Moderate magnitude 5.6 earthquake in San Francisco Bay Area

Just experienced a moderate intensity earthquake here - I was watching the end of the democratic presidential debate - nothing earth shaking there - so I was kinda surprised when the earth literally started shaking :-)

I think this was the biggest shaker that I've felt here in the Bay area - during my 8 years here. But really, out here in Fremont, it was mostly exciting than frightening. I guess small shakers like this might actually do some good - in that they remind us to be prepared for the big one. I guess emergency kits will be flying off the shelves at various Bay Area stores in the coming days.

Brand new ghosttowns - fallout of the downturn in house prices

Once the buyers bid on the houses - 10% over the listing price - in a not so distant past - do you remember the time? Well, they are bidding again - starting at half off list price!

Be worried, be very worried - this one's a hundred miles away from Bay Area - but I won't be surprised if this starts hitting closer to home in the coming months. Specially since any economic recovery isn't likely to happen till a new administration takes charge in 2009 - and then it won't happen overnight.

Click here for the story from Mercury News.

Sensitive data dumped at recycling center by Indian Consulate in San Francisco

As if the incident itself was not bad enough, the consulate officials went on to put their proverbial feet in their mouths with quotations like:

- "As we see it, the documents are not confidential," said B.S. Prakash, the consul general. "We would see something as confidential if it has a Social Security number or a credit card number, not a passport number."

- At the Indian Consulate, Consul General Prakash said there may be a cultural dimension to the level of outrage related to the incident among Western visa applicants.
"In India, I would not be alarmed," he said. "We have grown up giving such information in many, many places. We would not be so worried if someone had our passport number."

- Deputy Consul General Sircar said that in other countries, Indian officials are able to go to the roofs of their offices and burn documents they're no longer able to store.
"In America, you cannot do that," he said.

At a time when Indian IT and BPO companies are going out of their way to assure their customers that their intellectual property, customer data and other confidential information is secure with them, this will come as quite a shock.

But to blame it on Indian culture is outright dumb. We expect much better judgment from our foreign service officials.