It all began a couple of weeks ago. One of our cars, a 2010 Toyota Prius which we bought in 2009 had 182K miles (yup, we drive a LOT) and started flashing some strange lights like “Low Coolant” and “Check Engine” light. To be fair, during the past year, it was making some uncharacteristic noise and flashing check engine light. We took it to the dealer and it was one thing first and then something else and it really wasn’t fully solved, but the light stopped flashing for a while. We burned some good money on this repair.
Multiple lights started flashing during the past two weeks, so you know that there is some serious problems. We immediately took it to the dealer. Their verdict was “The engine needs to be replaced and the approximate cost is about $5K and it is not worth it. This is dangerous to drive”. So, we began the lookout for a new car.
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I was on a flight to Chicago to attend Workday Rising, the annual conference of Workday. Whenever I get on a flight, some of my early travels always run through my mind.
I distinctly remember my very first flight out of Colombo to Trichy in South India. It was in 1972, when I was coming to India for my “higher studies”. It was all so strange and I had no idea what to do and followed whatever the person next to me was doing. They gave a hot towel, which my neighbor didn’t want (clever guy). By the time I figured out what the others were doing, it was no longer hot. I was so nervous that I forgot to look out and enjoy the take off etc., which are typically the thrills of a first flight. Of course, the technology of flights themselves never crossed my mind until later.
The next one was my flight in 1978 to come to the US. Another nervous and anxious flight. I was very depressed to be leaving my family back home. All the outwardly brave statements I made to friends and family about going to the US and not coming back for years turned into an outright scare. I took a Swissair flight because it was the cheapest at that time. Everything smelled strange, including the smoke from cigarettes in such a confined space. (more…)
It must be pretty hard to be a senior executive at Google, Facebook or Twitter. Though their technologies are predominantly used in interesting and positive ways, increasingly they have become the communication platform for terrorists and many other illegal activities. In the rush to claim victory for having millions and millions of users and monetize that for billions and billions of dollars, these companies have put many important matters in the back burner – such as developing strong acceptable use policies, detection and containment of illegal activities.
Many of these issues are hard and cumbersome, but it is not clear whether these companies even feel it is their obligation to worry about them or whether we should even expect them to. The recent revelations that these platforms played an important role in the interference by Russia in the US elections is serious enough to ask hard questions about what are their obligations. They all tout the use of new technologies to improve user experience everyday, while hiding the fact that they are doing it primarily to boost their profits. I understand that they are in the business of making money, but why are they not using these new technologies also to detect and prevent illegal activities?
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