No, the taxes are not that high - the highest income tax slab is slightly higher than 30%. The cost of living is much lower in India than in the US, so unless you factor that in, any assumptions/comparisons you make are likely to be wrong. But you have got me thinking about the military expenditures of both the countries. The Bush administration is asking for about $419 billion for its military. That is a truly humungous amount. What do you do with it? That alone is half the global military spending!
And a nitpick which will hopefully bring this post back on topic - the average literacy you mentioned is wrong. It is 64.8% according to the 2001 census. The number you gave was for 1991. 14 years can make a lot of difference in a country like India, even given its huge population.
Now, for programs with millions of LOC, I don't think any language will be easier than another, just because the program's own complexity overwhelms everything else.
Come on, I can't believe you said that. So wouldn't it make any difference if, say, Mozilla was in assembly?
Just ask people how quickly they can get up to speed on OO.org, KDE, Mozilla, or GNOME
Thats funny. Of the four you mentioned, three (OO.org, KDE, mozilla) are in C++. GNOME is in C, but they need to use too many unwieldy kludges, and hence their enthusiasm for mono.
C++ is an extremely powerful language, but it is not a friendly one. It takes some time to grasp all its features, but the time is well worth it. For example, I am familiar with a constrained optimization program from ILOG, written in C++. It is very powerful and fast. I can't imagine in any other language. Of course, it can be implemented in any language, but not with the same ease of use.
"This is going to happen, sooner of later, in any nation which doesn't have some analogue of the First Amendment."
Hmmm... Just did some research on the net, and this is what I found.
First, it seems the first amendment does not guarantee you the right to say whatever you want. I quote from http://www.aclufl.org/body_legalissues1099.html: The Supreme Court eventually adopted the "clear and present danger" test to analyze First Amendment protections, first espoused in dissenting views by Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis D. Brandeis. They argued that speech is only punishable if it presents a clear and present danger of imminent harm.
This test set the tone for future rulings until Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) established a new standard: speech can only be suppressed if it is intended and likely to produce "imminent lawless action." So there are restrictions on free speech in the US as well.
In India, rights to freedom of expression, religion, equality, etc are guaranteed as Fundamental Rights which are basic to the Constitution.But they can be constrained "in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence". This seems reasonable to me, and is no more and no less than the tests of "clear and present danger" or "imminent lawless action" applied in the US.
On the eve of India's independence, over 50 years ago, India's then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said in his famous "Freedom at Midnight" speech, "Peace has been said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments."
That was amazingly prescient. Today, we have guys in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia who are pissed off at the US policies bringing terror to the US. Hi-tech jobs are moving from rich countries to poorer countries, and one day will spread to places where the wages are even slower. The wonders of globalization!
I feel that the what is happening is only a natural progression. America has been one of the most prosperous societies in the world. It achieved this status by having the most well-developed, most competitive economy, cutting costs relentlessly. That is just what is happening now! And I am surprised at all the people who seem to be against outsourcing. What if huge markets like China decide that if the US doesn't let jobs move there, they won't buy any American stuff either?
Prosperity is indivisible, remember? It is flowing from one place to another. The challenge is to ensure that the prosperity level does't decrease at any place, that instead it increases everywhere.
Disclaimer: I am an Indian, and possibly a beneficiary of the job-shifts.
I am generally suspicious when I come across any article written by a practitioner of a profession about how great, difficult, artistic, and demanding that profession is. This article seems to fall smack in the middle of this category.
Paul Graham is not the only one who has written such articles: check out Peter Seebach's Care and feeding of your hacker or ESR's How to become a hacker and you will find more such self-praise. The attitude seems to be : "I am a true hacker. I have talents that very few others in this world have. I don't write code, I do art. Fear me!"
Of course, you will find similar stuff in some other areas. One example that comes readily to mind is "The Portrait of the Artist an a Young Man" by Joyce. Religious priests, too, have been going on for millennia about how difficult it is to achieve the skills needed to obtain access to the gods. They even create excuses to be miserable,(taking vows of poverty/chastity etc) just so that they can persuade society of the difficulties they have to face, so they get respect from society, while doing no productive work.
We programmers have no such excuse. The utility of our work is recognized by others, we are paid for it. Then why do programmers have to disguise our work as "art" to gain respectability? Do we need to claim we are 'artists'? What is bad about being "Programmers", pure and simple?
Dr Alibeks's congressional testimony makes for chilling reading, more so than any thriller. As the reviewer mentioned, it would be interesting to know precisely what Dr Alibek has been doing in "biodefense." He doesn't seem to have defected to assuage his conscience.
Mr. Alibek defected to the United States in 1992 after an official visit, during which he saw how much better life in the United States was as compared to Soviet life.
He now gets paid more for doing the same work?
A kinder, better ebola - made in the USA.
And yes yes, I realize that these claims might also be applicable to the United States, that we could best be spending the space money elsewhere, but at least we're theoretically on the cutting edge...
I dont see your point. Do you mean to say that if a country is not on the cutting edge, it shouldn't start?
When a society invests in science and technology it invests in its own future. India has been successful in using its satellites for long distance education, storm relief, weather forecasting, and resource mapping. I think this is commendable.
The common attitude here seems to be, "How dare India invest in sci & tech when it isn't half as perfect as the US? Meanwhile, make way there for Uncle Sam to continue to rape nature"
Slashdot Mirror
And a nitpick which will hopefully bring this post back on topic - the average literacy you mentioned is wrong. It is 64.8% according to the 2001 census. The number you gave was for 1991. 14 years can make a lot of difference in a country like India, even given its huge population.
C++ is an extremely powerful language, but it is not a friendly one. It takes some time to grasp all its features, but the time is well worth it. For example, I am familiar with a constrained optimization program from ILOG, written in C++. It is very powerful and fast. I can't imagine in any other language. Of course, it can be implemented in any language, but not with the same ease of use.
Hmmm... Just did some research on the net, and this is what I found.
First, it seems the first amendment does not guarantee you the right to say whatever you want. I quote from http://www.aclufl.org/body_legalissues1099.html:
The Supreme Court eventually adopted the "clear and present danger" test to analyze First Amendment protections, first espoused in dissenting views by Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis D. Brandeis. They argued that speech is only punishable if it presents a clear and present danger of imminent harm.
This test set the tone for future rulings until Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) established a new standard: speech can only be suppressed if it is intended and likely to produce "imminent lawless action."
So there are restrictions on free speech in the US as well.
In India, rights to freedom of expression, religion, equality, etc are guaranteed as Fundamental Rights which are basic to the Constitution.But they can be constrained "in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence".
This seems reasonable to me, and is no more and no less than the tests of "clear and present danger" or "imminent lawless action" applied in the US.
Peacelife
That was amazingly prescient. Today, we have guys in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia who are pissed off at the US policies bringing terror to the US. Hi-tech jobs are moving from rich countries to poorer countries, and one day will spread to places where the wages are even slower. The wonders of globalization!
I feel that the what is happening is only a natural progression. America has been one of the most prosperous societies in the world. It achieved this status by having the most well-developed, most competitive economy, cutting costs relentlessly. That is just what is happening now! And I am surprised at all the people who seem to be against outsourcing. What if huge markets like China decide that if the US doesn't let jobs move there, they won't buy any American stuff either?
Prosperity is indivisible, remember? It is flowing from one place to another. The challenge is to ensure that the prosperity level does't decrease at any place, that instead it increases everywhere.
Disclaimer: I am an Indian, and possibly a beneficiary of the job-shifts.
Paul Graham is not the only one who has written such articles: check out Peter Seebach's Care and feeding of your hacker or ESR's How to become a hacker and you will find more such self-praise. The attitude seems to be : "I am a true hacker. I have talents that very few others in this world have. I don't write code, I do art. Fear me!"
Of course, you will find similar stuff in some other areas. One example that comes readily to mind is "The Portrait of the Artist an a Young Man" by Joyce. Religious priests, too, have been going on for millennia about how difficult it is to achieve the skills needed to obtain access to the gods. They even create excuses to be miserable,(taking vows of poverty/chastity etc) just so that they can persuade society of the difficulties they have to face, so they get respect from society, while doing no productive work.
We programmers have no such excuse. The utility of our work is recognized by others, we are paid for it. Then why do programmers have to disguise our work as "art" to gain respectability? Do we need to claim we are 'artists'? What is bad about being "Programmers", pure and simple?
I dont see your point. Do you mean to say that if a country is not on the cutting edge, it shouldn't start?
When a society invests in science and technology it invests in its own future. India has been successful in using its satellites for long distance education, storm relief, weather forecasting, and resource mapping. I think this is commendable.
The common attitude here seems to be, "How dare India invest in sci & tech when it isn't half as perfect as the US? Meanwhile, make way there for Uncle Sam to continue to rape nature"