Another company seems to have developed speech recognition engines for embedded devices in languages other than english.
Speech recognition has a potentially huge user base(in tens or hundreds of millions atleast) if they can crack the problem for native indian and chinese languages.
Both Indian and Chinese researchers seem to have made progress in this.If this work is successful,people would'nt need to learn english to access information on the web etc.With the booming mobile telecom sector and the proliferation of fairly powerful(architecture wise) phones,this could well be the right time to introduce this.Mobile vendors are already innovating,with text messaging now being available in local languages.But a functional speech recognition system could open up completely new areas in the non-urban landscape.
There is a lot of scope for the sister technology(speech synthesis) too,if it can be implemented with reasonable success in native languages.Ideally,this technology could act like a google translate for voice.It could break the language barrier at one stroke.unfortunately,speech synthesis seems to be much more nascent.
Suppose a big company is considering deploying Lotus Notes on Linux.Would'nt it make more sense for them to hire a couple of open-source developers to modify existing open-source apps?
There are quite a few IM clients like pidgin,psi etc on the linux desktop today.They enjoy a pretty big user base and have a stable code base.Hiring one of those developers sure makes a lot more sense than shelling out big bucks for IBM's closed source apps.It just runs on Linux.It does'nt have an open code-base.The company will still have to wait for IBM to change the app,which will onlyh happen if the company is big enough to merit the coding time for IBM's (relatively) few linux devs.
An argument often made against widespread adoption of enterprise linux(atleast in India) is the lack of good support.Microsoft actively courts large companies.By comparison,Red Hat and Novell's support group is small and relatively immobile.It takes much more time for a Red hat engineer to reach a crisis site(in case of network failuer for example) than it takes for a microsoft support guy.This is atleast partly because the demand for linux devs has consistently outstripped supply(again,atleast here in India)
It would seem to be cheaper and better in the long run for companies to develop their own customizations of exisitng apps.
However,i've never used Lotus Notes personally.They might well provide some functionality that would make the decision to buy it worthwhile.
You are right in most details.But you did'nt get the point.
slashdot.in does'nt have to be about "segregation".The idea is to increase the number of stories of relevance to indian professionals.Slashdot.org is a brilliant idea,that has proven its worth over the years.For me,it's success is all the more reason to go for a more india-centric sister site.
And no,segregation does'nt work in India.Democracy ensures that it does'nt work.We may hate democracy for the periodic electoral fracas,and the inefficient decision making,but its the only way for a country as diverse as India.
Maybe i'm being dense,but there's a fine line between humor and invective
The raison d'etre for slashdot.in is sound.Most comments about India, on slashdot.org, are informative.But a significant number of comments suffer from an acute ignorance of indian ground realities on the part of the posters.This is to be expected.
Therefore, slashdot.in could constructively complement the main site.It could provide a wider,more informed coverage of stories of interest to the growing community of indian technology professionals,sans the regular snide comments on outsourcing.
Incidentally,the address,http://www.slashdot.in/ is currently registered with an Indian ISP.
I completely agree.
But why does a change in culture need to be a "shock"?
Which still does'nt explain why our cities are "100 years behind".100 years ago there were no telephones, or electricity,in european and american cities.
Sure,our roads are crowded and the infrastructure is bad.But can you seriously expect anything else when our population density is so many times theirs?
Exactly.As they say,you hit the nail on....
This is how reliance manages to give decent voice quality while still having fairly good coverage in rural areas.The government is also actively promoting it for the same reasons.
Incidentally,this idea was pioneered,in part,at IIT in the late 1990's,when the wireless sector was still in its infacy in India.It is applicable in any part of the world where legacy networks are nascent or non-existent.But it is particularly desirable in India,especially in semi-urban and rural India.
Your comment seems to imply that cabling is better than wireless.While this is certainly true for optic fibres,wireless will beat conventional copper twisted pair cabling hands down in many cases.The cost/capacity ratio is simply too skewed in favour of wireless,in India.And this has nothing to do with India being "under-developed".This is simple engineering.
Anyway,India has a significant investment in Optic Fiber channels.There are companies both in public and private sectors,that specialize in making optic links,as well as the associated electronics.
Our telephone network sucked big time around the beginning of the 1980's,with poor connectivity and very very bad voice quality.That was the time when optic fibre came into the market in a big way.The expanding indian landline sector embraced it,and as a result we have surplus capacity on all our optic links today.
The bigger issue in India,so far as cabling goes,is the digging up of roads and getting government permissions.It is such a big hassle,that most private operators have laid down many times(typically 10-15) the capacity they need.
The base stations are connected by fibre optic rings.Wireless is only for the "last mile" link.That being the case,concerns expressed about spectrum exhaustion seem to be misplaced.You have to remember that there are no tall structures in Indian villages.A strategically located base station has a much larger footprint in such conditions.Propogation is essentially free space(until it hits the tree canopies), with the associated low attentuation and superior quality for much lower investment.
I agree with you.I hope the OP's was ignorant,and not biased.Nastiness against indians has been on the rise on slashdot.This can only get worse in the coming years as we increase in stature in tech and manufacturing.
Time for a SLASHDOT.IN??
btw i'm indian too.
Slashdot Mirror
Another company seems to have developed speech recognition engines for embedded devices in languages other than english. Speech recognition has a potentially huge user base(in tens or hundreds of millions atleast) if they can crack the problem for native indian and chinese languages.
Both Indian and Chinese researchers seem to have made progress in this.If this work is successful,people would'nt need to learn english to access information on the web etc.With the booming mobile telecom sector and the proliferation of fairly powerful(architecture wise) phones,this could well be the right time to introduce this.Mobile vendors are already innovating,with text messaging now being available in local languages.But a functional speech recognition system could open up completely new areas in the non-urban landscape.There is a lot of scope for the sister technology(speech synthesis) too ,if it can be implemented with reasonable success in native languages.Ideally ,this technology could act like a google translate for voice.It could break the language barrier at one stroke.unfortunately ,speech synthesis seems to be much more nascent.
There are quite a few IM clients like pidgin,psi etc on the linux desktop today.They enjoy a pretty big user base and have a stable code base.Hiring one of those developers sure makes a lot more sense than shelling out big bucks for IBM's closed source apps.It just runs on Linux.It does'nt have an open code-base.The company will still have to wait for IBM to change the app,which will onlyh happen if the company is big enough to merit the coding time for IBM's (relatively) few linux devs.
An argument often made against widespread adoption of enterprise linux(atleast in India) is the lack of good support.Microsoft actively courts large companies.By comparison,Red Hat and Novell's support group is small and relatively immobile.It takes much more time for a Red hat engineer to reach a crisis site(in case of network failuer for example) than it takes for a microsoft support guy.This is atleast partly because the demand for linux devs has consistently outstripped supply(again,atleast here in India)
It would seem to be cheaper and better in the long run for companies to develop their own customizations of exisitng apps.
However,i've never used Lotus Notes personally.They might well provide some functionality that would make the decision to buy it worthwhile.That does seem like an better idea overall.
A separate section for India and China will make a whole lot of sense.
Any ideas on how I might go about doing it?Do i have to wait for one of the mods to read this?
The FAQ does'nt say anything about creating sections
But this might be more reason to have a subsection rather than a separate site.
As for the icon,i vote for the tiger :)
You are right in most details.But you did'nt get the point.
slashdot.in does'nt have to be about "segregation".The idea is to increase the number of stories of relevance to indian professionals.Slashdot.org is a brilliant idea,that has proven its worth over the years.For me,it's success is all the more reason to go for a more india-centric sister site.
And no,segregation does'nt work in India.Democracy ensures that it does'nt work.We may hate democracy for the periodic electoral fracas,and the inefficient decision making,but its the only way for a country as diverse as India.The raison d'etre for slashdot.in is sound.Most comments about India, on slashdot.org, are informative.But a significant number of comments suffer from an acute ignorance of indian ground realities on the part of the posters.This is to be expected.
Therefore, slashdot.in could constructively complement the main site.It could provide a wider,more informed coverage of stories of interest to the growing community of indian technology professionals,sans the regular snide comments on outsourcing.
Incidentally,the address,http://www.slashdot.in/ is currently registered with an Indian ISP.I completely agree. But why does a change in culture need to be a "shock"?
Which still does'nt explain why our cities are "100 years behind".100 years ago there were no telephones, or electricitySure,our roads are crowded and the infrastructure is bad.But can you seriously expect anything else when our population density is so many times theirs?
Exactly.As they say,you hit the nail on ....
This is how reliance manages to give decent voice quality while still having fairly good coverage in rural areas.The government is also actively promoting it for the same reasons.
Incidentally,this idea was pioneered ,in part,at IIT in the late 1990's,when the wireless sector was still in its infacy in India.It is applicable in any part of the world where legacy networks are nascent or non-existent.But it is particularly desirable in India,especially in semi-urban and rural India.
As an indian,i'd really like to know what exactly do you mean by a "*massive* culture shock"
Your comment seems to imply that cabling is better than wireless.While this is certainly true for optic fibres,wireless will beat conventional copper twisted pair cabling hands down in many cases.The cost/capacity ratio is simply too skewed in favour of wireless,in India.And this has nothing to do with India being "under-developed".This is simple engineering. Anyway,India has a significant investment in Optic Fiber channels.There are companies both in public and private sectors,that specialize in making optic links,as well as the associated electronics. Our telephone network sucked big time around the beginning of the 1980's,with poor connectivity and very very bad voice quality.That was the time when optic fibre came into the market in a big way.The expanding indian landline sector embraced it ,and as a result we have surplus capacity on all our optic links today.
The bigger issue in India,so far as cabling goes,is the digging up of roads and getting government permissions.It is such a big hassle ,that most private operators have laid down many times(typically 10-15) the capacity they need.
The base stations are connected by fibre optic rings.Wireless is only for the "last mile" link.That being the case,concerns expressed about spectrum exhaustion seem to be misplaced.You have to remember that there are no tall structures in Indian villages.A strategically located base station has a much larger footprint in such conditions.Propogation is essentially free space(until it hits the tree canopies), with the associated low attentuation and superior quality for much lower investment.
I agree with you.I hope the OP's was ignorant,and not biased.Nastiness against indians has been on the rise on slashdot.This can only get worse in the coming years as we increase in stature in tech and manufacturing. Time for a SLASHDOT.IN?? btw i'm indian too.