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Friday, January 15, 2021

WhatsApp Vs Signal: Battle of The Messenger Apps

Posted by: Danish 1:13 AM



So one morning I wake up, check my Twitter feed, switch to WhatsApp, out pops a notification telling me that the messaging app now intends to share my data with its parent company Facebook and I have to accept it's terms by February 8 or it will kick me out of its platform. Of course I don't like the idea but I don't like the tone either. But do I click on "accept" right away because I don't want to lose my WhatsApp account ? After all it is where all our interpersonal communication take place, email now is strictly for official correspondence. However, I clicked "not now" hoping there might be a way out from this forced consent. I have never been a big fan of WhatsApp, so perhaps it was time to look for alternatives.

Posted By Danish 1:13 AM

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Deplatforming US President: Are Tech Giants Waking Up?

Posted by: Danish 5:43 PM

DC Capitol Storming IMG 7917 (1)

The last week has been quite eventful, there have been two seemingly unrelated developments involving Facebook that deserve close attention. The bigger event, storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters is being discussed and written upon by nearly everyone who is capable of forming an opinion and is interested in US and World politics. So for now I would prefer to not wade into the politics except where it intersects tech ecosystem.

Posted By Danish 5:43 PM

Monday, September 17, 2018

Tech Giants Need To Take Their Societal Responsibilities More Seriously

(Courtesy : nasafcu.com )
Over the decade social media platforms have grown phenomenally, in early years there were comparisons of user base of Facebook, for example, with the population of the US and then with India's and China's but now that the number has reached 2 billion and growing that particular metric has been discarded. It is no longer about the numbers alone now but the volume of information being disseminated on them which is pretty much eclipsing traditional media and becoming the dominant space for all kind of discourses globally and especially political discourses.With such monopoly over information dissemination and ability to impact societies and polities significantly it is but natural that governments and the political system would turn their attention towards them and some of them seem to be happening lately. 

Posted By Danish 1:57 AM

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Aadhaar Challenge: A Perception Battle


Lately my Twitter timeline has been providing me with some sort of amusement at what seems to be a counter-campaign by the UIDAI and its supporters to control the narrative or at least fight the perception battle to the relentless anti-Aadhaar campaign being run on the micro-blogging platform by online activists since last few years. It has perhaps became important for UIDAI to take initiative as the discourse on Twitter has largely been controlled by those opposed to it and a part of the mainstream media, since the media inevitably picks up the dominant narrative on Twitter. Also, with the Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar coming out any time, it might have seemed imperative for the UIDAI to undo some damage to the reputation of the Authority on social media, which would undoubtedly be important if the Court makes the Aadhaar truly voluntary. Whatever be the motivation, the fact is there is a Twitter war over Aadhaar in progress and its an interesting one. 

Posted By Danish 12:49 AM

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Rumours, Psychographics And Social Media

Source: Wikimedia Commons
What do the Cambridge Analytica scandal, alleged Russian interference in 2016 US elections, Brexit, rise of right wing ideologies around the world and mob lynching of more than 20 people in India based on WhatsApp rumours have in common ? Of course it is the peddling of fake news through the social media platforms that have now become ubiquitous across the classes and demographic segments. The bigger question though is how and why these misinformation campaigns originate and spread and how this malicious threat can be checked.

Posted By Danish 2:08 AM

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Risks of Artificial Intelligence: Real or Imaginary ?

Deus Ex Machina from The Matrix Revolutions

For those having grown up watching sci-fi movies , especially those with apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic genre like the Terminator, The Matrix series and even 2001: A Space Odyssey the current trend in technological advancement towards Artificial Intelligence can give a sense of déjà vu. But then the celluloid world is quite different from the real one especially in the "apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic" genre. However, when one of the greatest theoretical physicist alive, Stephen Hawking and technologists and space-age entrepreneur Elon Musk raise alarm on unchecked development of artificial intelligence being a threat to our kind, it is not irrational to pause and wonder if we are on the right track. 

Posted By Danish 7:34 PM

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Cyber Warfare And The Internet Of Things



Internet outage in the US and parts of Western Europe on Friday, after waves of cyberattacks on a major DNS host Dyn may not have made much news in India and other parts of the world but it is unlikely to be an one off incidence and something that if repeated is unlikely to affect the Internet users in the US only. The attack made some of the widely used web services and websites such as Twitter, Spotify, PayPal,Reddit,Github,CNN, WSJ and many other service inaccessible. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have been launched against websites since the time hackerdom came into existence but lately they have been becoming increasingly effective/disruptive with the use of botnets. However, what is really alarming is the fact this attack was carried out using botnet of not zombie computers but Internet connected devices including routers,webcams,DVS and commodities collectively called Internet of Things (IoT). 

Posted By Danish 4:38 AM

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Book Review : Harry Potter and The Cursed Child




Courtesy : pottermore.com
For a long time I have been in two minds about writing a review of the  Harry Potter series' latest instalment. The fact that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was made for the theatre and the book released is a script and not novel as the previous instalments were,did bother me even  before I started reading it but what bothered more was the knowledge that even though the original story is by JK Rowling,the script was written by Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany. But then as a Harry Potter fan, there was no way I was going to ignore this one.  I have never reviewed a Harry Potter book on my blog before,this time I want to precisely because it is part of yet different from other books of the series.
Do note that I haven't seen the play,this review is of the script released in the book format and also that though I will try to avoid including spoilers,I don't offer an entirely spoiler free review especially in the first act.

Posted By Danish 2:37 AM

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Kanhaiya Kumar: One Trick Pony Or Rising Political Star


JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar has suddenly become a political sensation with prominent TV news anchors and journalists lining up to interview him and politicians across party lines giving sound bytes on live TV. Of course it followed his electrifying speech in JNU campus, hours after being released from jail which was broadcast by most TV channels and went viral with #KanhaiyaKumar trending globally on Twitter and his speech on YouTube, websites and other social media platforms getting millions of hits. Some pundits were quick to pronounce the birth of a new political star but one of the sanest voices in Indian media, Ravish Kumar actually asked the question, partly to Kanhaiya whom he was interviewing and partly to the viewers, if the student leaders new found fame is a flash in the pan or there is a possibility of it becoming something bigger. Though Kanhaiya made a brilliant and noble plea to delink personalities and individuals (especially himself) from battle between ideologies and principles, it is but a fact that it is because of his oratory skill that he is in the spotlight today,the political dynamics of the country have become too personality driven to be wished away.

Posted By Danish 12:24 AM

Sunday, February 28, 2016

The Revenant - A Brutal And Beautiful Saga Of Survival And Revenge

The Revenant (n. One who has returned, as if from the dead.)
After earning Oscar for Birdman, director Alejandro G Iñárritu comes up with another masterpiece, The Revenant, a movie on the legendary American frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass whose gritty survival story is brought to life by the absolutely brilliant performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, excellent direction by Iñárritu and the overall outstanding effort of his crew members. And when I say brought to life I mean it. The movie is executed so flawlessly that it draws the viewers into the torturous ordeal of Glass as he suffers from tremendous violence of wild nature and savagery and malice of fellow-humans to the point of death but returns overcoming untold hardship with an unyielding zeal to survive and extract revenge.

Posted By Danish 3:10 AM

Monday, December 28, 2015

Star Wars : The Force Awakens | Review (Spoiler free)

(Courtesy: Wikimedia)
A long time ago in a galaxy... well in our own galaxy and our very own planet Earth, George Lucas wrote and directed an epic space opera film called Star Wars which grew into a hugely popular franchise and a global pop cultural phenomenon with a cult following spanning generations. The first movie was released more than 32 years back and it's been 27 years since release of the last installment of the original trilogy (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi)  which is indeed "a long time ago" as sequels and prequels go, even the last installment of the much less appreciated prequel trilogy (Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) came out 10 years back but Star Wars franchise continued to command huge fan following. The announcement of the release of Episode VII: The Force Awakens and the huge marketing campaign made it one of the most anticipated movie releases in recent times if not of all times. However, one of the issues eager fans had to deal with was avoiding exposure to spoilers and leaks proliferating on the Internet. I assiduously avoided every piece of information that had anything to do with  Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so my review of the movie includes NO SPOILERS, or so I hope.

Posted By Danish 2:11 AM

Friday, December 11, 2015

The Salman Khan And Talwars

Posted by: Danish 3:10 AM

The recent acquittal of Salman Khan in 2002 drunken driving and running over five people,killing one of them and injuring four others has the media and social media talking about the judgement incessantly. While his massive fan following is celebrating the acquittal, a lot of people have been sorely disappointed with the proceedings and even the Judge pointed out the shoddy investigation carried out by the prosecution. In Salman Khan's case, not including Kamaal Khan, the other eyewitness and one of the persons inside the vehicle during the incidence as a witness before the court seems too callous. There are other lapses on part of the prosecution too but I don't intend to do an autopsy of this case, which the media has been conducting anyway. However I must confess that being a fan of Salman Khan I am not at all unhappy that he has been acquitted, besides I am not the kind of person who seeks personal gratification in punishment of individuals. Punishment through due process of law is a necessity to uphold the rule of law and dispense justice but I don't see any role of individual or collective passion in it (except in rare cases). At the same time, the idea that people can be subjected to rigorous punishment as a result of similar shoddy investigation is highly disturbing.

Posted By Danish 3:10 AM

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Is Modi's Solar Alliance At COP21 The Real Deal

(Image Courtesy: UNFCCC )
Quite recently I heard an eminent academic speak on the need for PM Narendra Modi to improve his relationship with the press. I think it was the economist Jagdish Bhagwati, a known Modi supporter but I could be wrong. Anyway, a recent event did make me think that perhaps he is right, by not directly engaging with the mainstream media, Modi is not only allowing his image being transformed to that of an opaque personality but also some of his real achievements get ignored and completely sidelined in the nation discourse.  But before that I must confess that though I see Modi the politician as a product of the RSS ideology, Modi the Prime Minister seems be too ambitious to be restrained by ideological shackles especially when it conflicts with his attempts to create his own legacy. This twin personas were especially evident when he was on election campaign in Bihar, his rhetoric being aggressive and almost uncouth and then his statesman like oration in the Parliament at onset of the Winter session which was way mature. However what really surprised me was the lack of adequate reportage by media as well as support from his own  supporters on social media on his successful launch of International Solar Alliance of 120 countries along with French President François Hollande during the Paris COP21 climate summit.

Posted By Danish 8:30 AM

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Paris Attacks: A Wake Up Call For International Community

The dastardly terrorist attacks in Paris on 13 November hours after a similar attack in Beirut should wake up all actors in the Middle East theatre of proxy wars as well as the global Muslim community to the danger that ISIS now poses to the whole world. As of now, ISIS was seen as a region specific entity,  a quasi-state disconnected and autonomous but with a large number of fighters and more than adequate resources to continue expanding the size of its territory as well as attract more jihadis from across the world. What separated it from Al Qada both figuratively and literally is the fact that the latter believes in carrying on a long duration global jihad or prolonged war of attrition with Western powers and their allies in the region through decentralized network of terrorists or sleeper cells in key geographical centres around the world. It seeks to weaken and overthrow the global order through terror attacks like 9/11 believing the time was not ripe for establishment of the caliphate (read: gaining allegiance of majority of global Muslims community ). The ISIS on the other hand chose to declare itself as the caliphate on the basis of the territorial gains it had already made and with the ambition to conquer a sizeable territory in a short span. However, the attacks in Paris and the manner in which they were planned and executed indicate that ISIS may be adopting and improvising the modus operandi of Al Qaeda which is indeed scary given the number of recruits the terrorist group attracts from many parts of the world including Europe.

Posted By Danish 12:50 AM

Sunday, August 30, 2015

From Aarushi To Sheena : Trial Or Lynching By Media?

Image Courtesy: Youtube 
So the Indian media has latched on to the ghastly and extremely tragic tale of the murder of Sheena Bora with a zeal that falls somewhere between responsible journalism and savagery of a lynch mob screaming for punishment at a medieval trial. The latter part is of course disguised in more civil and self-righteous statements and opinions but criticism by various eminent and less eminent members of citizenry now and then rip off parts of this disguise.  But then there always two sides to a story. It is true that without media coverage, it is highly unlikely that investigation into this crime would been as prompt but the way it has been handled by the media can be described in milder terms as cheap and immature. However some television channels, especially (but not exclusively), vernacular news channels have indeed removed all stops and gone all facetious, dishing out murky details on an hourly basis. After all, this sordid story has more ingredients than a typical Bollywood potboiler and prime time soap operas combined. A mysterious murder in a rich and influential family, a web of lies and deceit and purported evidence of sleazy activities are things these news channels would give anything for and in Sheena Bora murder case, they only have to sacrifice a little journalistic ethics.

Posted By Danish 4:00 PM

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Book Review - Mandate : Will of The People

Vir Sanghvi's book Mandate: Will of The People was quite a revelation to me. I expected it to be yet another book chronicling post-independence Indian political history, but it turned out to be something entirely different and delightfully so.  For those of us who became politically aware in the 90s and later, there is a clear disconnect when our political leaders talk of the Emergency, Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi assassination, the genocide that followed and many other past events . Sure we can read it up in history books, look up Wikipedia and hear stories about them but frankly there is too much information to process and more importantly, it appears to have little value in the present age. But can we really ignore the past and still hope not to commit the same mistakes all over again?

Posted By Danish 7:26 PM

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Net Neutrality: Is Your ISP Shaping Traffic Now



 In my previous post I have discussed about Internet censorship in India, in this post I wish to discuss bandwidth throttling and how to find out if your ISP is slowing down transfer speed despite you paying for it. According to The Hindu, Airtel and BSNL have been found to throttle Bittorrent traffic. However, this data is couple of years old and probably doesn't include your ISP information, so here are some tools to find out if your ISP is cheating you.

Posted By Danish 2:30 AM

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Open The Internet Please

The Times of India report says "telecom and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad backed an open internet three days ago" which makes one wonder whether the minister really backs open internet or there was some shoddy reporting on part of the Times Group. But let us not get into the semantics now (though I will come back to it eventually), so as not to dilute the issue at hand. The current debate raging on has more to do with the concept of net neutrality, which thanks to the efforts of online activists, seems a certain victory now. If you are unaware of what net neutrality means and why it is under threat, the video created by AIB explains it best.
    


Also visit savetheinternet.in

Posted By Danish 5:30 PM

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

China's Next Great Leap: Reincarnation, Resurrection and Hubris

The Communist People's Republic of China while extending its sovereignty over the afterlife of its citizens (both actual and Tibetans) plans to set up a department to deal with reincarnation and resurrection of its dearly departed dictators and generals, certain reports indicate. The very first batch of reincarnated or resurrected souls are likely to include that of Mao Zedong and other important Communist leaders of China. The inspiration behind this seems to be the strong stand China has taken on the question of the reincarnation of the present Dalai Lama.  The spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism has more than once indicated that he might not reincarnate at all, ending centuries old Tibetan Buddhism tradition.


 However the Chinese administration has severely criticized the statement and has ruled that the question of his reincarnation is not for His Holiness to decide. Rather, it is the Chinese administration which has the final say over the afterlife of Tibetan Buddhism's supreme leader.  The atheistic Communist Party of China member and current head of head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, Mr Zhu, in classic Orwellian double-speak says
"Decision-making power over the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, and over the end or survival of this lineage, resides in the central government of China"
While the Chinese government has spared no effort to denounce the Dalai Lama as a traitor, opportunist, "wolf in monk's robes"  and labels normally applied to dissenters of Communist Party of China, the Chinese officials are hopeful that, under covert official supervision and manipulation, the selection by a sacred ritual involving participation of senior monks, visiting sacred Lake and divining dreams would be successful and the 15th reincarnated Dalai Lama would be selected following the sacred tradition. The only break from the tradition  would be that the new Dalai Lama would be ensured to be much more loyal to the party and the State.

Notwithstanding  the interest Prime Minister Xi Jinping has recently shown renewed interest in dialectic materialism of Marx and Lenin, the Chinese administration is completely devoted to continuance of the post of the highest spiritual leader of Tibetians Buddhism and vehemently insists that the current Dalai Lama reincarnate and more importantly, that the final authority over it rest with the  Communist Party of China. Speculations are rife that the party may not stop with the Dalai Lama.

Sources indicate that a new department is being constituted, which when roughly translated means "Department of Afterlife and Hubris",  to deal with reincarnation and resurrection of other people who the party thinks would further embolden their rising military assertiveness in the region and the world.

Of course Marx and Angel and even Lenin are out of question given their dedication to materialism, their souls, if they exist might refuse to take part in such intellectual heresy. But Mao and his more pragmatic as well as ruthless aides are said to be first on the line to be reincarnated.  Sources also indicate that applications are also being accepted from living persons but strictly from the members of the party only, religious people have been asked not to apply as the state is firmly committed to atheism and shuns all religions from matters of the State.


Posted By Danish 12:00 AM

Monday, March 2, 2015

Open Source Politics And Aam Aadmi Party (beta)

Who would have thought even five years ago that a political party with all India appeal could coalesce as if by magic out of social activism by several thousand volunteers and supporters scattered all over the planet, connected only by the tenuous strands of an Idea ?

The above paragraph is actually taken from Eric S Raymond's essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar, considered as the Bible of the Open Source Software Movement, the highlighted words are substitutions I have made to suit the present context; the original text is as follows:

Posted By Danish 1:00 AM