The current Indian government is a coalition, and the Communist Party of India are one of the major members, without whose support the coalition would collapse.
Though I am staunchly in favour of the free market, I still must thank the communists for one thing - they made algorithms (mathematical and non mathematical), programs, business methods/models, and software in general unpatentable, by including it in the 2005 Patent Amendments Act.
Before that, software was patentable in the limited sense of it being a component of hardware - like the microcode of a chip, for example - basically at the point where the differences between hardware and software became a bit blurred. Now, however, it falls under the list of things which are explicitly unpatentable.
I find it extremely ironic, and a bit sad at the same time, that it is the Communists Party of India which essentially stood up for freedom and a truly freer market.
This is the worst sort of intimidation. Bal Thackeray is a politician. If content against him can be censored, we've reached the limit. The government already blocks websites it deems "hateful". Unfortunately, the definition of hateful includes anyone who dares to criticise the communists, or Islam. The current government stays in power because of the support provided by the communist parties, so they can get ridiculous things like this passed.
Simply put, this is the first step in an exercise which promises to put an end to freedom of information on the internet in India as we know it. There was an incident where, some time back, the whole of blogspot was blocked. The government doesn't run a firewall a la China, they just ask ISPs to do it. Because there exists no independent ISP (all private players have to lease bandwidth themselves from the government - it's a state monopoly), they have no choice but to comply.
What you are talking about is incorrect, and even if it was correct, it applies only the the Judaism-Christianity-Islam trio. It does not apply to Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Skihism, Zoorastrianism, and others of this mould). The cultures are so vastly different that a comparison becomes meaningless. In these religious traditions, religion has been the source of progress, not of regress (at least until the Muslim invasion of India, which ruined everything).
In order to design this car, they'll have to design all components from the ground up - an almost impossible job. You have to have an ecosystem of people and free/open designs and standards which you can borrow from in order to create or execute a project as complex as a car.
First, the standards have to be defined (as pointed out by another poster somewhere above). This can only happen by a process of evolution, when de-facto standards accepted by the community who develop open hardware (ignoring for a moment that such a community does not (currently) exist) are turned into reference standards used by the community, to which all entrants are encouraged to confirm. This process of evolution has not yet even begun, much less culminated in any standards.
Secondly, all the components you have used in the car should be available openly, under some sort of license which grants you GPL-like freedoms. Many components can be simply lifted from the ecosystem of open hardware (again, ignoring for a moment that such an ecosystem does not exist), making the job of designing the car even possible.
It's like trying to build a factory in the middle of nowhere, and trying to build the roads, electricity, and everything else by yourself. You're trying to do the job of an entire community and the resultant ecosystem yourself.
There's a local corporation (in Pune, Maharashtra, India) trying to create such an ecosystem, by inviting college students doing their university project to work on open-source/free (as in speech) engineering. They're trying to create a system which is self-sustaining. Machine designs are given GPL-like freedoms - use, modify, redistribute, and any mix of the three. So if I design a simple lathe machine today, a student team the next year could improve it.
The goal is realistic - first free up all the basic technologies, such as basic industrial fabrication machinery (lathes, drills, etc), while simultaneously developing standards for the ecosystem by seeing what works and what doesn't. Then free up the basic components which nearly all machinery today uses. Then move on to more complex stuff, such as designing small electrical or mechanical appliances. Finally, move on to the most complex stuff, done by a number of teams working in tandem over a few years, such a building a car. Such building will only be possible when most of the components are already available, and will only need to be tweaked and customised for the car.
Let me quote an essay I have written on this topic:
The lathe is a very interesting machine. So is the boiler. So is the drill. And they are interesting for more reason than the usual ones, as shall be seen soon.
Let us start with the lathe machine. The concept is simple and brilliant. The earliest recorded reference to a lathe is an Egyptian Ptolemaic carving dating back to the 7th century BC, depicting a turning tool. The lathe was also known in India since antiquity. In medieval Europe, it was used to turn polearms. It played a key part in the industrial revolution of Europe. Its design is now practically fixed and all but perfected into a general-purpose lathe which we use today.
Now let us see the history of the boiler. Their biggest use was in coal-powered steam locomotives. Their design has remained practically static since the time of the great Babcock and Wilcox. Steam boilers are, as of today, a dead-end for innovation or improvement. For over two hundred years, the only improvements have been evolutionary ones. I study them. My father before me studied the very same design. So did my grandfather before him. And given current trends, my grandchildren will study the same thing my grandfather did.
Turning out attention to the drill, we come across the innovation of the father of dentistry, Frenchman Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761), who described an improved drill in 1728. The industrial drill is a fundamentally simple design, which agai
I'm an Indian student, and I'm currently doing my B.E. in Comp. Engg. over here Pune, Maharashtra.
IMHO, the linked article is a gross oversimplification of what is a very complex system.
Colleges and universities can be broadly divided into three and two categories each, respectively. Colleges can be either good, bad, or mediocre. Universities are generally good or not good.
I'm not counting the IITs and IIMs because they are such an insignificant part of the whole, and therefore not very relevant (except as role models) when evaluating the education scenario in India as a whole.
At the the top we have good colleges affiliated to a good university. These people are the first tier, and most of them are the creme of the crop when it comes to education. They are usually snapped up by campus recruiters, and command the highest opening salaries.
Next we have the mediocre college affiliated to a good university. In these, the good students make it to the top and are treated as well as a student from a good college by prospective employers. The not so good students have a tough time of it.
Next we have the (extremely rare) good college affiliated to a mediocre university. They are only a bit below the above.
Next we have the bad college affiliated to a mediocre university. The career prospects of someone going here are not too bright.
Next we have the bad college, bad university combo. Pretty much give up hope of a decent career if you are one of these unlucky people.
Good universities can make up for many flaws of a college thanks to the innate potential of the syllabus and affiliation requirements.
I myself attend a mediocre college affiliated to a good university.
One notable thing about the education system for engineering in India is that the first year is common to people of all disciplines.
In the first semester, we study:
Basic Electrical Engineering Basic Mechanical Engineering Basic Civil Engineering Applied Math. I Applied Science I
In the second semester, it is
Basic Electronic Engineering Engineering Graphics Engineering Mechanics Applied Science II Applied Mathematics II
A lot of the material in these courses is useless, even though it may be necessary to produce a person who has a basic grasp of all engineering disciplines. This system needs an overhaul, IMO.
It is from the second year that the fun really starts. And at least in our college and university, and all colleges affiliated to our university, in the beginning we study pure theory, with programming only as an add-on practical. Only once a solid theoretical foundation has been built is actual programming teaching started. The University of Pune is a venerable institution, and not a Java-school.
I have come to this conclusion looking at the syllabus for the second and subsequent years of study.
Maybe I'm seeing only part of the reality, however, because the education system of Maharashtra is quite a bit better than that of other states.
I seriously doubt that the person who wrote that article knows how complex the system is internally.
The universities bit is incorrect. AFAIK, it was India which had the first universities, way back in the BC years (ref. Nalanda and Takshashila). All of them were destroyed during the Islamic period, unfortunately, but still, it was good while it lasted.
I'm sick and tired of getting everything six months to one year after the USA and Japan. And Sony has been known to delay its product launches for months in markets like India. This encourages a perverted black market, where you get the PS3 within for obscene amounts of money. What's the problem with a simultaneous worldwide launch policy? You prevent black marketeering that way.
I call BS . THe caste system has been illegal since independence , and 50 % of all university seats in ALL colleges and universities ( private ones included ) , along with in government jobs , are reservred for the lower castes , in what I consider to be a rather retarded implementation of affirmative action . There are far better ways of helping the poor and lower castes , such as by providing primary and secondary education to them free of cost , after which they can compete on equal terms with the other castes , but there are no short-term political benefits to doing that , so , in order to gain lower-caste votes , politicians pander to issues-of-the-minute , and sell the country down the drain .
I agree with you on the first point - nobody should presume anything about Americans.
But India is not a caste society . Caste discrimination has been banned since Independence . We have reserved 50 % of all college seats for lower castes , too .
. . . . . of this government's incompetent bungling . We have probably the best educated prime minister in the whole world , but thanks to political considerations ( a coalition of a centrist party and the communist party is ruling at the centre currently ) , he is not enjoying the freedom to enact reforms he deserves . He is the guy who started the reforms process in the first place , and brought India's economy into the modern world in 1991.
Then there was the internet censorship scandal - the censorship continues till this day . Then there was the retarded idea to introduce fixed quotas for the Other Backward Castes in educational institutions - this means that only a OBC people can fill 25 % of seats in educational institutions - even private ones ! - even if they are unqualified , and if a sufficient number of them do not apply , then that seat remains vacant . Then there was the media censorship issue - there was a plan , thankfully scuttled , to ban The Da Vinci Code ( the movie ) because it "offended Christian sentiments in India" . And , of course , we have their lacklustre management of the economic scenario ( what else can you expect when the Communists threaten to withdraw support ( and thus make the government fall ) every time somebody tries to implement some reform ? ).
I'm very definitely not voting for this lot . I was too young to vote in the last election , but in the next one , this bunch is definitely OUT .
No , I'm serious . Why not , instead of having chips only interact with each other , all interact via bluetooth with a centrel computer , which makes a number of chips work in tandem to do things they could not have done individually ? If you want to program AI that is too complex for the chips to handle , do it on the server . This is a bit like an organism which has various body parts communicating via bluetooth with its computer brain . This can provide a good testing ground for AI as well as robotics researchers .
And of course , chips can interact with each other , too , in case you are making something more complex .
I can already see a number of cool possibilities .
India is a non-free market ? I would disagree . China , yes , but India liberalised its economy in 1991 ( and further freeing up is going on even now ) .
How much is the performance hit when using an encrypted filesystem ? How much will filework-heavy tasks impact performance ? I want to know , because I might want to use this on an older system .
Funnily enough , my grandfather , now a retired judge , was , once upon a time a lawyer , and he never had to set up a booth on the side of the road . Nor do any of the lawyers I know . In fact , I have never seen a "lawyer booth" in my life . Nor has anyone I know .
Finally , I conclude - you're bullshitting . I do not like such stupid lies spread about my country .
What you say is true from a purely factual point of view .
Yet again , I advise you to remember Indian history . Turning what you call shit ( funnily enough , Bill Gates ( in spite of any other flaws he may or may not have ) had once said that these same things are not "shit" , they are called opportunities ) into the purest gold is that India has historically been good at . India has a rich history of monopolising ( due to advantages of scale ) the markets with the highest value-addition ( such as fine textiles , and other luxury items of the times ) . As an interesting aside , the lotus , which is considered a sacred/holy flower in India , is representative of the Indian tradition of making even brackish water and mud noble , and being untouched by the dirt around you .
These low-end things are only considered a stepping-stone to past glory . A highly trained workforce can be easily turned to industries of higher and higher value addition . That is the workforce this BPO boom is providing us with . Soon , we will move up the value chain .
Of course , it is unfortunate that , knowing human nature , the real backlash against outsourcing will begin only then - when upper management realise that Indian corporations which rode the crest of the BPO wave are now not content with just business processes , and are looking to remove the P from BPO .
But by then , it will be too late to remedy the situation , as India will have sufficient capital , infrastructure , and highly-skilled labour ( all provided to us by the kind countries who outsourced their "shit" to us ) to make the backlash irrelevant .
But then again , this is only what I can foresee based on what we did in the past.
The irony of Arnold , an actor having acted in movies not exactly known for their shunning of violence , passing such a Bill almost made me laugh out loud .
Slashdot Mirror
The current Indian government is a coalition, and the Communist Party of India are one of the major members, without whose support the coalition would collapse.
Though I am staunchly in favour of the free market, I still must thank the communists for one thing - they made algorithms (mathematical and non mathematical), programs, business methods/models, and software in general unpatentable, by including it in the 2005 Patent Amendments Act.
Before that, software was patentable in the limited sense of it being a component of hardware - like the microcode of a chip, for example - basically at the point where the differences between hardware and software became a bit blurred. Now, however, it falls under the list of things which are explicitly unpatentable.
I find it extremely ironic, and a bit sad at the same time, that it is the Communists Party of India which essentially stood up for freedom and a truly freer market.
Are you saying Microsoft is a braindead company
;)
Are you seriously asking such a question?
...and I'm fucking pissed.
This is the worst sort of intimidation. Bal Thackeray is a politician. If content against him can be censored, we've reached the limit. The government already blocks websites it deems "hateful". Unfortunately, the definition of hateful includes anyone who dares to criticise the communists, or Islam. The current government stays in power because of the support provided by the communist parties, so they can get ridiculous things like this passed.
Simply put, this is the first step in an exercise which promises to put an end to freedom of information on the internet in India as we know it. There was an incident where, some time back, the whole of blogspot was blocked. The government doesn't run a firewall a la China, they just ask ISPs to do it. Because there exists no independent ISP (all private players have to lease bandwidth themselves from the government - it's a state monopoly), they have no choice but to comply.
I am so completely pissed.
....a Beowulf cluster of these!
Sorry, couldn't resist.
What you are talking about is incorrect, and even if it was correct, it applies only the the Judaism-Christianity-Islam trio. It does not apply to Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Skihism, Zoorastrianism, and others of this mould). The cultures are so vastly different that a comparison becomes meaningless. In these religious traditions, religion has been the source of progress, not of regress (at least until the Muslim invasion of India, which ruined everything).
In order to design this car, they'll have to design all components from the ground up - an almost impossible job. You have to have an ecosystem of people and free/open designs and standards which you can borrow from in order to create or execute a project as complex as a car.
First, the standards have to be defined (as pointed out by another poster somewhere above). This can only happen by a process of evolution, when de-facto standards accepted by the community who develop open hardware (ignoring for a moment that such a community does not (currently) exist) are turned into reference standards used by the community, to which all entrants are encouraged to confirm. This process of evolution has not yet even begun, much less culminated in any standards.
Secondly, all the components you have used in the car should be available openly, under some sort of license which grants you GPL-like freedoms. Many components can be simply lifted from the ecosystem of open hardware (again, ignoring for a moment that such an ecosystem does not exist), making the job of designing the car even possible.
It's like trying to build a factory in the middle of nowhere, and trying to build the roads, electricity, and everything else by yourself. You're trying to do the job of an entire community and the resultant ecosystem yourself.
There's a local corporation (in Pune, Maharashtra, India) trying to create such an ecosystem, by inviting college students doing their university project to work on open-source/free (as in speech) engineering. They're trying to create a system which is self-sustaining. Machine designs are given GPL-like freedoms - use, modify, redistribute, and any mix of the three. So if I design a simple lathe machine today, a student team the next year could improve it.
The goal is realistic - first free up all the basic technologies, such as basic industrial fabrication machinery (lathes, drills, etc), while simultaneously developing standards for the ecosystem by seeing what works and what doesn't. Then free up the basic components which nearly all machinery today uses. Then move on to more complex stuff, such as designing small electrical or mechanical appliances. Finally, move on to the most complex stuff, done by a number of teams working in tandem over a few years, such a building a car. Such building will only be possible when most of the components are already available, and will only need to be tweaked and customised for the car.
Let me quote an essay I have written on this topic:
The lathe is a very interesting machine. So is the boiler. So is the drill. And they are interesting for more reason than the usual ones, as shall be seen soon.
Let us start with the lathe machine. The concept is simple and brilliant. The earliest recorded reference to a lathe is an Egyptian Ptolemaic carving dating back to the 7th century BC, depicting a turning tool. The lathe was also known in India since antiquity. In medieval Europe, it was used to turn polearms. It played a key part in the industrial revolution of Europe. Its design is now practically fixed and all but perfected into a general-purpose lathe which we use today.
Now let us see the history of the boiler. Their biggest use was in coal-powered steam locomotives. Their design has remained practically static since the time of the great Babcock and Wilcox. Steam boilers are, as of today, a dead-end for innovation or improvement. For over two hundred years, the only improvements have been evolutionary ones. I study them. My father before me studied the very same design. So did my grandfather before him. And given current trends, my grandchildren will study the same thing my grandfather did.
Turning out attention to the drill, we come across the innovation of the father of dentistry, Frenchman Pierre Fauchard (1678-1761), who described an improved drill in 1728. The industrial drill is a fundamentally simple design, which agai
I'm an Indian student, and I'm currently doing my B.E. in Comp. Engg. over here Pune, Maharashtra.
IMHO, the linked article is a gross oversimplification of what is a very complex system.
Colleges and universities can be broadly divided into three and two categories each, respectively. Colleges can be either good, bad, or mediocre. Universities are generally good or not good.
I'm not counting the IITs and IIMs because they are such an insignificant part of the whole, and therefore not very relevant (except as role models) when evaluating the education scenario in India as a whole.
At the the top we have good colleges affiliated to a good university. These people are the first tier, and most of them are the creme of the crop when it comes to education. They are usually snapped up by campus recruiters, and command the highest opening salaries.
Next we have the mediocre college affiliated to a good university. In these, the good students make it to the top and are treated as well as a student from a good college by prospective employers. The not so good students have a tough time of it.
Next we have the (extremely rare) good college affiliated to a mediocre university. They are only a bit below the above.
Next we have the bad college affiliated to a mediocre university. The career prospects of someone going here are not too bright.
Next we have the bad college, bad university combo. Pretty much give up hope of a decent career if you are one of these unlucky people.
Good universities can make up for many flaws of a college thanks to the innate potential of the syllabus and affiliation requirements.
I myself attend a mediocre college affiliated to a good university.
One notable thing about the education system for engineering in India is that the first year is common to people of all disciplines.
In the first semester, we study:
Basic Electrical Engineering
Basic Mechanical Engineering
Basic Civil Engineering
Applied Math. I
Applied Science I
In the second semester, it is
Basic Electronic Engineering
Engineering Graphics
Engineering Mechanics
Applied Science II
Applied Mathematics II
A lot of the material in these courses is useless, even though it may be necessary to produce a person who has a basic grasp of all engineering disciplines. This system needs an overhaul, IMO.
It is from the second year that the fun really starts. And at least in our college and university, and all colleges affiliated to our university, in the beginning we study pure theory, with programming only as an add-on practical. Only once a solid theoretical foundation has been built is actual programming teaching started. The University of Pune is a venerable institution, and not a Java-school.
I have come to this conclusion looking at the syllabus for the second and subsequent years of study.
Maybe I'm seeing only part of the reality, however, because the education system of Maharashtra is quite a bit better than that of other states.
I seriously doubt that the person who wrote that article knows how complex the system is internally.
... distributed by malware writers? I'm not going to install Vista from some obscure crack download site, am I?
I may be modded down for this, but I couldn't resist:
I for one welcome our emotionally sensitive Dino overlords!
Does this even need to be said?
I mean, come on! How much easier the lives of techies would be if their boss was one of them, if he would actually understand?
The universities bit is incorrect. AFAIK, it was India which had the first universities, way back in the BC years (ref. Nalanda and Takshashila). All of them were destroyed during the Islamic period, unfortunately, but still, it was good while it lasted.
I'm sick and tired of getting everything six months to one year after the USA and Japan. And Sony has been known to delay its product launches for months in markets like India. This encourages a perverted black market, where you get the PS3 within for obscene amounts of money. What's the problem with a simultaneous worldwide launch policy? You prevent black marketeering that way.
I call BS . THe caste system has been illegal since independence , and 50 % of all university seats in ALL colleges and universities ( private ones included ) , along with in government jobs , are reservred for the lower castes , in what I consider to be a rather retarded implementation of affirmative action . There are far better ways of helping the poor and lower castes , such as by providing primary and secondary education to them free of cost , after which they can compete on equal terms with the other castes , but there are no short-term political benefits to doing that , so , in order to gain lower-caste votes , politicians pander to issues-of-the-minute , and sell the country down the drain .
I agree with you on the first point - nobody should presume anything about Americans .
But India is not a caste society . Caste discrimination has been banned since Independence . We have reserved 50 % of all college seats for lower castes , too .
. . . . . of this government's incompetent bungling . We have probably the best educated prime minister in the whole world , but thanks to political considerations ( a coalition of a centrist party and the communist party is ruling at the centre currently ) , he is not enjoying the freedom to enact reforms he deserves . He is the guy who started the reforms process in the first place , and brought India's economy into the modern world in 1991 .
.
Then there was the internet censorship scandal - the censorship continues till this day . Then there was the retarded idea to introduce fixed quotas for the Other Backward Castes in educational institutions - this means that only a OBC people can fill 25 % of seats in educational institutions - even private ones ! - even if they are unqualified , and if a sufficient number of them do not apply , then that seat remains vacant . Then there was the media censorship issue - there was a plan , thankfully scuttled , to ban The Da Vinci Code ( the movie ) because it "offended Christian sentiments in India" . And , of course , we have their lacklustre management of the economic scenario ( what else can you expect when the Communists threaten to withdraw support ( and thus make the government fall ) every time somebody tries to implement some reform ? )
I'm very definitely not voting for this lot . I was too young to vote in the last election , but in the next one , this bunch is definitely OUT .
The definition given in the grandparent post of a derivative of function f at point (x,f(x)) is perfectly correct .
d(f(x))/dx=lim[h->0] ( f(x+h) - f(x) )/( (x+h) - x )
No , I'm serious . Why not , instead of having chips only interact with each other , all interact via bluetooth with a centrel computer , which makes a number of chips work in tandem to do things they could not have done individually ? If you want to program AI that is too complex for the chips to handle , do it on the server . This is a bit like an organism which has various body parts communicating via bluetooth with its computer brain . This can provide a good testing ground for AI as well as robotics researchers .
And of course , chips can interact with each other , too , in case you are making something more complex .
I can already see a number of cool possibilities .
. . . . how much of this overlaps with conventional AI ?
Maybe Lisp/Scheme would fit the bill ?
I wonder - what is it that makes legal systems such latecomers in legislating things which are so blindingly obvious ?
India is a non-free market ? I would disagree . China , yes , but India liberalised its economy in 1991 ( and further freeing up is going on even now ) .
How much is the performance hit when using an encrypted filesystem ? How much will filework-heavy tasks impact performance ? I want to know , because I might want to use this on an older system .
Funnily enough , my grandfather , now a retired judge , was , once upon a time a lawyer , and he never had to set up a booth on the side of the road . Nor do any of the lawyers I know . In fact , I have never seen a "lawyer booth" in my life . Nor has anyone I know .
Finally , I conclude - you're bullshitting . I do not like such stupid lies spread about my country .
What you say is true from a purely factual point of view .
.
Yet again , I advise you to remember Indian history . Turning what you call shit ( funnily enough , Bill Gates ( in spite of any other flaws he may or may not have ) had once said that these same things are not "shit" , they are called opportunities ) into the purest gold is that India has historically been good at . India has a rich history of monopolising ( due to advantages of scale ) the markets with the highest value-addition ( such as fine textiles , and other luxury items of the times ) . As an interesting aside , the lotus , which is considered a sacred/holy flower in India , is representative of the Indian tradition of making even brackish water and mud noble , and being untouched by the dirt around you .
These low-end things are only considered a stepping-stone to past glory . A highly trained workforce can be easily turned to industries of higher and higher value addition . That is the workforce this BPO boom is providing us with . Soon , we will move up the value chain .
Of course , it is unfortunate that , knowing human nature , the real backlash against outsourcing will begin only then - when upper management realise that Indian corporations which rode the crest of the BPO wave are now not content with just business processes , and are looking to remove the P from BPO .
But by then , it will be too late to remedy the situation , as India will have sufficient capital , infrastructure , and highly-skilled labour ( all provided to us by the kind countries who outsourced their "shit" to us ) to make the backlash irrelevant .
But then again , this is only what I can foresee based on what we did in the past
The irony of Arnold , an actor having acted in movies not exactly known for their shunning of violence , passing such a Bill almost made me laugh out loud .