Hari's Corner

Humour, comics, tech, law, software, reviews, essays, articles and HOWTOs intermingled with random philosophy now and then

Forgive me for not being shocked or outraged by racism

Filed under: People and society by Hari
Posted on Sun, May 12, 2013 at 10:05 IST (last updated: Sun, May 12, 2013 @ 12:28 IST)

Every now and then, I come across a news story wherein some person of the "wrong" ethnic origin is racially profiled or discriminated against in some international airport or in some other public place, and the media reacts with simulated horror and outrage at such practices. Even though such instances reveal the ugly mindset of racist thinking, I always remind myself of the state of human society some 100 years ago. Lest we forget, less than a century ago (which is a real short time in human history):

All these have more or less disappeared in the space of 50 to 100 years but still remain in the conscience of the former Imperial powers.

Everything has a historical basis and a background. Racism is no exception. It may be too much to expect that human beings have evolved to a state of being within a century where race/ethicity no longer matters at any level of consciousness. While It is true that racism/racial discrimination has been outlawed and has slowly become unacceptable in many parts of the world, I just don't expect feelings of racial superiority in the collective subconscious of entire communities to be entirely obliterated in the space of half a century. Indeed, I doubt if it is possible to eradicate it entirely by external influences, without some kind of inner spiritual evolution in the individuals that make up societies.

Don't get me wrong. Racism is fundamentally evil and a scourge of mankind. Every instance of racial discrimination makes me angry in a way, but I cannot pretend to be shocked at its existence or simulate an outrage I don't feel when instances of racial discrimination rear their ugly heads every now and then in some parts of the world.

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Eight years of blogging

Filed under: Site management by Hari
Posted on Sat, May 11, 2013 at 17:25 IST (last updated: Sat, May 11, 2013 @ 17:25 IST)

A couple of days ago, I've completed eight years of blogging and have about 660 entries to show for it.

Of late, I've not been all that active around here. But I have a couple of blog posts brewing in my mind. Hopefully they'll see the light of day.

In the meantime, I thank all my regular readers over the years (if there are any still reading this) for their support. :)

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Free Software/Open Source photo editing/management toolkit

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted on Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 21:10 IST (last updated: Fri, Apr 26, 2013 @ 21:22 IST)

This is my humble photo editing/management suite presently.

That's about it. I am also considering Luminance HDR if and when I choose to get into HDR photography.

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Why online interaction is about the people, not technology

Filed under: Internet and Blogging by Hari
Posted on Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 18:18 IST (last updated: Sun, Mar 17, 2013 @ 18:18 IST)

I always knew this, but I realized today why the platform doesn't matter, it's the people who do.

Ultimately you can have any number of applications or social networking sites online, but unless there are enough people to interact with meaningfully it becomes merely a technology showpiece: interesting as a novelty but only temporarily. 

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Why Linux Distro flame wars ultimately don't matter

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted on Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 16:59 IST (last updated: Thu, Feb 14, 2013 @ 17:38 IST)

TuxBecause 90% of the flame wars are centered around things that form only 10% of the actual distribution. And a lot of those discussions of merits and demerits are philosophical and fuzzy, rather than technical and precise.

To any reasonably experienced Linux user, it's not surprising that one distro looks, feels and works like another distribution when you look past the package manager and the system configuration tools. What matters is not how you configure your system or how you install applications but what you use it for and how productive you are with your work.

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Has social networking removed anonymity from the Internet?

Filed under: People and society by Hari
Posted on Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 15:05 IST (last updated: Mon, Feb 4, 2013 @ 15:17 IST)

Social NetworkConsider the following: Today, almost all your online activities are linked to either FaceBook or Google. Most of us do not bother to log out of social networking sites when visiting other websites. Almost every website these days have a plugin to comment or "Like" via FaceBook or Google, which most people use. End result: Your activity on third party sites can be followed and tracked by your social networking 'partner'.

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