>India is poor, dirt poor. Even with the fairly decent number of jobs we've shipped there, it doesn't even begin to make a dent in the poverty level.
I think the important point that was missed by many readers here is that when a big company like MS makes such investments, it increases investor confidence in general, and sets a precedent for other companies to consider similar moves. The cumulative effect of such investments will make a difference over a period of time: the poverty you speak of has been there for centuries, and it won't go away with merely a decade's worth of economic progress.
>And of course these jobs aren't available to the greater majority of the population, especially to the Dalit (formerly known as "untouchable") segment.
1. The Dalit population in India is about 17%, so its not a majority to begin with.
2. Unlike the affirmative action (think: optional) policies in this country, India has quotas (think: mandatory) in jobs & educational institutions for socially & economically backward segments (which covers a lot more people than the Dalits you mention) of the population.
The extension I just removed before installing google toolbar had a few more features, the most useful of which is the EDU search. The official google toolbar doesn't seem to have this.
I would love to send my next paper to this journal, and I did run it by my graduate committee: however, the unanimous recommendation was that I should try one of the more established journals, and should not bother with PLoS until it is more 'mature.' I wonder how long it takes before PLoS gains wider acceptance in academic circles.
Thats not entirely true -- as a rule, optical mice don't play well with shiny/glass surfaces, so in our conference rooms, we end up using regular mice-pads for wireless optical mice even.
Exactly! The structure of government and educational institutions in India is much different than that in the US, so some changes would be in required for any of the US-style licenses to be effectively adopted by institutions in India.
I'd like to see the 'chief complaint' data from the main healthcare provider there before and after this massive wireless installation. It will be interesting to track any changes in the types and occurences of certain types of illnesses to see what kind of effect some of our new technologies are having on our health.
I suppose this program loads the entire system hives into the memory at the same time, but my task manager is showing this program using 89Mb RAM & 82Mb virtual memory right now while the scan is running.
Now, if I had to defeat this detection utility, maybe all I need is something that monitors processes that use RAM in this fashion.
Assuming of course that not a whole lot of people knew about this vulnerability, this may have been one of those exceptions where security through obscurity may have actually worked out for the better.
While I more or less agree with most of what you've said, the fact remains that a lot of federal grant money is allocated for things like enhanced warfare.
Even if just *one* of the positive outcomes of such a technology means would lets say, let paraplegics walk or function normally, its probably worth it.
Umm... if the white house picked both candidates in running for the Iraqi election, then that *does* make it the final authority in Iraq. Its the same old story... displace US-unfriendly rulers with US-friendly ones through covert or overt operations.
Lets face the facts honestly though... for all practical purposes at this moment, we *are* an occupying force in Iraq, and as long as Pres.Bush claims (from tonight's Presidential debate) that it is our responsibility to 'train' the Iraqis how to do their jobs in a last-ditch effort to shove democracy down everyone's throat, we cant really go around claiming that it is a free country.
As a student, I have changed apartments several times, and some of these places were not suited to run wires from one end of the apt to the other. Thus, wireless made a lot of sense even for the desktop, as it saved me the hassle of trying to work the wires around the place.
I'm not entirely convinced about the bandwidth argument either. Duplex or not, a cheap 11Mbps wireless still has more bandwidth than a 3Mbps cable internet connection, so the narrow pipe is obviously not the wireless.
Not quite: we blame them for having to *run* a lot of programs as root to get full functionality. In most *nixes, OTOH, you only need root passwords to *install* programs, while the programs themselves run just fine for regular users.
I dont see anything wrong with having to ask for root passwords for critical changes to any system: its a good practice, and one of the better implementations of it is seen in OS X, which actually has 'Lock/Unlock' icons for settings that need root access.
I'd be the last person to defend *any* mobile phone company, but bottomline is they are all out there to make money, and our legislators are only too happy to look the other way.
For instance: 'Get-it-now' on Verizon phones... shameful waste of a button right up front serving only one purpose: buy cheesy ringtones, screensavers(!) & other 'features' for your phone! Other carriers have similar services, but most are not nearly as in-your-face as Verizon's.
As for the developers... well, what percentage of its customer-base consists of developers? So why should they even care? They may be the most developer-unfriendly company out there, but they also have the network with the largest coverage area in the United States.
So then it becomes a question of tradeoff: if you a want decent coverage area, go verizon. If you want great phones with cool features that can work outside the US, go T-mobile/Cingular/AT&T. If you want neither, go Sprint;)
Agreed. But then again how many other such phenomena are that easy to capture by conventional means? Whether its the best radio-telescope or the best electron microscope, some things have to be extrapolated.
Take the example of the structure of benzene or that of DNA: both were predicted at some point and proven later on. If having an artistic impression allows us to test & validate our hypotheses when we have the means, then I see that as a 'Good Thing.'
>> not subject to regulatory agencies
That will likely change within the next few years. The situation is analogous to taxation of online purchases. Sooner or later, it will reach a threshold so that governments would start considering legislation to somehow collect taxes or regulate that sector somewhat. According to an eweek article, some states are already moving in that direction.
Since the implementation is essentially two cores on one die, the speed would be limited by whats available with the existing 90nm line at present.
If you were asking about their performance rating, I'm guessing it might be way higher than the existing line of Opterons.
I'm all for the idea of a free high-speed roam-anywhere wireless capability, but the threat of people using your connection for anything ranging from DDoS to spam is what keeps me from opening up my own router.
A solution that I can think of is to build the following capabilities & have them switched 'on' by default into each router:
1. Global list of black-holed sites (updated regularly over the internet) that includes anything unsuitable for kids: if you want to disable this, it would need intervention, so you'll at least have to RTFM about it.
[preventing it's use for pr0n]
2. Monitoring the amount of traffic from any one node (identified by its MAC address) to anywhere else: viruses, worms, DDoS tools SPAM-bots & such all exhibit typical patterns, and such patterns can be used to block out any node for a fixed amount of time, or permanently block it off.
[preventing it's use for SPAM, DDoS, & retarding the spread of viruses & worms]
3. Physical lock to supplement the default login/passwords used to login to the router & changing settings: wont let anyone login as admin without the key turned 'on,' and wont let you use the network until the key is removed.
[preventing random people from changing settings, while also preventing people from leaving the key in the 'ignition':) ]
4. Switchover capability: the ability to 'talk' to other routers using standard protocols so that the user will be automatically switched from one router to the other transparently just like the cell-towers do with your mobile.
[allowing true roaming capabilities without windows popping up a stupid balloon telling you that one/more networks are in range]
I was at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, and that happened right after 9/11, so we were told that the security was even greater than it had been in the previous olympics. The point is that in order to prevent yet another tragedy, such measures were entirely *necessary*.
Since an event like the Olympics draws people from different parts of the world, conflict is bound to arise in some form or the other, given the fact that many nations are not exactly at peace with a lot of other nations (ourselves included). So it doesnt even have to be a terrorist-related threat that may push up security to new levels: anticipating & preventing anything from happening is the main objective of such operations.
In the light of this, I fail to understand why people would then want to drag privacy issues in the middle of all this. If you want real privacy, go shut yourself into a cave or a bunker and cut yourself from the rest of the world. Privacy in your home & privacy in a public place are entirely different things. If you step out onto the street, you are in a public place, and therefore need to redefine your expectations of privacy in that place. Realistically, the two will never be the same.
Admittedly, I dont know too much about the Estonian political system etc, to comment on the issue of choice, and how much of it the people there had when their government decided to introduce such a thing. However, it has been my experience that outside the US, a lot of cultures dont seem to make that big a deal about privacy, so maybe it is not that big a deal after all to Estonian citizens.
OTOH, RFIDs have already been implemented by clubs, etc to have painless billing, etc, so there are at least a few people around the world who dont think they are that big a deal.
Living in the US, however, my own fears are based on what I have heard about the privacy issues surrounding such technology, in that anyone with a scanner can find out a dangerous amount of information about you without your knowledge or consent; so to me it seems like a bad idea at least until someone can manage to convince me otherwise about how my information will be protected.
I think part of the revenue comes from vendor lockin that come with MSIE. Since this browser does not play well with open standards, while other widely used MS technologies like ASP & ActiveX are deliberately designed to be incompatible with anything else, MS manages to collect revenue from the developers who have to remain 'compatible' with MS technologies simply because the end-users are often locked into an MS World (hey, it sounds like a real application:P) on account of the MS Windows monopoly. Its one loop that must be broken if we are to make any serious improvements in the end-user experience. Anyhow, thats my 2c on why the browser-wars might be important.
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>India is poor, dirt poor. Even with the fairly decent number of jobs we've shipped there, it doesn't even begin to make a dent in the poverty level.
I think the important point that was missed by many readers here is that when a big company like MS makes such investments, it increases investor confidence in general, and sets a precedent for other companies to consider similar moves. The cumulative effect of such investments will make a difference over a period of time: the poverty you speak of has been there for centuries, and it won't go away with merely a decade's worth of economic progress.
>And of course these jobs aren't available to the greater majority of the population, especially to the Dalit (formerly known as "untouchable") segment.
1. The Dalit population in India is about 17%, so its not a majority to begin with.
2. Unlike the affirmative action (think: optional) policies in this country, India has quotas (think: mandatory) in jobs & educational institutions for socially & economically backward segments (which covers a lot more people than the Dalits you mention) of the population.
3. Get a clue!
The extension I just removed before installing google toolbar had a few more features, the most useful of which is the EDU search. The official google toolbar doesn't seem to have this.
I would love to send my next paper to this journal, and I did run it by my graduate committee: however, the unanimous recommendation was that I should try one of the more established journals, and should not bother with PLoS until it is more 'mature.' I wonder how long it takes before PLoS gains wider acceptance in academic circles.
Thats not entirely true -- as a rule, optical mice don't play well with shiny/glass surfaces, so in our conference rooms, we end up using regular mice-pads for wireless optical mice even.
Exactly! The structure of government and educational institutions in India is much different than that in the US, so some changes would be in required for any of the US-style licenses to be effectively adopted by institutions in India.
I'd like to see the 'chief complaint' data from the main healthcare provider there before and after this massive wireless installation. It will be interesting to track any changes in the types and occurences of certain types of illnesses to see what kind of effect some of our new technologies are having on our health.
I suppose this program loads the entire system hives into the memory at the same time, but my task manager is showing this program using 89Mb RAM & 82Mb virtual memory right now while the scan is running.
Now, if I had to defeat this detection utility, maybe all I need is something that monitors processes that use RAM in this fashion.
Assuming of course that not a whole lot of people knew about this vulnerability, this may have been one of those exceptions where security through obscurity may have actually worked out for the better.
While I more or less agree with most of what you've said, the fact remains that a lot of federal grant money is allocated for things like enhanced warfare.
Even if just *one* of the positive outcomes of such a technology means would lets say, let paraplegics walk or function normally, its probably worth it.
Hardly a surprise considering that Microsoft showed off MSN search using FireFox! :D
I suppose blending men with pan-galactic hyperdimensional beings could be a *good thing*
I'm sorry, that was on Scientific American, NOT on New Scientist (too many tabs open in FireFox to keep track)
NewScientist has some more info on this.
Umm ... if the white house picked both candidates in running for the Iraqi election, then that *does* make it the final authority in Iraq. Its the same old story ... displace US-unfriendly rulers with US-friendly ones through covert or overt operations.
... for all practical purposes at this moment, we *are* an occupying force in Iraq, and as long as Pres.Bush claims (from tonight's Presidential debate) that it is our responsibility to 'train' the Iraqis how to do their jobs in a last-ditch effort to shove democracy down everyone's throat, we cant really go around claiming that it is a free country.
Lets face the facts honestly though
As a student, I have changed apartments several times, and some of these places were not suited to run wires from one end of the apt to the other. Thus, wireless made a lot of sense even for the desktop, as it saved me the hassle of trying to work the wires around the place.
I'm not entirely convinced about the bandwidth argument either. Duplex or not, a cheap 11Mbps wireless still has more bandwidth than a 3Mbps cable internet connection, so the narrow pipe is obviously not the wireless.
> Isn't this what we blame microsoft for? <
Not quite: we blame them for having to *run* a lot of programs as root to get full functionality. In most *nixes, OTOH, you only need root passwords to *install* programs, while the programs themselves run just fine for regular users.
I dont see anything wrong with having to ask for root passwords for critical changes to any system: its a good practice, and one of the better implementations of it is seen in OS X, which actually has 'Lock/Unlock' icons for settings that need root access.
Dont forget the monthly subscription sharges for the Tivo service. An HTPC is a lot more expandable too.
I'd be the last person to defend *any* mobile phone company, but bottomline is they are all out there to make money, and our legislators are only too happy to look the other way.
... shameful waste of a button right up front serving only one purpose: buy cheesy ringtones, screensavers(!) & other 'features' for your phone! Other carriers have similar services, but most are not nearly as in-your-face as Verizon's.
... well, what percentage of its customer-base consists of developers? So why should they even care? They may be the most developer-unfriendly company out there, but they also have the network with the largest coverage area in the United States.
;)
For instance: 'Get-it-now' on Verizon phones
As for the developers
So then it becomes a question of tradeoff: if you a want decent coverage area, go verizon. If you want great phones with cool features that can work outside the US, go T-mobile/Cingular/AT&T. If you want neither, go Sprint
Agreed. But then again how many other such phenomena are that easy to capture by conventional means? Whether its the best radio-telescope or the best electron microscope, some things have to be extrapolated.
Take the example of the structure of benzene or that of DNA: both were predicted at some point and proven later on. If having an artistic impression allows us to test & validate our hypotheses when we have the means, then I see that as a 'Good Thing.'
>> not subject to regulatory agencies That will likely change within the next few years. The situation is analogous to taxation of online purchases. Sooner or later, it will reach a threshold so that governments would start considering legislation to somehow collect taxes or regulate that sector somewhat. According to an eweek article, some states are already moving in that direction.
Since the implementation is essentially two cores on one die, the speed would be limited by whats available with the existing 90nm line at present. If you were asking about their performance rating, I'm guessing it might be way higher than the existing line of Opterons.
I'm all for the idea of a free high-speed roam-anywhere wireless capability, but the threat of people using your connection for anything ranging from DDoS to spam is what keeps me from opening up my own router.
:) ]
:) ]
A solution that I can think of is to build the following capabilities & have them switched 'on' by default into each router:
1. Global list of black-holed sites (updated regularly over the internet) that includes anything unsuitable for kids: if you want to disable this, it would need intervention, so you'll at least have to RTFM about it.
[preventing it's use for pr0n]
2. Monitoring the amount of traffic from any one node (identified by its MAC address) to anywhere else: viruses, worms, DDoS tools SPAM-bots & such all exhibit typical patterns, and such patterns can be used to block out any node for a fixed amount of time, or permanently block it off.
[preventing it's use for SPAM, DDoS, & retarding the spread of viruses & worms]
3. Physical lock to supplement the default login/passwords used to login to the router & changing settings: wont let anyone login as admin without the key turned 'on,' and wont let you use the network until the key is removed.
[preventing random people from changing settings, while also preventing people from leaving the key in the 'ignition'
4. Switchover capability: the ability to 'talk' to other routers using standard protocols so that the user will be automatically switched from one router to the other transparently just like the cell-towers do with your mobile.
[allowing true roaming capabilities without windows popping up a stupid balloon telling you that one/more networks are in range]
5. [please add more points in your reply!
I was at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, and that happened right after 9/11, so we were told that the security was even greater than it had been in the previous olympics. The point is that in order to prevent yet another tragedy, such measures were entirely *necessary*.
Since an event like the Olympics draws people from different parts of the world, conflict is bound to arise in some form or the other, given the fact that many nations are not exactly at peace with a lot of other nations (ourselves included). So it doesnt even have to be a terrorist-related threat that may push up security to new levels: anticipating & preventing anything from happening is the main objective of such operations.
In the light of this, I fail to understand why people would then want to drag privacy issues in the middle of all this. If you want real privacy, go shut yourself into a cave or a bunker and cut yourself from the rest of the world. Privacy in your home & privacy in a public place are entirely different things. If you step out onto the street, you are in a public place, and therefore need to redefine your expectations of privacy in that place. Realistically, the two will never be the same.
Admittedly, I dont know too much about the Estonian political system etc, to comment on the issue of choice, and how much of it the people there had when their government decided to introduce such a thing. However, it has been my experience that outside the US, a lot of cultures dont seem to make that big a deal about privacy, so maybe it is not that big a deal after all to Estonian citizens.
OTOH, RFIDs have already been implemented by clubs, etc to have painless billing, etc, so there are at least a few people around the world who dont think they are that big a deal.
Living in the US, however, my own fears are based on what I have heard about the privacy issues surrounding such technology, in that anyone with a scanner can find out a dangerous amount of information about you without your knowledge or consent; so to me it seems like a bad idea at least until someone can manage to convince me otherwise about how my information will be protected.
I think part of the revenue comes from vendor lockin that come with MSIE. Since this browser does not play well with open standards, while other widely used MS technologies like ASP & ActiveX are deliberately designed to be incompatible with anything else, MS manages to collect revenue from the developers who have to remain 'compatible' with MS technologies simply because the end-users are often locked into an MS World (hey, it sounds like a real application :P) on account of the MS Windows monopoly. Its one loop that must be broken if we are to make any serious improvements in the end-user experience. Anyhow, thats my 2c on why the browser-wars might be important.