Many FOSS enthusiasts do not realize is that Apple is as, if not more, significant threat than Microsoft in the war for software freedom.
Most of the technical arguments that FOSS evangelists have, fall apart when you are talking about Apple and Mac Os X. Mac Os X has very less, if not none, of the perceived instability of Windows. Default applications bundled with the OS do quite a decent job for many users. And OS being based on BSD itself makes most of the arguments about unix-better-than-windows moot. On top of this, a significant number of well known FOSS folks use Macs. I have seen several photos of FOSS conferences where a large number of the people were using Macs (I am assuming they use Os X. I could be wrong).
Thanks to Saurabh’s mail on ILUGD, found out about this nice essay by Paul Graham on software patents. Not being much of a lawyer or an expert on these things, but nevertheless having a conviction that software patents are evil, I have dared to comment on parts of this essay. Of course, you are right, whenever possible I have quoted out of context to put him at a disadvantage. :-P
Now YOU have an incentive to go read the essay to find out whether I make sense. ;)
Am trying to catch up with Python where I left off years ago.
What have they done to the language when I was gone? It is no longer the simple language as before. The decorator syntax looks so .. well, Perlish. List comprehensions, in some ways very inappropriately named, took a few moments to sink in. It is great that it is concise, but then .. so was Perl! Look where it got “them” - Concise Perl programs looks not too different from a binary file open in a text editor.
For some (probably conceited 😄 ) reason, I felt that my blog was getting overrun (or about to really get overrun) with non-technical babble arising from my frustration about where this country is headed. So before I turn off those three of you who read my blog, I have decided to split my blog on a very fuzzy boundary of technical/non-technical lines. My non-technical rants will now be posted at the appropriately named http://rants.sandipb.net.
To begin with, this is the problem that I had. I had recorded a short clip using my Panasonic NV-GS330 camcorder. I had to upload it to Vimeo, my video sharing website of choice.
From the camcorder to the computer
Importing the video from the camcorder to the laptop was not much of a problem. I plugged in the camcorder to my laptop using a firewire card. Then I used Kino to position the tape (the camcorder uses mini dv tapes) just before the beginning of the clip I wanted to import and hit the capture button. Soon, the dv capture file for the clip was lying in my home directory.
The policy seems to have some really good points like-
5.1) Mandatory Characteristics:
5.1.1)Selected Standard should be Royalty Free for life time of the standard.
5.1.2)Selected Standard should be developed in a collaborative and consensus manner and not led by a single agency or a small closed group of interested parties
(If you want to skip all this background, and go directly to the steps to make card payments through ICICI Infinity, click here])
With Indian banks making life worse for customers using their credit cards,
especially while paying their dues,
I am exploring the mechanisms available to make payments for credit cards
electronically. After all, if I can currently make payments for virtually any
of my bills from the Internet, why do I have to run around looking for a place
to deposit the credit card cheque? Especially, when banks have virtually ruled
out the possibility for paying credit card dues via cash - they actually fine you
if you do that.
It is indeed heartening to know that one of the finest composers in India has such a progressive outlook about the future of music. Excerpt from Hindustan Times.
Music companies must recognise the changing ground reality. Today the conventional outlets for music sales are drying up. Soon all music will be free while the performers and performances will be paid for.
In another ridiculously anti-customer move, banks like ICICI and Standard Chartered are charging Rs. 100 for any cash payments made for credit card dues. This move is ostensibly for reducing footfalls at branches but seems like another revenue stream adding gimmik.
Actually from the look at the note attached with this month’s electronic statement, there are a number of quite disturbing changes at ICICI credit cards:
Firstly, it is the flat charge of Rs. 100 for any cash payment made to credit card at branches. So even if you have just a few hundreds to pay, you have to pay a significant proportion as a penalty for depositing in cash. Also, if you could not deposit a cheque in time, and the deadline is today, you have to pay this charge anyway which sort of partially negates your aim to avoid late payment charges.
I realize the title of this post is a bit provocative, but I could not think of any other way to put it.
Some weeks back, I got a new Mac Book Pro at work. This was my first exposure to Apple’s computer products, and after the initial few moments of aah-ooh’s wore off, I started using it for what I was supposed to do - work. It so happens that after about a week of use, I returned the MBP and went back to the other standard (and much less expensive) HP notebook used in the company. There was a brief interval during this time, when I installed Ubuntu Linux on the MBP and got some amount of relief.