My respect for the Supreme Court of India has reduced somewhat [COMPACTIDEA]

I've long had a lot of respect for the Supreme Court of India. It has gone down somewhat. Two reasons:

1. Why does the Court think that there can't be corruption inside it? If someone alleges that there's corruption at the Supreme Court, and that certain judges there are corrupt, then instead of investigating the claims, the Supreme Court simply punishes the fellow for "contempt of court"? Smacks of arrogance. Supreme Court shouldn't behave as if it can't be touched and that it can't ever be even partially corrupt. Shouldn't be so short-tempered that anyone alleging anything against the Court immediately invites the Court's [arrogant] wrath. Is the Supreme Court trying to hide something? I personally believe that the possibility of corruption at Supreme Court cannot be ruled out [doesn't in itself imply that corruption necessarily exists there already, just means that the possibility of its existence there cannot be automatically ruled out].
2. Why has the Supreme Court issued a gag order, barring media from reporting any and all of Justice Karnan's statements? Is the Supreme Court afraid and trying to hide something? Does Justice Karnan's allegations of corruption indeed have legs? If so, the SC's desperate-looking actions seem to suggest so.

And my high respect for the Court has come down several notches.

*****

Update [12-Apr-18]: The Supreme Court, in its recent ruling, made it clear that it doesn't want transparency in how cases before it are allocated [to its various judges]. This is a serious violation by the Court itself of the Indian public's right to know how our top court works, and whether there's any corruption going on at the Court. Even the Court itself cannot be above the public it serves. Nor can the CJI be. The CJI is but a man like others, and it cannot and must not be assumed that he cannot ever be corrupt. It's possible that by carefully giving cases to different judges [based on their already known positions on different issues], the CJI, serving the Indian government, affects the outcome of these cases [likely as desired by the government], albeit while being able to claim plausible deniability.

I am VERY happy about the first flight of China's first strategic passenger aircraft, the Comac C919 [COMPACTIDEA]

Let the dogs bark. Let the Westerners claim that the Chinese copied their stuff [on the inside, they're quite nervous]. Let the critics complain that China is "late". Let the Whites point out that a lot of what's inside the C919 is Western made. Let them spew bullshit and try to spread FUD about this plane's quality/reliability/safety. They're nervous because their cozy and lucrative duopoly has seen the first serious threat in decades. I, for one, am happy about this first flight. It marks the arrival of China on the stage. The duopoly must be crushed. Airbus and Boeing are both instruments of the barbaric regimes of Europe and US. These must be crushed. Whether this is done by China or by Russia or by both working together, doesn't matter.

Windows 10 does not have respect for its users - it is designed to help and enrich Microsoft, even if this is at the cost of its users [COMPACTIDEA]

• Upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile on my Lumia 640 XL [from 8.1]. It said during update that "you'll find your data exactly where you left it". After update, lost all SMSes. What the hell is this? I had several very important SMSes [some of those related to business deals]. Microsoft folks should stuff Windows 10 Mobile disks into their asses.
• Even though I've properly configured my Windows 10 Mobile to not automatically restart if/when there are updates, today morning [3-May-17], when I woke up and swiped the screen open, there was a window with several sliders already in the "I agree" position. I felt surprised. What's this? One of the sliders was about sending Microsoft "diagnostic" information. Others were about sending to Microsoft what I type, what I speak, what URLs I visit, data on my usage of apps, where I travel, etc. Basically everything I do. All these sliders were pre-checked into the "I agree" position, and at the bottom was a single button "Accept". They know that most people will just push this button and rejoice! Telemetry begins to flow!
• But the key point here is that they restarted my phone without asking/telling me, closing all the open apps in the process. Again, little respect for the user, and concern only for MSFT's enrichment. I keep apps open as reminders sometimes. I don't remember now what was open. Data lost basically.
• I carefully placed the sliders into positions I deemed appropriate [balancing functionality and privacy], but as is well known, telemetry couldn't be turned off fully. Fuck you Microsoft.

Is Google's Android so much more popular than Apple's iOS? [COMPACTIDEA]

Looking at only the difference between the number of ratings/reviews of this app shows a clear difference - Android is at least 186 times more popular than iOS [forget everything else]. This is a staggering difference and it isn't good at all. Google having a near-monopoly on mobile operating systems is not and cannot be good for anyone except Google and CIA/NSA.

Examples of violations of net neutrality in India and abroad [COMPACTIDEA]

Airtel won't charge users any data for uploading content to its backup service.

Update [11-Sep-18]: It might seem/sound ludicrous at first, but if you think carefully about it, the way content delivery networks [CDNs] are used currently constitutes a violation of net neutrality. Not because they enable faster delivery of content, but because they enable faster delivery of only those services/websites which have the ability to pay to get on these faster lanes. Smaller outlets can't afford these high-speed lanes and have to provide a relatively inferior experience to their users. If these CDNs were speeding-up all content irrespective of its origin/source, then we could say that CDNs don't cause any violation of net neutrality.

There are idiots who go crazy over the closing of the financial year, 31st March [COMPACTIDEA]

Happens every year. I've seen it every time. These idiots go mad, as if resetting ledger balances to zero is a must at the end of a financial year [it isn't]. They'll call you repeatedly as if a mountain will break if we don't give/take cheques to reset the ledger balances. They'll send a small NEFT of INR ~5K-6K and then call you 10 times to confirm if you received it. Losers. Total losers. With no sense of accounting and more importantly no grand vision. Tied up in petty, meaningless issues. Will stay tied up in such nonsense shit throughout their worthless lives, devoid of any creation, innovation or deep thought.

Credit card is like a time machine - it shifts future incoming cash flows to the present [COMPACTIDEA]

Your money is coming on the 15th. Today is 2nd. You need it today. Solution? A credit card. It shifts future cash flows to the present. Like a time machine. As a bonus, it gives you discounts and/or redeemable reward points, plus an interest-free credit period. What's not to like here [if you stay disciplined]?

Explaining in four words, the US/UK ban on carrying electronics in aircraft originating from certain countries [COMPACTIDEA]

Emirates. Qatar. Etihad. Turkish.

Those four words explain it all. For this clearly protectionist move, national security is the convenient and unchallengeable excuse, as usual. Evidence, if any, is classified, as usual.

Manufacturers are adding colors, designs, graphics, patterns, textures, etc., in all products [COMPACTIDEA]

From refrigerators to washing machines to credit/debit cards to cars, it's raining colors everywhere.

Steps Mozilla must take to turbocharge Firefox's performance and take back share from Chrome [COMPACTIDEA]

• Use the best available compiler, and compile using optimum settings so as to produce an optimized build.
• Program and compile Firefox in a way that it starts fully utilizing all those dual and quad cores that are commonplace in desktop CPUs from Intel and AMD.
• Optimize the number of processes Firefox uses [Chrome goes to the extreme with separate process for each tab].
• Programming code overhaul is needed in the Firefox/Gecko code to improve rendering speed, reduce latency, consume less memory, scroll more smoothly, and so on.
• Ditch XUL and switch to pure native code.
• Utilize all those fancy instructions that AMD/Intel are rolling out in the newest processors. Why artificially handicap Firefox by not using all that's available in modern processors and operating systems?
• Utilize the GPU efficiently and fully [GPGPU]. This will provide the horsepower that will make Firefox fly.
• Defragment Firefox installation folder post install so that its launch isn't artificially slowed down.
• Of course, all of these optimized binaries need supporting software and hardware to run on. So there has to be a stub installer, which assesses the available hardware and software environment upon being launched [including 32-bit versus 64-bit], and pulls down those binaries from Mozilla's servers that are best-suited for each system. This of course means that Mozilla will now have to maintain multiple binaries. It'll be worth it though.
• Where Internet connections are fast, the binaries served should be optimized for performance, and not for size.

Update [2-Feb-17]: It seems it's possible to collapse/group the above points based on common themes. For example, one theme could be called Utilize All of the Available System Hardware and Software Resources Fully and Efficiently. This would include things like multi-core CPUs, utilizing special instructions in microprocessors, GPGPU, etc.