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Corruption is a very minor issue in Indian society compared to
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/03touch.htm

Some things are legitimately kept secret for a reason. Others, not so much. Wikileaks doesn't concern itself with the difference.

Which is why Wikileaks offered to negotiate with the US government over redactions? To which the US government responded that they shouldn't have to negotiate that they wanted all of it to remain secret.

Keep in mind that it takes at least two to negotiate, and if one party flat out refuses you've got limited options. You can give in, release everything or do your best to handle it responsibly. The third case seems most closely related to what they've done.

rediff. There are probably better sources, but this is what I've seen elsewhere. Note the passage starting at the fourth paragraph.

"You have chosen to respond in a manner which leads me to conclude that the supposed risks are entirely fanciful and you are instead concerned to suppress evidence of human rights abuse and other criminal behaviour," Assange said.

We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained US government classified materials, Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser, State Department said in a letter to Jennifer Robinson, Attorney for Julian Assange, WikiLeaks.

This was in response to the communication from WikiLeaks a day earlier in which the whistle blower website informed the US about its intentions to publish classified US government documents.

China refused US proposal capping the ratio of current account balances to four per cent of a nation's GDP.
http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/nov/12/china-opposes-us-proposal-to-cap-current-account-balances.htm

Here: http://members.rediff.com/eggo/viruspascal.htm This is a really simple virus that you could use. Sorry the page is in portuguese, but the code itself is easy to understand.

850 million people in India do not have any bank a/c
Are you interested in starting a no-frills net-bank in India.

Not to mention the fact that China is building sub bases along with nuclear subs like there is no tomorrow which makes a China meltdown even scarier. Could it be they are getting ready in case they feel the need for some lebensraum? I don't know, but I bet if China suffers a major economic meltdown it really won't be pretty.

But I wonder how much of this locking down the resources is for economic reasons, and how much is for military use? I'm sure every one of those minerals has a military as well as green use and with them building up their military like mad I wouldn't be surprised if they are locking it down to make it easy to divert supplies to the military as needed.

India seems to have come to the complete opposite conclusion with their thorium reactor.

It makes sense too, given that thorium requires no pre-processing and produces reactor-grade Uranium as its primary byproduct. By using the Uranium as well (which they have found difficult to import) they extend the life of the cores out to two years, which is practically unheard of.

Check http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/03touch.htm They are the best in spreading venom in the society.

Let me reveal you a little secret.
Whenever you see Hindu or Hinduism read it as Caste or Casteism aka Racism.
US Congress Resolution
UNHRC Resolution
Prime Minister of India

Let me reveal you a little secret.
Whenever you see Hindu or Hinduism read it as Caste or Casteism aka Racism.
US Congress Resolution
UNHRC Resolution
Prime Minister of India

Exactly. For e.g. 85% Indians do not have any Bank Accounts.

In India alone 85% ie 850 million of them do not have Bank Accounts.

Are we educational institutions or placement agencies?

I pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.
But almost all Indian politicians (Sonia, Maya, Jaya, Pawar, Lalu, Advani etc) are unpatriotic and evade taxes by concealing their wealth.
India's richest sportsman Sachin Tendular shamelessly evaded taxes when he imported Ferrari sports car. And Amitabh Bachchan, century's best living actor on the planet as per BBC, evades taxes by claiming that he is a FARMER.
http://business.rediff.com/report/2009/jun/25/bcrisis-only-84000-dollar-millionaires-in-india.htm

Banks in India also say NO to stock markets

Instead of wasting $2 billion tax payers money on this UID project, Govt of India should have compulsorily issued PASSPORTS to all Indians at a nominal fee of 10 rupees, OR could have created bank accounts for Indians because 85% of them do not have them.

California Uses More Gas than China http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/amazing-stat-ca.html http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jul/23look.htm just think about it..

My laptop: Fry
Wife's: Leela
Wife's old laptop: Amy
Printer: Zoidberg (dispenses ink)
Router: Bender ("bends" packets)
OLPC XO Laptop: Kiff (both small and green)
Car: Planet Express Ship (with which the 2006 Honda Civic shares a striking resemblance)
Cat: Zapp (cavalier, not too bright, doesn't wear pants).

I've been told by wifie that future pet names will include "Nibbler" and "Scruffy".

In India, we have thousands (literally) of kids graduating with computer engineering degrees every year. Now, the thing is, a lot of these degrees are pretty useless since the college/university that issued them is basically a money making machine, and nothing else.

However, there are a bunch of good places that produce very good engineers. The Indian Institutes of Technology are the most well known, but there are some others that are equally good (some of the top Regional Enginnering Colleges, and so on)

I think it boils down to numbers. Say we have 30,000 comp sci grads every year. Now say 60 percent of them are hacks who know nothing much and are only good for repetitive code work and stuff like that. 20 percent will be quite good, easily as competent as a good programmer in the US or wherever. 10 percent will be skilled at code and other stuff like management, the types who end up heading into upper management, 8 percent will be very good, and 2 percent will be fantastic.

The 2 percent mostly heads off to MIT, or CMU, or $TOPSCHOOL to do an MS or a Phd, but that still leaves a pretty substantial number of good people.

Now, when you realize that 30,000 is a low estimate, since the acutal figure is 175,000 (source: http://www.timesascent.co.in/index.aspx?Page=article&sectid=2&contentid=20080930200809301249051997b5b53a, and http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/jun/09bspec.htm ) you begin to see that while we do have a huge number of terrible programmers, we have a pretty good talent pool too. It's all about the numbers!

Anatomy of Satyam fraud http://www.rediff.com/money/satyam.html?zcc=rl

1. Ramalinga Raju has siphoned away $7 billion of Satyam cash.
2. Most of this money landed in foreign banks through Hawala channels.

And the most surprising aspect till date is none of these Satyam Directors and Employees http://www.satyastory.com/ have filed a formal complaint with police (satyam@cid.gov.in)

Satyam Directors
Ram Mynampati
Vinod Dham
Mangalam Srinivasan
Vadlamani Srninavas
Rammohan Rao
Krishna Palepu
V.S. Raju
T.R. Prasad

where a technical person is managed by a non-technical person who has a limited at best understanding of what the techies do.

Have you guys seen Satyam fiasco in India? http://www.rediff.com/money/satyam.html?zcc=rl

The only suicide bomber ever caught alive was in Bombay, where the brave police of DB Marg police station simply lunged at them:

Ombale rushed to secure him when the terrorist started pumping away with the AK-47. Call it guts or instinct but Tukaram Gopal Ombale refused to let go of his assailant. I am told that something like 30 bullets were recovered from his body.

Feel free to be afraid of being in India for all you want; that's your right. Feel free to give us suggestions on how to deal with the situation (although, I'm not sure how carrying guns would help in a situation where everyone's jumping nervously when a metal detector goes off). Feel free to accuse them of corruption and a general lack of weaponry, among other things. But don't, DON'T, ever question the bravery of the Mumbai police; there was some extreme heroism on display on those three nights there. I'll trust my life with these people before any armed band of vigilantes in Smalltown, US.

Funny because it's true, Steve Jobs is Disney's largest shareholder and is a member of the board of directors.

• Corruption: It exists everywhere, true. However Bribe Payers Index and Corruption Perceptions Index, and something rediff calls Integrity Index seem to point to a relative abundance of corrupt people here.
• Secular credentials: You will find it hard to prove this to me when there is religious violence all across the nation, when the society is caste-ridden, and when governments stand by and let innocents from one particular ethnic group be killed (as in Gujarat, Orissa, - and though this was 20 years ago, in Delhi). This is a bold faced lie, sir. In some places people are talking about 'anti-conversion laws'!
• Democracy: Ballot box stuffing, poll booths run over by 'activists', poll violence. These are things that are normal in a properly running constitutional democracy?

I find this "I love my country" nonsense revolting. We'll never fix a problem we cannot see. Call it what it is, every time some large scale failure happens, people like you come out the woodwork and paper over the flaws. It's okay, you say, we're Indians, we have the spirit to rebuild. Well, I'm an Indian, and I'm tired of pretending it's all fine.

The problem is that many communists identify free software as aligned with their communist ideals, since it is competing against the bourgeois American Microsoft Corporation and others. That simply isn't true, since Free software is about freedom and not fighting the capitalists.

I have lived in Kerala for 21 years, and found the communists the most despicable political group. What they try to do in infiltrate every movement or group, and try to push ideology.

We have full fledged political organizations, even in junior school (5th Grade! when students are 11 years old). They have "strikes" and "boycotts" in school, and it is just unbelievable.

Of course, if things don't work out the full "force" of the organization comes to play. That includes murder, and the police machinery.

I have never really supported the Boycott Novell thing, and still believe Novell makes a lot of contributions.

I feel sorry for my state, it is just a horrible mess now.

http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/sep/29banks.htm

85% of population in India do not have any bank accounts. http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/dec/01guest3.htm

http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/oct/16sd1.htm

386 crore, from http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/18sd3.htm

"Chandrayan, which is being launched at a total cost of Rs 386 crore, is also scheduled to carry 11 payloads, which would include those from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Sweden, Japan, Germany and Bulgaria. "

The best way to offer scientific "proof" is to set a controlled experiment. That is, an experiment that can be repeated as many times as desired, and in which all the independent variables can be controlled. With the Earth, we have only one chance. The closest we can get to "proof" is the fact that increasing levels of carbon dioxide causing global temperatures to rise was predicted over fifty years ago. The best climate models we have today and the data we've collected indicate that this is in fact what is happening and will continue to happen. Moreover, the models predict increased severity of hurricanes and droughts. I'm not sure how many people have to die before you'll admit there's "harm in the long run." Care to give us a number?

Has anyone tried these?

Mobile with TV tuner, FM, Dual SIM support, with a spare battery, touch screen with stylus, double speakers for stereo, 256 MB memory expandable, USB, Bluetooth, video and voice recording, MP3, MP4 playback support, handwriting recognition etc for around USD 120/- to USD 140/?
http://shop.rediff.com/shop/searchv3.jsp?Query=tv&catid=576&level=2&frompg=tv_search

Or this:
http://www.uk2usa.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=ZTC838

Would anyone here have any experience using phones like these?

And the increased viability of alternative fuels seems to be a playing a role in scaring the Saudis into ramping up production.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=2d28012e-0cc1-4ac2-ad09-2b74a27953ac&ParentID=decfe71c-4d4c-4b8b-9db8-145faf7ce6d6&MatchID1=4619&TeamID1=3&TeamID2=4&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1163&MatchID2=4617&TeamID3=3&TeamID4=4&MatchType2=1&SeriesID2=1163&PrimaryID=4619&Headline=Tata+launches+its+Rs+1+lakh+car%3B+calls+it+Nano Tata also said "Nano" fully meets safety and emission standards and had passed the full frontal crash test, besides meeting the Euro-IV emission norms. http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jan/10tata4.htm

• 33 HP 660 cc gas engine. Also a 700 cc diesel option. (4)
• 80 mph top speed (4)
• single windshield wiper blade as a "cost-saving measure"(2)
• Four doors (4)
• 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) per liter. Call it 60 mpg using company supplied numbers(3)
• Picture here maybe with an scanned in article about it listing engine options

In older days, his father Amar Bose's company was made possible because MIT let him have the patent for nothing. Now that Amar is (presumably) a billionaire from his high profit-margin products that gross $600 million a year, he has donated $6 million back to MIT. Whether or not that is generous, given that MIT made it all possible, is a matter of opinion I suppose.

For those who think the Boses should have owned the patents on their technologies outright, and not MIT, it is a complicated issue. I don't know about the Bose's particular cases, but keep in mind that usually PhD theses are not developed in a vacuum: ideas are discussed, topics are suggested, usually the thesis advisor is interested in the topic if not actively working on it already, there is a support staff to help develop it, etc.

You're both right. However, Information Technology Year was also 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2006.

Merely having freedom of speech in the constitution is meaningless. Have you seen the uproar whenever anyone writes or produces anything controversial? How about the banning of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses because it would offend the Muslim minority? How about the moral police that comes out ever so often over ridiculous issues?

Or the very recent Orkut case that went all the way to Parliament, wasting precious time when we have a million more important matters to discuss?
Or-scariest of all, the IT Act of 2000. One of the provisions of the act is to allow the police to search or arrest any individual without a warrant, at the same time giving the govt. and its officers immunity from prosecution in case they made a mistake with respect to said individuals.

How come no one's talking of freedom of speech during such times? What's the use of having these rights in the constitution if no one is going to bother when they are violated??
Freedom is binary-you either have it or you don't. Freedom 'subject to the following terms and conditions' is an oxymoron. (I'm not claiming that the US is any better, they've had their own record of violations)
Going by what you've said, Americans could do the same, sit back on their asses and turn a blind eye to whatever's going on there-be it the debate on net neutrality, or evolution vs. 'intelligent design' and so on. Democracy is something that has to be protected and upheld by citizens, once you allow a legal precedent to ban something because someone gets offended, there's no looking back. In India, given the small proportion of population that is educated and affluent (the fact that we're both posting here puts us firmly in this bracket), it is sad that no one is protesting against these things(yup, this again includes me).

This recent article discusses an interesting paradox India is in: It will have high unemployment among the educated, but only because those educated are not skilled enough to perform the required jobs (including, but not limited to, IT). The point is that India will not be able to come close to meeting the demand of an estimated workforce shortage of 40 million by 2012.

There's a reason I moved to Canada. Not that it is wildly better or all that different, or even free of major stupidity and scandal, but it seems to be largely (but not completely) free of retarded hatefilled shitbags. And while the gov't has a deeper hand on things here, one would expect boneheaded nanny state nonsense like the legislation in TFA from Canada, not from the USA. OH, how times have changed... The Rethugs want to blow up the planet and make everyone a classic Xian sexless mouthbreathing mallrat and the Dems want the corporations to own every piece of cultural artefacture in perpetuity, and make it all safe for the lowest and stupidest citizens and remove the responsibility that PARENTS SHOULD BE EXERCISING in favour of the nanny state.

As the Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC) crooned:

I'm the Mole in the Ministry
And you'll all bow down to me.
I'm the mole in the potting shed.
I'm the bad thoughts inside your head.
And you won't catch me...

As a little black girl once shouted into a bullhorn on the TV show "Wondershowzen":

RISE UP PEOPLE!!! RISE UP!!!

RS

I live in Australia and Linux is making quite serious inroads into the server market. The problem with the Desktop is you normally get a MS Operating System and unless you really want to go to a lot of trouble you pay the Microsoft Tax.

The company I work for (over 100,000) has over 16% (most technical) of their desktops running under Linux. Why we don't have more is the Company has a very good contact with Microsoft but at the moment the policy is "No Vista!".

Actually where you are seeing a huge switch to Linux is in India http://in.rediff.com/money/2007/aug/02linux.htm and the Asian market is looking very seriously at this. I know some people say that the Asian market is rife with piracy for MS Windows but now it is just as easy and legal to burn a Linux DVD than a MS Windows DVD (the cost is the same and no hassles from the cops), the problem is marketing and that is happening as well.

As far as MAC's go I think the market will always be small. The interface is nice and the OS is great (it's Unix after-all) but you end up paying for lots of things. Of course you could put on freeware such as Open Office but you can do that with Linux as well (normally by default) and if you really want a "Wow" interface Linux has Beryl. The Asian market, China and Russia seem to think that Linux in one form or another is great. It saves them billions.

I am now waiting for "But what about games?". Well if game developers want to pass up on a billion dollar market then that is their prerogative. The problem for game developers is DRM and how do you stop piracy which is not that easy to do under Linux. Actually many people will buy a good game if there is value adding but a mediocre game normally gets pirated.

Fascism has spread throughout history under a populist garb. The Nazis were supposed to help restore German pride

The big difference is that the Reich was not fighting any injustice. They completely manufactured claims that they were "oppressed" by Jews and used it as an antisemitic canard against them to try to wipe them out.

The same thing is not the case here, or are the various massacres perpetrated against Hindus by Muslims all over South Asia,from the Talibanized Bangladesh to the Jamaatis in Pakistan, the massacre of Hindus in Marad by Islamists, the open pro-taliban riots by Islamists in Malegaon and bands of Islamic terrorists bombing temples, trains and schools all "Windmills"? Eh?


Besides, if the RSS was so "obsessed with Muslim/Christian/Communist Bashing", why did they rescue poor Muslims during the Surat floods. Why did they rescue Sikhs from massacres perpetrated against them by the Congress Party in 1984 (Read the works of Khushwant Singh praising RSS for it's relief work among Sikhs)? Why did they rescue Muslim children from terrorists in Kashmir? Why do they cooperate with Catholic missions?

During Israel prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to India, Leftists and Muslims openly attacked Sharon, called him a "Filthy Jew", and publicly called for re-enacting the holocaust. It was the RSS that welcomed him and helped cement better ties with Israel. Funny how a "Fascist" movement would do that, eh?

Are these the actions of "Fascists"?Oh, yes, these filthy urine drinking Hindu fascists are such cosmic swine that they dare to actually build bridges with the Dalit Community, aggressively champion for their right to worship in temples, and enagage in interfaith dialogue with Muslims and Christians. What filthy Hindu "kuffar" idolater fascists they are!
The terms "Fascism", "Nazism and "Communalism" are much abused terms in India, thanks to the far-left propaganda.They have a distinct connotation in the European context that can hardly apply to the Indian milieu.

The term fundamentalism was first coined in the context of the emergence of the Protestant movement in the Christian church in America in the twenties. The ideology of the RSS and the way in which it is interpreted by the Sangh leaders borrowing modern terminology have no camparison to the sense in which the term fundamentalism was used in America. So also, fascism and Nazism do have distinct meanings in the socio-political contexts that prevailed in Italy and Germany which have no bearing in the Indian context.

Communalism is not at all a part of religion. Communalism is nothing but mobilisation of people on communal lines to serve a specific cause. RSS can, therefore, be said to be communal only in a limited sense. RSS has not committed any acts that could truly be described as fundamentalist, fascist, or communal. In fact, one of the first acts of A B Vajpayee after taking over as Prime Minister last time was to call on Mother Teresa and Delhi Archbishop.
<br>
The socio-political milieu of India offers a fertile ground for the RSS to grow. One admirable aspect of the RSS, is its flexibility to move with the times and to adopt the best from other socio-cultural-religious movements. It learnt the rudiments of social work from the missionary organisations of the church and mass mobilisation techniques from the communists.

RSS has a dedicated and disciplined set of cadres, the simple life style of its pracharaks, the moral teaching it imparts to the younger generation in its daily sakhas, an

"five years ago when the dotcom crash came people managed to get the number of H1B visas reduced"

Wrong:

In Oct. 2000, after the dot com bust, the number H1B visa cap was RAISED to 195,000.

Interestingly enough the tech market continued to slump until the visa cap reverted back to the 65,00 mark in Oct. 2003

http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/jul/16bpo.htm

The Indian minister of IT said free. He did not say subsidized. Here is a better article: http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2007/apr/26broad.ht m

So finally the user is free and the delete button is obsolete. But, I think Rediff.com was the first mail provider to launch the 'Unlimited Mail'.

Someone mentions the French and then the next thing you know someone responds with a surrender joke.

Bullies are cowards. For instance, if there's an attack on a military convoy, they scramble:-

"We took food for them in 60-feet long trucks. But once inside the army camps, we were held captive at gunpoint by American soldiers and not allowed to leave. Their treatment was horrible.

"As far as their bravery is concerned, the less said the better. When a convoy was attacked, the escort vehicles would simply speed off in different directions and leave the hapless truck drivers to fend for themselves," he said.

Me? I wouldn't like to ascribe this to a national spirit or anything. I still think the United States is a great nation, that its core ideals are rock-solid. Just a few kids out of high school gone ashtray.

The problem is when the rest of the population starts to believe in this braggadocio.

I was reading this rediff article in which a middle class teen ager is complaining about price of tomato (20 cents a pound) and is carrying USD 400+ cellphone. They sure do have lot of money to buy cell phones.

Free Land
Free TV
Free GOLD!!!!

The only complaint is rice is cheap not free - can you imagine paying nearly $0.50 for 10 Kilograms (22 lbs)? Govt. these days....
....just kidding- TN is pretty good when it comes to most things comparitively. Glad that they went through with this - whatever their reasons may be (empty coffers must likely), the path they have taken is a brave one. There may be some FUD initially, but typically these govt. officials do nothing more than what they are told to do on the PC (i.e. press ALT-P, type, click on OK etc... - of course in TN, everything must be in Tamil as well). So there wont be any complaints like "This new Nvidia card is not working on my PC" OR "how can I get this to recognize my new USB external hard drive"...
Congrats SUSE - you got yourself 30,000+ new users who wont complain much. Having said that, everything will get blamed on the "new SW" - including printer jams, network failures - anything.