Sure, but even the D in R&D isn't usually done by Joe Programmer (not that the occasional Joe Programmer doesn't do it - just that the profiles of folks doing such work usually tends to have a graduate degree or two listed).
While I understand the cost of student loans for undergrad degrees, you often get assistantships for going to graduate school - I went to grad school entirely on a GRA and didn't have to pay a penny. And some student loans in fact charge you lesser interest rates until after you start working.
But I do agree with your second point - graduate school and technical degrees are looked down upon in the US for some reason. Ah, well.
Umm, who is talking about regular programmers? It's about MSR - which has a lot to do with R&D than anything else.
Now, I work in R&D and let me tell you that the majority of folks at American universities who graduate with masters or doctoral degrees are non-Americans. For whatever reason, the vast majority of Americans do not seem to particularly favor staying in school for grad school. If you do not believe me, just have a look at the graduate student list of any technical school and you will see that there is a significant number of non-Americans in there.
I work at a baby-Bell doing R&D and in our team, we have 4 PhDs, and only one one of them is American. Two are Indian and one is South Korean. Even in grad school, the numbers are similar. In fact, most of the interns that we have tend to be non-Americans, as well.
So is it any wonder that MS is moving part of the R&D to Canada? If you are comparing a software engineer or a programmer with the kind of people MSR employs, you have no clue about what is happening.
And secondly, I doubt MSR would pay "next to nothing". Most people in R&D, especially in areas like EECS tend to get quite a bit, easily making six figures or more.
A simple solution would be to require all patents to be made public in full for a period (say 6 months) prior to acceptance, this would allow any interested parties to object to them *before* they are enforceable.
What the hell are you talking about? The very idea behind a patent is that a party can have an idea and has time to develop it and take it to market before everyone gets wind of it. In the mean time, the patent filing process happens in parallel so that others cannot use the idea for a period after it is made public.
In fact, most companies will not even talk to other companies (potential clients, vendors etc.) - immaterial of whether you have an NDA with them - unless at least a provisional has been filed.
You make the idea public *prior* to the filing and it defeats the whole purpose of protecting the idea.
There are a lot of crappy patents, but there are also a lot of very good patents (I work in telecom R&D - for every ten bad patents, there is at least one gem out there; your idea would be at the expense of the advantage that that one gem provides).
While some areas (e.g. software patents) tend to have more rubbish, some other areas (e.g. VLSI or Aeronautical Engineering) tend to have some good patents that can make or break a company.
Most good dress-shirts are one-time buys and are more than worth their money in gold.
Secondly, it also matters whether or not you have a client/customer facing job and whether or not you interact with business, management and marketing folks.
If you do, you may take a minute less to put on a tee, but a good pair of khakis and a nice dress shirt can make you look way smarter than jeans and a tee ever will.
While dressing up in a suit or wearing a tie is usually contingent upon your position and your job requirements, wearing nice clothes in general (khakis + polo/dress shirt) that are dry-cleaned or at least ironed does make you look way better and way more valuable (than, say, crumpled jeans and a tee).
Remember that a lot of people judge you by your appearance just as much as by your performance.
I just think that IQ measures a certain kind of intelligence, and discounting the skills that some sports players or socially active folks possess and employ isn't a good idea.
A good quarterback has to look at the entire field, find out what's going on gauge the exact position of the field and throw the ball - all this is done with split seconds to spare. It's more than just reaction time - it is processing a lot of things in a short amount of time and reacting to that. Same goes for fighter pilots, tennis players and so on.
And the same goes for people who are excellent at reading emotions and reacting to them - that is also a form of intelligence. After all, reading emotions and reacting appropriately in real-time is also a challenging task.
Now, is it the same as IQ? No. But could there be a correlation? Quite possibly.
In my mind, people who think that IQ is a measure of intelligence and discount the kinds that I described above are just being elitist.:)
dumb people can play tennis, but they can't be mathematics professors. That isn't to say there aren't extremely smart tennis players, but it's not a prerequisite.
Umm, there, you are assuming that being smart is doing math. In fact, coordination and reaction times are forms of intelligence in themselves. So is understanding the situation and finding the best course of action in the shortest possible time and positioning yourself appropriately.
My point is that mathematics is a form of intelligence, but so are the skills and reaction-times associated with tennis.
IQ may not be the *only* thing that corresponds to intelligence, but it definitely is an objective measure of some factors that we consider to be the hallmarks of an intelligent person.
Now, there may be other measures and metrics (objective and subjective) that may correspond to intelligence - good language skills, good social skills, good game playing skills and so on. However, that does not necessarily mean that good quantitative and problem solving skills is also not a good measure.
A quarterback who can gauge how the field looks at a given moment and decide upon a particular action is just as intelligent (in a different way) as someone who is excellent at arithmetic. Similarly, someone who has excellent social skills (i.e. read emotions) is just as intelligent as someone who has a prodigious memory. A marketing person is just as intelligent as a computer programmer in a different way, and a tennis player is just as intelligent as a musician, in a different way.
But none of that means that IQ is *not* a measure of intelligence - it is. It just is not the *only* measure of intelligence.
I think there is a difference. A subtle difference, that's for sure, but a difference nevertheless.
Re:Sunshine and the Public Commons
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Vertical Farming
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· Score: 1
I'd much prefer electricity to sunshine. Sunshine sucks, especially in the morning, electricity rocks, and delivers porn.
I do not know, I think sunshine is any day more preferable to artificial lighting, especially when you have climate control.
Secondly, watt for watt, you probably waste more energy through electric lighting than if you just used sunshine (hey, it's natural and it's there - if you had to use lighting, you would be utilizing energy converted through less than perfectly efficient means, resulting in a net energy loss).
But still, I think it's gonna apply to 90% of the population.
That electricity is good, no one would argue that. On the other hand, that sunshine is bad? I doubt 90% of the population will think that. At least to me, there is nothing quite like waking up early in the morning to some sunshine in the bedroom! Wouldn't dream of being in a place with no sunshine and no way for me to enjoy sunshine and the breeze (indoors _and_ outdoors).
Besides it's not like we won't leave a number of public parks open.
That's a ridiculous argument. So what if public parks are open? That doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy sunshine and a garden in your own apartment. I think it's all a matter of personal preference.
Personally, nothing like lots of sunshine and the wind - my apartment opens up to a garden (on the third floor, no less) with fountains and trees and the large french window/door that opens into the garden stays open almost all through the year, excepting winter or extreme weather. It's expensive but totally worth it.
Having been in a similar position as these folks, I can tell you that the best way to deal with things like this is by ignoring them or by laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
There are always jerks who take pleasure in others' pain and giving them attention is only going to flare them up some more.
If someone does not hire you because of such comments, pity the idiocy of those folks. Learning to be mature and ignoring such things is hard, but it is a skill that will definitely come in handy in life. Growing up, sadly, is a hard thing for some people.
However, that kind of maturity does show, and someone who can see that you ignore these comments and the ridiculousness of it all is more likely to be impressed by it than not.
Reminds me of a story - a friend had gotten a boob-job and we were all out for dinner one night. Another common friend of ours hadn't known this and the first time he saw her, he burst out - "You've grown three dimensionally!"
The problem is that the margins in the PC industry are razor thin, and with the number of people needed to man those phones, they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
Retail customers aren't willing to pay for quality tech support. [Corporates are though.]
Thank you. That is the heart of the problem. How many of the people who complain that they have a problem with call-centers cutting down costs would be willing to pay to get support? And how many would be willing to pay a higher price for quality?
I mean, we are talking about people that gripe about paying for a piece of software because there is a free alternative available (principles notwithstanding) - but do they realize that part of paying for the software (Open Source or not) is that you get support in exchange for the money?
Most people are unwilling to use IVRs and automated systems, even when such systems are really *good* and insist on talking to an agent, even when their problems can quite easily be solved through automation. On the other hand, they refuse to pay more to have good support but gripe when the quality of support isn't exactly spectacular.
Sorry, folks. It doesn't work like that. Now, there may always be exceptions (where you pay and still get bad support) but those are few and far in between, compared to the expensive stuff that gets you good support.
I would add one more thing in that if you look at certain other areas that are high-profit/high-margin, you will see that customer support tends to be good. Why? Because you paid for a good piece of product or service and you are getting your money's worth.
wow!! so both of u think that u r some kind of intelligent guys having every kind of all the ideas and so and so...
Umm, thank you for telling us what we should be thinking of ourselves. I'd never have known without your help and approval.
and that ppl in india shud follow whatever crap u guys speak....
I do not particularly recall saying any such thing, but hey, why not. If you are attacking me personally, you can always make things up. In fact, I am the last person to TELL anyone what to do. The whole idea is that I do not want ANYONE to be told what they should be doing - you know? That freedom of speech thing?
u know, u didnt take care of anyone (to be frank)...
Excuse me? Who should I be "taking care" of? I mean, my family is here in the US with me and they have been very well taken care of, thank you very much. I have a startup in India which is contributing to the Indian economy. And as a non-resident Indian, I invest in the Indian economy through the stock market. Back home, I have done work for the Department of Space, doing research that helped the country. What have you done, my good sir? How many Indians have you employed? How much money have you contributed to the economy? How much research have you done that's helped India? What are *your* contributions?
I have more important things to do instead of keep carrying on with ultimate assholes like u both....
Ooh, abusive. Let's abuse everyone we disagree with, good job.
whatever reasonings u and ur mate gave, can very easily be argued out....but well, as I said before, have many important things to do.
Sure you do. Because you would rather back off than argue, right? Quite obviously, you arguments are so amazing that we are all laughing our collective asses at your stupidity.
And finally abt my English, I also used to have much better English than what I am having now...am living in a non-english speaking country from last 3 years and that's why it is getting worse and worse....but I think that is not a problem at all.
Who says it has anything to do with English? It has everything to do with *language*. Like the other poster indicated, back home, if you were speaking any Indian language the way you speak English, people would have shaken their heads and walked away. In fact, my girlfriend is not even an Indian but she tries to speak my language correctly, with proper grammar and spellings.
I have friends from many countries, including Europeans and they also dont speak fluent English...but non of them are ashamed of that....
Well, because if everyone jumps off the well so will you. And oh, maybe you should ask your friends what the language of business of their country is. My German and Swedish friends speak excellent German and Swedish, and their English is definitely better than anything you speak.
It is only our Indian friends, like u two, who feel that English is a must and every one must know "good" English anyhow. Keep this pro-English attitude up and keep taking proud upon their deeds, even if they wont let you mix into themselves, doesn't matter what extent u be a pro-English.
Actually, like I said, whatever it is that you do, you ought to do a good job of it. If this forum were in German and if you were writing German that was grammatically incorrect, with bad spellings, I would have corrected that, as well. Ditto for Hindi or any other language. This is a forum that uses the English language, so use good English. It's as simple as that.
*shrug*
Good luck!!
Why, thank you! That's the nicest thing you've said all day. Good luck to you as well. I hope some day you get a real education and stop being so stupid. Because luck is about the only thing that's going to help you now, given your attitude and what not.
One major problem with taxing either gas or cars is that it is a regressive tax. Besides, it doesn't matter just how fuel efficient or expensive a car is, what matters is the emissions created during its use (and production). A carbon tax addresses these issues...
That would work if you also took into account the source of the electricity used in hybrids. Because do you know that the electricity that your car is using is produced by hydroelectric power stations or by coal power stations? If it is the latter, then you should be taxed for that as well, because hey - just because I use electricity does not mean I do not have carbon emissions. It just means that I have pushed the carbon emissions elsewhere, away from my car.
Those that may have relatively more carbon emissions through the car but relatively less carbon emissions overall should be treated accordingly.
If there is a lot of your body to cover, the amount of blood going to your brain is going to be limited. Have a good workout and see how much better you can think.
Climbing mount Everest is not what it used to be.
Really? Climbed it before and after, have we?
It is becoming a high risk holiday, perhaps similar to swimming with sharks or bungee jumping, or perhaps more dangerous than that, but the point is that we are not talking Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary here anymore, it gets so crowded up there that rubbish is becoming a real issue now.
Wow. WOW. Priceless. Here's something - try your hand at climbing something simple, say, Longs Peak, via something easy like the Kieners Route in winter. Let's see how you feel about Everest after that.
Anybody who thinks that climbing Everest is comparable to bungee jumping has probably not even climbed a fourteener.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to be acidic but it's just that a lot of people (and most of them non-climbers) just tend to think of Everest as some sort of breeze. I guess my point was that while I do concur that a lot more people have been climbing Everest than ever before, that by no means makes it an easy climb. But the fact that it's extremely expensive does suck, though.
> Simply being the highest though doesn't make it the most interesting.
I agree, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's easy, either. I mean, I am training for Denali and that in itself seems so hard, I can only imagine how hard Everest would be.
It's not unfair because it is entirely possible to write libraries that are not riddled with security flaws. You are trying to relate two things that are almost completely unrelated.
Please. If you think that writing a complex system (especially one requiring some serious backwards compatibility, such as Windows) of libraries is accomplished without any security flaws, you probably haven't written or worked with very many real-world applications.
Writing 100% bulletproof applications in the real-world (especially given customer and consumer expectations) is next to impossible, not unless you were doing small and simple things and you've enormous amount of time and money at your disposal. No matter how much you test and secure your system or how bulletproof you make it, there is almost always a point where usability versus security becomes an issue, or compatibility versus security becomes an issue.
There was a time when Microsoft's products were riddled with security flaws, but over the years, their platforms and offerings have stabilized considerably. If anything, for the amount of complex stuff that they write, their security flaws are hardly a surprise.
I mean, sure, you can have something like OpenBSD, but just how usable do you think such a system would be? Consider the kernel, the UI, the file system, assorted applications (browser, office applications) etc. and you'd begin to see how hard it becomes to keep the system locked tight with that level of complexity (not to mention scalability).
I know that it's all fun to bash Microsoft on Slashdot and all that, but sometimes I just wish that people would just get a grip on reality, not their ideal, tiny little world.
That's overblown -- the origin of Shiv Sena is due to local Maharashtrian culture having been swamped by influx from every other part of the country -- a unique burden that Maharashtrians have to bear.
Umm, another poster expressed the sentiments on how no culture has the innate right to exist better than I ever could have. I will, however, add a few other things. Almost 40% of the people living in Madras are from Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, the actual Tamilian population in Madras is definitely quite low. I believe that there are other parts of India which bear similar problems.
Now, understand this - the idea behind the national integration and related programs was to promote the true integration of India. That means that no culture will remain the same, it would inherently become absorbed into an amalgamated single culture or hybridize itself with other cultures. There is no culture in the world today that has not been inspired or otherwise influenced by any other culture. So, no, it is not a "unique burden that Maharashtrians have to bear" - it is a burden that every culture in the history of civilization has had to bear, through the ages.
As for RSS, they were created not out of theological compulsions, but as a backlash to Islamic activism -- not so unfounded considering that ethnic group split the country.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that India was a secular state, while Pakistan is an Islamic state. So, if anyone thinks that Hindu extremism is the answer to Islamic activism, it is an unfortunate state of affairs. In my mind, both are terror organizations that need to be dealt with accordingly.
Gee, you're so cool for saying that. Spend all night thinking that up?
Actually, no. My Saturday nights have better uses, such as - you know - getting drunk and getting laid.
*shrug*
I'm an atheist, but I'll say that with freedom comes responsibility. Yes, these groups have on occasion gone overboard in protesting what they misguidedly feel is social decay. At least they don't fly aircraft into skyscrapers, like some people. Whole different order of magnitude. Meanwhile, the Left on the other hand is happy to promote social decay and stoke disharmony to milk votes.
There is no difference between the way the two go about things. Like you said, it may be different orders of magnitude, but the fundamental intent's the same. These goons don't have the balls to do what their idealism demands outside of their pockets of support, while the other goons do. And actually, at least those goons seem to believe in what they do, unlike our beloved Shiv Sena and gang who're doing it merely for the sake of being assholes.
Btw, it's "flaunting" not "flauting", Mr Enlightenment.
Spare me the sarcasm, because quite obviously nobody makes the occasional typo.
Oh, the vit. Vodda put down! Vayy to go!:P
Heh. Did you spend the whole night thinking that up?
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, but even the D in R&D isn't usually done by Joe Programmer (not that the occasional Joe Programmer doesn't do it - just that the profiles of folks doing such work usually tends to have a graduate degree or two listed).
While I understand the cost of student loans for undergrad degrees, you often get assistantships for going to graduate school - I went to grad school entirely on a GRA and didn't have to pay a penny. And some student loans in fact charge you lesser interest rates until after you start working.
But I do agree with your second point - graduate school and technical degrees are looked down upon in the US for some reason. Ah, well.
Umm, who is talking about regular programmers? It's about MSR - which has a lot to do with R&D than anything else.
Now, I work in R&D and let me tell you that the majority of folks at American universities who graduate with masters or doctoral degrees are non-Americans. For whatever reason, the vast majority of Americans do not seem to particularly favor staying in school for grad school. If you do not believe me, just have a look at the graduate student list of any technical school and you will see that there is a significant number of non-Americans in there.
I work at a baby-Bell doing R&D and in our team, we have 4 PhDs, and only one one of them is American. Two are Indian and one is South Korean. Even in grad school, the numbers are similar. In fact, most of the interns that we have tend to be non-Americans, as well.
So is it any wonder that MS is moving part of the R&D to Canada? If you are comparing a software engineer or a programmer with the kind of people MSR employs, you have no clue about what is happening.
And secondly, I doubt MSR would pay "next to nothing". Most people in R&D, especially in areas like EECS tend to get quite a bit, easily making six figures or more.
In fact, most companies will not even talk to other companies (potential clients, vendors etc.) - immaterial of whether you have an NDA with them - unless at least a provisional has been filed.
You make the idea public *prior* to the filing and it defeats the whole purpose of protecting the idea.
There are a lot of crappy patents, but there are also a lot of very good patents (I work in telecom R&D - for every ten bad patents, there is at least one gem out there; your idea would be at the expense of the advantage that that one gem provides).
While some areas (e.g. software patents) tend to have more rubbish, some other areas (e.g. VLSI or Aeronautical Engineering) tend to have some good patents that can make or break a company.
I said forms, not the only.
Stephen Hawking is intelligent in his own way and that juggler on the street corner is intelligent in her own way.
Most good dress-shirts are one-time buys and are more than worth their money in gold.
Secondly, it also matters whether or not you have a client/customer facing job and whether or not you interact with business, management and marketing folks.
If you do, you may take a minute less to put on a tee, but a good pair of khakis and a nice dress shirt can make you look way smarter than jeans and a tee ever will.
While dressing up in a suit or wearing a tie is usually contingent upon your position and your job requirements, wearing nice clothes in general (khakis + polo/dress shirt) that are dry-cleaned or at least ironed does make you look way better and way more valuable (than, say, crumpled jeans and a tee).
Remember that a lot of people judge you by your appearance just as much as by your performance.
> some classical information has also to be exchanged.
Or rather, a classical channel needs to be present (i.e. a beam of light).
I just think that IQ measures a certain kind of intelligence, and discounting the skills that some sports players or socially active folks possess and employ isn't a good idea.
:)
A good quarterback has to look at the entire field, find out what's going on gauge the exact position of the field and throw the ball - all this is done with split seconds to spare. It's more than just reaction time - it is processing a lot of things in a short amount of time and reacting to that. Same goes for fighter pilots, tennis players and so on.
And the same goes for people who are excellent at reading emotions and reacting to them - that is also a form of intelligence. After all, reading emotions and reacting appropriately in real-time is also a challenging task.
Now, is it the same as IQ? No. But could there be a correlation? Quite possibly.
In my mind, people who think that IQ is a measure of intelligence and discount the kinds that I described above are just being elitist.
My point is that mathematics is a form of intelligence, but so are the skills and reaction-times associated with tennis.
I have a bone to pick with that statement.
IQ may not be the *only* thing that corresponds to intelligence, but it definitely is an objective measure of some factors that we consider to be the hallmarks of an intelligent person.
Now, there may be other measures and metrics (objective and subjective) that may correspond to intelligence - good language skills, good social skills, good game playing skills and so on. However, that does not necessarily mean that good quantitative and problem solving skills is also not a good measure.
A quarterback who can gauge how the field looks at a given moment and decide upon a particular action is just as intelligent (in a different way) as someone who is excellent at arithmetic. Similarly, someone who has excellent social skills (i.e. read emotions) is just as intelligent as someone who has a prodigious memory. A marketing person is just as intelligent as a computer programmer in a different way, and a tennis player is just as intelligent as a musician, in a different way.
But none of that means that IQ is *not* a measure of intelligence - it is. It just is not the *only* measure of intelligence.
I think there is a difference. A subtle difference, that's for sure, but a difference nevertheless.
It's okay, just make sure you pee it all back.
Secondly, watt for watt, you probably waste more energy through electric lighting than if you just used sunshine (hey, it's natural and it's there - if you had to use lighting, you would be utilizing energy converted through less than perfectly efficient means, resulting in a net energy loss). That electricity is good, no one would argue that. On the other hand, that sunshine is bad? I doubt 90% of the population will think that. At least to me, there is nothing quite like waking up early in the morning to some sunshine in the bedroom! Wouldn't dream of being in a place with no sunshine and no way for me to enjoy sunshine and the breeze (indoors _and_ outdoors). That's a ridiculous argument. So what if public parks are open? That doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy sunshine and a garden in your own apartment. I think it's all a matter of personal preference.
Personally, nothing like lots of sunshine and the wind - my apartment opens up to a garden (on the third floor, no less) with fountains and trees and the large french window/door that opens into the garden stays open almost all through the year, excepting winter or extreme weather. It's expensive but totally worth it.
Ummm, English 101? Wow, getting modded informative for posting the meanings of everyday words of the English language?
Gee.
Very *very* well said.
Having been in a similar position as these folks, I can tell you that the best way to deal with things like this is by ignoring them or by laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
There are always jerks who take pleasure in others' pain and giving them attention is only going to flare them up some more.
If someone does not hire you because of such comments, pity the idiocy of those folks. Learning to be mature and ignoring such things is hard, but it is a skill that will definitely come in handy in life. Growing up, sadly, is a hard thing for some people.
However, that kind of maturity does show, and someone who can see that you ignore these comments and the ridiculousness of it all is more likely to be impressed by it than not.
Would you rather a square? =)
Reminds me of a story - a friend had gotten a boob-job and we were all out for dinner one night. Another common friend of ours hadn't known this and the first time he saw her, he burst out - "You've grown three dimensionally!"
I mean, we are talking about people that gripe about paying for a piece of software because there is a free alternative available (principles notwithstanding) - but do they realize that part of paying for the software (Open Source or not) is that you get support in exchange for the money?
Most people are unwilling to use IVRs and automated systems, even when such systems are really *good* and insist on talking to an agent, even when their problems can quite easily be solved through automation. On the other hand, they refuse to pay more to have good support but gripe when the quality of support isn't exactly spectacular.
Sorry, folks. It doesn't work like that. Now, there may always be exceptions (where you pay and still get bad support) but those are few and far in between, compared to the expensive stuff that gets you good support.
I would add one more thing in that if you look at certain other areas that are high-profit/high-margin, you will see that customer support tends to be good. Why? Because you paid for a good piece of product or service and you are getting your money's worth.
You mean we're going to send them all to the dark side of the moon? Oh good riddance.
You were going *that* fast and you missed going through the green light?
:)
What are you, a NASCAR driver or something?
*shrug* Why, thank you! That's the nicest thing you've said all day. Good luck to you as well. I hope some day you get a real education and stop being so stupid. Because luck is about the only thing that's going to help you now, given your attitude and what not.
That would work if you also took into account the source of the electricity used in hybrids. Because do you know that the electricity that your car is using is produced by hydroelectric power stations or by coal power stations? If it is the latter, then you should be taxed for that as well, because hey - just because I use electricity does not mean I do not have carbon emissions. It just means that I have pushed the carbon emissions elsewhere, away from my car.
Those that may have relatively more carbon emissions through the car but relatively less carbon emissions overall should be treated accordingly.
Anybody who thinks that climbing Everest is comparable to bungee jumping has probably not even climbed a fourteener.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to be acidic but it's just that a lot of people (and most of them non-climbers) just tend to think of Everest as some sort of breeze. I guess my point was that while I do concur that a lot more people have been climbing Everest than ever before, that by no means makes it an easy climb. But the fact that it's extremely expensive does suck, though.
> Simply being the highest though doesn't make it the most interesting.
I agree, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's easy, either. I mean, I am training for Denali and that in itself seems so hard, I can only imagine how hard Everest would be.
Cheers.
Writing 100% bulletproof applications in the real-world (especially given customer and consumer expectations) is next to impossible, not unless you were doing small and simple things and you've enormous amount of time and money at your disposal. No matter how much you test and secure your system or how bulletproof you make it, there is almost always a point where usability versus security becomes an issue, or compatibility versus security becomes an issue.
There was a time when Microsoft's products were riddled with security flaws, but over the years, their platforms and offerings have stabilized considerably. If anything, for the amount of complex stuff that they write, their security flaws are hardly a surprise.
I mean, sure, you can have something like OpenBSD, but just how usable do you think such a system would be? Consider the kernel, the UI, the file system, assorted applications (browser, office applications) etc. and you'd begin to see how hard it becomes to keep the system locked tight with that level of complexity (not to mention scalability).
I know that it's all fun to bash Microsoft on Slashdot and all that, but sometimes I just wish that people would just get a grip on reality, not their ideal, tiny little world.
Can't conduct a conversation without ad hominem attacks, eh?
Now, understand this - the idea behind the national integration and related programs was to promote the true integration of India. That means that no culture will remain the same, it would inherently become absorbed into an amalgamated single culture or hybridize itself with other cultures. There is no culture in the world today that has not been inspired or otherwise influenced by any other culture. So, no, it is not a "unique burden that Maharashtrians have to bear" - it is a burden that every culture in the history of civilization has had to bear, through the ages. Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that India was a secular state, while Pakistan is an Islamic state. So, if anyone thinks that Hindu extremism is the answer to Islamic activism, it is an unfortunate state of affairs. In my mind, both are terror organizations that need to be dealt with accordingly. Actually, no. My Saturday nights have better uses, such as - you know - getting drunk and getting laid.
*shrug* There is no difference between the way the two go about things. Like you said, it may be different orders of magnitude, but the fundamental intent's the same. These goons don't have the balls to do what their idealism demands outside of their pockets of support, while the other goons do. And actually, at least those goons seem to believe in what they do, unlike our beloved Shiv Sena and gang who're doing it merely for the sake of being assholes.Spare me the sarcasm, because quite obviously nobody makes the occasional typo. Heh. Did you spend the whole night thinking that up?