A Simple Disciple's Life

A short rant on the Israeli raid

Here is a quick rant... I took some time to look at the whole 'israeli raid' thing. Lets put it that way: no angels on either side. But I'm a bit annoyed at people's overreaction on this. I have the impression that some people took the 'OMG Israel evil' line without doing any analysis.

Let me summarize my thoughts: the raid shouldn't have happened in the first place. That was IDF's mistake. But since it did, I'm giving a lot of blame on the activitists on the ship. When you're dealing with special forces, a Gandhian approach is highly advisable. Let me repeat that: if you are dealing with a bunch of elite soldiers armed to the teeth, you should do this: a) duck for cover and b) offer passive resistance at the most.

Lots of backdated updates...

Here it is in short:
- I was back home for the holidays and had a great time
- I watched a ton of movies in movie festivals (American Chai, Sita Sings the Blues, Cleo de 5 a 7, Auroville, Jules et Jim)
- I attended some concerts organized by the Hyderabad Western Music Forum
- I've been doing better spiritually and I've been more involved in the church
- I'm building a relationship with an awesome sister in the USA

The last two will benefit from prayers. Please don't hesitate.

Political Agitation

This week, we had a few days of political agitation. The issue was the splitting of the Andhra Pradesh state so that the northern part of it would become a separate state. That part is called Telangana.

The leader of that movement was fasting to death, supporters were making demonstrations, shops were closed, etc. A few of my teammates were unable to come. Church on Sunday was migrated to house churches.

Now, its over. The Central government has decided to grant the request. The rest is a matter of how and when. Splitting a state, establishing a new capital, making elections... this is going to take time to set in place.

Trip to Chhinwada

Oh man! I spent a few days in southern Madya Pradesh, for a friend's brother's wedding. I did a little bit of sightseeing too.

Canada Best for Expats

I was claiming that Quebec was the best part of the world for a long long time.
The latest study by HSBC gets pretty close to validate that!

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of 'SixthSense' technology

Absolutely amazing work! Have a look at the presentation online.

Detailed Description of the Mumbai Attacks

Sixty Hours of Terror offers a good description of what happened during 26/11 and the next few days of terrorist-fighting. A good read if you haven't followed the details on TV.

Moved to the Latest Kubuntu

I installed Kubuntu 9.10 on my computer. And I have to say, I'm finally back to being satisfied with Linux.
- I had problems with the video drivers, which were making using my computer irritating.
- And the flash video works painlessly on all sites I've been to, whereas it was a bit broken before
- Adding MP3 support and the like happens smoothly at the beginning, a real joy!

English Shellcode

This is crazy! Have a look at the paper:

http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~sam/ccs243-mason.pdf
English Shellcode, by Joshua Mason, Sam Small Fabian Monrose and Greg MacManus shows how you can encode a malicious payload into spam-looking, but valid, English prose.

Whitelisting just got more difficult...

Gamer

This looks really awesome: