Rim’s Cafe in South Philadelphia is the first on my list of Must Visit locations in Philly. Strangely, I was introduced to it by a person visiting Philly for the second time and even he stumbled upon it. It is too good a place to be kept a secret, but it is also too good a place to be unknown. It is a block north of the intersection of 9th and Passyunk a stone’s throw from Pat’s and Geno’s.
So many ideas…
I want to write, but when I have the time I usually find my self doing something wasteful – playing videogames, watching TV/videos online or surfing the political blogs. I’ve had so many ideas rolling around in my head lately, but I think of them when I’m AFK and then I forget them. I asked Reva why I don’t do anything about my ideas and she said it is because I look at everything like a task. Quite true – everything for me is a “task that needs to be done” when they can just as easily be things I do for fun. So that’s a new matra for me – at least for this week.
Sixer’s game today. My first time. Should be a ton of fun but I’m driving back down to Philadelphia and plan to drive back here tonight. That will be about 350 miles in one day. I’m stocking up on the Red Bull.
I’ve been noticing that life is always better with a soundtrack. Mostly this obsevation is from watching the telly, but even as I walk along streets or drive down the highways, music makes it more interesting. Not that this should be new to me, I’ve been a big fan of all kinds of music for several years now. I just need to listen more variety and be more regular. Also need to use that iPod I have.
Back to the apartment
I’m back to the Pine St apartment for my second weekend here. A lot still needs to be done to get it in order. I’m glad I took the extra day off last week to get it in a somewhat livable shape. I’m just hoping I can sell the items that need to be sold soon. Which reminds me, I need to list them on Craigslist first.
I returned the Mazdaspeed6 a little while ago. *sigh* I will miss it. It was a great car, certainly one of the most unappreciated sport-sedans in the market. Rocking fast, accelerated quick, spacious, good sound system, decent nav located in the best place a nav could be. The transmission was rough, especially for novice drivers, but that’s the point, right? It had a smooth ride, and (atleast to my eye) looked great. Goodbye GKV3747
I am, however, looking forward to 2 years with the MINI. Welcome, Big Red.
Upgraded WordPress
I upgraded the blog engine to WordPress 2.6.1. As usual I started with a little trepidation. I couldn’t remember how to access cPanel on my site, and was unsure about how to back up the posts, etc etc. But true to their word, WordPress is easy to upgrade! Just follow instructions here and bam! Awesome.
I stayed in today, and watched some Olympics. In years past, I remember watching a lot more than I have this time around. I give credit to the state of flux in my housing sitation for that. However, things are (*fingers crossed*) somewhat settled now. What has struck me the most about these games is how young some atheletes seem to be. Notwithstanding the controversy surrounding the Chinese gymnasts’ age, a ton of others are between the ages of 15 and 18. Maybe I’m just really old. *sigh*
Death by DMCA
There is a long, well written (but really long) article on the IEEE spectrum site that discusses the DMCA and how many consumer products were put to death by the legislation.
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Internet records = Phone records?
Should ISPs be mandated to keep internet records of their customers? It is a question that I’ve debated with others for a while now without any real resolutions. Phone companies, I believe, are required to keep records of their customers for 3 years. It does make sense on occasion, if the information is required for a criminal investigation. The issues with doing something similar for internet records are three-fold, as I see it:
- The hard disk space/processing power required to keep such records are much more intensive than for a phone company. ISPs don’t want to have to invest in such technologies.
- People are used to a free (not as in beer) and somewhat anonymous internet. It will take an entire generation of users to come and go before such legislations will be accepted.
- The potential for misuse of a persons web-surfing habits is much higher than with a persons phone record. If keeping reocords is mandated, then there need to be strict safeguards against its misuse.
Internet crime is on the rise and as more of the worlds economy and infrastructure moves online, so will crime. While some form of record keeping is necessary and perhaps inevitable, such a legislation needs to be carefully considered before it is implemented. The New York Times has an article that reports that the US is asking companies to now do this.
The article is reproduced below with all credit going to the author and the NY Times.
U.S. Wants Companies to Keep Web Usage Records
The Justice Department is asking Internet companies to keep records on the Web-surfing activities of their customers to aid law enforcement, and may propose legislation to force them to do so.
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales held a meeting in Washington last Friday where they offered a general proposal on record-keeping to a group of senior executives from Internet companies, said Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the department. The meeting included representatives from America Online, Microsoft, Google, Verizon and Comcast.
The attorney general has appointed a task force of department officials to explore the issue, and that group is holding another meeting with a broader group of Internet executives today, Mr. Roehrkasse said. The department also met yesterday with a group of privacy experts.
Cyber-Terrorism – Reality or Bust?
Scott Borg, the director of the US Cyber Consequences Unit (CCU), a Department of Homeland Security advisory group claims that cyber-terrorism is the new 9/11. In an article in The Independant, he talks of all kinds of scenarios, some plausible, others downright silly, in my humble opinion. Anyway, this is the article, all credits go to them:
———–
According to cyber-security experts, the terror attacks of 11 September and 7 July could be seen as mere staging posts compared to the havoc and devastation that might be unleashed if terrorists turn their focus from the physical to the digital world.
Scott Borg, the director and chief economist of the US Cyber Consequences Unit (CCU), a Department of Homeland Security advisory group, believes that attacks on computer networks are poised to escalate to full-scale disasters that could bring down companies and kill people. He warns that intelligence “chatter” increasingly points to possible criminal or terrorist plans to destroy physical infrastructure, such as power grids. Al-Qa’ida, he stresses, is becoming capable of carrying out such attacks.
Most companies and organisations seem oblivious to the threat. Usually, they worry about e-mail viruses and low-grade hacker attacks. But Borg sees these as the least of their worries. “Up to now, executives and network professionals have worried about what adolescents and petty criminals have been doing,” he says. “In most cases, these kinds of cyber attacks aren’t very destructive. The reason is that businesses generally have enough inventory and extra capacity to make up for any short-term interruptions.”
Getting Some Focus
So I’ve been, for a while, trying to find some focus for this blog – some direction, some specific topic that I would concentrate on. But it would have to be something I was passionate about. But it also had to be something in which my passion would grow. Things that I am passionate about already (tech, cricket, etc.) are all pretty much saturated, in terms of blogs out there, and in terms of the potential for me to vastly increase my knowledge base. It suddenly hit me some time ago -> Intellectual Property in the Digital Age and Computer Related Crimes.
Why this? There are a few reasons. IP is something I’ve always followed, since I’m a big music fan. The effects of DRM on music sales, etc, is something I know a fair bit about and I have strong opinions on. My girlfriend, Revathi, is interested in IP Law and some of her enthusiasm has rubbed of on me. Look for her blog. Finally, and probably the most influential reason is that in the last 2 terms I’ve taken 3 classes that relate to this topic. Sex, Crime and Violence on the Internet, Intro to Computer Crime, and Intellectual Property Theft, all taught by Dr. D’Ovidio have been fantastic for me. They’ve been interesting, the topics are close to my heart, and it has opened up a whole new field that I had no idea I was this keenly interested in.
So from now on, apart from the usual rambles, cricket rants and random rubbish, Intellectual Property in the Digital Age and Computer Related Crimes will be the focus of this blog.
..And a sudden step backwards
After the first game between India and the West-Indies, I was pretty certain that the Boys-in-Blue would win out the series 3-2, if not 4-1. A 1-4 defeat was certainly not something anyone would have imagined. But that is the way of things. India’s chance of pulling ahead in their ODI record has been dealt a blow. They are now 4 games down, having won 296 and lost 300 games. Admittedly, this is not a major record at all. I’ve not seen any of the media companies supporting this wondrous occasion. But then again, they are not as hard core fans that I am. They just report the news.
Now, the reason for this loss…? I put it down to inexperience. Apart from Dravid, the only other member of the ODI squad that had toured the Caribbean before was Harbajhan Singh – not really “senior” material in the team. Ganguly, Kumble, Tendulkar, and Laxman were all missing in the name of youth. Breeding youngsters is certainly required, but this time it went too far. After picking Robin Uthappa for the series, the management decided to open with Dravid for the first 4 games. This left the middle order looking very weak. Yuvraj Singh was the only batsman that could be counted on and as usual was his splendid self. Many seasons ago, I game him my vote as the future captain of India and if he continues in this vein, he will certainly be at the helm in 3-4 years. I was surprised that Kaif came good with 3 fifties, but he played far too slowly and with too much trepidation to be reliable at number 5 or 6. Venugopal Rao and RP Singh were the other two players who were given only one game. While it’s obvious that out of a 15 man squad 4 get to sit out every game, a little more experience in the middle order could’ve been used. Dhoni, Raina, Pathan and Powar were the other middle order batsman who did very little in the series.
The bowling was decent. Agarkar, the much maligned Mumbai boy who has potential but doesn’t show it often enough, was outstanding. He had 9 wickets at 18 a piece, with an economy rate of under 4. Harbhajan bowled well for no wickets. He did keep the runs at bay, however. Pathan was surprisingly ineffective while Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and RP Singh did nothing to show that they deserved to be in the national team. Once again, this bowling side reeks of immaturity.
This lack of experience is what cost us the series, in hindsight. I’m sure plenty will disagree and I’d be happy to hear other points of view. I’m just glad that Kumble and Laxman will be joining the team for the test series. If the ODIs were anything to go by, one can expect plenty of excitement and some tight finishes.
Forging ahead, one game at a time
Few people may realise this, but India’s victory over the West Indies in the first ODI today marks a historic occasion. It is the first time ever that India has won an equal number of ODIs as they have lost. This gives them, for the first time ever, a win-loss record of 50%. The current record is Played 618, Won 296, Lost 296, Tie 3, No Result 24. It has been a long climb up for the Indian ODI side. This victory also marks Dravid’s 12th ODI century, and the teams 17th consecutive win while batting second. I have no doubt, that at the current rate, India stand a good chance of topping the rankings going into the next world cup. From Azhar, to Ganguly, to Dravid, the Indian of the 90s and 2000s has shown marked improvement, from their leaders to the newcommers. Here is to another 296 wins for India!
This information has been researched from Statsguru on CricInfo.
Krishna Srinivasan 