I have an mp3 player, a mobile, and I work on two computers at my workplace, but I still find it necessary to wear a watch. More habit than anything else; I like to have that feeling of something heavy on my left arm, and most certainly, I find it quite cumbersome to fish out my mobile from my pocket just to see the time.
I also love watches; I've got four of them. I'm planning to buy another pretty soon.:-)
dpi? fonts? OK, but how does he get from an appreciation of those elements to a "revelation" about the "browser" "being" beautiful?
I understand that the OPCL gizmo has a non-standard resolution screen. Opera wasn't designed for this screen, but it still apparently runs smoothly out-of-the-box.
It sounds like he looked at some content on a high res screen with good fonts and said "wow. My browser is good".
I wouldn't say this website has good fonts or a nice aesthetic sense. Too much green for me.:-)
Or perhaps I should say, howcome they were testing Opera with Slashdot?:-)
How predictable, they really have a good thing going with China then.
India has a fair amount of ethnic Chinese in its population. There's an entire Chinatown in Calcutta. Delhi University has had one of the best Chinese language departments internationally for many years; anecdotally, I can tell you of at least one English-to-Chinese translation job that was outsourced to India.
India is really a pretty xenophobic place, generally hostile to most everything non-Indian.
The thing that really struck me the most in "new" India, all those malls and food courts and stuff, is how prevalent Chinese food is, among other things. Granted, Indian Chinese isn't quite Chinese as I know:-D, but I've travelled to Hong Kong and throughout most parts of South East Asia, and I don't think I've seen the reverse happening.
India's opening up faster than most ex-pat Indians realize.
India is deeply conservative and fearful of change.
We've got the world's largest twenty-something population. Half the country is my age, 24.
The Indian educational system penalises innovation and creative thinking.
Which of the twenty-seven or so educational systems are you talking about? If it is the CBSE or the ICSE, then you'd be hardpressed to explain why they follow it in some schools here in Singapore, or in West Asia and southern Africa, in Tanzania, Kenya and, I understand, South Africa. The educational system per se isnt soul-ripping, but the competition is; never, however, doubt the intent of some of the better designed systems.
Indian politics are always parochial. If a proposal doesn't somehow poke a stick in the eye of those bastards in the next village/city/state/country, then it's not going to pass.
:-)
I take it that you haven't worked with these lobbyists? The problem with Indian politics is that it's a huge superset of local politics glued together somehow under the Indian tricolour; the difficulty is in having a larger picture, or in convincing folks to look beyond their backyards. I doubt anybody is malicious though, in their intent; there is a lot of good work being done, albeit slowly. I think we're about to hit the corner in a year or so when folks start demanding action at a national level as well.
Tough work, but there are reasons to be optimistic. All is not lost.
I hope the backwater Indian government continues to tax "outsiders" in their own provincial way so that these stupid companies will learn their lessons.
Let's just say that beyond a certain point, you can't ignore a billion people's worth of a market anymore. Especially if they're actively buying tech goods, and are looking out heavily yada yada.
There are other places (e.g., Philippines, Malaysia) that meet those requirements
Malaysia (and Singapore) regularly outsource call center jobs to India. Should know; just got off the phone with someone from the National Kidney Foundation.
I think this VoIP move by the Indian government reflects the reasons why call centre offshoring there has been a failure
And yet, salaries are rising rapidly back in Hyderabad; folks getting 50% or a 100% raise is not unheard of. A top job in an Accenture in Singapore will pay you S$3.5k pm at the max; a job at Microsoft's India Development Center will give you 14 lakhs per annum at the very least. (For the rupee-challenged, INR 140000 pa > SGD 3500 pm)
The boom will stay for more time before it becomes bust is my prediction.
One word: sobering. I'm currently in the top 10%; if I get my planned raise, I'll be in the top 8%. If I move jobs (and get this banking job I'm looking at), I'll be in the top 6%. Bet that's still significantly less than what most Slashdotters would earn (if they're earning in USD; I'm not)
I'll be looking at this ipod I've been drooling at in a whole new light from now on.
So after returning to India after about two years, I went to this new-age, corporate bank last week to open a new bank account. The branch was swank, with polished tiles, air-conditioning, some fascinating frescoes (drawings of the old Hyderabadi currency; fancy that, eh) and a generally better upkeep than most public sector banks I was used to from my childhood. The offered me debit cards (yes, two of them), an instant photo (didn't bring my photo; why do they collect photographs in just about every form you fill in India?), internet-banking, and other services that my bank here in Singapore offers.
So far, so good, until we got to the minimum balance: may be I'm being a cheapskate, but I was surprised to find out that the minimum balance required is twice what I have here in Singapore for virtually the same service. Wealth inflation seems staggering, even in our generation in India; a senior colleague from India was telling me that he was drawing in 2000 rupees for a sysadmin job some six years back. Now the same job would probably draw 30,000 rupees or more.
So yeah, totally off-topic, but the point I'm making is this; within the context of South East Asia, I think we can safely say that India has already stopped being a low-cost destination. Will be interesting to see if there's been any change in wealth distribution metrics; something tells me it's probably worsened.
You know, that quote is often repeated by the F/OSS crowd, but I haven't found a single citation for that quotation. Plainly put, the exact wording doesn't sound like typical Gandhi; folks back then used to use the more passive construct 'one' (as in, "One uses 'one' instead of 'you' to refer to a generic entity), rather than the more American 'you' ("You tend to use 'you' when you could have used 'one'). In short, people back then would have said something to the order of 'First one is ignored, then laughed at, then fought, and then one wins', if indeed, the Mahatma ever said such a thing.
Unlike most other political leader's thoughts, Gandhiji's writings and speeches are tabulated, and referenced thoroughly, so it's all the more surprising that I haven't found any citation to the quote, save the Hacker Dictionary with its really suspect entry for GandhiCon (look it up; ESR is a much admirable person in different context, but because of entries such as this, the Hacker's Dictionary seems like an exercise in personal vanity).
I typed in the name of this book I'm reading currently, "White Mughals", and found DNA's H2G2 on the list, in addition to other sci-fi works like Dune, and surprisingly enough, Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream.
I suppose I'm a statistical anomaly, in that I'm interested in medieval Indian history, modernist English literature and in contemporary science-fiction, but I've read, and loved, all books mentioned (or wanted to read "Dune"; have read the rest).
That's interesting, coz I'm actually considering getting a masters/PhD in information science myself. Not to diss "regular" CS degrees, I have a lot of respect for someone who shines through some of these programs, but I'm looking at doing some academic work using my technical skills, rather than on my technical skills. Meaning, comp sci as a means for solving something, and not necessarily as an end in itself.
I'm curious about hearing about your experience with an information science degree, and why you'd like to get back to doing a regular EE.
Please. That might be because the OS is NOT OUT YET
I don't see listings for Win 2k3 server, or Win XP/2k3 64-bit. I think it's quite apparent that the Zune department hasn't really thought through compatibility issues.
I'm sorry, but that's utter BS. Have to be blunt here, but the fact that you seem to be unable to differentiate between different dialectal usage for a certain food-item, and an incorrect term for a people only shows your cultural insensitivity. This isn't about discussing the different synonyms for a certain word in the lexicon, it is about calling someone by the name they identify with for historical and cultural reasons.
Gum is not banned. Sale of gum is. Perfectly legal to step through Changi or Woodlands with your pockets full of chewing gum. And even at that, gum for "medicinal" purposes is still legal; it is possible to get Wringley's at your local Guardian's, just that you have to give in your NRIC number and stuff. (Haven't tried it though; my hatred for gum is long-standing, and beats my contempt for Big Brother Singapore)
No, I don't get tired pointing this out all the time.
India has one of the world's largest gaps between the richest and the poor.
Are you talking real measureable stats in terms of income distribution? The reason I'm asking is I'm wondering if you actually did some reading about India, or if you're one of those international travellers who land in Delhi and start shrieking "Ooooh my god, these cow-worshippers; why aren't they more like us?"
If you're of the former type, then I'd like you to be more rigorous in your assertion. My reading tells me that we've just turned the corner in terms of BPL households; I've read -and this is a freely available stat, google it up - that the largest agglomeration of poverty in human history was in 1991, and that, given the way both China and India are growing, it is unlikely that we'll ever again have 300 million people in one place, living in such abject poverty. I'm told that the
If you're of the latter type, just to say this; we love you guys. We love the way you hate us, we love the way you like being condescending on us brown folk, we love the fact that you think you're brilliant enough to dictate policy for the largest democracy this planet has ever seen.
Otoh, if you were just trying to provoke an indignant response from folks like me, ahh well, IHBT. IHL. I don't care; I'm waiting for a build to finish, I could do with some verbal sparring.
The government-supported medical system is an abject failure, with doctors bribing people to get out of their work taking care of the less fortunate while continuing to be paid as if they had actually performed health care services.
You know, I consider myself one of those pragmatic folks who's mostly beyond mere nationalistic loyalty and would like to think about policy through a purely rational perspective. The problem with responses like yours is that you tend to look at everything in black and white terms, ignoring the real shades of gray that reality encompasses. I could go at length on medical, and drug, policy (and I have, on multiple occassions here on Slashdot), but I'll just limit myself to pointing this out: in 1940's, when we got independent, life expectancy was 41 years. Now, it is 76 years (or thereabouts). For a system that's an _abject_ failure, that's some result, you'd think.
There are oases of IT work in the biggest cities surrounded by people living in shacks who, due to the social and educational systems of the country, have absolutely no chance at upwards mobility.
I've recently read, mostly as a part of the reading packet I alluded to earlier, that the house in which my grandparents used to live is actually located in an area officially designated as a 'slum'. Always knew the area wasn't really posh - Grandpa was a lowly village headmaster, he really couldn't afford those fancy bungalows - so to see it being designated as a 'slum' was, well, more amusing than surprising.
Funny thing eh, that I've turned to tech for a living.
And oh. You should hear what they did to Grandpa's house after we sold it. They demolished the old house, a three-room-dwelling with tiled roofs and wooden support, and built a cookie-cutter, stalin-isque office-like building. Yes that's right; they built an IT-training center in that very spot.
More minor problems exist too: trains and roads are broken, and the electrical infrastructure is in tatters.
Yeah, did you hear that all of the national budget will be siphoned off into sending people to the Moon?
So they want to go to the moon, a feat already accomplished by mankind? How stupid.
How wise of you to decide our technological challenges for us, and how gratifying that we've got you to call us stupid. So going to space is a solved problem for mankind that doesn't need more impetus or thought? An American astronaut, Kalpana Chawla would agree with you. No wait
Being an American of Indian descent who has spent time in India,
Which, of course, makes you an expert in everything Indian, doesn't it.
I can assure you that this will never happen.
I suppose we'll just have to bribe our way through then, like you said; just give a huge mega offering to Chandra, the Moon God, and he might let us onto Chandralok (Moon).
Or perhaps we could use manual labour? You know, if you stack a billion people up one by one, you can presumably reach a height of 10^9 * 160 cm.
Hahah, that'll be something then: "you know, I can talk more about this, but I'm afraid you'll get trolled mercilessly on Slashdot". I bet I'll be extremely popular in a dinner-party if I say that!;-)
It says more that you believe the Sony rep took no stance. He did take a stance, his stance was that other people will take care of whatever the/. poster was bringing up and he needn't worry about it.
The poster's question was what will Sony do when X happens. His friend didn't answer the question at all. Therefore, he didn't take a stance, in that he didn't offer his opinion.
It's also revealing that you believe such behavior is polite.
That's a bit of an over-analysis, my friend.:-)
While I don't necessarily curtail my opinion in social gatherings, I do try and find ways to respectfully assert my thoughts in any discussion, I can very well understand if someone doesn't feel like facing up to a verbal confrontation in a social gathering.
The point I'm making here is simple; the man from Sony clearly dodged the question. The poster thinks it might be because he had no opinion on the matter; I'm suggesting, and this from a third-person perspective, that it might necessarily because he was unopinionated.
In America this is not so because Americans are taught that only popular opinion is polite to repeat.
Good to keep that in mind, then, if and when I visit the US.:-)
Landmark and Scientology are corporation-cults. I know all those McChurches are trying hard to be corporatized in their operations, but they're still a few notches below where these guys are.
More to the point, when faced with a persistent evangelical, you know how to respond. When faced with a zombie-ed Landmark enthusiast who was a good friend from college (true story), you wouldn't know how to respond unless you had more information on the organization.
Making your population afraid is old-school, and pretty much died with the Cold War. Making your population apathetic, otoh, is what all New Totalitarianism is all about.
Slashdot Mirror
I have an mp3 player, a mobile, and I work on two computers at my workplace, but I still find it necessary to wear a watch. More habit than anything else; I like to have that feeling of something heavy on my left arm, and most certainly, I find it quite cumbersome to fish out my mobile from my pocket just to see the time.
I also love watches; I've got four of them. I'm planning to buy another pretty soon. :-)
I understand that the OPCL gizmo has a non-standard resolution screen. Opera wasn't designed for this screen, but it still apparently runs smoothly out-of-the-box.
I wouldn't say this website has good fonts or a nice aesthetic sense. Too much green for me. :-)
Or perhaps I should say, howcome they were testing Opera with Slashdot? :-)
Not to mention confusing between Gary Kasparov and, presumably, Antoli Karpov. :-)
Blogging Googlers have responded, and I am reaching for my bwig bwag of popcorn. More of this action please!
India has a fair amount of ethnic Chinese in its population. There's an entire Chinatown in Calcutta. Delhi University has had one of the best Chinese language departments internationally for many years; anecdotally, I can tell you of at least one English-to-Chinese translation job that was outsourced to India.
Pun unintended, I'm sure. :-)
The thing that really struck me the most in "new" India, all those malls and food courts and stuff, is how prevalent Chinese food is, among other things. Granted, Indian Chinese isn't quite Chinese as I know :-D, but I've travelled to Hong Kong and throughout most parts of South East Asia, and I don't think I've seen the reverse happening.
India's opening up faster than most ex-pat Indians realize.
We've got the world's largest twenty-something population. Half the country is my age, 24.
Which of the twenty-seven or so educational systems are you talking about? If it is the CBSE or the ICSE, then you'd be hardpressed to explain why they follow it in some schools here in Singapore, or in West Asia and southern Africa, in Tanzania, Kenya and, I understand, South Africa. The educational system per se isnt soul-ripping, but the competition is; never, however, doubt the intent of some of the better designed systems.
:-)
I take it that you haven't worked with these lobbyists? The problem with Indian politics is that it's a huge superset of local politics glued together somehow under the Indian tricolour; the difficulty is in having a larger picture, or in convincing folks to look beyond their backyards. I doubt anybody is malicious though, in their intent; there is a lot of good work being done, albeit slowly. I think we're about to hit the corner in a year or so when folks start demanding action at a national level as well.
Tough work, but there are reasons to be optimistic. All is not lost.
Let's just say that beyond a certain point, you can't ignore a billion people's worth of a market anymore. Especially if they're actively buying tech goods, and are looking out heavily yada yada.
Malaysia (and Singapore) regularly outsource call center jobs to India. Should know; just got off the phone with someone from the National Kidney Foundation.
And yet, salaries are rising rapidly back in Hyderabad; folks getting 50% or a 100% raise is not unheard of. A top job in an Accenture in Singapore will pay you S$3.5k pm at the max; a job at Microsoft's India Development Center will give you 14 lakhs per annum at the very least. (For the rupee-challenged, INR 140000 pa > SGD 3500 pm)
The boom will stay for more time before it becomes bust is my prediction.
One word: sobering. I'm currently in the top 10%; if I get my planned raise, I'll be in the top 8%. If I move jobs (and get this banking job I'm looking at), I'll be in the top 6%. Bet that's still significantly less than what most Slashdotters would earn (if they're earning in USD; I'm not)
I'll be looking at this ipod I've been drooling at in a whole new light from now on.
So after returning to India after about two years, I went to this new-age, corporate bank last week to open a new bank account. The branch was swank, with polished tiles, air-conditioning, some fascinating frescoes (drawings of the old Hyderabadi currency; fancy that, eh) and a generally better upkeep than most public sector banks I was used to from my childhood. The offered me debit cards (yes, two of them), an instant photo (didn't bring my photo; why do they collect photographs in just about every form you fill in India?), internet-banking, and other services that my bank here in Singapore offers.
So far, so good, until we got to the minimum balance: may be I'm being a cheapskate, but I was surprised to find out that the minimum balance required is twice what I have here in Singapore for virtually the same service. Wealth inflation seems staggering, even in our generation in India; a senior colleague from India was telling me that he was drawing in 2000 rupees for a sysadmin job some six years back. Now the same job would probably draw 30,000 rupees or more.
So yeah, totally off-topic, but the point I'm making is this; within the context of South East Asia, I think we can safely say that India has already stopped being a low-cost destination. Will be interesting to see if there's been any change in wealth distribution metrics; something tells me it's probably worsened.
You know, that quote is often repeated by the F/OSS crowd, but I haven't found a single citation for that quotation. Plainly put, the exact wording doesn't sound like typical Gandhi; folks back then used to use the more passive construct 'one' (as in, "One uses 'one' instead of 'you' to refer to a generic entity), rather than the more American 'you' ("You tend to use 'you' when you could have used 'one'). In short, people back then would have said something to the order of 'First one is ignored, then laughed at, then fought, and then one wins', if indeed, the Mahatma ever said such a thing.
Unlike most other political leader's thoughts, Gandhiji's writings and speeches are tabulated, and referenced thoroughly, so it's all the more surprising that I haven't found any citation to the quote, save the Hacker Dictionary with its really suspect entry for GandhiCon (look it up; ESR is a much admirable person in different context, but because of entries such as this, the Hacker's Dictionary seems like an exercise in personal vanity).
I typed in the name of this book I'm reading currently, "White Mughals", and found DNA's H2G2 on the list, in addition to other sci-fi works like Dune, and surprisingly enough, Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream.
I suppose I'm a statistical anomaly, in that I'm interested in medieval Indian history, modernist English literature and in contemporary science-fiction, but I've read, and loved, all books mentioned (or wanted to read "Dune"; have read the rest).
That's interesting, coz I'm actually considering getting a masters/PhD in information science myself. Not to diss "regular" CS degrees, I have a lot of respect for someone who shines through some of these programs, but I'm looking at doing some academic work using my technical skills, rather than on my technical skills. Meaning, comp sci as a means for solving something, and not necessarily as an end in itself.
I'm curious about hearing about your experience with an information science degree, and why you'd like to get back to doing a regular EE.
I don't see listings for Win 2k3 server, or Win XP/2k3 64-bit. I think it's quite apparent that the Zune department hasn't really thought through compatibility issues.
I'm sorry, but that's utter BS. Have to be blunt here, but the fact that you seem to be unable to differentiate between different dialectal usage for a certain food-item, and an incorrect term for a people only shows your cultural insensitivity. This isn't about discussing the different synonyms for a certain word in the lexicon, it is about calling someone by the name they identify with for historical and cultural reasons.
Gum is not banned. Sale of gum is. Perfectly legal to step through Changi or Woodlands with your pockets full of chewing gum. And even at that, gum for "medicinal" purposes is still legal; it is possible to get Wringley's at your local Guardian's, just that you have to give in your NRIC number and stuff. (Haven't tried it though; my hatred for gum is long-standing, and beats my contempt for Big Brother Singapore)
No, I don't get tired pointing this out all the time.
Are you talking real measureable stats in terms of income distribution? The reason I'm asking is I'm wondering if you actually did some reading about India, or if you're one of those international travellers who land in Delhi and start shrieking "Ooooh my god, these cow-worshippers; why aren't they more like us?"
If you're of the former type, then I'd like you to be more rigorous in your assertion. My reading tells me that we've just turned the corner in terms of BPL households; I've read -and this is a freely available stat, google it up - that the largest agglomeration of poverty in human history was in 1991, and that, given the way both China and India are growing, it is unlikely that we'll ever again have 300 million people in one place, living in such abject poverty. I'm told that the
If you're of the latter type, just to say this; we love you guys. We love the way you hate us, we love the way you like being condescending on us brown folk, we love the fact that you think you're brilliant enough to dictate policy for the largest democracy this planet has ever seen.
Otoh, if you were just trying to provoke an indignant response from folks like me, ahh well, IHBT. IHL. I don't care; I'm waiting for a build to finish, I could do with some verbal sparring.
You know, I consider myself one of those pragmatic folks who's mostly beyond mere nationalistic loyalty and would like to think about policy through a purely rational perspective. The problem with responses like yours is that you tend to look at everything in black and white terms, ignoring the real shades of gray that reality encompasses. I could go at length on medical, and drug, policy (and I have, on multiple occassions here on Slashdot), but I'll just limit myself to pointing this out: in 1940's, when we got independent, life expectancy was 41 years. Now, it is 76 years (or thereabouts). For a system that's an _abject_ failure, that's some result, you'd think.
I've recently read, mostly as a part of the reading packet I alluded to earlier, that the house in which my grandparents used to live is actually located in an area officially designated as a 'slum'. Always knew the area wasn't really posh - Grandpa was a lowly village headmaster, he really couldn't afford those fancy bungalows - so to see it being designated as a 'slum' was, well, more amusing than surprising.
Funny thing eh, that I've turned to tech for a living.
And oh. You should hear what they did to Grandpa's house after we sold it. They demolished the old house, a three-room-dwelling with tiled roofs and wooden support, and built a cookie-cutter, stalin-isque office-like building. Yes that's right; they built an IT-training center in that very spot.
Yeah, did you hear that all of the national budget will be siphoned off into sending people to the Moon?
How wise of you to decide our technological challenges for us, and how gratifying that we've got you to call us stupid. So going to space is a solved problem for mankind that doesn't need more impetus or thought? An American astronaut, Kalpana Chawla would agree with you. No wait
Which, of course, makes you an expert in everything Indian, doesn't it.
I suppose we'll just have to bribe our way through then, like you said; just give a huge mega offering to Chandra, the Moon God, and he might let us onto Chandralok (Moon).
Or perhaps we could use manual labour? You know, if you stack a billion people up one by one, you can presumably reach a height of 10^9 * 160 cm.
Hahah, that'll be something then: "you know, I can talk more about this, but I'm afraid you'll get trolled mercilessly on Slashdot". I bet I'll be extremely popular in a dinner-party if I say that! ;-)
The poster's question was what will Sony do when X happens. His friend didn't answer the question at all. Therefore, he didn't take a stance, in that he didn't offer his opinion.
That's a bit of an over-analysis, my friend. :-)
While I don't necessarily curtail my opinion in social gatherings, I do try and find ways to respectfully assert my thoughts in any discussion, I can very well understand if someone doesn't feel like facing up to a verbal confrontation in a social gathering.
The point I'm making here is simple; the man from Sony clearly dodged the question. The poster thinks it might be because he had no opinion on the matter; I'm suggesting, and this from a third-person perspective, that it might necessarily because he was unopinionated.
Good to keep that in mind, then, if and when I visit the US. :-)
Seems to me from your narration that your friend in Sony Music was just trying to be polite, and not take a stance in a dinner party. :-)
Landmark and Scientology are corporation-cults. I know all those McChurches are trying hard to be corporatized in their operations, but they're still a few notches below where these guys are.
More to the point, when faced with a persistent evangelical, you know how to respond. When faced with a zombie-ed Landmark enthusiast who was a good friend from college (true story), you wouldn't know how to respond unless you had more information on the organization.
That's interesting, coz Bill Clinton did mention in that (in)famous FOX interview that the CIA was actively trying to kill Bin Laden:
Besides, US forces did kill Zarqawi anyway.
Making your population afraid is old-school, and pretty much died with the Cold War. Making your population apathetic, otoh, is what all New Totalitarianism is all about.