone connections, bank accounts and school admissions. All those private players who depended on the system for easy-KYC have been left in the open now. They will have to find a backup plan or go back to old school KYC. I am specially chuckling at how SBI mandated that a person can have only a single account via Aadhaar linking.

So now, its time to de-link. Coming to think of it, I have provided my own aadhaar number to about a dozen private companies for services. Time to follow up and get them all un-linked..

..if that is even possible now.

Sour apples

 

 

Its that time of the year again. Happens every time. Luxury electronic brand Apple announces their next series of overpriced, mostly re-used technology. And the world reacts in surprise to the new price. But not before they drool over the new design features. And sometime after that, the general public split into two. The fanboys and those who cannot afford to be fanboys.

Every year, there come articles where in 'experts' sit and debate as to why the new prices are exaggerated. Thats its not worth it. And how it is the best time to buy the previous version of Apple devices, which have just become a tad more affordable. Indian media is full of such articles. Its pathetic, how the media publish articles which they know people will search for. With the ever-falling Indian rupee, and heavy taxes from the government, the devices are now are as expensive as what was once the price of the cheapest car in the world.

Indians on twitter and facebook continue to rant the overpriced devices, creating new memes and trolls going into overtime.

I hate this, mainly becauses it messes up my news feed this time of the year. For some reason, google thinks I would be interested in these kind of news articles. I am not.

Grow up, Indian media. With only a 2% market for Apple products, that is a minority to cater to. India will always be the prime market for cheap Chinese products.

So what else can you get for over a thousand US dollars ? You could get a short term work visa to Australia for less than 500 USD !

Now ain't that something worth investing in ?

Excited about ‘First Man’

 

I love space. And after that, I love space movies. Apollo 13 is my second favourite movie, right after the dinos. I was always surprised that they made a movie about the  'successful failure' mission, but not the 'successful success' of Apollo 11. Of course, many other movies have touched upon Apollo 11, eg: The Right Stuff, and it is also the subject of numerous documentaries, no one ventured to give the story a full hollywood treatment. My personal guess is that the subject matter is equally political as it was inspiring, given that it occurred during the height of the cold war during the 60s. There is no way a studio could give it a unbiased treatment without declaring it as an American achievement.

So imagine my surprise, when someone did put a foot forward to address and tell the story of this historic moon landing. And that was the most unlikely person one would expect. Damien Chazelle, who has so far made movies in music and dance subjects, is going to take this giant leap. I hope nobody decides to break into dance on the moon, you know, with lower gravity. A few more days wait till it hits the theatre.

But already, the film has ruffled a few feathers. Some american politicians have found problem with how the film does not show the actual scene where the astronauts hoist the american flag on the moon. The creators have addressed the controversy diplomatically, saying the giant leap was for entire mankind, and not just for USA. Its hilarous reading these king of news articles even before the movie has fully released. But not surprising. Because we Indians have been seeing these kind of complaints against movies for decades.

So you see, this is a deeply political subject. Possibly precisely the reason other directors have been reluctant to tell this story on the big screen.

But although that mission was a success, it could very well have gone down in history as a great failure as well. Nobody had ever done it. And on a limited technology and the deadlines of those days, there was a very small chance of success. For all we know, Neil Armstrong and crew were on their very last mission. They could have very well crashed into the moon. Or the Apollo 11 could have been stranded on the moon, if they could not launch back into space. They could have failed to get back into orbit. They could have burnt up on re-entry. There were thousands of tiny reasons why the mission could have ended in a disaster. The pressure of expectations on the team was huge.

And that is why this story is so inspiring. And has to be told. People only the stories of successful expitions, without pausing to look at how narrow their chances were.

So , thats it. Supercharged for the movie. Ready to back in time and (hopefully) re-live mankind's first journey to somewhere else.

 

PS: Also Apollo 11 put the Futura font on the moon. And in space.

One more revolution

 

 

 

Ariyamo ?

You know its bad

 

You know its bad, when even Tamil Rockers puts up links for flood relief on its page.

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe a little background, for context:  Kerala police has been trying to arrest the people behind that site , as they distribute torrent links to pirated movies. Arrests were made even this year.