Cyberterrorism and Islam

"There are some governments in the world who encourage Muslim fundamentalism and that poses a grave cyberthreat to us."

For a minute, I lost what the professor said after this sentence. For a minute, I was imagining Osama and his henchmen hacking into servers from Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan. For a minute, I did not know if the professor was referring to white collared people being trained to 'do shit'; as they refer to it in America. Whatever he meant, I felt the urge to interrupt and correct his notion and not let the ignorant class be fed on inaccurate conclusions.

I spoke about India having the second largest number of Muslims in the world but none of them (except some Kashmiris) have been associated with al Qaeda. The slide spoke of Egypt, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. I think the prof got it wrong here. I told him that these countries were part of the more progressive Muslim nations and pointing them out as those spreading cyber terrorism would be inappropriate without mentioning others who do more of the same. He also spoke about Mubarak (of Egypt) being oppressive and that in these countries the governments were unpopular. Without realising, the professor had moved from cyberterrorism to politics. And here is where I stumped him (as I would like to believe); " Sir, how would you justify Musharraf in Pakistan, based on the arguments you present?"

I saw the iris growing short. He shot back," Oh, you are from India and you are preoccupied with Pakistan."

Well, maybe. But what about the point. He made some general points on how these Muslim nations are realising that getting the internet down would hurt American interests. But I am still not convinced.

"Sir, the term Muslim fundamentalism is being used too loosely in this class and I object to that."

I did not wish to argue with him on politics since I dont understand it in its entirity. But I dont agree with him on sweeping generalisations on Muslims and their countries in general. And I probably will not unless something dramatic takes place. Its not the truth. And making such statements in class is definitely not a part of the greater solution.

Plethora of events

Its been exactly a month later that I am posting on the blog. A month. 31 days. The last time I wrote, I was sitting in an air conditioned living room on a comfirtable couch sipping beer with CNN running in the background in Sterling. Today, I am sitting on the stairs of my apartment building after a tiring day at work trying to catch someone's wireless internet to check email. In the background, its ABC running on TV at Nicole's place and she is cooking something in a cooker for Frank, some friend of hers. I also hear the cars zip across Fifth Avenue and the tube light above me making a constant disgruntling noise.

Its been an eventful month. As I recall, my memory throws up the following events, quotes and mixed times.

I finished an exciting internship at Verisign. It was better than I thought it would be and I miss it now more than ever once I am back to Pittsburgh.

"I'll empty the bottle for you": A cop at Dulles Internation Airport after I suggested that he let me keep my bottle. I thought it was courteous of him to do so in the wake of global stringent measures on security and suspicion of brown people floating all around.

"Why would one come to Carnegie Mellon if one does not end up taking Operating Systems": Rhetoric by a junior sitting outside INI.

"Your lease expires today, not tomorrow. Empty the house by noon": My landlady to me. I thought it was more hilarious than serious as it was 11:30 am when this sentence was spoken. I ended up paying a huge amount as fine because we missed the deadline by 4 hours. Hell, where the f**k am I staying? Miss you India..

"That house is gone. You tried to negotiate the price. If you want a house, I suggest you take it right away coz they are going like hot cakes.": This happened a couple of times since I was looking to shift homes. Finally, I got a house on the fifth day of my search. Phew!

"Dude, should I buy a Dell or an IBM?": A junior giving me the specifications of the kind of computer he wanted to buy, and inturn, wanted 'me' to decide for him what 'he' should buy.

"You live only once. Spend it.": A friend trying to convince me to buy expensive posters rather than taking out prints of them. Thoughtful, but inappropriate for that moment.

"As I come back to an empty INI after a long summer, there comes the departmental cruise (http://www.ini.cmu.edu/orientation06/agenda.aspx; scroll down to the bottom). I am looking for a female dancing partner for the evening of 25th August, preferably between 20-24 years. I am not looking for the best dancer on the campus but instead one whom I can have a good time dancing and hanging out with. The cruise, dance, food and drinks are free for one guest allowed to accompany INI students. I am in Pittsburgh this week in case anyone wants to meet." : My post on cmu.misc.market. Unique. Daring. Foolish. Thats what some of my friends felt. "Ujjwal, dont worry. Even if you get one reply, its worth it!" , quipped Eric a couple of nights before the cruise at a local bar.

"Aherm. I have a friend who needs to get out more, but loves to go dancing. Not entirely certain whether she'll be back by Friday. She's pretty attractive, I'd say. Could you send me your picture, and then I could forward it to her, and see how comfortable she'd be going with you?": One of the replies. Apparently, the person who was suppose to go did not make it to Pittsburgh on Friday. Sigh!!

"well - just _maybe_ it's your choice of background for the photo on the front page. You just know how those good time female dancing partners just love statues with big boobs.": Another reply by a girl. This one was posted on the mailing list itself in response to the pic of my webpage.

"Next year I will follow you on your foot steps and dance with Americans": A junior coming upto me while we were disembarking from the clipper cruise. I had a blast dancing with most of the girls present.

"She said you are the best Indian she has ever met. Go for her!": An INI friend who was replying to my doubts regarding his cousin when I acknowledged that I was "trying to" hit on her after a party.

"I will watch your blog, and when i develop the self-discipline to have my own, i will let you know where it is. In the mean time, good luck in finishing you studies, and more luck in seducing western girls.": A friend from Verisign in his parting letter.

Amongst other events

• I am now a part of a small sect of students (mostly from School of Computer Science) who call themselves the generalists. We meet every Tuesday for coffee or a movie (alternate weeks) and discuss anything and everything under the sun. Yesterday was my first day and the topics ranged from Hindu and Indian culture, dowry in India, sex and kamasutra, speaking Russian and other languages and how tough they can be, the origins of coffee and many others.
• My webpage had seen 290 hits since january this year. After I posted on misc.market about wanting a date, I got 241 hits in a week (19+60+50+51+40+12+9). Thats more than what my website saw in the last 7 months. The grand total is now at 638 with about 5 hits a day on average nowadays.
  
• My blog is also seeing a lot of traffic. In the first month of my tracking ( 16 July- 16 August) I got 288 unique visitors to read my mind. Today, the count is at 381 (in 50 days of tracking, thats about 7 hits a day from unique users).
  
• I finally am a teaching assistant at CMU. Beginning middle of this month, I would assist Chris Prosise and Will Chan in the Hacking Exposed course.
• My first credit card arrived this last weekend. Finally..
• I spent almost half a day playing with Simon, Nicole's pet cat, on Sunday. Nicole is an amazing lady staying right next door and I hope our budding friendship grows stronger.
• The Steelers start their campaign tomorrow. I hope we break the losing streak of the pre season games.
• I am enjoying my workload and the CS/SEI classes are really amazing. I guess I am enjoying school more than ever after coming back from my internship.
• I kicked Amit so hard on his birthday (and I was the only lucky one to do so) that he had the pain throughout the day.
• Got into a fight/heated argument with some graduate student representative at the Docks club trying to defend a friend who had been ill treated by the bar tender. I have to meet the dean of Carnegie Mellon tomorrow to discuss the incident. God, save me!
  

What else? Pittsburgh is getting colder by the day. And my ass is really paining now sitting on this wooden step for the past hour and a half. Gotta run..