Anti-virus Software is a scam!

After five years of smooth running, my laptop crashed unceremoniously one fine morning, no warning what soever. The hard disk had developed a number of bad sectors. After many hours of browsing and tinkering, I was able to recover my data. However, to avoid the problem from recurring, at least for the time being, I had to reformate my laptopand reinstall the operating system.

As my Anti-Virus Software (AVSW) had expired a couple of years ago, I was exploring the options available. Thats when a friend of mine explained how he is protecting his laptop without the support of an AVSW. He is so resolute that he is ready to take the challenge in any open forum that his laptop cannot be infected. His argument is that the AVSW does more harm to the computer than to protect it. He is totally pissed off that the AVSW hogs the processing unit and probably reduces the hard-disk's life with frequent disk reads. His point is, the pros are not worth its cons. He has enabled a plethora of operating system provided features to protect his laptop.

It was not only his strong argument against AVSW but also the cost, the number of options available, the irritating need to renew it every year, that have made me go ahead with only the operating system provided security features for my laptop.

Well, it is not that simple. Now I use only limited-access user login. Whenever I need to perform an admin activity, I not only need to login as an administrator but also undo a number of protections before I can do any worthwhile administrative tasks. It is a pain, of course.

Now, how do I feel about it? I dont know. Its a bag of mixed feelings. On the one hand I feel exposed! Im not sure if I have turned on all the possible protection mechanisms that the operating system provides (AVSW is a score winner here! Whether it really protects our system or not, it gives us a warm feeling that everything has been taken care!). On the other hand, Im happy that I dont have to choose between the anti-virus softwares available in the market. I dont have to shell out every year. We have heard a number of times how an operating system's vulnerability was exposed or a browser's weakness was used by the hackers to do something nasty. However, how many times have we heard of an anti-virus software failing to detect a virus or its variant? Are they (all of them) really that good? Too good to be true, isn't it? Given that, how one makes a decision on which AVSW is best forone's needs.

Anyway, this blog isn't about whether I have protected my laptop fully or not. It is, certainly, not about how you can protect yours. The question is whether AVSW is a scam?

Let us look at the anti-virus software's biological counterpart. The similarity is not only in their behavior, but also in how they are challenged. Once the system is infected, just like our modern medicine, the AVSW addresses and cures the symptoms, leaving the cause of the problem dormant, waiting patiently for the next opportune moment to rear its ugly head. I do not understand! In stead of creating the operating system robust in the first place, we were given a buggy system, leading to a multi-million industry that develops anti-virus software. We, the users, are fleeced in the end.

Gopallapurathu Makkal by K Rajanarayanan

I first read this novel, Gopallapurathu Makkal by K Rajanarayanan, when it was written as a series in a Tamil weekly journal, Ananda Vikatan. After many years, I found this novel as a book of fine printing from the publishing house Annam, at a makeshift bookstore. It is a master piece on the lives of Karisal region in Tamil Nadu.

The story starts at some point in the British-occupied India, when Gopallapuram, a remote village, was not yet impacted by the occupation. As a series of short stories is told, the plot slowly moves from one generation to the next. As the stories roll, we get a glimpse of the villagers' lives and their customs, indigenous and colorful.

The short stories are so rich and deep, they deserve to be novels in their own rights. One of the stories, that of Kittappan and Achindalu, their love for each other and their tradition-breaking reunion was told with a poetic beauty. There are very few authors that can handle the love-making of two animals and the longing of a lonely woman that happens to witness the intense act, without slipping into the realms of obscenity.

As the stories dwell into our nation's struggle for freedom, we get to see the then political events with new perspectives. Be it the hanging of Bhagat Singh or the functioning styles of Congress leaders or the beliefs of the communists or that of a deserted soldier, we get to see each event from a new angle.

In spite of the fine printing and quality packaging, the most I missed in the book are the drawings of Adimoolam, which featured every week in Ananda Vikatan and added an additional dimension to the stories.

This book is a Sakithya academy winner, a work that must be read by every Tamilian and if translated into other languages, by everyone.

Time expands so as to let you do your 'planned' tasks!

In the office, an oft repeated question is how do you get to complete all tasks, where do you find time? The answer lies in my law of universe! "Time expands so as to let you do your 'planned' tasks!".

As long as all our tasks find their respective places in our Calendar or To-do list, we will find time to accomplish the identified tasks. Of course, we need to revisit and rearrange tasks as per their current priorities to see success.

There is another law that can potentially thwart your law of universe. That is the boss' law of universe! The new assignments and dynamics that this law brings in can be a schedule breaker. However, this is an omnipresent law and cannot be negated! The only way around is to let your law coexist and be driven by the law of boss!

Annual Appraisals - How to get 'Outstanding'!

Annual Appraisals can be energy-drainers if appraisers or appraisees just wake up to the occation! I have witnessed, year-on-year, many asking "why are you rating me low? I and x did the same job! How come my rating is low and how come my compensation hike is low? What do you mean by going the extra-mile? What do you mean by proactiveness! Why am I just 'Exceeds Expectation' and not 'Outstanding'? Such questions never fail to remind me of this old story!

Once upon a time, in a village, a rich farmer had many employees working for him in the field. One of the employees of the farmer, Raman, thought he is an excellent employee and must be rewarded better. However to his dismay, year on year, the farmer seemed to be ignoring him for a pay-hike but at the same time was increasing the salary of another employee, Kandan. The Pongal festival came! It happened once again. Kandan was given a bigger salary hike compared to Raman. As if that’s not enough, the farmer also gifted a cow to Kandan. Raman was very disappointed and he decided it is time that he discussed this with the farmer.

He approached the farmer and demanded an explanation for the ‘partiality’.The farmer said, Sure! you deserve an answer. However, I would like you to complete a task for me before we discussed your issue.

Farmer: Do you see the bullock cart on the main road? Can you go check what is the load?
Raman ran to the bullock cart and inquired and came back, Sir! it is mangoes.
Farmer: Wow, that’s good – can you check what variety?
Raman checked and came back – it is Malgova!
Farmer: Then it must be tasty – can you check if he can sell it to us?
Raman ran, checked and came back – Yes Sir! 1kg is Rs.2
Farmer: That’s expensive! Can you check if he can give us the entire load for a reduced price?
Raman ran. By this time the bullock cart has gone farther. Panting, he checked and came back – Yes Sir! He is ready to sell the entire load to us for Rs. 100.
Farmer: That’s good Raman! Now you wait and sit right next to me. Then he called for Kandan.

Farmer: Kanda, I just saw a bullock cart on the main road. Can you go check what is the load?
Off went Kandan and came back! Sir, that was a load of mangoes from Kallakurichi. He’s taking it to the Manaparai Sandai. I tasted a sample - it is a very good Malgova variety. I bargained the entire load for Rs. 80. He may even give the entire load for Rs.70 if we exchange a load of haystack that is lying wasted in our backyard. I asked him to come and meet you. He’s on the way! Do you want any other help?

The farmer said, that’s fine Kanda, you go back and carry on with your work. Off went Kandan.
The farmer looked at Raman and Raman said ‘Sir, Now I understand!’

Why 'Heroes' popular?

I have not seen all the episodes of Heroes and I don't think I will see all the episodes either. It was the almost-fanatic following of this series by my wife and sis-in-law that has made me watch a few episodes.

Though I have not seen all, I have seen sufficient enough to notice the similarities between Heroes and the x-men. Be it the the power of self healing or the agility to read minds or the ability to fly or walk through the walls and many not so direct similarities, we have seen them all!

In spite of being a follow-on, how come Heroes is so popular? I believe it is the inclusive nature of the cast. My wife and sis-in-law started watching this series because it has an Indian, Tamilian, character as one of the lead characters. There are characters from many other countries too.

In essence, it is a story of the world. Whereas, x-men seemed like the story of the United States. At times, in the movie, it sounded more like the story of Newyork and its suburbs! Is this the reason why Heroes popular across the world? Having said this, the simple reason could be, we all like magical, larger than life characters, don't we?

Language - back to the basics!

Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine on how much text messaging has changed and how ubiquitous it has become. Even the SMS editors have matured multi-fold, from a simple text editor to word-guess to word-complete to heuristic based word-suggestion. It is all available in that small mobile phone!

Now, it is another matter, there are many users out there to whom all these additional features are unnessorory. There are SMS experts out there! There was this girl that I had seen at a shopping mall. She was standing in the queue in front of me at the billing counter. She was talking to her friend standing next to her and at the same time she was texting at an amazing speed. Ping pong, ping pong, she was flooded with SMSes and all she needed was just her right hand thumb. She was typing so efficiently and effortlessly. I have seen that many people do not need the advanced text editing features. The have invented their own way of messaging, with short words. For example 'great' is not 'great' anymore. It is just 'gr8' and so on. You know better, I dont have to get into the details.

We continued discussing on transformation of languages and scripts. I mentioned, if this state continues then one day we will see people communicating using symbols as people had been doing thousands of years ago! For which my friend responded, yeah! you will never know. We look at the scripts as if it was written by some immaturecivilizations. May be they were so advanced that they did not need the our complicated languages. All they needed was their sign languages. At that very moment we stopped talking and got lost in our own thoughts!

The Govt Museum of Chennai

It had been years since I visited the 'seththa' college of Chennai. To give my wife the much needed break and to help her study for her exams, I decided to take my two and half year old son out for a day. The choice was the museum. It was not a good choice for the purpose after all. Except for the miniature model museum, to be specific, the miniature cars in the model, nothing inside the museum kept him occupied. He, of course, enjoyed the walking around the museum part.

The museum was clean and pleasant. It was evident that the same care has been given for the artifacts they maintain in the museum. However, I was not equally impressed with the display of our national treasures. As a nation with a long history and prehistoric culture, we are used to the treasures strewn all around us. Unlike many nations,we still carry on and practise a life style which has been in vogue for several thousand years. Even today our places of worship, the centres of our ancient craftsmenship still plays the host to these treasures. As a result, we do not give these treasures their due importance and place. Even if we value them, we do not let the worldknow our place. The british boast of their collection from all over the world, including the tons of gold ornaments that they had taken from India during the Raj. There is hardly anything older than five hundred years in the United States, still they are proud of showcasing their natural wealth. And, what we do? Having been used to the wealthof history, we had lost the sense of importance of our treasure. The stone and bronze statues on the display are supported by cryptic, hard to read small font explanations. In many cases, the paper notes are half eaten by moth. One walk around the hall leaves our eyes strained from reading. Certainly not an invite to a second visit.

To be fair, I dont think the museum is adequately staffed. I doubt that they are adequately funded either. They may think of seeking the help of volunteers, Im interested! I know a lot of you out there volunteer for many social causes. Is not this worth its time and effort?

The crow and the fox - moral of the story!

I guess this is a typical Indian story. I was telling my son the story of a crow that was cheated by a fox. It goes like this. There was this crow that flicks a vadai, a south indian delicacy, from an old lady. With the boot in it's mouth the crow settles on a tree. Just then comes a fox. You are so beautiful, can you sing a song for me, saysthe fox. The stupid crow opens its mouth and there goes the vadai right into the mouth of the fox. The disappointed crow was back another day, this time with a boot from the old lady, again. Not to miss a chance the fox shows up under the tree. You are so beautiful, can you sing a song for me, says the fox. Isn't the crow experiencednow? Still not able to resist the flattery, the crow secures the vadai in it's claws and sings what it things is the best song. The fox is not to be out-smarted yet, the fox said 'Man! thats awesome! why dont you spice it up with a dance? That is one heck of a compliment to resist and the crow obliges. The happy fox runs with the vadai in itsmouth. So the story goes several rounds until the crow reaches nirvana!

What's the moral of the story? There are some families that shut their doors tight before the meal. Dont let strangers watch you eat! They have learnt a lesson or two haven't they? ;-)

To Montessori or not to Montessori!

When you are a parent of two and half year old and live in Chennai, then hop in! It is going to be one hell of a rocky ride finding the 'best school' for our kids. Only a week ago, I was woken up violently by my anxious wife to go stand in the Q at 5 in the morning. To what? Just to buy the application form for the pre kinder garten. It is one of the popular schools in Chennai, no doubt! However, from what I gather, they follow the traditional Indian teaching methods. Im confused. Having exposed to the Montessori methods of teaching through my wife, I have become a big fan of Montessori. Should I go ahead with this school or look for a montessori school? Again, the dilemma iswhat next? In Chennai, the options are very restricted when it comes to Montessori. First of all there are not many good schools in my neighbourhood that can call themselves truly Montessori. Secondly, there are not many senior Montessori schools in Chennai. What to do after 5 or 6 years in Montessori? I have to send my kid to a traditional school and I will have to go through the same painful search, which I may as well do now itself! Grief!

Ancient India

Cyclone Nisha kept me indoor and I have started reading Ancient India by RS Sharma, translated into Tamil by Magini. It is an interesting reading and it re-emphasizes India's rich cultural heritage. It is a crisp recap of what we already know as a general knowledge through our school text books and a lot of little-known but important events andthe lives of the ancient Indian subcontinent. I have not finished reading, though. However, when I browsed through the chapters, I was disappointed to note that only one chapter was marked for the South Indian history. Just as with many North Indian historians, the Indian history is hardly anything more than that of Hindustan. The importanceof Decan plateau is usually overlooked. It does not do justice to the history of 'Ancient India'. Is there any good book on the ancient history of the south?

Operation Cyclone - Did the media spoil PAK support?

While Tamil Nadu was reeling under the pangs of cyclone Nisha and killing in hundreds, the west coast, Mumbai, tasted the stabs of terror, again.

Operation Cyclone stormed the terrorists and brought relief after 70 hours of courageous fight. While all of this was happening, it was sad to see the media go berserk. While they all had the same scenes to telecast, just for the sake differentiation, the dramas that they played was pathetic.

Starting from bothering the security personnel and the fire brigade for sensational news for their channels, they have gone to the extent of cursing the Pakistanis who appeared on their channels. Those Pakistanis, who in spite of their country's dismal record in freedom of speech, for the first time appeared to have shown real concern and sympathy to what's happening to India. And what did our media do? Crucify them, as if the were the sole representatives of Pakistan. What were they expecting? Beg for mercy and punishment? The media have gone to the extent of projecting the impending arrival of the ISI chief as a summon by the Indian government. Whats India, a super power to summon the neighbour's Intelligent chief? Now, that appears to be impossible and a chance of lost opportunity for the countries to work together against the cancer.

Lets understand that Pakistan is screwed beyond a easy recovery from the mistakes of its past leaders. If India wants a peaceful boarder, let us better help that country's young civilian govt to fight terrorism. We must strive to utilize every opportunity for the betterment of the situation.

Indus Valley Civilization

Is there any other subject as controversial as "The Indus Valley Civilization"? One's opinion seems to reflect on the origin, whether you are an Indian, Pakistani, North Indian, South Indian, Aryan, Dravidian, religious, Scientist, Parthasarathy, Seshadri, Kandasamy or Murugan. And so is one's acceptance of the umpteen theories doing rounds. Foreign researchers’ theories appear to attract less criticism than an Indian researcher’s. Varnam’s (http://varnam.org/blog/archives/history_before_1_ce/) postings are “colored”!

Mind over matter

One of the very early works of Science fiction in Tamil may be attributed to Pudhumaipithan (புதுமைப்பித்தன்). In this Kapadapuram (கபாடபுரம்) written in 1945, a head with no-body lives, speaks and cracks jokes with the hero. One's body and it's parts perform acts to satisfy the needs of the brain. If the brain can achive it's needs in some other way then there is no need for the body. Taking it further, if the brain attains a state where it has no needs then there is no need for the body. The ultimate human evoluation?!

The Hindu, Friday, May 30, 2008: Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, sceientsits have reported.

Science and Science fictions, what follows what?

Losing faith in Science

The concept of God and the scientific explanation of evolution of life on earth has never failed to fascinate me. I’m trying to see the link between them. I could not decide to shed one belief for the other. There is a strong connection between them. Don't you feel the same? Some of the gaping holes in the spiritual teachings and the not-so-easy-to-skip scientific proofs!

Sometime back I was on a company assignment to Bristol, UK. I happened to read the free Metro (http://www.metro.co.uk/) newspaper of 26th Sep 06. There is this article on people losing faith in science, particularly in the theory of evolution. Needless to say it attracted my attention. The article said, 51% of Americans reject the theory of evolution and the funds and support for Creationism is on the raise.I have been thinking about it. Those who believe only in creationism are those with strong faith in the Supreme Being (the GOD). It would be inappropriate to assume that their belief in creationism stems from their disbelief in the scientific theory of evolution. Their strong conviction in GOD might have prevented them from accepting the theory of evolution. I believe that both the theories have truth in them.

It was an interesting coincidence. That evening in one of the repeat telecasts of "Friends":

Ross: You DO NOT believe in the theory of evolution and all the fossils that were found all over the world??

Phoebe: .... the interesting question is; WHO put those things there in the first place!!

She is a wonder.

Is monogamy against nature?

Most creatures on earth procreate by selection. The selection of a mate is not a chance-event but a very careful elimination of the weakest. The male sealions fight their way and bleed to attract the female. The humming birds fall with a style and fiercely fight to protect their flower-rich territory to attract the female. In all these cases, fitness, health and age of the mate plays major role. Nature is amazing! It only wants the best of species to procreate. Nature in its own simple way reduces the chances of multiplication of bad genes. But what do you think of the humans? We with the power of our brain have created a system, which tries to protect the week and the bad genes.