In a way I guess, it wasn't surprising that Dr Kalam delivered a pro-OSS/Software Libre speech at an IIIT; been to the Hyderabad campus last year, and honestly, it was a weird feeling looking at a lab full of people using Emacs in Devanagri script. (They were using/developing Anusaraka)
Yes, that's right trolls, they've successfully resolved two computer-related jehads out there.:-)
First of all, I must say that that was a very polite response compared to most other flame-fests out here on/. So, all credit to you on this score.
Second, I believe you missed the part about the 48 million dollars being used for the telephone network, not the television.
Third, note that I didn't comment on whether Bhutan uses the metric system or not; as another poster pointed out, Lonely Planet seems to say that the country does use the Metric system.
And finally, intent; actually nothing much, just wilful daydreaming of the Himalayas and Shangri La.:-)
I agree; haven't written the test so far, but if my SAT (I & II) experience is any indication, then practising with old tests is always a good choice.
Only problem is, I've found only this practice book published by ETS for the CompSci Subject Test. Any other *official* test-prep material you'd like to suggest?
Probably the only novel that my research supervisor (we're doing stuff on swarm intelligence) will ever approve of reading, instead of coding the damn project!:-D
Call me dumb, but I can't think of any scientific reason to base anything on 360. (Don't say But oh, there are 360 degrees in a circle!) That value seems pretty arbitary; we could easily have taken 400 as a base instead of 360.
(Which, btw, is a point that this entire thread seems to have missed; radians is the SI, and not metric unit for angle measurement. The metric unit, by which I mean a unit which counts in integer multiples of 10 is grad units, where, you guessed it, there are 100 grad in one right angle)
Haven't been there personally, no, but funny you should ask; just spent close to 1.5 hours reading up on Bhutan (and nearby Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh)!:-)
My understanding of the situation is that there seems to be very little chance of the authorities there allowing independent travel in the region (by which I presume you mean a registered-travel-agent-less backpacking expedition). I guess that's kind of understandable; this is, after all, the last remaining Shangri La, you wouldn't want commercialisation and cultural pollution that comes with largescale tourism activities.
Oh well, so much for my plan to be a 21st century David Livingstone.:-|
\Sar"casm\, n. [F. sarcasme, L. sarcasmus, Gr. sarkasmo`s, from sarka`zein to tear flesh like dogs, to bite the lips in rage, to speak bitterly, to sneer, fr. sa`rx, sa`rkos, flesh.] A keen, reproachful expression; a satirical remark uttered with some degree of scorn or contempt; a taunt; a gibe; a cutting jest.
n : witty language used to convey insults or scorn; "he used sarcasm to upset his opponent"; "irony is wasted on the stupid" [syn: irony, satire, caustic remark]
(Assuming, of course, that you were replying to my response)
No idea about GPS, but the IRS 1C and 1D have a resolution of 5.6 m. I believe the Indian Space Research Organisation is also about to launch a spy satellite of sorts.
Bangladesh has a better track run in this regard than India. The ironic part though, is that WLL technologies were released in India precisely for this reason, namely to usher in rural connectivity (although the way the market has grown, the rural sector accounts for only 1% of the entire CDMA market).
Very good point, only tarnished by the fact that per capita income is apparently calculated by taking an average of the GDP over the population. Actually, I'm not sure of the exact formula [my training is in CS, not Econ;-) ], but the point is, per capita income probably does not depend on declared incomes.
A better way to explain the discrepancy is by considering regional clusters; states such as Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh have, in the past 10 years, shown a SGDP growth similar to what you would have seen in the so-called "Tiger" economies in South East Asia. (Indeed, Maharashtra was considered a more competitive environment than the whole of India in a recent study; lost the link, sorry about that). While at the same time, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and others house 45% of India's poverty, and contribute the maximum to India's population growth.
Depends. In my hometown Hyderabad, landlines delivered by the private Tata Indicom are usually more reliable than their GSM (or CDMA) counterparts.
I won't say the same thing for the rural areas though; on a recent visit, I went to a village that's about 200 or so kilometres away from the nearest town and was surprised that my mobile worked. The landlines, on other hand, are often difficult to maintain; the telephone exchange is about 50 kilometres away, and the repairman comes every week.
The point I'm trying to make:- the Indian telecom market is now extremely fragmented. Some states have world-class telephone infrastructure, while others are still in the Dark Ages.
Reliance is not India's first CDMA network. Others have already deployed networks that are showing signs of growth; in places like Chandigarh, for instance, the number of mobiles have outstripped the number of landlines for the first time in India. Reliance Infocomm's troubles are only partly because of regulatory concerns; the other more significant problem is that its distribution network for the phones is showing signs of failure.
Not that the telecom regulatory rules are okay, (here's a very interesting and candid interview with the telecom minister on the tussle and other aspects of reform), but let's not write off Reliance that easily. They are one of the largest Indian companies around and have succeeded even during the (socialist, insulatory) Licence Raj period in the petrochemicals industry, traditionally considered closed to private sector participation.
They've had some massive lobbying effort in Indian political circles; Roads and Buildings Dept employees often complain how they get calls from their political masters in the middle of the night because they threatened to go against Reliance Infocomm's country-wide road-digging and laying of optical fibre network (a process which, while admittedly professional and impressive, apparently bends a few rules here and there).
Let's face it:- these people are powerful enough to make rules for themselves. They won't give up so much investment without a fight.
While I joke about being in liberal arts as much as the next person - as I say i'm in the collegs of Arts and Crafts
Out here in my university, we're more subtle. After all, liberal arts is taught by the Arts and Social Sciences faculty.
For once, we comp sc guys can tell them lib arts types to shove it up their, ah, faculty, if they act too smart.
Re:Entertainment vs. economy
on
RIAA vs The Economy
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I wonder what the historical relationship between the economy and low-end entertainment (movies, CDs, similar) is? Is the entertainment industry recession-resistant? I know during the 1929 depression it wasn't, but since then?
At work, so a quick comment:- As I've pointed out before on this site, RIAA's own research over the last 60 or so years (includes the Great Depression), suggests that demand for their products ebbs towards the end of the recession. Haven't seen the site so far, but if it says that music sales (as opposed to growth in music sales) is decreasing, then it is a good thing.
Not just that; I still haven't been able to make it run with my university's IMAP server. Which is a pity though; was playing around with it with another POP mailbox I have, and the M2 stuff looks terrific.
[Note that I'm not saying that it's unworkable with any IMAP server; just that I haven't been able to get it working. Time to buy a student licence and mail the developers, you'd think.;-) ]
Seriously though, Bollywood isn't all about mindless Hindi flicks; if you are really interested, there is a small, but growing, segment of low-budget, but intelligently-made, Indian English films who's appeal is more universal than the Hindi movies. Google for "Monsoon Wedding", "Bombay Boys", "Snip" (good stuff this!), "Bend it like Beckham" and others.
The best part is, they are (possibly) not a part of the Indian version of the RIAA/MPAA as well!
[1]- I didn't link to the IMDB entry primarily becaus there was less information there than in this review. Also, hate explaining jokes, but my pun will not be immediately apparent unless you've seen the movie; that Pat Cusick guy plays just the character I've described in the movie-in-the-movie.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's a possible answer.
Incidentally, the Microsoft India Development Center is located very close to the other International Institute of Information Technology campus in Hyderabad (Dr Kalam gave the speech in I-squared-IT, Pune).
In a way I guess, it wasn't surprising that Dr Kalam delivered a pro-OSS/Software Libre speech at an IIIT; been to the Hyderabad campus last year, and honestly, it was a weird feeling looking at a lab full of people using Emacs in Devanagri script. (They were using/developing Anusaraka)
Yes, that's right trolls, they've successfully resolved two computer-related jehads out there. :-)
First of all, I must say that that was a very polite response compared to most other flame-fests out here on /. So, all credit to you on this score.
Second, I believe you missed the part about the 48 million dollars being used for the telephone network, not the television.
Third, note that I didn't comment on whether Bhutan uses the metric system or not; as another poster pointed out, Lonely Planet seems to say that the country does use the Metric system.
And finally, intent; actually nothing much, just wilful daydreaming of the Himalayas and Shangri La. :-)
That does it. I have to get a new iron; not just colleagues at workplace, seems that even folks on /. can see my ruffled workwear.
Okay, that wasn't so funny, but point taken. Pig-headed to stick to my point further. :-)
I agree; haven't written the test so far, but if my SAT (I & II) experience is any indication, then practising with old tests is always a good choice.
Only problem is, I've found only this practice book published by ETS for the CompSci Subject Test. Any other *official* test-prep material you'd like to suggest?
Probably the only novel that my research supervisor (we're doing stuff on swarm intelligence) will ever approve of reading, instead of coding the damn project! :-D
The reason being?
Call me dumb, but I can't think of any scientific reason to base anything on 360. (Don't say But oh, there are 360 degrees in a circle!) That value seems pretty arbitary; we could easily have taken 400 as a base instead of 360.
(Which, btw, is a point that this entire thread seems to have missed; radians is the SI, and not metric unit for angle measurement. The metric unit, by which I mean a unit which counts in integer multiples of 10 is grad units, where, you guessed it, there are 100 grad in one right angle)
While I understand you were joking, there have been suggestions of a perpetual 366 day "World Calendar" for quite some time now.
(Posted earlier of course, but just for the heck of it)
A $48m state-of-the art digital telephone network to rival those of Singapore and Hong Kong.
Yes, the telephone density is certainly lower than, say, Switzerland (to compare two mountainous landlocked countries), but still, there's a difference between no telephones and some telephones. Especially when Bhutan has a $48m state-of-the art digital telephone network to rival those of Singapore and Hong Kong, a television station and all new ISP.
I stand by my earlier post.
My point is, you can't go alone. You are required to go through a registered tourist operator by law.
Haven't been there personally, no, but funny you should ask; just spent close to 1.5 hours reading up on Bhutan (and nearby Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh)! :-)
My understanding of the situation is that there seems to be very little chance of the authorities there allowing independent travel in the region (by which I presume you mean a registered-travel-agent-less backpacking expedition). I guess that's kind of understandable; this is, after all, the last remaining Shangri La, you wouldn't want commercialisation and cultural pollution that comes with largescale tourism activities.
Oh well, so much for my plan to be a 21st century David Livingstone. :-|
sarcasm
(Assuming, of course, that you were replying to my response)
Fundamentalist Islamic country without any telephones?
Can I have some of whatever your smoking please?
No idea about GPS, but the IRS 1C and 1D have a resolution of 5.6 m. I believe the Indian Space Research Organisation is also about to launch a spy satellite of sorts.
Bangladesh has a better track run in this regard than India. The ironic part though, is that WLL technologies were released in India precisely for this reason, namely to usher in rural connectivity (although the way the market has grown, the rural sector accounts for only 1% of the entire CDMA market).
Very good point, only tarnished by the fact that per capita income is apparently calculated by taking an average of the GDP over the population. Actually, I'm not sure of the exact formula [my training is in CS, not Econ ;-) ], but the point is, per capita income probably does not depend on declared incomes.
A better way to explain the discrepancy is by considering regional clusters; states such as Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh have, in the past 10 years, shown a SGDP growth similar to what you would have seen in the so-called "Tiger" economies in South East Asia. (Indeed, Maharashtra was considered a more competitive environment than the whole of India in a recent study; lost the link, sorry about that). While at the same time, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and others house 45% of India's poverty, and contribute the maximum to India's population growth.
That is to say, while you hail cabs in Chennai and Hyderabad by calling them up on the cabbie's mobile phones, you can easily get mugged and kidnapped in Patna, possibly by an elected Member of the Legislative Assembly.
Welcome to 21st century India, we're like this only.
Depends. In my hometown Hyderabad, landlines delivered by the private Tata Indicom are usually more reliable than their GSM (or CDMA) counterparts.
I won't say the same thing for the rural areas though; on a recent visit, I went to a village that's about 200 or so kilometres away from the nearest town and was surprised that my mobile worked. The landlines, on other hand, are often difficult to maintain; the telephone exchange is about 50 kilometres away, and the repairman comes every week.
The point I'm trying to make:- the Indian telecom market is now extremely fragmented. Some states have world-class telephone infrastructure, while others are still in the Dark Ages.
Reliance is not India's first CDMA network. Others have already deployed networks that are showing signs of growth; in places like Chandigarh, for instance, the number of mobiles have outstripped the number of landlines for the first time in India. Reliance Infocomm's troubles are only partly because of regulatory concerns; the other more significant problem is that its distribution network for the phones is showing signs of failure.
Not that the telecom regulatory rules are okay, (here's a very interesting and candid interview with the telecom minister on the tussle and other aspects of reform), but let's not write off Reliance that easily. They are one of the largest Indian companies around and have succeeded even during the (socialist, insulatory) Licence Raj period in the petrochemicals industry, traditionally considered closed to private sector participation.
They've had some massive lobbying effort in Indian political circles; Roads and Buildings Dept employees often complain how they get calls from their political masters in the middle of the night because they threatened to go against Reliance Infocomm's country-wide road-digging and laying of optical fibre network (a process which, while admittedly professional and impressive, apparently bends a few rules here and there).
Let's face it:- these people are powerful enough to make rules for themselves. They won't give up so much investment without a fight.
You forgot the 5)???, 6)Profit! steps.
After all this is Slashdot; we have traditions to maintain, or the trolls would already have won. :-)
Out here in my university, we're more subtle. After all, liberal arts is taught by the Arts and Social Sciences faculty.
For once, we comp sc guys can tell them lib arts types to shove it up their, ah, faculty, if they act too smart.
At work, so a quick comment:- As I've pointed out before on this site, RIAA's own research over the last 60 or so years (includes the Great Depression), suggests that demand for their products ebbs towards the end of the recession. Haven't seen the site so far, but if it says that music sales (as opposed to growth in music sales) is decreasing, then it is a good thing.
Not just that; I still haven't been able to make it run with my university's IMAP server. Which is a pity though; was playing around with it with another POP mailbox I have, and the M2 stuff looks terrific.
[Note that I'm not saying that it's unworkable with any IMAP server; just that I haven't been able to get it working. Time to buy a student licence and mail the developers, you'd think. ;-) ]
Better still, you might even get a role as a US-returned software engineer who's "separated by destiny and united by fate" with his dacoit brother in a Bollywood movie![1]
Seriously though, Bollywood isn't all about mindless Hindi flicks; if you are really interested, there is a small, but growing, segment of low-budget, but intelligently-made, Indian English films who's appeal is more universal than the Hindi movies. Google for "Monsoon Wedding", "Bombay Boys", "Snip" (good stuff this!), "Bend it like Beckham" and others.
The best part is, they are (possibly) not a part of the Indian version of the RIAA/MPAA as well!
[1]- I didn't link to the IMDB entry primarily becaus there was less information there than in this review. Also, hate explaining jokes, but my pun will not be immediately apparent unless you've seen the movie; that Pat Cusick guy plays just the character I've described in the movie-in-the-movie.
Golly, I'm a troll? Amusing.
I agree.:-) (In particular, the bit about dulce and computatore. Oh, those were the days...*sigh*!)