G'bye Nokia, It Was Nice While it Lasted

The Mad Hatter has been a long-time fan of Nokia. Today, he is a former fan. Nokia has jumped from a Burning Platform (TM) and plunged into Ice Cold Water (TM), thus quenching the mild flame that still burnt in his heart.

Starting from an old non-smart-phone that's still in my house somewhere, unused but still functional, to the remarkable 6600, to the still beloved N95, and the 5800 XpressMusic, it's been a long and happy relationship. Thus far. What I thought was a brief Android phase while I ran out of patience waiting for MeeGo has turned into an indefinite disenchantment.

I guess we'll never know if MeeGo's native-Linux-like architecture was technically superior to Android, as they claimed. Or we could say Android won by default. As they say, time-to-market always wins.

But yet, if only you had more patience, Nokia. If only.

The Prime of Life

"Middle age is hard"

It was unexpected sympathy. Especially coming from Jr. Hatter.

Indeed, I said.

"You know, it's very tough. You have to deal with school, and a whole lot of other stuff. Including parents telling you what to do"

Eh? In middle age?

"Yes. 10-13. It must be the hardest part of life."

Flight of the Bumblebee

Not to make too much of a fuss about it, but it is getting a wee bit disconcerting to keep hearing the "bumblebees are not supposed to be able to fly according to science" myth being parroted.

Would it be too much to ask to go to the Wikipedia page for bumblebees, and read the references there about how this myth began, and what reality is?

So, let's all agree that bumblebees do fly, and are indeed supposed to be able to.

A Tale of Two Telcos

Setting up 3G on Tata Docomo with my HTC Desire Z

1. Insert SIM in phone
2. Switch on Phone
3. Ta - Da ...

Setting up 3G on Airtel on same phone

1. Insert SIM in phone
2. Switch on Phone
3. Get an SMS from Airtel saying my phone doesn't support automatic settings download (the hell it doesn't)
4. Look and find some APN settings automatically set and enabled in the phone, but non-functional
5. Google - find several contradictory posts on how to set up APNs for Airtel Karnataka
6. Call their "technical helpline", and be kept on hold forever
7. Call 121, and be treated to lecture on how great my 3G plan is, but no APN settings
8. Try a few things at random
9. Finally find a setting that works - just disable the "Airtel Live" APN by changing the APN type to something nonsensical. Keep the "Mobile Office" and "Airtel MMS" settings as is.
10. Ta-Da (or should that be Ta-Duh?)

Why dont I just switch to Docomo altogether? If they can just sort out my billing issues ...

What is a Science?

 The Hon. Bombary High Court has declared Astrology to be a science, citing a Supreme Court of India decision in 2004.  What can one say?

"But it's a science!" has been a refrain I have had to deal with quite often when discussing astrology. Or a whole lot of other things.

The view that astrology is a science seems to spring from a very common misunderstanding of the word "science" in India. I cannot claim that this is unique to India, but since I've seen it mostly here, I cannot be sure if it exists worldwide.

What a lot of people seem to mean by "science" is "systematic body of knowledge" - derived probably from the Sanskrit "shaastra", which means precisely the latter. Astrology does definitely meet that standard, since it comes with a set of premises and a well defined set of rules, using which one can  deduce the claimed truth or falsehood of propositions.

Being "scientific" requires a higher standard. Being systematic (a "shaastra") is  a necessary condition for being scientific, but not a sufficient condition.

The "method of science" has a long and interesting history, and it rests on a few pillars - systematic organization, empiricism, and mathematical model building. Empiricism is the strongest condition, that facts and rules in the system of knowledge must be verifiable through experiment.  Exactly how that verification must be done, and how much verification is necessary has been a matter of continuous refinement as Mankind progressed.

This is precisely the condition that a lot of Indian "shaastras" fail - they are based on  "a-priori" or "revealed" premises which are empirically untested.  That makes them systematic, but non-empirical, and therefore not "scientific".  Note that it is not an issue of degree of empirical verification, but a basic philosophical disagreement about the need for strong empirical verification that is involved.

This holds for Astrology, Vaastu, Homeopathy (all of which have failed empirical verification in recent times).  Some, like Ayurveda and Yoga have had partial success, to varying degrees, at empirical verification and can therefore be considered semi-scientific to that extent.

So, where does that leave us? Legally, the factual status of any question is what the courts state. Therefore, the Indian legal system now considers astrology a "science". That doesn't change the facts of the matter, and one hopes a challenge to this decision will be mounted through the legal system.

Interesting footnote: the contributions of Arab scientists Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham) and Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Ibn Tufail to the development of the scientific method are  notable. This makes the later descent of the Arab and Islamic world into dogmatism doubly sad. The blame must lie primarily on one philosopher. But that's another story.

Something from Nothing

A well-written reminder of how you can get something out of nothing.

Oh, and if you have a free hour, here is a good way to spend it.

How many SIM cards must a man own?

.... before you can call him a Man?

While we await the angry cease-and-desist letter from Mr. Dylan's lawyers, we must ponder the circumstance that yours truly, The Mad Hatter, is the owner, proud or otherwise, of three functioning mobile SIM cards.  Moreover, all of them reside in perfectly functional, and powered mobile phones, resulting in him being a larger than life part of India's great mobile success story.

It all began long ago, in the days when mobile phones actually were rather uncommon, with the Airtel connection that the Hatter's prior employer, one with a large Southern state of the US of A in their name, provided him. Now that would've been it, for most reasonable people. But we are talking of the Hatter, who prides himself on his unreasonableness.

Airtel didn't exactly endear themselves to him, taking far too much time to transfer that connection (proudly bearing the name of his former employer) to his more sonorous name. While he persevered (and still does), manfully trying again and again, and then once more, the minor sin of impatience had him in its grasp.

So, he succumbed to the temptation of a "free" SIM from Reliance (technically, a UIM, since it is a CDMA connection) with free calls to his home phone and lower charges than Airtel.  And, as it turned out, a rather interesting number which he is rather fond of. In case such things interest you, said number is the 28th biprime, followed by 14 times 3 (the answer to the fundamental question!), followed by the 14th prime, followed by the 14th biprime, followed by three to the power of itself.

After using that for a while, dissatisfaction struck again. What with all this 3G thing going around. Why wouldn't Airtel actually launch 3G? They didn't seem to have a problem shoving that confusion-inducing   3G ad in everyones' faces did they? So, an attempt was made to upgrade his CDMA phone to one that works with EVDO (aka CDMA-2000's 3G). Then the realization struck - every EVDO handset was about INR 10K costlier than an equivalent 3G (UMTS/HSPA) handset. In spite of what Reliance would have you believe, your choice in CDMA handsets is more of the Hobson variety.

So, after shelling out a goodish sum for a HTC Desire Z (about what he'd have shelled out for a less capable BlackBerry on Reliance), the Hatter paid a reluctant visit to a Tata Docomo store, and emerged with a 3G connection. With good rates on voice calls as well. Thanks to the good ol' 2G scam. But that's another story.

And then came Mobile Number Portability - or possible salvation. And SMSs from each of the providers mentioned thanking him for being part of their network, which, as everyone is aware, happened to be India's best et cetera. Reliance makes it a point of informing him exactly where in Bangalore their new cell towers go online. That does little but remind him of how ignorant he is of Bangalore's topography outside a few areas, and main roads.

And then, Airtel launched 3G. At less than competitive rates, but their stronger network may be worth it. And things finally seem to be moving on getting the connection transferred. (Update: done, Hallelujah!)

Reliance continues to surprise positively on everything, but handset price. Their network actually seems to hold its own against Airtel, even in the rural parts of Kerala that I've had a chance to test it in. Their voice rates are better than Airtel as well.

And Tata Docomo, what shall we say about them? A few weeks into the "Docomo Experience", a message made its way into the Hatter's phone, demanding instant payment of nine hundred rupees and change, or else. What prompted that, I still do not know. Neither could the rather puzzled sounding lady I got on their helpline. Apparently, I must wait for their bill to be generated, to know why they think I owe them much more than I think I do.

So there things stand. Three connections, and not one totally satisfactory one.

So, what must be done? Must the old reliable Airtel connection be relinquished? It of the ubiquitous network, and bearing  the number that he gets most of his calls on?

Or must the Reliance connection be dropped?

Surely, the Tata Docomo connection must remain, at least for its reasonable 3G pricing? That is, unless their bill arrives, and informs me that said 3G pricing wasn't exactly as cheap as I thought it was.

BSNL's tariffs look rather interesting, especially the data packs being valid on roaming. Should I get a fourth?

What say you, gentle reader?