Well, neither did the Chinese. Pudong today is the result of more than a decade’s worth of work and planning and investment. The place is hardly paradise; Pudong can feel overwhelming, especially along the district’s broad boulevard. I’m not saying that Indian officials should be trying to replicate Pudong in Bombay. But falling back on the old “We’re a democracy, don’t expect too much of us” argument doesn’t cut it. Yes, the Chinese don’t have elections. But the Japanese do. So do the Koreans and the Taiwanese. They manage to build things anyway.

src–http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/asiatech/archives/2006/09/china_can_build.html

1. Power cuts: While typing this article, the electricity board cut off the power supply. The reason — a storm last night which lasted for 15 to 20 minutes. ‘As a precautionary measure’ the officials very compassionately disconnected vast areas from the network in the night and the following morning.

Being in rural Tamil Nadu, these officials want to protect us from broken wires due to fallen trees (it could electrocute passersby, they say). While I appreciate their reasoning, I was surprised to see that during the cyclonic rains in New Orleans last year, though thousands perished, electricity was not switched off. Indian officials will tell you that the US is a rich and developed country, not comparable to India. Where is the connection?

2. Indian babus: One could write volumes on the famous babus of India. They run one of the largest bureaucracies in the world, but have not been able to change their mindset.

A particularly bothersome aspect is that their laws often come from antiquated rules and regulations that nobody knows of. The consequence is what we call red-tapism, though for them it is ‘implementing the letter, the law of the land’. But what about its spirit? In any case, the law has always to ‘follow its own course’.

A few years ago, a diligent minister found hundreds such laws and regulations dating back to the British. In the era of modern technology and communications, this is preposterous.

Another aspect that irritates me about the bureaucracy is that babus never respond to letters. Probably they consider themselves to be the government’s servants, not ‘civil’ servants and therefore find no need to reply to ordinary citizens.

3. No access to historical documents: Though a better understanding of the history of the subcontinent could be one of the keys to disentangle difficult problems such as the Kashmir issue, today nobody can access primary sources. They are locked away in the vaults of the Nehru Memorial Library or the almirahs of South Block.

All those who have tried to access historical documents since India’s independence will tell you that till the end of babudom, one bureaucrat or another will ensure that you do not access the dusty files. Without fail, you will be courteously informed that India’s security and integrity will be endangered if these precious documents are opened to the public. It is sad that Indians are not entitled to study their past (though they can always visit archives in the West to know more about India!)

4. Discrimination against the white tourist: Something particularly irritating for a ‘white man’ is that wherever he goes in India, he has to pay a special rate. Whether he visits the Taj Mahal where the ‘white’ tourist has to cough up Rs 750 to see the mausoleum, or a national museum, or even hotels or airlines, there is a true racial discrimination.

Rates are often ten times higher for those who have a ‘white’ or ‘yellow’ (Japanese) skin. Those who have made these rules do not understand that this policy harms India’s image.

The desire to make a quick buck from the so-called rich tourists leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the visitors who in any case would have spent their budget during the stay in India. To my knowledge, India must be the only nation in the world implementing these separate rates.

5. Paranoia about maps: Another strange thing in India is the paranoia about maps. Several years ago I visited the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh. One day I was invited to the office of a local tahsildar. To my astonishment, the poor babu did not have a map of the area under his jurisdiction. He only had a vague sketch of the district. When I expressed surprise, he explained that maps were ‘classified’ and only the army was authorised to use them.

Is it not foolish to believe that the Chinese do not possess detailed maps of Arunachal? And what about Google Earth which is now available the world over?

One can only be surprised by this ‘official’ paranoia about maps. India is today a great power; technological advancements have occurred in the world during the past decades and will undoubtedly continue to occur and India has no choice but to accept them and make the best use of them.

A year ago, the Union Cabinet approved a new National Map Policy, but unfortunately, the mindset of the implementers remains the same.

6. And photographs: The paranoia is not about maps alone, it extends to photos, particularly of the sites under the Archeological Survey of India. A friend told me of her nightmarish experience while doing research in Chennai and the number of forms she had to fill to take some photos in a museum. Though one pays in hard currency, one has still to justify why one needs a particular photo. The poor researcher is looked upon as someone trying to ‘steal’ the national patrimony.

In contrast, a few weeks earlier, I visited the Louvre museum in Paris which receives tens of thousands of visitors every day. All of them were happily clicking away at statues, paintings, art artefacts (it is only prohibited to photograph the Mona Lisa for security reasons) and amongst them, a great number of Indians, perhaps the most frenetic clickers. This is understandable, as they have to compensate for their frustration at home!

A French television crew told me about their adventure while trying to shoot in a fort once occupied by Rajaji (C Rajagopalachari). Before leaving Paris, they had planned a short sequence at the fort. They dutifully applied to the Indian embassy for permission. After paying a hefty Rs 5,000 they were given a stamped and signed permission. When they arrived on the spot, the local official told them: “No way, as your permission does specifically mention it, you are not authorised to shoot with a stand. You have to go to Chennai (150 km away) and get the permission duly modified. No problem, it will take you a day only!” They left disgusted, the fort will not appear in their film.

7. Politicians: The topic of politicians is an easy one. Everything appalling and more can be said of them and one will still remain below the truth. In their defense, they are part of a system which is uniquely based on votes.

To win votes, one needs money and all compromises are permissible to get the required funds ‘to serve the people’. It is true the world over, but here like in many other domains India excels.

8. Neglect for the environment: Another frustrating aspect for me is the lack of care for the environment (though it has been recently improving). While Indians are the most conscious people as far as personal hygiene goes, there is very little civic awareness or concern for the environment.

Education could help (for example for disposal of garbage or plastic bags), but it is often government policies such as free electricity for farmers, incentives for asbestos sheets (one of the most carcinogenic material) or chemical pesticides which harm the environment the most.

9. Traffic: I hate the Indian traffic (with its absence of rules). Each time I return from a visit abroad, it is a terrible shock. It is difficult to comprehend how there are not more casualties on the road. A friend explained to me that the multitude of gods in India probably protect their flock. The fact is that there are no law enforcement authorities (most of the police force is busy with VIP duty).

In France and elsewhere if the cops were not around, very few would follow the traffic rules. Extremely severe punishment for breaking traffic rules has a strong dissuasive effect. Here in India, you can always get away with a few rupees.

10. Corruption: It is better to not comment.

Please allow me to add a last point: the number of ‘holidays’ taken for a myriad of family ‘problems’, (marriages, engagements, funerals, etc.), cultural, local or religious festivals (of all faiths: India is secular), then you have bandhs, hartals, riots, strikes (India is the only place in the world where the government sometimes calls for a strike), etc… The worst are ‘French leaves’, absolutely unknown in France.

Apart from the above, India is an incredible place and I have never regretted, even for one day, to have settled here.

Src–http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jun/22claude.htm

One fine day(oh that was just the day before yest.)

I finally decided to get legal and virus free.

You know what I did??

I erased my windows partition from

my HDD.

I have Ubuntu installed on my computer and was

fiddling with it for the last 3 months.

Finally got so comfortable with it that

relieved my system of some stupid s/w

called Windows.

Well, how did I get legal ?

I had a pirated copy of XP.

How did I get virus and spyware free??

Do I need to explain that?

There are no things called Viruses or spyware

for Linux.And yes u don’t have to use a firewall

or an antivirus s/w

U don’t need to buy MS OFFICE

Nor Adobe..

They are all there.

All of ‘em are just waiting for that

click of yours.

And oh! yes I forgot they are free.

In any case u need free software alternatives for Windows..here they are

Gimp for Windows…Photoshop alternative.

OpenOffice.org  an MSOffice alternative.

but hey..I will

Yeah!Thats my mind for you.

One sec. this , one sec. that.

Decision making is what my biggest task in life. he he.

Currently I am jobless,workless,and even girlfriend less.

Yeah..shez back to her town,preparing for her GRE.

God knows when we’d meet again!

I am actually (trying) studying at TIME

for CAT.

Well, the name shud have been Lion,

coz on the contrary to the name CAT,

its virtually impossible to study for it,

Therez just too much too learn.

Anyway a cat is simply a downgraded

version of Lion rite?

Well guys wish me all the best for my CAT.

Hope to see myself typing from an IIM cafe` the next

year around this time.

That’s all for now..

Take Care

There are now loads of ‘em all over..

English Hindi Telugu(thats my mother tongue anyway) and what not..

Except for NDTV and CNN-IBN..anyothers are plain BS.

What with most of the channels now craving for any BS news

that could keep the channel busy.

The latest one being the case of an old man flirting with an 18yr old girl

The wife was hitting her like mad.

While I can understand all these..

the thing that really pissed me off was the fact that virtually

every news channel was covering it like mad.

As if it was the end of the world to fall

in love with someone younger.

After all man is also an animal,

and all he wants in the end is some

decent sex,with some emotion

attached to it.

And its the emotion which makes him ‘social’

And after all that is what sells in Indian movies..

Extramarital relationships and all.

And moreover ‘jab ladka (boodha) ladki raazi to kya karega qaazi‘

Well, dear news channels search for some better news man!!

Look the roads u travel on.

Look at those ba****** who without the

slightest guilt break signals crisscross lanes.

Look at goondas gripping people with fear.

Cover them..make the govt. do something.

As far as extramarital relationships come into

picture..even Gods had two wives!!:wink

Whether or not Linux is “ready for the desktop” or “ready for primetime” often shows up in technology news these days. It’s also a frequent topic on Linux forums and message boards, regardless of distribution. I often find these debates pointless because there’s an assumption inherent in these debates that there is a real-world-applicable concept called “ready for the desktop” that any operating system’s structure can satisfy.My answer to people who ask “Is Linux ready for the desktop?” is “Whose desktop?” But I would give the same answer if someone asked “Is Windows ready for the desktop?” or “Is Mac ready for the desktop?” The truth is that if we take “the desktop” to mean “everyone’s desktop,” no operating system satisfies the “ready” requirement. A better way to phrase this question would be “Which operating system is right for me?”

And, unfortunately, the technology marketplace doesn’t give an easy answer to this. It would be an ideal world where you could take any operating system and plop it on your hardware of choice and use your software of choice. The truth is that with Mac, the hardware and operating system are tied together–so choosing to use the Mac platform means choosing a particular piece of hardware (Mac Mini, Powerbook, etc.) to fit with it. Also, with Mac and Linux, you’re limiting the software you’re able to use. Sure, with Linux you have literally tens of thousands of software packages available to you, but if someone hands you the most popular new computer game, you’d be lost on how to use it in Linux or Mac without VMWare, Crossover Office, or some other emulator.

So in choosing what operating system is right for you, you have to consider a few things. Are you a graphic designer? Are you a heavy gamer? Or… do you just check your email, surf the web, word process, organize a few digital photos, and listen to music. If you fall into the latter category, you can use Mac, Linux, or Windows. It’s up to you.

And using Linux has never been easier for this latter category. Linux is no longer a command-line prompt (it can be, if you want it to be, but it’s not the default boot option on most distributions)–there are pretty graphical user interfaces now. And you click on icons that open applications to do all the activities listed above and more. With a few exceptions, chances are that if you use a Windows program, there’s a Linux application that’s a sufficient substitute or an even better substitute. There may be a couple of things you have to get used to. For example, control-alt-delete usually doesn’t do anything. You may have to hit control-alt-escape to kill applications. Your “Start Menu” or Apple menu may be a KMenu or an icon that looks like the footprint of some neanderthal. Nevertheless, it’s a very point-and-click environment for everyday applications.

So, if using Linux has never been easier, why is there all this debate about whether Linux is “ready” for the desktop or primetime? The problem is that HP, Dell, Gateway, Sony, and all the major computer distributors do not sell the latest and hottest computers preloaded with Linux. There’s this myth that Linux is “difficult” to install. Actually, it’s not a myth. No, the myth is that Windows is easy to install. It isn’t. People think it’s easy to install because they’ve never had to install Windows. I’ve had to install Windows, and if you don’t have all the drivers for your hardware, installing Windows is just as difficult as (if not more difficult than) installing Linux. I’m not talking about using the “restore” CDs that came with your Windows computer. Those restore CDs replicate all the hard work your manufacturer put into installing and configuring your Windows computer before you bought it. I’m talking about your Windows 98 computer that you’re now trying to upgrade to Windows XP.

What’s truly amazing is that Linux installation isn’t more difficult than it is. I’m amazed that most Linux distros do recognize my hardware automatically. There have been a couple of distros that haven’t recognized my mouse, but these are usually outdated versions. There are a couple of Linux distros that didn’t recognize my monitor resolution, but that’s an easy fix once you know how to do it.

Anyone who argues that Linux as an operating system isn’t usable for the everyday user (not the commercial graphic designer, not the heavy gamer), I’d challenge you: find a Linux expert (someone who knows just about anything about installing Linux, someone who can install Slackware or Linux from Scratch with her hands tied behind her back) and find a Linux ignoramus (someone who’s never heard of Linux). Get the expert to install Linux and configure it for the hardware perfectly. Give that expert fifteen minutes to explain “This is the email icon. This is the internet icon. This is how you word process,” and tell me that the Linux igoramus won’t be able to use Linux.

Don’t believe me? Go to Linux forums. What are the most common questions? I’d say 90% of them have to do with how to install Linux. How can I dual-boot with Windows? How can I recognize my Windows partition? How do I boot from the disk I just burned? What’s an ISO? I can’t get better screen resolution than 640 x 800. Linux won’t recognize my internet connection. Where’s my sound?

So the question of whether Linux as an operating system–as a piece of software–is “ready” is a stupid question. Of course it’s ready. The real question is for whom? The real question is how can we get others to use it?

The truth is that the situation I described above, with the Linux expert and the Linux novice, is a rare one. Most Linux novices don’t have a Linux expert in their lives. I know I don’t. I’ve spent the last three months learning Linux, and it’s been a tough battle, but in only three months, I feel I’m in a position where I can even help other Linux novices with their installations. It took me years, decades even, to learn how to “use” Windows (if use includes installation, use, and maintenance). Nevertheless, many people new to Linux get scared off because they don’t have an expert to guide them. After all, they had an expert in Windows (the expert being Dell, HP, etc.).

These are the things that will help Linux get better desktop adoption and use:

More well-known manufacturers need to start preloading computers with Linux. Sure, you can pick up a crappy-looking no-name computer at Wal-Mart that has Linspire, but it’s also a very low-end PC (128 MB RAM? Even the Mac Mini has more than that!), but that’s not going to encourage wide Linux desktop adoption. The question of what will motivate manufacturers to do this… well… I don’t know. Money? An assurance that people will actually buy them?

Publicity for user-friendly Linux distributions. My guess is that the average computer user out there (not super-user… user) knows very little about Linux. She may not even know that there are graphical desktops for Linux.

Linux users themselves have to be better about helping new users select appropriate distributions. The three standard responses to “Which distro should I use?” are not satisfactory.

1. Use Mandriva (or Ubuntu, Xandros, Fedora, etc.).
2. Use whatever works for you.
3. Use Slackware (or Gentoo, Linux from Scratch…).

1. Doesn’t help because even though you name a user-friendly distro, the person asking the question doesn’t know why she should use that one as opposed to another.
2. Doesn’t help because she doesn’t know what works for her… uh, that’s why she’s asking in the first place!
3. Doesn’t help because the vast majority of people asking the question do not want to build Linux from scratch–they want something truly user-friendly.

Linux users need to ask probing questions to find out the things that inform people’s choices about distros. Here are a few good ones: How fast is your computer? How much memory does it have? How much money are you wiling to spend? Which version of Windows are you migrating from? Are you migrating from Mac? Do you want to dual-boot? What programs are most important to you? Would you prefer a lot of apps that you need to uninstall or few apps that you’d need to add to? Is using the command-line okay with you, provided you have specific instructions on what to write there? Or would you prefer to do everything via a graphical user interface?By the way, I recently found out about a Linux distro chooser quiz. I wish I’d had this when I was starting out.

Are you thinking about using Linux?

Well, I’d say you’ll be successful in migrating if you fit into one of these two profiles:

• You know very little about Linux, but you have a Linux expert friend who can install Linux for you.
• You know very little about Linux but are willing to learn to install it–this means investing hours in configuring it, possibly many more hours downloading various distributions to see which one best recognizes your hardware.

If you fit into one of these two profiles, you probably won’t be successful in migrating to Linux:

• You know very little about Linux; you don’t care about how computers work, just that they work; and you will run from Linux at the first obstacle you encounter. You have no friends who are Linux experts.
• You think the Windows way of doing things is the best way and is always the best way. You don’t really want to migrate to Linux. You just want to make a feigned attempt at installing it and using it so that you can complain about how it’s not “ready for the desktop” when you encounter a single problem.

It’s human nature to be skeptical of new things and forgiving of old things. If something goes wrong in Windows, people don’t even notice. They just put up with it. If something goes wrong in Linux, “Oh, it’s not ready for the desktop. It’s not user-friendly enough.” People expect Windows to fail. They just use it because it’s popular and installed on their computers already. For some reason (perhaps because of crazy Linux zealots?), a lot of Windows users expect Linux to be perfect, so if it fails just once or produces one error (which may, in fact, be the user’s fault, not the program’s), Linux “isn’t ready.”

It’s pointless right now to argue whether Linux is “ready” for the desktop or not. Right now, Dell is still preloading its desktops with Windows XP. So the real question is who are you and should you be migrating to Linux? Well, take a look at those four profiles and figure out which one you fit into. –A.Y. Siu

P.S. You can graphic design in Linux, but I’ve heard, for example, that there are some features Photoshop has that GIMP doesn’t. I don’t know what these features are. GIMP looks pretty fully-featured to me. Then again, I don’t graphic design. Also, Linux has many, many games. My point about games was that a popular commercial game (say, Sims) probably won’t have a Linux port immediately… or ever.

then u must have definitely heard of Linux..

In that Category UBUNTU is the latest Debian Linux

that is creating waves in the Linux Industry..for reasons multiple..

1)The OS is free

2) It works great with a wide range of Hardware.Out of the Box.

3)It has lotsa software integrated with it..You don't need

to buy additional S/W for Office,Photoshop etc…

I have taken the resp. of Distibuting
UBUNTU LINUX thru out Hyderabad.

To know more..
www.ubuntu.com

For a CD PM me or mail me at vsanju85 @ gmail.com

Its a great OS and many are shifting.Have u?
The community is
"Get UBUNTU"
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=14253544
You do get CDS free thru SHIPIT..
But it takes ages to reach you..
so this initiative…
Enjoy ur stay in Linux…

Any Questions..

just drop a comment.

And I am absolutely in love with this browser.

As many of my fellow internet-using Indians might be knowing..

that BSNL has caps of 1GB( yaa its 1GB..don’t get shocked)..,

I felt there was a need to cut out on ads and rubbish images.

Just then someone recommended FireFox for the very purpose..

Since then there is no looking back again. Works wonderfully..

U can add tons of features(extensions) too..

To know more and download FireFox

These are the extensions that I downloaded. They are pretty small..

ImageLikeOpera(for toggling images)

AdBlock Plus(to block all ads..works perfectly)

Quick Java(to toggle between JS enabled/disabled mode)

Flash Block(to block all idiotic(non idiotic too) animations)

FasterFox(allows caching for faster performance)

Well…I hope I have been able to make another IE user switch to Mozilla FIREFOX

Remember

FUTURE IS ‘OPEN’