Microsoft at it again.

Microsoft is not a technology company. It is a consortium of suits with law degrees, that now exists for the sole purpose of leeching off of others to fend off it's long awaited and hoped for demise, using the depleting chest of money acquired through monopolistic practices.

I am ashamed that I own a patent earned while (equally ashamed to admit) working at this sanitized resort for professionals who have mentally checked out from innovation and technology a long time ago.

Not a long time ago, IBM was doing the same before it was forced to become a minnow in the industry, as this excerpt shows:

"In the 1980s, attorney Gary Reback was working at Sun Microsystems, then a young technology startup. A pack of IBM employees in blue suits showed up at Sun headquarters seeking royalties for 7 patents that IBM claimed Sun had infringed. The Sun employees, having examined the patents, patiently explained that six of the seven patents were likely invalid, and Sun clearly hadn’t infringed the seventh. Reback explains what happened next in this classic Forbes article:

An awkward silence ensued. The blue suits did not even confer among themselves. They just sat there, stonelike. Finally, the chief suit responded. “OK,” he said, “maybe you don’t infringe these seven patents. But we have 10,000 U.S. patents. Do you really want us to go back to Armonk [IBM headquarters in New York] and find seven patents you do infringe? Or do you want to make this easy and just pay us $20 million?” After a modest bit of negotiation, Sun cut IBM a check, and the blue suits went to the next company on their hit list."

On Thursday, June 30th, Microsoft, in collusion with Apple, Nokia and RIM bought Nortel's 6000 patents spanning Mobile and Wireless technologies for $4.5 Billion, beating Google, who began the bid in April with $900 million. While in the smelling distance of the booty, they started threatening every handset manufacturer in sight for licensing Android patents, asking for as much as $15 per phone, while simultaneously offering indemnity from patent lawsuits for Windows Mobile based phones.

Android is no longer free.

Microsoft is once again trying to kill using underhanded tactics what they can never beat fairly. However, this time they may have punched above their diminishing weight.

Antitrust Institute has asked for an antitrust investigation into the bidding war for Nortel patents alleging collusion between Apple, RIM, Nokia and Microsoft to kill competition: . Barnes & Noble have responded to Microsoft claims. However, Motorola has suffered a setback while Samsung is trying to negotiate the price down to $10 per phone.

It is not surprising that other left for dead companies like RIM and Nokia are part of this collusion. This is not going to go down pretty.

I am hoping that by the time this has gone down, and the devil is paid his due, the monstrosity is relegated to the dustbins of history forever. Microsoft remains the single biggest shameless drag on innovation until that happens.

Afghanistan: The Zero Sum Game

In order to understand the situation in Afghanistan and how it may unfold, one has to know the players and understand their goals. In this conflict, The United States, Pakistan and India are the major players, China a minor player and Iran an observer. Let's examine them in turn.

The United States

The Americans' public stance is that they are here to "defeat" the Taliban. What has been omitted is their goal of wresting Baluchistan, the southwestern province of Pakistan, making up nearly 50% of its territory. Why? Because controlling Baluchistan will seal China off from the Arabian Sea forever. Less importantly, Baluchistan is their only hope for a seaport for a highway to Central Asia, allowing natural gas to be shipped south, and troops to be shipped north.

In a dangerous gamble, the Pakistanis gave away the port of Gwadar, which is at the tip of the Arabian Sea and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, to the Chinese. The also invited the Chinese to replace India in the erstwhile IPI (Iran-Pakistan-India) natural gas pipeline. Does anyone remember what happened to Iraq when they started bidding off their oil wells to the Russians and the Chinese?

Best Case Scenario

Control of Afghanistan and Baluchistan.

Worst Case Scenario

For the US, control of Afghanistan and Baluchistan go hand in hand. One enables the other. If they end up trotting back from Afghanistan, perhaps under pressure from protests by the American public, it will leave central and south Asia wide open for the Chinese, while the Taliban will become stronger than ever, being able to boast of having defeated yet another superpower.

Pakistan

Pakistan needs to control Afghanistan, because if it does not, two things will happen. One, the motley crew of Jihadis, pushed out of Afghanistan, will spill over in Pakistan. Second, India will build a necklace of listening posts in Afghanistan against Pakistan's hitherto secure western border.

For a long time, Pakistan has been punching above its weight by playing China against India and the Americans against Russians. This time, in their quest to spite India, they inadvertently ended up pitting America and China over their own territory of Baluchistan. On top of this, they are being forced to fight the war for the pro-India government in Afghanistan.

Best Case Scenario

Americans leave Afghanistan early.

Worst Case Scenario

If Americans remain in Afghanistan for an extended period of time, India will get an opportunity to wrest the Kashmir initiative away from them, while consolidating their gains in Afghanistan for long term pressure.

At the same time, the only way for American to have any hopes of gaining long term control of Baluchistan is if it becomes independent. If that happens, Pakistan or rather Punjab, will find itself surrounded by three unfriendly countries (Baluchistan, Afghanistan and India).

India

India does not care so much about gas as it does about Kashmir. The secessionists in Kashmir derive their power from Islamabad. If Pakistan military and political energy is continually spent fighting insurgency, this weakens the separatists in Kashmir, giving India a historic opening to negotiate a settlement. If militancy can be kept sufficiently under pressure in Afghanistan, the pressure will most certainly be released in the form of sporadic insurgency within Pakistan, achieving the desired result.

Best Case Scenario

Pakistan gets bogged down in counterinsurgency and Baluchistan becomes independent.

Worst Case Scenario

America leaves, Pakistan backed groups regains control of Afghanistan and Pakistani military establishment turns its full focus to destabilizing India. China makes heavy inroads into PoK and develops a military base in Gwadar, gaining control of the Arabian Sea.

China

The Chinese do not have much leverage over the Afghan situation at the moment, so their goals, whatever they might be, do not affect the likely outcomes much.

It is Pakistan and America who will gain or lose the most from what happens in Afghanistan. Also, as illustrated above, if America gains, Pakistan loses, and vice versa. Needless to say, America, the preeminent superpower, is going to do whatever it takes to come out the winner.

How It Will Unfold

Washington has begun making noises to pressurize Pakistan in to taking action against "Taliban" based in southern Punjab and in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan. India has stated that it is beginning closed door negotiations with separatists in Kashmir. As if on cue, Baluchistan separatists have started becoming active, while terrorist attacks are increasing in frequency in Punjab.

The goal seems to be get the Pakistani army to declare war on its own people. If in the meantime, India successfully negotiates a Kashmir settlement, the militants coming back to PoK will add to the gunpowder, bogging the Pakistani military down in counterinsurgency in three separate regions. At this time, the Baluch may decide to declare independence, which NATO, Afghanistan and India will be more than happy to recognize immediately.

Can democracy be the new faith for the Indian Muslim?

Dawn (A Pakistani newspaper I read and respect a lot), recently published this story:

The mainstreaming of India’s Muslim population

The story is related to a theme that appeals to me a lot. Secularization of the society for me, in some sense, means equal disregard for all faiths instead of an awkward appeasement of some sects.

Ashraf Engineer, an associate editor at the Hindustan Times, has written about several muslims in the state of Gujarat who suffered through the riots earlier this decade.

I strongly urge everyone to read it, take something positive, and chime in with comments.

Youtube Bollywood

A few days ago a coworker and I launched the Bollywood channel on YouTube as our 20% project. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/bollywood.

God versus logic

The following has the most impact when read in a Prophetic voice:

... if God can know everything there is to know, then he already knew everything He was going to do, therefore God has no free will, therefore isn't omnipotent, therefore isn't God, therefore doesn't exist ...

Found on the Internet

Passed port

I got my passport today. Here I am sharing my experience in case someone in a similar situation searches these archives.

The folks at the consulate were very helpful. There were not many people around, which was surprising since this consulate services the entire western United States. It is not very big from the outside, the only distinguising features from the other San Franciscan houses in the neighborhood being a courtyard and a large Indian flag. Inside, it was slightly more tacky than I had imagined, instantly reminded of the DMV offices or the post office I had been to earlier in the morning. I had even plonked in two dollars to leave my car parked for an hour, just in case.

The lady in charge of the security looked over my application and fixed it; the photographs were of the wrong size. A young hispanic woman, with big dark brown eyes and a strong confident voice, in a uniform. She directed me to another lady at the counter, who patiently heard my story about how I ended up sleepless at her counter this morning. My first surprise of the day, she did not start by shaking her head.

She asked me to write a quick note describing my situation for the Vice Consul, which she passed on to him. All this was done right on the counter, I was not asked to come back after I had done writing it, as you half expect. I admitted my screw up in that note and asked for help.

I described my emergency as having to attend a cousin's wedding. The real story is that I had only discovered yesterday that my passport had expired. My tickets were booked for the end of the month, only a few business days away, and the Consul General's web page mentioned that it may take up to 15 working days to get a new passport. After making a couple of frantic phone calls to calm myself down after the discovery, I was ready to postpone the flight if required. I then went about gathering the paperwork until late in the night, taking the opportunity to finally label the filers as I have always been meaning to do. I rediscovered some old love letters and greeting cards, tucked away in an envelope, labeled 'Time Capsule: Do not throw', a note to myself from last year. I can never throw them. I sometimes feel I keep them around just to show them off to myself.

I was asked to wait around for a bit, and I used that opportunity to marvel at the motley group of people that had assembled, each with their own little pesky problem. A couple of shrunk, middle aged americans, anachronisms from the summer of love. A harried businesswomen from Seattle. Sikhs and their wives. An important looking young student.

The Vice Consul, Mr. Jaladhi Mukherjee soon came out, complained light-heartedly about me calling it an emergency and then got my application in as an emergency job. The way it usually works is that all the passport applications in one day are all asked to come back on the same day about two or three weeks later. All applicants today were being asked to come back on Sep 6th. Rush jobs are for family emergencies or lost or stolen passports. I felt I did not thank Mr. Mukherjee enough. Someday I will figure out how to do my bit to have nice people continue being nice.

That is it. Half an hour, a good experience and $130 dollars later ($40 for a new passport, $90 for emergency processing), I was asked to come back at 4 in the evening.

In the evening, I did not have to wait much for the passport. There indeed was a slight delay caused by a malfunctioning scanner though. The lady at the counter was even apologizing about this little delay. Thank you lady at the counter. You represent hope in one of its various forms.

There was another person waiting with me. He had lost his passport in a robbery at his house in his absence, and had been waiting for six months to get his family's passports done. I was feeling a little bad that mine was being made in less than six hours for a rather trifling emergency of my own making.

So, I am now the proud owner of a new shiny passport and ready to fly.

So long San Francisco. Hello New Delhi.