If any unmarried couple of the right legal age “indulge in sexual gratification,” this will be considered a valid marriage and they could be termed “husband and wife,” the Madras High Court has ruled in a judgment

Yet another example that proves that just because you have a law degree, doesn’t make you smart. I wonder if Justice C.S. Karnan has thought this decision all the way through. I hope his ruling has an exception for swingers and orgies.

The court further said if necessary either party to a relationship could approach a Family Court for a declaration of marital status by supplying documentary proof for a sexual relationship

I wonder what would count as a proof… MMS video? ;)

The court said marriage formalities as per various religious customs such as the tying of a mangalsutra, the exchange of garlands and rings or the registering of a marriage were only to comply with religious customs for the satisfaction of society.

Welcome to India, where love, mangalsutra/wedding ring, religious ceremony doesn’t count towards a marriage. Sex does.

Jarrod Kimber on Australia’s culture problem. The Aussie team have so many issues, and its not just with one player. Going through the article one can see at-least 10 players, with several players showing up more than once. 

So to sum up: you have 10 players, with more than one player screwing up multiple times and happening at the Test, ODI and First-Class level. That is a problem with the entire cricketing setup not with just one team.

Blame the captain/coach/cricket administration for screwing up so bad. Michael Clarke, Mickey Arthur, you have a massive up-hill climb in front of you. 

Some interesting tidbits in the article aoout the National Cyber Coordination Centre (What a ridiculous name, let’s co-ordinate some “Cyber” shall we!)

“The NCCC will collect, integrate and scan [Internet] traffic data from different gateway routers of major ISPs at a centralised location for analysis, international gateway traffic and domestic traffic will be aggregated separately … The NCCC will facilitate real-time assessment of cyber security threats in the country and generate actionable reports/alerts for proactive actions by the concerned agencies,” says a secret government note

 The NCCC would be in virtual contact with the control room of all ISPs to scan traffic within the country, flowing at the point of entry and exit, including international gateway, they added.

Hello VPNs, and Industrial Espinoage!

Apart from monitoring the Internet, the NCCC would look into various threats posed by cyber attacks. “In recent months, we have seen growing cases of computer networks of government departments and organisations coming under cyber attacks. We have seen foreign spy agencies and hackers trying to get sensitive government data or hack important websites. For instance, hackers defaced CBI website and attempts were made to break into Indian Railways website. The NCCC would address these shortcomings,” said a senior government official.

No you idiots, you don’t need an eavesdropping solution for that. For that you need qualified and competent developers who can develop secure websites. The websites of the CBI, NIC etc were badly developed with a lot of security holes. You want to prevent people from breaking in? Build better, stronger doors; don’t put an entire police station outside your house. Using the NCCC to prevent hacking attempts is treating the symptom not the disease.

But the best, and the funniest was this (emphasis is mine):

All top government spy and technical agencies will be part of the NCCC that would be set up at a cost of around Rs. 1,000 crore. “The proposed cyber security architecture envisages setting up a National Cyber Coordination Centre [NCCC] which would be a multi-agency body under Department of Electronics and IT,” says the note.

Are you freaking kidding me!? When has India been able to pull off such a large project like this without endless amounts of bribery, corruption and endless screwups? I imagine the project will end up costing 10 times the 1,000 Crore budget, just like the Commonwealth games that we executed to splendidly.

This is a bad idea, and will be poorly executed.

Remember Apple won’t be making changes just because something’s in fashion now.

The thing to focus on — now, during the anticipatory lull, and tomorrow, once we have the actual design before us — is not merely what it looks like. The quote I keep coming back to is this classic from Steve Jobs, 10 years ago: “Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Changes will be made because it makes the product better.

The primary problem Apple faced with the iPhone in 2007 was building familiarity with a new way of using computers. That problem has now been solved. It is time to solve new problems. The training wheels can now come off

These are hilarious. 

Denny’s: because its 2 am, you’re drunk, and you need pancakes.

Google: You know we’re just a step away from creating Skynet.

More slogans, click through

Debarghya Das hacked into ICSE system and pulled school exam results for over 140,000 students. It was easy to hack in. Actually, I wouldn’t even call it a hack.. it was too easy since they have no security whatsoever! You can issue a POST request to their servers with the student’s ID number and fetch the results! Most of the work was writing the scripts to fetch the incredible amount of data, great work there with the Map-reduce model!

What he found after doing some statistical analysis was incredible.

The grades for every language stack up exactly the same, the graphs line up. Surely this can’t be a coincidence?

The overall marks graph look too similar as well

There is definitely some type of rigging/fixing/adjusting going on. Whatever you call it. 

the funnel was 1.3 miles wide at its peak — and the its strength — peak winds reached 210 miles per hour

Insane! Take a look at the funnel in the video.

There are some very useful observations and tips in here. Here are some useful bits

The best time to have a beer (or two) would be when you’re searching for an initial idea. Because alcohol helps decrease your working memory (making you feel relaxed and less worried about what’s going on around you), you’ll have more brain power dedicated to making deeper connections.

Neuroscientists have studied the “eureka moment” and found that in order to produce moments of insight, you need to feel relaxed so front brain thinking (obvious connections) can move to the back of the brain (where unique, lateral connections are made) and activate the anterior superior temporal gyrus, a small spot above your right ear responsible for moments of insight:

They’ve actually done some research on this at Johns Hopkins University…

Researchers found that about 5 seconds before you have a ‘eureka moment’ there is a large increase in alpha waves that activates the anterior superior temporal gyrus. These alpha waves are associated with relaxation, which explains why you often get ideas while you’re going for a walk, in the shower, or on the toilet. Alcohol relaxes you so it produces a similar effect on alpha waves and helping us reach creative insights.

I’m not ashamed to say, I’ve got many a bright idea when I’ve been in the shower, or on the loo.

So when is Coffee helpful?

Coffee meanwhile, doesn’t necessarily help you access more creative parts of your brain like a couple pints of beer. If you’ve already got an idea or an outline of where you want to go with your project, a cup of coffee would do wonders compared to having a beer to execute on your idea.

The general consensus across caffeine studies is that it can increase quality and performance if the task you are doing seems easy and doesn’t require too much abstract thinking. In other words, after you have an initial idea or a plan laid out, a cup of coffee can help you execute and follow through on your concept faster without compromising quality.

They have no idea the hell this will unleash. Malware makers can easily clone this “feature” and collect money in the guise of MPAA/RIAA. Unsuspecting users will have no idea if its the real thing.

How long before hackers “crack” the ransomware’s protection or find out the “password” to unlock the feature? All these tactics are symptoms of an age old industry still stuck in the past, failing to move with the change in new media landscape.

Reddit has lots more reasons why this implementation can go wrong.

Now ain’t that the truth

Brilliant!

George Takei is hilarious!