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aagnihot

48 karma · joined August 28, 2008

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aagnihot··on Microsoft: No GPLv3 Software for Windows Phone and Xbox Apps.
It seems that the site is down
aagnihot··on What's wrong with CS in India
I am a Software Engineer residing in India. I have never worked for Outsourcing shops, however most of my friends work there. I have worked for Product based companies, and I can contrast the two. Comment on Point 1: Quality: Software applications created by CS students generally are never meant to run for years and have new features added to them. So CS students never focus much on Scalable design, modularity and engineering discipline in general. The discipline in Design, Implementation, Source control and execution was taught to me when I was an intern. Every aspect was reviewed by peers until it met the standards. However, I observed that outsourced project based companies are more focused on delivery/schedule than on quality. I feel that the quality control must be done from outsourcer's end and that too when the code is being developed. This might help them avoid unpleasant surprises.

Point 2: Passion: There is a huge imbalance between number of graduates we produce and number of jobs available in India. This works in favor of students who take up CS studies not because they like it but because they thing they will be employable.

Point 3: People look down at design?? They equally consider System Administration, Document Writing, Escalation handling as inferior.

aagnihot··on Ask HN: From what countries do people use HN beside USA?
From Pune
aagnihot··on Ask HN: Please review ebay mashup
allow city names instead of zipcodes
aagnihot··on [dead]
People are already toying with many ideas to solve this issue. One such idea, was to construct self-contained satellite townships. In Pune, India, a township called "Magarpatta City", has been built. It houses, commerical spaces, Residentials spaces, schools, shopping Complexes, hospitals(http://www.magarpattacity.com/_new/unique.asp , http://www.magarpattacity.com/_new/amenities.asp). All the needs are generally satisfied within the township. This concept really helps in containing the traffic within a township. I believe, in near future, these ideas will be replicated across urban India.
aagnihot··on Ask HN: Guide/Tutorial for designing a WebUI from scratch?
Thanks a lot!! That really helped getting me some direction...I will be start learning HTML, CSS and then the JS!!
aagnihot··on Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work?
My friends used to come over my place. We used to sit together, discuss what/how to do it, have drinks and complete it. So we essentially converted "Boring task completion time" into "Socializing and fun time".
aagnihot··on Oracle's Declaration to Sun Customers ... and IBM
SUN has variety of technologies especially in Storage(via StorageTek acquisition). Oracle can integrate backup and recovery strategy with StorageTek tapes, ZFS, for example. Also, db failover, High Availability can be achieved leveraging Solaris platform..
aagnihot··on India prays for rain as water wars break out
Fate of entire civilization is dependent on monsoon rains. In my opinion, there is hardly any way to provision supplies in vast amount. Ground water tables, dams are all dependent on monsoon. Only way is to keep in check the transmission leakages.
aagnihot··on How well can you live in India on $2 per day?
In Pune/Hyderabad/Bangalore, 1.Rent (a descent house in good neighbourhood) : $2400/per year 2. If you cook your food and avoid restaurants, food expenses will be around $720/per person 3. Electricity bills: $240/per annum 4. Unlimited broadband(3G - usb): $240/per annum 5. Petrol (Gas)- Assuming you travel 13-km per day : $360/per annum

Total expenses: $3960/per annum

As the matter of fact, entry level salary for software engineer in an ordinary company is $5000 per annum. Moreover, if you share your apartment, you can still reduce your expenses, and in fact save lot of money.

aagnihot··on [dead]
If the government had not bailed out AIG, it would have declared bankruptcy. In such a case, he would have been effectively jobless. Also, a bankrupt company cannot award bonus. So even as he keeps his job, he dares to complain about bonus. Hypocrisy at its best!!
aagnihot··on Poll: Where are you from?
Pune,India
aagnihot··on What can Tata's Nano ($2500 car) teach Detroit?
"Nano" is not meant to compete with Toyota/Honda/GM. Tata Nano offers an alternative to 2-wheeler owners to own a car. Also, Nano is good candidate to replace India's 3-wheeler auto-rickshaws. India's emission norms are based on euro-emission norms. So they are no as lenient as perceived. Moreover, This car is meant to be used for intra-city transport. The speed here is around 30-50km/hr. At such a speed, it is less likely to have fatal accidents. What must be appreciated is Ratan Tata's ambitious vision and excellent execution by Tata Motors to achieve their goal.
aagnihot··on IBM in Talks to Buy Sun in Bid to Add To Web Heft
Moreover, there is an important lesson to learn. Open source is not the solution for poor revenues. Sun has OpenSPARC, OpenSolaris, Java, OpenOffice, MySql and what not...But in terms of revenue, it hardly made a difference.
aagnihot··on IBM in Talks to Buy Sun in Bid to Add To Web Heft
This article quotes the acquisition at around $6.5 billion(http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE52H1GS20090318). StorageTek acquisition was $4.1 billion(http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/09/01/HNsunstortekcomple...) and MySql AB acquisition was around $1 billion. That makes $5 billion. So is rest of the Sun worth $1.5 billion? Clearly, it seems that these acquisitions have decreased Sun's valuation, rather than increasing it. Also, I didn't see any point in buying MySql AB for $1 billion.
aagnihot··on Do you know why rms didn't start with a kernel?
Interesting (and critical) article by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov.

http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Stallman/failure_with_hur...

aagnihot··on HN: review my (non-profit) startup: Buy It Like You Mean It
"Research Guide" and "Develop" links are broken.
aagnihot··on If Richard Branson Ran GM
These guys are not entrepreneur. They are executives(read PHB's). They might not even be good leaders. Henry Ford would have done things differently....
aagnihot··on The IT Contract from Hell
Mail this to Scott Adams!!!
aagnihot··on Ask HN: can you summarize OO for me in 64 words or less?
nightmare :)
aagnihot··on Balsamiq hits $100,000 in revenue
I do play computer games, but I really wont care about the Source. How many of your users are actually going to see it? Look at Apple, they have proved that they can be propriety, yet successful.
aagnihot··on The End of Wall Street (Liar's Poker author)
superb!!
aagnihot··on Do you read?
Before reading pg's essays, I believed that any problem that can be solved using C, must be solved using C. However, after reading pg's arguments in his essays, I decided to study language design and functional programming. So currently, I am reading "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs".
aagnihot··on Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: What Tim O'Reilly Gets Wrong About the Cloud
http://www.softpanorama.org/Skeptics/IT_skeptic/it_obscurant...
aagnihot··on How India flew to the moon economy class
I will like to say that this is because of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's Vision!
aagnihot··on India successfully launches first mission to the Moon
Being in India is like being in Mexico and being in California..Depends on which part of India you visit...
aagnihot··on India successfully launches first mission to the Moon
bingo!!! you said it :)
aagnihot··on India successfully launches first mission to the Moon
I have read Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's biography(http://www.geocities.com/hari_ghk/vikram.htm) and in my opinion, his hard work has paid off. Also, most of top 20-30 Indian companies might be paying taxes more than $78 million each year, so we can easily say that the program is not a burden for most of us... As a geek, as an Indian, as an techno-historian, I am aware of how much of sacrifice people made to make this happen(eg: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/11/18/stories/200...). Great work!!
aagnihot··on Is Sun Solaris on its deathbed?
Linux Foundation is funded by IBM, HP, Intel. So I guess its just an anti-sun attack. Its just a negative-PR. >>["The future is Linux and Microsoft Windows," says foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin] Stop predicting...Start working!! Michael Dell once predicted similar thing about Apple. But look at where Apple is today!! And look at Dell!!