TIME flies! Another August 18!

TIME flies! Legend has it that a flight takes off from the Taihoku airport  and crashes down instantly on this date 68 years ago, killing the Indian freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. But what was the reality? Though the plane crash story was categorically denied by the government appointed Mukherjee commission in 2005, our administration is not ready to accept the truth. The various government departments today keep 1000+ secret documents about Bose, 33 of them with the Prime Minister's Office itself, labelled TOP SECRET, SECRET, or CONFIDENTIAL.

We at Mission Netaji have been trying to get them since 2004-05 but every time our request gets turned down by the Home Ministry or External Affairs Ministry stating that if the truth comes out, India's soverignty and relation with foreign countries will be affected. Maybe they are ignorant of the Thomas Mann wordings "A harmful truth is better than a useful lie"! What is the truth in this case, which the government tries to cover up with lies for the last 7 decades? Nothing but the fact that Bose was alive in India, frequently changing residences in Uttar Pradesh, refusing visitors all the time, living the life of an extraordinary sanyasi, at least until 1985. If so, who died in the crash? What made Bose live the rest of his life incognito? Our government knows best. 

Even in today's world, appearing on the cover of the TIME magazine is a big thing. Bose was on the cover of the US edition of TIME 75 years ago with his quote "Britain has ruined India economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually" printed below his colour image. The cover story was titled "Chariot of Freedom". Bose, Britain's enemy number one was described by TIME as "Among the slick, top handful of Congress politicians, most of them obviously enjoying the incense of power and prestige, Subhas Bose stands out." Even today, he stands out from the rest. If we allow him to take rust in the pages of history as an ambitious but failed fighter, posterity will not forgive us for not asking the truth about the cigar chomping holy man of Uttar Pradesh who called himself "Dead Man". Support us in our mission to get to the truth by asking for complete declassification of all documents about Bose. Like Elvis Presley put it "Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away."

Read More

Apple's gimmickry to keep people interested in iOS!

I have been testing the Apple iOS 7 betas on my iPhone 4S from the first release. Save for a few features, the OS has been really disappointing and in no way it shows any serious improvement till date. Hopefully it will gain significantly lesser response time and higer stability before it is released to the public. I still don't know what made Apple think about redesigning their GUI rather than adding valuable features to the existing design. The GUI now looks Android-ish and has become flat (good) but pale and lacklustre too. 

Here are the goods and the bads of iOS 7.

The good

• Calls and messages from unwanted numbers can be blocked.
• FaceTime voice calls can be made.
• Messages show sent and received time when swiped left.
• Control centre introduced.
• Automatic updates to apps.
• Background refresh of apps.
• Any number of apps can be stored in folders.
• Better GUI for the app store app.
• Messages sent from other apps use iMessage only if the other number supports iMessage.

The bad

• Poor stability and slower response.
• Control centre cannot be customised. All people may not have the same preference when it comes to the four apps shown in the control centre.
• Unwanted brightness adjustment slider in control centre. Accidental swipes can change your preferred settings.
• No need for airplane mode in control centre. Accidental tap can kill your network and data reception.
• UI text is awfully thin. It is not easy to read the names of callers.
• Visual representation of weather missing from notification centre.
• Quick post facility to Facebook and Twitter not available in notification centre.
• Unwanted animation delay when waking up the phone.
• Nonsensical indicator for network signal strength. It consumes a lot of real estate in the information dock at the top.

Obviously, the bads overmaster the goods. I am disappointed with iOS 7 beta 6 too (released today morning), and am switching back to the good old iOS 6. Apple will need to break the ground to bring me back to iOS 7. :-)

Read More