All posts by abhijeet

"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." -- Robert Heinlein
Tech

Quick & dirty fix for bluetooth audio issues in Android Marshmallow

Lately I’d been having issues with my Moto G3 while connecting with Bluetooth handsfree headsets and the Bluetooth car audio system. The phone was running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with the latest software updates pushed out by Motorloa. It seems this is a common problem with this version of Android, and I ended up digging through multiple forums before I could find a fix that worked, so I thought I’d post what works, so that others don’t have to go through multiple pages to fix their devices!

Of course, why such a basic (known) issue hasn’t been addressed by Google so far, really reflects poorly on their support and commitment to the Android system. It seems that Google is heading in the direction of Microsoft, releasing buggy software and then leaving hapless users to figure out fixes on their own.
Continue reading Quick & dirty fix for bluetooth audio issues in Android Marshmallow →

guns

Govt. of India quietly notifies new Arms Rules 2016

6 Comments

The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has quietly notified a new set of Arms Rules, which are set to substantially change the legal position of gun ownership in India.

These new “Arms Rules 2016” were notified with effect from 15th July 2016, but only became available on the egazette website on 21st July 2016.

A cursory read reveals that the mandarins at the ministry have not applied any reason or logic while drafting these rules. Replicas, blank guns, paintball markers and pellet guns are ALL to be now treated the same as firearms – requiring an arms license, failing which the penalties would be the same as those for a terrorist/ criminal in possession of an AK 47 (7 to 14 years behind bars)!!!

You can download these news rules (in Hindi & English) by going to the Indians For Guns website.

More once I’ve had a chance to go through these rules in detail.

guns, politics

Italian Mayor subsidizes gun ownership

A couple of years back we were greeted with this image of (the then) Prime Ministerial candidate Shri. Narendra Modi performing “shashtra pooja” (worship of arms) on the occasion of Vijaya Dashmi.

modi_shashtra_pooja_2013
Narendra Modi performing shashtra pooja at his residence

image from http://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/on-vijaya-dashami-modi-performs-shastra-pooja-with-policemen-29196.html

One had hoped that with him taking guard at the centre, the Government of India’s policies on civilian firearm ownership would see positive change.

While that has yet to happen, I read a very heartening article today about a Mayor in Italy offering a direct subsidy towards encouraging citizens’ purchase of firearms.

mayor_gianluca_buonanno
Mayor Gianluca Buonanno of Borgosesia in Piedmont, northern Italy

The good Mayor is offering to pay citizens €250 towards the cost of purchasing a gun. He stated his move was towards allowing people to “defend themselves”.

He has also gone so far as to ask the European Commission to set up a similar fund. The money offered is about 30 per cent of the cost of a small pistol in Italy.

What do you think about this program?

Do you think the Government of India’s policies of artificially inflating the prices of LEGAL firearms and ammunition is detrimental to the safety of law abiding citizens?

After all India is probably the only country in the world where it is substantially cheaper (by many times) to purchase an illegal firearm, as compared to a similar licensed & legal firearm!

guns, politics

Arms licenses for airguns, replicas and blank guns

6 Comments

Today’s Times of India carried an article titled Government mulls lifetime validity of arms licences.

airgun_toys_image
Airguns, toys, blank firers and replicas

On the face of it, it seems like the government is moving towards positive change. This is true – to an extent. Increasing the period of validity of Arms Licenses will reduce harassment as well as corruption and needless load on government machinery.

However, there are also some dangerous changes being mooted! I quote from the article:

As per the draft rules, acquisition of airguns with muzzle energy under 20 joules or 15 feet or 0.177 mm will not require an arms licence.

However, firearm replicas, paintball markers and blank firing firearms will be brought under the definition of arms.

What does this mean?
Continue reading Arms licenses for airguns, replicas and blank guns →

guns, politics

Armed citizen successfully defends himself

Video 1 Comment

All those naysayers who say that armed citizens are unable/ incapable of effectively defending themselves, please have a look at this.

EDIT: There are some interesting lessons to be gained here. Did you notice:
Continue reading Armed citizen successfully defends himself →

computers

Installing Ubuntu on M2N68-AM Plus board

5 Comments

It’s been more than a decade since I started using Linux on the desktop. During that time I’ve installed and used various flavours (Red Hat, Suse, Yoper, Vector etc.) before finally settling on Ubuntu.

I’ve never attained Linux “god” status, though I’m usually able to find my way around things – keep that in mind while reading this guide 🙂

In the past decade, Linux as a desktop operating system, as well as its built in driver support has matured considerably. In fact, I can’t even recall the last time I had to resort to any sort of hack or work around for a successful install.

Today was a little different. This install took a little tweaking, so thought I’d post what worked for me, in case anyone else faces similar problems installing Ubuntu on this motherboard.
Continue reading Installing Ubuntu on M2N68-AM Plus board →

humour, politics

Mere Saamnewali Sarhad Pe [video]

Video 2 Comments

To enliven this independence day, sharing a hilarious video by “Aisi Taisi Democracy”

computers, internet

Migrating from Pivot 1.x to WordPress

Since 2004 I’d been running the “Blog” section of this website on the Pivot 1.x platform, while the rest of my website used simple HTML pages. Over the years I’d regularly updated with each release – till the last available version Pivot – 1.40.6: ‘Dreadwind’. After that they moved to their next generation called PivotX. It’s a great little platform, running off ‘flatfiles’ (no need for a database back-end), fast rendering, etc. BUT I felt I’d be better off shifting the entire website on to a slightly better featured CMS and eventually zeroed in on WordPress.

The following is the process of how it got done, posted here in the hope that it would help out others.

Continue reading Migrating from Pivot 1.x to WordPress →

guns, politics

Guns for peace

Video

The following video was part of the presentation made by the National Association for Gun Rights India (NAGRI) before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs.

Continue reading Guns for peace →

guns, politics

NRA News interviews NAGRI President

Video 1 Comment

Last week Cameron Gray of NRA News interviewed the President of NAGRI – Rahoul Rai and myself.