Friday, February 25, 2005

Another Mess: Online Contact Databases

online names databases
I never liked this idea, because of many reasons.

Below you find a ready made email which i send to the sender when i receive a request from him to fill in my name and details in some online database. People might think Iam arrogant, but I believe what I do is right.

Online contact databases are a derived and more intelligent version of websites offering you
free gifts like DVD players if you could refer 5 of your friends to their network. I know a few guys who subscribed and they still are awaiting their gifts !
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Hi,
You are receiving this automated reply because I received multiple invites from an unidentified email id ()quoting your name , inviting me to fill my details in an online contacts database.

I am sorry that I cannot fulfill your request.
i do not want to fill my name and other contact details in an online form because

1) There are so many portals offering this service and if 15 of my friends choose different ones,
I will end up filling 15 forms.

2) Storing my details on an online contacts database is not completely safe

3) Some of the companies, collect my details like address, phone number , email address
and in some case even credit card numbers and other personal details and sell them to 3rd parties for a price. As per the current market rate an indian email id can fetch you Rs 3/-.

4) These sites spam my mail box with request after request when dont fill their forms ( I have even received 6th and 7th requests !)

5) They phish the senders email address, They send me mails as if they are coming from an email id thats known to me.

6) You dont bother to store your friends address by yourself, and want me to do that for you !

so, please bear with me.
If you think I have valid point, please dont subscribe to such frauds, store an addressbook on your system and backup frequently if you use a windows box !.

thanks and regards
Mailer deamon

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

rethink@30 !

My program "rethink@30" is doing well. It has started reaping the rich dividends.
All through these days, there were heavy mood swings, some times iam sad, sometimes iam funny, sometimes iam depressed, sometimes iam angry, sometimes iam pissed off, etc etc.

It all depends on your thoughts; what will you do when you find some basic things you did all through your life was wrong ?

i have made a long list of discoveries of myself and my nature.

some are

1) I found that there are spots in my body which i didnt care enough for the last 25 years.
2) I found that in casual talks i dont complete my sentences.
3) I found that i nodded my head too much
thats just a start, i can go on..

so iam changing. The idea is to correct anything that i found myself doing the old style immideatly. If i decide that i shouldnt be doing it this way any more, iam stopping it from right then.

I dunno how much time i will take to complete this whole process, i keep discovering new things day after day.

So after this rethink@30 program, i will be able to equip myself better in this rat race.

Miracle Man

Not many newspapers have commented on what happened recently in Bangalore when an American Christian 'faith-healer' put up a big show of 'faith-healing' to the utter disgust of many rationalists. Deccan Herald (January 19) noted that the alleged faith-healer, one Benny Hinn, had in the past been criticised even by the orthodox Christian church for his alleged heretical theology, prophecies and claims. A Christian research institute reportedly found that Hinn's claims were not true and a charge, besides, was made by rationalists that Hinn resorted to mass hypnosis and worked on auto-suggestion, leading his patients to believe that they had been cured when they had not. Wrote Deccan Herald: "India has its own share of quacks and godmen who constantly dupe the gullible with stories of miracle cures, playing on their faith.... Accepted that in a secular democracy, everyone is welcome to expound his views and beliefs, but the state should not be seen to be associating with a pastor with dubious claims of miracle cures". But that is exactly what Karnataka's former Chief Minister Deve Gowda and current Chief Minister Dharam Singh had done. They were present at Hinn's open charade. Commenting on that Hindustan Times (January 28) wrote: "By performing 'miracles' - and selectively at that - American evangelist Benny Hinn was, at best, giving faith a bad name and, at worst, taking advantage of people who are willing to believe in anything.... To find nothing awry in Hinn's performance of 'miracles' is a dangerous way of encouraging faith being sold in a Tupperware fashion. To condone Hinn's healing marathon is bad enough. But to find Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh sharing the stage with him really takes the cake. Mr. Singh had no business to lead his support to Mr. Hinn - or, for that matter, anyone in the business of religion.... Last heard, we were still a secular nation. And we can definitely do without mass-party tricks".

Dharam Singh's excuse was that Indian sadhus and gurus go abroad to preach, so why shouldn't an American evangelist do the same thing in India? One answer is that, to the best of one's knowledge, no Hindu guru has addressed mass meetings in the United States promising to cure people of their illnesses. He would have been laughed out of town. Secondly, to equate India's illiterate and poor masses with the more sophisticated and certainly literate American citizens is plain silly. But even otherwise, for any Chief Minister to attend an evangelist function to prove his secularism is downright stupid.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

why am I like me ?

There are some particular ways one behaves in any given situation.
It is decided by his long term experience, knowledge, impulse, thoughts, mood etc

I have decided to rethink- analyse all my responses and behaviours.
why am I like me ?
Iam starting with the most obvious ones and going into the deeper levels of simplicity
analysing even the most minutest of my behaviours.

some questions i ask myself are :
why do i like to sit in the side seat in a bus ?
why do i like soft music ?
what is my response when a stranger smiles at me? why is it so?
Why do I want to rethink ?
whats the benefit out of it ?

like that, 1000s of questions. i ask them myself and try to find an answer.
then i reconsider if it is right to do so. if its wrong, how can i correct it ?

so, this is not a small job. its going to take me some time to finish this exercise.
and at the end of this, i will be changed.

Metamorphosis. completely.
my looks.
my thoughts.
my styles.
my mannerisms.
and what not?

change.
thats one thing that iam least afraid of.