Letter to the President of INDIA

I am pasting here the letter i sent to the following e-mail address
ask@incometaxindia.gov.in and cc-ed to presidentofindia@rb.nic.in

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The Honorable President of the Republic of INDIA and officials of the IT Dept .of INDIA,


I am a citizen of INDIA with a valid PAN and wanted to submit my returns in electronic form

But the preparation software is available only in Microsoft Excel form and being a GNU/Linux user and not being able to afford Microsoft Products; i am unable to use this facility

It is a matter of utter shame that in a country whose father of nation is Mahatma Gandhi ;a man who stood for the freedom unto his death that you do not provide a Open Source /FOSS friendly utility

Shame on the Income Tax Department and the IT heads who made the software choice.What do you people think - that i have to buy a Microsoft corporation product just for filing my Income tax returns . You know it - I do a shit and with the fundamental rights i have as a citizen of INDIA ; and with the "Right to Information " about which you have so elaborated on your website ( http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/ccit/rtipage.asp ) ; i demand the source code of the application that prepares my returns for e-filing!!

Please try to use Open Document Spreadsheet ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument ) and i demand the implementation of e-filing in an Open Document at the earliest possible time

Can you crap people provide it

NB: All use of abusive language is to provide you with the feeling of utter frustration that i have felt .Also the contents of this email have been publicized in my blog.So dont think you can keep your eyes shut on this very important matter



So fucked up!
--
Anoop P Alias (PGP Key ID : 0x014F9953)
http://GnuSys.net
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Amooma tagged me!

Now for the ignorant a tag in the context of blogging is something which helps to progress the number of posts you have by almost acting like a chain mail.You tag someone..they have to write 5 things about them ....tag 5 others (excluding the one who tagged you!).It is also a link building activity which helps to get more readership and website rating as you provide cross links for the readers and the machine!(search engines)

SO Here's me in 5

1.Eventhough ..i sometimes try to hide it..the oppsite sex(females) mean a lot to me.well to be short..i cant say NO to a women

2.The second trait of my character that i always try to hide and wish i could get rid off is my ego...my brains first instinct is not to take any ones advise and try all means to bring up something by which i dont have to be someone taking up or walking in others paths

3. I am a imperfect perfectionist!. I want things all to be perfect in an easy way and never try to make things out in a way that it will look perfect for me.I simply imagine others making things perfect for me ..which never happens

4.I am impatient.If i am said you will get a new XYZ thing tomorrow ..i wont sleep tonight until i get it and my sole thought till that moment will be that thing alone

5.I dont know how to be/behave in a community !


The last one just got me excused to pass over this tag to anyone else.

I dont have anyone else to tag !.......Everything that has a beginning has an end.The tag tree just got a dead end here

GnuSys -System Administration blog release

Hello readers, today i released my system administration related technical blog

http://gnusys.net


Hope this will come as a handy help tool to the sysadmin community


Feel free to have a peek and drop in your comments.

Just Another prison movie..or is it?

Now this is about shawshank redemption, a very good movie which had very good reviews and which i was waiting to watch..finally i was able to get hold of the video yesterday and i started watching it..no way aware of the story.

Usually 2 things happen when you try to watch a movie which has very good reviews; Either it falls below your expectations as the reviewers are just opposite minded people Or the film lives upto your expectations. As for shawshank redemption i was expecting high from the movie because of the review..and when the story progressed..i had a weired feeling in my heart that this is gonna fall below my expectations. A good prison movie...The narrative style was good ..other than that i could not find anything better in this IMBD 8+ rated movie . But to my surprise there was the twist when Andy escapes from prison!. And yes the slow realistic movie has a twist ,a suspense a fantasy all in a sudden. I am sure this is why it has such a good fan following worldwide. The twist!...and the sudden realization that this is not at all a bleak prison movie.. but as the tag line says
"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free " - yes indeed a great tale of Hope. And you can really feel the impact when Morgan Freeman narrates .. " I thought it would take 600 years for anyone to dig up a hole with that hammer and it took only 16 years for Andy to get it done"

Yes thats the spirit and it is that spirit that makes the movie beautiful .

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) by Frank Darabont

Must watch rating by Me :)

Why credit card is better than a debit card

For those people who are afraid to use a credit card and is fine using other modes
of payment like hard cash,debit cards,cheques,demand draft etc. Please read through my story below

It all started with me deciding to purchase product X from rediff shopping. I already had an account with rediff shopping and had brought a book from there 2 months back. This time it was a costly product and the product had to be shipped to a different address. I filled out everything and just before the last step found the shipping address had a mistake. Since Rediff was the least user friendly ,i could not find out how to change the address. After some navigations i finally reached the address page again ,corrected the info ..proceeded to checkout (rediff is very bad in this as it does not show my shopping cart before checkout!) and finally got the item purchased.

The problem was that my cart had 2 times X and i got 2 SMS confirming that X was purchased. oops since it was the first time i had such an experience,i didnt know what to do.I immediatly called up ICICI bank and asked them if tehy could cancel the transaction .But they told me that they cannot do that and i have to talk to the merchant (Rediff)

But from the time of purchase i had some advantages like

1. rediff needs to confirm my credit card authenticity before they could ship the item as it is a high value transaction .

2. A person from rediff called me up and i could explain the situation and he immediately canceled up one oder.

3. The merchant did not have the item in stock .so rediff has to reverse my oder.

Now since it was a credit card .all these time i did not lose any money and the only problem for me was that the credit limit has been decreased and the amount for which i made my purchase was locked in my credit card

Only when the merchant acquires my money would the CC be actually charged. Isnt that wonderful...I mean if i had used my debit card..there would be no way for rediff to give me back my money and according to their FAQ ,they would send me a gift vouchure for the amount i canceled and i can redeem the money by making purchases in rediff

So in a credit card transaction,the interests of the buyer and the seller both are protected. And with making transactions with stores like rediff who doesn't even provide a good email support leave alone phone support using a credit card is the best option available as there is no immediate loss of money !

Please find below a journal on how a credit card works
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card

Destiny .........

I was writing the Computer graphics supplementary exam and to be frank i havent even had a brief brush up over the subject due to various reasons of craps!.Somehow my mind was in an enlightened mode in the exam hall and to my astonishment i had written for about 30 marks and had enough ideas to write 3-4 pages more.This is against my last years attempt when i sat for about 15 minutes in the exam hall and was finding it hard to even make out words for filling in the answer sheet

But this year the villain was destiny. I had asked my colleuge and college junior Abhilash to give me a ring when his exam is over and he faithfully rang me up causing an embarrassment to the whole exam hall.Times have changed and now the exams are stricter ( or is it a mockery!).The invigilator immediately asked me to leave the exam hall without finishing the exam. Now if it was a freshman ..just out of college ..he would have pleaded to let him write the exam with albeit a lott of Please Sir...Please Sir............But a person who have seen a lott of supplementary exams and who is practically fed up with this whole shit...would always react differently..and would do just what i did!...immediatly getting out of the room without any sort of pleadings.

I even had to write a signed explanation and strike out whatever i had written and my exam stands cancelled. So in the end it was waste of around 600 rupees and advancement of 1 more step to my NFT!

But hey i was back in my college and was once more in my grey-whte uniform.

This time instead of the usual nostalgia...........it was more like an alienated feeling.......I am no longer someone of College of Engineering Adoor.........I could sense that..........

There was no more fresh memories of my class ,when i was in front of our classroom.....and i am least exited about the reunion being planned by some of my friends.

I even have started forgetting names of my classmates...

And i am sure i will not have the privilege to attend any college anywhere in my future life...
Maybe there is a small chance that i will have the nostalgia onc again in the next supply chance.
Maybe i will be a member of one more classroom!. Afterall..........no one can predict a mans destiny!

My first credit card

After a long wait ,i finally got my first credit card and yes it was from the person where i got rejected first - ICICI BANK

Indias largest credit card provider- Only after one month getting the SMS of card being rejected and letting me know i can apply again only after 6 months !.........shit crap..or else should i be happy about this..maybe yes...........because I have marked myself in the world of banking and credit card by being a credit card user.The rule is that the 1st credit card is the toughest to get ..and after this you can get any credit card on the basis of your credit card statements ;)

So in the end who was cheated - Me (the customer) ,who got his card rejected and had to wait one fine month for getting the card ,apparently from an application forwarded by the bank itself!(I wonder where they got my willingness to accept the Terms and Conditions!) OR the Direct Selling Agent (DSA) who boiled his petrol,wasted his valuable time and filled all details for me ,eventually (I am not sure about this!) getting the reffered client rejected and losing his profit

Well maybe i should not care about such stuff.

All i wanted to confirm is that i can own a credit card and none of family members are listed in the entirely stupid database called CIBIL and yes i stand clean :)

The following picture contains confidential information ,requiring modifications in some parts which may hamper visibility;I apologize for the inconvenience :)