Other people have mentioned Lamport's book; I thought I'd put in a word for "A Guide to LaTeX" by Helmut Kopka and Patrick W. Daly, Addison-Wesley, 1999 (looks like there's also a 2003 edition). I think this book succeeds in the very difficult task of being both a reference and a read-through text. I've successfully used it to write a thesis, a few publications and quite a few homeworks.
Computers are not as important in computer science as one might think. Of course, for some technology-related courses you will need state-of-the-art, but computer science is about algorithms, structuring data and abstracting problems.
Not only. Computer science is also about software engineering, AI, networks, databases, OSes, numerical methods, formal methods, architecture, among other fields. All of the above need computers.
In Computer Science, the situation is quite different. I am working on a PhD, and many publications freely cite URIs (involving both root-pages and deep-links). Most of them are either links into home pages of co-researchers (which change rarely) or links to online journals at the websites of publishing houses, which change even less frequently. Of course, as you'd imagine, most journals in Computer Science are available online (though not freely).
Out of curiosity, did you get into free software after starting your degree in the States, or in India?
While in India. Many universities in India use OSS/FS products exclusively, as universities cannot/don't pirate software. I hadn't used Windows at school during the 4 years of my UG, though I had to within a week of coming to the US.
I think you may have hit on something here. I can imagine a South Asian peasant being shocked at the idea of a suburban American woman maintaining a vegetable garden ``for fun''... What may be lacking is simply a hacker culture (in the canonical sense of the term).
Two points. First, maintaining a vegetable garden as well as spending time on coding binges are both costly hobbies, which even a hypothetical American poor farmer/software professional wouldn't be able to afford. This has therefore nothing to do with India per se. Also, the hacker culture might perhaps be lacking, but there are other ``hobbies'' that poor Indians do indulge in - movies being an important one. Sadly, movie-going isn't particularly productive.
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.
I am an Indian studying Computer Science in the US, and I use OSS/FS products daily. Your 2 perceptions are well-founded. Your conclusion, though, I am hesitant to agree completely with. For instance, there aren't that many East Asian OSS/FS programmers either, nor are there all that many Latin American ones (more than South Asian, though). Most OSS/FS software I use seems to have been written by European or American programmers. This is perhaps indicative of people from, say, India, not perceiving programming as a hobby.
As an aside, the India is a very good reason to throw the BSA 'study' out of the window.
all the inaccurate FUD-based trolling that goes on any time an article related to X is posted.
Trolling? How about
The seperation of the windowing system and the actual desktop is what gives *nix users the configurability to give their desktops personality. If you want a one-size-fits-all desktop, get windows.
I don't want my desktop to have "personality". I just want it to work! Sheesh.
How about
You're the only one who wants this. Not everyone loves KDE, and even less people love Qt.
Obviously, military top secret stuff is different; though it certainly need not be based on proprietary technology -- nothing prevents the military from modifying OSS / FS software and then keeping those modifications secret within the division.
And how are the two different? Why is proprietary software any worse than "modified" OSS/FS if the modifications are kept secret to the public?
I don't see how restricting the number of H1-Bs visas is going to decrease unemployment directly. If a company can't get an H1-B employee, the natural thing for it to do, is to outsource it to India/China/wherever, where it could get 10 employees to work on it. I know of a large company that has stopped hiring in the US in many departments. When one person retires, they hire 5 people in their India centre instead.
So, the choice is not between hiring H1-Bs and hiring US citizens - it's between hiring foreigners in the US, or in their own countries. I'd think if they're hired here, atleast the US economy would benefit from the additional consumers.
The problem is also one of graininess. What is one
"issue"? The Australian
referendum
on a republic returned a "No"
(ie the Queen be retained)
because the referendum also included a proposal on
how
a replacement President should be chosen.
And many anti-monarchists sided with the monarchists since
they did not like the proposed election procedure.
"But, if I can draw the analogy that just because everyone should wear a computerized bulletproof vest doesn't mean that shooting people to find out who isn't wearing one is the best answer...."
Oh, no, you can't. People who don't wear bulletproof vests
(unlike badly configured mail-servers) harm only themselves, not others.
One difference is I don't run the entire WWW on my computer.
When you surf, you are essentially "run"ning the WWW. Joel's point is that
removing the content-starved sites would probably improve the www-experience of most, for one thing because DNS would become so much simpler, and hence faster.
If you look at it from an economic perspective, the net effect to all the surfers will in all likelihood be positive.
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Yes, it does! I tried MS-Word, OO.org and xmlresume before switching back to good old LaTeX and the excellent res class.
Other people have mentioned Lamport's book; I thought I'd put in a word for "A Guide to LaTeX" by Helmut Kopka and Patrick W. Daly, Addison-Wesley, 1999 (looks like there's also a 2003 edition). I think this book succeeds in the very difficult task of being both a reference and a read-through text. I've successfully used it to write a thesis, a few publications and quite a few homeworks.
Score: 4, Insightful? Last I heard, the "Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Copyright Act, 1957" are Indian laws.
Not only. Computer science is also about software engineering, AI, networks, databases, OSes, numerical methods, formal methods, architecture, among other fields. All of the above need computers.
In Computer Science, the situation is quite different. I am working on a PhD, and many publications freely cite URIs (involving both root-pages and deep-links). Most of them are either links into home pages of co-researchers (which change rarely) or links to online journals at the websites of publishing houses, which change even less frequently. Of course, as you'd imagine, most journals in Computer Science are available online (though not freely).
Maybe it does not, but all the same, if Johnny has had 100% attendance, and suddenly it drops to 50%, shouldn't it still be cause for concern?
While in India. Many universities in India use OSS/FS products exclusively, as universities cannot/don't pirate software. I hadn't used Windows at school during the 4 years of my UG, though I had to within a week of coming to the US.
I think you may have hit on something here. I can imagine a South Asian peasant being shocked at the idea of a suburban American woman maintaining a vegetable garden ``for fun''... What may be lacking is simply a hacker culture (in the canonical sense of the term).
Two points. First, maintaining a vegetable garden as well as spending time on coding binges are both costly hobbies, which even a hypothetical American poor farmer/software professional wouldn't be able to afford. This has therefore nothing to do with India per se. Also, the hacker culture might perhaps be lacking, but there are other ``hobbies'' that poor Indians do indulge in - movies being an important one. Sadly, movie-going isn't particularly productive.
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.
I am an Indian studying Computer Science in the US, and I use OSS/FS products daily. Your 2 perceptions are well-founded. Your conclusion, though, I am hesitant to agree completely with. For instance, there aren't that many East Asian OSS/FS programmers either, nor are there all that many Latin American ones (more than South Asian, though). Most OSS/FS software I use seems to have been written by European or American programmers. This is perhaps indicative of people from, say, India, not perceiving programming as a hobby.
As an aside, the India is a very good reason to throw the BSA 'study' out of the window.
Trolling? How about
The seperation of the windowing system and the actual desktop is what gives *nix users the configurability to give their desktops personality. If you want a one-size-fits-all desktop, get windows.
I don't want my desktop to have "personality". I just want it to work! Sheesh.
How about
You're the only one who wants this. Not everyone loves KDE, and even less people love Qt.
How do you know this?
And here's the best
Having history doesn't make software old.
'nuff said.
And how are the two different? Why is proprietary software any worse than "modified" OSS/FS if the modifications are kept secret to the public?
So, the choice is not between hiring H1-Bs and hiring US citizens - it's between hiring foreigners in the US, or in their own countries. I'd think if they're hired here, atleast the US economy would benefit from the additional consumers.
According to the release-notes, junkbuster is deprecated. What is the alternative filtering proxy that RedHat supports?
The problem is also one of graininess. What is one "issue"? The Australian referendum on a republic returned a "No" (ie the Queen be retained) because the referendum also included a proposal on how a replacement President should be chosen. And many anti-monarchists sided with the monarchists since they did not like the proposed election procedure.
If a user finds him or herself on a Web site that sells illegal software -- be it music, games, movies or programs
I thought that whether music is software or not is still out in the courts? How is it in the UK?
Oh, no, you can't. People who don't wear bulletproof vests (unlike badly configured mail-servers) harm only themselves, not others.
When you surf, you are essentially "run"ning the WWW. Joel's point is that removing the content-starved sites would probably improve the www-experience of most, for one thing because DNS would become so much simpler, and hence faster. If you look at it from an economic perspective, the net effect to all the surfers will in all likelihood be positive.
Answer from the Slashdot FAQ