What hurts me most - when innocent people die.

These incidents from the past few years linger in my memory.

• Brazilian plumber gunned down by London police who suspected him of being a terrorist. Of course, with the brown skin, he fit the bill.: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4713753.stm
• Kelsey Smith, who got abducted, raped and killed, as she was getting out of Target in Overland Park. A search was on for her for couple of days. This was a girl in the prime of her life, whose life was stolen because of one person who went insane: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kelsey_Smith
• Four Indian Students hit and killed by an off-duty policewoman who might have been going the wrong way and was possibly inebriated. This one just burnt me to no end. One person sticking to the rules could have had four people in the prime of their youth left on this earth to live the life they could have. http://citizensalliance.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/nri-four-indian-students-killed-in-accident/
• Failed to yield at a stop signal : This one took two lives, close to home. How can someone fail to stop at a red light? How can someone risk and sacrifice their life, and a stranger's? http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=176284&catid=40
• An off duty police officer chasing a criminal who broke into his car was suspected to be a criminal armed with a gun and shot dead by fellow officer. In New York. How many ways could fate have been different to save him? Oh, of course, the dead off-duty officer was black, and the accused officer was white. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/29/content_11454508.htm
• Wichita, Kansas provider of late term abortions, and by all accounts, a compassionate and efficient physician, Dr. Tiller, shot dead by someone who took the time to drive down from Merriam, KS, and Kansas City suburb. He was shot dead while he was performing the Church by a "pro-life" activist. http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/05/31/abortion-provider-dr-tiller-shot-dead-at-wichita-church/
• Can't find the link for this, but this was in the first few months I was working for Sprint Nextel. Someone driving on I-35 had a cardiac arrest, and his vehicle, now out of control crossed to the opposite direction, resulting in a 3-vehicle bonfire. No survivors. Nobody to blame in this one though. Except the master up there, or probability, whatever suits your religious convictions.
  

August 1 - The Jackal - Obama

August 1 is a malayalam movie based on The day of the jackal - by Frederick Forsyth. The parallel drawn from France's President Charles De Gaulle, is Kerala Prime minister, K.G. Ramachandran. The former a real character, while the latter a fictional character.

But with the effective oratory style, his own method of confident governance, and of eliminating waste, he is Barack Obama. An unexpected similarity that I found was the smoking.

But something I hope does not happen is the plot where enemies to him from his own party arrange a contract killer to take him down. As KGR's policies, and efficient moves thwart the ways of several, the contract is born. And even as the contract initiators have been arrested, the contactless killer is still on his path to target. It is only the intelligent security officer who chases the trail and finally saves KGR at the final moment.

The parallels are stunning.

Heroes of USA

Heroes are celebrated here. The captain who landed his plane in the Hudson and made sure all passengers were saved before he stepped off.

The captain of the ship who gave himself up to save his 19 crewmembers.

The Navy Seals who shot dead the pirates to save the captain.

My salutes go to all. There couldn't be a more appropriate time for uplifting messages for the nation.

Imagine a new OS

As good looking and smooth as Vista but as fast as XP?

That is Windows 7. Why would a company that is capable of doing this release something like Vista. Windows 7 is going to make vista disappear like a bad dream. And everyone is going to refer to Vista like they refer to Windows ME. With hatred, pity and sympathy.

I LOVE ONLINE BILL-PAY

So my bank offers online bill pay. Do you know how that works? I go in there and tell them where to send a check. They print a check off my account and send it to this place where I need to make a payment to. They take it to their bank, and they send it back to my bank for collection. It comes back to them.

In essence, these people print a slip of paper and send it halfway across the country and get it back so that they can send money over ACH to the very same place where they sent the check. Amazing, isn't it?