I believe hackers are interested in creative hacks, and therefore, will naturally be interested in style. (Hence, say, Aqua. Or Ximian, like you said).
But discussing style for style's sake, with all its superflous jargon is something that the average hacker never appreciated, a lacuna that, I believe, has more to do with education than nature; appreciation of art doesn't come easy.
There was a study sometime back by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi which studied the behaviour of drivers from other cities in comparison to their behaviour in Delhi. Their conclusion:- Delhi's poorly designed streets (yes, even in Lutyen's Delhi which is considered to be planned and all that) somehow inspired road rage.
Unfortunately, proper planning isn't something that a grassroots (read political) campaign can deliver, so it'll be a while before we Indians see any progress.
By law, even animals get more space than train commuters. And there people who live on the trains; some late-night lady commuters, for instance, have been known to cut vegetables and start preparing dinners for their families by the time they reach home.
Not that the roads are any better, Indian drivers have already discovered the pleasures of road rage, but still.
The Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon will be unmanned, but will be with international collaboration. Canada, apparently, wants to send in a couple of instruments along with ours when we reach the Moon in 2008.
Actually the 'official' reaction is that India has different priorities; ISRO wants to use satellite technology for the 'common man', but that it can do it anytime it wants. (Which, of course, is technically correct; the launch technology is there, but we'll need to develop life-support systems and, more importantly, mission-handling stuff like planning and all that)
It is the unofficial reaction (ie, from jingoistic editorials) that is sour-grapes-like; ToI, for instance, called the launch a Great Creep Forward. (which, of course, is stupid, considering that India's moon mission in 2008, Chandrayaan -1, will be unmanned)
Btw, I don't know why people here presume this, but GDP's have never had an influence on any technology growth. Innovation has always been a result of things other mere funding; your (ie American) history itself is replete with examples.
Malaysia is probably the only country where discriminatory practices favouring the ethnic majority (the bumiputeras, which are largely malays) is enshrined in the constitution (plus a whole slew of laws).
India has an affirmative action programme up as well, addressing demographics that are officially called "backward", "scheduled" castes and "scheduled tribes", the sum total population of which would actually constitute the majority.
Not that there's anything patently wrong in affirmative action programmes (if implemented in the right spirit), but just to point out.
There is even more disaffection and distrust between the races, and racial integration hasn't improved (recent surveys show that even 95% of university students stick to their own ethnic groups)
Well, Malaysia is not alone in that. I can cite research on this, but it's a facet of every multi-ethnic { region | country }.
A simple observation:- Ethnic Indians in Singapore, which is usually considered more meritocratic than the abang up north, often complain that in public buses and MRT's, the seat next to theirs is the last to be filled. Latent racism? I don't know; mmmmay be not. But that's a phenomenon that you'll find in other multi-racial cities as well; if I'm not wrong, there was a study in London that showed exactly that. People tend to stick with people of common ethnic descent. Deal with it.
BUT, bear in mind that for a developing country, there are hardly any other countries that have a diverse composition like malaysia (60% malays, 27% chinese and 10% indian) and with severely imbalanced political and economic control that have not resulted in a hutu-vs-tutsi like anarchy, but still lives in relative harmony, despite the low-simmering dissatisfactions.
I would have agreed with you had you said affirmative action is necessary for social justice or something, but this, sorry, is plain stupid.
Malaysia hasn't seen a racial flare-up mainly because of strong governance, and perhaps, the fact that the ruling coalition has representation from all three major races. That is, not many feel dis-enfranchised from the political process; not much cause for dissent from the Union. That the region saw an electronics boom in the 90's only helped the cause.
More to the point, the bumiputra policy, as you said, is to mostly keep the majority population happy at the expense of the minority. So why haven't they rebelled? Scroll above.
but ASP.net has a free, source-released implementation of a project management tool. Needs IIS and MS-SQL 2000 to run, and pretty easy to modify/adapt.
Bear in mind though, that I said it was 'source-released'; I'm not sure if it fits the open source definition.
The situation, as far as I can see, is exactly the same in other parts of the world as well. I have professional, and personal, interest in cyber legislation in at least three countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and I can easily vouch for the fact that cyber-law is the last thing tech journos here discuss about.
So now faced with such a situation, should the govermnent, with the knowledge that this may lead to some other people joining the movement without knowing all the facts about it, be justified in imposing some kind of restrictions?
I said this during the Kynhun episode, and I'll say this again:- if you want something restricted, the best you can do is to NOT GIVE IT FREE PUBLICITY. Kynhun had exactly 34 members when the ban first came into place; now it has 200-odd subscribers. Fighting terrorism is both physical and mental; as a nation that's successfully fought terrorism (in Punjab and Mizoram among other places) in the past, we certainly should know better than this.
Indeed, there can be no justification for stupidity, governmental or otherwise.
Btw, about the Kynhun ban; been told by someone apparently knowledgeable about Indian law that CERT-IN's actions are totally unjustifiable in a court of law, and that, all it needs is a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to overturn it. Yup, there's a reason why Article 14 guarantees the Freedom of Speech as a Fundamental Right to all Indian citizens.
Also, perhaps, a strong case for an EFF-type organisation in India to increase awareness about citizens' rights in the digital arena.
On a more philosophical level, I've always believed that the main reason why they ban steriods in competitive sports is because they want to continue the charade that sports is:- that, somehow, it's a continuing spirit of human endurance, that's a fair, but competitive arena where any human can compete to the best of his ability, a place where the world otherwise bereft of heroes can see him and applaud.
All of which is, to be sure, absolute nonsense.
The faster we accept that sports is not a measure of human ability, and in fact, just another mass media industry, the better. Let's face it:- just who controls the sports industry these days? Governing bodies? Sportsperson lobbies? Sporting equipment companies? Of course not; the media industry has entered the sports business a long time back. They're the real masters; we're just consumers of a carefully marketed product.
Not that I'm against 'commercialisation' of sports or of the media industry. I still follow sports of course, but I prefer to not be hypocritical about my interest; I'm interested in following sports just as I'm interested in, say, following Neo's escapades on The Matrix.
Not entirely coherent, nor entirely answering your question, but just a thought.
I don't know if you realise this, but just to point out:-
a) There are MANY competent OSS programmers who don't have a CS degree behind them. I'm a subscriber to a GPL-ed software's mailing list, and the resident guru in that list is actually a political science professor from somewhere in the Mid-West; he's the sort of guy who has a (correct, insightful) answer to just about anything regarding the said software. And his case is not alone in the OSS world; RMS, for another, comes to my mind (he has a BS in Physics from Harvard, if I remember correctly).
b), Your questions are mostly of the non-technical kind; you seem to be more worried about interaction and growth issues, than technical competency.
So the good news:- congratulations, you've got what it takes!
You've obviously got the enthusiasm (otherwise you won't Ask Slashdot, so to speak), you've got a base of developers who are keen to contribute, and finally, you've got the technical capability to understand and, perhaps, guide the project as it grows.
I won't answer your questions directly, however, I'm sure there are other even more experienced programmers and lead developers here who can give you a better reponse. In fact, I think your questions are very legitimate and hit close to the heart, am planning to GPL a project as soon as it hits a certain code threshold, so will keenly follow the ensuing discussion.
If you hate multi-coloured currency notes, you'll probably hate travelling Switzerland.
One of the most colourful currencies I've ever seen; surprisingly enough, a graphic designer friend of mine generally photoshops his images with exactly the same style.
It'll be interesting if Opera is required to make changes to its browser. Remember, it's based in Norway, and (Norwegians, please correct me if I'm wrong on this) Norway doesn't quite have patents as of now.
Actually I've found most members/users of open source (averaged) take the most respectful stance to women I've seen from any other group (including pro fem/left/right/religious agenda groups). All with little to no effort, it does seem quite natural.
Because of our limited interaction with women perhaps?:-D
CBN's great for boosting investment profiles and, certainly, has some very interesting ideas for governance, but it's important to remember that he has had limited influence on tech policy and philosophy (as opposed to investment policy; he will, and has, readily supported other industries as well, if it brings more investment to the state).
Case in point:- I doubt if anyone has ever used iLeap Telugu that the government so generously bought and is distributing on its website. (I would have given the direct link to it, but the Telugu website doesn't use Unicode fonts and probably has IE-specific rendering)
Narayana Murthy is a great poster-boy for Indian entrepreneurship, but just to point out, GoI itself has some very enterprising people influencing IT policy. Arun Shourie, for one, comes to my mind.
(Actually, it's pretty strange for me to point this out; I generally agree more with CBN than I do with Shourie, but all the same, thought it was an important distinction to make)
Nothing to contend, just to add:- some Nobel prizes have had a much faster turnaround time, so to speak.
The Nobel Prize for Lit. won by Ernest Hemingway, for instance, was awarded exactly one year after the publication of his book, The Old Man And The Sea.
Evelyn Manesta resisted and eventually a guard was used to restrain her around the neck. But when the photograph was reproduced in the official rogue's gallery, it had been doctored - replacing the arm with a fashionable lady's scarf.
Brings a whole new meaning to the term 'identity theft'.:-D
But seriously, the only bills he can possibly escape are his utility bills; he obviously has to pay his monthly grocery bills to the shopkeeper. It'll be interesting if he's one of them tax-paying ones though; as many people know, less than 1% of all adult Indians actually pay (or are required to pay) taxes.
Slashdot Mirror
Two words:- Innovation and Productivity.
We'll be there soon though.
A good starting point is by looking up the terms, "modernism" and "post-modernism".
But discussing style for style's sake, with all its superflous jargon is something that the average hacker never appreciated, a lacuna that, I believe, has more to do with education than nature; appreciation of art doesn't come easy.
Unfortunately, proper planning isn't something that a grassroots (read political) campaign can deliver, so it'll be a while before we Indians see any progress.
Not that the roads are any better, Indian drivers have already discovered the pleasures of road rage, but still.
The irony, of course, is that it apparently means 'clueless'. :-)
For one, it means that my research project is doomed. Not even God can save it, it seems.
The Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon will be unmanned, but will be with international collaboration. Canada, apparently, wants to send in a couple of instruments along with ours when we reach the Moon in 2008.
It is the unofficial reaction (ie, from jingoistic editorials) that is sour-grapes-like; ToI, for instance, called the launch a Great Creep Forward. (which, of course, is stupid, considering that India's moon mission in 2008, Chandrayaan -1, will be unmanned)
Btw, I don't know why people here presume this, but GDP's have never had an influence on any technology growth. Innovation has always been a result of things other mere funding; your (ie American) history itself is replete with examples.
Not that there's anything patently wrong in affirmative action programmes (if implemented in the right spirit), but just to point out.
Well, Malaysia is not alone in that. I can cite research on this, but it's a facet of every multi-ethnic { region | country }.A simple observation:- Ethnic Indians in Singapore, which is usually considered more meritocratic than the abang up north, often complain that in public buses and MRT's, the seat next to theirs is the last to be filled. Latent racism? I don't know; mmmmay be not. But that's a phenomenon that you'll find in other multi-racial cities as well; if I'm not wrong, there was a study in London that showed exactly that. People tend to stick with people of common ethnic descent. Deal with it.
I would have agreed with you had you said affirmative action is necessary for social justice or something, but this, sorry, is plain stupid.Malaysia hasn't seen a racial flare-up mainly because of strong governance, and perhaps, the fact that the ruling coalition has representation from all three major races. That is, not many feel dis-enfranchised from the political process; not much cause for dissent from the Union. That the region saw an electronics boom in the 90's only helped the cause.
More to the point, the bumiputra policy, as you said, is to mostly keep the majority population happy at the expense of the minority. So why haven't they rebelled? Scroll above.
Bear in mind though, that I said it was 'source-released'; I'm not sure if it fits the open source definition.
Or is this the Internet's way of telling me to stop surfing and start some real work for a change *gulp*?
Extremely sneaky, and extremely scary.
Indeed, there can be no justification for stupidity, governmental or otherwise.
Btw, about the Kynhun ban; been told by someone apparently knowledgeable about Indian law that CERT-IN's actions are totally unjustifiable in a court of law, and that, all it needs is a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to overturn it. Yup, there's a reason why Article 14 guarantees the Freedom of Speech as a Fundamental Right to all Indian citizens.
Also, perhaps, a strong case for an EFF-type organisation in India to increase awareness about citizens' rights in the digital arena.
All of which is, to be sure, absolute nonsense.
The faster we accept that sports is not a measure of human ability, and in fact, just another mass media industry, the better. Let's face it:- just who controls the sports industry these days? Governing bodies? Sportsperson lobbies? Sporting equipment companies? Of course not; the media industry has entered the sports business a long time back. They're the real masters; we're just consumers of a carefully marketed product.
Not that I'm against 'commercialisation' of sports or of the media industry. I still follow sports of course, but I prefer to not be hypocritical about my interest; I'm interested in following sports just as I'm interested in, say, following Neo's escapades on The Matrix.
Not entirely coherent, nor entirely answering your question, but just a thought.
I don't know if you realise this, but just to point out:-
a) There are MANY competent OSS programmers who don't have a CS degree behind them. I'm a subscriber to a GPL-ed software's mailing list, and the resident guru in that list is actually a political science professor from somewhere in the Mid-West; he's the sort of guy who has a (correct, insightful) answer to just about anything regarding the said software. And his case is not alone in the OSS world; RMS, for another, comes to my mind (he has a BS in Physics from Harvard, if I remember correctly).
b), Your questions are mostly of the non-technical kind; you seem to be more worried about interaction and growth issues, than technical competency.
So the good news:- congratulations, you've got what it takes!
You've obviously got the enthusiasm (otherwise you won't Ask Slashdot, so to speak), you've got a base of developers who are keen to contribute, and finally, you've got the technical capability to understand and, perhaps, guide the project as it grows.
I won't answer your questions directly, however, I'm sure there are other even more experienced programmers and lead developers here who can give you a better reponse. In fact, I think your questions are very legitimate and hit close to the heart, am planning to GPL a project as soon as it hits a certain code threshold, so will keenly follow the ensuing discussion.
One of the most colourful currencies I've ever seen; surprisingly enough, a graphic designer friend of mine generally photoshops his images with exactly the same style.
I would recommend Munich, but you've already had one too many, don't you agree? :-)
I obviously didn't get the joke, but if you haven't discovered his writings so far, you should ASAP. Wonderful piece of work.
It'll be interesting if Opera is required to make changes to its browser. Remember, it's based in Norway, and (Norwegians, please correct me if I'm wrong on this) Norway doesn't quite have patents as of now.
Case in point:- I doubt if anyone has ever used iLeap Telugu that the government so generously bought and is distributing on its website. (I would have given the direct link to it, but the Telugu website doesn't use Unicode fonts and probably has IE-specific rendering)
Narayana Murthy is a great poster-boy for Indian entrepreneurship, but just to point out, GoI itself has some very enterprising people influencing IT policy. Arun Shourie, for one, comes to my mind.
(Actually, it's pretty strange for me to point this out; I generally agree more with CBN than I do with Shourie, but all the same, thought it was an important distinction to make)
The Nobel Prize for Lit. won by Ernest Hemingway, for instance, was awarded exactly one year after the publication of his book, The Old Man And The Sea.
But seriously, the only bills he can possibly escape are his utility bills; he obviously has to pay his monthly grocery bills to the shopkeeper. It'll be interesting if he's one of them tax-paying ones though; as many people know, less than 1% of all adult Indians actually pay (or are required to pay) taxes.