Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: India, Kartoo, Orbs
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."
(and lazy or stubborn flash-avoiding users).
Good god man! don't you understand that Flash is the great evil that will destroy the internet?!? oh, don't worry my poor poor bandwith, everything will be all right.
--I don't want the world, I just want your half.
This guy didn't even read the article, or is simply flame-baiting, what the minister said isn't too bad.
Mr.Shourie, the Minister for IT, said, "Do not expect a general decision from government on this," and said that each branch of the government would make a case-by-case decision on which software to use.
Remember software is a tool, not a religion. There are some cases where closed-source may be more appropriate.
For example - "If there is an important security software that we need urgently, for example, we are more likely to buy it, than spend time deciding whether we should develop it in India in open source," Shourie added.
All bow to his Noodliness!! His Noodle Appendage has touched me!
India had lots of brain power but no money. If proprietary software was allowed to take root in India would still be poor in computer knowledge.
India booted out IBM and mainframes in favor of Unix some 30 years ago. It was kinda boon to fledgling Indian software engineers because Unix made it possible to hook up a dirt cheap terminal to a low cost server. This made computing available to lots of students in universities that had no money for proprietary software. And everybody learnt the computers on the Unix platform.
I hope Linux other would do they same to poor countries. Many developing countries need something that they can use as a stepping stone to develop themeselves without being exploited by developed countries.
Long live, open source and free software.
yeah my server is a really whimpy box...
If you can get to it, http://b0b.net/~seb/orb.torrent is a bit torrent version of all the files.
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?
In principio creauit Linus Linucem.
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.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
If the poster really wants his own personal rollercoaster ride, I suggest an easier alternative would be to try getting a job in the IT industry right now.
If those high-speed changes of direction and constant managerial G-forces don't result in whiplash and a strong desire to hurl, then you are a stronger man than I.
While those of us who have ideological sympathies with RMS may not be happy to hear the Indian decision, it is nonetheless worth pointing out that a significant economic goal of free software -- choice -- is very definitely being fostered by the widespread availability of free software.
If Microsoft is forced to lower its prices, relax its licensing conditions, or make "donations" to state governments (in lieu of the taxes they don't pay), then this is all to the good. Microsoft is finally being forced to compete, which was a major and laudable goal of the ESR/Open Source half of the movement.
It's not a total loss for the Free Software side, either. That Microsoft is being forced to compete is a concrete sign that we are making credible inroads -- that the software equivalent of the Republican Guard, as it were, is withdrawing into the streets of Redmond for a last stand. The outcome, however, is not in doubt.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
I was with you right up 'till
"Flash gets you nothing- it's just for lazy designers who are too stupid to learn how to properly code HTML.",
wich is flamebait.
I have a moderator point I could burn you with, but I'll reply instead.
First of all, most of your comment made sense. Yes, having a 100% flash site is a bad idea: it limits your site's availability. But generalization and insults are not helping you to drive your point home. Now if you'd be so kind as to learn proper etiquette and to start behaving in a polite civilised nature, we'd all appreciate it very much.
Moving on to the constructive discussion and the sharing of ideas:
The webheads and the boss at my old job were flash-happy. They redid the company's web site all in flash. I was pretty allright. But I kept telling them "make a simple HTML interface that lets people get to the content too", and they ignored me. Until the boss tried to show off the pretty new website to a client who's old laptop couldn't handle the flashiness. Then he realised I was right and had the webmonkeys do as I said.
The moral is: Make your store wheelchair acessible and your company website html acessible. Its just good buisness sense.
You can't take the sky from me...