Deepak Kaul's Blog

Taswir.in YouTube Video

2007-07-10T18:51:00.001-07:00

I created a Slide Show! Check it out!

2006-10-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Transparent Screens

2006-04-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

Stumbbled upon these pics on Flickr. Awesome!

Encryption chip

2006-04-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

IBM has announced that it is unveiling a method for injecting encryption capabilities into the heart of the machines' circuitry. See this article on CNN

RFID

2006-03-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

Just read an article on CNN which could upset the companies who are investing heavily in RFID technology

World Record

2006-03-13T14:22:00.000-08:00

872 Runs In A Day; SA Chase Highest-Ever ODI Score
South Africa 438/9
Australia 434/4

Wow !!!

Religion or No Religion

2006-02-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

This is a chat conversation between two persons A and B. A doesn't believe in God and religion and B does.
Person A: hmmm
Person A: so, are you in the process of transformation?
Person B: no
Person A: :-(
Person B: I cannot image myself believing that there is no god
Person A: ok :-)
Person A: well, belief in God's existence or not is another thing, I can live with people believing in God. it is religion that is the true evil of society and I strongly oppose all religions
Person B: believing in god it in itself a religion...
Person B: may be its the humans who are the true evils........ if it wasn't religion.. it would have been something else creating trouble
Person B: I guess we are designed like this... after all if we all live in peace then the end is very near
Person A: true, humans can fight over anything...land, village country, families....but all these are real things, God is an abstract concept which no one really knows if it is true or not, fighting over that is the most mindless of all wars
Person B: don't you think fighting over the other stuff is mindless
Person B: I think the real win is to find a way to live happily within all this
Person A: yes, but you will fight over material things, I find that natural, even animals do that.. but God is a creation of our fertile imagination, and creating a complex social structure around that breeding hatred is unacceptable to me
Person B: well the true essence of the religion is to move away from material things
Person A: yes, move away and just fight over the immaterial things
Person B: the problem is that the religion is not being protected the way it WA designed to
Person A: it can never be, as long as we humans implement it, it never will be
Person B: that's exactly what I am saying... nothing can be.... humans are flawed by design
Person A: even Buddha failed, he said that what he is preaching is a way of life, not a religion, but his followers ended up making it a religion
Person A: so we agree that religion adds to the existing evils
Person B: even if we take away all the religion.. I don't think we will be in a better position than we currently are
Person A: yes, I agree, but it is not helping either, it is adding to the misery
Person B: no it is not adding....
Person A: all our wars - WW1 and WW2 have all been due to religion
Person B: if you take it away misery will still be the same
Person B: there will still be wars
Person A: yes, religion was supposed to rid us of misery, it is only worsening it
Person A: as you said, we dont implement it correctly, that means it is the wrong tool in our hands
Person B: no, the tool is right... but being used wrongly
Person A: exactly, we are not suited to use that tool, so we shouldnt be using it
Person B: and the fact is that even if this tool is replaced.. the replacement will still be used wrongly
Person B: the fact is the we as humans are designed to end up the way we are right now
Person A: well, we have seen now for several thousands of years that it is not working, we should probably try something new
Person A: that is one way of accepting that we are flawed and continuing, the other option is to try something new
Person A: we dont know how it is until we have tried it out
Person A: by saying we are designed like this, what ever the social structure is, we are closing our minds, we may hit upon something that will make us all live in peace, we just have to find it
Person A: Man thought it was religion, but history has proved it is not
Person B: well I still believe that religion has ways to bring peace.. maybe we haven't explored enough yet
Person B: the thing is that anything new that starts will also have groups and different groups try to get better than the other and we end up in the same vicious circle
Person A: exactly, in stating that you have just proved that religion will never work :-)
Person A: now we need to find something that does not group us
Person A: anything that creates groups of people is asking for conflict
Person B: if it is not a group, it is a leader and then there are people who don't like the leader etc etc.. the vicious circle continues
Person A: leaders emerge from groups, so it is the same thing
Person B: religious scriptures if believed give answers to our existence and the path we need to follow...... but humans don't want to do that... so continuing that trend humans will not follow anything
Person B: and anything new has to start as a group
Person A: it is probably for the better, the human race has to end sometime, and we only hasten the process
Person B: in my opinion the religion is slowing that process
Person A: that is why, I am unalligning myself from all groups and saying, I dont want to be a part of the mayhem
Person A: no, if religion triggers of a nuclear war next, then all mankind is doomed
Person B: a nuclear war could trigger without religion also.... the cold war had lot less to do with religion
Person A: hmmm, but the war never happened, but most other wars which have taken place have religious causes, so going by how we behave, religion will probably cause the next war too
Person A: chalo, it was good debating this, I need a chai break to recharge :-)
Person B: yes.. good debate....

Phones

2006-02-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

OK,I received the new phones in two days after I placed the order, and here is a picture.

I also got the blue tooth headsets, but those were not the one which I was expecting so I am trying to get them exchanged. Although the offer didn't specify the model of the headsets which they were going to send, it did mention the dollar amount and the ones they sent are lesser then that. So let see how it goes. This time also I tried machine (I used the instant chat feature to talk to an agent). Although there is still a human on the other side but I was able to save the chat conversation in case this time the agent send the complaint to website 'A' :). Lets see how it goes. The headsets which they have sent aren't that bad though.

IBM to invest $1B in Data Management Services

2006-02-17T13:17:00.000-08:00

This article says "IBM announced today that it plans to invest an additional $1 billion in data management over the next three years . . ."

"Additional" !! how much was IBM already investing in this area?
This seems to be a good area to be in :). Phil is currently accepting resumes, so help him get the referral bonus :)

Why I Hate Frameworks

2006-02-15T21:20:00.000-08:00

Although I am for using frameworks in software development, Why I Hate Frameworks does a good job making you cautious and think before using frameworks for things which really don't need one. This discussion is also pretty humorous (or as Phil put it "humor with a purpose")

Human Element in Customer Service

2006-02-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

OK, after going back and forth a few times, I think I am ready to get on the blogging band wagon. For those of you who were directed to this blog from the pholoblogs site, I am moving my photo blog to Taswir. I will be posting there soon.

Yesterday I completed the contract term with my current cell phone provider and decided to get a better deal on one of the deal websites on the internet. Some of these websites do offer good deals with free phones (along with some gadgets) which are free after the mail-in rebate. If you go to the cell phone provider directly you end up paying more and no gadgets and mail-in rebate. It is amazing how much margin the 'authorized resellers' have to be able to offer these deals.
Here's the interesting part. I went to one of the websites (lets call this website 'A') and didn't find the deal which I had seen a few days back (bluetooth head set was free along with the phone), so I got a phone number to call. I asked the lady who answered about the deals which apparently had expired and she asked me to check in a few days. I went to one of the other websites (lets call this website 'B')and found the deal I was looking for, when I called to book the order the lady who answered had the same name as the lady before (from site 'A'). I asked her if she was the one who I had talked to before but she said no. Anyway I went ahead and ordered confirming that I was going to get the bluetooth head set free. She even said that the car charger was free !. So I go to sleep dreaming about the new phone and the bluetooth head set. Next day I see a order confirmation mail and when I looked at it carefully I noticed that this mail was from website 'A' and not the website 'B' and of course the order was for the deal which I didn't want in the first place. So my guess was right it was the lady which I had talked to earlier and apparently the call center may be serving the orders for both the websites A and B and this lady screwed up the order.

Now I can't call the number where I placed the order because they only take new orders and I need to call the other customer service number which was in the confirmation mail. So I call and this time I heard a familiar ascent, the call was being answered by a call center in India :). After telling this guy the whole story he said that he had no clue why this might have happened and after talking to his supervisor and calling the same number where I had ordered I realized that the best option was to cancel the order. The cancellation went pretty smoothly. I then went to website 'B' and placed the order directly from the website (no calling), and right now the order is shipping and I should have the new phone and the headset tomorrow :). Too much for the "Human Element" in customer service ! The machines are doing a great job.

Will post about the new phone soon.