Trust me, if the cyber-cafe-owners have organised themselves, then there's no power out there who can stop them, especially the police. Not to cheer these cartel groups mind you, just pointing out how things work in India.
Incidentally, if I recall correctly, the city police in Hyderabad did try to bring in a similar move some two years back or so; the cyber-cafe-owners association there apparently resisted the measure successfully. The police now only insist that the computers be placed in cubicles with clear windows, mainly to discourage folks from browsing porn.
Personally, I think stuff like this (much like that earlier banning of that insurgent group's YahooGroups thing) is indicative of two things urgently required in India:-
a) An EFF-like group to charter and fight for maintaining the constitution's libertarian values,
b) Greater awareness among the Indian public of the issues involved, particularly, the right to privacy and other cyber-legal issues.
(Or if there already is such a group, I'd be great if someone could, perhaps, point their URL out or something.)
Not to mention the fact that, I, as an Indian, actually think it's quite cool. I see the picture as a ritualised take on Bollywood and its iconography, something that, apparently, is the face of Indian culture overseas. In any case, there's nothing pious about mehendi (which is what the lady's hand has) anyway; it's usually put only for ceremonial occassions such as marriages and so on. (Now, if they used religious, or culturally-significant motifs such as, I don't know, India Gate or the mosque at Hazratbal, or the temple at Tirupati or something, then we might have had something to talk about)
Then again, I'm not quite sure why it is sexual; there's nothing sexually provocative (no boobs, legs, nothing) about it. You really don't want to be offended by gratitious displays of a woman's eyes, trust me, or else you'll find even Charlie Chaplin movies offensive.
Nice rant there. Any links to back up your assertion that American IT workers can't work in India? Coz, from what I've read, India is now apparently seeing a lot of interest from international people coming over.
In fact, a friend insists that suburbs such as Gurgaon near Delhi are becoming international cities in themselves; he has Australians and Brits for neighbours, apparently.
And in my mother tongue Telugu, it means 'dick' (if 'd' is pronounced as in, well, 'dick'):-) OTOH, if 'd' is pronounced as in 'danke', it means a 'handful' (of usually some food-item, such as 'pappu' which is a lentils-based curry)
I believe 'mudda' ('d' as in 'danke'; stress on 'a') means 'issue' in Hindi/Urdu.
If you're saying that FAT doesn't take Unicode filenames, then I disagree. I run WinXP with a FAT-32 filesystem on my laptop, and I have no problems in naming my files in Unicode characters.
Haven't named any Java packages in Unicode though, so don't know about that.
You should have gone on and read the staff profiles. For instance, this profile explains it all; Overture Research Labs has been recently renamed as Yahoo Research Labs.
Not cut-and-paste. There was an earlier poster who said it'll work if you scan the image in salami-style; don't scan the entire bill at one go, instead, scan parts of it at one go, and then digitally mix-and-match the collage.
The problem, sadly, isn't America alone; it's all airplane systems connected to the US. Singapore Airlines, QANTAS, Air NZ and other Asia-Pacific airlines, for instance, are also required to enforce the other stupid new security measure, the no queues at plane loos rule 'coz they fly to the US.
Not to mention, of course, copycat regulation in many other parts of the world. Happens faster than you think.
Remember, money-laundering was NOT an illegal activity in Niue until 2002, and for sure, no one gave money to the *mafia* to shut their business down.
Dole-outs to eliminate, or create, markets in other countries is more common than you think; as I understand it, the Taliban, for instance, did get some aid for cracking down on poppy cultivation way back in 1999/2000. The same for Colombia wrt its coca plantations (?).
In any case, I was wrong in my earlier assertion that the Kiwi money was mostly to off-set money-laundering; it isn't, the mainland NZ government is apparently legally obligated to aid them as and when it is required. Been there since their independence.
Actually, my friends when I was a kid always thought Legos was decidely girly, coz you build houses with gardens and flowers and all that, which look exactly like a girl's house-kit or whatever.
Which is why I always made sure anything I made had at least one pair of wheels beneath them; cars are cool, houses apparently aren't.:-)
[Needless to say, I no longer have issues in creating anything now; why, only a few months back, I conspired with my 7 year old girl-cousin to build the biggest, bad-ass house + city + train system contraption you could find B-) ]
Me too, but I've been noticing a problem lately; somehow, I seem to be screwing up the grammatical flow of my reports, even if the narrative flow is still there.
But yes, it's a fascinating concept; I do believe that Legos gives you a certain worldview that's definitely more right-brained than the average population's.
Yup, there was this origami boat competition in my neighbourhood when I was in fifth or sixth grade; guess which creation caused the most commotion out there.;-)
(They didn't allow me to participate in the end, sadly; they were looking for paper boats. Kinda blew their minds that someone could use plastic spheres, a fan and a motor to actually make a floating contraption)
Someone already hinted at this, but Nuie was a major money-laundering center for the better part of last decade. The mafia from many countries, particularly Russia, simply set up off-shore banks in the island in an effort to turn black money into white. I understand the bailout from NZ is to mainly off-set the price of cracking down on these banks.
Most/.-tters hate the idea of donating money, but it pays to understand the relative motivations first. In any case, neither Nuie nor the Kiwis seem to be minding the current arrangement, so who are we to question its viability?
Mainly because, if all of MIT Tech Review is indeed FUD as you say, then it's time we start countering it and countering it big time.
Most people (suits anyway) would look at the MIT name, and believe anything stated in the mag; with enough discussion here on/. and elsewhere, the techies of the world will have enough points on their hands to take it to their bosses and say exactly why the Review shouldn't be believed.
Actually, you don't even have to "do" anything on paper; always thought everyone who did Trig at Senior Secondary level should KNOW it already by the time they come to give the SAT's.
Slashdot Mirror
Incidentally, if I recall correctly, the city police in Hyderabad did try to bring in a similar move some two years back or so; the cyber-cafe-owners association there apparently resisted the measure successfully. The police now only insist that the computers be placed in cubicles with clear windows, mainly to discourage folks from browsing porn.
Personally, I think stuff like this (much like that earlier banning of that insurgent group's YahooGroups thing) is indicative of two things urgently required in India:-
a) An EFF-like group to charter and fight for maintaining the constitution's libertarian values,
b) Greater awareness among the Indian public of the issues involved, particularly, the right to privacy and other cyber-legal issues.
(Or if there already is such a group, I'd be great if someone could, perhaps, point their URL out or something.)
Then again, I'm not quite sure why it is sexual; there's nothing sexually provocative (no boobs, legs, nothing) about it. You really don't want to be offended by gratitious displays of a woman's eyes, trust me, or else you'll find even Charlie Chaplin movies offensive.
In fact, a friend insists that suburbs such as Gurgaon near Delhi are becoming international cities in themselves; he has Australians and Brits for neighbours, apparently.
Dude, the NLP class is scheduled after the machine vision class in Artificial Intelligence 301. :-)
I guess this, and not Panchsheel or the NAM, is what our countries really found a common ground! :-D
I believe 'mudda' ('d' as in 'danke'; stress on 'a') means 'issue' in Hindi/Urdu.
A dead small-town somewhere in the middle of California? :-)
From,
A Victim of a Cross Product Accident, in 1998.
I like the attention given to detail. :-)
Haven't named any Java packages in Unicode though, so don't know about that.
Happened to me too. :-)
You should have gone on and read the staff profiles. For instance, this profile explains it all; Overture Research Labs has been recently renamed as Yahoo Research Labs.
Not cut-and-paste. There was an earlier poster who said it'll work if you scan the image in salami-style; don't scan the entire bill at one go, instead, scan parts of it at one go, and then digitally mix-and-match the collage.
Not to mention, of course, copycat regulation in many other parts of the world. Happens faster than you think.
The Knights Who Say Frell?
I'm on a tropical island already, you insensitive clod! :-)
Dole-outs to eliminate, or create, markets in other countries is more common than you think; as I understand it, the Taliban, for instance, did get some aid for cracking down on poppy cultivation way back in 1999/2000. The same for Colombia wrt its coca plantations (?).
In any case, I was wrong in my earlier assertion that the Kiwi money was mostly to off-set money-laundering; it isn't, the mainland NZ government is apparently legally obligated to aid them as and when it is required. Been there since their independence.
Which is why I always made sure anything I made had at least one pair of wheels beneath them; cars are cool, houses apparently aren't. :-)
[Needless to say, I no longer have issues in creating anything now; why, only a few months back, I conspired with my 7 year old girl-cousin to build the biggest, bad-ass house + city + train system contraption you could find B-) ]
But yes, it's a fascinating concept; I do believe that Legos gives you a certain worldview that's definitely more right-brained than the average population's.
Yup, there was this origami boat competition in my neighbourhood when I was in fifth or sixth grade; guess which creation caused the most commotion out there. ;-)
(They didn't allow me to participate in the end, sadly; they were looking for paper boats. Kinda blew their minds that someone could use plastic spheres, a fan and a motor to actually make a floating contraption)
Most /.-tters hate the idea of donating money, but it pays to understand the relative motivations first. In any case, neither Nuie nor the Kiwis seem to be minding the current arrangement, so who are we to question its viability?
Most people (suits anyway) would look at the MIT name, and believe anything stated in the mag; with enough discussion here on /. and elsewhere, the techies of the world will have enough points on their hands to take it to their bosses and say exactly why the Review shouldn't be believed.
Actually, you don't even have to "do" anything on paper; always thought everyone who did Trig at Senior Secondary level should KNOW it already by the time they come to give the SAT's.