"Babies aren't adults and must take responsibility for their own behaviour. Howling simply isn't acceptable behaviour and constitutes a public nuisance," said the spokesman, and added that the ordinance would make babies howling in public a criminal offence punishable up to 3 years in prison. Asked whether parents would serve the sentence, the Papa Hari spokesman said, "Of course not. The babies are responsible for the howling and so these irresponsible babies would serve the sentence in a specially constructed prison."
While many neighbours of newly weds and expecting parents welcomed the ban, most young parents expressed shock and outrage at the new ordinance. "This simply shows how little the government knows about babies." When an anonymous baby was asked for his opinion on the ordinance, he screamed, "WAAAAAAAAH... WAAAAAAH... WAAAAAAAAHHHH..." in an increasing pitch of voice which was rightly interpreted as "howling is my birthright and I shall have it."
Many parents organized protest meets all over the world where their babies indulged in howling sessions as a mark of protest against the ordinance. "If an adult can howl and get away with it, why cannot a baby?" asked a senior lawyer who wished to remain anonymous, "There's simply no provision in Law which bans howling by adults. Does this mean that it's all right for adults to howl and not all right for babies to?"
When the Papa Hari Government spokesman was asked about the anomaly in Law which allows adults to howl as much as they wished, he said that a special committee had been appointed to look into the matter and submit a report in six months. "The committee will take every aspect of the Law into consideration and will study the impact of howling adults in the public domain. The reason is that there might be a reason for an adult to howl in a given circumstance or situation, but there can be absolutely no reason for a baby to do so. Hence there is no conflict with relation to babies howling. That is why it's now a criminal offence."
Many medical professionals including paediatricians said that howling helped babies to develop their lungs and throat and that if prevented from doing so would impair their overall development. "Will the Papa Hari World Government take the responsibility for a new generation of adults with weakened lungs and immune systems as a result of this ban?"
Babies rights activists all over the world dressed up in baby suits and held protest marches, howling and screaming like babies. "The reason why babies are discriminated against is their gross under-representation in the World Parliament. We seek a reservation quota of 79.99% for babies in the House of Representatives to correct this gross injustice. Babies rule the world and babies are the future! We want to bust the Baby Care Products mafia which is behind this move!" screamed a protester. When asked to explain the percentage of quota demanded he said that the figure of 80% would sound a very high proportion and that 79.99% was probably enough to satisfy the needs of social justice. "WAAAAAAAAAAHH... YOOOOOOOUUUUUUWWWWWW...." he added.
In other news, the Papa Hari Baby Care Products, Inc. was doing roaring business with its newly launched PacifierPro™ product as desperate parents picked them up from stores to prevent their babies howling. When the Papa Hari government spokesman was asked whether the ban had something to do with the product launch, he categorically denied it saying that the Papa Hari World Government was in no way associated with the Papa Hari Baby Care Products, Inc.
"This move is purely out of concern for the environment and the increasing levels of noise pollution," said the spokesman. "If any business profits due to this legislation, that is purely incidental." In the meantime the stock of several Baby Care Product companies soared sky high.
Picture taken and adapted from: bbc.co.uk Hari's Corner
Humour, comics, tech, law, software, reviews, essays, articles and HOWTOs intermingled with random philosophy now and thenBabies banned from howling
Filed under:
Humour and Nonsense by
Hari
Posted on Sun, May 25, 2008 at 13:02 IST (last updated: Fri, Jun 8, 2012 @ 19:56 IST)
Papa Hari News Service
Taking a strong stance against increasing noise pollution caused by human activity, the Papa Hari World Government today issued an ordinance banning babies from howling in public. A Papa Hari Government spokesman told press reporters that the ban would criminalize the offence of howling.
"Babies aren't adults and must take responsibility for their own behaviour. Howling simply isn't acceptable behaviour and constitutes a public nuisance," said the spokesman, and added that the ordinance would make babies howling in public a criminal offence punishable up to 3 years in prison. Asked whether parents would serve the sentence, the Papa Hari spokesman said, "Of course not. The babies are responsible for the howling and so these irresponsible babies would serve the sentence in a specially constructed prison."
While many neighbours of newly weds and expecting parents welcomed the ban, most young parents expressed shock and outrage at the new ordinance. "This simply shows how little the government knows about babies." When an anonymous baby was asked for his opinion on the ordinance, he screamed, "WAAAAAAAAH... WAAAAAAH... WAAAAAAAAHHHH..." in an increasing pitch of voice which was rightly interpreted as "howling is my birthright and I shall have it."
Many parents organized protest meets all over the world where their babies indulged in howling sessions as a mark of protest against the ordinance. "If an adult can howl and get away with it, why cannot a baby?" asked a senior lawyer who wished to remain anonymous, "There's simply no provision in Law which bans howling by adults. Does this mean that it's all right for adults to howl and not all right for babies to?"
When the Papa Hari Government spokesman was asked about the anomaly in Law which allows adults to howl as much as they wished, he said that a special committee had been appointed to look into the matter and submit a report in six months. "The committee will take every aspect of the Law into consideration and will study the impact of howling adults in the public domain. The reason is that there might be a reason for an adult to howl in a given circumstance or situation, but there can be absolutely no reason for a baby to do so. Hence there is no conflict with relation to babies howling. That is why it's now a criminal offence."
Many medical professionals including paediatricians said that howling helped babies to develop their lungs and throat and that if prevented from doing so would impair their overall development. "Will the Papa Hari World Government take the responsibility for a new generation of adults with weakened lungs and immune systems as a result of this ban?"
Babies rights activists all over the world dressed up in baby suits and held protest marches, howling and screaming like babies. "The reason why babies are discriminated against is their gross under-representation in the World Parliament. We seek a reservation quota of 79.99% for babies in the House of Representatives to correct this gross injustice. Babies rule the world and babies are the future! We want to bust the Baby Care Products mafia which is behind this move!" screamed a protester. When asked to explain the percentage of quota demanded he said that the figure of 80% would sound a very high proportion and that 79.99% was probably enough to satisfy the needs of social justice. "WAAAAAAAAAAHH... YOOOOOOOUUUUUUWWWWWW...." he added.
In other news, the Papa Hari Baby Care Products, Inc. was doing roaring business with its newly launched PacifierPro™ product as desperate parents picked them up from stores to prevent their babies howling. When the Papa Hari government spokesman was asked whether the ban had something to do with the product launch, he categorically denied it saying that the Papa Hari World Government was in no way associated with the Papa Hari Baby Care Products, Inc.
"This move is purely out of concern for the environment and the increasing levels of noise pollution," said the spokesman. "If any business profits due to this legislation, that is purely incidental." In the meantime the stock of several Baby Care Product companies soared sky high.
Picture taken and adapted from: bbc.co.uk
"Babies aren't adults and must take responsibility for their own behaviour. Howling simply isn't acceptable behaviour and constitutes a public nuisance," said the spokesman, and added that the ordinance would make babies howling in public a criminal offence punishable up to 3 years in prison. Asked whether parents would serve the sentence, the Papa Hari spokesman said, "Of course not. The babies are responsible for the howling and so these irresponsible babies would serve the sentence in a specially constructed prison."
While many neighbours of newly weds and expecting parents welcomed the ban, most young parents expressed shock and outrage at the new ordinance. "This simply shows how little the government knows about babies." When an anonymous baby was asked for his opinion on the ordinance, he screamed, "WAAAAAAAAH... WAAAAAAH... WAAAAAAAAHHHH..." in an increasing pitch of voice which was rightly interpreted as "howling is my birthright and I shall have it."
Many parents organized protest meets all over the world where their babies indulged in howling sessions as a mark of protest against the ordinance. "If an adult can howl and get away with it, why cannot a baby?" asked a senior lawyer who wished to remain anonymous, "There's simply no provision in Law which bans howling by adults. Does this mean that it's all right for adults to howl and not all right for babies to?"
When the Papa Hari Government spokesman was asked about the anomaly in Law which allows adults to howl as much as they wished, he said that a special committee had been appointed to look into the matter and submit a report in six months. "The committee will take every aspect of the Law into consideration and will study the impact of howling adults in the public domain. The reason is that there might be a reason for an adult to howl in a given circumstance or situation, but there can be absolutely no reason for a baby to do so. Hence there is no conflict with relation to babies howling. That is why it's now a criminal offence."
Many medical professionals including paediatricians said that howling helped babies to develop their lungs and throat and that if prevented from doing so would impair their overall development. "Will the Papa Hari World Government take the responsibility for a new generation of adults with weakened lungs and immune systems as a result of this ban?"
Babies rights activists all over the world dressed up in baby suits and held protest marches, howling and screaming like babies. "The reason why babies are discriminated against is their gross under-representation in the World Parliament. We seek a reservation quota of 79.99% for babies in the House of Representatives to correct this gross injustice. Babies rule the world and babies are the future! We want to bust the Baby Care Products mafia which is behind this move!" screamed a protester. When asked to explain the percentage of quota demanded he said that the figure of 80% would sound a very high proportion and that 79.99% was probably enough to satisfy the needs of social justice. "WAAAAAAAAAAHH... YOOOOOOOUUUUUUWWWWWW...." he added.
In other news, the Papa Hari Baby Care Products, Inc. was doing roaring business with its newly launched PacifierPro™ product as desperate parents picked them up from stores to prevent their babies howling. When the Papa Hari government spokesman was asked whether the ban had something to do with the product launch, he categorically denied it saying that the Papa Hari World Government was in no way associated with the Papa Hari Baby Care Products, Inc.
"This move is purely out of concern for the environment and the increasing levels of noise pollution," said the spokesman. "If any business profits due to this legislation, that is purely incidental." In the meantime the stock of several Baby Care Product companies soared sky high.
Picture taken and adapted from: bbc.co.uk Boxi and Panjo - Party Food
Filed under:
Boxi and Panjo comic by
Hari
Posted on Thu, May 22, 2008 at 23:00 IST (last updated: Thu, May 7, 2009 @ 20:55 IST)
Hope you enjoy seeing the food as much as I enjoyed drawing it 
I know it's been a while since my last cartoon. 
I know it's been a while since my last cartoon. Getting the WizardPen driver working on the new Xorg 1.4 on Debian
Filed under:
Tutorials and HOWTOs by
Hari
Posted on Wed, May 21, 2008 at 10:30 IST (last updated: Sat, Nov 1, 2008 @ 09:15 IST)
My graphics tablet iBall WP5540 stopped working after an Xorg update to 1.4 on Debian testing. Everybody knows how much the Xorg updates can screw up the base system of any Linux distribution.
The older driver of the WizardPen driver (0.5) simply does not work with the latest Xorg because of several changes to the underlying system. Here's how you have to get the new driver to work. These steps worked for me, but might not necessarily work for you.
Modify the
I found out by painful trial and error that the button mappings of the graphics pen is screwed up if you also specify the mouse explicitly in xorg. By commenting out the default configured mouse in the
Download the latest WizardPen driver
You can find the new WizardPen driver source package to download here: http://specificcrap.arbitrarycrap.com/ Extract the source code into a directory. Install thexorg-dev package using (as root)
You might also needapt-get install xorg-dev
pkg-config for successfully compiling the driver:
apt-get install pkg-config
Compile the driver
From the source directory of the driver, issue the usual commands:Now instead of issuing./configure make
make install which would not install in the correct location in Debian, copy the compiled driver file wizardpen_drv.so (found inside the directory src/.lib) to the Xorg module directory (/usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/ in Debian). From the driver source directory issue the command (as root)
cp src/.lib/wizardpen_drv.so /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/
Modify the xorg.conf file
I found out by painful trial and error that the button mappings of the graphics pen is screwed up if you also specify the mouse explicitly in xorg. By commenting out the default configured mouse in the ServerLayout section, everything works fine. Even the mouse works without having to specify it explicitly. I think it's something to do with the new hotplugging mechanism of Xorg, but I haven't found out exactly why this should be so.
Here's my working xorg.conf file for the driver on my HP dv6314 laptop. Only the relevant sections are shown/highlighted.
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
# InputDevice "Configured Mouse" # Note that this is commented out - mouse still works!
# InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
InputDevice "WizardPen Tablet"
EndSection
...
...
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "WizardPen Tablet"
Driver "wizardpen"
Option "Name" "UC-LOGIC Tablet WP5540U"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true" # This is very important otherwise the pen won't respond
Option "TopX" "0"
Option "TopY" "0"
Option "BottomX" "32739"
Option "BottomY" "32745"
Option "MaxX" "32739"
Option "MaxY" "32745"
EndSection
...
...TopX, TopY, BottomX and BottomY values are decided by running the calibrate utility found within the same wizardpen driver source. The values specified above should work for an ordinary 5.5"x4" tablet.
Note that you no longer need to specify the USB tablet event device (as created by udev) in xorg.conf as the WizardPen driver automatically detects it for you.
You don't have to tell me: Xorg updates are hell when you use third-party drivers. Flaky 64-bit support for commercial applications?
Filed under:
Software and Technology by
Hari
Posted on Sat, May 17, 2008 at 09:35 IST (last updated: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 @ 22:19 IST)
I'm truly shocked that a quite a few commercial software, including games, still do not offer native 64-bit versions. 64-bit systems have been around for a few years now. I'm not going to debate the pros and cons of x86-64 and AMD64 as opposed to the older x86 architecture as you simply cannot buy a new 32-bit processor or assemble 32-bit computers any more. While I can understand the need for backward compatibility, the norm should be 64-bit, not 32-bit support. Why is it so difficult for commercial vendors to provide two versions of their products: one compiled for 32-bit and the other with enhanced 64-bit support when a majority of Free Software/Open Source applications provide native support for both architectures?
I think that it's time for paying customers to demand native 64-bit support for software and not just flaky backward compatibility. It's not just a case of usability. 32-bit applications can still work with 64-bit processors. Indeed, 64-bit Windows Vista does provide an emulation layer for legacy Win32 executables, but most of these applications run considerably slower and, besides, are not exactly stable under the new environment. While it's fine for older applications, it's not acceptable when a product released in 2008 continues to target only x86 support.
I don't know the technicalities of 32 or 64-bit architectures, not being a system programmer. Probably the best way to judge it is by application performance in my own experience. And I've found that Windows applications that run in 32-bit mode simply do not use the full capabilities of the processor and tend to run perceptibly slower. This is especially the case with games where every bit of performance is absolutely critical for fast-paced animation. It's ludicrous that even commercial games don't take full advantage of new hardware capabilities when they should be the first to do so.
Having forced customers to upgrade to newer and better hardware over a period of time, it's ridiculous that software developers don't consider the market big enough to provide native support for that hardware. 
Critical comments
Filed under:
Internet and Blogging by
Hari
Posted on Tue, May 13, 2008 at 11:38 IST (last updated: Wed, Jul 16, 2008 @ 20:16 IST)
If I analyze my own views over a period of time, I can only find a single common thread to connect my ideas: anti-establishment. Those who've read my blog over any length of time will probably detect this subtle (sometimes not so subtle) trend in my writings.
It's not as though I'm anti-establishment for the sake of being a rebel. But the way I'm made, I have a strong sense of what's right and what's wrong and from what I can perceive, most of the time the "establishment" (whatever that means in a certain context) is more often wrong than right. I just cannot help this feeling. When I say establishment, it can mean an organization, government or more often than not, merely what has been generally accepted by society; even an ideology or a thought process.
This kind of thinking often gets me annoyed easily. Often I cannot just accept something because it's the norm. Many of my blogging friends might have noticed that I sometimes comment critically on their articles. But I don't go out of my way to be rude or unfriendly. It just happens that I disagree. Even then I try my best not to express myself unless I have a strong urge to do so. I even resist this urge on many occasions. This is because I am fully aware that my own views on a particular subject can irritate others as much as their views can irritate me.
More often than not, I just want to mind my own business. I actually don't care much about other people's opinions or views. It's just that at times, something rubs me the wrong way and I feel the need to get my views straight on the topic. So if you ever see a critical comment from me on your blog, you'll know that it's not intended to personally offend.
Don't Fall for Marketing Gimmicks by Papa Hari
Filed under:
Humour and Nonsense by
Hari
Posted on Tue, May 6, 2008 at 16:53 IST (last updated: Tue, May 6, 2008 @ 17:30 IST)
"Papa Hari talks at length about the ways in which unscrupulous marketers push their products to the unsuspecting public! A definite must-read, if only to understand how such books sell in the first place!!" -- Anonymous Reader
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