It looks like India is making a fair demand from Silicon Valley companies. When it invited them with open arms it was expected that the warms would be reciprocated It looks like India is making a fair demand from Silicon Valley companies. When it invited them with open arms it was expected that the warms would be reciprocated.
It is not one way street, that all companies get access to Indian markets and India don't even get a say on their users data security and privacy. Expecting financial data of Indian users to be stored locally is a reasonable demand. Another regulation that separates market place and manufacturer i.e., restrict monopoly power of market place provider is also reasonable. It provides level playing field to everybody.
If Silicon Valley companies expected to be given open field without any regulations, then it can be only termed as their fault. If they term this as turning back on Silicon Valley, it is their choice.
It is expected that companies like Twitter and Facebook remain impartial in the upcoming elections. Not take any sides and try to meddle in the election processes. Otherwise, they will have to be ready to face more stronger regulations.
Within two paragraphs the summary makes contradictory claims. It begins with "India, the world's second largest internet market" and ends with saying that Silicon Valley companies that count India as one of their biggest markets is generating very little revenue.
If I were the funding agency, this would be reected instantly. You can heat your house better by doing random switchings of transistors rather than this round about way.
It would have been better if these researchers were honest in their request. I am not even sure they have any case or even trivial computation like Fourier transform through their method.
True about Bangladesh. I also agree that the reason about open defecation may also be cultural. Yet, Indians are more pragmatic than what you think. Until now there was no focused effort to address this problem. Not any more. Just like this 1000 day target to electrify all villages, the target to get all villages and cities open defecation free is Oct. 2019. It is progressing well as far as I can tell.
Changes in Indian society occur at much faster rate than you can imagine. Indians are not zealots, can adopt quickly and see the logic. What Indians lack is ability to put efforts in a single minded manner like Chinese. There are always hundreds of opinion and each one pulling in different direction. By some random circumstances there is one decade every century where you see dramatic positive changes, other wise languishing in whatever state the previous cycle left them. This has been the story of India since last 1000 years.
In previous two cycles we eradicated Sati and Untouchability. Exceptions are still seen even today, but on the whole these are gone. Now it is time for toilets.
In two words you have captured the essential part of this news. It is not only toilets tomorrow but also cooking gas for all liberating women from smoke and related health issues. Next is moving the mass of people to formal banking, with potential change over less cash economy.
The impact of this will be felt worldwide in the next 10 years. If USA is exhausted of Indian coders when India has just 40 % toilet coverage, 60 % electricity access and less than 50 % families with a bank account, imagine the scenario 10 years from now with 100 % population having middle class facilities. India is massively cleaning up its streets and rivers. Building road and rail infrastructure.
It is going through the phase which China went through three decades ago.
You are right in your assessment. The last few villages were tough. They were located in dense forests or in higher altitudes of himalay. Some were even in the places affected by terrorism.
See for example this case. Chhattisgarh's Maoist-hit village gets electricity after 15 years. . The light vanished from the Chintalnar village when Maoists, in a bid to disrupt the development activities in the district, uprooted electricity poles. Bringing back electricity to such villages was a tough job. I am happy it is done.
However, as the summary mention, electrification of a village just means public places are electrified. The next job is to provide electricity to all and ensure 24x7 supply. This part is what you have said:
spend forever on the last 5% to make sure everything works -together-
So Sri Lanka has a bit of a history of violence and oppression towards non-buddhists.
I agree with the history of civil strife in Sri Lanka. However in this case it is the government ( mostly Buddhist) that is doing its best to stop spread of violence, hence the blame on Buddhists is unjustified.
This is a common practice in this part of the world. A temporary blockage of social media for 1-2 days, usually restricted to just a district or a city is common in India.
It is employed when the law enforcing agencies are caught unaware about some sudden flashpoint that triggers street violence. This blockage stops spreading of violence to larger area and give time to enforcement agencies to mobilize their resources
It is not to be confused with censorship or blanket ban of internet / social media forever. Over all it has a positive impact in preventing larger scale destruction of life and properties for cost of inconvenience of few days.
Basically Indians want to be left alone and focus on solving their own problems. This is their trait since pre-historic times. But the northwestern border of India does not have any natural boundaries to prevent invaders. Earlier it were Greeks, Mongol, Turks, Moghuls now they are Islamic terrorist from Pakistan and beyond.
If they stop bothering India, Indians would cease maintaining big military and focus more resources in poverty alleviation.
It is not contempt, but self-defence to maintain a particular way of life. We genuinely believe in live and let live.
I don't know the technical details of BART systems sitting in India. Is it supplied by 60 Hz AC and the rectifiers are installed on the cars that run on DC motors? Usually these power electronics devices build in 1980s are robust enough. We have gained experience now and toughened the circuit in modern drives, but I doubt it be the case in 80s. Any adverse interaction with filters or may be some kind of ferroresonance can cause high voltage and damage such equipment.
Throw some power quality analyzers on various sections of the track and watch the system's transient voltage response with power sources in various configurations.
This is the best way to investigate such problems. I am sure the real experts are doing already doing it. There is nothing mysterious or sensational like hacking going on here. Just plain overvoltage problem causing weak old power-electronics to fail.
My Indian friends tell me it's not the general population of India that is corrupt. It's their government.
It is government and few elite that are corrupt. But in India few means a lot, they control whole government machinery from top to bottom.
With UID, targeted subsidy will reach really needy people directly eliminating many source of leakages. Things could have continued as it is, but this is an instance of government acting under pressure and responding to public aspirations for better future for their lot. UID is causing resentment among few elites who see their easy money being stopped.
Where else can you find gang raping done by police departments?
Everywhere, where there is no accountability and no fear of punishment. But things are changing. Such people do get punished by the same government that you think is corrupt. India is after all a democracy, and government has to be responsive to public sentiments. So rapes by police never get unpunished.
What if they trace my IP, raid my home, arrest me and throw away the key?
What has this to do with UID?. This pure paranoia. If they really wanted to do it, they can do it without this database. You know, even if you are anonymous coward, your IP can still be traced.
It is not question of trust in government. It is voluntary, if you don't trust government, don't get your fingerprints scanned and don't get UID. No body is forcing you to get government subsidy.
Remaining blind to some technology is not going to solve poverty. Using it for betterment of poorest of poor, by eliminating leakages might.
It is not in interest of national security, rather in interest of preventing leakages in government subsidies. The program is voluntary, if you don't want subsidy don't enrol yourself, as simple as that.
Second part is that the program is running since 2009 without any legal backing or any government legislation. Present government is try to regulate the database and limit the usage of the collected data to just its intended purpose.
In spite of all safeguards, just like any other database this may also be breached but now there is a punishment in unlawful usage, which was missing till today even though data was already collected since 2009. And, really government cannot use this database for any of nefarious purpose as it just links names with fingerprints and Iris data, without any record of your caste, religion, mother tongue or even citizenship status.
It is not like farmers predictions. The progress we have been making is quite impressive, as there are 800 know exoplanets by now, and more are getting discovered.
Scientific discoveries come in batches. There is nothing for a long time, then suddenly the lull ends and a breakthrough is achieved. Lot of similar discoveries occur simultaneously.
This prediction is from people who know their stuff. Even though they may not come true this year it is still good prediction.
After all, there isn't any reason why a company needs to struggle to perpetuate its existence forever(any more than a company would struggle to perpetuate the existence of a given product line forever).
That would be equivalent to euthanasia for companies. But there are real reason why it is not universally accepted. For all companies that have died there are enough examples that have struggeld and come out stronger. Nokia and Apple comes to mind immediatly. They diversified and successed beyond immagination.
You already seem to have a grasp of the situation here in India.
People of northeast of India have a mongoloid features, which marks them as different from rest of Indians that have aryan features.
There is some ethenic violence going on in Assam, a state in notheast of India, between Bodo (ethenic Assames people with mongoloid features) and Muslims. So other Norhteastern people living in rest of India are therened by Muslims.
Most of these people are students and migran labours. Their parents got worried about their safety and called them back. Mass hysteria got generated when evey norhteastern person just started exodus from rest of India back to their hometown.
The ban on bulk SMS is for 15 days at the most. This is not censorship, but an effort to avoid mass hysteria.
Those of you who know India will understand what I mean. Even before the era of mobile phones it was somhow easy to spread roumours and generate hysteria in India. For example read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_milk_miracle/ for one hysteria of 1995 regarding idols that drink milk, or 2006 where sea water turned sweet.
These efforts are to help crub the new hysteria. But I am doubtful about its effectiveness.
You go to India, and you will find towns that looks so much like what you get in England, with English bangalows and everything
Except that Bunglow itself is an Indian word adopted in English. And the Indian bunglows are more suited for the tropical climate conditions of India more than the English whether.
The story is about programming, not computers. Getting is interested in programming is like teaching music, dancing and a sport to a kid. Even though films, tv, big games are available for consumption that does not mean general public should just sit and watch and don't get involved themselves.
Slashdot Mirror
It looks like India is making a fair demand from Silicon Valley companies. When it invited them with open arms it was expected that the warms would be reciprocated It looks like India is making a fair demand from Silicon Valley companies. When it invited them with open arms it was expected that the warms would be reciprocated.
It is not one way street, that all companies get access to Indian markets and India don't even get a say on their users data security and privacy. Expecting financial data of Indian users to be stored locally is a reasonable demand. Another regulation that separates market place and manufacturer i.e., restrict monopoly power of market place provider is also reasonable. It provides level playing field to everybody.
If Silicon Valley companies expected to be given open field without any regulations, then it can be only termed as their fault. If they term this as turning back on Silicon Valley, it is their choice.
It is expected that companies like Twitter and Facebook remain impartial in the upcoming elections. Not take any sides and try to meddle in the election processes. Otherwise, they will have to be ready to face more stronger regulations.
Within two paragraphs the summary makes contradictory claims. It begins with "India, the world's second largest internet market" and ends with saying that Silicon Valley companies that count India as one of their biggest markets is generating very little revenue.
Stick with any one of the narrative.
If I were the funding agency, this would be reected instantly. You can heat your house better by doing random switchings of transistors rather than this round about way. It would have been better if these researchers were honest in their request. I am not even sure they have any case or even trivial computation like Fourier transform through their method.
True about Bangladesh. I also agree that the reason about open defecation may also be cultural. Yet, Indians are more pragmatic than what you think. Until now there was no focused effort to address this problem. Not any more. Just like this 1000 day target to electrify all villages, the target to get all villages and cities open defecation free is Oct. 2019. It is progressing well as far as I can tell.
Changes in Indian society occur at much faster rate than you can imagine. Indians are not zealots, can adopt quickly and see the logic. What Indians lack is ability to put efforts in a single minded manner like Chinese. There are always hundreds of opinion and each one pulling in different direction. By some random circumstances there is one decade every century where you see dramatic positive changes, other wise languishing in whatever state the previous cycle left them. This has been the story of India since last 1000 years.
In previous two cycles we eradicated Sati and Untouchability. Exceptions are still seen even today, but on the whole these are gone. Now it is time for toilets.
Politicians who are sincere in keeping their promises to deliver, plan their work before making public announcements. What is wrong with this?
In two words you have captured the essential part of this news. It is not only toilets tomorrow but also cooking gas for all liberating women from smoke and related health issues. Next is moving the mass of people to formal banking, with potential change over less cash economy.
The impact of this will be felt worldwide in the next 10 years. If USA is exhausted of Indian coders when India has just 40 % toilet coverage, 60 % electricity access and less than 50 % families with a bank account, imagine the scenario 10 years from now with 100 % population having middle class facilities. India is massively cleaning up its streets and rivers. Building road and rail infrastructure.
It is going through the phase which China went through three decades ago.
You are right in your assessment. The last few villages were tough. They were located in dense forests or in higher altitudes of himalay. Some were even in the places affected by terrorism.
See for example this case. Chhattisgarh's Maoist-hit village gets electricity after 15 years. . The light vanished from the Chintalnar village when Maoists, in a bid to disrupt the development activities in the district, uprooted electricity poles. Bringing back electricity to such villages was a tough job. I am happy it is done.
However, as the summary mention, electrification of a village just means public places are electrified. The next job is to provide electricity to all and ensure 24x7 supply. This part is what you have said :
I agree with the history of civil strife in Sri Lanka. However in this case it is the government ( mostly Buddhist) that is doing its best to stop spread of violence, hence the blame on Buddhists is unjustified.
This is a common practice in this part of the world. A temporary blockage of social media for 1-2 days, usually restricted to just a district or a city is common in India.
It is employed when the law enforcing agencies are caught unaware about some sudden flashpoint that triggers street violence. This blockage stops spreading of violence to larger area and give time to enforcement agencies to mobilize their resources
It is not to be confused with censorship or blanket ban of internet / social media forever. Over all it has a positive impact in preventing larger scale destruction of life and properties for cost of inconvenience of few days.
I am from Mumbai, India. I have been on Slashdot since 1999, and never faced any blocking.
The internet censorship in India is more about porn than political views.
It is not contempt.
Basically Indians want to be left alone and focus on solving their own problems. This is their trait since pre-historic times. But the northwestern border of India does not have any natural boundaries to prevent invaders. Earlier it were Greeks, Mongol, Turks, Moghuls now they are Islamic terrorist from Pakistan and beyond.
If they stop bothering India, Indians would cease maintaining big military and focus more resources in poverty alleviation.
It is not contempt, but self-defence to maintain a particular way of life. We genuinely believe in live and let live.
Seems most probable cause.
I don't know the technical details of BART systems sitting in India. Is it supplied by 60 Hz AC and the rectifiers are installed on the cars that run on DC motors? Usually these power electronics devices build in 1980s are robust enough. We have gained experience now and toughened the circuit in modern drives, but I doubt it be the case in 80s. Any adverse interaction with filters or may be some kind of ferroresonance can cause high voltage and damage such equipment.
This is the best way to investigate such problems. I am sure the real experts are doing already doing it. There is nothing mysterious or sensational like hacking going on here. Just plain overvoltage problem causing weak old power-electronics to fail.
It is government and few elite that are corrupt. But in India few means a lot, they control whole government machinery from top to bottom.
With UID, targeted subsidy will reach really needy people directly eliminating many source of leakages. Things could have continued as it is, but this is an instance of government acting under pressure and responding to public aspirations for better future for their lot. UID is causing resentment among few elites who see their easy money being stopped.
Everywhere, where there is no accountability and no fear of punishment. But things are changing. Such people do get punished by the same government that you think is corrupt. India is after all a democracy, and government has to be responsive to public sentiments. So rapes by police never get unpunished.
What has this to do with UID?. This pure paranoia. If they really wanted to do it, they can do it without this database. You know, even if you are anonymous coward, your IP can still be traced.
It is not question of trust in government. It is voluntary, if you don't trust government, don't get your fingerprints scanned and don't get UID. No body is forcing you to get government subsidy.
Remaining blind to some technology is not going to solve poverty. Using it for betterment of poorest of poor, by eliminating leakages might.
It is not in interest of national security, rather in interest of preventing leakages in government subsidies. The program is voluntary, if you don't want subsidy don't enrol yourself, as simple as that.
Second part is that the program is running since 2009 without any legal backing or any government legislation. Present government is try to regulate the database and limit the usage of the collected data to just its intended purpose.
In spite of all safeguards, just like any other database this may also be breached but now there is a punishment in unlawful usage, which was missing till today even though data was already collected since 2009. And, really government cannot use this database for any of nefarious purpose as it just links names with fingerprints and Iris data, without any record of your caste, religion, mother tongue or even citizenship status.
I can't make out are being funny here
Are you serious! Do you even know what you are talking about?
It is not like farmers predictions. The progress we have been making is quite impressive, as there are 800 know exoplanets by now, and more are getting discovered.
Scientific discoveries come in batches. There is nothing for a long time, then suddenly the lull ends and a breakthrough is achieved. Lot of similar discoveries occur simultaneously. This prediction is from people who know their stuff. Even though they may not come true this year it is still good prediction.
After all, there isn't any reason why a company needs to struggle to perpetuate its existence forever(any more than a company would struggle to perpetuate the existence of a given product line forever).
That would be equivalent to euthanasia for companies. But there are real reason why it is not universally accepted. For all companies that have died there are enough examples that have struggeld and come out stronger. Nokia and Apple comes to mind immediatly. They diversified and successed beyond immagination.
The message is: don't quit too easily.
Read everything written above and Just-eF'ing-Do-It.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsTY7WDW-X8/
Form here, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/exodus-of-north-easterners-from-bangalore-shows-signs-of-subsiding/989967//, so may be the ban has had some effect.
You already seem to have a grasp of the situation here in India.
People of northeast of India have a mongoloid features, which marks them as different from rest of Indians that have aryan features.
There is some ethenic violence going on in Assam, a state in notheast of India, between Bodo (ethenic Assames people with mongoloid features) and Muslims. So other Norhteastern people living in rest of India are therened by Muslims.
Most of these people are students and migran labours. Their parents got worried about their safety and called them back. Mass hysteria got generated when evey norhteastern person just started exodus from rest of India back to their hometown.
The ban on bulk SMS is for 15 days at the most. This is not censorship, but an effort to avoid mass hysteria.
Those of you who know India will understand what I mean. Even before the era of mobile phones it was somhow easy to spread roumours and generate hysteria in India. For example read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_milk_miracle/ for one hysteria of 1995 regarding idols that drink milk, or 2006 where sea water turned sweet.
These efforts are to help crub the new hysteria. But I am doubtful about its effectiveness.
You go to India, and you will find towns that looks so much like what you get in England, with English bangalows and everything
Except that Bunglow itself is an Indian word adopted in English. And the Indian bunglows are more suited for the tropical climate conditions of India more than the English whether.
Oblig XKCD
http://xkcd.com/1022/
Computers should be appliances, for the consumer.
The story is about programming, not computers. Getting is interested in programming is like teaching music, dancing and a sport to a kid. Even though films, tv, big games are available for consumption that does not mean general public should just sit and watch and don't get involved themselves.