kaze

I know that Microsoft Engineers have pulled off a large number of complex technical feats over the decades, and this is admirable.

Unfortunately, all this doesn’t translate into a smooth day-to-day experience for the end user, which is why all the hate builds up. People contrast this with the relatively smooth and fluid experience on say, Apple products. They then conclude Microsoft is garbage. I understand that in some (note, some) cases, MS isn’t even directly responsible for the issues. For example, Enterprise IT departments tend to cram massive amounts of software into boxes with moderate specs, leading to a slowdown in performance.

I can’t think of any practical solution for all this. Some radical re-engineering without regard for backwards compatibility, accompanied by strict specifications for minimum hardware requirements maybe? Will take too much of Management willpower to fly. So I’m sorry to say, Microsoft and its employees will continue to be ridiculed for some more time to come.

You'll find the first two in some Indian cities. At least Bangalore, since I saw them on shelves in some of the bigger stores. Not sure about root beer.

Agreed.

I have seen Indian non-IITians who are way better than their IIT counterparts at similar tasks. I also feel that good non-IITians are easier to work with and get the job done because they don't come with the baggage of some sort of entitlement.

But having said that, I do observe that an undergrad degree from an IIT serves as a reasonably reliable indicator of Engineering strength.

>Can the paranoid not just put a piece of tape over the lens,or point it at a wall?

- Yes one could tape it. Don't apply the tape directly since repeated application and removal of tape can impair camera functionality due to residual adhesive accumulation and the depositing of dust etc on the residual adhesive. Use Microfiber based cloth material between the tape and camera.

- But having said that, I find it painful to even think of repeatedly taping and 'untaping' cameras. Having to remember to point them the other way too is not good - one can forget to do so at times. And then lose sleep over it after having say, watched a romantic movie with one's girlfriend. And so on.

Physically connect when required is a more comfortable model, at least for me. I've seen some unbelievable shit being pulled by hackers, including changing camera firmware to achieve their objective. So making it easier for users to feel absolutely comfortable with their devices is important.

I agree with the central message in this article. Think of the pleasure and certainty associated with the small, well written UNIX tools. Apply that to products.

>wtf!!

A bit of civility would help.

I was wrong in my opinion. If legal reports show Tripathi wasn't involved, the family should take legal action against the Reddit users who participated in this garbage, AND Reddit itself. The former for libel, and the latter for having failed to apply effective moderation. Freedom of speech is very important, but this was a public lynching. Granted that it is difficult for a website to moderate each and every thing, but an honest effort should be made. This can be achieved by steps such as having traffic based or user flagging based triggers leading to an informed policy driven review. And the policy can definitely be good enough to help recognize damaging accusations of this kind.

Any organisation, be a website, news organization, or Government, should be punished if it tolerates a Kangaroo court culture. Else we risk exposing just about any innocent person (us and our families included) to permanent damage.

Sunil Tripathi (or his parents) would do well to take legal action against Reddit for facilitating this garbage, if the final legal reports support the assessment that Sunil was not involved.

Market a product whichever way you like. If the core engineering is flaky, the product will always be despised.

>The actual hard working technical guys(programmers, hackers >or whatever you may call them) are treated like commodity, >worst like a foot ball tossed around by 'business guys',

True. However, more and more product based companies are setting up shop in India. Many of these have vigorous and interesting interview processes that identify truly capable technical people. And believe it or not, they offer very high pay packages that sometimes exceed that of Executives.

I agree that the number of such opportunities is still small compared to openings in Service-based companies. But the trend has started to catch on. Recently, Infosys announced an increasing focus on products because they realize that the services business ‘provides revenue that scales only linearly with headcount’. As more and more product work happens in India, core techies will gain greater value. Also, as the years pass: a) more Engineering students will graduate, the total number of really strong engineers (vs. the let-me-please-mom-n-dad types) will increase leading to the creation of great techie environments in more companies. b) more well experienced Engineers will stay in hands-on roles leading to proper mentoring that enhances the techie environments.

The Business guys will still be more important as anywhere in the world. But the treatment of programmers as commodities that worries you will decrease, IMHO.

Much as I appreciate people using simple means to exploit technology in these situations, sharing mobile phone numbers and other such details in a publicly visible document is not a good idea.

>Nice to see things happening but the main problem to solve is >not the end user equipment this article talks about, but >rather operator systems (systems that could handle this and >scale for the increased traffic is not something many >operators have).

Overall, Passpoint can help decrease cellular traffic and redirect it over fixed lines via Wi-Fi. So IMHO it might be attractive to operators.

Without going too deep into the technical details:

An ESS network is most often under a single organization (say, the IT department of a large Hotel). The Wi-Fi credential combination required by a user to roam across the different Access Points in the ESS is the same.

But what about when you leave hotel premises and go to the airport? Manual intervention is often required by you, especially if you are going to that airport for the first time and have not yet purchased a plan there. With Passpoint, the hotels in the city, the airport etc could all be participating in a common program. Sign up once, use anywhere. With passpoint software, your device has a _standardized_ way to avail of such facilities.

The ESS architecture does not handle such possibilities - it operates at a much lower level. Higher level handshaking is required to enable this, and in a standards defined manner so that it works everywhere.

>I'm really suspicious of any claim that the top brass at

>Google honestly knew nothing about it...

If Google Management knew of this, wonder why they would let this happen from Google IP addresses...

Factual error: It is not WPA that is cracked here. It is WPS.

There is proof of the Government's corruption, and some pointers to indicate it misuses the Income Tax department. But what proof can you present of the 'Italian lady's Nazi and KGB connections'? Let us keep discussions on this forum free of innuendo.

From the below link: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/govt-wante...

"In addition, we received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 236 communities and profiles from Orkut (Google's social networking site) that were critical of a local politician. We did not comply with this request, since the content did not violate our community standards or local law," it said.

And then the tax notice happens.

Apart from bureaucratic tangles, process overheads and bidding issues, is it possible the artists' fees for illustrations and health related research and verification played a role in the bloat up?

Beautiful.

There was a chef of similar capabilities at my first company. Ten years later, me and my ex-colleagues still rave about his food and the inspiration it gave us.

EVERY employee counts.

You are right. My bad.

Unbelievable. Am not aware of US law, but I hope he can sue First State back for the mental harassment they caused him. This isn't plain ungratefulness - it is dangerous. It can dissuade well meaning, civic minded members of the public from helping an company, which by the way is great for the bad guys.

True. But a large part of the demand is likely to come from the US. Demand from Europe is likely to be limited since the proportion of English speakers there is less.

Some of the people who work in Call Centres here in India end up ruining their health due to the time difference between India and the US. They have to work through the night, and gradually develop a variety of disorders. Since a similar time difference exists in the case of Kenya, some call center employees might start facing such health issues.

More jobs are great. But the long terms costs need to be considered. I worry for the youth of Kenya.

Since there are a billion plus Indians, the statistics say that you are bound to get a few very smart people from among them.

Wouldn't it help to have a read-only bootup DVD to scan the MBR?

Any credible sources to back that?