"I'm a big supporter of non-censorship"

A few days ago, Barack Obama announced that China should play a more important role in India-Pak relations during his trip to China

Not very long ago, Obama said "Yes! We Can!" and people raised their hands and chanted along.

Then the Nobel guys said he gave "Hope" and we shed tears of appreciation for the work the pied-piper was going to do

Then, he goes and bows to Japan, and we beamed at his tolerance and respect for cultures

Then he says that China should play a more important role in India-Pak relations ... huh?

Oh did he check with India or Pak, if they needed a negotiator .. NO!

(Oh we already know US is gonna be there, even if we don't need it! How many umpires with their own selfish motives do we need in this Tennis match??)

Our world hero's predecessor faced criticism, from across the world for his obsessive compulsive disorder to play the Big Cop.

Now what is Obama doing, .."Oh let me just go and de-centralize. Let me find a guy to take care of Asia for me!.. Finding the right middle men is the key to success.. Gee I'm a genius and people won't notice anything wrong. My strategic international ties will be sung over the years to come"

Oh by the way, Obama seems to have suffered from short term memory lapse and forgotten about Tibet.

When asked about freedom of press and Internet... "I'm a big supporter of non-censorship"

(Oh I really prefer a hamburger, but if the people at the table say pizza, it's ok with me. I'm extremely tolerant, you know!...I'm ok with these guys beating up the waiter if he forgets extra-cheese dips)

Are you all in China satisfied?... I grinned, I dint criticize your government policies, I make your country my best man in Asia, I forgot Tibet, and all the talk about freedom. .. So now can I take bigger role in containing North Korea's nuclear policies??.. Oh btw, we in US love how you guys make such cheap stuff here. It's a different issue that my people still have recession woes!... but don't we love chanting "Yes! We can!"?

Well, for once the Nobel prize for peace reminds me of MTV awards gone crazy... The lifetime achievement award for outstanding work goes to Taylor swift, for being nice, giving us hope and just being young and wrinkle-free!!

CS4 free add on!

I just want to fling my 1 lac /- laptop on to the road.

I really hate going in circles for free add on

I sit down to download Adobe free trial add on.

I log in to Adobe.com

I click on download for the trial cs4 plug-in I need

I get a pop-up.

An applet from dlm.tools.akamai.com is requesting unrestricted access to your computer
- with "Don't Trust" and "Trust" buttons

Akamai applet certificate!.. huh!

For somebody who works in web analytics, Akamai is not new - Akamai hosts web content like audio, media, downloads for a multitude of websites belonging to many companies.

Akamai servers provide faster downloads, avoiding web traffic congestions.

But, "unrestricted access to your computer" part!!!!

Instinctively (read... Stupidly), like every other "pop-up/add-on" phobic netizen - I click "Don't Trust"

(Oh!.. the downside of working in web analytics - Each time you login, you know there are these little spy guys like Omniture, masking themselves as 2o7.net to trick users and firewall rules! So what if Akamai not only hosts content, but also has ventured into web analytics and stats.. huh??.. Of course I don't have anything to hide!... but man!.. Don't I hate men in bowler hats and long raincoats following me KGB style???)

Anyway, my "Don't Trust" click brings up a window:

The download manager cannot run due to insufficient priviledges.
A common reason for that is not approving the applet certificate.

What the bloody...!!!???

Ok... lets try again..

Click on download.

Same damn error

Ok .. log out of Adobe.

Log in again! Same thing again.

Ok.. Close safari, clear history and cookies

(Remove all the forms because just removing "adobe.com" ones is not working!!)

Login again on to Adobe.com

Click on download trial version

Bingo!... So now, I get the option again -

This time, I "Trust" though I "Don't (want to) Trust"

Now - the plug starts to download

With the kind of net speed Airtel offers me at exorbitant prices - the download will take 6 hours!... How bloody cool is that!?

So very excited to explore the plug-in's functionality tomorrow!!!

Oh which CS4 plug-in was it again????

N worst part!... I din't want to lose all my cookies!!... It was so nice not to type entire URLs and to auto login on to a zillion sites!

boohoo hoo! :(

Who is making my life this horrible?

Adobe?

Akamai?

Airtel?

Safari?

Steve Jobs?

Good to be back

Feels good to be back!..

I hate Airtel service!

Life's been going on!

One soul is busy playing and getting into private sports club,

Another - busy trying to bell the cat

Another lost one - losing herself in work!

Harvey Milk

I watched Harvey Milk .. for the second time a few days ago.

I din't know who the heck was Harvey Milk until I saw the movie on the big screen for the first time.

Usually, when I plan to watch a biographical movie, I make a point of getting a background about the person (I love Google..)

With Milk, I din't get a background, I din't find time to read a review. I just knew it was Sean Penn and that was good enough for me.

The movie left me trying to understand.. trying to put it in a genre - Was it poetic? Or Was it vibrant?

If it was vibrant, was it vibrant in a hippie way or in a sexual way, or in a manner of social and political triumph, or was it just plain vibrant for its humor? Above all was it so very vibrant for its goddamn truth!

There were scenes where more love was conveyed by Harvey and Scott than any woman and man I've watched on the big screen.

The uninhibited kisses, the soul searching eyes, the naked bodies showed more truth and honest love than many many love stories attempted to.

It left me in awe, that a Wall Street investment banker at 40 had the gumption to say "Enough!" - come out sexually, socially and politically like a deceptively lazy tiger which pounces on you with all is intelligence, charm and daring.

Sean Penn makes me love him in every goddamn movie. But this time, he just made me tie myself up for him :P

It left me confused - whose charm, guts and honesty knocked me out? - Milk's or Penn's ?

And then I sat there thinking about the bigger things - This guy did it all this by 1978! And people in India still look down on gays, lesbians, transexuals as untouchables and lechers. What's with all the hate?

Family values eroded? My friends.. weren't the family values already eroded when we don't accept anyone a little different from what we are?

Harvey Milk is a hero - a man who rose out of his own ashes. A New York Jew who had the guts to stand up and say "Yes.. I am!.. so shoot me for it!" "Yes!.. I'm there to give you hope" " If a bullet should enter my brain, let it destroy every closet"

The director Van Sant deserves a round of standing ovation for such a fantastic movie. The first scenes of the movie where gay bars are closed down and people taken away by the police and private lives destroyed on camera is just perfect for the opening.

It was amazingly poetic to cut back to Scott and Harvey's first conversation in bed - just when Harvey gets shot.

"..forty years old and I haven't done a thing I'm proud of" - It's so ironic that just after that Milk went on to become every gay's saint.

Van Sant and Lance Black gave a completeness to the screen life of Harvey Milk -

His joys, his pains, his playfulness,

his humor (I left my high heels at home!. ),

his manipulation (like every other politician - gay or otherwise, he got a riot staged and saved the day at the doors of the city hall - impressive!),

his mistakes (What the heck did he see in Jack??)

his love, his ideals("You gotta give them hope!") ... his life.

I don't think there was better biographical movie in 2009

Cheers to men like this!

Social Entrepreneurship... don't expect a speech

My frn and I were discussing Abe Lincoln, his speeches, style and logic.
We went on to discuss politics in India, Andhra, JP - the LokSatta leader.


B: I think JP is more suited for social entrepreneurship
S: Politics in its ideal state is social entrepreunership! It's about looking out for the interest of others and measuring profits in terms of happiness of the target group.
B: Smthng funny struck me..
S: What?
B: According to your defnition, Prostitution is social entrepreunership!
S: lol!... Politics can be called social entrepreneurship only in its ideal state! Prostitution is social entrepreneurship even on its very bad day!


p.s: No offence meant to JP at all!.. He's the best we've got!