Serendipity ...

If you haven't guessed it as yet ... it means "A Fortunate Accident"
Playing on my comp is "Moonlight Kiss" which is the OST of a movie by the same name ...
Brilliant, slow song ... and the movie is pretty good too ...

Stars John Cusack and the ever so gorgeous Kate Beckinsale :)

Though, that is not the main reason for key-ing in this blog ...
Its about destiny ...

Was talking about destiny the other day with a friend ... and my mind threw in a lot of stuff ...
Ranging from the Matrix thingy about choice to even Einstein's theory of relativity to the bizarre time travel ideology ...

So, what exactly is destiny ?

As of yet, haven't gone through a life changing, destiny dependent situation ... so I'll sit on the fence for this one ...
Remember seeing a movie, a long time ago, called Mr. Destiny which had an average star cast, but the concept was pretty cool ...

It delved into idea of how every little thing we do, alters our future ...
( Coupling this with Merovingian's belief that there is no choice ... and the stuff that choice is an illusion , created by those with power for those without ... we are actually living a pre-planned life )
How do you know, that a choice that you made, was pre-decided ... and that you wouldn't have made the other choice anyways ...
There is no turning back and trying the other path is it ? Time is a one way street ...

Anyways, getting back to the movie, the plotline was hence :
There is this guy, the protagonist of the film, who as a kid ( teenager ) was an amazing baseball batsman ...
So, in this one baseball match final, last innings, they need a home run and he's on 2 strikes ...
He has the capability to hit one .... but as you guessed it, he misses ...
Everyone boos him and clear out ... he just sits in the stadium alone ... crying ...

This incident, haunts him throughout his life, and is probably the thing which he regrets the most ...
So, back to when he is old again, he is an average, middle class guy, gets an average salary and is married to a normal, not so good looking, average girl ( Sigourney Weaver ) I think ...

Anyways, so one really shitty night, he gets into a bar and bumps into one guy, who calls himself Mr. Destiny ...
He agrees to change one thing in his life, and this fellow asks for the homerun and the wish is granted ...

So, when he steps out of the bar, his entire life is changed ...
Because, when he hit the home run, he became a hero, started dating the daughter of an Industrialist, and now is married to her ...

Thus, to cut a long story short, it shows how a sequence of events takes root from things that we do ...
The fellow's original wife, was the only person, who came and consoled him after he missed the homerun ...
That incident got nullified when he hit the home run, and he actually, never met her ...

A very good friend of mine, will come up and say, that every second of our lives, parallel universes get created, by our every action ...
So, according to him ... in one of the universes, Hitler won the war, and is alive, and is ruling again ...

In one of the universes, someone made a wrong choice, and Gandhi wasn't assasinated, because the assasin couldn't get to him ...
Maybe he got to the place late, because someone else blocked his approach, becase someone else pushed the fellow ...

Makes you kinda think ...

In another universe, I've taken over the world ! :)

For a lil' bit of sense ...

Its that time again ...
Kind of a been there, done that feeling ... deja vu' ...

The Maharashtra Government, on a High Court Order, is making Helmets compulsory from the 1st of Feb.
To cut a long story short, some college students from the Symbiosis college here, had long ago, filed a writ petition ... seeing the number of people losing their lives in road accidents ...

The High Court had ordered the Govt. to make the helmets compulsory ... and they even had done so ... for about a week ... before some stupid people got together, and got a stay order ...

This all happened sometime in 2000 - 2001 ... if I remember correctly ...

I, for one, am totally for the helmet issue ...
I do not take my bike out without a helmet ... has become some kind of a compulsion now ...

Pune, has the highest number of two wheelers in Asia ... and I'd reckon ... the whole of the world ...
Most of the two wheelers drive rashly ... and are prone to accidents ...
Its a well established fact, the outcome of studying hundreds of cases ... that having a helmet, could have saved a person in an accident from dying, or worse, turning into a vegetable ...

Then why do people do this ?
Why can't they just acknowledge the fact, that the Govt. for once, is doing something right, and they should let them do it ...

Every other country in the world, has helmets compulsory for two wheelers ...
Then why cannot we implement it here ?

This just shows how dumb can people get ...
They have formed an organisation ... a 6 word something - Marathi name ... which translates as : "The Pune Anti Helmet Order Group"
Everyday, you'll see a notice in the newspaper, saying that the PAHOG is having a meeting at such and such place ... to come up with reasons and protests, as to quash this evil Govt. scheme ...

Then there is this smart-ass, who writes to the Editor that ...
The helmet law should not be implemented due to the following reasons :
1. A person is responsible for his own safety ...
2. When this law is implemented, helmets will become expensive ... or cheaper, subsidized stuff will be available ...
3. This will be another way in which a policeman will harass people and take bribes ...
4. The roads in Pune are so bad that two wheelers do not travel at a speed of more than 20 km-hr ... so there will no use of a helmet in an accident ...

I mean, people have all the time, and brains in the world to come up with such fantastic excuses, that I feel, its no use protecting their heads with helmets, which is functioning so poorly anyways ...
How about doing something constructive for a change ?

When I first started going to college on a bike ( 12th std - Junior College ), I had a Bajaj Sunny ( the so un-dependable ) ... and I was forced to wear a helmet by my mom ... whom I later thanked profusely when I was involved in an accident ... and lived to tell about it ...

It was a funny sight ...
I was already finding it hard to fit on a Sunny, and on top of that, with a helmet, it must have been a sight to see ...
People would often ask me ... why did I wear a helmet on a "Sunny" ?
The answer was simple ... the guy hitting you from behind, won't care a damn if you're on a sunny or a mo-bike ...

They are also coming up with the "Pillion needs to wear a helmet law" which I am not totally for ... it seems pretty unpractical ...
But, if they impose it, I'd be following it happily ...
I'll have to lug an extra helmet ... but what the heck ?

On the other hand, it could turn out to be a boon ... refusing some not so interesting people a ride ... under the pretence of not having a helmet ...
But then it can turn both ways ...

Feb 1st is the day to watch ...
Just have to see whether stupidity again wins this time ...

Life's in a big mess ...

What can I say ... I guess I bring this on to myself ...
Just a couple of days into the next semester at college, and I am into so many things ...

Quite a few not of my choosing ...

My neck is on the guillotine ... and the blade is gonna fall any moment now ...
And people will be watching ... yes ...
And they will walk away after my death has been done ... nodding their heads ... and murmuring to each other ... "Classic case of biting more than you can chew ..."

Have you ever wondered ... why deadlines ... are called : Dead-lines ?
Precisely ...

Anyways ... have this submission on the 23rd of this month, and my planner shows 0% completed and not started ...
Then our teacher comes up with a damn cool fundu project of us having to make a full fledged ... 32 bit calculator ... with the GUI .. buttons and all ... in pure, simple assembly ...
Why not binary for crying out loud ?
We can do that ... right ?

I can easily give up ...
Chop off one of the tasks ... and concentrate on the others ...
But ... I cant ... it is most probably not for me to decide anyways ...
I have to go on ... till I can ...
This is what classic - Disaster, End of the World - movies are made up of ...

As Aragorn, in the Return of the King says, "I see in your eyes ... the same fear ... that would take the heart of me ... But it is not this day ... cause, this day ... we FIGHT ! "
I kinda love that dialogue ... and the part of the movie, kinda explains my situation also ...

But, mine will probably have a different ending ... I suppose ...
Anyways ... cant go into details of how I am going to die ... its a surprise ending ...

I just pray now ... that maybe, might get to see the green pastures again ... :p

On Installing "Licensed Software"

Now, how does that feel ?
Yup ... I installed Windows Xp Professional today on my comp ... Licensed ...
Now, most of the people might say that I am crazy ... having spend some thousands on procuring a licensed copy ... me still studying and all ... but I have my reasons ...

Planning to earn some moolah ... and thought that I'd better get legal software, if I am going to make any money ...

Anyways, that is beyond the topic for this discussion ...
This is my experience ... first hand ...

I have installed Windows Xp ... a million times ... so much so ... that I can guide you through the installation in my sleep ...
But this time, it was different ;)

So, in the morning, I backup all my important stuff and put it on another partition ... email and bookmarks and address books and stuff ...
And once, I am sure, everything will be alright, I go ahead and format my drive ...

I tear the Microsoft Packet and extract the CD ...
Its a nice, holographic CD ... shimmering ... nice :)

Anyways, they had already slipstreamed ( integrated ) Service Pack 2 in the installation, so I wouldnt need to install it later ...

So, I pop the CD in the tray and boot up ...
Somehow, I was expecting this to be different ... more cooler ... after all, its original you know ...
But no such luck ...

Anyways, after 45 mins or so, I had my system running ...
I also activated the OS ... and it wasn't such a pain, as so many people ( not in India ) have complained ... just connect to the internet, and click activate ...
Takes 2 seconds and it is done ...

Anyways, this was all the good part ... then the problems started to emerge ...
I installed some bad drivers ... and the PC booted about a million times in one minute ...

After a lot of installing and uninstalling, I finally managed to get my PC working ...
But somehow feel, that my earlier, non original copy was better :p

The problem with all this activation is that next time I need to reinstall, I'll probably have to call MS ... and tell them why I am installing it again ...
What these people dont realise is that they make life difficult for the people who buy the real thing ...
The earlier installation didnt have anything to do with activation ...

Whatever microsoft spends in time and skill, in trying to make their software non-pirate-able, there are thousands of people out there, smarter, who are doing just the opposite ...
I have yet to see a software, which cannot be cracked ...

There will always be a way ...

What I am trying to say with all this is that software companies should realise, that people, home users especially, will never SPEND more than a few hundreds ( in Rs ) on a software ... even if they DO spend any money ...

Spending 7000 bucks ... that too for an OEM license ... even for an operating system is very steep ...
And piracy in India is just too rampant ... so much, that when I asked my computer dealer to give me a licensed copy, it took him 5 mins to realise what I was saying ... and then he took the next ten minutes trying to convince me that the pirated copy which he was willing to sell me for 200, worked in exactly the same way ...

What software companies should do is this :
1. Any software should be free for non-commercial and home use.
Only when it is being used in an industry, or company which is making some money out of its products, should they pay ...
Most of the software that is installed on your comp is copied ... and hence free anyways ...

The more number of people using the software, the better is it for the manufacturer ...

Maya, which sells for lakhs, has a free PLE ( Personal Learning Edition ) which has all the features ... only you get a watermark on all the rendered images ... fair enough ...

2. The other thing they can do is charge a yearly licensing fee for the use of the software ...
Something like Rs. 300 - 500 for the OS and maybe Rs. 2000 for a software such as dreamweaver or photoshop which are the tools which are used directly ...
Photoshop sells for 38,000 bucks and Dreamweaver for around 16,000
Though their price justifies their products, most of the people who freelance like me, cannot afford these rates ...
I would not mind paying even 3000 bucks a year to be able to use Photoshop legally ...
In this way, atleast people who dont pay and still use the products for commercial purposes, will, I think, definitely pay ...

I settled for a cheaper alternative ... Ulead's Photoimpact ...
This sells for around 5,200 ... its no photoshop, but I think will get most of my work done ...

I think its about time, the software and gaming industry took the path of the Music industry and cut down their prices ...
This will allow more people to buy their software ... and hence will be easier to recover the costs ....

It is a typical "hen and egg" thing ... but they will be the ones who will need to do something ...
People will not just start buying software overnight ... no matter how much policing ...