Open Source Cyber Cafes

Just few months back, my work needed me to ride the information super highway (a.k.a. Internet). But as my net connection at my home was down, I went to the local cyber cafe, just around the corner. But I was welcomed by the owner with a shocking surprise. Instead of arrays of cubicles housing flat screen monitors, the shop now sported all the computer accessories and peripherals ! I was then supplied by the "inside info" that the police were pestering the owner and other cyber cafe owners in our area for possessing illegal softwares. Actually, the local police were under the pressure of the ministry, and were given powers to raid any cyber cafe at their discretion. The cyber cafe I visit have all licensed copies of the softwares they use! Yet they were forced to shell out wads of gandhi babas. Tired of warming the pockets of local "goons", the owner took the decision to change the line of business. Soon the cyber cafes started disappearing one by one! Once upon a time every lane in our locality had a cyber cafe! But now the epidemic of cyber plague wiped out all the cyber cafes from our area! That moment I just had a passing thought! How about an Open Source Cyber Cafe (OSCC)! Whether there is any practicality to this idea or not... I doubt! But there is no harm in checking out this option! By OSCC I mean, the computers in the cyber cafe will run Free or Open license operating system, like LINUX. Linux is an open source operating system. It simply means that if you are a programmer, and have an idea of improving the operating system then you can tweak the codes and have a customised operating system. You do not have to seek any permission from anyone regarding the little engineering you make. If the same were to be done on Microsoft's softwares, they would have screwed your arse hard! Infact, if your little engineering on the linux ops were really intelligently beneficial then, the distributor may choose to include your codes in the next upgrade of the OS! Linux has many distributors, viz. Debian, Mandriva, SuSe, Vector, Ubuntu, Red Hat etc. etc. They all market the Linux product. Although they are free, it does cost you to buy their product. The term "FREE" denotes freedom, as in freedom to tinker with the codes of OS. Not free as in FREE LUNCHES! If the local cyber cafes would carry these "free" OS on their consoles, then it would definitely leave the local police perplexed! Well, on what basis will they exhort money? But then as I said earlier, implementing this on a practical angle is quite difficult. Why? you may ask! Firstly, If you ask any layman in India, what OS do you have on your PC; Windows... tad comes the answer! To hear that a person using Linux is as rare as looking at Mona Lisa's original painting. Indian "Tech Geeks" seem quite averse to the friendly li'll penguin called Tux (That's the brand symbol of Linux) They give lengthy comments on Linux being "non-friendly" as if they have extensive experience working at CNET.com as reviewers! It's like commenting on Black Forest cake being spicy hot even before eating it! Secondly, the police are not the ones who will give up easily. One must fear the appetite of a hungry lone wolf, goes the old jungle saying. Well, its applicable even in concrete jungle! Thirdly, the cyber owners will lose out steam (read interest) of running the Open Source OS very soon. That's because very few people will come to such joints. Simply because, it's very difficult to brainwash a prejudiced Indian mind. For Indians, Linux is as alien as a creature from planet Pluto! That's it! While getting ready to type this post, I searched the internet for any existing OSCC's . That's when I stumbled upon Gary's Musings . One point to be noted here is that Open source softwares can be used freely for commercial operations also! So next time you get an opportunity to operate Linux, Just do not miss it. I am 100% sure that you'll just fall in love with it. It's graphics supersede that of Vista! Its minimum stress on the resources is unmatched by any of MS products! Its security is un-breach-able. Viruses stay a million miles away as Linux is un-vulnerable to 99.99% of viruses created! It is also crash proof, unlike Windows! The question now remains, why has Linux not reached the pinnacle of popularity despite its merits! This gives me an opportunity to write another blog! Comments on this post expected. Take care. O.A.K.

Promise Delivered albeit delayed!

I had promised long back that I will strike back in the blogosphere with loads of new things. But I found myself actually with loads of work. On the eve of the day when I planned to start writing blogs, I found a msg lying in my inbox. I never knew that the msg would take me to Moradabad, UP, India. Well, the trip started with an absolute indecisiveness. The train we (Anita, Yogita and me) boarded was Dadar Amritsar Exp. but it was nothing less than the mumbai locomotives, packed to its brim! We had decided to return home if it was not for a pot bellied TTE, who encouraged us to travel in the train with a wait listed (unconfirmed) ticket! And the journey continued and we reached Moradabad! At Moradabad, we took up the task of organising a huge satsang of 7,000 people in Moradabad's Railway Stadium. It was the first mega event for Moradabad-ians! During the work I witnessed countless miracles, unbelievable feats of marvel, North Indian delicacies, Time spent with Rishi Nityapragyaji! and People with a huge heart. The volunteers there treated us in a very royal way! I always wondered, whenever some swamiji or rishiji would talk about the miracles they experienced, whether they were true? But now, after a stint in Moradabad, I will agree to their last word. It is 100% true that when you do the work for divine, divine takes care of you! Make no mistake about it!!! After returning home on Guruji's B'day (May 13), I was occupied constantly in some work, that kept me tied. So today, taking out time from my busy schedule, I decide to pour out some words on the blog. One more nice thing happened with me! A few days before returning back to mumbai, I decided to meet my li'll cousin sis, in New Delhi, whom I did not see for last eight years! She asked me to join Facebook, yet another social networking (socnet)site. I actually spend less time on such social networking sites. But on her behest, I did join. But to my surprise, I found that lots of YES!+ youth religiously use facebook as an online communication tool! I then found that I was spending around 2 hours a day on facebook adding them to my friends list. Well, Now I understand how such (socnet) helps in keeping people connected. Here's a link containing fotos of Moradabad! Copy paste the link below in your browser to view the album: Trip to moradabad! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=797&id=100000005163816&l=5aadba0725 O.A.K.

Geni - Family Tree !!!

Consider this situation: You are attending your relative's wedding and someone just pops up from the crowd and says, "Hi recognised me?? My god Last time I saw you you were so small. May be 10-15 years back right?" You keep wondering who that person is. You mentally climb the "Family Tree" to find the connection. Well, In the era when Social Networking rules, it has become more of a challenge to be socially networked offline. We, now-a-days spend so much time in front of the LCD Flat Screen that the world has started appearing flat! I was very much ashamed when I realised that I could not recognise people from my family tree! Here comes "Geni" to rescue! Geni is also one of a pseudo social networking site. I call it pseudo because, it looks like social networking acts like social networking but actually the purpose to make your family tree. You create an account and add the people in you relation to form a tree. You can also send an invite to them through email to complete the family tree from their side. As more and more people join you tree, your family will start looking more complete. I was surprised to see how big my family tree is! This is really a wonderful site, beautifully managed, lesser stress on bandwidth, lots of peripheral functionalities like statistics(Must check out!) Timeline, relatives, photos, videos and mainy the FAMILY TREE. Joining is very very simple. No much forms to fill. In fact when I got the invite from my uncle, I just clicked the link and my account was created. User name and pasword was automatically generated! No hassles! O.A.K.