I have never been a big fan of the paperless concept. There are certain dynamic-content stuff that computers are best at -/. is an excellent example. Everytime I visit the site, I want to see it updated and changed.
On the other hand, most of the static content like books, journals etc. are better read offline.
I am surprised that people keep repeating paperlessness as some kind of an Utopian goal. Not using paper might reduce the number of trees that are felled, but switching off computers saves power! Who's to decide which is a more worthy goal?
I come from a country where people in each state speak a different language and are sometimes very different from each other.
I can never understand why the border between states in US would be so controversial. After all, what is the difference between one state and its neighbors? Same people, same issues and the same two political parties fighting it out.
Makes me curious, are there any neighboring states which don't get along very well? Any states that fight over water or any other natural resources?
Someone should tell Steve Fosset about an invention called the "aeroplane". For a fraction of the cost he is incurring now, he can fly around the world as many times as he wants. And what's more, he will get complimentary peanuts too!!!
I don't think the Indian ISPs will get what they want, but I have been thinking about something similar for some time. Can this be a different model for ISPs?
Here is what I am thinking - today the Internet is an all or nothing deal. If you have internet access, you reach ALL the websites. Why should it be that way?
Take TV, for example. There are various packages of programming that I can purchase which determine whether I see just the local networks (Free!!!) or HBO. Why can't it be the same way for internet access?
People who want to visit speciality websites need to pay a higher ISP charge than "regular" folks who only care about their email, some news and weather. The ISPs, pay some of this money to the speciality websites.
Regardless of how this is actually implemented, I think the time has come for dividing up the Net in various smaller internets.
Speaking merely as an unbiased user, here is one reason (atleast) that Mozilla is better than IE - I can surf the Web without any annoying popups! Just ask the reviewers to go to Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Scripts&Window s and disable "Open Unrequested Windows".
That feature alone is worth switching over. It has been months since I saw an X10 ad. Life is better.
I am sure everyone is aware of the other cool features like Tabs and add-ons like bannerblind.
I remember Miscrosoft advocating against US government use of open source software for "security" reasons. Its argument was since open software source is available to everyone, it was a security risk while MS products were safe because it was well-guarded in Redmond, WA.
By this logic, does this not mean that other countries must NOT use MS products? After all, these countries will be letting their vital systems run on software will be known only to Americans!
I recently started using Emacs and was blown away. Someone suggested a book called "writing emacs extensions". Any comments on this book? If I get good feedback for this book, I plan to buy it. Thanks.
Yes. You did. Not you personally. But your ancestors. Every country in Asia and Africa was visited, colonized and systematically looted by your forefathers from Europe.
There was a time when Europeans wanted to come to India. Vasco Da Gama succeeded. Columbus failed and "discovered" America.
There was a reason why people wanted to come to India and China then. There was a reason why your forefathers came to USA instead of staying in Europe (I assume!) There is a reason why people come to USA today.
People from various religions, races and ethnicities have been coming and staying in India looking for a better life for thousands of years. You may not know this, but Christian missionaries came to India before they came to Europe and America (50 A.C.E). Parsis came to India when Muslims displaced them from Iran (have you heard of their religion?).
Given a good enough incentive and reason, you will come, my friend.
There are a lot of people here who feel that America without H1B workers would be almost paradise. Local software workers will all find jobs and things will be fine again. If you are one of those, here are some things to ponder about:
H1 workers are not refugees! An average H1 worker is being invited even today by many countries like Canada, Germany, Australia etc. The reason most people still prefer USA is that it is the center of the computer industry and because the people in USA are more tolerant and anti-racism. Four years in this country and I can honestly say that I have always been treated well by everyone. Hypothetically, if H1 visa was stopped in USA, these people would go elsewhere, but it still won't solve the problem for American workers. Counputer industries in other countries will just become stronger.
Ever looked at where your shoes and clothes were made? There are NO jobs in America today for makers of footwear and clothes, not because foreign workers came here, but because the work itself went abroad! Think about it. If H1 workers were stopped, they wouldn't come here and take up jobs - instead all jobs will move outside to where they are. Globalization almost guarantees that.
In fact, this is not a wild theory. Already, companies moving development offshore.
Even if we accept the (wrong) claim that H1 workers take away American jobs, consider this. Atleast, if H1 workers come here, some of the jobs will go to Americans. If not, ALL JOBS WILL GO TO FOREIGNERS. Which is better? Decide for yourself.
As I peruse the replies to this post, I see a lot of misrepresentations and uninformed generalizations. Below, I try to address some of these:
H1B workers are paid lower salaries than citizens - This is mostly true. However, hiring a H1 candidate results in additional costs like INS fees and immigration lawyer fees. Adding all these up, there is not too much of a saving by hiring a H1 candidate. It is illegal to pay an H1 candidate a lower pay than a similarly qualified citizen. Even if this were true, who is this more unfair towards - the H1 worker or the citizen? Think about it.
Given a choice between a H1 worker and a citizen, companies prefer the former - Today's software engineering cycles are very short, lasting only a few months. Given that H1 approval by itself takes months (including paperwork and INS wait time), no logical person will prefer a H1 candidate to a local worker. It is only when a locally qualified person is hard to find, that companies are willing to wait and get a H1 worker.
In short, legally and logically, it would be a very rare case where a local worker would lose his job to a H1 worker. H1 workers are hired only if the companies involved are not able to find qualified local candidates.
The job shortages in today's market is due to the prevailing bad economic climate. Let us not try to find scapegoats.
If you go to HotJobs.com or Dice.com you will hundreds of jobs even today that specifically exclude H1B visa holders!
H1 visa holders are easy targets, but the fact is, the Dept. of Labor verifies that a H1 worker is not replacing the job of an US citizen before approving the visa.
More and more, the activities of MPAA and RIAA look like the desperate acts of dying people - this latest article is plain lunatic.
There is plenty of room within the existing laws for both these organizations to prevent piracy and safeguard their copyrights. Most people, even in liberal fora like/., consider piracy a crime today.
Such acts will only make these organizations lose their goodwill further and alienate people who are supporting them today.
We cannot enact more and more customized laws to solve problems. We need to effectively enforce the existing ones.
Let us assume that I place a billboard with all my personal details on the side of a very busy highway. Millions of people pass through it and see it. Some even photograph it.
A few days later, I remove the billboard. Do I have the right to demand all those photos be given back since I no longer have the billboard up?
If those photos were published in a magazine, my personal information will stay forever with all those people who archive the magazine or collect it. Did the magazine violate my privacy?
More importantly, if I put my personal information on a billboard, is it really personal info that is entitled to privacy?
I'm sure there are thousands of copies of Pamela and Tommy Lee all around the world today. It is deeply personal stuff, but who is to blame? The people who have it today or the people who released it to the public (themselves)?
BTW: I don't know what a troll is, but I am just asking some questions!
I assume that if you lent your car to complete strangers, who agree in a written contract not to speed, not to (...) etc., you wouldn't want to find out if they are indeed complying with those rules?
Why would you worry about a black box in your car if it is your own car?
I assumed that most people would be annoyed only when rental car company uses its black box to track you. In which case, I was proposing mass transit as an alternative.
Black boxes are not really tracking devices with infinite storage capacity. They are used to capture and recover the vital last few minutes before an accident etc. I don't see why anyone should be alarmed by this.
They can put whatever they want in it, as long as it doesn't hinder my driving. When I sign a contract, I am bound by its rules. The rental company can add any device to the car to track and enforce these rules. As long as they make sure the penalties are fair, I don't see anything wrong with the concept. In fact, black boxes might help determine the cause of serious accidents.
People who disagree can use public transportation. Hopefully, mass transit will get a much needed boost because of people who are unwilling to be tracked.
There is an implicit assumption in forums like this and many others that only western music is swapped in P2P networks. That is far from true. Just type the name of any foreign language in your favorite P2P program and see.
If you are living far away from your country, quite often there is no way to buy the music that you like. Napster and the later P2P networks let people who do not have English as their mother tongue keep in touch with music in their language and songs that are extremely hard to find.
Is that illegal? Possibly. But one thing is for sure - shutting down these networks will not increase record sales in any way. The alternative is simply to not listen to the music you love.
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On the other hand, most of the static content like books, journals etc. are better read offline.
I am surprised that people keep repeating paperlessness as some kind of an Utopian goal. Not using paper might reduce the number of trees that are felled, but switching off computers saves power! Who's to decide which is a more worthy goal?
As far as I know, JBoss and Jonas are the free, open-source J2EE appservers competing with BEA. May be you meant one of them.
I can never understand why the border between states in US would be so controversial. After all, what is the difference between one state and its neighbors? Same people, same issues and the same two political parties fighting it out.
Makes me curious, are there any neighboring states which don't get along very well? Any states that fight over water or any other natural resources?
Really? My peanuts always say - "Howdy, sucker! Did you know that everyone else on this plane paid less for the ticket than you did?"
Someone should tell Steve Fosset about an invention called the "aeroplane". For a fraction of the cost he is incurring now, he can fly around the world as many times as he wants. And what's more, he will get complimentary peanuts too!!!
I don't know about PCs in America, but the Indian Simputer definitely needs this feature!
Here is what I am thinking - today the Internet is an all or nothing deal. If you have internet access, you reach ALL the websites. Why should it be that way?
Take TV, for example. There are various packages of programming that I can purchase which determine whether I see just the local networks (Free!!!) or HBO. Why can't it be the same way for internet access?
People who want to visit speciality websites need to pay a higher ISP charge than "regular" folks who only care about their email, some news and weather. The ISPs, pay some of this money to the speciality websites.
Regardless of how this is actually implemented, I think the time has come for dividing up the Net in various smaller internets.
What do you think?
That feature alone is worth switching over. It has been months since I saw an X10 ad. Life is better.
I am sure everyone is aware of the other cool features like Tabs and add-ons like bannerblind.
By this logic, does this not mean that other countries must NOT use MS products? After all, these countries will be letting their vital systems run on software will be known only to Americans!
I recently started using Emacs and was blown away. Someone suggested a book called "writing emacs extensions". Any comments on this book? If I get good feedback for this book, I plan to buy it. Thanks.
There was a time when Europeans wanted to come to India. Vasco Da Gama succeeded. Columbus failed and "discovered" America.
There was a reason why people wanted to come to India and China then. There was a reason why your forefathers came to USA instead of staying in Europe (I assume!) There is a reason why people come to USA today.
People from various religions, races and ethnicities have been coming and staying in India looking for a better life for thousands of years. You may not know this, but Christian missionaries came to India before they came to Europe and America (50 A.C.E). Parsis came to India when Muslims displaced them from Iran (have you heard of their religion?).
Given a good enough incentive and reason, you will come, my friend.
This may be unrelated, can anyone recall what "Nazi" stood for? Was it "Nationalist Socialists" or something like that? Just asking.
Thanks. But actually, no. I was trying to list that as a myth. Guess I still have to work on my writing skills :)
In fact, this is not a wild theory. Already, companies moving development offshore.
Even if we accept the (wrong) claim that H1 workers take away American jobs, consider this. Atleast, if H1 workers come here, some of the jobs will go to Americans. If not, ALL JOBS WILL GO TO FOREIGNERS. Which is better? Decide for yourself.
In short, legally and logically, it would be a very rare case where a local worker would lose his job to a H1 worker. H1 workers are hired only if the companies involved are not able to find qualified local candidates.
The job shortages in today's market is due to the prevailing bad economic climate. Let us not try to find scapegoats.
H1 visa holders are easy targets, but the fact is, the Dept. of Labor verifies that a H1 worker is not replacing the job of an US citizen before approving the visa.
There is plenty of room within the existing laws for both these organizations to prevent piracy and safeguard their copyrights. Most people, even in liberal fora like /., consider piracy a crime today.
Such acts will only make these organizations lose their goodwill further and alienate people who are supporting them today.
We cannot enact more and more customized laws to solve problems. We need to effectively enforce the existing ones.
This will result in nothing short of a cyber-war.
A few days later, I remove the billboard. Do I have the right to demand all those photos be given back since I no longer have the billboard up?
If those photos were published in a magazine, my personal information will stay forever with all those people who archive the magazine or collect it. Did the magazine violate my privacy?
More importantly, if I put my personal information on a billboard, is it really personal info that is entitled to privacy?
I'm sure there are thousands of copies of Pamela and Tommy Lee all around the world today. It is deeply personal stuff, but who is to blame? The people who have it today or the people who released it to the public (themselves)?
BTW: I don't know what a troll is, but I am just asking some questions!
I assume that if you lent your car to complete strangers, who agree in a written contract not to speed, not to (...) etc., you wouldn't want to find out if they are indeed complying with those rules?
Thanks. I am a troll, but you agree with me and you have a positive score of 2 (for now)! Strange indeed are the ways of /. moderation.
I assumed that most people would be annoyed only when rental car company uses its black box to track you. In which case, I was proposing mass transit as an alternative.
Black boxes are not really tracking devices with infinite storage capacity. They are used to capture and recover the vital last few minutes before an accident etc. I don't see why anyone should be alarmed by this.
People who disagree can use public transportation. Hopefully, mass transit will get a much needed boost because of people who are unwilling to be tracked.
Does this mean anyone connected with pron can be arrested if travels to a country where it is illegal?
Will the US government support such an action? Or will we send commandos to rescue them?
If you send a question to a bunch of people you know, they will each assume that the other will answer.
Spam does not work this way.
If you are living far away from your country, quite often there is no way to buy the music that you like. Napster and the later P2P networks let people who do not have English as their mother tongue keep in touch with music in their language and songs that are extremely hard to find.
Is that illegal? Possibly. But one thing is for sure - shutting down these networks will not increase record sales in any way. The alternative is simply to not listen to the music you love.