In one of my earlier blogs I rejoiced over the success of open source movement in the field of information technology and the help it brought to this site. Now I have more reasons to be happy. Recently I read an article titled ‘Nightly News, Not-For-Profit’ in the Time magazine. While it is not open source, I believe the initiative is praiseworthy and may encourage open source journalism. The moment we hear not-for-profit news, we expect some unbiased, credible news.

Despite the initiatives such as Wikinews, Indymedia etc. the open source journalism has not yet gone mainstream. Probably because it has to contend with ourselves, the readers. First of all we have stopped reading. Secondly, while we don’t suspect open source’s profit motives, we are concerned how good the presentation would be vis a vis that from professional journalism. If you read John Dvorak’s column (www.pcmag.com) titled Losing Perspective you will understand what I mean.

(We had similar doubts about Wikipedia’s success and authenticity. In the early days some of the articles that I read in Wikipedia were so poor in content and presentation and made me wonder if I am wasting time reading them. But in due course, we see how the iterative correction to the contents from contributors all over the world does wonders. Oxford University even conducted a thorough study of the accuracy of Wikipedia’s contents and compared it against those from Encyclopedia Britannica and came out with the conclusion both had equal number(though not many) of errors!

But it is my firm conviction that my readers know more than I do and is echoed in this page. It is just that all along we lacked the medium to put and link together all that we know. The Internet perfectly closes this gap. And it has another advantage. A democratic setup like the Internet will vote out those bloggers who remain second grade or have vested interests and the cream always come to the top.)

Thirdly, as the article says, “investigative reporting” an expensive enterprise that can consume months of a writer’s time and often yield few results” is as applicable for open source journalism as it is for professional. While open source journalists may be passionate, they may lack the resources of a for-profit, seasoned organization. As you can see from the Time’s article, a seed capital of $ 10 million was required to bring this project into fruition.

And it is not always the money. Ramnath Goenka the newspaper magnate who owned Indian Express was dependant on the Indian government to grant him licenses to import newsprint. His prolific editor in chief Arun Shourie’s extensive coverage and columns were thorny and unwelcome by Mrs. Gandhi’s government. So he had to let go its editor, just so the newspaper can continue to present ‘unbiased’ news.

And to give an example from recent times, the clout enjoyed by CNN in the coverage of Gulf war II was enviable. But it left some doubts in the minds of the viewer of its authenticity. Was CNN compromised due to pressure from Pentagon?

Luckily in the Internet age we don’t need the newsprint or even the television to get our news, but still the government can thwart what we can see and hear by selectively blocking out some sites that don’t serve its interest. We will to have to wait and see how neutral Beijing
will to have to wait and see how neutral Beijing Olympics coverage is going to be. In the mean time we should do all that we can to promote open source journalism.

If you are like me, you are more likely to ask your ‘significant other’ this question. I am talking about passwords here. Being a proponent for using the Internet for enhancing one’s productivity, I visit my financial institutions’ websites more often than I visit their brick and mortar counterparts. To transact my business in total security, I ended up giving different passwords to each one of them. In addition to remembering all of them putting in the right password in the appropriate place I must also remember the correct answers to the security questions that I pose myself and answer to get past their security. Changing the passwords as frequently as possible adds another level of complexity. Sometimes I am too lazy to change some system generated passwords given by the sites, there is no way in the world could I retrieve them from my memory should I happen to lose them.


It so happened once that I put in the right username and wrong password to one institution the first time and failed, then asked my life partner to let me know the right one and typed it in carefully but fail to check the (alphabets’) case and so could not get through, and in the third time before I could type in the last letter I pressed ‘Enter’ in a hurry. Having failed thrice in a row, the site suspected my entry and dutifully locked me out for my own protection! I had to wait for at least a day before I could attempt to get in again.

I tried several methods to store those user names and passwords, just so I could retrieve them in time but failed in all of them. I tried writing them down in my pocketbook, saving them in an excel document, allowing the browser to save for automatic retrieval the next time I visit the site and so on. All to no avail. Every too often, someone in my home reinstalls the OS in their constant quest for keeping the system in fighting fitness, or the hard drive fails or a power failure brings the entire system down, with me starting all over again.

My friend was suggesting as to why I should not use a simple password for all the sites I visit. And he said he is recommending this from personal experience. Earlier he used to keep his passwords so difficult to crack, that even he could not remember. So he switched to something easy to remember. The pity is it is so easy that, his neighbors could sneak into his wireless network without his knowledge or consent. But he doesn’t mind it. The upside he says, “I can always go to my neighbors to get my password should I forget mine.” How’s that for passwords!!


As for me I gave up all pretences, left it to my ‘better half’ who has a better way of managing my passwords. Hackers, if you are looking to find just one file that has all the user names and passwords don’t look for it in my system. Asking my spouse for help, may get you somewhere.

And the rest of you who are dating, in engagement, or who prefers to remain single and who for some reason could not share your little or big secrets with your soul mate as yet, may I suggest you to see this page as to how to remember/manage passwords.

I must be nuts if I say “old is gold” while talking about old computer products. Or at least that is what many think. With ever falling prices and vendors vying with each other to offer better & better products aided by relentless advancement in technologies, it makes no sense to look for yesterday’s laptops, personal computers. But if you look closely you may come across many ‘diamonds in the rough’.

The reason I said these old, otherwise functional products are ‘diamonds in the rough’ is because with some simple upgrades like replacing a battery or upgrading the memory one can have a very desirable product at a bargain price that is soul satisfying. In such a hunt for bargain, one has to keep one’s use in mind.

For instance, imagine a user whose computing needs do not go beyond accessing his bank statements online or filing his/her income tax returns online or checking one’s email once in a while. Such a user does not need the latest laptops or PCs. Even an old laptop which comes in as a gift from a well meaning friend or relative will do the job. With the money saved which otherwise would have gone for a shiny new laptop/PC, one can invest it wisely for future returns or even spend it on other essentials. Here I have assumed that the user has some money saved and put aside for discretionary expenses. One other benefit with such old products is that they may come preloaded with useful applications for which we may otherwise have to spend.

This advice is all the more applicable to a person who doesn’t have any money set aside but only a credit card to swipe and buy it on credit. After a while the novelty of a shiny laptop/PC wears off and one is left with a huge bill to pay. In today’s uncertain economy it is wise to hold to one’s cash/credit and use it judiciously. Even if one is hesitant to buy a pre-owned (probably abused?) product at throw away prices, it is a good idea to consider buying not the latest but just a step behind in terms of specifications but brand new from vendors who are overstocked and offer such products at bargain prices.

OK, such tangible benefits do not move one to consider buying/reusing old products, how about some intangible benefits like saving the environment? We can delay or reduce the landfills with toxic chemicals. What do you think?

I have always been a fan of alternative energy sources. Whenever I read a news article that gives, even some sketchy details, of a pioneering research that would reduce our dependency on depleting fossil fuels, I rejoice internally and earnestly hope for the best. The findings may be in its infancy or it may not be practicable or if it is practicable not economically feasible. But often I say to myself, never mind the odds, salvation is close at hand.

In the first week of Feb 2008, I read an article titled, “Turning physics on its ear“. I was truly amazed about the revolutionary nature of this invention. Perseverance of this inventor Thane Heins is remarkable. He has found out a way to channelize back-emf to make electrical drives more efficient. That is the modest way of putting this invention. But the implications of this invention are far reaching. But in the academic circles, it would be a heresy to say that he invented a perpetual motion machine. Having seen his videos I tend to believe that he really has invented one. At least that is what my ardent desire is.

This inventor needs to be compensated well enough for all the struggles he had gone through to prove his theory. The story of how he could stay with his project for twenty long years, using all his resources to prove his concept, makes for interesting reading even to the uninitiated. His single mindedness to prove his theory even to the extent of losing his marriage and custody of his two daughters is unbelievable.

I wonder what the current status of his invention is. The last I heard was NASA has requested for a demonstration, after that I have lost track. I understand the reservation in the academic circle that any claim of invention of a perpetual motion machine will lose its support and credibility.

Even if nothing big happens, at the very least this invention claims to improve the efficiency of induction motors. So perpetual motion machine or not, we should at the earliest, put to use whatever benefits this invention offers.

To me, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet

I am not talking about marriage here. Nor am I talking about the movies made by that title. It is just that I love the Apache + MySQL + PHP + WordPress combo so much that I would consider them made for each other. I am a novice to Web programming. I mean creating pages with dynamic content was alien to me. I was pretty scared when it came to creating a data base driven website. I was just content with creating static web pages using plain HTML. I observed with envy, those who create pages that modify and present themselves in an instant, to any given criteria. I wondered whether I had even lost the race, and qualified only to browse as a spectator.

But that was until I read a book titled, “Building a database driven website using PHP and MySQL” by my guru Kevin Yank. In a few pages he does a commendable job explaining what constitute a database, how to build one and finally how to access one using a web page to add/delete/modify its contents. Normally whenever I read a good book, it lingers in my mind for a few days and then I forget about it to make way for another book. But this time it was different. Could it really be as simple as he makes it out to be? Somehow this book impelled me to take action.

But there are several hurdles I need to pass. First of all I don’t know Apache; I don’t know MySQL and PHP. But only a smattering of WordPress. I haven’t installed any program of my own in years. Imagine me installing all four under Windows to make them work together flawlessly. Luckily there was this wonderful site that came along that taught me how to install Apache + MySQL + PHP as a package and led me every step of the way successfully. Now that it is installed, I am ready to follow the example program given by Kevin. And I did. The result, I could see Kevin’s database of Jokes on my site.

But the idea is to create my own database of notebooks currently available in the market and present it to my readers according to their chosen criteria. And I wanted to make use of the beautiful themes available under WordPress. So I became a bit bolder and installed WordPress too and tried the same example codes under WordPress. WordPress neither executed the code nor showed an error message. What am I going to do?

Again I turned to the omniscient Google, requesting me to show the way. Sure enough it led me to this site that provided me the plug-in for WordPress. With that plug-in properly installed I was able to run my own database driven website. The result is there for you all to see.

My dear readers, I must confess that there are some aspects of my life that I am not currently satisfied. But I rejoice that I live in an era, where friends like you(unknown to me) provide expert advice and the resources almost instantaneously. What’s more, you provide them free of cost. I am really, really thankful. Long live open source movement!