Thursday, February 18, 2021

An Awesome Name


 

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

A Lunatic/Idiot requires PAN details correction

A permanent option in the PAN details correction form is "Lunatic/Idiot" in the DSC dropdown. Who in NSDL allowed this?
 


Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Continuous education



Thursday, January 28, 2021

Good(?) Business Name

 Name(s) I wouldn't give to a Dental clinic: Ekadantam (One tusktooth 😄)



Thursday, April 02, 2020

Buying on Amazon


Recently, when researching about electric bikes in India, I searched for a bike brand on Google Search, trying to find reviews. And, this shows up - an Amazon ad.

  

Immediate reaction: "Seems like Amazon has sponsored links for all products. Who would sell bikes on Amazon?". 
Nevertheless , I clicked the sponsored link, just to see what shows up, and  I sure was surprised! It was actually possible to buy the bike on Amazon, take the receipt to the dealer, and drive home a brand new electric bike.



Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Central Government proposes SI unit to measure intolerance



The Central government today announced a significant move concerning the "rising intolerance" in India. It had earlier this month, instructed the Humanities department in the Indian Institute of Science to  identify a metric of intolerance which could then be taken to Système International d'Unités (SI) I for ratification. After discussions with science departments in the Institute, the department has proposed the "intoleron" as the new name for this unit -  1 intoleron being once instance of intolerance not exceeding 10 words of verbal/written expression of intolerance.

The unit has already been submitted to SI which will take into consideration recent events in Europe (such as the refugee crisis) and Americas to decide if the base definition should be modified. The 'intoleron' will be a quantized unit, and the SI will issue a reference scale mapping other acts of intolerance (such as tripping up refugees) to intolerons. In order to prevent incorrect measurement due to differences in languages, each intoleron must have a language qualifier without which, it is a meaningless quantity.

For example, schadenfreude would be 1 German intoleron and also equivalent to 1 English intoleron because the meaning can be expressed in only 8 words. Schadenfreude is the "pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune."

A spokesperson for the Government said that the unit was necessary because news channels had started  to provide highly conflicting scales of intolerance in the country causing significant confusion due to which the Government was unable to decide the scale of action to initiate. Having a standard unit will allow the Government to gauge the exact magnitude of the issue and act accordingly.

-Bureau reports



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

IRCTC to use whatsapp for services

IRCTC announced today that they intend to use popular instant messaging tool Whatsapp for various services.  They intend to provide value added services on Whatsapp & use plain old vanilla SMS for customers who explicitly mention that they do not use whatsapp.

Users can add 1800-00- IRCTC to their contacts to interact with a bot that provides multiple services including ticket reservation, cancellation, PNR enquiry,  purchase on IRCTC shopping etc.  Customers have to use specific mnemonics to avail of each service.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Modi expands cabinet, starts Ministry of General Knowledge


Almost immediately after his swearing in as the 15th Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi decided to expand his cabinet. The cabinet unanimously agreed to open up a new Ministry of General Knowledge, a first in the 67 years of independent India. Sonam Kapoor and Alia Bhat have been asked to take oath as the joint Ministers of State to handle the ministry.

Both women expressed surprise at the creation of such a ministry, however they also felt that it was not surprising that they were chosen to be ministers. They were quite confident that after the answers that they gave in the poular TV show Koffee with Karan, they were obvious choices to head the ministry.

Alia said that she is consulting her family and close friends on identifying a good day for the swearing in ceremony. Sonam Kapoor has said that she will take oath anytime after returning from Cannes. She said that she would have liked to be Cabinet Minister, but was elated nevertheless at the honour and opportunity she had been presented with.

Varun Dhawan was reported to be extremely disappointed at not being made part of the Cabinet.