Er, you conveniently forgot to mention that the then Indian Prime Minister Nehru thought it fit to publicly promise, given the extreme circumstances under which Kashmir was 'taking sides', that once the shit was behind them and peace was restored in the state, there would be a referendum to allow the people of Kashmir to decide the issue for themselves. Subsequent Indian governments and their cronies in Kashmir maintain a discreet silence over this issue.
It is not just a matter of national pride for India. It is extreme vital, from a practical POV. The incompetence of the Indian government in catering to minority interests has allowed small time separatist movements to sprout in the corners of the vast land. The tamils have just barely been roped in. The North-East is a catastrophe waiting to happen. If the government cedes one willing inch of Kashmir, all hell will break loose elsewhere. That is what India is more worried about.
However, there seems to be a movement in India to create mass production "Mainframe Diploma Factories" that could potentially replenish, or even flood the mainframe market the way they did with web and client/server stuff.
Well, it's already the case. A good fraction of the Big 5 Indian IT-enabled services firms' employees are 'into mainframes'. Mainframes are the bread and butter for most of them...
> Who wants to learn a dead end language when you > can have a nice language that is more modern and > will earn you money (and look good on your C.V.)
Plenty of people learn COBOL in India. Business model of the top IT services companies in India:
1. Go to an $RANDOM college campus 2. recruit blokes who have not programmed ever. 3. Train them in mainframe / COBOL 4. Send 'em to the U.S. to consult 4. Profit.
The FSF does have a lot of funds. The whole world knows CVS sucks. (someone said CVS is ok for gcc... do you ever follow the gcc list? People periodically bitch of how horrendously slow it is to update code other than from trunk) Why does not the FSF and comrade Richard hire hackers to work on a next generation CVS? Perhaps a bitkeeper clone, perhaps something better?
You live in a Free Country. But you are not free to steal; you are not free to shoot your boss or rape his wife.
Freedom has to be defined in a context of "fairness". Your freedom to do as please is tolerated only so far it does not encroach on another person's freedom. Governments draw the line, and enforce it.
The analogy to Free Software should be obvious. RMS is doing the job of drawing the line. He is my hero for it.
I think it is/you/ who needs to get a grip of matters pertaining to GPL.
(i) It is good, readily available Free Software : it made it possible for 7 individuals to complete the project in quick time
(ii) It is good, readily available free software : it has helped keep costs low
(iii) It is a good, readily available free OS : comes with a bunch of apps; developing new apps is does not need a whole new "development environment".
I am not sure if you can win this battle. I have seen a good many scienfitic computing groups live with it. The fundamental problem is the approach of the two camps to computing problems. The physicists, say, are more interested in "getting the job done". Whilst, the CS blokes are interested in hacking on "cool" algorithms - making it more elegant, more efficient. It is next to impossible trying the physicists to appreciate these aspects of hacking. I have a background in Chemical Engineering and Computer Science and have tried to put my multi-disciplinary skills to good use by working with Molecular dynamics simulation groups. It never worked out.
The worst thing you can do to turn off a CS-type is to insist that he program in Fortran. No hacker, unless threatened at gun-point will agree to program in Fortran. And please do not justify the use of fortran by saying the produced code is "faster" - It is just does not make an impression on a hacker. Open your eyes! you can have fortran and C modules co-exist in absolute harmony - give the hacker the freedom he wants.
You can ofcourse attempt to "bribe" the fellas. Promises of access to ripping machines at National Labs always has a positive effect.
Slashdot Mirror
Er, you conveniently forgot to mention that the then Indian Prime Minister Nehru thought it fit to publicly promise, given the extreme circumstances under which Kashmir was 'taking sides', that once the shit was behind them and peace was restored in the state, there would be a referendum to allow the people of Kashmir to decide the issue for themselves. Subsequent Indian governments and their cronies in Kashmir maintain a discreet silence over this issue.
It is not just a matter of national pride for India. It is extreme vital, from a practical POV. The incompetence of the Indian government in catering to minority interests has allowed small time separatist movements to sprout in the corners of the vast land. The tamils have just barely been roped in. The North-East is a catastrophe waiting to happen. If the government cedes one willing inch of Kashmir, all hell will break loose elsewhere. That is what India is more worried about.
However, there seems to be a movement in India to create mass production "Mainframe Diploma Factories" that could potentially replenish, or even flood the mainframe market the way they did with web and client/server stuff.
Well, it's already the case. A good fraction of the Big 5 Indian IT-enabled services firms' employees are 'into mainframes'. Mainframes are the bread and butter for most of them...
> Who wants to learn a dead end language when you
> can have a nice language that is more modern and
> will earn you money (and look good on your C.V.)
Plenty of people learn COBOL in India. Business model of the top IT services companies in India:
1. Go to an $RANDOM college campus
2. recruit blokes who have not programmed ever.
3. Train them in mainframe / COBOL
4. Send 'em to the U.S. to consult
4. Profit.
The FSF does have a lot of funds. The whole world knows CVS sucks. (someone said CVS is ok for gcc... do you ever follow the gcc list? People periodically bitch of how horrendously slow it is to update code other than from trunk) Why does not the FSF and comrade Richard hire hackers to work on a next generation CVS? Perhaps a bitkeeper clone, perhaps something better?
You live in a Free Country. But you are not free to steal; you are not free to shoot your boss or rape his wife.
/you/ who needs to get a grip of matters pertaining to GPL.
Freedom has to be defined in a context of "fairness". Your freedom to do as please is tolerated only so far it does not encroach on another person's freedom. Governments draw the line, and enforce it.
The analogy to Free Software should be obvious. RMS is doing the job of drawing the line. He is my hero for it.
I think it is
(i) It is good, readily available Free Software : it made it possible for 7 individuals to complete the project in quick time
(ii) It is good, readily available free software : it has helped keep costs low
(iii) It is a good, readily available free OS : comes with a bunch of apps; developing new apps is does not need a whole new "development environment".
Read the FAQ...
You freakin communists... stay away from the american educational system...
What the hell was ESR doing reading this stuff anyway?
The worst thing you can do to turn off a CS-type is to insist that he program in Fortran. No hacker, unless threatened at gun-point will agree to program in Fortran. And please do not justify the use of fortran by saying the produced code is "faster" - It is just does not make an impression on a hacker. Open your eyes! you can have fortran and C modules co-exist in absolute harmony - give the hacker the freedom he wants.
You can ofcourse attempt to "bribe" the fellas. Promises of access to ripping machines at National Labs always has a positive effect.