Following a recent kidnap and murder case which involved the social networking site Orkut, there has been a lot of noise and dust raised in the Indian media and public about how wicked Orkut is and how it should be banned. A lot of typically reactionary articles find their way in every newspaper following such incidents of online crime. I am not really sure of the details of this particular case, but it has once again perpetrated a lot of myths and loose talk in the Press about Orkut in particular and online social networking in general.

First of all, I am no fan of social networking myself, but I have to say that blaming what is essentially a glorified contact list for the kidnapping and murder of an individual is quite stupid. Yes, Orkut is an online "contact list" in my book and it does allow people to store and share personal information with others. Before all these incidents took place, people gushed over Orkut's usefulness to society at large and about how uplifting it was to find one's old, long-lost school or college-mates through it. I wasn't impressed then. Then when something horrible happened through such online contacts, the same people take a 180 degree turn in their stance and start howling in outrage. It's absolutely clear that the journalists who write about it now haven't a clue as to how to use the internet in the first place. Let's get this straight: people aren't forced to reveal private or intimate information about themselves in the first place. If a user is stupid enough or egoistic enough to share high resolution portrait snapshots, street address or phone numbers in user profiles, then nobody can guarantee his/her privacy or safety. The key here is that Orkut certainly doesn't require you to make such revelations. You *can* use all of Orkut's facilities without having to reveal an iota of personally identifiable trivia. Thirdly, Orkut does have privacy options which allow users to protect profile data from anybody else or reveal such info only to trusted "friends". Finally, using Orkut for really important or confidential communication is plain stupid and not recommended.

It's a no-brainer. Orkut is just a technological tool - a website that provides a service. I don't rate its service too highly nor do I see a lot of benefit from using it, but there are people who find it interesting and addictive. All power to them. At the same time, I would suggest that they also learn how to use Orkut effectively and safely. Parents should actually do their job and monitor their children's online activities rather than whine and moan about Orkut and ask for a total ban on the website. It's simply not feasible whichever way you look at it because *even* if Orkut is blocked effectively, there are hundreds of similar websites which provide similar services. How can any authority govern the Internet effectively and totally? It's simply impossible.

I think people should take a lot more responsibility for their own actions. Using public Internet space like a private playground is definitely not recommended and although the possible dangers of doing so are highly exaggerated by the media at times, the only information which you should post about yourself is what you would be 100% comfortable revealing to the whole world. Online social networking has made the process of establishing contacts a lot easier. It hasn't changed anything else about the way the world works. If you want to stay completely safe from the internet, just pull off the cable. It's that simple

I read a piece of news yesterday in my local newspaper about Linux-based ATMs which might soon become a reality in rural India (I am unable to find any online source for this news). With Linux-based ATMs being much cheaper than traditional ATMs using proprietary software, I can see how this can help banks gain a competitive advantage by being able to serve a larger number of customers at a lower cost. The cost-benefit advantage is *huge* when you consider the scales of population involved and equally, the benefits for the people are enormous. It also shows that there is still a large, untapped market in rural areas for such technological amenities. I do wish there would be more coverage of such news in the mainstream media - it might help convince those who continue to believe that Linux is merely a competitor to Microsoft on the destkop and doesn't have any utility beyond that. I think the West particularly isn't able to appreciate that the real action for Linux is in the so-called third-world countries looking to modernize technology as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible.

The real power of Linux is seen not by elite desktop or power users sitting in their air-conditioned homes or offices, but by organizations looking for cost advantage and competitiveness for commercial and community projects like this. And this is how Linux helps in truly empowering people - by providing freely available technology that is truly inexpensive and accessible by all.

Air Deccan is supposed to be India's first low-cost airlines. But surely their already sagging reputation will take a nose-dive with this latest episode exposing the level to which they stoop to save a few bucks. It's absolutely disgusting even by Air Deccan standards.

See this, this and this for more information.

I have first-hand experience of the pettiness of Air Deccan once and I have absolutely no respect for this so-called "low-cost" airlines and no hesitation in accepting the authenticity of the CNN-IBN report. Their stinginess has to be experienced to be believed. Their insensitivity to passenger needs is an institution by itself and their penny-pinching ways are too well known to the public for their denials to sound credible and genuine.

What they should learn is that low cost does NOT mean low quality. Low cost does not mean being behind schedule almost all the time. Low cost does not mean making passengers pay more for carrying even 0.001 kg of extra baggage. Low cost does not mean having a repulsive, customer-unfriendly attitude and poorly trained staff. And low cost certainly does not mean taking the public for a ride by bending the rules to suit their business.

I think there's a case for taking this airline to the cleaners in a Consumer court. Punishment should be severe and harsh for this errant airline.

It seems that the management at Air Deccan have no idea about this concept called "corporate branding". Their image will now sink even further below zero, if it hasn't already.

Mira is a proposed FOSS groupware solution. My good friend Max has posted a message on his blog explaining the concept. I thought I would help in spreading the message with a post here as well.

For those of you who are excited about working with a new FOSS project, please do visit the new website. The forum is already up and running. Feel free to join up there and pitch in with your design and development ideas. Whether you're good at coding, documentation or giving ideas we need your help. The wiki is a great place to start building up content as the idea starts taking a concrete form.

I normally don't broadcast WordPress news (since you already have this in your dashboard) but in case you haven't logged in in a while you might not have noticed that WordPress 2.1.2 has been released.

For those running WordPress 2.1.1, this is an urgent upgrade available due to a critical security flaw. Overwrite your old WP files as soon as possible. The issue looks serious enough as a cracker had gained access to one of the WordPress servers and had modified some files to include the security exploit code.

Courtesy the WordPress dashboard