The Freedom of Offensive Choices

 

I like my freedom of choice. I may not use it. But I like the notion of knowing that you are free to do what you choose to do and when you choose to do it. I like the idea of a world without borders. Internet censorship, restricting services, blocking certain resources simply because a particular organization or the government in your country thinks that this material is offensive.

SO FUCKING WHAT?

I will decide if it’s offensive, and if it is offensive, I would like to remind you that there’s a nice close button on the application browser for you to close. Better still, don’t like what you see? Then you don’t have to open it to see it’s still there. You have a choice. I like having that choice. What I don’t like is a bunch of hypocrites deciding for me.

The best way to circumvent any firewall is to use the Tor network. It’s an online open source network which uses chained proxy settings and routes packets in an unconventional manner, which makes it impossible for a firewall to guess the destination of the packet. Moreover, unlike OpenVPN the settings are localised and not system wide. The downside is that only one application can use the proxy at a time. Which means you can either use it for surfing or for downloading torrents (or some other application). But not both at the same time.

Setting up the Tor network for web browsing is the easiest part. Using the Tor proxy to download torrents is a tricky one.

Setting up Tor

1) Download the Tor browser bundle from the project homepage and extract.

2) Start the Tor browser

3) The Tor browser will establish the connection and open an instance of the Tor browser which is nothing but a portable version of Firefox.

4) In case, your network restricts how Tor connects, you will need to add Tor bridges. Please refer to the Tor project homepage to see how to add bridges or simply Google it.

5) Now before you can start using Tor proxy, you need to configure a few options. Open the settings from the Vidalia control panel.

6) Now, change your settings to these.

7) Your Tor proxy is ready!

Using Tor proxy for watching videos and web surfing!

In the Tor browser, you can’t really watch videos on YouTube. So if you need to do that you will need to configure the desktop version of Firefox browser to use your tor proxy.

Socks host : 127.0.0.1  

Port: 9050

Using Tor proxy to download torrents!

If you want to download torrents through Tor proxy, you will need to make the following changes.

If your Firewall blocks UDP trackers then you need to disable UDP trackers and add http trackers to your torrents. Block UDP trackers through this setting.

You are now done, and can download torrents on almost all networks through this tutorial.

Please let me know if these settings don’t work for you, or if you encounter any problems. I also welcome your views and suggestions for more ingenious methods to bypass network firewalls.

Disclaimer: It’s illegal to download copyright stuff through torrents. Some organizations make it illegal to bypass firewalls that they have set. It has been proven through research that downloading torrents through Tor networks does not guarantee you anonymity. User discretion is advised. Don’t get caught!       

It's your fucking fault

Satya Nadella became the CEO of Microsoft Technologies. Yes, this is big news for him. Fuck! This is the definition for big.

Yes. For HIM.

Not for me, not for you, and certainly not for India.

Simply, because he is a person of Indian origin, yes that is how they refer to themselves these days. He is just that, he is not Indian. He is as much Indian, as Miley Cyrus is.

Let’s talk more about what he is not.

He is not an IITian, which means he didn’t enter the great Indian circus of- get into IIT, get placed big, make your life. He didn’t. He did get placed, and made his life big though.

To come to think of it, if even eight years back when I was preparing to be a rat, if somebody had told me about this guy, I would have laughed him off. His own parents might have been disappointed when he went to the private MIT of India, where I still wouldn’t go, because it’s Tier 3.

Who’s having the last laugh now? Not me.

So, why the sudden rant on this guy, for whom I don’t exist? (And an inconsequential non-existence for good reason as well)

Because he reminds me, of what each of us can be. What we miss out while we bum and wait for things to happen.

As I write this blog post. I am currently listening to some of the best modern music on Pandora, by using Tor proxy network, while I reside in Delhi- the heart of India. Only in India you will find that people will proudly proclaim Delhi being the heart of India. Apparently, we proclaim pride that our so-called heart is biased to the right and not correctly placed to the left. But, it feels right, so I guess it’s okay to put up stupid metaphors which don’t even make a geographically correct statement.

But I digress. Let me return. Pandora is restricted when it comes to India. You can’t subscribe to this super awesome service which allows you to listen to music for free. You have to try it to believe me. But you can’t. Because you will have to hack, you will have to do things which might seem more complicated than simply typing Pandora.com in your browser window. Why do we have such an insane amount of bozos running this country like Rahul Gandhi who is now in his middle ages, still not married, and who can’t do anything without his mother censoring him.

Our system. Anything. Be it politics, educational institutes. Everything. Everything has been designed to keep people out. It’s an exclusive system, and not an inclusive system. It’s easier to get into Harvard or any ivy league insti than getting into an IIT. It’s even more difficult to get your kid into nursery school than it is getting into an IIT.

Every year, year after year of bullshit. We hear the same story. Things don’t change. They never will. People have to change.

And if you want to change. If you wish to make a change. Fuck the people. They will be there when you make it big, they will also be the ones who pull you down, and they will also be the ones who will bury you deep in shit when you fail.

Who would have thought about some guy born somewhere in India, going to college somewhere in India (because it’s not a place if it’s not IIT) making it so big that the world has to stop because and take a look.

You did it man. You made it! Congratulations!

This is my cue to shut down my laptop and go to sleep.

Nokia IndiBlogger Meet: Your Wish Is My App

To describe myself as brand loyal would be an overstatement, as I will switch loyalties the second a brand disappoints me. When it comes to Nokia, I have never been disappointed. Over the years I have owned three mobile phones- Nokia 6275 CDMA, Nokia E63 and currently using Nokia Lumia 720. So, it was a nice to hear that Nokia collaborated with IndiBlogger again for the second season for Your Wish Is My App program- an initiative to find the most creative and the best ideas from none other than but the people who use these phones. This program is in sync with Nokia’s very own ideology of “Connecting People” and I find it refreshing that a brand cares so much. The most successful businesses in the world have always been about people.

IndiBlogger had organised the meet at the Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi. It’s a really nice place, and the venue couldn’t have been better. The food, the drinks, and the ambience were no less than awesome. The evening was hosted by Rajiv Makhni, Vikas Khanna and Vishal Gondol.

 

The evening started with Kartik introducing a masked man posing as everybody including Ms. Poonam, who later on addressed us and introduced us to the YWMA program. Mr. P Balaji, MD@ Nokia then gave us real insights into the philosophy behind the program, and how user perception of mobile has transformed over the decade.

 

There were a lot of engaging activities which had everyone picking their brains for ideas. The friendly banter between the hosts Rajiv Makhni and Vikas Khanna over food related applications were no less entertaining. They had everyone in splits.

My app idea: Augmented Reality- Connecting People

Nokia recently introduced a concept of Augmented Reality. The technology is really simple, you simply open an app such as Nokia City Lens and look around through that app as if you were taking a photograph, but what you really see is hotspots around you- places of interest for dining, exploring, cafes, maybe some museum, an art exhibition etc.

I was thinking, why not use the same technology for doing what Nokia does best? Connecting People!

This augmented reality lens can be used to find and chat with other people, people can make their profiles and share some information such as their interests, a status update on this public profile they wish to share with other people, and this way they could communicate and meet new people, make new friends! People can now never complain about not knowing other people when you go to someplace different.

This app can also be used in more than one way, for instance, people all over the world often share cabs at airports. One could simply integrate it as a feature into the app, all you would have to do is look through the app and find the person who wants to go to the same destination as yours. And voila!

This idea is really unique and good as it underlines the core philosophy of Nokia- the people. It connects them, and there’s some real synergy between what’s being said and done at Nokia.

This is my entry for IndiBlogger and Nokia Your Wish Is My App program, and I really do hope that this idea is converted into an app.

So, till the next IndiBlogger meet when we all come together, I part with HURR HURR!