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Monday, December 16, 2002Open Source and India
Here's a good commentary on last week's Open Source / Microsoft / India article I posted:
The fundamental issue in the Microsoft-Linux battle is that of cost, not about sharing of source code. Emerging markets like India cannot afford the dollar-based software pricing of Windows and other applications. They need cheaper alternatives, and that is where Linux and its suite of applications in the form of Evolution, Mozilla and OpenOffice (among others) comes in. The issue at heart is not being pouring over source code, but looking to see how the cost of computing (hardware and software) can be brought down by a factor of 10 to make it affordable for the mass-market at the bottom of the pyramid. [_Go_]
While I'd basically agree with this, I would point out that there are other reasons why Open Source is still good for India -- even without the cost issues:
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Education. It's very, very easy for young hackers / engineers to learn from Open Source. This provides career growth that you just don't get from the closed source world. And, remember, it's not just the software that you pay for, it's also certification like "MCSE" and others. That's expensive for Indians just as it is for everyone else.
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Languages / Fonts. I'm always amazed at the size and breadth of Indian culture but never more so than with respect to the number of different languages. It's unclear to me that Windows supports all of them at present -- or in the future. This can certainly be accommodated in the Open Source world as recent events have shown.
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National Security. Given that even western governments like Germany are starting to be rightfully concerned about security implications of Microsoft products, I would think that India would be right up there as well.
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Export Opportunities. Just as Walmart now sells PCs loaded with Linux into middle america, I would be suprised that India companies couldn't build a reputation for supplied Linux based PCs to other parts of the Asian world.
So while I totally understand and agree with the cost perspective, I think there is more at stake here than just plain cost. If I was India, I'd be much more concerned about low cost drugs for my citizens than low cost Windows. These are both intellectual property issues at heart and [eople die without low cost drugs. Not only will they not die without low cost Windows but there is at least a credible alternative (I haven't ever seen "open source medicine").
7:50:03 AM
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But Now I Will Rant: The Dumb Spammer
Being in the anti-spam business myself, I'm always amazed at the rabid stupidity of spammers. No I'm not referring to the ones who send you a message for "Breast Augmentation Drugs" --- when your first name is "Billy Bob" or the others who send you messages for "All Natural Viagra" -- when your name is "Janet Marie". Or the ones who try and sell you other inappropriate things. No I'm referring to the ones who just don't seem to have even the foggiest blue clue at all. The ones who demonstrate just utter stupidity. The worst of these are the ones who don't even bother to try and sell me anything at all. Here's a spam that just came in:
<HTML> <HEAD> </HEAD> <BODY>
<iframe src=cid:BJn7K650 height=0 width=0>
</iframe>
<FONT> </FONT> </BODY> </HTML>
That's it! Oh one more thing -- the subject had "Have a funny Christmas". So what exactly is going on here? Did they forget to attach the "Buy this book of [ETHIC_NAME_HERE] christmas jokes" offer? Did they forget to lecture me about the need for christmas humor?
And then there is the blinding stupidity as exemplified by the people who send me messages in non-english languages. Now while I may be polylingual in the world of "ASCII character sets as interpreted by some type of Yacc / Lex based parser", I am so verbally monolingual it isn't even funny. I remember from high school spanish that "donde" means "where" and "hablas ingles" means "do you speak english" but that's about it. So why, oh why, do I receive spam in:
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Italian
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German
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Insert Asian Language here -- I have no idea which one(s)
And then, for the frustrated english teacher in me, there is the ever special mis-spelled or grammatically incorrect subject line. Here are just a few of the many, many I've seen:
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Because home is where the hart is [Spelling - 3, "heart"]
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The Incredible Illuminating Pen Lights as it Writes! [Grammer - 5, "that lights"]
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Enhance your Preesure [Spelling -3, "pleasure", Absolute stupidity? - 15]
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(I could go on but I won't)
This just amazes me. As much as I hate to get Spam of any type, I think I hate the stupid spammers even more.
Side Note: The nice thing about a spam product like Inbox Buddy that automatically routes all spam into a folder is it makes it trivially easy to write a blistering anti-spam rant like this -- just open your Spam folder and vent bile into the ether.
7:37:29 AM
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IM Me About This
Anti Christmas
Well I left the shower today ready to blast forth with a bile filled, rabid, anti-christmas screed. The kind of thing that those that know me in meatspace aren't surprised to hear. And then as I sat down, I realized ... Don't. Yes I'm not a fan of Christmas. But lots of people are and why should my personal life affected anti-Xmas slant become public. It seems like people with strong pro / con Christmas feelings fall into these categories:
- Those that go along with flow and just enjoy most things; to these folks the whole tree, lights, ornaments thing is as natural as breathing.
- Those with a rabidly anti holiday perspective who wish there was somewhere in the western world where they could escape it. Unlike Thanskgiving from which you can run away to Mexico or Canada, there isn't much escape from Christmas. China perhaps? Someone let me know. I'd personal prefer to just fast forward through the month of December entire if that was possible. Alas it seems not to be.
- Those with kids. Whenever I talk with a parent I realize just how good Christmas can be. Sure they kvetch and moan about presents, about the X-box, about the Zip-zaps (or whatever the hot toy is this year; apparently in 2002 a hot toy is called a "Zip-zap:) but they still enjoy it.
So enjoy ... And for those that loathe Christmas with the passion of an angry camel? Well it's only 374 days until we do this again.
7:14:06 AM
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