Question the "Red Tape"!

We owned a Nokia phone and our service provider is BSNL. Last Thursday, I ended up loosing it at the railway station. I discovered the loss within a few minutes, but it was just gone. Someone had taken it, removed the SIM and the mobile was unreachable. My dad managed to borrow someone's cell and we called home to inform mom about this incident. She promptly called our service provider (BSNL) and got the SIM deactivated. The SIM was issued by BSNL and we really liked their service. They are honest, and upfront with all their costs and don't try to rip off their customers.

After we returned from our journey, we decided to call up BSNL, once more, to figure out how to get a replacement SIM card. I called up their customer service and talked to him and he asked me to bring proof of address, id, and of course an "FIR". What is an FIR? FIR stands for "First information Report". The customer service representative explained to us that,we had to go to the Police Station, bother a few cops to write an "FIR", pay them a little moolah (he did not say we had to pay a bribe - but I figured this is the standard operating procedure here) and then go to BSNL to get a new SIM card.

So, naturally I asked the cust. service rep: what the purpose of an FIR was? He gladly replied that it was a "proof" that I had lost the cell phone!

Oh Boy! How is it a proof? I retorted! He says filing an FIR proved that I had lost the cell phone.

Oh Really? How so?

FIR doesn't prove anything. FIR does nothing when it comes to lost cellphones, lost slippers, lost pens & pencils or even lost DL, lost Credit Cards, lost Debit Cards etc. For example: If I make a statement that there is no life on Mars, the only way to prove it is to send someone up there and investigate it thoroughly and let him file a report on his findings. Issuing an FIR doesn't do much in the way of "proving" anything. There is no value the police station is adding. In fact its a dreaded waste of public resources, your tax rupees, because I would rather have the cop chase down a rapist, a thug or a murderer. Even arming myself with an FIR doesn't do much in favor of getting my mobile back either.

There are reasons when an FIR is necessary. One is,when someone wants to file a serious complaint or an allegation against another person or another organization. Or to build a history of violations by an auto rickshaw driver who charges more. Surprisingly, no one files FIRs in these issues. For ex: FIRs could be helpful in cases of drunken driving, auto drivers charging higher fares where the issue or a person could be tracked and a pattern recorded to eventually prove irrefutable evidence that a person has in fact been reported several times by several people! That is the real purpose of an organized system that can track these FIRs down based on a PAN card number or Social Security Number etc.

A lost mobile phone is not worthy of a trip to the police station.

The Problem with “K”

The Problem with “K”

I recently purchased a new PC for my parents. It came with MS Windows XP preinstalled. I had purchased the PC from a local vendor and I assume that it is a pirated copy that was on there from the beginning. Also, the OS was missing all critical pieces of software such as security patches, service packs, MS’s spy removal tool etc.

One thing I knew from the beginning was the XP was hard to maintain. My sister has a laptop, my parents have a desktop (this new one) and I have a laptop. So I decided that I must try to switch to something more stable and secure. FreeBSD/KDE was my choice.

I like KDE. It is terrific to see how open source has evolved and produced so much of value to so many people. I don’t know the status of GNOME but I believe they must be doing well in their efforts too.

But there are some critical elements missing for it to be successful. One is that of usability. KDE is fantastically non intuitive even though it is almost similar to MS.

You see, everything in MS Windows is self explanatory. For example: Internet Explorer helps one explore the internet. What does Konqueror mean? What’s with KXSLDbg? What is KImageMapEditor? How about Kommander Editor? Kate? KDVI? KPDF? KPovModeler? KolourPaint? Whose bright idea was this? How am I to explain the history of “K” in everything to my mom and dad? Never mind explain it, I don’t know what the hell these mean myself! All I use my laptop is for writing a few emails, updating my resume, chatting with my friends, reading the news and once in a while writing.

Linux today is where it was with respect to windows 5 or 10 years ago! It can’t seem to think of ordinary users or ordinary people that wish to use it. Agreed it is free. So is a pirated copy of Windows XP/MS office. It is hard to get away from the “crack” M$ provides because there are no real alternatives.

When is KDE going to come up with a clean, easy user interface that is a little different from the “Krack” it is peddling? Why is there such a strong anti-ordinary user branding when it comes to open source? Can I expect to see a user interface as simple as the one iPod has? Can I expect a home PC with minimal features such as Chat, Emails, Browse, VoIP, Wireless, MP3 player, DVD player and a simple file system that I can explain to my parents?

The answer is, KDE/Open Source movement doesnt care much. And probably rightly so. They are building what they need and not what my parents or I need. If you want something, go ahead build it yourself, "the source is available", is what they say. On the other hand M$ probably cares, but they just cant get it right either!

So we have a new market here, that could be explored. Is it another untapped blue ocean opportunity?