Question-Box

I read about this ingenious project called the Question Box in the Indian Express this Sunday.  It is a great example how simple technology can help people around the world (especially the 3rd World).

It relies on a simple cell phone put inside a durable metal box and provided with two buttons - green and red.  When you want to ask a question just press the green button and the cellphone connects you to one of volunteers, he or she then looks up the question on the internet or a database to answer the query.

I think this device is a great way of putting information in the common mans reach, where most people in rural India/Africa can't even read and write, let alone use a computer.

The people at OpenMind have even developed an open source software which can used to start your own Question-Box project.

Buying a domain and more..

I was fooling around with the settings of my blogger account and impulsively ended up buying a domain of my own ! It wasn't hard to choose the domain name though, it had to be "Greaky".  For the better part of my online life I have always loved using the word greaky for various things, be it a nickname for my Quake III matches or just a userid for various websites I used to sign up for.  When people asked me what did it stand for - I used to say it is a mixture of Geek & Freak which incidentally now appears in the urban dictionary as a word !! I even have a gmail account by that name the days when gmail was by invitation only.

More about the domain : Well since this blog is hosted on www.blogger.com, when you buy the domain you get a google apps account linked with it where you can go and create your own email address like mail AT greaky.com, contact AT greaky.com or whatever you like.  You can create upto 50 such accounts with 7GB (and growing) of mail quota each.  All this for just $10 (Rs. 450).  I guess very soon I will be thinking about changing my email address to mail AT greaky dot com and stick with it for the rest of my life..

Politics Simplified.

Found these rather amusing but accurate definitions : 

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

and finally my definition of INDIAN DEMOCRACY : You have two holy cows. You let them out on the road to  graze/eat trash all day.  If they return, you sell the milk after adulterating it.  You also sell bottled cow urine.