I am a big fan of the TV serial “Jhalak Dikhla Jaa” aired on Sony Entertainment Channel. This is a dance competition wherein one celebrity participant is paired with a choreographer of opposite sex to form a pair, or “jodi” as they call it in Hindi. Every “jodi” competes with other 12 pairs to finally win the coveted title. Currently this is Season 4 of the contest and so far eveything seemed to be going well.

However, I have started noticing that the results of this competition look like they are pre-fixed. For example, in the week 5, KRUSHNA was ousted from the competition with a reason that audience votes were lowest for him. On the contrary, SHEKHAR and MAHEE were told that they got more votes from audience. Honestly, I believe this is absolutely false, as KRUSHNA is a better dancer than SHEKHAR and MAHEE both combined together.

Similarly, in current week 6, YANA was ousted with the same reason. On the contrary, RAGINI was in the competition. Even the judges were aghast and indirectly hinted that the results are rigged. YANA is one of the best, sexiest, and sizzling dancers in the competition. Ousting her based on stupid reason of low audience votes clearly indicates that the results are pre-fixed. She is equivalent to 100 SHEKHAR’s and 50 RAGINI’s!!! Still, why is she eliminated?

I want to ask the channel: IS THERE A PROOF OF HOW MANY VOTES WERE RECEIVED FOR EACH CANDIDATE? Why should we trust the channel and the organizers of the show? I want to tell them that they can’t take the audience for granted. I would like to seek attention of appropriate government bodies in exposing and eventually stopping this fooling-around by broadcasters under the name of “audience votes”.

I recently bumped into this fantastic post on LifeHacker: Beef Up Your Password by Memorizing a Few Key Codes, which has opened my eyes towards securing my passwords. In this era of keyloggers, there is an easy way to “trick” these keylogger trojans by using something which already existed since the day Windows was born. It is by using Special Characters, which one can “generate” by using “Alt” key along with numbers.

These characters are less frequently included in brute force or dictionary attacks, which can act as first line of defense for your password against cracking. Many keyloggers would also not be able to log most of the characters from the ASCII code chart, which would render them useless.

If someone tried to guess your password and you have any ASCII character in it, they would need to know the exact key combination for that character before they get anywhere. In a way, the ASCII codes act as a password for your password.

Here is how it works:

When you press Alt + 16 in any text field in Windows, it will create a ? character and pressing Alt + 17 on the num pad gives a ?. Go ahead, open up notepad and try it out or just open the Run dialog and try out any Alt + number combination.

I generally use a single ASCII character at the start and end of the password. So it looks something like ?mypassword?.

A few password examples:

I?newyork (Alt + 3)
?inthehole (Alt + 6)
?tomyears (Alt + 14)

Now you don’t need to memorize the dictionary to pick out most intriguing and difficult word to make lives of the hackers simple. Just pick up any simple word and replace a few characters by the Special Characters, and bang! Your password is at least 4 levels difficult to guess!

Show the world that you’re a geek too. Now it does not call for exclusive knowledge of technology and certainly no expertise required. To prove to the world that you indeed are in line with the latest tech happenings, all you can do is to spend a bit and get one / more of these high-tech gadgets to gift to someone you love / want to impress…

1. Apple TV (my personal favourite too!)
Price: $99

You will also get access to Netflix’s endless catalogue of streaming shows and movies, wirelessly stream music, movies and photos from iTunes, etc. etc. Do you care for more??

2. Kodak PlayTouch Pocket Camcorder
Price: $230

Pocket video camera is now on the verge of extinction, with higher versions waking in for convergence of multiple devices and formats… But even them, the Kodak PlayTouch camcorder stands apart from the crowd. The touchscreen video camcorder shoots in 1080p HD, snaps 5-megapixel still photos and features in-camera video editing. And, it does not require a mandatory contract!!

3. Samsung BD-C8000 Portable 3D Blu-ray Player
Price: $500

Arguably, the world’s first portable 3D Blu-ray player is up for grab (but mind it, it is 3D as long as you plug it into a 3D TV).

4. Livescribe Echo Smartpen
Price: $170 for 4 GB; $200 for 8 GB

Sure, we loved previous generations of Livescribe’s Pulse Smartpen, but the device, which records audio and time-codes it to your written notes, had its problems. First, it needed proprietary earphones. And second, it rolled around just like any other pen, making it difficult to record audio. The new Livescribe Echo Smartpen uses a standard audio jack, opening up a whole world of earphones and mics. Plus, it has a no-roll design and a more intuitive menu system and user interface.

— To be concluded…

[Source: Times of India report] Haryana health minister Geeta Bhukkal shouldn’t be going all the way to Kerala to figure out the dipping sex ratio problem in her state. The solution is right here at home – right here in the Haryana village. A small village – Chang (Bhiwani) – in Haryana is slowly but effectively reversing the shameful trend that could serve as a model for the entire state. And it is not because of the government, but the collective effort of the residents of this village have accomplished. It is quite a shame that the state sponsored incentive schemes have failed to achieve, what the village have accomplished.

The sex ratio in Chang has been defying the numbers that have put Haryana at a shameful spot. In fact, in the last two years, the girl-boy sex ratio in this village has beaten almost all the major districts of the state. The sex ratio was about 750:1000 in 2008. The trend started improving and became 899:1000 in 2009. The village turned the tables in favour of the girl child in 2010. Against 60 male children born in 2010 till November, the number of girls born was 68. The ratio was 1066:1000 in 2010.

The village, located 12 km from Bhiwani, has an active Sakshar Mahila Samooh (SMS) a group that work towards the social and economic betterment of women. While farming is the main sources of livelihood for people of upper caste communities like Rajputs and Jats, the landless scheduled and backward communities are daily wagers or are earning their livelihood from smalltime ventures in the village.

I am happy that the girls would not face eviction in farther villages on India. It is a shameful fact that many villages in India still believe that girls are a bane for the society; if a girl child is born, they tend to destroy the feutus; they still feel that boys will continue their famility tree than girls; hence less girls are born than boys. But they forget the basic fact that girls are equally necessary as boys to extend families. There must be a balance between girls and boys. Hats off to the Chang village. They have set a very worthy example for villages in rest of the country.

I am sure that now the British should stop underestimating the Indians… The Indians have, time and again, proven to the world, especially to the US & UK, that they are nowhere falling behind in the competition. We, the Indians, have proven that we are among the best of the breed and hence the top countries of the world better take us seriously.

Well, lets not digress. Until a few years ago, it was quite common that Indians were frisked more often and rigorously at UK airports, whereas the Brits were allowed to pass after little or sometimes no frisking. Well, it may not exactly be humuliating, but it definitely hurts to all those who are true Indians. It hurt me as well when I was frisked but my Brit counterparts were allowed to pass on with just a meagre check! Well it was 3 years ago. But when yesterday’s situation was much more than welcome. It wa, in fact, a pleasant ‘change of hearts’ for the Brits…

Well it so happened that day before yesterday when I was returning to Mumbai from London, I was standing in the queue at London Immigration. There was a Brit standing in front of me. As per the procedure, the UK Border Agency asks the patrons to remove their shoes, belts, watch, etc. I felt this is quite humiliating because we in India never ask people to remove their belts!! Anyway, I was mentally prepared that I have to remove my belts and everything in front of this Brit lady… It was the turn of the Brit man (in front of me) and he asked the lady whether he needs to remove his shoes. The lady told him it is not required and he simply moved ahead, but the lady asked me to remove my shoes & belt! How humiliating, I felt. But you really can’t mess up with the Brits, especially at the Airport!!

I was feeling bad, but when I was waiting for my turn for security body check, what I noticed was that the officers were thoroughly checking the Brit man – literally. The officer was checking each and every part of this man’s body (except his private parts of course) by his hands, and then another round of strict detailed checking by handheld metal detector. What’s so strange, you may ask. What was different was coming ahead. When finally my turn came, I went ahead and stopped in front of this officer ready for security check. But to my surprise the officer told me to move on, without frisking!! I was shocked, surprised, and yet felt so glad… Finally the Brits have come to terms with the fact that Indians are no less than them! Hats off to all the Indians…