IRCTC website is beyond even Rajinikanth

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"Rajnikanth once tried logging into IRCTC at 8 AM and... failed," tweeted an exasperated user. The sluggishness of the IRCTC website is no longer limited to the morning rush hour (8 AM to 10 AM), but stretches for the entire day. No matter what time of the day you access the website, the chances of you cracking IIT-JEE is greater than being able to book a ticket at one go. Even if you manage to cross the initial hurdles, there is no guarantee that your transaction will be successfully processed. About a quarter of the 1.4 crore transactions that the website processed in February this year were unsuccessful. I have spent hours, which would have otherwise been put to more productive uses, trying to book train tickets on irctc.co.in. Booking air tickets, on the other hand, usually never take more than a few minutes. ....

Wikipedia blackout on January 18. Here's what you can do

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The English-language Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org) will be blacked out for 24 hours across the globe from 05:00 AM UTC (10:30 AM IST) on January 18 in opposition to the proposed US legislation - Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Several other leading websites, including Boing Boing and Reditt, will also go dark in protest against SOPA and PIPA. Wikipedia and other proponents of a free Internet believe that if the legislation is passed it "will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States." So Wednesday morning when the contents of the English Wikipedia is unavailable, don't panic. Your favourite reference (read copy-paste) source is not lost. It is only protesting against something that, amongst other things, can take back your right to copy. First, if you want to protest in....

Open letter to Kapil Sibal: A dummies guide to offensive content removal

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Dear Kapil Sibal, As an Internet professional (and addict) I am appalled by your efforts to take control over what users express online. Not only does the very idea of 'self-regulation' by websites stink of censorship, but also the huge volume of user generated content makes it impossible for Internet service companies to adhere to your diktats. The Internet is the gateway to India's future and but the draconian and regressive approach of the country's government do not inspire much confidence. In fact, as past experiences show, it only showcases the ignorance and inability of Indian authorities in the matters of the Internet. The big Internet companies do know their responsibilities. They also understand the medium of the Web better than most government agencies and therefore have built-in mechanisms to filter out malicious content. So here, dear Sir, is a primer on how to....

My adventures with Tintin

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I am yet to watch The Adventures of Tintin on the big screen. Read a few reviews, but I rely more on my peers than the reviewers and friends recommended that I should go watch. And I will. As someone growing up in the 1980s and the '90s before the onslaught of cable TV and Japanese cartoons, I have a strong emotional connect with the characters. Tintin and his loveable whisky-loving and faithful fox terrier friend Snowy kept me in adventurous company during many a rainy afternoon. I owned very few of Tintin comics (the price was a big deterrent), but read almost all of them thanks to the comic exchange programme that we friends practiced. One which I missed was the very first one, published in 1929, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (the other was the last but semi-complete - Tintin and Alph-Art).

Why Google News needs an editor

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My favourite source of news, apart from IBNLive.com of course, is Google News. A mere glimpse through the pages gives me a fair idea of what all important is happening around the world and also around where I live. According to Google there is no human intervention in deciding the selection and placement of the stories on Google News. "The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program," reads the disclaimer at the bottom of every page on Google News. But are algorithms as smart as humans? Google News itself is an excellent example of the efficiency of computer programs to scan and publish snippets from relevant content from thousands of online sources around the world. This humongous effort would have otherwise required a huge investment in dedicated manpower. But then do computer programs have the discerning abilities of the human....

There was something Rajinikanth about Steve Jobs

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An early morning phone call shattered a lovely dream, what was more shattering was the news behind the phone call. "Steve Jobs is dead," said the calm sounding voice of @gillianhooper at the other end. When someone passes away, we hunt for emotions inside us and also some words that will best describe the departed to us. Words that we will continue to associate with the memory of that person for long. The initial disbelief and shock in a while gives way to a more logical understanding, or at least what we think is logical. My initial reaction was a comparison between Jobs and Rajinikanth. "How cliché," the saner part of my brain said. The overdose of Rajinikanth jokes might have gone to my head. I gave the thought a break. A day later, when things were much calmer it again struck me. Steve Jobs....

Mahalaya: The advent of autumn (and loneliness)

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It's that time of the year when goddess Durga embarks on her annual vacation, family, friends and pets in tow. The hills in autumn seem greener; the streams sparkle a little more. A thousand miles away from home, in a land somewhat alien I can't smell festivity in the air. The conch shells and the drumbeats reverberate in the nostalgic realm. I yearn for the doe-eyed beauties uneasy in their crisp sarees. My ears search for the strains of songs in the tongue I called my own. They say this is a big city. It celebrates festivals of all hues. There are more than 10 million souls cramped in here, but at this time of the year I feel alone (okay, I have my wife for company, that makes us two lonely souls). It's a time of togetherness of bonding. In my little hill town I knew almost everybody,....

Uncle Pai should be remembered more for Tinkle than for Amar Chitra Katha

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The single biggest reason I love the Oscars (apart from the fact that it's a traffic generator for the website I work for) is that it filters down the choices and makes it easier to pick a movie to watch in whatever little time I have in my life to watch movies. Of all the 54 films nominated at this year's Academy Awards, I suddenly realised that The Social Network was the only one on my watched list. In a rush to make amends before the statuettes were handed out, picked a copy of Toy Story 3. First need to catch up on the first two installments of Toy Story. 127 Hours, The Kings Speech and company could wait (they still are). Toy Story 3 took me on a flashback with the few toys I had in my childhood. None survive today. Neither do any remnants of my....