Why I hate fervently Apple

For me Apple a few years back was a company that made premium laptops and music players and stood for impeccable quality. Thus I invested in a MacBook. Though it would be somewhat unfair to base on opinion on one personal experience but my experience with the machine was by far pathetic. It broke within 3 months, repaired easily but broke again after 3 months again (never to be repaired- well not for the next 15 months - the local apple store here in Columbus, USA refusing to repair it). Both times afflicting me with the loss of my precious data. Now that made me look at Apple as a company in a negative shade.
Now whatever be the reason of my change in outlook, I have found reasons aplenty to hate apple. Firstly the products are ridiculously overpriced - even admitting the fact that the quality is better does not make it reasonable for them to be so exorbitant. Then I realized that while Microsoft is painted as the villain and sued for "anti-competitive practices" for bundling their media player with Windows. It is disturbing that at the same time no one objects to the fact that Apple does not allow any other browser other than Safari for iPod Touch / iPhone devices and that it fucking limits the users to use AT&T mobile service. How can that be acceptable. Either buy a AT&T connection or pay 500-600$ more for an iPhone !!
Other than that not many people (other than the few sane ones) realize that iPhone is nothing but a glam toy. Their fan following is gathering cult proportions now, people saying they would buy anything that is sold by apple are plenty and it is very worrying to see how a corporate can mind control so many people. Their taking for granted this mass following is becoming more apparent with the launch of iPad. iPad is the most pathetic device sold for such a price. I mean if it were a very basic device for $200-300 it might make some sense to think of buying it. But there is obviously nothing innovative about it, just increasing the screen size of an iPhone and removing calling and camera functionalities. Added to that it comes for $500-900. Do they even think before charging for something.. why should anyone pay $900 for a shitty device that doesn't allow multi-tasking - why not buy a laptop instead. And how is it that other companies are able to provide a much much better product for a much lesser price. Yes I am mainly talking about the Adam device by notion-ink. Notion ink is a new company - a startup so it is somewhat unfair to compare them to apple but the sad part is no other decent well recognized company is standing up to face Apple and make a good tablet device.

COME OUT OF THIS EVIL SPELL AND DO NOT BUY APPLE !! TILL THEY SELL YOU SOMETHING SENSIBLE

Confidence Levels

I just realized there are three major levels of confidence. Given that - the funny thing is that no one actually resides in the one of the groups per se. People are always in between two levels. For me I won't say I ever was at level one but not quite at level two. Recently with more exposure, I seem to be progressing towards level three having reached level two comfortably.
First is actually non - existence of any confidence. This is when you know something but do not have the ability to convey it. You may be able to convey it to a kind ear - to a friend or when not under the glare of an expecting audience. Anxiety besets such people when forced to address a group and they fail to convey their ideas in a comprehendible manner.
The second level is the one most people belong close to, the better ones above it and the not so good ones below it. People in this level do not fear the group or audience. They believe that they are worth the group's time. The problem (actually not a problem, its pretty rational) is that they need to have something to share to be able to speak with confidence. So if you tell a computer engineer to address a group of management folk about a technology aspect - he might be very comfortable with the subject and not feel any pressure in facing the crowd. But if he is told to talk to the same crowd about his knowledge on investment opportunities, he will feel queasy. Or for that matter, it depends on the type of crowd too. So, if the same guy be told to talk about the same technology aspect but to a group of superior scientist, he might get a little queasy.
The third level is the power of indifference. The people here are either the most influential / powerful and occasionally the most absurd / obnoxious ones. They have a reasonless confidence. The only reason for their confidence is being themselves. They do not care if they know anything about the topic they are speaking. As long as they have their confidence they can speak or do anything, be as outrageous as they deem fit or useful. Such are the people who do most unreasonable things as they seem to have that sense of owning the world around them. Then again without such people there aren't many others who can take charge of a situation and manage things. Fact is there can be no single super human who can be right about everything and hence have that capability to lead all the people at all times. Since there is still a need for such a leader these people who are correct most of the time are the best bet. Basically they represent most of the elite class in any society and those who said 'the meek shall inherit the earth' haven't really met one of these folks.

Understanding

I have seen that reason and patience are generally enough to help understand almost any situation and solve any problem(s) arising out of it. That being said, there is one factor that we don't perhaps give enough importance - your interest in the matter at hand. We being imperfect are not supposed to function perfectly at any thing, so though reason and patience are tools enough for the job and assuming that the person in question has plenty of both - it is still sometimes not enough. The reason being that people fail to apply them. When there is a matter in which you are affected - there is a sense of fear which lets you see the worst of the situation and there is a sense of desire that makes you look at the most improbabable of possibilities. Thus reason is clouded by emotion. I guess there is nothing new or innovative about the idea - just that I experienced it first hand and it dawned on me that emotions enfeeble the reasoning in the best of us and no one can escape from this.

Why Rise Of China Is A Cause For Global Worries

I am one of those people wary of China's unrelenting march towards unopposed power. I won't say that I was among the first to notice and recognize the magnanimity of the occuring, but I did when I did. China has been under the global glare for decades regarding it's pathetic disregard to basic human rights and the subordination of personal freedom over what has been allegedly claimed as national interest. Earlier this was not a cause for concern or alarm at least since it did not affect anyone outside of China. Now it has changed, China is not going to remain isolated anymore. It has gathered a large amount of wealth over the years through efficiency in production and somewhat through misuse of it's people. However they might have reached the current state, fact is that they are now the biggest financial power and soon will be the greatest military power if not already so. And with this they are now spending it to build for them the best infrastructure possible. China is not lacking in any kind of resources - labor, minerals or skilled workforce. As such there is hardly any way of anyone overtaking them, India may have been smug about being the IT hub for the past 15 years but they never translated that opportunity to getting something big. India to this day remains an inferior state to Europe/American countries in terms of power, wealth and quality of life. China on the other hand is making some cities that good enough to shame the biggest cities across the developed world. This whole thing is fine.

The problem with the rise of China is that with it increases their influence and with this the developed western countries(and others as well)are left behind. Now as we all know that the record of China w.r.t. treating people humanely is very poor. The world follows the example of the leader, and as China takes over the mantle of the sole superpower in the coming decade or so, these other countries might be influenced to follow the lead of China. As such the  I fear a chain reaction leading to subordination of the individual to the state will become commonplace and 'acceptable' and lead to the formation of a draconian society world wide. For India specially as China becomes powerful, its 'friend' Pakistan might be helped to stand on it's feet again - which is a cause of concern to India. History has proved that Pakistan is obsessed with enimity against India and the more strength they or their friends gain make them more capable to do so unhindered. All this paints a very gloomy picture for the world over the next two decades or so.

Under the yoke of the past

`Why is there so much discrimination in this world? There are obviously people who seek to gain from them. But this is of course not the intent that can be put forward when you want the society to accept this as a policy. The intent is that we as human beings seek to find ways to predict and make the choices most probable to be good for us. We are not machines and as such we like to make reasonable (though often inaccurate) guesses. This is why if a certain sect feels that they have in the past being wronged by another one - they tend to treat people belonging to the rival sect as their rivals. The presumption is not too unreasonable - going by statistics and history there is a reasonable probability of their premonition being true. But what they do not see is that how much unfair it is to the ones in whose case this calculation was wrong. There are ones that do not seek to harm them or their sect - even though this may be a good probability. There is a popular principle in law - let a hundred accused go unpunished rather than punish an innocent one. This principle is certainly not followed here.

This is analogous to the case of a person with a bad past. As he has done something wrong in the past - we tend to believe in the worst of him and not give him a chance. We have this weird dilemma. We need to protect ourselves and as we cannot know for sure whether to trust this person or not - we do the best thing possible for our defence. We predict based on prior behaviour of the person. This is perhaps the best defence strategy and hence justified. But in being just to ourselves - we are being unjust to the other person. We do not give him a chance to make amends, to change his ways. If we continue to mistrust him there is not way that the person can reform.

There is this human side to all things as well. It is of course up to us whether we want to be humane or not. I go by the principle - do not expect from others what you do not give them yourselves. To believe in an entity which rules above all forms of reason / logic and number - the heart. I cannot say believe in the best of everyone (it takes a Buddhist to do that) but do not shut down anyone just because logic says so. If there is an attempt by the person to make amends and if he is lucky enough that we feel his conviction we should give him another chance. Perhaps being still cautious is our duty to ourselves but give another chance where we get that feeling from the inside. That is being human and I would prefer that to any increased probability of making correct choices!

Pillars of happiness shaken

What do we need to be happy? Its different things for different people.. money, love, beauty, success, family, career, etc. Most people (who are not downright miserable with their lives) manage to be ensconced with whatever they have in their lives. These things are akin to pillars in our lives and they bring us happiness - they are perhaps the pillars of happiness in our lives. There are still many demands, dreams and misgivings from life but we tend to take the things we have for granted. We find it inconceivable to imagine a world without the the support of these pillars. These provide us something greater than physical comforts, the comfort of having our desires fulfilled - of having the things that matter to us. But there are times when a drastic event may take away something that forms an integral part of our lives - the death of a loved one, financial loses, loss of self-respect, losing a job, health, fights in the family etc.. Again it can be different things for different people .. it is the loss of someone or something that holds dear importance in our lives.
We being insignificant beings eventually come to terms with the fact that there is nothing we can do about the event and that the happening could not be controlled and continuing is the only option. This is very normal. But there are a few unlucky souls who are haunted by a sense of guilt. The problem is that in bad times most people seek to find reasons for the problem. Some find it easy to blame fate for it and use this to practice a whole bunch of stupid superstitions. Then there are a few who tend to blame others and seek vengeance for it. The third and perhaps the most unfortunate kind are the ones who blame themselves - there is no struggle when you are punishing yourself and as such the impasse continues and sense of guilt grows.

What we need to look at is that as the problems in life are not mechanical - there can be no factual answer to the question of who or what is responsible for them. In most cases there can be no correct answer and so we cannot know the answer.
We imagine different combinations of events and try to find one that would prevent the loss of our dear one/possession. So eventually all the ifs and thens that we may think up during this desperate act of imaging a solution we come up with nothing meaningful. The simple reason being that life is not based on logic - some things are too complex to be governed by rules or logic.
If we feel that there is something in us that could have lead to such a loss - we should seek to remove it. That is our responsibility. We do not need to lose something to do that - the sad part is that most times these losses make us take a closer look at ourselves and this is when we realize our follies. So instead of blaming our follies for the loss we suffer - we should seek to make amends and be happy that with the loss came a small gain. Live life in a constructive manner and life will grow new buds to replace the fallen flowers.

Musings on relationships - V

Is there a right time for love is the question. Does it in any way help if you are in a good position in your life when you meet the special someone for you. Will it be any different if you met the same person when you are not in the best of your times. The obvious answer is it shouldn't matter but we know it does. It does matter whether the times you meet your soulmate things are favorable for your relationship. Love like all things strong is not invincible. It sometimes needs a bit of help as well. But that was very obvious. The other question is does the right time make you like someone you would not have liked otherwise. I mean if you are happy with everthing in life or feel the need for a companion - does it make it easier to like any person in such times? I am afraid it does at times and it is a very sad thing that it does. Good times and other factors are supposed to be just catalysts and not change anything - specially not the person you like. If it does it is not a catalyst and so the product coming out of it is not love.

Musings on relationships - IV

The problem in life lies in the fact that everything that makes perfect sense in theory is a nightmare to apply in practice, more so for relationships. Relationships are perhaps the more complex entities to understand as they involve the interaction and depend on the random behaviour of all people involved. Making it hard to understand or predict anything going on objectively. Also nothing in life happens in a controlled isolated environment, there are a million things going on in parallel which affect the matter we are looking at.
Whatever any popular/widely accepted sayings may say, to love someone doesn't mean to have him/her through any means - you need to preserve the respect of your partner as well as yourself. Like I said earlier, when we are thinking of our relationships and trying to make them work, there are other forces at play which make the reactions of everyone/everything we do so unpredictable. There is that communication barrier which exists even between the most connected pair of people. So what do we do? Also there are limits and weaknesses that we succumb to often, impatience and that urge to do something we know is not sensible/right. Specially when it comes to matters of the heart, we find it hard to listen to logic (in the rare occasion that we can see the logic). 

How much is too much when it comes to working for relationships or for love? Once we have done everything in our power to convince the other of our love - do we still go on? Perhaps not, for we need to have a mutual passion in any relationship, there needs to be a response from the other too. 

If there is no response after that, then perhaps it is better to brace yourself, control those urges (to do just that last bit more to make it work somehow) and rather be alone. And more importantly accept the fact that there may be other facts which we are clueless about and so making any irrevocable stand is perhaps not sensible.

Agnosticism & Passiveness

Agnosticism as an ideology is non confrontational. Does that make agnostics cowards? I don't think so, fact is that they are rather more rational in every action they take. They avoid any confrontation for the sake of confrontation, and have the sense to preserve their energy for the battles that matter. So if cricket doesn't matter to me I will just be passive about any comments/actions of people around me with respect to it. I won't debate if someone says Sachin is over-hyped or anything that sounds stupid or is disputable. But the idea that agnostics are passive is not irrational either. To be agnostic about certain things is obviously sensible, but as living beings we need to be passionate about certain (self-chosen) things - music, movies, sports, politics, business, education or whatever appeals to us. As a human being if there is no passion on any matter, then it does make such a person very non-alive. We need to be leaders in our right, how successful we are is inconsequential - but the attempt to lead people in the area we are good at and/or interested in is the basic responsibility of everyone. Everything innovative and productive has it's root in the passion of someone. It is therefore our responsibility to try to give something back to the world through our passion.
I realized this because I noticed that I am agnostic in terms of religion, sports perhaps, music to a little extent and many other things and I am very vocal in expressing my opinion about other things .. funny though it may sound -these include grammar, politics, respect for women, cooking and manners. I was happy to realize that I am not an agnostic in all matters - just in matters I chose to be inconsequential to me

Sustaining Love

Some thoughts I found somewhere - not mine but worth sharing.

Every relationship has a cycle...In the beginning; you fall in love with your partner. You anticipate their calls, want their touch, and like their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love wasn't hard. In fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn't have to DO anything. That's why it's called "falling" in love. 

People in love sometimes say, "I was swept of my feet." Picture the expression. It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing, and then something happened TO YOU. Falling in love is a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together, the euphoria of love fades. It's a natural cycle of EVERY relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage. At this point, you and/or your partner might start asking, "Am I with the right person?" And as you reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when relationships breakdown.

The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love the person you found.

People blame their partners for their unhappiness and look outside for fulfilment. Extramarital fulfilment comes in all shapes and sizes. Infidelity is the most common. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby, a friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your relationship. It lies within it. I'm not saying that you couldn't fall in love with someone else. You could. And TEMPORARILY you'd feel better. But you'd be in the same situation a few years later. Because (listen carefully to this): The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love the person you found.

SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. You have to work on it day in and day out. It takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it demands WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make it work. Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your partner). Just as there are physical laws of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships. If you know and apply these laws, the results are predictable. 

Love is therefore a "decision". Not just a feeling.