"Misha" Childrens Magazine

Do you remember 'Misha' children's magazine?. I have a fond memory of reading the magazine sitting on the windowsill waiting for my parents to return home. After two decades I visited the store that sold these English language magazine published in Russia, there were no trace of any magazines. Sometimes you would see this magazines in secondhand book stores but that is very rare now.

Searching through the Internet, I found this blogger share a digital copy of the magazine. He writes in this post titled Remembering Misha

"Back in the 1980s, Misha (which translates to bear in Russian) was the most popular children’s magazine in India published in English. Within its glossy pages, you were treated to folk tales, science fiction, riddles, photographs,pen pal sections, puzzles and illustrations. As an added bonus, it smelled awfully good."

"Unfortunately the collapse of the USSR spelled death for many Soviet publishing houses (Raduga, Mir and others) and Misha soon became extinct."

According to few sources, the magazine continued to publish in Russian for long time after the collapse of the USSR. I reached out to the former editor of the magazine for confirmation.

Closing 'Upcoming Events' page

For many years now I had maintained a curated list of upcoming events on this blog. This was in response to problem of knowing what events are happening in South East Asia. Later I expanded the list to include events in Asia and Africa. The reason for this closing is due to problems with Lanyrd.com service that powered this events page. Perhaps one day I'll restart my curation of events when I find a suitable alternative service.

Oshin is back!

Did you watch Oshin the Japanese television drama growing up?. The story of seven-year old Oshin from an impoverished farming family sent to work as house maid caught the imagination of audience around the world.

Today the story is retold by Togashi Shin in Oshin(2012).

Enjoy the movie and don't forget to share your experiences here.

15 Pesos Please! Flying Cebu Pacific Air

Somewhere over the ocean, en route to Hanoi on Cebu Pacific Air. I woke up with a parched mouth. Careful not wake the sleeping passengers, I whispered to the flight attendant for a glass of water. In the soft glow of the cabin lights, the flight attendant looked angelic. She said in a sweet voice '15 Pesos Please'. Cut to reality, crammed in the middle seat and my wallet safely stowed in the overhead compartment, I just couldn't believe the absurdity of it.

Forget the dancing flight attendants (See it on Youtube) and rock bottom ticket prices. Without basic services like a free glass of water, you can't expect any brand loyalty. Budget airlines do have to walk a tight rope in these trouble times, but they can't be this frugal.

What is your take on this? Share your experiences on budget airlines.

The Search ends, Bastard Original Hacker TV Series

Few weeks ago I wrote on my blog Do you know this old TV Series about a hacker?. From the other side of the world Niko found the answer. This TV series called "Bastard (1989)" had started my fascination with computers decades ago.

Der Bastard (TV mini-series 1989) 

Niko found my blog post using google search engine and wrote this comment.

I remember watching this show as a kid in the 80's in Slovek TV, dubbed in slovak.

I remember a scene, where the main character is trying to hack into a computer with his Commodore 64 ans a vintage modem. As he tries to guess the password, he types in "bastard" and it works.

I think we're talking about the same show - because the dog in the main title is a bastard...

Gee I would LOVE to see it again, I just remembered it today and started googling... that's how I stumbled upon your blog.

As kids we knew about Brute-force attack. I used the method to guess our parents long distance Subscriber trunk dialing (STD) unlock code. Niko remembered the key detail of the show and correct password 'bastard' (amazing Niko!). Ten minutes later he found complete information about the TV show including the title track and few scenes from the TV show .

I found the show!!! It was called BASTARD, it was german, shot for the WDR german tv station.

Look at this! http://www.deutsches-filmhaus.de/filme_gesamt/s_gesamt/stark_ulrich.htm

there is an article in Der Spiegel magazine (in german) about the show here: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13495823.html

and this should be the title song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtI1Toq-N1A

And this is the imdb page for the series although the picture is not the right one I think... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096541.

Bavaria Media Television website provides further information about Bastard (1989) TV series.

Paul David, computer expert and ingenious hacker, is caught in the electronic meshes of a international data network and is confronted with criminals operating behind the scenes of a worldwide organisation, which uses the most modern communication technology for cleverly coordinated, criminal actions. Then Paul is suspected of double murder. When desperately trying to escape the noose he is surrounded by more and more people who obviously have the same aim in common: to catch him in a lethal trap. Only Dettmar Mushaake, expert for computer crime from the regional police department, seems to be on Paul's side - and, of course, Diddle, a mongrel who is anything but a lapdog. He tracks down ambushes, delivers messages and leads Paul's pursuers astray.

You can download full information about the show here.

Perhaps I should write to Bavaria Media Television to let them know that they have a cult classic, They might even consider a DVD release. :)

Do you know this old TV Series about a hacker ?

Update (20 Oct 2011) : Niko helped us find the answer to this question, read more about the search ends for the TV Show.

What has been your defining moment in life? It is a difficult question. Let me share one defining moment of my childhood. My fascination with computers started with a TV show about computer hackers on India's national television. It was dubbed in English, produced by some foreign (German?) television . I vividly remember the starting scene of the show with a dog running towards the screen, jumping over the opening credits of the TV show.

We'll the credits were actually in some foreign language. The characters looked like German to me, but I might be wrong. The name of show sounded something like 'Computer Spezialist'. The TV show was about a computer hacker who gets mixed up with some criminals who plan to rob a bank. The shows central character is a dog who lost its master in hands of these crooks. Does that ring a bell?

I remember looking up from the TV screen to ask my uncle 'How can this guy get into a bank using a computer?'. My uncle said banks in developed countries were all connected with phones and satellites. It seems so amazing to my young mind. In those days the TV had one channel and getting a telephone would mean 3 years of waiting-list and personal computers would cost an arm and leg.

Do you have any information about this TV series?. I would love to watch it again.

I couldn't find much information about this TV show on Internet except for this blog post. The comments on this blog post might give you more detailed description about the show.

Anonymous said...
It was very nice reading your blog. And you seem the right person to pose this question that i had for a long time -- do you happen to remember a German crime/thriller show that used come on DD1 sometime on Sat or Sun early evening (5 pm 'ish i guess) and involved some computer hacking as well ..and had a very nice soundtrack in its title song ..something involving these words - fighting for his life ..heart of stone. it does not seem Derrick, Der Fahnder, or Der Alte ..but i might be wrong as i really do not remember much ...except that i know the tune of the title song. thanks,

leoNYdassaid...
Yes I do remember that series and the catchy title music. I have vague memories about it since not many episodes were actually aired. It was a series about hacking and I am quite sure it's not German. Well I guess thats as much as I can remember.

asif said...
Dear leoNYdas
i m really thankfull to God ..i came across ur blog
i am desperate to find this tv episode-this wud fall under the categories(drama,thriller and suspense).the name of the series is Computer Specialst(the second word SPECIALIST was spelled differently so i guess this wud be some russian or some other language-european series)...the beginning of the series shows a little dog running towards the screen.the series has beautifull title song..bit metallic or rock ..
"Hearts of Stones".i can faintly remember the lyrics but heres wat i can recall the best
"hearts of stones..ready for hearts of stones ..there is one man....
compromise..."
also the main character i think is a hacker..and he gets in touch with the bad men...of these one the opposite lead character's name is Elizabeth..she is a european police officer..a female spying i guess.also the other names i can recall is Powell..a bald guy i think is the main villian.
the hacker stays with some lady called "teresa" if i m not wrong and is totally involved in computers...
there are few scenes i can recall: the one of bomb explosion ..they kept under the keyboard and the hacker is made to drive a car into some remote place .. a castle ..where the victim who survived the bomb has been under house arrest.
also the female police officer her name elizabeth(she speaks in some other language at times) in the series kills a man in the hotel room with cyanide (she breaks a bit of the cyanide from the pill and mixes it in the drink,she carries the cyanide pill in her finger ring,,,this was shown cleary).elizabeth also has a locket or necklace with the two letters EP...and when the hacker asks her wat does this stand for ..she replies Elizabeth Powell..to which the hacker replies that its European Police.
there is also one scene when a male police officer is hanging from the window from the hackers home and the bad guys are unaware of thi police officer hanging.
in some other episode a man is murdered who comes in to investigate..he orders the hacker to remove his trousers and the man is killed as some one pulls off the carpet beneath his legs and he dies instantly..later his body his dumped in some remote place wrapped in the same carpet he was standing on....and also when the other detectives arrives to investigate the matter ...a person walks in the room and brings in the carpet of same type and he says that he is a carpet cleaner....
plz mail to me as i believe this series was aired in the 1990s ..plzzz somebody help and if u recall these series and let me know-
thanking you

Abhishek said...
Nice Post..
can anyone recollect the name of another detective/thriller..again agerman serial..where the protagonist was a techie guy...it had a very good title track..

My Tamil Ponnu

What's with gals and gadgets? Ponnu takes a liking to my phone, snatches it from my hand and breaks into this wonderful laughter. Ponnu means 'girl' in tamil.

GISS Multimedia Workshop in Sarai , New Delhi

Audio/Video production is no longer done solely by the trained media professionals, even the ordinary folks with a computer and Free Software tools like Open Movie Editor and a cheap camera produce and publish content on wikis, forums, blogs and social networking sites like Friends Reunited, Facebook and eBay

If you are interested to join the new media wave, you should head to this one day Multimedia workshop at Sarai, CSDS New Delhi. The event is organised by G.I.S.S. project , ILUG-D, Freed.in and Sarai,CSDS on 11 Oct 2008

Workshop schedule

We will start at 11am, and continue till about 6-7pm, depending on the level of interest. Food, snakes, and chai will be provided.

Presentations by Yves from the G.I.S.S. collective:

• G.I.S.S. project, and live streaming: 1.5 h See, e.g., the distributed multimedia database
• Pure data, and computer vision: 1.5h See, Pure Data, and openCV

Other potential topics, from Niyam Bhushan's list in the multimedia section here:

• Edit, Produce and Publish Your Personal TV Programs on the Internet, with 100% FOSS.
• How To Forge A Career in Digital Creativity with FOSS: Graphic Design, New Media, Multimedia.
• Digital Photography Techniques using FOSS Software.
• Do-It-Yourself iPod-wannabe [self-assembled hard-disk in a multimedia USB casing].

My Niece Guna

Here is the new girl in my life, a great kisser, she shakes her booty to all my favorite songs and to top is all she shares my passion for gadgets.

Blogging The Blues Away

Few hours ago I watched the presenter of BBC 's Click TV show mention a Australian research report that says blogging can drive away blues. I guess he was referring to the story published in the latest issue of The journal CyberPsychology and Behaviour. The research compares the mental health of people intending to blog with that of people not planning to blog.

Over the last year I have been living in a place that is a far cry from the fast paced, multi-cultural city life I am used to and it has lead to a certainly degree of social isolation. It is perhaps writing this blog on a unpredictable wireless connection that really makes me feel less isolated. I am rather not sure that blogging can drive away blues but it does give some sense of belonging to my peer groups (read long-haired-smelly-nerds).