Tuesday, June 24, 2008

GPRS Easy Connect for Ubuntu Hardy Heron

Many members of an Ubuntu Community that I am a member of on Orkut seem to have problems getting their GPRS connections working. Someone found a tool call GPRS Easy Connect which seems to work well for some, especially in India.

This application is quite old and is not undergoing further development. The author, Simon Péter, informed me that he is rewriting the application from scratch but it will only be done around the end of 2008. Also the new version will work perfectly on Ubuntu as this is the distribution he is currently working on. The currently available version was built on Mandriva and requires a few fixes to get working in Ubuntu.

To make life easier for the newer users, I built a .deb package that incorporates these fixes for Ubuntu Hardy Heron. As far as I know, it has worked for at least two people and I thought I'd put it up for download for the benefit of others who would like a simple and easy solution.

The obligatory disclaimer: Use at your own risk!

Download GPRS Easy Connect - gprsec_1.0.1_i386.deb

Sunday, June 08, 2008

The Power of Nightmares

I found this very interesting documentary by Adam Curtis, first aired on BBC in 2004. It analyzes and follows the two sides that seem to dictate the mood of politics of late, internationally and sometimes locally. They are the neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists. You will have to set aside some time to watch these 3 one-hour episodes, but it is well worth it.



Baby Its Cold Outside





The Phantom Victory





The Shadows in the Cave





Thursday, June 05, 2008

Different puppet, same hand?

I have been following U.S. Presidential race quite closely on the candidates' channels on YouTube. I am not much of a T.V. person. Anyway, Barack Obama's videos were always inspiring and gave you that warm fuzzy feeling of hope.

And then today I check my subscriptions and I find this video. It turned out to be the biggest anticlimax of this whole race. After months and months of pointing fingers at other candidates for taking money from the 'special interests', he gives a speech at AIPAC days after clinching the Democratic nomination. Now AIPAC define themselves as 'America's Pro-Israel Lobby'. As soon as I consider this, a big flashing sign lights up in my head, and what does it say? Sellout! Even more so when he says. "I understood the Zionist idea..." Now Zionists and Israelis or Jews are two very different groups of people. Zionists have a clearly laid out political agenda. So don't go and label me an anti-Israelite or anti-Semitic. He further goes on to give a speech that G.W. himself would be proud of.

My head drops and all I can think is "It's a different puppet on the same hand."