"These days due to reservations, people want to be born in lower castes in India."
Pure unadulterated bullshit or trolling.
Er.. I'm from India too.. and kamaal.. you seem to be stuck in the small college student protests about reservation around 7 - 8 years ago.
Nobody wants to be born in a lower caste. In the end, such comments are just jokes. India's social playing field is still more important to the ordinary people. Especially when castes play a big role in marriages in India, the next most important thing after society as a whole.
So, i have to ask... whats your angle kamaal. Convincing HN that reservations are bad is going to make no difference on the politics of India. You seem to be ranting about it every chance you get (and against poor people from the last comment i read).
Also, your rant here is only against the backward sections of society, which have been denied equal opportunities for ages and have now become a political pawn in the reservations fiasco.
I question this, because India, as you know has reservations for women too, already in many educational institutions, pending in the parliament.
So, instead of quoting something relevant like the impact of various reservations the country has implemented for women, you seem to just pout out your own agenda.
Don't wanna make the world a better place? Please don't try to make it worse.
>>Er.. I'm from India too.. and kamaal.. you seem to be stuck in the small college student protests about reservation around 7 - 8 years ago.
Yeah, may be. Most people who come from a middle class general category are going to suffer from reservations. Because they will be doing all the hard work only to watch someone who scored some thing like half their marks eat all their opportunities.
>>Nobody wants to be born in a lower caste. In the end, such comments are just jokes.
Have you ever visited a local Taluk office? Say some where in Bangalore? Do you even know how much bribe is given simply to obtain a OBC certificate because some one needs a job, or to get a seat and doesn't have the required marks to get one?.
>>So, i have to ask... whats your angle kamaal.
Let me put it the other way, what's your angle. I've put my views clear.
You should elaborate how denying the hardworking general category students their due chance is helping the country.
>>Also, your rant here is only against the backward sections of society, which have been denied equal opportunities for ages and have now become a political pawn in the reservations fiasco.
So is this now a revenge cycle? Are we supposed to make the general category suffer because some 20 generations back a ancestor of their made a mistake.
>>I question this, because India, as you know has reservations for women too, already in many educational institutions, pending in the parliament.
Last time I checked most women who stand for elections in my area were the wives of most prominent rowdies/mafia types.
>>So, instead of quoting something relevant like the impact of various reservations the country has implemented for women, you seem to just pout out your own agenda.
>>Don't wanna make the world a better place? Please don't try to make it worse.
Sorry you need to give your agenda, not me.
And how are you making the world a better place by denying the hardworking their due chance. And taking all their opportunities and giving to some one who probably didn't do 1/10th the work they do.
When bias (like gender, or race) is so prolific. It is institutional change that is required.
You are arguing, just make it a level playing field and the hardworking woman will eventually show up. But that takes generations for change to happen.
In a lot of our eyes, that is not good enough. Change needs to happen now. Quota systems may deny an opportunity to a deserving person (as the quota is full). But it is morally equivalent to being denied an opportunity due to some other kind of bias (i.e because you are a woman).
So really, quotas is just a new (not prejudicial) form of bias. The only difference is, it will eventually change the whole system (for the better). Where as prejudicial bias just makes the system worse.
I would say that by keeping the status quo (i.e. 90+% men in tech) you are poisoning the system.
Reservations don't bring about institutional changes.
Again, I have to come down to giving the example of Indian society[Sorry can't help it, but 60 years of these experiments make India the perfect case study for these sort of problems].
In India, there are cases where some one got a medical seat through reservations. The person generally goes on to become a pretty good doctor, earns well and is now pretty much empowered to do anything he/she wants. But yet you will see their children claim seats though reservations. What's more ridiculous? You can even get a post graduation seat through reservations. Why does one need a reservation when a transparent ranking process exists through a competitive exam? The exams are often objective multiple choice questions and the candidates identity is anonymous and known only through a serial number.
While all this is happening, some guy in the general category watches his well deserved seat go to some other guy who makes it through on just qualifying marks.
At one point of time, before the free market reforms in the 90's. This problem was the big reason, why so many Indian's left India to settle abroad.
>>The only difference is, it will eventually change the whole system (for the better).
It won't.
Quota/Reservations systems at best work like socialist/communist set ups.
Sooner or later- The deserving guy finds no motivation to continue contributing to the system. The undeserving guy never contributes because regardless of his work the rewards are assured.
> Are we supposed to make the general category suffer because some 20 generations back a ancestor of their made a mistake.
So what's your proposal here? I would love that each generation we had the wealth allocated on a purely merit basis but the world does not work like that, I know a fair share of mediocre people with fortunes who can send their children to better schools and some smarter poor fellas that can't, and besides I live in Brazil and ignoring the past did not produced a really better alternative.
I don't like reservations very much, but sometimes they're necessary. And anyway, if they're reservations, they will only take SOME opportunities away from the privileged, and give them to the minorities. Not all of them.
I'm always late for everything and I don't see what the fuss is about. FYI I'm a software engineer, in India. In software, there is a concept of a buffer period, which people learn to add to the estimates, because inevitably, things gets delayed. Maybe you need to recognize when to do this with people.
I don't know if you're some big shot CEO or someone for whom a few minutes is a loss in millions. I don't believe in living life being so worried about my time or others time. The only waste of time is doing a job and not hacking on something great. Here's a nice poem for you to sit back, take a deep breath and read.
LEISURE
What is the life, full of care
we have no time to stand and stare.
no time to stand beneath the boughs
and stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
stream full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at beauty's glance,
and watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
we have no time to stand and stare.
It's a cultural difference. I'm sure that what happens in general French office culture is totally not acceptable in India. Example: in a lot of French companies each morning co-workers tend to greet each other by shaking hands (when it's male on male) or by giving the females two kisses on the cheek (when it's male on female or two females).
The same holds for how time and appointments are viewed in Germany, the Netherlands etc; different from other places.
Note; I haven't spend much time working in France but I did experienced it first-hand there; the described behavior might just not be as prevalent nowadays as I'm assuming it is though.
"I love NFC, I love the fact that you can have a live widget that shows you emails."
My Nokia 701 running Symbian Belle does both of that, runs Qt apps. Nobody gave up their iPhone for Nokia though.
Nobody cared about beautiful open source Qt as a mobile framework contender driving Qt and Meego down into the dumps.
Closed garden? Nobody cared about apple's "walled garden" when Richard Stallman had been preaching against it for years/decades for the right reasons. Not because he finally found it inconvenient.
I am one of those people that does very much care about Apple's "walled garden". The only reason I would get an Apple device is if I had to develop an app for it.
I have a friend who is an Apple fan, so I can see a lot of benefits to the Apple kool aid as he keeps on showing me all the useful things he can do on his Apple devices.
But what happens if I want to install an app that I want but Apple hasn't approved, well I have to jail break my Apple device, and that, right there, is the failure point and the reason I will never get an Apple for personal use.
1. Ad-hoc installs don't require Apple approval. This isn't a barrier for hackers.
2. iOS was supposed to be an HTML5 app device. Those install and run w/o Apple involvement at all.
3. Many of the neat tricks on Android require a rooted phone. Many neat tricks on iPhone require a jailbroken phone. Same idea. Again, not a barrier for hackers.
4. Computing succeeds when people can use it without stress, like they use their fridge or lately their car. iOS is closer to that today. I believe in a future where everyone can have the knowledge of the world in their hand -- and use it. And that, right there, is why I evangelize non-hackers to get an Apple for personal use. They quit just carrying a smartphone, and start using one.
> 3. Many of the neat tricks on Android require a rooted phone. Many neat tricks on iPhone require a jailbroken phone. Same idea. Again, not a barrier for hackers.
I don't think this is necessarily true. And even if it is, you can buy a phone that supports rooting out of the box if you want. Apple will never support jailbreaking.
They require the payment of $100 a year, to Apple, which certainly implies Apple approval (they could just choose to not take your money and grant you a cert.)
If the app is available and apple hasn't approved it there are two ways to install it.
1. Have the developer set you up for an ad hoc install(free).
2. If you have the source, create a developer account and install it yourself(costs money).
I had a Sharp Zaurus (PDA) before smart-phones were available and I loved it for the same reason. On the other hand, the ADK is much easier to use than the Qtopia (or is it back to QT Embedded?) system was and between the proliferation of Android hardware devices and the number of Java-trained programmers, I don't think it's a surprise Qtopia lost.
Huh? Did Nokia actually make it viable to create Qt apps? I mean for a significant volume of phones with a prospect of longevity? My impression is most cool Nokia projects of recent years were shot down internally before they had a chance to prove themselves.
It's heartening to see that the HN responses echo my sentiment. Also..
"Democrats or Republicans look too rehearsed on stage? Let’s pounce. Apple? Let’s sweep it under the rug."
Look too rehearsed? When presenting a demo to a client, managing an "Apple like" demo is the holy grail. Although, you could expect a political candidate to partly be "too rehearsed" and still be his real self (or his other pretend self) on stage.
On the other hand, they are not geniuses to solve the problems of internet security once and for all. All they might manage to do is stop free flow of information into and out of the country. The "Iron curtain" never helped anyone.
To use Huawei's equipment to achieve their national security needs is just naive. You might as well handover your country's internet infrastructure to China itself.
[EDIT: Added some links regarding Huawei (Whether the allegations are true or not, they are controversial and risky to trust):
DoD runs multiple separate versions of the Internet (I'd call them Internets vs. just a big intranet due to size and scope); NIPRnet for unclassified and SIPRnet for Secret are the two big ones. It's totally reasonable for Iran to do something at that level.
Huawei probably won't help the USG vs. Iran, so using Huawei for this is a better choice than using Cisco, actually.
This is obviously not going to solve the problem of cyber attacks. As I remember, even the stuxnet attack on their nuclear reactor was ultimately caused by transmission through a pen drive into an isolated network. No reason, the same cannot be achieved even if they isolate the country's network. More entry points as I see it.
They say it's meant to be a solution for cyber attacks, and to a tiny extent, it might be; but as everyone knows, the actual purpose is to cut off people from "information super-highway" completely (one step at a time).
As we all know, "Ignorance is Strength", and they'd like it better if we could only watch state TV and read stories from official news agencies. Would solve a lot of problems, or so do they think.
You are assuming that pen drives are still in use on their isolated networks. It matters such as these, it is very possible that the pen drive tactic works once, before measures are taken to prevent it again.
Correction. Debugging JS in not easy. I have been working on a native application which has some HTML5 components in webviews. There is no easy way in XCode to debug JS in this kind of mixed application. In fact, it is a royal pain in the ass. You can run the JS in Chrome debugger or a web development IDE, but that can only work if all your functionality is in HTML5/JS and not a mix of Native and HTML5.
What I find amazingly idiotic is that when I try to access the url from India, I get this message
"The URL you requested has been blocked as per instructions from Department of Telecom(CHNN). URL = afaikblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/taking-gnome-3-to-the-next-level/"
Now, why the department of telecommunications is taking down articles on Gnome, one can only speculate. But, I think that they think Gnome is a bittorrent client. It's the only reasonable explanation. :)
You would be surprised to know, that a majority of the starving people in India are farmers or daily wage laborers doing construction work. The problem is not that people aren't working. It's that their profession doesn't pay enough be able to buy food at the market rates. It's a problem of economic disparity. Food prices fluctuate with the stock market and oil prices, while the poor who have nothing to do with that suddenly have so much lesser purchasing power. While a software developer on the other hand can easily absorb the impact and live without any change in his consumption.
Pure unadulterated bullshit or trolling.
Er.. I'm from India too.. and kamaal.. you seem to be stuck in the small college student protests about reservation around 7 - 8 years ago.
Nobody wants to be born in a lower caste. In the end, such comments are just jokes. India's social playing field is still more important to the ordinary people. Especially when castes play a big role in marriages in India, the next most important thing after society as a whole.
So, i have to ask... whats your angle kamaal. Convincing HN that reservations are bad is going to make no difference on the politics of India. You seem to be ranting about it every chance you get (and against poor people from the last comment i read).
Also, your rant here is only against the backward sections of society, which have been denied equal opportunities for ages and have now become a political pawn in the reservations fiasco.
I question this, because India, as you know has reservations for women too, already in many educational institutions, pending in the parliament.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womens_Reservation_Bill
So, instead of quoting something relevant like the impact of various reservations the country has implemented for women, you seem to just pout out your own agenda.
Don't wanna make the world a better place? Please don't try to make it worse.