While the entire electoral focus is on the Patiala and Lambi seat where the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal are contesting the elections, there are some mini battles that are more interesting.
The broad estimate this time is that Majha and Doaba (surprisingly yes) is going the Akali way, while the Congress is making inroads in the Malwa belt.

Seats to watch out during these Punjab elections are :

Kahnuwan: Will Partap Singh Bajwa manage to ward off anti incumbency and harp on his PWD works to win the election. With almost the entire Majha tilting towards the Akalis, is this the seat which will be denied to Sewa Singh Sekhwan? On the other hand the factor that goes against Partap is the number of cases registered against his political opponents in the constituency.

Dhuri: With Gaganjit Singh Barnala under a cloud, and his bete noir Dhanwant Singh Dhuri remaining in the news as well, will both be pipped by an independent? And how will Barnala rank in the final tally?

Dakala: Is the Tohra legacy powerful enough to stop Lal Singh? Is this Harmel’s final lap?

Muktsar: Will Bhai Harnirpal Singh Kuku get enough sympathy to defeat both Congressman Avtar Singh Brar and independent turned Akali turned Congressman turned Akali, Sukhdarshan Singh Marar?

Faridkot: Will Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon retain his seat? Despite his lineage and popularity, will the Sukhbir factor play spoilsport for him?

Lehra: Between Bhattal and Chandumajra, voters have a very difficult choice?

Jalandhar: Well the entire Jalandhar. Will Henry, Gurkanwal and even Chaudhry Jagjit (Kartarpur) be able to thwart the inroads made by Akalis into Doaba?

Another session of system analysis and it is time for some reading. Clicking through the resources, I reach this article titled, “All models are wrong” by John Sterman.
Wow! This sounds like a must read (scriptwriters: learn from this about the power of writing a headline). I should read it to convince everyone that modelling is not all that great and nature is so vast and we humans are a part of the ecosystem that we can never really model perfectly. Though I am convinced, I could now have an expert to quote as well. The first line of the article (after the acknowledgements etc) says, “It takes a village to raise a child”.
Yes! That is right. It does take a village. Maybe this is systems perspective, but in the era of working parents and little time, this makes sense.
Google the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child” (though Google may not approve of the usage of Google as a verb). The first return informs me that it is an African proverb. They have a wonderful image as well. Download it!
The second reflects the confusion regarding the origin of the proverb. Is it Indian or African? And that Hillary Clinton popularised it. Hillary?
The third link provides the entire speech made by Hillary (1996 speech).
Fourth comes Wiki, which tells me that it is a book written by Hillary on that title and that someone called Tim Wilson made fun of it as well.
Tim Wilson? Ok. Wiki tells me - he is a comedian. The lyrics of his song or the MP3 are not easily listed there. Forget him. Ok.
Move on.
This link is an analysis of Hillary’s book.
Move on.
Page 2 on Google listings.
There is a mural as well on the theme “It takes a village to raise a child” .
Move on. I am on page three of Google returns.
A blog begins like this…”I am a socialist. At this moment I’m having flashbacks.. that the “Borg” is coming. Now what is a Borg?
Google the word “Borg”. Wiki tells me …The Borg are a fictional race of cyborgs in the Star Trek universe. They are characterized by relentless pursuit of targets for assimilation, rapid adaptability to almost any defense, and the ability to continue functioning properly despite seemingly devastating blows. They have become a powerful symbol in popular culture for any juggernaut against which “resistance is futile”. Wow! This is great. And they have an insignia of Borg as well. Read on. Amazing! Borg quotes as well, like “We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” Though it has more of Star Trek II, not of the Spock variety, but it was a good read.
But what is this evil empire thing? Wiki link again. Term used by Ronald Reagan to describe USSR. Reagon was criticised for this and someone called Michael Johns defended him. Who was Michael Johns? Wiki says that he offered 208 examples of evil nature of USSR. Another link. Doesn’t lead to original article.Maybe it does.
Back to Borf article again.
Another link to Borg article on StarTrek website. Hmmm. Not too interesting.
Back to Google. Second entry on Borg. This one is about Sweden. Yes. that is where I am staying right now. Borg means a fort, and many cities end with the suffix borg. Goteborg, for instance…. but that entry is not here in wiki. Should I add it in Wiki? No, another time. And Borg is a family name as well.
Yes, Bjorn Borg. Read on. Bjorn Borg and his Wimbledon saga. But does wiki say about Borg-McEnroe. Yes! And it even rates their match as the best Wimbledon final ever. Read on. Yes, but I loved McEnroe more. Move over to McEnroe. The link is difficult to find, but I have to.. Yes. Finally. McEnroe. When was that? 1980? Yes. And his tantrums, and talent. Wiki says little about his talent though. Quotes Mats Wilander though. Back again. Borg is surname of Anita Borg as well. Anita? Sounds like an Indian name. Ok. Anita Borg was that famous computer whiz. I remember something. And Google has a scholarship in her name. Back again. Borg is also nickname of Microsoft foundation. Why? Because it gobbles up others….
Back again.
Back to Google. There is some Borg Institute of Technology. Interesting.
Back again.
What is think link about Borg calendar? It is OpenSource! An PIM something like Lotus notes that I used 7 years ago.
The screenshots look good.
How do I download? Yes, here. The beta 1.6 has just been released. Click on download. Hope another download doesnt halt my machine. Two of the four torrents from yesterday are still downloading in the background. It halted my machine half a dozen times yesterday. But this seems a smaller file.
5megs.
Click. The mirror is not responding. Choose another mirror. Let us try the Amsterdam mirror.
Done.
Double click exe file. Launched. Let me try this software. I can schedule the dates of my system analysis exams here. Yes, and prepare a timetable of reading the various resources for system analysis. And read Sterman article apart from others. Maybe if I read Sterman tomorrow and… Sterman? Yes, he was the one who wrote that all models are wrong. And here it is. Voila! And what does he say… It takes a village to raise a child.. Oh!
You can also read this piece with all the links here. http://www.bajinder.com/blog/2007/02/23/it-take-a-borg-village/

With Christmas jingles flooding the air waves, here are some links which make for interesting reading.

First on consumerism.
The Telegraph reports that market research analysts estimate that 20 million people plan to hit the shops on Sunday, spending £1.14 billion. That is just one day of shopping!
The issue is here the six hour Sunday shopping law. So what store owners are planning is to open a little in advance so that customers can browse, and fill their trolleys, whereas the actual purchase begins only when the clock strikes the annointed hour. And at the end of shopping hours, stores are allowed another half an hour to clear the till. And most newspapers report that the temptation to make money shall lead to at least some chaos.

Another story on similar lines says: Thousands of branches will be staying open for an hour longer than the legal six-hour maximum to squeeze the last penny of Christmas spending out of shoppers.….read full story here

The Guardian quoted The Bishop of Worcester and Steve Jenkin, spokesman for the Church of England opposing the move. It also had Martyn Eden, of the Keep Sunday Special campaign, stating that “it was a ploy to make more money at the expense of smaller shops.” He quipped, “They are making enough money anyway”.

More on money matters here. Easier estimates that Over £700,000 per minute to be spent in Christmas Eve rush . It adds: Sainsbury’s Credit Cards research indicates that 49% of adults, intend to do some of their Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, spending around £1.14 billion. This is equivalent to £47.5 million an hour or £791,667 per minute. The bank estimates that around 18% of this will be placed on credit cards.

But then there are the lonely people as well. Up to 50,000 people could be eating a Meals-on-Wheels Christmas dinner alone this year, figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats suggested today….read full story

IN the years gone by, it was known as the festival of lights.
Gradually it has transformed itself to the national festival of
bribery. Bribe givers now wait for an entire year for Diwali so that
they can openly slip in not cash gifts, but also jewellery and wads of
notes to those they wish to please.
Politicians, officer, bureucrats, policemen, journalists, excise,
income tax and now VAT(value added tax) officials form the circle where bribe givers
line up on Diwali. The simple old platefull of sweets is passe and
meant only for lower middle class neighbourhoods.
The joke doing the rounds is that a school going son of an IAS officer expressed his suprise that “sweet shop owners now manufacture jewellery as well”. Why? Because the sweet box that his father received did not contain sweets, but had jewellery tucked in.
Officers of some industrial towns are the most coveted persons during Diwali. “A Diwali in one of the grand cities is worth two crores for the top bosses”, reveals a source. No wonder, knowing the propensity of accepting gifts, very often during the regime headed by Om Prakash, officers would be transferred on Diwali eve. This was his way of ensuring that officers receive lesser gifts. After all, few would go and hand over a gift to an officer who has already been transferred.
Politicians who receive the most gifts from all sections of society including bureucrats are forced to splurge on the media during Diwali, though by their standards the gifts tend to be cheap. The Chief Minister of Indian state of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh was the first to raise the bar on gifts for the media. Instead of theroutine cardigan or watch, which was the standard in Punjab, he replaced the “official” gifts with personal ones. Four bottles of liquor meant that he became a rare CM to offer liquor as a gift to journalists, in a country where prohibition is
recommended by the Constitution, A year later, Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal was not one to be left behind. His brother in law personally went to media
persons delivering Raymond suitlelenghts.
Amarinder’s media advisor, B I S Chahal is famous for his gift culture and is credited to have corrupted some Delhi based editors as well. His Diwali visit to Delhi is famous when he goes around distributing gifts.
On Diwali day, the entire market in North India remains open, but it is not just for sales. A Patiala based cloth merchant informs, “I do not sell a single yard of cloth on Diwali, but perforce the shop is open for the half a dozen inspectors that come for collecting Diwali”. His regret this year is that one more official has been added to the list – the VAT guys.
But officers rule the roost while receiving gifts. Many have a huge box placed at the entrance just for people dropping their visiting cards. And back lawns of palatial sarkari houses are often reserved for gifts. For those foolish enough to go with sweet boxes and dry fruit, a customary check on the false bottom of the sweet boxes is made so that there are no wads of notes hidden there.
Otherwise, that is meant for their servants.

all future posts shall be available at http://www.bajinder.com/blog

IN the years gone by, it was known as the festival of lights.
Gradually it has transformed itself to the national festival of
bribery. Bribe givers now wait for an entire year for Diwali so that
they can openly slip in not cash gifts, but also jewellery and wads of
notes to those they wish to please.
Politicians, officer, bureucrats, policemen, journalists, excise,
income tax and now VAT(value added tax) officials form the circle where bribe givers
line up on Diwali. The simple old platefull of sweets is passe and
meant only for lower middle class neighbourhoods.
The joke doing the rounds is that a school going son of an IAS officer expressed his suprise that “sweet shop owners now manufacture jewellery as well”. Why? Because the sweet box that his father received did not contain sweets, but had jewellery tucked in.
Officers of some industrial towns are the most coveted persons during Diwali. “A Diwali in one of the grand cities is worth two crores for the top bosses”, reveals a source. No wonder, knowing the propensity of accepting gifts, very often during the regime headed by Om Prakash, officers would be transferred on Diwali eve. This was his way of ensuring that officers receive lesser gifts. After all, few would go and hand over a gift to an officer who has already been transferred.
Politicians who receive the most gifts from all sections of society including bureucrats are forced to splurge on the media during Diwali, though by their standards the gifts tend to be cheap. The Chief Minister of Indian state of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh was the first to raise the bar on gifts for the media. Instead of theroutine cardigan or watch, which was the standard in Punjab, he replaced the “official” gifts with personal ones. Four bottles of liquor meant that he became a rare CM to offer liquor as a gift to journalists, in a country where prohibition is
recommended by the Constitution, A year later, Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal was not one to be left behind. His brother in law personally went to media
persons delivering Raymond suitlelenghts.
Amarinder’s media advisor, B I S Chahal is famous for his gift culture and is credited to have corrupted some Delhi based editors as well. His Diwali visit to Delhi is famous when he goes around distributing gifts.
On Diwali day, the entire market in North India remains open, but it is not just for sales. A Patiala based cloth merchant informs, “I do not sell a single yard of cloth on Diwali, but perforce the shop is open for the half a dozen inspectors that come for collecting Diwali”. His regret this year is that one more official has been added to the list – the VAT guys.
But officers rule the roost while receiving gifts. Many have a huge box placed at the entrance just for people dropping their visiting cards. And back lawns of palatial sarkari houses are often reserved for gifts. For those foolish enough to go with sweet boxes and dry fruit, a customary check on the false bottom of the sweet boxes is made so that there are no wads of notes hidden there.
Otherwise, that is meant for their servants.

No, this is not about things that you could do to your mobile (like
smashing it on someone’s head), but these are things that your mobile
could do for you.
Earlier mobiles used only to strike a conversation. But as the ad asks
you, “Is it a mobile or your wallet?” Yes, the mobile is all set to
fast replace your wallet as well.
Consider this. When you reach the metro railway station you can book
your ticket with your mobile. Dial a specified number, enter the
destinations and your ticket is booked. The handset can be used as
e-money, credit card, ticket, or even house or office key. Walk into
your office, and instead of the swipe card, use your mobile to dial a
number and enter the office. This could be cumbersome in case you
change mobiles a bit too often.
At office, dial a coke and a pizza, and you need not pay the delivery
boy. It is automatically credited into your mobile account. Use your
mobile to send multi media messages while working.
On your way back, the mobile becomes a music player. Download the
latest music or just let the handset play some stored music for you.
Browse through the news headlines at your favourite websites, now
specially tailormade for mobile phones. In the meantime, switch on
your AC or house warmer with your mobile so that your home is ready to
receive you when you reach back.
Back home, use the mobile for unlocking your house, and then switch on
the microwave and television as well. In case you forgot something,
use the word processor on your mobile to compase a document and email
it to office. Amidst booking a table in a posh restaurant or tickets
in the cinema hall, do not forget to set the mobile alarm for waking
you up next morning.
All said and done, do expect an inflated bill by the month end. By the
way, this column was written while travelling from office to home on a
mobile handset and was emailed to office.

You ask, and you answer. Here is the entire world for you, answering your questions for free.
Or do you need some help with your homework? Try asking questions and get answers from Yahoo. This is the new beta service from Yahoo and it is called ‘`answers”. Launched last week, it draws upon the collective knowledge base of surfers.
The procedure is simple. Just login at http://answers.yahoo.com and post your question. The question could be “What is the tallest structure in the world” to How to poach an egg in the microwave? Wait for fellow surfers to chance upon your question and let them reply. You do get to evaluate the answers and see if the question has been resolved. Better still, why not answer a few questions yourself.
Within hours of its launch, the cyber community was abuzz and trying out the service. Some questions can be outright simple, and the answers, amazingly correct. In other cases, opinions rule the roost.
Check on this. Ques: When we eat eggs are we actually eating the embryo of a chicken? Ans: Not generally. Most egg laying chickens are not kept with males, and so are never fertilized. Much like a woman, however, the egg still comes out, but it’s not been fertilized. So, like with humans, you wouldn’t call the egg an embryo.
In another case, a patient at a hospital wants to know how to keep annoying people from finding his room number. Another wanted to know about the tallest structure in the world.
Is Yahoo Answers an answer to Google answers. Maybe, except that Google charges for your response. While Google claims that more than 500 carefully screened researchers answer a question for as little as $2.50 — usually within 24 hours, Yahoo goes about it differently. It does not charge and there are no select researchers, but people like you and me who seek to enlarge the social networking circuit.
But there are some funny answers as well. Someone wants to know what is the greatest scapegoat ever. And pat comes the response: George Bush.

It may have triggerred a natiowide debate on security issues, but online maps are now providing succour to happless victims of natural disasters. Be it Hurricane Katrina or the Pakistan earthquake, online maps have emerged as handy tools in the hands of both the amateur as well as the expert.
With many governments continuing to restrict publication of detailed maps, private individuals have effectively utilised satellite imagery from providers like Google to identify spots that require help. Scores of individuals all across the world have uploaded relevant maps of quake-hit areas on the web, with details like location of rehabilitation centers as well as access paths and routes. Today relief agencies are looking towards online maps for directions rather than governmental help.
Blogs are full of maps of earthquake hit areas with minute details like locations of relief teams and informing others of locations where help has not reached.
In India, Google maps did create a furore when the President AP J Abdul Kalam raised the issue of security of developing countries after he saw details of many important installations on the Google website. This arms the terrorist with information about vital installations and could seriously breach our security, he reasoned. Kalam, who was a pioneer in India’s missile development program, remarked that current laws on spatial observation were not adequate.
While Google did respond to security issues stating that the images provided are not real time, and that they are willing to discuss the issue with governments, the help provided by their maps in facilitating relief operations has opened a new vista in spatial observation.
Competing with Google maps is the service, Visual earth, by Microsoft where you are able to view even your car parked outside your garage, since you can view pictures at a 45 degree angle as well. Other services include MapQuest and Yahoo Maps, Most have API (Application Programming Interface), which helps you browse the map with ease.
So next time you plan to visit Survey of India to seek permission for a detailed map of your city, think again.

He is the creator of the World Wide Web, and he too is taken aback by the way it has developed. The web has now become a publishing medium, and the creator thinks that he too should join the pack. So finally, on the 15 th anniversary of his creation, the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee has started a blog of his own.
In 1989 one of the main objectives of the WWW was to be a space for sharing information. It seemed evident that thershould be a space in which anyone could be creative, to which anyone could contribute, he says.
“Strangely enough, the web took off very much as a publishing medium, in which people edited offline”. And in 2005, with blogs and wikis running riot, Lee remarks, “the fact that they are so popular makes me feel I wasn’t crazy to think people needed a creative space”. His blog prompted many a reactions, with people asking him whether he had envisaged the course that the web has adopted.
Someone teasingly asks, “Now let’s see how you’ll interact with all the junk coming from social blogs, social networks, social software”. Another quips, “With YOUR WWW we have got messengers, Internet games,webmails, free videos, P2P and wiki(pedias or not) and now blogs and IPPhones”.
The first web browser - or browser-editor rather - was called WorldWideWeb which allowed one to edit any page, and save it back to the web if one had access rights. Then came the trend of editing offline and later uploading the stuff on the net. There were others at mit, where his blog is hosted, who thought that they would not be able to cope with Tim’s blog.
“First, is our machine ready to handle the load of a bunch of blogs and technorati and Slashdot and digg and everybody else linking to him all at once?”, asked one. But Tim began his lates sujourn very simply, “So I have a blog”, he said. It is called “timbl’s blog” and can be accessed at http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4 , wherit goes under the name of breadcrumbs.
By the time, this column was written, over 450 comments had been posted and an fair number of other blogs were abuzz about timbl’s. Berners-Lee first proposed the Web in 1989 while developing ways to control computers remotely at CERN CERN, the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research. He never got the project formally approved, but quietly tinkered with it anyway, making the first browser available at CERN by Christmas Day 1990.