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Showing posts from March, 2011

आर्तनाद

हार कर उठने की क्षमता अब नहीं मुझ में रही, वो ह्रदय की मधुर ममता अब नहीं मुझमे रही. अब तो मैं संसार के वारों से होकर छिन्न-भिन्न, बन गया हूँ रूद्र हिंसक आर्तनादी नरपशु. अब मेरी सब इन्द्रियां रक्षा में मेरी व्यस्त हैं. मधुर गुंजन मधुप का गांडीव की टंकार है दामिनी का दमकना अब युद्ध की ललकार है, दीख पड़ते हैं मुझे चहुँ ओर अपने शत्रु दल, सांस की आवाज़ मानो शून्य में चित्कार है. मान था अभिमन्यु सा, अब द्रोण सुत सी वेदना!

The Saga of Static IP

Recently we decided to get a static IP for our office broadband connection. We are a long time Airtel customer and usually not very annoyed with their service. They are quick to respond to complaints and things mostly work as they should. We placed a request for a static IP and were told that it would require a 1 hour downtime to set up. 1 hour is no big deal and so we asked them to go ahead. Our connection went out at around 5pm on Thursday evening. Someone was coming to set up the router for static IP. The person arrived at 9pm and started configuring the router confidently. We were hoping it to be a fairly quick and smooth process but suddenly the disaster struck! The 4-5 steps which he had been taught didn't get the link up. After that it was one hour of him calling various people, trying out some really weird configurations and generally hitting refresh. After struggling with it for 1 hour, he told us that our router did not "support" the static IP. He promised t...

From Low Priced Editions to Fair Priced Editions

A major group of Indian publishers is up in arms against a proposed amendment to the copyright act of India. Put simply, the said amendment allows for the export of any edition of a title into India even if specific Indian editions are already available.  There are some genuine points both for and against the issue. However the debate has long since devolved into fear mongering and finger pointing. One of the interesting claim of the publishers is that the said amendment will also legalize the export of Low Prized Editions of text books and technical books back to USA and UK. As a result, publishers in those market are likely to stop giving licenses for LPEs. I personally think that it is very far fetched. There is enough protection against such imports in USA/UK markets. Some short sighted foreign publishers might pull out but then that should not be the guiding factor of our policies anyway. However the reaction from publishers set me thinking in another direction. Given its s...