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DVD Jon is back! October 27, 2006

Posted by The Jongleur in Technology.
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The world’s most famous hacker, has just made news again. This time he has managed to hack the proprietary shackles that Apple imposes on all its songs downloaded via iTunes. For those who are not aware, songs bought at Apple’s online store cannot be played on any other music player. They can only be played on iPods. Take it or leave it. Period.

Jon’s made headlines a few years ago for writing software that successfully circumvented the code that made copying movies out of DVDs impossible; hence the sobriquet “DVD Jon”. It was fodder for the media as Jon freely made his code available, and anyone could now download the code and start ripping out DVDs. This time though, his effort comes with a Twist. Quite literally, Jon’s new company called Double Twist plans to commercialize this whiz kids latest exploit, and his attorney has been quoted as saying that Jon is looking to license his exploits to other Digital Audio Player manufacturers.

For a company that pioneered the art of voluntarily locking their audience into the iPod + iTunes combination legal media downloads,  this will come as a rude shock to Apple. But being an outfit that can claim bragging rights to having invented the most sold electronics device in human history (almost 70 million iPods in its various avatars, and counting), you can bet that the geeks at Cupertino are sure to have a trick or two up their sleeve.

Footer: Folks, do remember to read the fine print when it comes to copying any sort of digital media, be it software or music or videos – you do not OWN the software/songs/video EVEN IF YOU PURCHASE IT LEGALLY. You only own A LICENSE to use it within the copyright rules under which its protected.

Heard in the skies October 17, 2006

Posted by The Jongleur in Travel.
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When it was first launched in the 2004, Connexion, Boeing’s In-flight Internet service was touted to be the next killer app. Promising road weary executives seamless communication at 40000 feet over sea level, the multi million dollar loss making enterprise finally decided to throw in the towel last week. And it has decided to go free for air-passengers until the end of the year.  Probably a touch too late for Boeing, not every V/T class traveler liked the idea of forking out $9.95 an hour worth of web surfing. So folks, toast it in while you can, the next owner might not be quite as magnanimous.  

Elsewhere Air Deccan continues to insanely pursue its ridiculous marketing gimmick- this time its offering 3 lakh tickets at a price of Rs. 6. Thats right – SIX. That comes days after a record breaking 340crore loss that it declared for the year and when anyone whos ever been on an Air Deccan aircraft swears never to fly them again. How about a 24 rupee airfare on the Chennai-Bangalore sector?  Now seriously , what was Captain R. Gopinath’s rationale behind this crazy stunt?

Thus spake the Nobel Peace Laureate - October 16, 2006

Posted by The Jongleur in Miscellaneous.
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An article on rediff.com quotes Dr.Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2006:

 

Explaining his reasons for starting the project, Dr Yunus has said, “I came with the arrogance of a PhD; I thought we could solve the problems of Bangladesh. Once I was there, I was confronted with a nationwide famine and the arrogance melted away. I felt humbled; I couldn’t do anything. Then I decided that, rather than worrying about what happens to the whole world, or Bangladesh, or the famine situation, I would just find out what I could do to help one person have a better day.

Its just a little reminder to those of us who delude ourselves into believing we can architect a radical change in societal economy, poverty, literacy, employment and overall outlook when (or IF) we finally decide to make that one way trip back to India. The unsaid import? – remember to place humility above the swagger of your American chequebook.

The Ten Commandments of Desi Living October 14, 2006

Posted by The Jongleur in Desi Diaspora.
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  1. Thou shall shall eat, sleep, breathe and dream the free wireless Internet connection from your neighbor. And thou shall make maximum use of it to visit dealnews.com, slickdeals.net and of course, orkut.com.
  2. Thou shall pay no notice to the male half of the Desi couple at your local Wal-Mart. Instead though shall stare into plus infinity at the poor F1 spouse in her first tight Tee shirt.
  3. Thou shall also stare at just about any white thing in a skirt, from age six to sixty, and secretly wonder what it would be like to have a gori girlfriend.
  4. Thou shall always need to have either onions OR oil OR both in any food that you ingest. Thy monthly consumption of cooking oil shall be enough to fill the tanks of two oversized pickups.
  5. Thou (the male variant) shall always wear a sleeveless sweater as one of your garments. It doesn’t really matter how cold it is outside.
  6. Thou shall always go up to the pretty waitress and ask her for a double cheeseburger without “the cutlet”.
  7. Thou may buy a BMW or a Porsche, but shall still be a loyal devotee of Chandrika Soap, Parachute Nariyal ka Tel and Kissan Jam.
  8. Thou shall spend half your monthly stipend on phone cards.
  9. Thou shall dunk in your biscuits in your tea/coffee irrespective of the gathering and the occasion. And thou shall smile like an idiot and reach for the spoon to scoop out the half of the biscuit that broke away and fell into your cup.
  10. Thou shall always live out of a suitcase, wherever you live in America.