Monday, February 28, 2011

Indian Banks on Android Bandwagon

Two of the Indian banks have finally released their Android applications for core banking. Citibank and ICICI Bank have pretty much fully functional apps that would allow you to do everything that you can do using netbanking service.

  • ICICI Bank application can be downloaded from Android Market. It is listed as iMobile.
  • Citibank application can be downloaded from citibank website. To get the actual URL of the application, please send sms MBANK to 52484
I just hope that SBI and other large bank also join these banks in releasing their banking applications.

Monday, February 21, 2011

How stupid can people get

This is a really interesting new item. Just goes on to show that even people in position of power can be totally stupid.
A computer expert was paid more than 13 million pounds (about $21 million) after he fooled the CIA that he developed software to stop Al Qaeda attacks, a media report said

Looks like that CIA did not ask any questions to this so called expert. How the software will stop terrorist attacks etc. They just blindly believed him.
Officials were so convinced by Dennis Montgomery that, acting on a tip-off from him, former president George Bush ordered passenger jets flying from London to be turned back over the Atlantic amid fears they were being hijacked, Daily Mail reported Sunday.

There was even talk of shooting down the jets because it was feared the 'hijackers' would crash them into US targets in 2003.


And as usual when they were proved to be stupid, they hid under the excuse of confidentiality.
But an inquiry by The New York Times has revealed him as a fraud and, it is claimed, court documents that would prove the software failed are being kept secret by the US Justice Department to prevent embarrassment to spy chiefs.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Sleepy Raina

It seems Suresh Raina missed the team bus ride because he overslept. I don't seem to understand how can something like this happen. I am not in cricket team and I don't travel too many times, but whenever I have to catch a flight, I have never overslept. I have alarm clocks, mobile phone where I put an alarm and get up on time.
Is it just a case of taking things too casually?

What the hell is going on

Here is an interesting new item that I saw today on CNN IBN. The news item is actually a positive. Basically a mall guard saw another person dropping some money and returned it to him.
The incident occurred last Friday when designer Saurabh Sharma, after coming out of DT Mall, sat in his Gypsy right outside the complex.
"While sitting in my vehicle, I somehow dropped Rs 60,000 that I was carrying in the denomination of Rs 1,000. As I moved away from the complex, the security guard Ram Ashish appeared to have noticed that I had dropped something. Later, I saw him following my vehicle. I stopped and found that he wanted to return the cash which I had dropped there," said Sharma.


My problem with this story is little different. Who really carries Rs. 60,000/- in his pocket, drops it and does not even notice it. Even in Rs. 1000/- notes, 60K is lot of notes that can not just slip out. It seems to be that some people just have too much money and really don't miss it at all.

Anyway, who am I to talk about it.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Curious case of Dr. Binayak Sen

I don't know whether the judgement in Dr. Binayak Sen case is fair or not. I don't know all good or bad that he did. But current competition in intellectuals to support him seems very unfair and in my view doing more harm to his cause then good.

A day after 40 Nobel laureates from 12 countries called for Dr Binayak Sen’s immediate release, the Chhattisgarh High Court on Thursday denied bail to the civil rights activist. Sen, charged by the state government with sedition, will now appeal against the high court order in the SC.
Do these intellectuals expect courts to agree to their demand and be seen to be giving out an judgement based on pressure put on them. I don't think that is going to happen. The best these people could do is to leave him along and if the judgement was really unfair, based on the merit of evidence, it will be quashed by the higher courts.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Is DVD rental business dead in India

With more and more DTH operators providing pay per view (or pay and view for a day) type of service (like Showcase for Tata Sky), I find movie rental businesses like Seventymm.com completely useless.

For last few times, whenever I tried to get a DVD delivered to my home, the movie was available the very next day (or the same day) on Showcase. Recently the same thing happened in the case of movie "The Social Network".

Movie rental guys, get limited number of DVDs and even if you try to get it on the day of the launch, it is very hard that you will get it, while services provided by DTH providers are available for everybody.

So I am letting my seventymm account expire.