Happy Independence Day to my US visitors!!! Long Live Independence of humanity

Tomorrow is the fourth of July, the Independence Day of United States of America so first of all my wishes to all my US vistors.  I have posted the Star Spangled Banner below as a mark of respect for the great leaders who made United States of America what it is today.  

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Though I can't relate to United States history very much as I do to United Kingdom (after all they colonized us for more then 100 years!) but I can relate very well to the aspirations of American people.   I was brought up on a steady diet of  books like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Huckleburry Finn and the story of the Mayflower which gave a vision of a independent state where you can chase your dreams and then live peacefully to cherish them.

Every individual from the north pole to the south pole dreams of a very happy and blissful life for himself and his family but not many get to fulfil the dreams.  The Americas was described as the 'New World' by Columbus and his countrymen and rightly so!  Because it is there, where millions of people aspire to go if they want to live a life they cherish.  Years ago or rather generations ago, the US Civil War taught the world the true meaning of slavery and black and white and yet as of today we find the world mired in the cesspool of ethnic classification and cleansing as the latest issue of Time magazine shows us.     As the world civilisational order gets older and older we are becoming more and more intolerant as more and more nations fight it out to find/alter/add their own individuality among the league of nations.  The more you read into it, the more you feel that the United Nations has become a redundant body with no real powers and a new world order is the necessity of the day.  

Though the 4th of July celebrations may be slightly muted on account of the Boston Marathon Bombings, but I wish that all countries unite like the United States of America in the common aim of bringing safe and secure place to its citizens so that they can laugh, play and breathe the same air without fearing about anything.  No distinctions should be there between caste, creed, gender or sexual orientation.  People should be able to pursue the dream of their life with rightful earnest and live happily ever after to cherish for what they have worked so hard.  Can we change? Yes We Can!

Happy Independence Day

Morsi's War : Mohamed Morsi going down and taking Egypt with him?

Egypt has erupted again and brutally.  As I am typing this article, Morsi has been barred from leaving the country.  As the world prepares itself for the Independence Day of United States of America, we see one of the oldest civilisations slowing going down the pit.  

Egypt as we all know is one of the ancient civilisations.  Over the years from  1952 it was ruled with a iron hand first by Gamel  Abdel Nasser.  It was known as Nasser's Egypt during the time he ruled but it prospered under the iron grip of its Army and Nasser.   After Nasser, Anwar Sadat came to power and shifted his allegiance from US to the USSR of cold war era.  He had opted for USSR due to the continuous aid and  back channel help US gave to Israel in the United Nations General Assembly.   

He rule extended for over a decade and through out his rule he spend maximum time fighting with Israel.  In 1977, Israel and Egypt ended their differences and signed a peace pact.  But Anwar's days were numbered.  In 1981 he was assassinated by a military soldier.  

After Sadat, Hosni Mubarak came to power and rode it strong till 2011. And then it began, the Arab Spring.    The revolution bugle had been sounded in neighbouring Tunisia  and slowly and surely the revolution song had reached the ears of ordinary Egyptians who cared more about Egypt then Mubarak.    They gathered at Tahrir Square and began their demonstrations which were rather peaceful as the Egyptian military took a semi neutral stance.  Mubarak was toppled and people started celebrating the victory with marches and fireworks.  But is was too soon to assume that everything was peaceful.  

Elections happened and Morsi from Islamic Brotherhood was elected with huge majority riding on the wave of change.  But the first thing Morsi did was to expunge the military diktat of dissolving the law makers and making them ministers again.  When the courts overruled his decree, he came out with another decree overruling the courts powers and orders.  

This started the revolution ball rolling again.  El Baradei from secular Constitution Party tweeted that "Morsi today usurped all state powers & appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh"  People took to street again and protest were more fierce then the 2011 ones.

A new power centre emerged.  The Egyption Army which had maintained a slightly indifferent approach to Mubaraks regime took the Morsi decrees as a blot on its uniform.  And now they are a logger heads.  The Army has given Morsi until tonight to absolve himself of the Prime Ministership but Morsi is diffident.   Such is the glue of power.   The people who elected him want him out of office now but he seems to be worse then Mubarak.  Where is he taking Egypt, to hell?

As I have written above, a coup seems imminent in Egypt and hopefully the Army will hand over the reins of power to a democratically elected government like it did the last time.  My only hope is that the next leader doesn't try to become a 'Pharoah' of Egypt.  What is really needs is a good leadership at the helm for at least 15 years to make a smooth transition to true democracy.  As and when the divisive politics will enter the Egyptian leadership there will be another Tahrir Square waiting to happen.

PS Morsi has met his fate and Egypt stands liberated today, but is it really liberated?

An App to rate the loos and the toilets in Singapore, I wish we could have one for our cities.

Defacing in public and very bad, smelly loos are a characteristic of any Indian city.  If you have to take a pee in a hurry, you have no option but to empty your bladder in the public or if you are lucky to find a Sulabh Sauchalaya, empty it there.  But entering a Sulabh or any other public lavatory, especially the railways ones are a test to your nose and eyes.  The stench of a public lavatory in Mumbai will make you feel you are in hell.  

Is there a way to correct this mess?  Apparently there is, the every so hygenic, Singapore seems to have come up with a great idea to get rid of unhygenic toilets.  How? well rate them, the poorer the rating is the authorities are bound to take action.

Loo Connect, a Singaporean tech firm has released this App for Android.  This allows the Singapore citizens to rate the loos in the city there by creating awareness and make life easier for the citizens.  You can always visit a 5 star rated loo, duly certified by Loo Connect for your urgent needs.  Loo Connect which is now available for Android will soon be available for iOS.

The authorities in Singapore are not far behind in this venture.  The Restroom Association of Singapore(RAS) has already tied up with Loo Connect and put its link on the RAS website toilets.org.sg.  

Hope some brilliant Indian comes up with the idea like that to get the Indian loos to be benchmarked.  

Vijay Prabhu

The startup that made Sabeer Bhatia a millionaire is dead, Microsoft today officially killed hotmail.com

At the height of dotcom era or bubble, Sabeer Bhatia was seen as a knight in shining armour.  He had just sold of his startup, the HoTMaiL.comhotmail.com in html) to Microsoft for $400 million.  Every Indian techie at that time aspired to be a Sabeer Bhatia.  With Jack Smith, Bhatia started hotmail.com, a free email service.  Prior to hotmail.com, the emails were sold and provided by the ISPs and you had to buy a net connection to have access to the email.  However with good foresight Bhatia and Smith launched hotmail.com which went on to become the No.1 email provider with 369 million users.

However, the buyer Microsoft has different ideas with hotmail.com.   Today Microsoft officially killed hotmail.com and has introduced outlook.com in its place.  The phase out was publicised much earlier as the hotmail.com doesn't fall into the new model of business, Microsoft is visualising for itself in the shadow of the leaders, Google and Apple.

For over two years now, the Microsoft share prices have remained stagnant in the USD 25-30 while the rivals, Apple and Google have zoomed ahead.   The latest offerings from Microsoft, Office 365 and Windows 8 are yet to gain any sort of momentum which was seen with Windows XP or for that matter Windows 7.   Its mobile platform business is going no where with Windows Phone 8 model which as of now is being marketed by Nokia another loser of the big mobile wars.

Micorsoft has nothing special to say about killing hotmail.com.  It announced it has completed the transition from the email service to the new Outlook.com which now has  around 400 million users.

Outlooks Dick Craddock said  that, "We've been focused throughout the upgrade on ensuring that every customer has a great experience," he further added that, "We've been overwhelmed with the response so far."

The way to the future seems convergence as far as tech business models.  Google is going ahead with converging its Google + platfrom from email to blogging.  Microsoft is also doing the same thing with Outlook which will converge Hotmail, Outlook, Messenger and Skype into a single cross tier messenger.  

Hope Mr.Bhatia isnt fuming at Microsoft for killing his baby.  Do write in your comments on this article. 

Vijay Prabhu

Chinese rape, Chinese checkers or just plain vanilla imperialism from China

There is a saying in hindi "Haathi ke daat dikhane ke aur hote hai, khaane ke aur" which essentially means that a elephant shows different teeth(tusks) and eats with different teeth.  This saying is apt in respect of the Peoples Republic of China.  What they tell seems to be far different from what they do.

For years after saying that it is not interested in any hegemonistic virtues, the old civilisation is finally showing its true colours.  Earlier in 2012 it was after the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands which are actually in the no mans land in the East China Sea.  Historically these islands were uninhabitated but of late due to discovery of oil the Chinese have started their imperialist land grabbing.  The Japan which also lays claim to the island started of by sending its Navy and in the later parts of the year by cutting of diplomatic relations with China.

The imperialist powers that rule China have now turned their eyes northwards towards the gigantic Himalayan plains.  As per recent reports its troops are squatting 19 km into the Indian territory.  This is the new age hegemonistic and imperial rulers of the Peoples Republic of China which deem insurgency to be a fit weapon. 

The areas which have been encroached upon are ice and glacier laden areas with no use for human habitat but the question remains why is China interested in these land parcels even after it has said that it does not have any hegemonistic tendencies.

This is the bitter truth of today's world, become your chief economic partner and f*** your a** from behind.  This is what China did to Japan and now this is what China is doing to India and this is what it will do to the US(in respect of North Korea) when the time comes.  It is known to the world that the mad cap leader of North Korea survives because of Chinese help and aid.  Every so often whenever the North Koreans need for money or aid in form of food grains, it starts rattling the war cry with the help of its toy nukes.  As always the US, Japan and the South Korea surrender meekly to this great black mail and give aid and food grains to the North Koreans which then keeps quite for next couple of years like a faithful pup. Why does North Korea succeed in its amoral ventures.  Because of the Chinese help, China is the main trading partner of all the three nations in question and they can't seem to make enemies out of the Chinese.

The Chinese have always had an eye for the Indian territories be it the Kashmir or the Arunachal Pradesh.  They have always denied the freedom to the Tibet since they usurped it and named it Tibetan Autonomous Region(TAR) to please the people of Tibet.  In reality, they have slowly and steadily started settling the Han Chinese into the Tibet and in few years to come the Tibetans will be a minority in their own land.    

What makes it even worse, is the Indian leadership or the lack of it it.  We Indians lack a good leader, we lack a good foreign policy and we lack good decision making.  The only leader with outstanding leadership we had was Mrs.Indira Gandhi, despite her emergency decision, she was the only leader who could answer the Chinese with a tit for tat policy.

But the leadership in place today has neither the will nor the whim to stop the Chinese affront.  In fact the leadership does not have a majority in the parliament and hence it is more worried about the elections looming ahead.  But rest assured if the government doesn't take any action soon, the Indian public are known to be unforgiving when it comes to the national pride.  We Indians tend to unite when the going gets tough and when our national honour is in question.  Surely the bosses in New Delhi know of this.

Mr.Narendra Modi, the PM in waiting should come out with a draft plan to deal with the Chinese insurgency and put it in public domain.  This will not only help him win credibility but also give the Chinese a earful.  Because at least they will know that some one is capable of taking them down.

What do you readers feel, should we take the Chinese insurgency lying down or should we face it, kindly write in your comments regarding the same.  If you like my views visit this page to read more.

Vijay Prabhu

USD 15 million iPhone, get a peep into the millionaire's phone world

You wont believe it but the above photos are only for dreamers.  Yes, the iPhone in the image costs $15 million that is 15 followed by 6 zeros and approximately Rs.82 crores 50 lakhs.  Wow even the richest may think twice before buying this one.  Called the Black Diamond iPhone 5 it is hand crafted by Stuart Hughes.  

Stuart Hughes who is a known luxury Apple devices designer has crafted this phone with a rare black diamond and other precious metals.  And guess who the buyer is, you guessed it wrong its not a American or European but a Chinese who has commission the manufacture of this, the world costliest phone.

It took Stuart Hughes nine weeks to recreate the chasis of iPhone 5 in Gold and the then he hand crafted it with various precious stones.  There is a single, flawless, deep cut 26 carats blak diamond in place of Home Button.  The iPhone has 600 white flawless diamonds and full gold back.  The total gold used in the making of the phone is 135 grams.  The Apple logo on the rear has 53 flawless diamonds.

Naysayers may argue the use of such a expensive phone.  After all a phone is for making calls and sending messages and you can't carry such a phone in crowded places or you will be dead before you flash it out.  But the Chinese businessman may have other ideas about it

Whatever he will do with it, but certainly he can't flaunt it like we flaunt our SIII or iPhone.  Please write in your comments about the above iPhone.

Vijay Prabhu

Boston Marathon bombers identified, two brothers from Chechnya one dead one being pursued by the Boston Police

The Boston Police in a measure breakthrough have announced that they have identified the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombings.  At night on Thursday, one of the suspects was shot dead by the the Boston Police in a encounter.

Exactly after less than seven hours after the FBI releases images of Boston bombing suspects, one is killed in a shootout with police, the other remains the target of a massive manhunt.  The manhunt has already began and the whole area of Massachusetts has been shut down along with the rail and bus transport.  The businesses, schools and colleges have been asked to be closed till the suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19 has been apprehended.  

Earlier the elder brother of Dzkhokar, Tamerlan Tsarnev was shot dead by the Police officers in a encounter in which a Police officer, Sean Collier lost his life and another Police officer is in a critical condition.  The Police gave a hot pursuit at 10:30 p.m., when the two men robbed a 7-Eleven convenience store on the MIT campus in Cambridge.  The suspects later carjacked a Mercedes SUV in Cambridge, holding the driver at gunpoint for a half hour before he was released unharmed, according to the Middlesex district attorney's office. Police found the car and the suspects in Watertown, and pursued them into a residential neighborhood where gunfire was exchanged in which Tamerlan was shot dead.

Meanwhile Police have informed that the Tsarnev brothers had come from Dagestan in Russia as refugees to make their living in USA. Tamerlan was studying engineering at Bunker Hill Community College in nearby Charlestown while the fugitive, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a wrestler at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Mass. He was named a Greater Boston League Winter All Star in 2011.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is the person whom the FBI believe to have dropped the explosive laden back pack which caused the second explosion and the Police say there may have been additional people involved in the Boston Marathon bombings.

Hope they get Dzhokhar Tsarnaev before any for innocent blood is spilled.  Please click here to read my articles on world affairs.  Please post in your comments on this article.

Vijay Prabhu

BITCOIN the new age money, myth or reality, let us see how the mining works

My bet is you have heard of a online currency called Bitcoin.  The Bitcoin is a virtual money with no regulations and interest rates.  It has its own exchange market in form of MtGox.  The Bitcoins are not earned, they are mined meaning you put your machines into some sort of pool to solve complex mathematical calculations.  If you are lucky your pool is awarded Bitcoins which are then distributed among your pool.  

There is a need for specialised equipment for mining the Bitcoins.  You have to have a very fast machine with a calculation power of 50 to 50 Mhash/sec per CPU. Each complex calculation solved will earn your group 25 Bitcoins(earlier it was 50 Bitcoins per solution). If you have the necessary equipment, you have to download the GUIMiner program and sign in with your user name, worker id and password.  Your Bitcoins are saved into a online wallet and they are tradeable on MtGox and other sites.  

Right now the Bitcoin is going at about $ 119.30 (Rs.6483.00) whereas in the morning it was trading at around $225.00.  If you are into computers and are interested please visit this tutorial.  You can also check whether your equipment will give you any returns by visiting this page which is called the Bitcoin Mining Profitability Calculator

You can get the realtime Bitcoin rate without logging in at Preev.com.

Further information can also be had a Google search or visiting this site, where Alex Wawro has given a nice article regarding Bitcoin alongwith this drawing.

Hope you got the general idea of how this regulation free money works.  Please post in your comments regarding this article or any help that you may need.

Vijay Prabhu

If you are German or a Germany fan, this is a the App for you; German Tv for Android devices

No better way to watch German TV channels on Android than German Tv by Olster Group.  You may be a Germany fan or not but you can't get these channels on your local cable or satellite TV. So hop on to App which is for Android devices and totally free.

It doesn't use any extra devices and has following channels for your individual taste.

3sat
ARD
Arte
Euronews
Kika
Light Channel TV Deuchland
NDR
OK:TV Mainz
ORF 1 HQ
ORF 2 EUROPE HQ
ORF 2 HQ
ORF 3 HQ
ORF SPORT+ HQ
RTL
RTL II
RTL Tele Letzebourg
SAT1
SuperRTL
Viva
VOX
VIVA
YOL TV
WMZ TV
ZDF

Though the App supports all connections like Wifi/3g/4g it is recommended that you use wi-fi connection with unlimited data plan because the channels are data hogs and you will be left with a big big internet bill.

Please download the App from Google Play.  Post in your comments on the App.

Vijay Prabhu

While we are sleeping, will the North Korea attack the South and American interests?

After days of bellicose comments from the North Koreans, today the great leader has issued "state of war" declaration with South Korea.  This is seen by many as just a empty talk by the strategists in US and South Korea.

North Korea today fired its latest bout of angry rhetoric directed at Seoul and Washington which was brushed off by both the nations at empty rhetoric.

In continuation with its war cry which has been going on for a while, the North Korea also threatened to shut down an industrial zone it operates jointly with the South near the heavily armed border.  As of today it is just threatening but imagine what happens if it really enters into a war with the South Korea and US interests in the region.

The two Koreas are technically in a state of war for six decades under a truce that ended their 1950-53 conflict. Despite its continuing threats of this and that and issuing photoshopped images of marine landings, few people especially form the defence are taking it seriously.  For if the North goes to war this time around, it is sure to have no over support from China as it had in 1950 conflict.   Russia too is busy with its own ends in Syria and other parts to take any interest in the beligerent nation.  Covert support from China will not be of any use to the North in view of heavily armed South and US might.

"From this time on, the North-South relations will be entering the state of war and all issues raised between the North and the South will be handled accordingly," a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency said.  KCNA said the statement was issued jointly by the North's government, ruling party and other organizations.

The South Korean observers at the boundary between the two said that there was no sign of unusual activity in the North's military to suggest any aggression

The North has been threatening to attack the South and U.S. military bases almost on a daily basis since the beginning of March, when U.S. and South Korean militaries started routine drills that have been conducted for decades without incident.  Many in the South have regarded the North's willingness to keep open the Kaesong industrial zone, located just a few miles (km) north of the border, as a sign that Pyongyang will not risk losing a lucrative source of hard currency by mounting a real act of aggression.

"If the puppet traitor group continues to mention the Kaesong industrial zone is being kept operating and damages our dignity, it will be mercilessly shut off and shut down," KCNA quoted an agency that operates Kaesong as saying in a statement.  Though this sounds a hollow statement given the fact that it is the only facility which earns any kind of hard currency for the North.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday signed off on an order putting its missile units on standby to attack U.S. military bases in the South and the Pacific.

However the US doesn't seem to take the rhetoric lying down.  Yesterday it flew two nuclear-capable stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula in a tit for tat diplomacy.  Though the foreign officials have downplayed the incident saying that the B-2 bombers were on a diplomatic sortie to reassure its South Korean and Japanese allies.   As for the South Korean government, it brushed off the North's latest rhetoric as being nothing anew.  

If you like this article please press Facebook Like and Google Plus on the page, visit here for more world news.

Vijay Prabhu

Via Rueters

Google dabbling in non core business, going to be a delivery boy now

Google the king of Search is now trying to be the new king of Delivery.  Yes! Google is starting a same day delivery service and started a pilot project in the San Francisco area.  Judging by the speed at which Google is expanding it wont be surprising if one day Google starts manufacturing condoms and exploring oil.

Today Google has confirmed that it is entering into a same day delivery venture on a 6 months test basis in the San Francisco Bay Area and the new service will be called Google Shopping Express.

Looking at the above picture you will get to see a well dressed delivery man sporting a Google logo in you neighbourhood soon.

Google has already included nine retailer logos on its Shopping Express site, including Target, Walgreens, Office Depot, and Toys R Us.  Google is also recruiting "testers" to get free delivery for the entire 6-month pilot.  So here is your golden chance, if you live in the Bay area, and you want free delivery from these and other stores, go sign up. Google has also included a form asking what other stores you would like to get stuff delivered from.  Which means that Google is thinking of expanding the retailers.

Brands which have signed up with Google

Judging by the past history, though this venture is a non-core business but given Google's efficient delivery mechanism, they could have a winner in their hands.

Bay area residents please visit this website to sign in as a TESTER.

Vijay Prabhu

The Tamilian cause, why it hurts us Indians even today

All of you readers must be aware of the current Sri Lanka - Tamil Nadu - India conflict of words that is going on.  The matters have come to such a worse situation that Sri Lanka is out of the equation now and we are fighting among ourselves.

A brief look at the history of the Sinhala - Tamil fighting takes us back to the days of British Raj in India.  As is the root for all conflicts in the world this one is also driven by the Divide and Rule policy of the British.   The start of the Tamil and Sinhalese conflict dates back to 1919 when the first Sinhalese national moment took place.  The consequences were that the Tamilians who had lived for ages in the Sinhala majority Ceylon became second rate citizens.  Slowly the seeds of Tamil Eelam or a Tamilian state began to grow. This slowly led to formation of two distinct ideological groups in the 1960s, one was focused on Tamil Eelam through electoral route and one was focused through an armed guerrilla warfare with the Sinhalese rulers.

India had no part to play in the above chess game between the two ethnic groups after the great riot between the Tamils and Sinhala nationalists. India started discretly taking sides with the Tamilian population and covertly helped them.  1983 onwards the Indian government started funding the armed groups beginning in August 1983, till May 1987, Indian government, through its intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), provided arms, training and monetary support to 6 Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups namely the  LTTE, Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and Tamil Eelam Liberation Army (TELA).

Out of which the LTTE led by its charismatic leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran was the most vicious of them all.   He killed the leaders of other factions, merged them with LTTE and started to rule the north part of Sri Lanka as it was now known, from his head quarters in Jafna.

In between President Jayewardene and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed a peace accord in 1987.  As per the accord the Sri Lankan Government made a number of concessions to Tamil demands, including devolution of power to the provinces, a merger (subject to referendum) of the Northern and the Eastern provinces into the single province, and official status for the Tamil language.  However the peace accord ran foul with the LTTE and India had to send its soldiers to Sri Lanka to fight the LTTE.  It is now known that President Premdasa asked his Sri Lankan soldiers to hand over arms and ammunition clandestinely to LTTE to fight the Indian Army.

Indian Army faced heavy causalities and Rajiv Gandhi lost the Prime Ministerial race to V.P.Singh.  V.P.Singh promptly called the IPKF (Indian Army) back to India.  

In 1991 the LTTE dealt the most severe blow to India.  It managed to assasinate the Prime Ministerial candidate, who looked sure to win that election, Mr.Rajiv Gandhi.  The LTTE killed a man who tried to help them out of the quagmire into a new dawn of peace.  Maybe the LTTE didn't want peace because at one point of time it is said that 80 % of the male Tamil population of the norther Sri Lanka was part of the LTTE and Prabhakara was ruling the province like a virtual dictator.

Now lets move to the current situation, Prabhakaran was killed on 18th May 2009 and the Sinhala - Tamil issue looked like dying a natural end.  In 2013, the United States moved a resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council(UNHRC) against the war crimes committed by Sri Lankan Army against the Tamils and India supported it.  But now the Tamil Nadu Government led by CM Jayalalitha wants India to move a resolution in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) of which India is a rotating member.

Daily protests are taking place in Tamil Nadu for this cause and CM  Jayalalitha has asked the Sri Lankan players be banned from IPL (the annual cricket jamboree).

Here my questions to the supporters of CM Jayalalitha are 

1. Have you forgotten that the LTTE led by Prabhakaran killed one of our ex-PMs Rajiv Gandhi.

2. It is right for us to meddle into the internal affairs of a third country just because some of its parts are Tamilian majority.

If the 2nd point is true than why didn't India send troops to Fiji when thousands of people of Indian ancestory was imprisioned and a electorally elected Indian Prime Minister was diposed off by the ethnic leadership their.

Regarding the first point,  I did like to point out that not only did they kill Mr.Rajiv Gandhi they also hurt Indian sentiments for the Indian Government had made LTTE.  Now again CM Jayalalitha is making the same mistake of dabbling into affairs which are foreign to us.  Please remember we have already lost a very good human being due to our interference in unwanted matters, now by indulging in mudslinging and counter allegations against the Central Government, CM Jayalalitha is just making the people of Tamil Nadu look the other way.  In a state where development should be the key issue, such type of protests are not needed.  Indeed use these resources for betterment of its own people rather than carry out protests for people of a third country who will only bring pain to us.

We are already doing our bit by helping the refugees who have come from Jafna and are staying in Tamil Nadu.  If you like this article read more about India here.  Kindly post in your comments on this article

Vijay Prabhu

Twitter and Facebook users have you wondered what the red 'equal to' sign means

It seems the Facebook and Twitter is flooded with red equal signs but no one has any answers to what they mean.  Well, the red equals symbol is being spread by the Human Rights Campaign group which supports the Gay marriages.  The issue has come up in light of the US Supreme Court hearing over the case for next two days.

The Supreme Court in the US is deciding on the Gay marriages case and Human Rights Campaign group is doing its bit to support the cause of Gay marriage.

On Facebook, the HRC asked gay marriage supporters to "paint the town red," wearing red in their wardrobe as well on their Facebook pages.  Supporters have also been asked to change profile photos over to the HRC "=" logo  so if you are a supporter of Gay marriages or freedom of expression you might as will add the red equal sign.  Press like on this page and express solidarity with HRC!

Vijay Prabhu

The ultimate attack : deciphering the South Korean cyber attack on 20.3.2013

All of you must have read the cyber attack on the South Korean computer network on Wednesday, 20th.  Those who don't know or have not read about the attack, here is a brief summary of the attack.  Three major banks and another three television stations in South Korea were made to go offline simultaneously at 2 pm Seoul Standard Time.  The South Korean Government later confirmed that malware was used to bring the networks down.  The sheer ferocity of the attack brings out many questions.  Is a malware inspite of its viciousness capable of bringing such huge networks down.  Lets understand its working so as to know how it took down the networks

Three major banks and TV stations had to shut down their systems in view of a cyber attack.  While some of the banks reopened there websites within matter of hours, one of the largest tv networks of South Korea, KBS is still down with following message :

KBS World Radio

We extend our sincere apology for the inconvenience caused by the sudden stoppage of the KBS website service. We are currently making our best efforts to normalize the service as soon as possible. We ask you for your patience and understanding. We will do our utmost to provide a more stable service in the near future. Thank you very much.

The sheer ferocity of the attack has bewildered many, hackers and security analysts alike.  Earlier the South Korean Government blamed North Korea of perpetrating the attack but later it was deemed as a malware attack.  Now the news has filtered in that the malware that has been identified is not capable for causing such a huge attack without a very active co-ordination between hackers and with several malwares instead of one.  The latest update from South Korean Government points out that the attack has been pinpointed to a Chinese IP address but efforts are still on to identify the attackers.

The primary malware has been identified as the “wiper”, a strain of Windows trojan which first surfaced a year ago.  This malware or a similar version of it called Shamoon attacked the energy companies of Middle East last year.  However Director of Operations for Symantec Security Response Liam O'Murchu said that the malware, which his company identifies as Trojan.Jokra, has nothing remarkable about it. "Nothing stands out about it," he said.  The execution part or "dropper" portion of the attack, effectively how wiper was used to install in the networks is still being investigated.  Nobody seems to know how or what carried the wiper aboard it.

The malware first kills the execution files of antivirus and security software then starts overwriting the Master Boot Record of the computer.  It replicates the same procedure on any other drives and mapped drives that are available.  When this is done it attempts to overwrite the MBR of unmapped drives forcing the a shutdown of the computer.  This is done through execution of the shut down command line.  Once the machine is re-booted it is unusable till the time it is formatted or restored back to its original pre malware time.

What surprising is that this malware used sophisticated time execution system.  That is ising a clock call API to check the time and execute the code at the wanted time in this case  2pm on March 20 to trigger.  This looks like a controlled detonation of code.

How did it infect the Linux and Unix machines.  The wiper installed a trojan called Trojan.Jokra on these machines and used a script called mRemote.  Once the mRemote is hacked it finds the SSH connections of Linux machines and executed the batch commands for drive wipe on on Linux, Solaris, AIS, or HP-UX. On Linux, the commands delete the /kernel, /usr, /etc, and /home directories.

The malware is not as complex as other malwares available in the wild yet it was able to take down many of the networks in South Korea.  This is more frightening especially that South Korea is in a war like situation with is neighbour.  

Please write in your comments on the article.

Vijay Prabhu

Foreign diplomacy, why India has learned so little from past

The Italian Job

Once again India was snubbed right across the cheek, this time by the Italians.  The two Italian Marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, are accused of killing the the Indian fishermen, Ajesh Binki and V Jalestine, off the coast of Kerala in 2012.  The court case against them was going on and in between they requested to visit their home country Italy to vote in the elections(a very flimsy reason to believe).  The Supreme Court of India granted them permission to return home for four weeks to vote in last month's general election, ONLY if they returned.  Based on the undertaking given by the Italian government through its Consul General here in India, they were allowed to return to Italy where they jumped the coop.

After returning home and enjoying their stay, the Italian government has refused to let them return to India to face the trial. The reason given by it flimsy and irrational.  The Italian government says that the Indians did not seek diplomatic solution to the problem.  

Since when did killing a person in cold blood become a diplomatic issue.  I think murder is a  cold blooded murder anywhere in the world, in Italy too.  But Italy thinks differently and has cornered the Indian government.  The government of India already sulking from all the scams and corruption charges has now to deal with this issue.  

Foreign policy has always been a bane for India.  Except for the period when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of the country, the foreign policy has been a messy affair with foreign countries always snubbing India.  The Indian government acted quickly when the situation in Maldives got out of hand following the arrest of ex-President of the country.  It had to send 7 Indian Navy frigates into bullying the Maldives government to let go Nasheed.  Maldives is a small country in the Indian Ocean but same cant be done with Italy.  

Back in 1996, two Frenchmen were arrested off the coast of Kerala on charges of espionage.  They had anchored their yatch, Galathee to presumably snoop around.  They were arrested and the case was going on when in 1998 the the French Government requested the court to let the two Frenchmen Francois Clavel and Elle Philippe to return to France for some flimsy reason.  The Court allowed them to return and they never came back to India, despite issuing red corner notice with the Interpol.

Italy seems to have studied this case very hard and is intent on repeating the same procedure.  But is Italy to blame?  

There are two points which have to be mentioned here.

1.  The period of trial in India is unforgivably long.  This gives the accused Indians and foreign nationals to escape the long hands of law.  It has been known that criminals jump parole during the trial period.  If you look at Bitti Mohanty case you will know what I am talking about.  In both the above cases, the arrests took place at least two years before and the trials are still going on.  If India had a fast track court to deal with such matters, the sentence would have been pronounce a long back and Italian government would have had no chance of making a demand for them to return.

2. The political will of India especially in foreign policy matters is very lacklustre.  If the Italians would have done the same with China, the results would have been fast track trade sanctions, total blockade of Italian goods and Italian nationals, arrests of Italians still in China and other iron willed strategic moves.  Therefore no western power, even the United States of America, messes with China for they know they are dealing with a very powerful state who just doesn't give a damn for foreign relations and calls spade for spade.  India on the other hand is still seen as a weakling and a post colonial era country with no firm foreign policy in sight.

Can the Indians impose trade sanctions against Italy, cancel the lucrative Italian contracts which are going on in the country?  No they cant.  Can they arrest some Italians in a quid pro quo policy?  No they cant because Indian foreign policy is just to lame to take any serious action.

Having said that, the UPA government has been cornered yet again and this time it will be difficult for them to escape the ire of the Indians who may see this as a insult to the sovereignty of the country and the courts of India.  This also has to be looked through the eyes of the relatives of the slain fishermen, they want justice for the cold blooded murder of the fishermen in question.  

Please write in your comments regarding what you think should be done.

Vijay Prabhu