Slashback: India, Kartoo, Orbs

Slashback with corrections and updates on backyard coasters, the Associated Press' (not CNN's) interview with Steinhardt, Open Source and Free software in India, the Kartoo visual search engine, how you too can assemble some pulsating glassy spheres. Read on for those details and more.

Attribution where due. Frank Bajak, Technology Editor for The Associated Press, wrote with a correction to last week's post "CNN Talks WIth ACLU Tech Maven Barry Steinhardt," writing "CNN didn't speak to Steinhardt. We, The Associated Press, did. CNN merely posted our story." Thanks for pointing that out.

If it's an orb, it had better do some glowing! shakes writes "Since the recent outbreak of interest in the Ambient Orb, I took a moment to homebrew one using a PICchip. The source code is currently incomplete as it does not support serial communication, but that will come in the next day or so."

Please secure the locking safety mechanism, or call an attendant if you have trouble. BoomZilla writes "I was intrigued with the home made roller coaster report on Slashdot last year. Just the sort of thing I *need* for the kids. Problem was that I had neither the skill nor the time to build such a beast. I've recently become re-inspired by the Back Yard Roller Coaster site. It's short on details (just a few pictures and a video) - but long on firing up my enthusiasm. Straightforward design. Easy construction. Modest cost. All I need is a hill (check) and the patience and understanding of my wife (stand by for news on that...)"

Oooh, look at the pictures. The visually intriguing meta search engine Kartoo is now more accessable to flash-poor browsers (and lazy or stubborn flash-avoiding users). Alexandre Dos Santos writes "Kartoo now offers an alternative to the regular flash display. The html version is only in beta. It offers the same functionality as the flash version, i.e. you can add or subtract keywords. It's obviously an attempt at reaching out to users who are on machines without flash, or very slow connections.

The option to use html only had been there before, but now Kartoo seems to push this more to the front...and important point...Without sponsored links."

Keeping their options open, or closing doors? bigmase521 writes "LinuxWorld has an article with statements from the Minister of Information Technology and Communications of India stating that India is NOT going to support Open Source alternatives Government-Wide. However, different branches of the government are still considering open source as their primary computing solutions. So I guess unfortunately, it seems as if Mr. Gates' Bribe err 'heartfelt visit' may have worked after all."

Comments

``Piracy'' good for MS?

[TKinias]

So I guess unfortunately, it seems as if Mr. Gates' Bribe err 'heartfelt visit' may have worked after all."

His visit may have been unnecessary.

I'm curious to hear from Indian IT folks on this, but I have some ideas about Free Software and India, based on my experience with IT in the Middle East.

First, in an economy where there is no real fear of legal action for illegal copying, and where a Microsoft licence costs a month's wages or more, you can expect illegally copied MS products to be everywhere. In such an environment, there is little incentive to use free (as in beer) products, because all products cost nothing to procure.

Second, in an economy where corruption is endemic down to the lowest clerical levels, decisions are often made on a, um, non-technical basis. (Bofors, anyone?) Free software may be at a disadvantage here, because there is not always a for-profit entity to ``encourage'' a product's adoption. I can't really see the Apache team buying anyone a villa.

Given both of these, I would not expect Free software to be a major player in Indian IT. Indeed, in contrast with (for example) East and Central Europe, Latin America, or East Asia, South Asia doesn't seem to be making any major contributions to Free software, despite having large numbers of trained programmers.

Am I on the right track here?

Sure

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

You say that developing countries need a stepping stone to "develop themselves without being exploited by developed countries" - which is a nice sentiment - but don't you think that the people who put in so much effort to develop all these technologies in the first place deserve a bit back?

Basically, this depends on how you view computer technology. If you see the labor being primarily one of doing standard programming jobs (i.e. the same jobs are repeated over and over again) then this is much the same as "The Green Revolution", which was supposed to bring agricultural developments into Africa. While on the other hand, you can look at this technology as similar to the arms race. Once the US developed the neutron bomb, they did not just give it away to the Russians. I fall somewhere in between - the research that has gone into all this work needs to be rewarded (with more grants for more research) but third world countries can't be crippled with a buy-in price that's beyond their GDP.

And just because a company makes a profit from a third world country does not mean that that country is being exploited.