Ghost of A Machine: ATM Blues

Last Saturday was going to be the quintessential super Saturday. I planned thus. First thing in the morning, I'd get the hell outta house, goto university labs, meet up with the top engineer in my project team, talk, get stuff done, by which time another top man from another campus would've joined us. Then we'd go out and spend the better part of the day doing life-is-good stuff like gadget shopping, eating out and going to movies. But ole Murph was to raise 'is ugly head.

To do stuff, one needs money. So I headed up the small hill towards Sri Lanka's richest state-owned bank, where I proudly bank my fortunes. Pant upto the ATM. No one in sight cause it's still a bit early. Pop in my card. Aaah, life is good.

The ATM asked me to punch in my PIN, which I sleepily did. Then, it asked me the service and the amount, which I promptly punched in. Then, after all this, it suddenly says, “Transaction Cannot Be Completed: Invalid PIN!!”

Now wait one darn minute. Wrong PIN? Okay, but why not tell me the second I punch it in? why say after all this? Typical girl. I'm a Web engineer by day job, and my code would tell you the second you enter wrong authentication information. Period. That's the way I've used to get machines work. Are ATM's engineered along a different philosophy? or is this darn slimeball broken? I punch cancel, get the card out, and then try again. The same story. Did I change my PIN? Negative, if yeh ask me. I don't remember changing the PIN, not really. Actually, once in a blue moon I've used that ATM system. What could be wrong? And my super Saturday was tapping its foot impatiently.

OK, this might be broken. I didn't like the look of the machine even. It was, well.. hah. Even the by-screen buttons were out of alignment with the screen. I had to count the options from bottom, and again count the buttons from the bottom to find the right button for an option. Fine, try the next town.

There stuff look like a bit matching to the Richest State Bank thing. The ATM machine is crisp and new, there's music blaring in the cubicle, and I pop in the card. Grr. Same story. Get my card, show me her everything, ask me everything, and then say the PIN is wrong. Try a second time, and super Grr. She decided to retain my card.

I'm positive for about 99.9% that I didn't change the PIN. Usually I don't use the card. The account was operated by my dad usually, and I know he doesn't know how to change the PIN and let's face it, dads aren't that tech savvy. What he does everytime he forgets it is ask me the number and I give it.

From all state banks like Peoples' and Ceylon, NSB is humane. The service is better markedly I think. But the ATM is kaput I think. Perhaps the database is corrupt. I wonder what they use. Perhaps the IBM iSeries and DB2? Most banks use it. It's reliable, but I can't be too sure till I go pit my wits one-on-one against their IT division and get the thing sorted out. Let battle commence!

The Big MiG Deal

Latest MiG-29 version, OVT.

I've been thinking about this MiG-29 deal which seems inevitable now, and looks like would happen within weeks considering the situation. If the reports I hear are correct, the GoSL is to purchase upto 4 MiG-29 Fulcrum jets along with a lease option of a trainer. Thinking of the cost of a Fulcrum which is around US$15-20 million, this is no bullock-cart purchase. This purchase is vital to national security, and air defence fighters and associated weaponry cost. A lot. And currently I don't think US$s is the thing SL has got most of. That exactly is why the AF people should have spent several nights up analyzing all options before stumbling upon this. I hope they did so.

I'm not against the MiG-29 as a jet. It's an awesome piece of military jet. But the thing is MiG's have not been put against this kind of challenge anywhere in the world yet. Actually, NO Fulcrum has shot down another aircraft in anger for all these years [service entry 1983], but it's considerable that 12 MiG-29's have been so far shot down in various theaters [by F-15s and 16s, most]. Soundbite for people who chant about it's superiority. We can't afford to test aircraft, but that's only one point of the story.

If I were given the chance, what I would spend money mainly on is, getting the thing done with available assets and very importantly, keeping the aircraft at at least 10-15 minute high alert status. This costs serious money. And that was what we didn't have or the last four times we got bombed. Keep aside air-to-air combat, we couldn't scramble even a kite atleast to track down the terrorist aircrafts' operating bases. And I'm serious when talking about 'available assets'. We already have aircraft with more-than enough performance to counter the threat posed. I would see about upgrading Kfirs and F-7's Since we're short of time as well, being able to field the weapons fast is VERY important. And we've been flying these jets for ages. Kfirs are combat proven and have confirmed arial kills to their credit in South American hands. Our pilots know how to waltz them upstairs, and our engineering wings know how to maintain them. By talking with Pakistan about F-7's and Israel Aircraft Industries about the Kfir, we could've got it done. Was that an option?, or was that simply wasn't cause it wouldn't pour commissions into someone's pocket? Now this advantage can't be won with a completely new and sophisticated type like Fulcrum without putting a lot of cash and mistakes down the drain. And for crying out loud, WE NEED THAT CASH and we can't afford MISTAKES!!

There's one issue though. It might prove difficult, or almost impossible to use guns and heat homing missiles against Tiger aircraft respectively because they operate very close to ground at night at very low speeds and the thermal signature of a light aircraft piston engine is very low. The missile would be VERY confused if they use any kind of IR countermeasures. So some kind of radar-guided weaponry is required. In this sense the Fulcrum has got what the doctor ordered. But I think the best option we'd have bought is upgrading the Kfirs. It could've been cheaper still even we bought four dedicatedly air-to air configured Kfirs from IAI, who would've gotten it done easily [I wonder whether the Palestine-keen Mahinda administration got the Israelis sour as well]. If someone thought Kfirs and F-7 fleets were aging, why not opt for less sophisticated, low-cost and to-the-point Chinese defence interceptors like JF-17 of JHC-7 Flying Leopard? The rest of the money can be well spent on better ground-based radar-aided fire control systems and most importantly, keeping the bought jets in at least a 10-minute scramble-ready status.

All in all, what can be seen is that the MiG deal is just overweight. I just wonder how long we'd be able to keep them operational. Remember Bangladesh buying Sukhois [-24s I guess]? Perhaps the Tigers would wait till we run about mad and run out of money, and then resume their night visits. And sensing the AF disregarded the well-valued option of upgrading/buying already combat proven and familiar Kfirs, perhaps there's a big under-hand deal here as well, as the case was for all military deals in the past. I don't think under-hand, big-commission deals are easy if you deal straight with Israel Aircraft Industries or Chinese state aircraft corporations.

US$ 80 million. Better used mending Colombo's overflowing gutter system than wasted on unmanageable ultra-sophisticated Fulcrums. And what about the peace process now? Are we going to finish this by war, or what? Mahinda, PLEASE stop and think if you're for the country truly.

Just Unjust: Story of an Innocent in Death Row

Today while watching CNN I saw the touching story about a young girl in Baghdad death row. She had been convicted for a crime she had not committed. Her boyfriend had killed her wealthy uncle and her cousin, and the police had arrested her and tortured her and taken a forced statement out of her. Her parents were also interviewed by CNN. Her dad has sold everything he had in the battle to save his daughter. Previously also Iraqi police had taken forced statements out of women, after torturing them and raping them. In this girl's case, the court had refused even to listen to what she had to say, and just convicted her guilty only by the statement the police had gotten out of her. She had been having a cordial relationship with the cousin she is convicted to have murdered. Afterwards she had started an affair with this boy, and he had done the murders when she had visited her uncle with him. And after the forced conviction of her, today she is in an Iraqi prison in death row, unsure whether she'd be able to see sunrise tomorrow.

Her parents have done almost everything they can, and even written to Iraqi president asking for a pardon. Her lawyer says now everything legally possible is closed, and unless any new groundbreaking evidence surface, her fate is technically sealed.

It's so so tragic, to get hold of someone and torture them senseless and get some statement out of them, and then convict them even without hearing what they have to say and send them to death. This is practically the situation here in Sri Lanka as well, only here the person sometimes faces death even before producing before courts, like in that situation when an innocent balloonman was convicted by police to have called a school. This is the peril of having the death sentence in force, cause there always will be the risk of convicting an innocent person to an irrevocable punishment. I think the death penalty is the ultimate state-induced violation of human rights. Any country with death penalty in force has a regime which fundamentally refuses human rights. Killing a person who has killed doesn't do any good, if you ask me. There should indeed be another perspective to look at other than this pre-human ape-like one. There should always be another solution.

Until such humane solution is universal, until we ourselves tame and become humans, stories like the one of the Iraqi girl I mentioned will always be heard. This is only one: there must be many other innocents who were wrongly convicted and executed, cause them and only them would have know that they're innocent. There should be a stop to this. A judicial system cannot 'see-through' a person, just rely on evidence, which can prove very wrong.

Still her parents have hope. She has hope, till her heart beats. Womens' Rights Organizations there are working hard to get her verdict reconsidered. But in reality it's uncertain, cause she has already been convicted.

I wish she would be ok. I sincerely do. I hope you would, too.

State of the Air Force

Now the Air Force has been caught practically 'pants down'. The Tiger air wing has bombed four times and got away safely, and SLAF couldn't scramble as much of a firework rocket to intercept. If the Air Force was proper, Tigers would have been detected and shot down the first time they got airborne. But now they have attacked four times with a high degree of success. What is the AF doing?

The Air Force has been spending or improper arms deals, focusing only on commissions and not proper equipment of force for years. The Air Force was recommended to obtain night flying capabilities about 5 years back, but nobody had looked into it. But we have invested in huge amounts on now non-flying assets such as the two C-130 transport jets. Obtaining MiG-27's was also a pathetic wastage of cash, which could've gone in proper upgrading of effective Kfir jets, perhaps getting night and some air-to-air capability. It was known from years that the Tigers were building airstrips and were obtaining air force capabilities. To say the AF was 'not ready' is, again, pathetic, isn't it? I wonder what the hell they were doing. And now, after years of corrupt deals and doing nothings, what we're left with is an Air Force that cannot protect Sri Lankan airspace.