I think the people of India need to "get over their prejudices".
Amen. and I think Indians are getting over their prejudices. In a billion strong population there are still stupid people who have these prejudices, but trust me, most people I've come into contact with don't. Growing up in India, I've not seen these prejudices in any of my friends/family (though the bias is that this is a very highly educated group). Things are changing, and things are changing for the good.
The head guy said they were not allowed to eat with the other people
It is not the caste system - it's the general practice (not followed by newer firms though) that managers should not socialize too much with employees. Very stupid idea though, and that's not true for most tech firms.
It's not whining when the people you hire overseas are truly incompetent
I agree with you. However one cannot generalize. I'd rather blame the executives who went ahead and outsourced to a team without finding out if they are competent or not. You know how the market works - if there's a demand, suppliers will crawl out from god knows where - the bad ones ruin the playing ground for the really good ones. Which is why the managers should really look at the track record of firms before outsourcing contracts instead of looking for the cheapest one around - it should be quality/cost benefit, and not cost alone which should form the basis of such decisions.
I agree completely. My point was that complaining is not the solution. Nor is raving about *them* the solution. These are childish attitudes to a serious problem. Eventually a way out will be found, but not by the ones who crib.
Believe me, I hate to be a troll, but get off your superior a$$ and realize that there are good people and bad people all over the world. You'll find them in the US, and you'll find them in India. For every person who fucks up in India, there is a person who fucks up in the US at some job, so for your own good, plz don't have any illusions that cribbing about your Indian/foreign counterparts will keep your jobs. There are good people over there and there are enough of them to do any job. Frankly I'm tired of hearing people crib about how these Indians must be stupid, so everyone in America will get their jobs back soon. Hell, I'm Indian and I know I'm brilliant.(very presumptous thing to say, I agree).
Instead of cribbing and verbal bashing, it's probably time to think of real solutions. If I was American, I'd sit down, accept the realities and then think of practical solutions instead of crying and cribbing like many are doing here. (This statement is aimed only at a very tiny percentage - I'm sure the majority are still sane enough to work out a good solution to this problem - I respect the ability of Americans to bounce back a lot. )
and where exactly did you get the idea that software firms in India are 'sweatshops'? There is a tendency to think that all 'third world' ventures are sweatshops, but being an Indian who's living in the US, I can tell you confidently that that is not so. The software engineers in India are paid much much more than the average engineer in India. To top it, they have a standard of life which is much better than the average person with the same level of education. Maybe you should find out what the working conditions are over there - software firms regularly have offices where the ergonomics are as good as or even better than the average American office. I"m not just pulling statements out of my a$$, this is true and can be verified by anyone who has visited any of those Bangalore firms.
And what exactly do you think is moral? That the brilliant engineers, doctors and scientists over there should give all this up and get back to being unemployed/underpaid? Does that sound more moral?
I repeat - just in case this comes up again - the software, biotech and engineering firms that dot Bangalore and other cities in India are *NOT* sweatshops - they have wonderful work environments. Get over your prejudices.
I agree. I didn't mean that the military uses IS-95, just that it uses spread spectrum - it's just simpler to use CDMA as a term to refer to both (though frequency hopping is not direct-sequence like CDMA) to avoid too much complexity in explanations. Of course, I know this is slashdot...
I agree completely.
About the quality of CDMA services being low - I'd say that it's a problem with the implementation, not the technology as such since I know from experience that CDMA is a brilliant concept that uses spread-spectrum tech (which has some great properties of being immune to a large amount of noise etc - your low power gps receivers also use a similar system).
Of course, it would be great if implementations of CDMA used SIM cards (or something similar) instead of locking a mobile unit with a subscriber. Maybe the GSM specification should include CDMA, but then 3G is headed in exactly that direction.
CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access. Here the entire allowed frequency spectrum is used (actually a band) by every user. The idea (in simple terms) is to send out signals that are coded with each user's individual (and unique) code so that only that user can decode it to get meaningful information, everyone else sees that information as noise. You don't need different frequencies in adjacent cells as in traditional cellphone technology (TDMA).
GSM: Global System for Mobile communications - an advanced technology based on TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). Here you need different frequencies in adjacent cells. Usually a cluster of cells is used with each cell operating at a different frequency.
No, CDMA is not on it's way out. CDMA is actually far superior to GSM (IMHO). Actually the commercial implementation of CDMA happened after GSM (CDMA was used by the US military before) which is probaby why most of Asia adopted GSM since that was the cutting-edge technology of that time. Now, both GSM and CDMA (IS-95) are 2G (second generation) technologies. Guess what's 3G? WCDMA (wideband-CDMA) and CDMA-2000. So CDMA is definitely not on its way out.
The low power Control Units are recognized as a base station by cell phones / mobile phones within its radius. (Think of a "base station" as a "tower".) Once the Quiet Cell Control Unit has "captured" the phone, it instructs the phone to go to a channel that is not active in that cellular system. This prohibits the phone from receiving communication from the original system's base station.
Let me translate that BS for you: This effectively "jams" the signal by transmitting a signal that's much more powerful than the base station signal so that a "handoff" takes place - this wouldn't work with CDMA handsets (RAKE receiver blah blah.. I won't go into that).
Effectively I can see the same problems with this that other jammers can cause - disruption of other devices.
So now the call you get goes into voice mail - sine the service provider's base station cannot communicate with you at all, you will NOT RECEIVE the 'new voice mail' message either - in an emergency you are still fscked.
What the heck is this article talking about? There is no such thing in cellphone technology as "signal of no service". If the cellphone cannot detect a compatible network/ get no signal, it displays a "no service" message. There is no freaking way in hell you can send a "no service" signal to a cellphone! If it does, it's just jamming the service provider's signal to make it unacceptable to the mobile device.
IBM cannot buy Wipro for the simple reason that it would be too costly. Last time I checked, the market cap of Wipro was in billions, not millions. (It's a F-500 company).
Slashdot Mirror
I think the people of India need to "get over their prejudices".
Amen. and I think Indians are getting over their prejudices. In a billion strong population there are still stupid people who have these prejudices, but trust me, most people I've come into contact with don't. Growing up in India, I've not seen these prejudices in any of my friends/family (though the bias is that this is a very highly educated group). Things are changing, and things are changing for the good.
The head guy said they were not allowed to eat with the other people
It is not the caste system - it's the general practice (not followed by newer firms though) that managers should not socialize too much with employees. Very stupid idea though, and that's not true for most tech firms.
It's not whining when the people you hire overseas are truly incompetent
I agree with you. However one cannot generalize. I'd rather blame the executives who went ahead and outsourced to a team without finding out if they are competent or not. You know how the market works - if there's a demand, suppliers will crawl out from god knows where - the bad ones ruin the playing ground for the really good ones. Which is why the managers should really look at the track record of firms before outsourcing contracts instead of looking for the cheapest one around - it should be quality/cost benefit, and not cost alone which should form the basis of such decisions.
I agree completely. My point was that complaining is not the solution. Nor is raving about *them* the solution. These are childish attitudes to a serious problem. Eventually a way out will be found, but not by the ones who crib.
yes, I forgot. Graduate research doesn't really involve creativity :-)
cough.
Check out what a software office in India really is like.
Believe me, I hate to be a troll, but get off your superior a$$ and realize that there are good people and bad people all over the world. You'll find them in the US, and you'll find them in India. For every person who fucks up in India, there is a person who fucks up in the US at some job, so for your own good, plz don't have any illusions that cribbing about your Indian/foreign counterparts will keep your jobs. There are good people over there and there are enough of them to do any job. Frankly I'm tired of hearing people crib about how these Indians must be stupid, so everyone in America will get their jobs back soon. Hell, I'm Indian and I know I'm brilliant .(very presumptous thing to say, I agree).
Instead of cribbing and verbal bashing, it's probably time to think of real solutions. If I was American, I'd sit down, accept the realities and then think of practical solutions instead of crying and cribbing like many are doing here. (This statement is aimed only at a very tiny percentage - I'm sure the majority are still sane enough to work out a good solution to this problem - I respect the ability of Americans to bounce back a lot. )
He doesn't think the Asians are creative enough for R&D work
Your manager should just go and check out the graduate schools across the US. These asians must be really stupid!
and where exactly did you get the idea that software firms in India are 'sweatshops'? There is a tendency to think that all 'third world' ventures are sweatshops, but being an Indian who's living in the US, I can tell you confidently that that is not so. The software engineers in India are paid much much more than the average engineer in India. To top it, they have a standard of life which is much better than the average person with the same level of education. Maybe you should find out what the working conditions are over there - software firms regularly have offices where the ergonomics are as good as or even better than the average American office. I"m not just pulling statements out of my a$$, this is true and can be verified by anyone who has visited any of those Bangalore firms.
And what exactly do you think is moral? That the brilliant engineers, doctors and scientists over there should give all this up and get back to being unemployed/underpaid? Does that sound more moral?
I repeat - just in case this comes up again - the software, biotech and engineering firms that dot Bangalore and other cities in India are *NOT* sweatshops - they have wonderful work environments. Get over your prejudices.
umm...cough*florida*cough.. kind of across the country from silicon valley and nevada
Our humble contribution to the world.
I hear they use cycles big time there. Pretty cheap too comapared to cars.
Whenn Boeing dows the next 7E7 fly-though in DirectX, give me a call.
When I use the next 7E7 fly-through on my desktop, I'll definitely give you a call.
very good opinion. I wonder if it could be enforced though since smaller companies may show lesser regard for the law and let IP slip in unnoticed.
I agree. I didn't mean that the military uses IS-95, just that it uses spread spectrum - it's just simpler to use CDMA as a term to refer to both (though frequency hopping is not direct-sequence like CDMA) to avoid too much complexity in explanations. Of course, I know this is slashdot...
I agree completely.
About the quality of CDMA services being low - I'd say that it's a problem with the implementation, not the technology as such since I know from experience that CDMA is a brilliant concept that uses spread-spectrum tech (which has some great properties of being immune to a large amount of noise etc - your low power gps receivers also use a similar system).
Of course, it would be great if implementations of CDMA used SIM cards (or something similar) instead of locking a mobile unit with a subscriber. Maybe the GSM specification should include CDMA, but then 3G is headed in exactly that direction.
CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access. Here the entire allowed frequency spectrum is used (actually a band) by every user. The idea (in simple terms) is to send out signals that are coded with each user's individual (and unique) code so that only that user can decode it to get meaningful information, everyone else sees that information as noise. You don't need different frequencies in adjacent cells as in traditional cellphone technology (TDMA).
GSM: Global System for Mobile communications - an advanced technology based on TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). Here you need different frequencies in adjacent cells. Usually a cluster of cells is used with each cell operating at a different frequency.
Some more info
No, CDMA is not on it's way out. CDMA is actually far superior to GSM (IMHO). Actually the commercial implementation of CDMA happened after GSM (CDMA was used by the US military before) which is probaby why most of Asia adopted GSM since that was the cutting-edge technology of that time. Now, both GSM and CDMA (IS-95) are 2G (second generation) technologies. Guess what's 3G? WCDMA (wideband-CDMA) and CDMA-2000. So CDMA is definitely not on its way out.
From Cell Block's website
The low power Control Units are recognized as a base station by cell phones / mobile phones within its radius. (Think of a "base station" as a "tower".) Once the Quiet Cell Control Unit has "captured" the phone, it instructs the phone to go to a channel that is not active in that cellular system. This prohibits the phone from receiving communication from the original system's base station.
Let me translate that BS for you: This effectively "jams" the signal by transmitting a signal that's much more powerful than the base station signal so that a "handoff" takes place - this wouldn't work with CDMA handsets (RAKE receiver blah blah.. I won't go into that). Effectively I can see the same problems with this that other jammers can cause - disruption of other devices.
So now the call you get goes into voice mail - sine the service provider's base station cannot communicate with you at all, you will NOT RECEIVE the 'new voice mail' message either - in an emergency you are still fscked.
To avoid kidney donation to NYT
u its/08cell.html?ex=1082001600&en=348516b568cf570e& ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/technology/circ
What the heck is this article talking about? There is no such thing in cellphone technology as "signal of no service". If the cellphone cannot detect a compatible network/ get no signal, it displays a "no service" message. There is no freaking way in hell you can send a "no service" signal to a cellphone! If it does, it's just jamming the service provider's signal to make it unacceptable to the mobile device.
IBM cannot buy Wipro for the simple reason that it would be too costly. Last time I checked, the market cap of Wipro was in billions, not millions. (It's a F-500 company).
oh, u expect Microsoft to release an installer tht runs under Linux?
A boring machine for a boring person.
Oh wait..
.. one of the 580-tonne Tunnel Boring Machines used to dig the Channel Tunnel on eBay..
I knew there were too many holes on eBay..