Payal Dhar's Blog: Writer's Log, page 17

My Windows’ armoury

Even though Windows isn’t my everyday OS, I do look in for a bit of housekeeping fairly regularly. It is still my gaming platform of choice and, of course, I have to keep popping back whenever I need to review software or test a website. Earlier tonight, when I found my antivirus application wasn’t loading and also decided to finally lose patience with the patchy performance of TinyWall, you could say there was a security emergency.

Given that I’ve written quite a lot on PC security and also bullied friends into taking a closer look at their computer’s security arrangements, I’d probably have to live the rest of my life wearing a paper bag on my head if my computer was struck down by malware. And that too because I was being lazy with fixing my firewall or that I had a malfunctioning antivirus.

Thus, sleeves wre rolled up and Windows is now all tucked up safely. And here is a glimpse into my armoury.

Antivirus

I’ve been a big fan of Avast antivirus for about a decade now. I’ve flirted with others, but have always come back to it. I use the free version, which is a much slimmed-down avatar of its premium products, but is good enough for my needs. Avast 2014 has a nice, new interface, though one thing that’s always creeped me out is the loud “ting” and the breezy voice announcing that my database has been updated. That’s the first thing I turn off.

A note for those who believe that free antivirus is crappy (and yes, this is for all you computer technicians): Not even the world’s most expensive antivirus program can guarantee you 100 per cent security. Your safety actually depends upon something else—your own common sense. If you forget to keep your virus database updated, if you download dodgy programs from shady places, if you visit unscrupulous sites, and if you don’t keep a very close eye on what’s going on when you’re installing software, you’re in trouble anyway. I’ve been writing on computers and tech for 15 years and have never used a commercial antivirus solution. Also, I’ve never been laid low by malware. Hard disk crash, yes; accidentally deleting essential registry items, yes; virus/malware infection, nope.

Firewall

Though I have Windows Firewall turned on, till about a year or so ago, I was also quite happy with ZoneAlarm Free. Then things started going a bit sour. When you updated, they tried to arm-twist you into installing additional toolbars, which hijacked your browsers. I can’t recall why, but I finally lost patience with it and I zeroed in on TinyWall. I’d heard good things about it, and after sussing out the (freeware) competition, I decided to give it a shot. Long story short: happily ever after didn’t happen.

Anyhow, today, I went back to ZoneAlarm. We are not friends yet, but willing to give each other a second chance. For those unhappy about the compulsary toolbar installs, here’s some good news—it’s not compulsary, it’s just been very sneakily designed to make you thing it is. To get around it, make sure to: (a) Opt for the custom install (small type under the snazzy Quick install button); and (b) Look for the “Skip all offers” text in very tiny type and an inconveniently dark colour in the toolbars install section. Function-wise, ZoneAlarm is an excellent firewall, so I’m hoping our second round will be trouble free.

Other Antimalware

I also keep Malwarebyes Free as a back up. It doesn’t have real-time scanning, which is only available in the paid edition, but I like to run it every now and again. It’s been known to pick up malware your antivirust app might miss. I also run Windows Defender every now and again (oh all right, when Windows reminds me).

So, here’s to safe PC-ing!

~PD

(Photo credit: Ambrozjo at SXC.hu)

 

Mass Effect 2: A review

The truth is, I finished playing Mass Effect 2 (hereafter ME2) about five months back, but have been procrastinating on the review due to the perfectly understandable reason of laziness. Anyhow…

ME2 is, of course, part 2 of the Mass Effect trilogy, a shooter/role-playing game where you take on the persona of the space-faring hero Commander Shepard. If you’re playing the games as a trilogy, ME2 can take off from where ME ended — that is to say, you can import your character into ME, and play with your very own special Shepard (in my case a female spacer of the Infiltrator class by the name of Jan). If you import your Shepard, you also import the various after-effects of your ME game, for example, who survived and who died, your relationships with various people, and so on. In other words, “a surprising amount of unexpected baggage”, as Gamesradar.com says.

I won’t give away any spoilers, but ME ended with Shepard defeating Saren, even though the future of the universe wasn’t automatically turned rosy by that event. In ME2, circumstances find Shepard working as a mercenary for a group called Cerberus. She (in my case) starts out looking into the mysterious disappearances of humans from a number of space colonies, and ends up unravelling a conspiracy on a massive scale. The storyline is quite fascinating, though it takes some doing to keep up with it. The ME universe is vast and if you’re the patient kind, you might want to read your journal to be in the know; if not, just keep playing.

As in the first game, you need to recruit some of the universe’s top brains and brawn to build your crack team. And there are some surprises along the way. And by the way, just getting them to sign on isn’t enough — you must play a “loyalty mission” to gain the loyalty of each of your allies. There are many more allies in ME2, which makes choosing just two people to accompany Shepard quite difficult at times. Be prepared to meet some old friends, rekindle sparks and have your past catch up with you.

The controls in ME2 are considerably different from ME. In other words, there is a bit of a learning curve as you get to grips with it, especially if you’ve just finished playing ME. However, the gameplay in ME2 feels a lot smoother and intuitive. In ME there were various points where I felt stuck and found it hard to go further; ME2 seemed easier to play. That’s not to say it isn’t challenging — some of the missions sorely tested my patience. The most annoying part of the gameplay is probably the R&D that you need to do to keep the Normandy (your ship) upgraded, wasting precious time scanning alien planets for resources. You can skip it if you want, but you will pay for it later (and that is a BIG HINT).

The dialogue is witty, funny and clever. What you say and to whom may make a difference in certain situations. You also have the chance to romance all sorts of people — including green-skinned aliens… Overall, all the excitement and involvement I felt with ME continued with ME2. I’d rate this one 8/10 as well.

~PD

 

Inspiration

Edison’s quote about genius being 99 per cent perspiration and 1 per cent inspiration has long since crossed over into the realm of the cliché. Not that most of us have any claims to genius-hood, but even then, without that aforementioned 1 per cent, the grind of the remaining 99 would be unbearable.

So what inspires you? Is it reading something profound or seeing something that touches you? Maybe simply be looking out of your window in the morning? The honking of traffic outside or the rain drilling on the ground? Or the screaming brat next door? Inspiration is wonderfully subjective that way—you never know in what form it’ll strike. And contrary to what many of us might believe, it’s not something that only artists and other creative people to covet. Without inspiration, our daily lives would become nothing short of drudgery.

I’m not usually given to pontificating in this manner. So the reason for this post is that, since I’ve been rather bereft of inspiration lately and too lazy to get up from my desk, I figured the WWW is great place to hunt for a little spark. To start with, for those who haven’t seen it already, Neil Gaiman’s address to the class of 2012 at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he exhorts one and all to “make good art” is certainly inspirational:

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012 from The University of the Arts (Phl) on Vimeo.

Just in case you’re really desperate and need a step-by-step how-to, here are some WikiHow tips. The truth is, inspiration is everywhere, you just need to know how to look for it.

And lest you find all of this unable to light any spark of good art, remind yourself of your place in this universe (keeping in mind that this was created by a pair of fourteen-year-olds).

~PD

Revisiting Diablo

Last night I dusted out my Diablo Battlechest because I had an irresistible urge to visit Tristram, lurk in the creepy sixteen-level dungeons and catacombs to weed out demons, monsters, the undead and their bosses, and kit myself out in some fancy gear. (Oh, all right, Niklas, all I wanted was to point and click my way to momentary happiness!)

Unfortunately, Diablo, which was released about 17 years ago, is a bit, well, let’s just say, too hot for present-day computers to handle. The Mac installer, built for the Classic (OS 9) environment isn’t even recognised on my system. I did manage to install it on Windows 7, but even with the settings turned down, it was too pixelated to be of any use.

Thus thwarted, I moved on to Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. The Mac installers being PowerPC only, once again I turned to Windows. However, as any Diablo fan knows, the second instalment of the series, intriguing though it is, can get somewhat tedious, especially trawling through unending forests, deserts, dungeons and what not to gain experience. There are some pretty challenging quests thrown in and the character building is quite fascinating, but it does get tedious playing the first few parts again and again and again.

I’m not done with trying to get Diablo to work yet. I’m now off to try a WINE-based emulator called Play on Mac. If it does, I get to spend the day in hack-and-slash hell.

~PD

 

What happened at Geo

[image error]Don’t believe everything you might have read about Outlook having decided to shut down three of their international magazines, Marie Claire, People and Geo. “We are not renewing our licences for these three international titles,” was the tame and completely reasonable explanation that Indranil Roy, president, Outlook Group, gave regarding the closures. But the way it came about was anything but.

Here’s a version closer to the truth. And here’s what happened from where I was standing.

On 26 July 2013 Geo‘s editor Kai Friese, my boss, came back from a (very short) meeting looking rather bemused. Apparently, they were closing us down and it was all a Very Big Secret. At that point, nobody but the big bosses were supposed to know; unfortunately, the news got out via a tweet and was a big shock to the mover 100 staff that was being laid off. (I wish I’d been the one to out Outlook, but I wasn’t. Damn.)

For those interested in a blow-by-blow account of how it unfolded, read Rajyasree Sen’s excellent summing-up at Newslaundry.com. By the evening I was getting calls and mails (well, one call and two mails) from friends in the media asking what the eff was going on.

Of course, it’s public knowledge now that the People magazine people approached the Mumbai labour court to stay their dismissals and the staff at Marie Claire refused to release the last few pages of the issue till dues were cleared. At one point there were talks of the three of us at Geo joining the Marie Claire people to approach the courts. All this happened over the next few days, in which there was still no word from the company about our standing. Were we still employed? We didn’t know.

In her story, Rajyasree Sen recounts that one of the questions she asked of Indranil Roy was: “How was this communicated to employees?” Needless to say, he didn’t respond, but I can tell you: It wasn’t communicated to employees at all.

Yes, not one of the big bosses had the decency to tell me and my colleague at Geo personally that we were being sacked. (I’m not sure what happened at the other magazines.) Of course, Kai telling us didn’t count, since he was being sacked (he resigned first, striking a final blow from our side, so yay!). And you bet they weren’t going to put anything down on paper or email, but no one even thought it might be—I don’t know, good manners? the only decent thing to do?—to personally talk to us, on the phone at least. There were just two of us—how hard would it have been for Certain People to fit into their no doubt terribly busy days?

On 1 August I got a call from one of the accounts people that I should come to “collect my cheque”. That was the first official indication of my termination. When I turned up the next day:

Outlook finally deigned to pay me the two months’ salary they still owed me.
They actually paid me the full severance package detailed in my appointment letter. You could have knocked me down with a feather (and then again later when the cheques actually cleared!)
But then they produced a letter saying that I had resigned, and if I didn’t sign, they’d take away the money that was due to me.

After some wrestling with my conscience and discussions with journalist Laxmi Murthy, who contacted her friend M.J. Pandey at the Bombay Union of Journalists, I decided to sign. That said, I’m still not clear on the nitty-gritties of why they had to do this cloak and dagger, apart from knowing that, even if they cleared our dues, the termination and how it happened was illegal. (The People people withdrew their case eventually and reached an amicable settlement. One wonders if resignation letters featured in the process.)

Anyhow, here is the lie I put my name to (click on image below for the real thing):

This has reference to the discussions we have had over the last few days.

In view of the same, I am hereby resigning from the services of the company with immediate effect.

Kindly accept my resignation.

[image error]So that’s how two rather interesting years at Geo came to a messy end. It’s not really an end yet in some ways—spare a thought for the freelancers, who have dues since March that the company hasn’t cleared yet.

The bad taste in mouth refuses to go.

 

~PD

 

Something about myself (or maybe not)

“Tell me something about yourself.” This was the one question I dreaded in the days when turning up for interviews and hoping to impress people with my spark and wit and potential as a great writer who they couldn’t do without in their organisation was how I spent a great deal of my time. Even today the question stumps me.

Achieving that fine balance between letting them know what a catch one really, truly is and yet being self-deprecating enough without sounding like a bumbling idiot is an art that only experience teaches you. Or maybe not. Dropping in your shining academic qualifications and quirky (but not quirky enough to be creepy) hobbies is a must and, of course, you must somehow convince them that an inability to get up in the morning is a sought-after quality in a prospective employee. And all this without the use to too many “I’s”, which, I’d been schooled, would sound like I was the kind of person who thought the sun shone out of their backside.

I was lucky that quite a few times I had to write my answer rather than stammer and stutter along with a possible future boss tapping their feet impatiently. Which meant that I could faff my way through, composing quite the paean to myself, easily achieved by rehashing my CV, adding an element of humour and the odd anecdote. The funny thing is, I actually landed a job with this tactic. It was as a freelance consultant, so I mainly worked from home. They paid me a handsome retainer plus a professional fee based on the amount of work I did and even reimbursed my actuals.

I’ve also come to the conclusion after almost a decade and a half of working for a living that most sensible employers won’t ask you to tell them about you—they’ll actually read your CV and try to figure you out for themselves. This, of course, does not apply if you’re being interviewed by the HR people of a big organization who have little idea of the job you’d be doing anyway. In that case the only way out is to dress for the part and give a little performance, if you really want the job, that is. In most other cases, the old cliché of being yourself works.

But the one thing that doesn’t go away is the need to sugarcoat some of your more charming qualities. Here are some of mine (and what they really mean):

I am very good at working independently. (If you put me in a team, I’ll bite everyone.)
I am reliable and don’t need much supervision. (And I’ll bite you too if you ask me to check in with my progress every hour.)
I do my best work in the night.(I am physically incapable of waking up in the morning… and don’t you dare call me before noon.)
(Of course, you don’t say this if you’re applying for a PR job!) I sometimes tend to be reclusive and like spending time by myself. (Don’t expect me to turn up for useless office parties and outings.)
I have a weakness for chocolate cake.(I can always be bribed with chocolate cake and point no. iv can thus be rendered moot.)

~PD
[Image credit: djayo at SXC.hu]

 

An uneasy silence

To what do I owe this particular silence? Well, there’s a long answer and a short answer. The short answer is: work. The long one is a bit more complex.

Over the past two years I’ve been working at GEO magazine. This is my first “proper” job, as in where I need to go into an office on a regular basis, unless you count the two months I spent at Sterling or the two weeks at Hindustan Times (for the record, I don’t count either). GEO is a fairly decent place to work in —I have a nice boss who cares more about the work we do rather than whether we’re doing it yawning over our office desks or sprawled in bed at home; I don’t have to go in every day; the production cycle lets me take a week or so off every now and then; and overall I have enough time to myself to continue with some freelance work. And, of course, there’s money coming in every month without having to chase it.

However, things have changed a bit this year. For starters, the colleague I’d been working with quit and our comfortable well-oiled machine developed a few creaks. Second, having a “real” job was supposed to be a two-year experiment (in fact, I hadn’t been expecting to last two years, but that’s another story!) and now that that’s over, I’m feeling the pressure to do something about it.

If there’s been one thing I’ve really prized in my professional life, it’s been the freedom. The freedom to work whenever, from wherever, and the fact that nobody dictated when I came and went. And then there was the smug factor, I have to admit, of having this freedom when others were slaving away. True, I never earned even close to half as much, but it was always enough.

Of course, some of that freedom has had to be sacrificed over the past couple of years, but it’s not like the GEO job puts me in the corporate slave category—heck, I just go in two or three days a week. That said, the thought of losing the regular ka-ching in my bank account makes me uncomfortable. As a freelancer, meeting deadlines reliably was always my strong suit, but I find I’m stretching more and more of them lately. I don’t have as much time to myself as I’d like. And as for creative writing, it’s been a year…

I can’t blame my job, obviously. But clearly, some changes to my work life are required. Perhaps it’s time to cut some strings…

~PD

 

Digitally restricted

I hate DRM. I really hate it from the bottom of my heart. Just thinking about it makes my blood boil. Tell me, what’s to like about a system devised to make it incredibly difficult use the content you have legitimately bought?

I paid my hard-earned money for my copies of Hitman: Absolution, Deus Ex: HR, Portal 2 and many others. But can I switch on my PC and have a bash whenever I want? No, I cannot. That’s because Steam won’t let me play unless I compulsarily update my games. It’s been over 8 hours now. My update of Hitman Aboslution has moved from 80 to 89 per cent. I don’t want to play any more—because it’s eight hours later and it’s now time to work. And I really wish I’d kept that Rs. 899 for something else and just torrented Hitman so I could at least play when I bloody well want to.

I also hate Steam for assuming that anyone buying their games will also have access to a high-speed (let alone always-on [Are you listening Blizzard?!!]) Internet connection.

The logic that DRM helps prevent privacy is rubbish—in fact, it’s doing a very good job of convincing me that piracy would make my life a lot easier. I’m not labouring under the delusion that before Steam and its ilk the world was a lovely little place where you could play your games free of restriction. It’s the whole premise of these systems and the control they exert on you that I have my problems with. They’re not just pulling the chain tighter on how I play my game, they have detailed information on how, what, when I’m playing.

Apart from making it possible to collect a massive amount of information on their users (I’m not even sure what sort information they collect, but I have a healthy cynicism regarding the motives of big companies), Steam, et al. make it that much harder to install and play a game. I just want to play, damn it. If I wanted to make use of the so-called advantages of Steam, et al.—such as having your game available to download whenever you need and synchronizing saved games across devices—it should be my choice. In any case, they are moot all if the platform itself is an impediment to what I paid for in the first place: to play the effing game.

I know that the makers (and satisfied users) of Steam and Origin and their ilk will be quick to jump to the defences of these systems. And there is no denying that they have their uses. But, and there’s a big but (no, not in the mood for jokes!), as I will quote from this Forbes article on the truth about DRM:

First of all let me dispel the myth about DRM protecting anything. The truth is it does not work. It’s as simple as that. The technology which is supposed to protect games against illegal copying is cracked within hours of the release of every single game. So, that’s wasted money and development just to implement it. But that’s not the worst part. DRM, in most cases, requires users to enter serial numbers, validate his or her machine, and be connected to the Internet while they authenticate – and possibly even when they play the game they bought. Quite often the DRM slows the game down, as the wrapper around the executable file is constantly checking if the game is being legally used or not. That is a lot the legal users have to put up with, while the illegal users who downloaded the pirated version have a clean – and way more functional! – game. It seems crazy, but that’s how it really works. So if you are asking me how do I see the future of DRM in games, well, I do not see any future for DRM at all. [Quoting Marcin Iwinski, CEO of CD Projekt Red]

See, that’s why it makes me mad.

To be fair, I have to admit that this control-freakish behaviour might work to my advantage too, though I’m not sure it’ll be very convenient. I have the option of downloading 13 GB worth of data to install Mass Effect 3 rather than coughing up for a new set of DVDs (Rs. 799) since the one I bought was damaged. Oh good, you say? But here’s the nub: my Internet connection is stuck at 512 kbps for reasons that will have to run into a whole new post of its own. So paying for a new DVD would by far be the more convenient option. (Also, I have to add that this is my first experience of Origin, and have yet to discover if it is as difficult to worth with as Steam.) But I digress, it’s not Origin’s fault (or anyone else’s except mine for not checking the DVDs within the 30-day replacement period) that my discs are damaged…

In short, DRM is evil. Down with DRM, etc. etc. It is yet another camera trained on how we live and work and play in an increasingly “surveillanced” world. Most of us might shrug and think that it’s no big deal, that we have nothing to hide. But when one starts putting together all the (unnecessary) checks and monitoring we are subjected to, it adds up to a pretty significant something.

And at the end of the day, I still can’t play my game. Which, I repeat yet again, I bought legally. If I’d bootlegged it, I’d be writing a review about now.

~PD

[Image credit: mzacha at SXC.hu]

 

The iPad as a parenting tool

There’s this funny story doing the rounds—about a young couple raising their two kids in modern-day urban India. When their first came along, they had higher ideals about the good and proper way to raise a child, in which the idiot box had no part. By the time the second emerged, they had significantly more grey hairs and were much more receptive to various well-known child-rearing tools, such as cartoons as feeding aid, to name one. “And if we ever have a third,” they said, “we’ll just hand it an iPad the moment it pops out and let it bring itself up.”

It’s not that I have any first-hand experience, but I don’t really need to be convinced about the efficacy of the iPad as a parenting tool. I’ve been watching the Nephew turn to it with unerring regularity, and have often silently complimented Apple for developing an interface that even toddlers can master.

And not just N, his parents too have been known to rely on the iPad when all else fails. The other week, while I was visiting, N had a nuclear meltdown one morning. And I mean a MELTdown. Wow. I was too scared to come out of my room. A couple of hours later, when things had calmed down, I ventured to ask the sibling what did the trick. She raised her eyes to the heavens (perhaps in silent supplication to Mr Jobs) and said, “iPad.”

I think the case is well and truly rested.

~PD

 

Comfort food

A craving for curd rice? How unglamorous! Until last week, when I was laid low by a stomach bug, I wasn’t even aware of how much I love curd rice. But after spending the better part of the week spent eating a variety of boiled things, the craving hit. I could almost smell the mustard seeds and curry leaves frying, taste the little bits of onion and ginger, inhale just a dash of the hing…

It took three days of curd rice for breakfast, curd rice for lunch and curd rice for dinner for the craving to pass. I’m happy to report, though, that I still love it. Just that I’m ready to move on to regular food.

Anyway, it got me thinking about my favourite comfort foods and when they are particularly special to me:

Chocolate: No explanations needed here, of course. But somehow I like chocolate best at night, and only when I’m relaxed. Unlike a lot of people, I can’t wolf down a tone of the stuff when I’m depressed—I like chocolate when I’m happy.

Tea: For the more pedantic among you, yes, I know, it’s not a “food”! I’m a regular tea drinker, am fussy about how I have my tea, and it’s always the one thing I crave for when I’m stressed or tired. I also love a cup of tea after a meal.

Light chicken curry with rice: Among my fond memories of kiddy-hood, chicken-curry-rice, with a squeeze of lemon, is definitely right up there. Both my parents have perfected the art of chicken curry—spanning the spectrum from a racy, masaaledar magnificence to one so light that it almost floats in the air. It’s the latter that I long for on lazy days. I’m not terribly bad at making it myself; the trouble is, I crave it when I’m feeling indolent.

Roadside momos: They are my favorite street junk food in Delhi. I know it’s not very adventurous, but they are what I reach for when I’m feel particularly reckless. They’re usually served with a deadly sauce made of red chillies that my stomach revolts against, though.

Brown Bomb at Corner House: One of my favourite junk foods in Bangalore, but stay tuned for a more detailed post on this subject.

~PD