Ever since I returned from Calcutta, I have been going through a particular kind of terror that I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy. It is sheer torture, and incorporates all the elements of a proper sad-masochistic episode of irrevelant, yet relentless, stupidity.

I am currently buying a new notebook.

Now when I was much younger, the formula used was simple – you get what you pay for. But over the years, notebook manufacturers have successfully perverted this formula.

Let’s start at the bottom. You have a small budget, so you look around to see what you can get in that budget.

Right. What you can get in a small budget is pretty straightforward – outdated stuff from several years ago, with almost no features. You didn’t expect much more, so that’s OK.

But some features are mission critical to you. So you up the budget a bit, and see what you can get. Sure enough, there is a model available that has that mission critical feature.

Unfortunately it lacks several others that *do* exist in the lower end models.

Hmmm….

OK, let’s up the budget even more, from “peasant class” to “citizen class”. At this point, you get some good looking machines, which are sadly completely outdated, flimsy, with almost zero features, and so flimsy that even the manufacturer (who normally gives three years warranty) decides to play it safe with only one year of warranty.

Arrrrghhhh!!!!

So you move on – you up the budget yet again (you are now at twice the original budget), and slowly begin to see some elements of modern design and most of the features you are looking for – except that the manufacturer just got bought by someone and the future of this range of machines is in doubt.

OK, let’s look around again.

Ah, there, on the horizon, just above your current budget, you finally see something that seems to have everything you want, by a manufacturer who isn’t likely to go out of business in a while.

As you get closer, you realise that you are again seeing a mirage. You have a choice of three ranges, all priced about the same – “A” has plenty of great features, but weighs a ton, one “R” has almost no features and also weighs a ton, and “T” is quite light, but lacks the features of the first.

Forget about the features of the first – T lacks features offered by the very first contenders you looked at!!!!

At this point, I am almost ready to give up and use paper and pencil instead.

For the past 5 years, I have been using an IBM Thinkpad that served me well. Over the years, it has gained the tag of “India’s best know Linux notebook”, but like all good things, it finally passed on in January this year.

That Thinkpad weighed something like 4 kilos (or about 8 lbs), and if there is one thing I desperately want is a lighter machine, but with 21st century features.

IBM’s current offerings (the A, R and T series mentioned above) are the most curious design and feature mix I have ever seen. Each has “show stopper” lack of features in them.

Example – apart from the weight issues (the R and A series weigh in at 3.5-4 kilos, the T weighs about 2.5 kilos), the lower-priced A has a faster CDwriter/DVD combo (not offered with the T, though all peripherals are interchangable). The lower-priced A has svideo-out *and* svideo-in as well as firewire ports, the T doesnt. And the ultimate insult – the T has USB 1.1 ports, despite using a motherboard chipset from Intel that ships only with USB 2.0 circuitry.

This is almost offensive.

I’d go for the A, if it wasn’t so heavy. I’d go in for the T, if it wasn’t so under-featured.

Looks like I’ll have to go for a Dell instead.

Except that the only usably configured Dell (albeit priced at 70% of IBM’s price) weighs even more than IBM’s A series!

Some people say I should lok at a Compaq, but I hate the keyboards and the glide-pad that the Compaqs ship with, and the Dells and IBMs outperform the Compaqs anyway.

Did I hear someone say “Toshiba”? Yep, would love to, if one could get any real service for them in India. You only have to see the hesitation the salesmen show when you ask for the higher models to understand why this is so important.

“Skip the features!” I hear someone hollering. Rrrright. I am no novice notebook-user, and I am willing to pay for what I get – if I can get it.

For example – high-speed peripheral ports are make-or-break for me, given the notorious lack of upgrade-path that notebooks have. I expect to drive music equipment and digital video cameras with my notebook – those dinky slow-poke USB 1.1 ports at 12mbps aren’t going to help me there. USB 2.0 at least, with added Firewire if possible.

I don’t really need a 1600×1280 15″ screen – I’d settle for 1280×960 (or the more common 1400×1050), but what I am being offered is 1024×768 – the same as I have had for the past 5 years!

Bleh.

Then there is WiFi and Bluetooth. I need both. Period. I am a communication and networking guy – my clients use these technologies, so I should, too. Otherwise how can I advise them on things related to them?

IBM offers models that include both WiFi and BT, but they aren’t in stock. instead, I am being “guided” towards a lower model, that doesn’t have BT. Of course, the fact that Airtel has just announced GPRS, and that I will need BT to talk to a GPRS/BT enabled phone, totally escapes people.

Dell doesnt seem to offer any models that handle both WiFi and BT.

Pick up the phone, call the sales-support hotline to find out about this. Get put on hold for 45 minutes. Then get disconnected.

Send email, get a response roughl a week later. At 5:30pm on a Friday, just as you are leaving for home. Ask them to call back the next day – they do not. Call up Dell, get a message “Sorry, we are closed for the weekend”.

If this is how they treat people who want to buy machines from them, how will they treat people who want *service* from them?

Bite the bullet, call HP to ask about Compaq notebooks. Am offered a “great price” for top-of-line model. “Great price” turns out to be higher than their list price. Hmmm….

Top of line model turns out to have less features than the machines I considered in the first budget. Hmmm again….

The nearest compromise I can see at this point is an IBM Thinkpad T30 with WiFi, BT and USB 1.1 ports. To make up the egg-on-the-face of the USB 1.1 ports, I’d have to source and import a PCMCIA-based add-on card that offers me 2 or 4 USB 2.0 ports. There are also cards available that offer USB 2.0 and Firewire ports on the same card.

OK, since this is an IBM machine, I’d have to have a hole in the head if I was to buy it without a spare battery – not because I need the longer backup time, but because I foresee the need of a battery – IBM notebooks have a mysterious plague that kills the batteries in just a few days beyond the one-year warranty on the battery.

In fact, don’t you find it curious that IBM offers 3 years warranty on their machines, but the batteries that ship with them carry only a one year warranty?

OK, so we need a spare battery – and guess what is not available within the promised shipping time?

Aaaaaarrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few minutes ago, I got this email from my daughter Geetanjali. She has written a poem, and I think you all should see it. It is about what could have been Kalpana Chawla’s last thoughts:

Spaced Out

It is here
Life’s end and the begining of a journey which can never be told.
I am scared, not terrified
I am sad, not sorrowful
I will face it.
I will die knowing that there will be those to come and those to go.
I will die in hope
I will die in courage.
I will die knowing I have made my mark.

-Geetanjali Chitnis

The shuttle Columbia is gone, taking seven astronauts with it, among them an Indian.

What’s the importance of these three points?

According to me, and in reverse order:

Kalpana Chawla died in the line of duty. What happened to her is what every pioneer, including all astronauts, fear will happen to them. What is most laudable about Ms.Chawla is not that she was the first Indian woman in space, but that she did her job, knowing that it could cost her her life. As a human being, that is a far bigger achievement than just being a nominal representative of an archaic concept of national boundaries, and if I grieve over her loss, it is because there are so few humans who had the guts to do what she did.

The seven astronauts who died in all probability knew what was coming long before it actually happened, but could do nothing about it but take a chance at returning. They had no facilities to attempt a repair, since they were not equipped to do a spacewalk, and the shuttle did not have a “lifeboat” capsule that would have been rigid enough to withstand the stresses of re-entry. That makes it all the more horrible – the fact that room for commercial equipment is more important than additional safety equipment for the crew. To me, this defines the mindset of the people who run such commercial endeavours.

Another shuttle is gone, and the whole fleet is now under scrutiny. The last time a shuttle was lost, it effectively grounded the entire fleet for almost three years, and it would have remained so had pressures from certain corners to “justify” the expense of creating and maintaining the shuttle fleet not forced things along.

What stands to question is – why is no new space travel technology being developed? In effect, the world *still* uses the same technology as it did almost half a decade ago! The “booster” drive the shuttles use is very similar to the Saturn V technology that catapulted the Apollo missions into space in the 60s.

I do not expect the sudden appearance of fiction-like “anti-gravity” technologies, but there simply has to be a more efficient and economical way to create the kind of push it takes to get into space and (more importantly) to get back home.

The American administration is now talking about “more money for NASA”, but to what end? If we are still using the technologies of the 60s to travel to space, then where has all that research money gone?

It sure hasn’t gone into better and more foolproof safety devices that would ensure that tragedies like this don’t happen.

Over the past week, I re-read the four original Robot greats by Isaac Asimov – “Caves of Steel”, “The Naked Sun”, “Robots of Dawn” and “Robots and Empire”.

A few years ago, someone once casually made a comment to me that “Asimov’s books aren’t really science fiction”.

I agree, and I disagree.

When Asimov first began writing, he wrote about things that he imagined. Today, things he described then are not so far fetched anymore – in fact, many of them (such as computers, space travel, etc.) aren’t even considered as anything extraordinary anymore. So in a manner of speaking, Asimov’s science fiction has largely become science fact today.

So why would one want to read Asimov’s books?

Simple, because they aren’t science fiction. In fact, they rarely deal with science and technology at all, except as trappings for a more elaborate scenario. Asimov’s books have almost exclusively been about society, social phenomenon, human interaction, etc.

But the most profound take-away you get by reading his books is watching a master writer at work – the way he managed, over a span of many decades, start storylines, and eventually bring it all together at some unexpected point.

The original four Robot novels I read over the past week set the stage for much, if not all, of Asimov’s Universe. If you read these books, you will *never* ever get rid of the feeling of Deja Vu when you read any of his other books. The cross references, the cameos and the artful tying of intricate knots in his storylines are unbelievable.

For example (warning – spoiler ahead!) – when you read “Foundation and Earth” (his conclusion to the amazing Foundation series about galactic empires and social engineering), right at the very end, you meet an old friend, who has been with you thoughout all the dozens of novels Asimov wrote, without you ever realising it. And as that old friend steps out to greet you, you suddenly, with a cold shiver running down your spine, watch entire story arcs fall into place – the end of “Robots and Empire”, the entire “Foundation” arc, etc.

And you also realise that Asimov’s characters often come up with some telling truths about humanity, for which you see parallels today.

For example – the discussions between Giskard and Daneel throughout “Robots of Dawn” and “Robots and Empire”, in which they realise that humanity isn’t guided by individuals, but more by mass reactions to events, and that future directions can be predicted using not single samples of humanity (i.e. individuals) but humanity on the whole. Single events, and individuals, play a minor role in the overall scheme of things, and often tend to be flashes in the pan, quickly forgotten, as time progresses. It is the *aftermath* of these events that is recorded, not the event itself.

You can see examples of this happen every day around us – yesterday’s heros and “earth-shaking events” are forgotten in today’s context. A sobering thought for anyone who seeks immortality through actions and words.

I wish President Bush and Prime Minister Blair would understand this.

The “Made for TV” war they are pushing for (whether justified or not) will, in the short term, provide newspaper fodder and exciting TV coverage, as well as an excellent showcase for America’s latest weaponry.

But in the long run, it will produce not the “glory”, “freedom” and the “peace” Bush and Blair promise us, but untold misery and agony for humanity for decades, even centuries to come.

Just like Daneel and Giskard predicted in Asimov’s books.

[24 hours after I wrote this, President Bush of the USA announced that they would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against Iraq - even in a first strike situation].

Well, looks like I am back on schedule for GNUnify again – I received word that I was welcome there despite my “radical” views about keeping an open mind.

So unless someone else now voices his objection, I will find myself in Pune on February 15th. This means that I am effectively travelling most of February!

Next week, I spend time in Chennai, where I would have been this week, had I not been laid down with a flu again.

The next week, I am in Pune, and then might find myself in Goa to participate in an event there as well. The Goa event is still being planned, but if it happens, I am going to take a break there – I haven’t had a holiday since December 2001, and I badly need one. And there is no better place to do so than in Goa. Even better when it is your birthday (20th) and wedding anniversary (23rd)!

UPDATE: Just got news that I am in the technical seminar circuit in March as well! Apparently there is a lot of demand for an extended version of EPLAWS from people. That’s cool – there are a lot of new tricks we want to teach people, and then there is the new exoLinux release as well.

Our dog, Judo, became a father today when his German Shepherd girlfriend down the road gave birth to 6 puppies. Everyone is fine, though I suspect that Shubha is massively tickled about becoming “grandmother”. Judo has no clue why everyone is so excited, but what the heck – he is enjoying the attention anyway.

Should get some photos later this week, once the proud mom allows us near.

In other news, I have put up some new photos, including from my Calcutta trip, the last lot of kittens (both our cats have since been sterilized), some photos of Anjali’s Environment day from school, etc.

BLUG Meet this Friday – the first one after LB/2002, so bound to be good fun. Lots of development related stuff, which is a good start. Also time to plan activities for the year, identify potential managers and project leaders, etc.

Sour note for the week was finding out who pocketed a heavy commission on my account last year. I should have guessed. Well, actually I did, I just didn’t have proof till now. Now I do. So much for that kind of “friend”.

Between the 23rd and the 26th, I was in Calcutta, where I gave a few talks at the COMPASS Software Summit, and helped the local LUG there with their exhibition stall.

Reached there on 23rd morning, after catching a flight at 6 a.m.! Argh! Needless to say, I was braindead by the time I reached Calcutta.

And that wasn’t the only thing that was dead – my good old IBM Thinkpad finally got smoked into oblivion.

Anyway, once in Calcutta, found out that a recently indicted monopolist had been calling all hardware vendors telling them not to lend machines to the local LUG. Needless to say, the futility of that attempt to sabotage the LUG’s participation at the COMPASS exhibition was laughable, with vendors handing out high-end P4s, buckets of RAM and other goodies to the LUG. There were so many machines available that I heard Tathagata@ILUG-CAL saying “we seem to have seriously misjudged the importance of Linux to the hardware vendors”

The machines turned out to be the P4 845glly types – nicely unsupported by both X and Linux in general, unless you knew what you were doing. Luckily for the LUG, PK Sharma was chatting with me on IM just bfore I left, and so when Indranil called in volatile mode, PKS could relay the message to me, and I could tell him that I had all the required files to get things up and running, and would bring them along – which I did.

So once there, I sat down and showed the LUG dudes what needed to be done, which they then happily replicated over 15 machines, and by the next day, we had 15 machines happily running Redhat Linux 8.0, complete with native X and full sound.

The ILUG-Cal guys are an enthu lot – and really hardworking. Beside putting up a comprehensive show at the exhibition, they also gave dozens of mini-talks on various Linux related topics. The papers warmed to them and there was a lot of coverage.

I gave my talks at the software summit on the 24th, where I was delighted to be joined by Arvind Yadav of the Goa LUG, who gave a *great* talk on the Goa Schools project. Between the two of us, we covered the Government, Corporate and Education sectors. We then headed out to the LUG stall at the exhibition, where we talked to people, cleared their doubts, made new friends, etc.

I returned to Bangalore on the 25th night, leaving Arvind to continue the hard work there. Photos should be up tomorrow.

On the 28th, I will spend my day taking questions from stall visitors via Instant messenger. Let’s see how that works out.

As some of you probably know, I had been invited to speak at the GNUnify event in Pune in February, and I really looked forward to it.

Well, today I have been uninvited because of my use of the term “Open Source”. While this will naturally provoke great cheers from some quarters, I see this is a symptom of things getting really rotten.

Ironically, I was shown the door by people who had *no* problems attending (and even *speaking* at) Linux Bangalore/2001, Linux Bangalore/2002 (both billed as Linux and OpenSource events), the Workshop on Free and Open Software in Trivandrum, the Government’s meeting on Linux and Open Source Policy, etc.

Ah well, I guess some people just don’t really feel complete unless they have something (or someone) they can hate, or a community they can divide. It appears that the term “Free” has a lot less liberal meaning when it comes to “Free Software” for some people.

My sympathies lie with the poor student organisers of the event who got caught in the crossfire.

For a blow by blow account of the “uninvitation process”, click here.

Maurice Gibb, one third of the immortal band The Bee Gees, died today after a heart attack.

What can I say?

There is something awfully final about one third of a phenomenon dying. In a way, it is as bad as when John Lennon died – you know that while other members of the band may live on, you know that they can never be “them” again without one member missing permanently.

I remember listening to a Bee Gees collection tape in Jaikishan and Jayanthi’s house in Belgaum in the late 70s and early 80s, and playing “Tragedy” in college. I blew my mind on the “Spirits having flown” album. While most people probably remember the Bee Gees for “Saturday Night Fever”, they should really be remembered for their non-”thump thump” material, such as “Too Much heaven” and “How deep is your love”.

Goodbye, Maurice. People may not recall hearing your voice, but they sure felt it.

I never fell in love so easily
Where the four winds blow I carry on
I’d like to take you where my spirit flys
Through the empty skys
We go alone never before having flown

–”Too Much Heaven”, The Bee Gees

Well, this diary is now one year old, and a year later, Mrinal and I still haven’t figured out what the tune was. I guess it must have been original, but today I can’t for the life of me remember what it was!

One year, 143 entries, that’s on an average one entry every 2.5 days – not bad.

When I started this diary, I was mostly alone in this thing – today, there is (of course) LiveJournal, where everyone and his uncle now keep what they call a “blog”. I know that I didn’t start this trend (thank God – at least one thing I can’t be blamed for!). In fact, the only ‘blogger I know who came in before me was Jace.

But then this is not a blog!

Last Saturday, we had a “little” party to make up for the doozy New Year’s. An openair barbeque potluck party on our huge lawn. Good fun, live music, great food, lots of drink, lots of chocolate mousse…. aaaaahhhhhh!

Lots of friends (whomever we could track down in the short period between conception of idea and party), including most of Phenom (JD went missing), our friends Swati and family, and of course most of Exocore.

We decided not to tie up Judo this time, which was a decision that found favour with everyone except Khader, whom Judo focussed on, and Shubha, who was embarrassed to death by Judo’s behaviour.

Will have some pics up eventually, plus a list of what everyone brought.