Chairman, UID Authority, Nandan Nilekani, of Infosys fame, has just
announced that we are entering "uncharted territory" in technology,
and that it is a "technological challenge" to get the Unique ID scheme
working. What the f*** is this idiot talking about? And why isn't he
getting fired?
He spat all this to that other idiot Karan Thapar on TV - that we are
technologically challenged and going into uncharted territory in
collecting biometric information of a billion people and putting them
all in an online database. Karan Thapar for his part had to ask the
stupid question, "Isn't this a case of India's ambition outstripping
its ability?". Well, duh! Has our ability every outstripped our
ambition? Has anybody's? Nilekani assured us that this has never
been done before, and I wonder why he would be given the job if it
had. Where do we get these freaks from?
The "Uncharted territory" claim is a complete lie. Biometric
information is not some three hundred years into the future technology
in development and testing. The USA has been collecting it during
the visa process from every human applying for entry into the USA for
a few years now and storing it online for verification at the port of
entry. Two birds with one stone - collecting information is not such
a big deal, and putting it online for access from all over the world
is also not a big deal. There is a proven working model here! Even putting a probe on the moon was not uncharted territory!
How the heck can this be a technological challenge either? The process involves a retina scan, and a fingerprint scan, usually of the index finger. The chance of two people having the same
information is virtually non existent, and so this is considered very safe for
identification purposes. Once these two scraps of information go
into a database as THE identification parameters for ONE specific
person, it is accessible just like accessing your e mail, from
anywhere in the world. You cannot have two people with the same
information, and when you present your retina and your fingerprint
anywhere in the world, all we need to do is see if it matches the
information on file. That's it!
So that leaves us with numbers. If this works for millions of people,
why can't it work for a billion? Absolutely no reason it cannot.
Once we figured out how to lay a tar road from point A to point B,
would we really be stumped by having to connect point C? Probably
not. Once we figured out how to put a few sacks of rice in a truck
and send it out on one of these roads, would it be a challenge to fill
up a second truck with sugarcane and send it out? Probably not.
Ten people or ten billion people, same process. There are enough and
more places to store digital information these days and this won't
even take a fraction of the space Google offers free to its free e
mail users. Clearly, numbers and resources, no issues.
So, what is this idiot Nilekani talking about? Does he want this
merely time consuming process to sound like this is some breakthrough
pioneering invention in the making? He is either drunk or stupid on
this one. He can certainly be fired on the latter. If the Chairman
of such an ambitious and potentially crucial government program is so
out of sorts with even the most fundamental, layman expressions to
describe it, is this the best guy we could get for the job?
If a bunch of identification candidates closed their eyes during the retina scan, that
might be an issue, but that's hardly technological like Nikelani would
have us believe. Oh yes, this may really be a bit of a challenge if
one whole tribe of Indians doesn't have index fingers but we can
always agree to use the middle finger in that case. That wouldn't be
uncharted territory either.
announced that we are entering "uncharted territory" in technology,
and that it is a "technological challenge" to get the Unique ID scheme
working. What the f*** is this idiot talking about? And why isn't he
getting fired?
He spat all this to that other idiot Karan Thapar on TV - that we are
technologically challenged and going into uncharted territory in
collecting biometric information of a billion people and putting them
all in an online database. Karan Thapar for his part had to ask the
stupid question, "Isn't this a case of India's ambition outstripping
its ability?". Well, duh! Has our ability every outstripped our
ambition? Has anybody's? Nilekani assured us that this has never
been done before, and I wonder why he would be given the job if it
had. Where do we get these freaks from?
The "Uncharted territory" claim is a complete lie. Biometric
information is not some three hundred years into the future technology
in development and testing. The USA has been collecting it during
the visa process from every human applying for entry into the USA for
a few years now and storing it online for verification at the port of
entry. Two birds with one stone - collecting information is not such
a big deal, and putting it online for access from all over the world
is also not a big deal. There is a proven working model here! Even putting a probe on the moon was not uncharted territory!
How the heck can this be a technological challenge either? The process involves a retina scan, and a fingerprint scan, usually of the index finger. The chance of two people having the same
information is virtually non existent, and so this is considered very safe for
identification purposes. Once these two scraps of information go
into a database as THE identification parameters for ONE specific
person, it is accessible just like accessing your e mail, from
anywhere in the world. You cannot have two people with the same
information, and when you present your retina and your fingerprint
anywhere in the world, all we need to do is see if it matches the
information on file. That's it!
So that leaves us with numbers. If this works for millions of people,
why can't it work for a billion? Absolutely no reason it cannot.
Once we figured out how to lay a tar road from point A to point B,
would we really be stumped by having to connect point C? Probably
not. Once we figured out how to put a few sacks of rice in a truck
and send it out on one of these roads, would it be a challenge to fill
up a second truck with sugarcane and send it out? Probably not.
Ten people or ten billion people, same process. There are enough and
more places to store digital information these days and this won't
even take a fraction of the space Google offers free to its free e
mail users. Clearly, numbers and resources, no issues.
So, what is this idiot Nilekani talking about? Does he want this
merely time consuming process to sound like this is some breakthrough
pioneering invention in the making? He is either drunk or stupid on
this one. He can certainly be fired on the latter. If the Chairman
of such an ambitious and potentially crucial government program is so
out of sorts with even the most fundamental, layman expressions to
describe it, is this the best guy we could get for the job?
If a bunch of identification candidates closed their eyes during the retina scan, that
might be an issue, but that's hardly technological like Nikelani would
have us believe. Oh yes, this may really be a bit of a challenge if
one whole tribe of Indians doesn't have index fingers but we can
always agree to use the middle finger in that case. That wouldn't be
uncharted territory either.
