The Indian government has blocked access to 32 websites based on the advice of an anti-terrorism team. The blocked URLs (uniform resource locator, an address to any website on the Internet) include files, videos and source code-sharing websites such as dailymotion.com, github.com, vimeo.com and archive.org. In an order, tweeted by Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Bengaluru-based research organization Centre for Internet and Society on Wednesday, the department of telecom said the 32 URLs had been blocked under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and under Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. “The websites that have been blocked were based on an advisory by Anti Terrorism Squad, and were carrying anti-India content from ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria),” Arvind Gupta, head of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s information technology cell, said in a message on Twitter. His tweet came in response to a backlash to the move from Internet users. “The sites that have removed objectionable content and/or cooperated with the ongoing investigations, are being unblocked,” he added. If Internet service providers (ISPs) don’t comply with the demand, they are liable to being penalized, the order said. The rules give the central government powers to block access to information if it is in the interest of the “sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above.” Intermediaries failing to comply with the rules are punishable with fines and prison terms of up to seven years, it notes. “Pastebin is still blocked in India. We are getting many reports about this. The Indian government has blocked us...,” said one of the source code sharing websites, Pastebin.com, in a tweet. This is not the first time the government has cracked down on websites. A recent report by Freedom House, an independent watchdog, said the information ministry received a total of 130 court orders to block Web content between February 2009 and December 2013. In February 2014, the then minister of communication and information technology told Parliament that 62 URLs were blocked in 2013 under Section 69A for hosting objectionable information with the potential to disturb public order. As many as 82 URLs were blocked on 18 September 2013 in addition to 26 blocked a week earlier after violence escalated between Hindu and Muslim communities in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. A total of 362 URLs were blocked in response to communal violence in the northeast, the report said. “The problem isn’t just about the specific sites that are blocked; the prob(lem) always about the bad law...,” tweeted Prakash. “The 69A rules don’t allow for transparency, accountability, time-limits on blocks, etc.
Friday, 2 January 2015
Monday, 13 October 2014
View of an Indian student towards America
Aniruddh Chaturvedi came from Mumbai to Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., where he is majoring in computer science. This past summer he interned at a tech company in Silicon Valley.
During two years in the US, Chaturvedi has been surprised by various aspects of society, as he explained last year in a post on Quora.
Chaturvedi offered his latest thoughts on America in an email to Business Insider.
The most surprising things about America:
- Nobody talks about grades here.
- Everyone is highly private about their accomplishments and failures. Someone's performance in any field is their performance alone. This is different compared to India where people flaunt their riches and share their accomplishments with everybody else.
- The retail experience is nowhere near as fun/nice as it is in India. Because labor is cheap in India, there is always someone who will act as a "personal shopper" to assist you with holding your clothes, giving suggestions, etc. In America, on the other hand, even if you go to a Nordstrom or Bloomingdales, there is almost nobody to help you out while you're shopping. Shopping in America is more of a commodity/chore than it is a pleasurable activity
- This may be biased/wrong because I was an intern, but at least in the tech world, nobody wants to put you under the bus for something that you didn't do correctly or didn't understand how to do. People will sit with you patiently till you get it. If you aren't able to finish something within the stipulated deadline, a person on your team would graciously offer to take it off your plate.
- The same applies to school. Before I came to the United States, I heard stories about how students at Johns Hopkins were so competitive with each other that they used to tear important pages from books in the library just so other students didn't have access to it. In reality, I experienced the complete opposite. Students were highly collaborative, formed study groups, and studied/did assignments till everyone in the group "got it". I think the reason for this is that the classes are/material is so hard that it makes sense to work collaboratively to the point that students learn from each other.
- Strong ethics — everyone has a lot of integrity. If someone cannot submit their completed assignment in time, they will turn in the assignment incomplete rather than asking for answers at the last minute. People take pride in their hard work and usually do not cheat. This is different from students from India and China as well as back home in India, where everyone collaborates to the extent that it can be categorized as cheating.
- Rich people are thin/well maintained, poor people are fat. This stems from the fact that cheap food is fatty, rich people don't eat cheap food — they tend to eat either home-cooked food which is expensive or eat at expensive/healthy places. Unfortunately, it is expensive to be healthy in America.
- Fat people are not respected much in society. Being fat often has the same connotations as being irresponsible towards your body. If you're thin (and tall, but not as much), people will respect you a lot more and treat you better. You will also receive better customer service if you're well maintained. This extends my previous point which mentioned that if you're thin, you're statistically likely to be rich. Reason why I know this is that I went down from being 210lbs to 148-150lbs. The way people started treating me when I was thin was generally way better than the way I was treated when I was fat. As a small example, the Starbucks baristas were much nicer to me and made me drinks with more care/love.
- Girls are not very promiscuous, contrary to most Hollywood films
- Almost every single person in America has access to basic food, clothing, water and sanitation. I haven't been to states like Louisiana and cities like Detroit, but from what I can tell, nobody is scrambling for the basic necessities required for sustenance.
- Dearth of African Americans in technical fields. This probably stems from the fact that they aren't given enough opportunity, broken families, etc. I'm pretty sure you can extend upon this if you'd like.
- It's expensive to have brick houses in America, contrary to India where brick houses are the norm
- Emphasis on physical fitness/being outdoorsy — this is more of a California thing but I noticed families going on biking trips, boat trips, hiking, camping, barbecuing, etc. Americans take pride in the natural beauty of their surroundings and tend to make the most of it
- Americans waste a lot of food. It is very easy to buy in bulk because it's so much cheaper and as a result a lot of wastage occurs.
Obsession with coffee — Starbucks, Dunkin' etc is crowded with office-goers and students every morning. I don't understand why they can't drink or make coffee before leaving for work. Such a waste of money! ($5/day * 5days/week *52 weeks/year)!
- Split families, not having married parents, etc., is not seen differently than the contrary.
- Support towards the LGBT community — it's fairly normal to be part of the LGBT community; it's not considered a mortal sin if you like someone in your own gender or if you aren't comfortable being male/female/etc. Proof of this is the LGBT Pride Day held in every city etc.
- Smoking weed is seen the same as smoking cigarettes.
And, here are some more things he found surprising about America, excerpted from his post last summer on Quora :
The way that stores price their products makes no apparent economic sense, and is not linear at all.
For example, at a typical store:
- 1 can of coke : $1.00 - 12 cans of coke : $3.00 - 1 Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar : $3.00 - 12 Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars : $7.00
The return policy on almost everything: None of my friends back in India believed me when I told them that you can literally buy anything, including food, and return it within ninety days for a full refund even if you don't have a specific reason for doing so (most stores actually have a "Buyer's Remorse" category under Reason for Return options while returning the product).
The pervasiveness of fast food and the sheer variety of products available: The typical supermarket has at least a hundred varieties of frozen pizza, 50 brands of trail mix, etc. I was just astounded by the different kinds of products available even at small gas station convenience stores.
Soda being cheaper than bottled water: It makes no sense that carbonated and flavored water with HFCS are cheaper than regular water, but hey, that's just how it is.
The fact that there are full service rest stops with decent chain restaurants and big supermarkets every couple of miles on interstate highways
Fruit and vegetable prices, as compared to fast food prices:
- Bag of grapes : $6.00 - Box of strawberries : $5.00 - 1 lb tomatoes : $3.00 - McChicken : $1.00 - [McDouble] : $1.00
Unlimited soda refills:
The first time (and one of the last times...) I visited McDonalds in 2007, the cashier gave me an empty cup when I ordered soda. The concept of virtually unlimited soda refills was alien to me, and I thought there was a catch to it, but apparently not.
Slightly digressing, I've noticed that the typical fountain machine has a huge selection, including Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Hi-C, Powerade, Lemonade, Raspberry Lemonade (and/or their coca-cola counterparts)... The list goes on. This may not seem like much, but it is actually a lot more compared to the 3-4 options (coca-cola, sprite, fanta, limca) that most Indian soda fountain machines have.
Serving Sizes: American serving sizes are HUGE! I've noticed that entree sizes are huge as well. I am by no means a small eater, but it usually takes me at least 1.5 meals to finish the entree.
US Flag displayed everywhere: I was surprised to see that the US flag is displayed in schools, on rooftops of houses, etc. India has very strict rules governing the display and use of the national flag. Also, something that struck out to me was how it was completely normal to wear the US flag or a US flag-like pattern as a bikini.
Over-commercialization of festivals: I'm not denying that festivals like Diwali and Eid aren't extremely commercialized in India, but America takes it to a whole new level. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc., and an almost year-round sale of Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc. items.
An almost-classless society: I've noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living. Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I've seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth.
Also, (almost) all sections of society are roughly equal. You'll see service professionals owning iPhones, etc. as well. This may be wrong but part of it has to do with the fact that obtaining credit in this country is extremely easy. Anybody can buy anything, for the most part, except for something like a Maserati, obviously. As a result, most monetary possessions aren't really status symbols. I believe that the only status symbol in America is your job, and possibly your educational qualifications.
Chaturvedi ended his post with a link to a video of "America F--- Yeah" from the movie "Team America."
Now we have a screen on the side of the mobile
Samsung Galaxy Note Edge has a screen on the side! The new smartphone has a small display that runs along the right edge of the body and can show items independent of the main display. For example, this strip can display time and date, stock quotes, messages and notifications etc. Samsung has even designed a game customized for this small display panel.
Friday, 26 September 2014
$749 iPhone 6 Plus Costs Apple Just $215.60 to Make: IHS
Apple's largest iPhone is selling for $100 more than its other new model, but an outside research firm estimated Tuesday that it costs Apple only $15.50 more to make the more expensive version.
Apple said it sold more than 10 million of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models in their first three days on sale. Both have larger screens than earlier iPhone models, and analysts say consumers like the new, bigger sizes. The Plus has a 5.5-inch screen, as measured diagonally, while the regular iPhone 6 is at 4.7 inches
Apple will make more profit on the Plus version, according to a report from research firm IHS Technology. The full, no-contract price for the 16-gigabyte iPhone 6 is $649. IHS estimates it costs Apple $200.10 for materials and manufacturing. The iPhone 6 Plus retails for $749 without a contract, but IHS says it costs Apple $215.60.
With a two-year service contract with a wireless carrier, a 16-gigabyte iPhone 6 costs consumers $200. An iPhone 6 Plus costs $300 with a contract.
The Plus model also has a bigger battery and a slightly more expensive camera than the regular iPhone 6, according to IHS.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. The Cupertino, California, company usually doesn't disclose details of its manufacturing costs.
India's mars mission a big hit
NEW DELHI — India celebrated putting a spacecraft into orbit around Mars on Wednesday, hoping the rare feat will show the world it is open for business in space exploration and inspire a new generation of homegrown scientists to help drive growth.
Those motivations help explain why India, a poor country of 1.2 billion, even invests in a space program when so many of its people lack access to proper toilets, electricity and health care.
For one, boosting its space business has always been a key selling point of the country's program.
More than half of the world's missions to Mars so far have failed. In proving it can pull off a complex space mission, India becomes one of the world's few reliable ferrymen to the stars. That can attract investors, commercial launch orders and customers to hire Indian rockets and satellites for their scientific research.
But the program also is a source of pride and motivation for the country's burgeoning ranks of young professionals. India's robust scientific and technical education system has already produced millions of software programmers, engineers and doctors who have helped grow the country's growing middle class.
"Mars, of course, captures the imagination of the world. What better goal is there to reach for, to prove we can accomplish our goals?" said B.N. Raghunandan, the engineering dean at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India's tech hub.
Every time India launches another rocket, he said he is bombarded by students asking how they can get into the school's aerospace engineering program.
India's credibility also gets a huge boost, he said. "These kinds of successes put India in a better bargaining position, reassuring investors that we can perform."
India joined an elite club when it successfully guided its Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately called MOM, into orbit around the red planet Wednesday morning. Only the U.S., former Soviet Union and European Space Agency have been able to do that before.
In scenes broadcast live on TV, scientists at the Indian Space and Research Organisation's command center in Bangalore erupted into cheers as orbiter's engines completed 24 minutes of burn time to maneuver the spacecraft into place. MOM had traveled some 666 million kilometers (414 million miles) and more than 300 days since breaking from Earth's gravitational pull.
India was particularly proud that MOM was developed with homegrown technology and for a bargain price of about $75 million — a cost that Modi quipped was lower than many Hollywood movie budgets. NASA's much larger Maven mission, whose satellite went into orbit around Mars on Sunday, cost nearly 10 times as much, at $671 million.
The country's business sector applauded the mission, with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry saying "it will encourage Indian industry to invest in the research and innovation."
India's success shows the world that "they are now a force of capability ... that can be taken very seriously," said space expert Roger Franzen, the technical program manager at the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
"India has an extremely well-developed space industry that manufactures everything from the components to the spacecraft to the instrumentation to the launch vessels," he said.
In the realm of scientific space research, India also could soon join in collaborative missions with NASA or ESA, he suggested.
But the focus for the space agency, which operates on an annual budget of $1.1 billion, will remain on developing technologies for commercial and navigational satellite applications, the agency's chief K. Radhakrishnan said Tuesday. Those services could bring in significant revenues from companies or governments seeking to place their own satellites or research equipment in space.
"If we're going to earn money, we're going to do it on that," said D. Raghunandan of the Delhi Science Forum, a group that promotes the study of science. "India's portfolio is likely to be somewhat limited because we can't afford to spend that much money in pure science exploration and in an exercise of the imagination."
MOM will circle the planet for at least six months, with solar-powered instruments gathering scientific data that may shed light on Martian weather systems as well as what happened to the water that is believed to have existed once on Mars.
It also will search Mars for methane, a key chemical in life processes on Earth that could also come from geological processes. Experts hope data gathered will help them better understand how planets form and what conditions might make life possible.
"Mars is gradually unveiling its secrets to science and humanity and the Indian mission is yet another means of unveiling this enigma that Mars presents," said Franzen.
Even though India wrestles with many problems from poverty to hunger, that shouldn't stop the country from forging ahead in science and space, said B.N. Raghunandan, of the Indian Institute of Science.
"I don't think we can afford to lag behind. We can't sacrifice frontier research for the sake of solving old-world problems," he said. "These technological advances have their own spinoffs and benefits."
For 12-year-old Mansha Khanna, who was visiting the Nehru Planetarium in New Delhi for Mars-themed learning activities and games, the mission's success gave her something to dream about — becoming scientist
"I am proud to be born in a country that can do anything and succeed," he said.
Thursday, 25 September 2014
These frogs are true smartphones fan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)