RIP Justice

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It super cedes all other courts.

~Mahatma Gandhi

Aruna Shanbaug has just died after fighting a long battle, 42 years long. She wasn't the only one who died.. justice too is dead. Without a battle. Not even a fight.

I am not writing about Aruna or nirbhaya or anyone in particular. I am writing about each and every one of you. All of us humans who are considered the most civilized.

So what do we do when we read about a murder or a rape case in the newspaper.  Gossip about it. Write a Facebook status about it. Hope it gets likes and shares. Or even tweet. The damn audacity we have to do that.

And yes we do that, why? Because we know somewhere inside that justice is dead. Heroes don't get a happy ending. Happy endings are reserved for the villains.  Fairy tales, movies..all point us to the wrong direction that justice prevails in the end. Fairy tales, the ones we read in our childhood. Every fairy tale has a hero and a villain. The fight between good and evil continues till the end and finally the hero is able to save everyone from the villain and they all live happily ever after. There is no such phrase as happily ever after for Aruna or nirbhaya or the hundreds or thousands of others.

We all know its true, but we have to survive so we suppress this thought and continue living our lives the way it is. We don't want to bring about a change. The justice system or the society has failed us. But who constitute of this? We do. We forget that we as an entire population are much stronger. We together can bring change to the justice system or society as a whole. We not I. But are "We" willing?  

I know you are saying "Whats the use?". You would have said and heard this phrase many times in your lives.

Exactly..what am I even doing writing this.

Whats the use.

RIPJustice.

Lets just say a silent prayer to all future victims, and I hope not, someone who might be very close to you.

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

~Haile Selassie

Review of The Interstellar -- Movie

So starting off its not one of those films which explain everything to the viewer. Its more like your math teacher doing a problem on the black board and just "expecting" you to "understand" it. Does it bring back memories....yes yes it does. Well memories aside, towards the end, the entire movie makes complete sense. Each loose end is tied up perfectly, with a very pretty bow. So patience is a virtue (people with very slow internet speeds understand...don't' you).

The events of the movie takes place some where in the future where Earth is slowly turning out to be uninhabitable to humans. Our protagonist Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), is father of two, son Tom and daughter Murph (named after Murphy's law), lives with his family including his father-in-law, Donald.  He is an engineer by profession, but the current situation of man kind forces him to be a caretaker and become a farmer. He is a regular parent who goes to PTA meetings, and during such a meeting the teacher tells him that his son's score is low, hence he has to become a farmer. Cooper fights and asks why he cannot be an engineer. The reply almost gave me a heart attack, he says "We don't need engineers"(Being an engineer myself this quote stung pretty bad).

Meanwhile, Murph feels there is a "ghost" in her room, who has been trying to communicate with her. Cooper brushes this off until one dust storm the dust settles down as a binary code on the floor of murphy's bedroom. This leads them to a secret NASA station where he meets Professor Brand, his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway) and the very charming TARS. Cooper is told that Brand has a Plan A and a Plan B to save Earth or atleast the human species. Brand asks Cooper to pilot Endurance, a spacecraft, which will take him and others through wormhole to find a planet for the human kind to survive. Previously other astronauts had been sent through the same wormhole and three potential planets have been zeroed in.

Murph doesnt like it that her father is leaving her. And says the the "ghost" has asked him to stay. He leaves anyway and promises her that he'll be back. The mission starts off with 4 people - Cooper, Amelia Brand, Doyle and Romilly. The journey through space and the worm hole is absolutely breathtakingly wonderful visually.

The entire movie is just not about the mission there's actually some very emotional scenes between Murph and her father and your heart aches for them to get back together. Each of the planets that they go to increases their time on earth, like an hour turns out to be 7 years. The time you cannot loose because like Cooper says, whats the use of finding a solution after all the people on earth have died. So Murph's growing up as her father stays the same age. The discoveries they make has a lot of twists and turns and suddenly you start to wonder exactly how will it end? Can they save the human race? Will cooper see his daughter again? 

 

And most importantly who is murph's ghost?

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Something stinks.... Its garbage!!

Have you ever complained about the garbage that has filled your city? Have you ever blamed the government for not cleaning the streets? I guess you must be nodding your head quite vigorously by now. But let me ask you one more question. How did the garbage get there? The chocolate wrapper you see in front you. Was it beamed from outer space by some alien? If you believe in such things then you better stop reading now.

Let me tell you the truth. You threw that. Yes YOU. Why?? Because it was convenient. Because someone else will clean that. Or because you just dont care. Why should you worry about that. Lets just complain that the government is not good, there is too much corruption and all that.

Everyday when I travel I look at the roads, bottles, plastic, banana peels and what not. It makes me sick. Seriously guys, stop throwing stuff out and leaving it for someone else to clean. In school I remember my teacher telling me "Dont dirty the classroom. Do you throw garbage in your house as well". This concept stuck with me. Do you throw things around in your house. Do you sleep in midst of garbage. I dont think so. So why dirty your city. Treat your city as your home.

In buses people get hungry, they eat, and whatever is left over like wrappers, orange peels etc are flung out the windows. Its actually dangerous to pedestrians, as well as two wheeler drivers. And the funniest thing is this is done by very educated people (or so they say they are). Were'nt you ever taught that only throw garbage in a garbage bin. Or are you too lazy? Please carry the garbage home and throw it in a dust bin. So that it is carried away in a garbage truck and disposed properly. Actually beyond this you can blame the government. The job is done from your side.

Some people throw garbage in the gutter and drainage. So you believe that its actually a bin and somehow it looks like a gutter for rain water? Seriously dont make me laugh so much. My stomach hurts. They think its okay to throw in that. Just beacuse it has dirty water doesnt mean it can take your garbage as well. It gets clogged and the next time it rains there is going to be water logging and all the water will flow onto the road. Which will cause traffic jams. See the chain reaction. It just goes on and on and on.

So dont blame someone else.When actually the culprit is each and every one of us. When we do our part we can point fingers at others. Also whats the harm in being responsible citizens? Next time you want to throw something, think. All of us have been provided a brain for that.

View from kriswiz -- WebRTC -- Technology

I have probably read a 100 articles on WebRTC. And everyone has something different to say. So this is my view.

First for all, for the people who don't know what is WebRTC. Well this is the standard definition --

"WebRTC is a free, open project that enables web browsers with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities via simple JavaScript APIs. The WebRTC components have been optimized to best serve this purpose."

Basically it converts your normal browser (the one your using to read this article right now) into your very own phone without having to download anything. Now you may ask me, " Yeah right. But I do have to download plug-ins, right?" and you know what i would say zilch...nahh...none!! Plugins can be difficult to deploy, debug, troubleshoot, test and maintain—and may require licensing and integration with complex, expensive technology.

WebRTC is a set of javascript APIs you can use to create your very own "app" (going by the trend now-a-days) which will run on your browser and make audio/video calls. You may not need to make an entire App, it can be incorporated as a component in your website so that interested users can contact you easily. This can run on any OS which has a browser installed (Windows, IOS, Android you name it). And you can easily interop between any browser.

WebRTC uses VP8 video codec and opus audio codec (works with PCMA/PCMU as well). And all your RTP flowing during the call is encrypted (yeah baby SRTP with DTLS). Also if you have a firewall then there is STUN, TURN and ICE used to go through it.

Currently Firefox and Chrome support WebRTC and so does opera (I haven't tried it on opera yet though). But it is still picking up so probably in the near future it will be supported by all the browsers (hopefully by IE too). Two groups, the Web Real-Time Communications Working Group and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IEFT), are currently working on standards for WebRTC.

So the next time you go to a company's website and you want to speak to the customer representative just click on the click-to-call button and voila you are instantly connected. The call no longer needs to route through the phone system, so calls could require fewer hops.

I will end this post by leaving you with some quotes--

WebRTC is a new front in the long war for an open and unencumbered web.
— Brendan Eich, inventor of JavaScript

We can’t wait to see what cool new experiences leveraging WebRTC that developers will create.

— Maire Reavy, Senior Engineering Manager, WebRTC

pssstt.....WebRTC can also be connected to a legacy system (PSTN or IMS). But more on that later.

Review of The Wolverine (3D) -- Movie

Kon'nichiwa,

The experience of watching wolverine and Hugh Jackman on the big screen in 3D probably cannot be described in words. But I'll try my best to do justice to it. The film is largely based on Wolverine comics which appeared in 1982, the characters are also taken from these comics.

After seeing a lot of Japanese anime I went to see this movie, and what do I see! Logan in Japan too? Anata amarini Logan!

A mysterious woman named Yukio (who seems to be a mutant who can see the future) comes all the way from Japan to ask Logan to meet her dieing master Yoshida, who he had once saved during the Nagasaki bombings. Logan reluctantly travels to Japan to meet him.

Once there, he notices that the house is heavily guarded and he is swiped with the metal detector. Imagine a admantium filled Wolverine being swiped! A thousand beeps erupts into the air and Logan cheekily justifies saying "Hip Replacement".

A "dieing" Yashida offers Logan to "cure" him and making him a mortal again. He refuses blankly and storms out. In the Yashida household he meets Mariko, Yashida's grand daughter and something on the lines of  "love at first sight" happens. He also meets the femme fatale villain Viper, who is the old man's doctor.

The old man dies and at the funeral there is a kidnapping attempt on Mariko. The wolverine being the man...no...the mutant that he is, saves her, being shot quite a number of times during the process.

Quite a lot of fight sequence emerge from here. The bullet train fight sequence being the best and the highlight of the film. And especially in 3D it was mind-blowing!!

After that the movie takes a Hindi film turn. The hero and heroine are alone, trying to hide from the kidnappers in a seedy hotel where there is only one room available and they have their romantic moments together too. Deja vu!

Soon Logan learns that something is wrong with him. He is not healing as quickly as before. And figures out that the Doctor has something to do with it. He also understands why everyone wants to kidnap poor little Mariko. She is the sole heiress of the entire Yashida fortune after her grandfather's death!

Does wolverine regain his healing powers again? Can Viper and the Admantium Samurai be stopped? Who is behind the kidnappings? Is Yashida really dead?

You have to watch it to answer all the questions. And most of all you have watch it for the soul of the film....for Hugh Jackman.....and most importantly for wolverine.....who is, in my opinion,  THE ULTIMATE SUPER-HERO!

Yonde itadaki, makotoni arigatōgozai !

Note: The ending sequence of the movie indicates that there are going to be more movies in this series (waiting for X-Men:Days of Future Past). Also please don't watch the movie if you are not a wolverine fan or if you want to see mind-less action sequences.