Glad to hear it, I checked the same Wikipedia article just after I posted this comment and also Googled her name for articles and pictures.
What struck me was that there are no pictures of her when she was carrying out her wondrous exploits at the age of 8, and precious little analysis of her abilities outside of documents posted in India.
That's a crying shame for such a prodigious talent.
Yep. India's Shakuntala Devi (known in those days as The Human Computer) as a girl used to challenge the mainframes of the 70s with such prodigious feats as multiplication of 2 massive numbers, and frequently pointed out correctly that the computer was wrong after assessing its answer.
As usual, nothing was made of this ability aside from its sideshow value, and no studies made of her brain capacity or computational methods.
Last I heard, she's reduced to making a living selling horoscopes and the like, if she's still alive.
Question is, do we really want to know what our capabilities are as human beings, or do we just want to keep selling big iron to governments and corporations at great profit?
Anyone else thinking Oracle buying Sun was a calculated move to destroy Android by killing Java?
Maybe Google wanted Sun to die so Google could buy Java in a disheveled state....
Reeks of conspiracy, I know, just a thought...
The story circulating was that Sun Microsystems was actually offered to Google ahead of any other suitors, with a strong suggestion to purchase in order to indemnify themselves from precisely the kind of litigation they may now be facing.
As the rumour goes, they passed, and the rest is history.
Android is a stop-gap measure, a kind of half-way house to their "holy grail" of Chromium OS and the Web, which is Google's natural element.
It must be said that Google has been moving with ungainly haste, leaving gaps in their strategic defence which may be exploited by adversaries, or simply have adverse consequences as a result of the haste of their movement. A lot of their moves are as a result of reaction to others rather than considered, original, planned action.
Precisely. I was inadvertently infected by the sdra42.exe Trojan, which installed a spam server on my PC.
My ISP disconnected my 22Mbps ADSL link, and then called me to inform me of what they'd done. When I asked for information and help in detecting and removing the infection, they simply gave me their ticket/case reference and said to call when I had found and eliminated the offending virus, and then hung up. And that was their Security department.
Thank goodness that I had an iPhone 3G to surf the 'Web and bone up on the infection, and could use my work connection to download the tools I needed to defeat this virus. It took several days, with no help from my ISP whatsoever.
I also have some pretty interesting pictures sent by a colleague who is director of a Telecoms carrier in Afghanistan.
In the lawless and war-torn sticks of Helmand Province, their engineers literally dash in and out of their remote stations to respond to and fix faults, and frequently encounter multiplexers and other equipment riddled with bullets - sabotage by insurgents.
I worked for a ISP that had a POP in the sticks. It's feed would regularly be shot by some stupid hick. There was also only one telco field tech for the area, and it would take him forever to respond and even longer to resolve the issue. The city has its own issues. Once a very large section of copper was stolen from the telco taking out an untold number of consumers.
If you work for telcos that have thousands of miles of fibre traversing farmland, you'll quickly come to appreciate (especially in the hunting season) that shotgun damage is a fact of life.
And no, the hunters are not shooting at the fibre or insulators, but at the pheasant, grouse and other flying game creatures that routinely alight on the overhead cables (usually power lines) that carry the fibre.
Why wouldn't they; some of them are even advertised that way.
Like my electronics teacher told my class "if you really think that n-p-n junctions are actually how semi-conductors work, you'll believe anything you are told".
The scientific and logical explanations for the phenomena that underlie the technology we use are simply that, explanations. You'll never see n-p-n junctions under any microscope, because there probably aren't any.
Even if there were, think about it, it won't make the phenomena of natural processes any less magical.
Sounds like a sensible and fair measure, until it comes under test itself by extenuating circumstances, like someone who has a significant involvement in the greater good (e.g socially, scientifically or in a critical peace process) but not a registered organ donor being passed over in favour of one simply because that's the new rule.
As usual, this will probably go unnoticed until some pretty serious consequences emerge in hindsight.
They did. But then Microsoft owns them at least partially.
Not likely. Netscape seemed to be the one have paid the price for Apple's freedom from their clutches. QuickTime was to be the other sacrifice demanded by M$, but Apple stood firm (thank goodness), and the rest is glorious history...
An iPhone-like vetting process would be "we'll reject it if we don't like the look of it". How about "Linux-distro style vetting process"?
The iPhone vetting process is closer to Slifox's "error on the side of caution" method on his outbound firewall, with the default being set to DROP (deny the app), followed by a specific whitelist (approved apps subject to continuous monitor for "good behaviour").
Quite a number of approved apps in the iPhone App Store have been caught out doing naughty things like accessing and sending "home" users' Contacts - email addresses, phone numbers and home/work addresses - where they really had no business requiring such information for their function (battery charge display apps, games etc) and have promptly been expelled from the app store - quite rightly in my opinion.
The price of true freedom is eternal vigilance, not laissez-faire do-what-you-please laxity...
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter...
When "their" interests dovetail with "our" own short-term self-interest, we brand them rebels, or better yet, freedom fighters. When they're on the other side, they're always terrorists...
Conditions change, and the enemy of our enemy can no longer be our friend - betrayal ensues, and blood oaths are uttered - and suddenly the 180-degree transformation is complete. This is the folly of short-term, self-serving isolationist interest as a valid option for steering foreign policy.
On an even sadder note, notable man-of-words, TV presenter, actor and gadget-lover Stephen Fry has been virtually taunted and flamed to (digital death), leading to his apparent resignation from Twitter.
Once upon a time, there was only character assassination, now it's digital as well...
When I was a penniless student, I pirated software because I was penniless and needed hands-on expertise... we all did it. When I started earning money of my own, I would faithfully read all the knowledgeable reviews, try the lite (free) versions of software that interested me, and then buy the full version if I liked what I saw.
Nowadays, I probably have far too many paid apps on my iPhone and on My PC than I have time to use more than thrice (if at all that many times), but I set great store by encouraging software innovation through patronising good developers. I was pretty good at Pascal, Assembler and C++ in class, but never took things the extra mile through a lack of encouragement by teachers and the absence in college of development tools like the newer IDE's that came in the wake of Borland Delphi and Visual C++ etc..
What saddens me and convinces me that the statistics quoted here are not BS is the fact that I work in a busy Network Operations Centre with iPhone owners who earn in the region of $70k plus who will simply not download any apps that are not free, and will not hesitate to pirate any paid apps if the opportunity presented itself. At least that is the view that they are constantly airing when we discuss new apps that we find interesting.
It's always "yes, yes, I like that app on your iPhone, but it's not free - why?"
"Employers will see short-term job hopping and wonder if the reason isn't you."
Not if they are aware of the the Theory of Almighty Redundants, which in a nutshell goes like this:
A competent worker is a perfectionist and is thorough, and knows his or her worth, regardless of economic conditions or the stupidity or otherwise of upper management. They rarely stay employed though, because of the other kind of worker, the Almighty Redundant.
These are the "real dirt-bags" that "stay employed" because "plenty of people in HR and other decision making positions who will underestimate and undervalue some while overestimating and overvaluing others"
Fact is, the Almighty Redundants are just as aware of their lack of worth, and in a recession/downturn, when the proverbial "axe" is about to swing, protect themselves with arrays of fraternity/sorority/ass-licking/cock-sucking subservience and sycophancy. The result is, they survive, and the good ones move on.
With every successive downturn and swinging of the proverbial axe, the Almighty Redundants consolidate, and eventually a point is reached where none remain other than the Almighty Redundants.
At this point the company is doomed beyond any salvation, and no hirings and firings will recover the company from certain death.
Any company worth its salt and still holding its own commercially will be well advised to be on its guard to avoid hiring Almighty Redundants, particularly in a recession, and should also be on the eternal lookout for Competents, who are neither people with long or short job terms on their CVs, but simply people good at what they do, period.
"To Apple it is an abstract thing just due to simple market share."
I see how you sneaked that one in there, a sweeping statement that it is part of a much larger debate about the non-prevalence of viruses on Macs.
Much as no-one wants a diversion from the main thrust of this topic, you cannot be allowed to sneak away with such a fallacious and ill-considered statement.
"They're only "cute" when they are very young, and quickly become uncontrollable, no matter how well-trained they are -- precisely because they have that kind of intelligence"
How about their uncontrollability being down to the fact that they have been sentenced to a life behind bars when they are probably aware that they have committed no social crimes, precisely because they have that kind of intelligence?
It was only a matter of time before Microsoft would start to "lash out", given the series of adverse results it has suffered in recent times, culminating in today's headlines "Microsoft shares hit 11-year low".
On the bright side, it could have been much worse had MS embarked on the foolhardy acquisition of Yahoo just before the worldwide recession broke, as that would have prompted even more desperate action (considerably more layoffs at MS plus a total dismembering/asset-stripping of Yahoo) and a wider sweep of patent litigation.
MS should stick to its software strategy and stop trying to pathetically imitate companies that have a much better hardware track record in reaching for the consumer electronics market, whether by litigation or shameless, mediocre imitation.
Stick to your strengths, Microsoft, they are still quite considerable but will atrophy and diminish (naturally) if neglected.
As the son of an ex-president, Dare Obasanjo is evincing by this article the inherited traits of political opportunism and manufactured conformism that characterise those born to the game, those horses that without tutelage "instinctively run after the polo ball".
It is not so much his excerpts that are misleading but the badly-worded generalisations themselves as blogged by his chosen examples of personnel departing Google for Microsoft: English may not be their first language, but the generally poor level of their syntax and failure to concisely expatiate on their comparisons between the two companies in the various categories they have listed makes their testimony reek of both ethical and technical unsoundness.
As several other commentators here have noted, their experiences may have more to do with personal preferences not mentioned but most certainly echoed in their words. Just as actions have consequences, words have implications, and Dare Obasanjo would do well to examine his colleagues' as well as his own words for the latent bias that points more towards personalities rather than issues.
Slashdot Mirror
This is an answer to your sig rather than a response to your valid analysis of the DNS resolution / load balancing conundrum:
"Why do we want smartphones when there are so many stupid users?"
To balance the smart / stupid ratio.
I absolutely love Patton and hate how he was treated (even if he was brusque).
LoL especially how he would always refer to the enemy as " the enema".
A few observing grand masters at the time remarked that Gary was not trying to beat Deep Blue, but to crush it, and this probably was his undoing...
Real life mentats...
Glad to hear it, I checked the same Wikipedia article just after I posted this comment and also Googled her name for articles and pictures.
What struck me was that there are no pictures of her when she was carrying out her wondrous exploits at the age of 8, and precious little analysis of her abilities outside of documents posted in India.
That's a crying shame for such a prodigious talent.
Yep. India's Shakuntala Devi (known in those days as The Human Computer) as a girl used to challenge the mainframes of the 70s with such prodigious feats as multiplication of 2 massive numbers, and frequently pointed out correctly that the computer was wrong after assessing its answer.
As usual, nothing was made of this ability aside from its sideshow value, and no studies made of her brain capacity or computational methods.
Last I heard, she's reduced to making a living selling horoscopes and the like, if she's still alive.
Question is, do we really want to know what our capabilities are as human beings, or do we just want to keep selling big iron to governments and corporations at great profit?
Anyone else thinking Oracle buying Sun was a calculated move to destroy Android by killing Java?
Maybe Google wanted Sun to die so Google could buy Java in a disheveled state....
Reeks of conspiracy, I know, just a thought...
The story circulating was that Sun Microsystems was actually offered to Google ahead of any other suitors, with a strong suggestion to purchase in order to indemnify themselves from precisely the kind of litigation they may now be facing.
As the rumour goes, they passed, and the rest is history.
Yes, they have. It's called Chromium OS.
Android is a stop-gap measure, a kind of half-way house to their "holy grail" of Chromium OS and the Web, which is Google's natural element.
It must be said that Google has been moving with ungainly haste, leaving gaps in their strategic defence which may be exploited by adversaries, or simply have adverse consequences as a result of the haste of their movement. A lot of their moves are as a result of reaction to others rather than considered, original, planned action.
Precisely. I was inadvertently infected by the sdra42.exe Trojan, which installed a spam server on my PC.
My ISP disconnected my 22Mbps ADSL link, and then called me to inform me of what they'd done. When I asked for information and help in detecting and removing the infection, they simply gave me their ticket/case reference and said to call when I had found and eliminated the offending virus, and then hung up. And that was their Security department.
Thank goodness that I had an iPhone 3G to surf the 'Web and bone up on the infection, and could use my work connection to download the tools I needed to defeat this virus. It took several days, with no help from my ISP whatsoever.
I also have some pretty interesting pictures sent by a colleague who is director of a Telecoms carrier in Afghanistan.
In the lawless and war-torn sticks of Helmand Province, their engineers literally dash in and out of their remote stations to respond to and fix faults, and frequently encounter multiplexers and other equipment riddled with bullets - sabotage by insurgents.
Machine-gun damage, never mind shotguns...
I worked for a ISP that had a POP in the sticks. It's feed would regularly be shot by some stupid hick. There was also only one telco field tech for the area, and it would take him forever to respond and even longer to resolve the issue. The city has its own issues. Once a very large section of copper was stolen from the telco taking out an untold number of consumers.
If you work for telcos that have thousands of miles of fibre traversing farmland, you'll quickly come to appreciate (especially in the hunting season) that shotgun damage is a fact of life.
And no, the hunters are not shooting at the fibre or insulators, but at the pheasant, grouse and other flying game creatures that routinely alight on the overhead cables (usually power lines) that carry the fibre.
computers and other devices are simply magic.
Why wouldn't they; some of them are even advertised that way.
Like my electronics teacher told my class "if you really think that n-p-n junctions are actually how semi-conductors work, you'll believe anything you are told".
The scientific and logical explanations for the phenomena that underlie the technology we use are simply that, explanations. You'll never see n-p-n junctions under any microscope, because there probably aren't any.
Even if there were, think about it, it won't make the phenomena of natural processes any less magical.
All is magic...
Sounds like a sensible and fair measure, until it comes under test itself by extenuating circumstances, like someone who has a significant involvement in the greater good (e.g socially, scientifically or in a critical peace process) but not a registered organ donor being passed over in favour of one simply because that's the new rule.
As usual, this will probably go unnoticed until some pretty serious consequences emerge in hindsight.
There are always two sides to the coin.
They did. But then Microsoft owns them at least partially.
Not likely. Netscape seemed to be the one have paid the price for Apple's freedom from their clutches. QuickTime was to be the other sacrifice demanded by M$, but Apple stood firm (thank goodness), and the rest is glorious history...
An iPhone-like vetting process would be "we'll reject it if we don't like the look of it". How about "Linux-distro style vetting process"?
The iPhone vetting process is closer to Slifox's "error on the side of caution" method on his outbound firewall, with the default being set to DROP (deny the app), followed by a specific whitelist (approved apps subject to continuous monitor for "good behaviour").
Quite a number of approved apps in the iPhone App Store have been caught out doing naughty things like accessing and sending "home" users' Contacts - email addresses, phone numbers and home/work addresses - where they really had no business requiring such information for their function (battery charge display apps, games etc) and have promptly been expelled from the app store - quite rightly in my opinion.
The price of true freedom is eternal vigilance, not laissez-faire do-what-you-please laxity...
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter...
When "their" interests dovetail with "our" own short-term self-interest, we brand them rebels, or better yet, freedom fighters. When they're on the other side, they're always terrorists...
Conditions change, and the enemy of our enemy can no longer be our friend - betrayal ensues, and blood oaths are uttered - and suddenly the 180-degree transformation is complete. This is the folly of short-term, self-serving isolationist interest as a valid option for steering foreign policy.
It takes two to tango, my friend.
Every power relationship is bi-directional, especially where there is one-way FUNDING involved.
"He who pays the piper dances to the tune" would adequately describe the situation.
On an even sadder note, notable man-of-words, TV presenter, actor and gadget-lover Stephen Fry has been virtually taunted and flamed to (digital death), leading to his apparent resignation from Twitter.
Once upon a time, there was only character assassination, now it's digital as well...
When I was a penniless student, I pirated software because I was penniless and needed hands-on expertise... we all did it. When I started earning money of my own, I would faithfully read all the knowledgeable reviews, try the lite (free) versions of software that interested me, and then buy the full version if I liked what I saw.
Nowadays, I probably have far too many paid apps on my iPhone and on My PC than I have time to use more than thrice (if at all that many times), but I set great store by encouraging software innovation through patronising good developers. I was pretty good at Pascal, Assembler and C++ in class, but never took things the extra mile through a lack of encouragement by teachers and the absence in college of development tools like the newer IDE's that came in the wake of Borland Delphi and Visual C++ etc..
What saddens me and convinces me that the statistics quoted here are not BS is the fact that I work in a busy Network Operations Centre with iPhone owners who earn in the region of $70k plus who will simply not download any apps that are not free, and will not hesitate to pirate any paid apps if the opportunity presented itself. At least that is the view that they are constantly airing when we discuss new apps that we find interesting.
It's always "yes, yes, I like that app on your iPhone, but it's not free - why?"
"Employers will see short-term job hopping and wonder if the reason isn't you."
Not if they are aware of the the Theory of Almighty Redundants, which in a nutshell goes like this:
A competent worker is a perfectionist and is thorough, and knows his or her worth, regardless of economic conditions or the stupidity or otherwise of upper management. They rarely stay employed though, because of the other kind of worker, the Almighty Redundant.
These are the "real dirt-bags" that "stay employed" because "plenty of people in HR and other decision making positions who will underestimate and undervalue some while overestimating and overvaluing others"
Fact is, the Almighty Redundants are just as aware of their lack of worth, and in a recession/downturn, when the proverbial "axe" is about to swing, protect themselves with arrays of fraternity /sorority /ass-licking /cock-sucking subservience and sycophancy. The result is, they survive, and the good ones move on.
With every successive downturn and swinging of the proverbial axe, the Almighty Redundants consolidate, and eventually a point is reached where none remain other than the Almighty Redundants.
At this point the company is doomed beyond any salvation, and no hirings and firings will recover the company from certain death.
Any company worth its salt and still holding its own commercially will be well advised to be on its guard to avoid hiring Almighty Redundants, particularly in a recession, and should also be on the eternal lookout for Competents, who are neither people with long or short job terms on their CVs, but simply people good at what they do, period.
"To Apple it is an abstract thing just due to simple market share."
I see how you sneaked that one in there, a sweeping statement that it is part of a much larger debate about the non-prevalence of viruses on Macs.
Much as no-one wants a diversion from the main thrust of this topic, you cannot be allowed to sneak away with such a fallacious and ill-considered statement.
A "Proper Business Model" in your view obviously means one that calculates for society's philistinism, self-centredness and lack of a group ethic.
"They're only "cute" when they are very young, and quickly become uncontrollable, no matter how well-trained they are -- precisely because they have that kind of intelligence"
How about their uncontrollability being down to the fact that they have been sentenced to a life behind bars when they are probably aware that they have committed no social crimes, precisely because they have that kind of intelligence?
It was only a matter of time before Microsoft would start to "lash out", given the series of adverse results it has suffered in recent times, culminating in today's headlines "Microsoft shares hit 11-year low".
On the bright side, it could have been much worse had MS embarked on the foolhardy acquisition of Yahoo just before the worldwide recession broke, as that would have prompted even more desperate action (considerably more layoffs at MS plus a total dismembering/asset-stripping of Yahoo) and a wider sweep of patent litigation.
MS should stick to its software strategy and stop trying to pathetically imitate companies that have a much better hardware track record in reaching for the consumer electronics market, whether by litigation or shameless, mediocre imitation.
Stick to your strengths, Microsoft, they are still quite considerable but will atrophy and diminish (naturally) if neglected.
Amazing!
In the Yoruba language of South-Western Nigeria, "do" (pronounced "doe") is the actual verb "copulate" and not a slang word at all!!!
As the son of an ex-president, Dare Obasanjo is evincing by this article the inherited traits of political opportunism and manufactured conformism that characterise those born to the game, those horses that without tutelage "instinctively run after the polo ball".
It is not so much his excerpts that are misleading but the badly-worded generalisations themselves as blogged by his chosen examples of personnel departing Google for Microsoft: English may not be their first language, but the generally poor level of their syntax and failure to concisely expatiate on their comparisons between the two companies in the various categories they have listed makes their testimony reek of both ethical and technical unsoundness.
As several other commentators here have noted, their experiences may have more to do with personal preferences not mentioned but most certainly echoed in their words. Just as actions have consequences, words have implications, and Dare Obasanjo would do well to examine his colleagues' as well as his own words for the latent bias that points more towards personalities rather than issues.