This is what's wrong with copyright

This is what appears at the top of a page which has Dijkstra's letter EWD 501: "Variations on a theme: an open letter to C.A.R. Hoare"

Note that it is an open letter to the guy.

Copyright Notice

The following manuscript

EWD 501: Variations on a theme: an open letter to C.A.R. Hoare

is held in copyright by Springer-Verlag New York.

The manuscript was published as pages 132-140 of

Edsger W. Dijkstra, Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective,
Springer-Verlag, 1982. ISBN 0-387-90652-5.

Reproduced with permission from Springer-Verlag New York.
Any further reproduction is strictly prohibited

Jackasses.

Hindi movies don't totally suck ~ slight conceit warning

First of all this is not about movies like Rang de Basanti or the like which are extraordinary in their own right, when I say hindi movies I mean the kind which we love to hate. Yeah, I'm talking about 'Bhagum bhag' and its bastard cousins. Now on the (possible) saving grace of most of the worst.


Dance.
The essence of a Hindi movie. Each must have at least four to be marketable according to the general public which considers random dances with teleporting, quick changing and voice over special effects, awesome. Fun to rail on, there are just so many things to dislike. Until you get into the habit of ignoring the lyrics and seeing only the dance and music. (Case in point 'Sajni Vaari Vaari', never play that near a feminist)
It's incredible what they do. Especially Hritik who I have a lot of respect for after Dhoom 2. He's actually a decent actor and insanely good dancer. Many of our actors are pretty damn good, none as good as him but still incredible. This actually has the potential of rescuing a film with bad direction, bad storylines, bad acting and a bad cast in a bad location. People can at least walk out of the theatre saying, "That's a mean dance, got to try that out." and I don't mean that sarcastically. Until our mainstream movie industry starts to do at least original stories that's the best they can hope to have.
When you're into that and you see the months of practise, gallons of water you drink to not dehydrate, walking with a limp for a few days and feel your body bending in ways you never imagined, all for 3 exhilarating minutes on stage; you begin to appreciate that. Any skeptics out there I challenge to do anything, just one step from the video of Dhoom Again and pull it off looking half as good. It's not as easy as it looks.

Aaien-shtien's troubles

India has a funny idea of genius. To too many of us it is the student who aces the 11th grade biology test but can't answer "what is the function of a muscle?", or the merit lister who spent 2 years memorizing the words in all the textbooks. The advertisement of a particular DTH provider is some testament to that. It claims to make geniuses out of your kids if you just stick 'em in front of your TV playing asinine games. It's also pretty ironic that they're trying to project an image of brilliant students while playing a mind numbingly dumb 'song' in the background.
People seem to think genius is something that can be taught, mass and reproduced. I think not. My favourite description of genius comes from an old movie, it goes "Genius is accurate without calculation, eloquent without preparation and.." I can never remember the last part and after going back to check the original quote I prefer my incomplete version, it's symbolic in a way.


P.S: I love the way these blogs are arranged, this way it looks like I've written a lot more than I actually have :)

Silence

Mumbai apparently prides itself on being safe for women; a fact that I had no idea of until a few years ago when an act of violence had been committed against a woman here. Hearing about the experiences some women here have had I thought if this is considered safe, what are the other cities like? How much worse can it get? A lot, it seems.

Amid all the savagery that goes on, from obscene name calling (this is a lot worse than you might imagine, it certainly was beyond what I guessed), 'innocent' run-ins, stalking and worse there is a resounding call. The call for silence.
Far too often they are told to stay silent that their 'reputation may be preserved' and to avoid the situation that led to it since, after all, boys will be boys. You know they're all just mindless, lust controlled machines. I don't get how people could have let this myth perpetuate, it's an insult to us guys too. If you spot an incident yourself, back the woman on it. Your calling on it can help them to stand up too or be the second voice confirming what they say so the crowd doesn't just think she's making it up. Even when not explicitly told to be submissive there is a tendency to shy away from creating a scene among some.
Perhaps this has gone on for so long that some people just got used to it and don't see how it could be any other way. Convincing people that this is normal is one level of insanity, blaming the victim is the next.
We've all heard the phrase 'she was asking for it'. That somehow being 'provocatively' dressed is an invitation to sexual assault. Well guess what, it doesn't even matter if they're covered head to toe. Just the thought that the person inside that tent might be female is enough as one unlucky journalist found out.
A part of why men do it is for the power. They feel big picking on a 'defenceless' woman and making her uncomfortable, they might think they're just putting her back in her place. What right does she have coming into the workplace? What right does she have to choose what clothes to wear? What right does she have travelling at night and feeling safe?
The above paragraph should evoke anger against the perpetrators but unfortunately our patriarchal society does produce some women so drained by it that it might actually make them feel helpless, hopeless and *believe* that those are valid arguments. If not for yourself fight back so no one has to feel that this is the way it is. There's even a way for you to register a complaint online. !
Think about it this way, your silence sends the message that it's okay to treat you and any woman this way. After all, if you don't object you must be fine with it, right?

Back Online!

It's been a good week to say the least. Phone connections flickered to life after long months, the new set top box was installed, an awesome item was returned and the computer started up again!

During the weeks that my computer was busted I somewhat infrequently visited a cybercafe and I thought "Man, as soon as I get my computer back I'm starting a blog" unfortunately I've forgotten all the interesting stuff that I was going to write about so here it is, the debut of the awesome, the unbelievably drab 'BORING STUFF' come back soon :)


P.S: It's bloody ironic that a blogs' spell checker doesn't recognize the word 'blog'