Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

How sweet. If only he had scribbled his name too. Meanwhile, one floor
away:

As you may be aware, I spend the first two weeks of every month in Pune with my client Partecs Participatory Technologies. The company is now hiring. We’re looking for people with (a) good Python skills, and preferably, also Zope and Plone; and (b) User Interface design skills, for web-based interfaces.

Partecs is a well-funded startup that produces software for participative processes like democracy. We use open source extensively and intend to release all our code as open source (we’re not settled on the licensing scheme). The company has offices in Rome, Brussels and Pune.

We’re now hiring for positions in Pune and Bangalore.

If you are interested, please send your résumé to hrd@partecs.com. This address goes to HR person Shobana—my own mailbox is flooded right now—but if you refer to me, I will read it. You will be working with me. Your expected pay is, for once, above industry average. We do not like losing good people over pay squabbles. We also spend significantly on training, and do not have a problem hiring someone without relevant experience but with the ability to adapt quickly.

I’m posting this notice in several places, so when you send in your résumé, please do me the favour of mentioning where you read this, and which of Pune and Bangalore is preferred. Thank you.

If you have a question, please leave a comment, or contact me over email or instant messenger.

Obligatory buzzwords: Python, Zope, Plone, Javascript, XHTML, CSS, Ajax, Usability, Open Source, Affero GPL, Subversion, Blogs, Wikis, vCalendar, i18n, l10n. You’ll work with all these and more.

MSEB sent an electrician to repair our electric meter today (at left; his trainee at right). He turned out to be the friendly type and talked to us about his work, including his exploits catching people who steal power.

Apparently, about 30-35% of MSEB’s power is stolen. With the old meters, stealing was as simple as shorting the live wire around the meter. He told us of this case with a government employee (he said “government servant”) where he had gone to replace a meter reported as defective and found a shorting wire under the meter’s hood. He threatened to report to the police, and that person offered him a Rs 5000 bribe (for “chai pani”). He called an associate for backup, since he wasn’t comfortable dealing with someone better educated and higher up than him, and the power thief doubled the offer to Rs 10,000. He found it funny that the man said such a large amount was for chai pani (roughly, a tip for tea and biscuits), said the man was visibly shaken and pleading to be let off, and that he was both disappointed that such a well educated person was resorting to theft, and afraid that he could find himself accused of accepting a bribe.

He filled out a report sheet with the thief’s confession that he had been stealing power for two months, got the man and his wife, and the building’s watchman to sign it and—I’m not sure I heard this right—accepted the bribe anyway since bringing one thief to justice wouldn’t make any difference to all the other stealing.

The shorting wire method doesn’t work with the newer meters. Instead, you get remote controls—like a TV remote (!)—that can be used to ‘rewind’ the meter. These units cost Rs 35,000 each and are popular with high power-consuming merchant establishments like jewellery stores. He told us of this market area in Pune (I can’t remember the name) where power theft is rampant, to the point where even pavement vendors steal.

MSEB has such a severe problem with meter tampering that they now use four different brands of meters, a different one for each society, and switch brands frequently. MSEB outsources some of its work (he said to “private lok”), but things like meter replacement are done in-house, and he’s one of the only four or five people who knows how to do this. Another picture.

Drum Circle meets every Friday 6 PM at Vaishwik art gallery in Aundh, Pune. Bring your own drum or pick up one of Dantus’s (red shirt), and drum away to nirvana. It’s good fun. My fingers are still aching.

This poster from the Red Cross urges medical practitioners to stop
abusing the Red Cross symbol. Text in bubble reads “Please use your
emblem, not ours.” Print at bottom says “Misuse Of Red Cross Emblem Is
Criminal Offence and Punishable Under the Law. (sic)” Who would
have guessed even this was copyrighted/trademarked?

urmila reports that Coffee Day is now selling branded
tender coconuts “ready to drink”.

This board is such a joy.

I wrote a short piece on blogging for The Hindu Literary Review. It’s in print today.

madrasi gave me only 800 words to contrast blogging with traditional media, but even at the final 1150, I felt cramped. Here is the online edition. (With a nod to Danny O’Brien’s public and private registers.)

All errors and glaring omissions are my fault. I can see one already, in that there is no mention of news blogs—the ones receiving the most mainstream media attention—being link-heavy. You don’t bother with proof of the authenticity of your quote; you just link to it. It’s a heck of a difference from how print media does it.

Update: Ack latelyontime for very useful feedback on the first draft.