The worst may be over at Mumbai, but we see no end in sight for terrorism.  Indian security system is highly vulnerable to terrorist attacks and no Indian city is safe.  The modus operandi and the magnitude of the disaster in Mumbai, definitely has multiple implications - politically, economically and socially. It is time that India (read Indian Government) and its citizens, handle this professionally and equip themselves better.

Following are some thoughts from the mind of an Indian citizen, who desperately wants to see a change:

• Repair the damage - Numerous lives, limbs and property were damaged in the carnage.  Appoint a committee to analyze the extent of damage and provide suitable assistance, both financially and physically, to the real needy
• Reorganize the Security forces - Stationing NSG commandos only at Delhi, no longer holds good.  Virtually any Indian city or town is vulnerable.  Distribute the forces, at least across the Metro cities for better management
• Strengthen the Security system - Intelligence is the key to prevent terrorist attacks.  With terrorists resorting to technological tools for communication and coordination, it is high time that the security system is revamped.  Take consulting help from developed nations like US and UK to introduce the security and intelligence forces to technological advancements.  If required, these forces can be trained by experts from abroad
• Procure sophisticated arms and train security forces - When terrorists procure sophisticated arms and get themselves trained, why not the security forces?  Do this and equip them better for disasters
• Better manning of the Port of Entries - Time and again the intelligence reports talk about terrorists filtering into India.  Airports must be better manned and constantly surveillanced for unscruplous elements.  Indian coastline is porous and better manning is required there too
• Elaborate the situation in a summit - This incident and the other terrorist attacks, definitely are a hit to India, economically.  Investors and MNCs from around the world, would think twice before moving into India.  It is up to the Indian Government to change the mindset of the external world.  Once the situation stabilizes, host a summit that possibly includes leaders from around the world and discuss on the conditions and steps taken to counter terrorism.  This can also help to obtain assistance from other countries
• Nab and punish/remove corrupt officials - Terrorists cannot flourish without black sheeps within the Governmental system.  Nab these ba****ds out and punish them suitably.  They spread like wild fire, corrupting the entire system

We, the citizens, pay a hefty 33% tax to the Government.  We are even ready to pay a little more, towards strengthening the security system.  But more than the money, what is required is inspiration, accountability, and responsibility on part of the Indian Government.  WE NEED A CHANGE AND A SECURE SOCIETY.   Can they (or is it we??) deliver it?

Xerox has a green and simple solution to maintain receipts, documents and bills, especially during corporate travels.

Xerox Corporation has come up with the Xerox Travel Scanner - a mobile scanner that can handle the business needs of corporate travelers for just $199. As per the official announcement - The Xerox Travel Scanner measures only 2″ x 1.5″ x 11.4″, weighs 10.6 ounces –less than a can of diet soda — and has a resolution of 600 dpi with 24-bit color. You can read more on the announcement here. Xerox Travel Scanner is powered through the USB port of a Laptop computer, so there are no hassles of finding a power outlet.

Xerox Travel Scanner can scan any kind of document and convert them into PDF (Portable Document Format), that can be easily shared and protected. Also these PDF files are text-searchable, while maintaining the appearance of the original document. This is definitely a handy little tool for corporate travelers.

With sophisticated mobile phones with full scale internet access entering the market, people accessing the web through these gadgets have grown in number. It is not really possible for every non-techie blogger to make his Blog mobile friendly. For those who wish to make their Blog mobile friendly without extra hassles of a custom domain name and effort, Mofuse offers an easy solution.

In this post, I will help you to mobilize your Wordpress blog, all for FREE!

1. Navigate to http://www.mofuse.com and enter the Blog URL that you wish to mobilize

2. Complete the registration process and choose a Mobile address for your website. This will be on the sub domain of Mofuse - something like http://yoursite.mofuse.mobi

3. Once done, you can download the Wordpress plugin from Mofuse website

4. Install this plugin into your Wordpress blog

5. Configure this plugin as a Wordpress administrator. Enter the Mobile address of your website (configured in Step 2) and enable automatic redirection

6. Once done, any access to your Blog URL from a mobile device will be redirected to the Mobilized version

7. You can easily test how your site looks on a mobile phone, right from your browser. Navigate to http://mtld.mobi/emulator.php and enter your Blog URL - like http://yoursite.com

8. That’s it and you are done!!

Check the quality of the mobilized version of your blog, by testing it with http://ready.mobi.
You can find many essential reports there.

Hope you found this useful.

For some more options on mobilizing your blog, you can read the post from Digital Inspiration here.

I was reading through this news on BBC, where an Iranian court ordered a man to be blinded as a retribution to his act of blinding a woman.

This kind of retribution is legal under the Islamic Sharia code of qias or equivalence.  I strongly feel that a retribution of this kind must be meted out to the terrorists who were caught on the act, alive.  Once the interrogation is done, either put them in a building and explode it with bombs or shoot them using an AK-47.  This will help them understand the pain and teach a lesson to the aspiring terrorists.  It is sh**ty to order for a probe and wait on the judiciary to punish them.  I am fuming!!

Mumbaikars must definitely be in a grip of terror. Mumbai, the Commercial capital of India, is the city that had witnessed grueling terrorist activities over the past few years. I am physically away from Mumbai; but from the scenes I witnessed over the television and the news sites, made me feel sick and sad. I can empathize the mental state of those who were held hostages and back free into this world. Also, it is not just about the Taj, Oberai, Nariman House and the Jewish center. Numerous innocents were assailed in the railway station, cinema and a historic cafe.

This incident adds fuel to the fire for the Mumbaikars - many of whom were already made poor by the economic downturn. A new group named “Deccan Mujahideen” has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Who the f**k are they? The series of events and the target of the attacks clearly stand out from the previous mishaps. The primary targets were foreign citizens, who were stationed at luxury hotels. Also ruthless shootouts at public, is something unheard of. Top leaders in India think that some Pakistani groups are definitely behind these attacks. But, Pakistan strongly objects to it and even goes to the extent of offering intelligence assistance.

Frankly speaking, the terrorists who are on the act and give up their lives, are just the tools. The real mission of the anti-terrorist squads must be to identify and nab those, who manage these terrorists. Once those roots are identified and the funding for these activities come to a halt, it becomes a lot easier to put a check on the terrorist activities. Also, a social difference between the Hindus (~80% of the population) and the Muslims (~13%) is cited as a reason for the anti-communal activities. So the mantra for the anti-terrorist squad - identify and nab the roots and the officials who groom these terrorists.

A salute to the Commandos who fought (and still fighting) through day and night, for the lives of the hostages. Sandeep Unnikrishnan, a NSG commando lost his life fighting for his country. May the soul of those who were victims to the cruel act and who laid their life for the sake of their country, Rest in Peace.

I just wonder if these terrorists have a family and recognize the importance of life. It is high time that they realize and turn humans; and it is also high time that the Indian Government has to be serious on the act.

A new look, a new host, a new domain but the same blog. Feed readers - check out my blog and let me know your feedback.

I made an internal presentation yesterday on JBoss Seam.  Since it is nothing confidential and I had done it on my personal interest, I wanted to share it with the public.

If you happen to use this, please send me the feedback on the content and the style of presentation.  I am working hard on my presentation skills and your feedback would  be valuable.

HP Magic Giveaway is back.  Contests for winning these prizes (about $6000 worth from each blogger), will be listed in the next few days in the respective blogs.  The complete list of participating blogs can be found here.  There are about 50 of them.

Keep watching these blogs for further updates and the contest details.  Man, their visitor and subscriber rates are gonna shoot up!!

This a typical example of one of the drawbacks with Cloud computing. Though Cloud computing is an ideal choice for startups with low capital, it can turn into a nuisance if the problems aren’t noticed by the end customer. Cloud computing platform does nothing but hosting the service. Any problems with the service must be noticed and handled by the service provider.

So the decision to move into Cloud computing must be a very conscious one - anticipating outages on the hosting service and the ease with which the service issues can be identified. We might see two sets of Services emerging in the near future, among the enterprise customers - one that are better-off when self hosted and the other that can be hostedo on the cloud.

Ardent Google Reader and GMail users must be familiar with “starring” items. This is primarily used to “star” favorite posts or emails, to be read later and remove the “star”, once they’ve been read. So “starring” works more like a temporary bookmark.

How would you extend this concept to “starring” Web pages? Firefox 3 provides a nice feature to mark a particular web page to be read later and remove it from the list once read.

1. Go to Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks (Ctrl + Shift + B), and move the “Recently Bookmarked” under the “Bookmarks Toolbar” (This will enable easy access)

2. Once the Web page is open, Click once the “Star” button in the Address bar

3. Now you can find the web page added to the “Recently Bookmarked” menu in the “Bookmarks Toolbar”

4. Once done reading the page, Click on the “Star” button in the Address bar again and select “Remove Bookmark”

This will help you to “Star” web pages, read them later and easily remove them once done. Hope you find this tip useful.