The Right to Information

AID India held an Indian Ocean concert in Hayward, CA to raise money to promote awareness about the Right to Information (RTI) Act in rural areas. Always willing to play for a charitable cause, Indian Ocean put up a great show and played a few new numbers along with "Kandisa", "Bandeh" and "Maa Rewa".

Started as a grassroots movement in Rajasthan, the RTI act was passed nationwide in 2005 to ensuring transparency within the beaureucracy. The gist of the Act is that you can file (electronic or paper) an RTI application with the PIO (Public Information Officers) for any government process and you will receive a response within 30 days. Exceeding 30 days, the government official in charge is fined Rs. 250 per day upto a maximum of Rs. 25000. It costs Rs. 10 to file(24 cents for NRIs) and is waived for those below the poverty line.

Why did the Bangalore Airport Road flyover take 6 years to complete? How will the 6207 crores allocated for the Bangalore Metro be squandered? Why are there fewer potholes on the moon than on this road? How many politicians will it take to screw in a light bulb? Thats what the RTI Act is about.

I feel cynical about it, but from what I've heard and read so far, it seems to be working. Having realized its folly in passing the Act, the government tried to declaw the Act in 2006 and failed. THIS blog covers the latest RTI news articles.

Resources:
RTI Webpage
NDTV RTI Info Page
How to File an RTI
RTI for NRIs

PS: In addition to hearing about the RTI act and listening to Indian Ocean, the drive on the San Mateo-Hayward bridge was fun. Stretching for 7 miles over the bay with 2.5 miles of ascent and descent, the approach road makes it look like the Stairway to Heaven. High winds at the top really affect driving stability.

Ubuntu Screen Resolutions for Intel 915GM cards Fixed!

One of the gripes I've had with Ubuntu has been the screen resolutions supported out of the box. I have a standard 915GM integrated graphics card on my Toshiba laptop. The last 2 versions of Ubuntu - Dapper Drake and Edgy Eft - do set the optimal resolution correctly 1280x800 for my laptop screen. But it doesn't support higher resolutions required by my external Samsung 941BW monitor. The Ubuntu forums are full of hacks to get it working for different hardware but I've never been able to get it to work without some glitches. Windows is able to easily switch resolutions when I plug in the external monitor.

The newly released xserver-xorg-video-intel package fixed the problem and I'm able to select the correct resolution. Standard Centrino/Core Duo platform laptops come with 915/45/50GM cards so this should fix the problem for most people. The higher end gaming laptops with ATI/NVidia cards have their own drivers to fix the problem already.

Install the package:
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel
and reboot.

The Man of Tao

The man in whom Tao
Acts without impediment
Harms no other being
By his actions
Yet he does not know himself
To be "kind," to be "gentle."

The man in whom Tao
Acts without impediment
Does not bother with his own interests
And does not despise
Others who do.
He does not struggle to make money
And does not make a virtue of poverty.

He goes his way
Without relying on others
And does not pride himself
On walking alone.
While he does not follow the crowd
He won't complain of those who do.
Rank and reward
Make no appeal to him;
Disgrace and shame
Do not deter him.
He is not always looking
For right and wrong
Always deciding "Yes" and "No."
The ancients said, therefore:
"The man of Tao
Remains unknown
Perfect virtue
Produces nothing
'No-Self'
Is 'True-Self'
And the greatest man
Is Nobody"

translation by Thomas Merton in The Way of Chuang Tzu, New Directions Publishing.

I came across an excerpt from this poem in an article about Laurie Baker who recently passed away.

Through the Ages..

A Photo timeline from my Passports:

1986

1996

2003

2006

Datacenter in a Shipping Container

Sun Microsystems' Blackbox - an entire datacenter in a shipping container has just been announced.

"Project Blackbox packages compute, storage, and network infrastructure capabilities into scalable, modular units outfitted with state-of-the-art cooling, monitoring, and power distribution systems. Customers will be able to order a variety of standard and custom configurations of systems, storage, networking, and software. Housed in a standard 20-foot shipping container for maximum flexibility, Project Blackbox will be easily transported using common shipping methods. Simple hookups for water, AC power, and networking will enable customers to quickly deploy Project Blackbox upon delivery."

Check out this Flash Video for an intro
and for a peek inside..

Here are some cool (possible) Deployment Scenarios:

More scenarios HERE