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CJL writes:
India's TATA Motors have finally unveiled their people's car, Nano at the Delhi Auto Show. Quick figures:
Engine: Petrol 624cc 33bhp. Mileage: 24 Kmpl (~ 55 mpg). The WSJ has a full specification list.
The chairman of TATA Motors, Ratan Tata is one of India's leading industrialists. The Nano has been his pet project for quite some time.
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theodp writes
"If you need a clue as to how creative ISP execs might get in the absence of network neutrality, look no further than United Airlines CEO Glenn Tilton, who is wowing Wall Street with his willingness to examine new ways to wring money out of the carrier, including making economy passengers pay a fee unless they want their luggage to come last off the plane." Now I think when i was like gold ultimate handjob elite years ago my bags had tags that usually made them come out first, but this seems just kinda crappy. I mean, remember when you got a meal on airplanes? No wonder people hate to fly.
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ghoul writes:
AMD is at it again . After having bought the DEC alpha IP and making a success out of Opteron now AMD is again looking for fresh ideas and is investing in Transmeta according to this story Why is Intel able to develop cool ideas in -house and AMD always gets them by buying up design teams about to be laid off? Maybe the fact Intel spends loads more on research has something to do with it.
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ghoul writes:
According to this article in New York city the police can arrest you and take away your handycam if you do not have a permit to shoot. Apparently it only happens to brown skinned people. Does this remind you of the Iranian morality police who go around confiscating cameras from white skinned Western visitors. Since when did New York become an Islamic Republic and what happened to freedom of the press? Is it even worth spending blood and money fighting Islamic terror abroad if our own cities are becoming just as fundamentalist?
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ghoul writes:
According to this article Indian Railways has started the process of equipping railway stations with Wi-Max facilities. These will provide wireless access to within 5-6 km radius of railway stations as compared to the current 100-200 m radius of Wifi. I wonder why Google is using Wifi for San Francisco when WiMax is now available. This is another example of leapfrogging of technology. India never managed to roll out a complete copper landline system but ramped up mobile access so fast that there are now more mobiles than landline. Hence now there is phone connectivity and they have saved the cost of all that copper and fiber. Similarly they will save money on not having rolled out Wifi and going to WiMax directly. Also given that India has the largest network of railway stations in the world most villages do fall 5-6 km within the radius of a railway station so when this rollout is completed the entire country should have wireless access. Drawbacks — its not free and it wont work on moving trains
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ghoul writes:
Congress is talking about shifting to skill based immigration instead of family based immigration. This should immediately make it easier for Indian and Chinese Engineers and Scientists to immigrate on green cards without needing to go through the H1B no mans land. This is because under the current system they get stuck as the quota are set to be 7% of total from any country in the world irrespective of population size. This means the Vatican gets the same sized quota as China or India. In the new system the losers are Latin Americans who are mostly unskilled labourers (note mostly I know quite a few Brilliant latin american post grads) but used to be able to get in easier as there being a large number of latin american countires each country got 7%. How does the Slashdot community which has strong opinions on H1B feel about this? As these new workers will be on Green cards they wont be beholden to companies and should not depress the market as they wont take any shit from companies. In fact if the green card process can be shortened down to 6 months H1Bs can be abolished all together. Given this if people still feel this is not right are we still talking about protecting jobs or about fear of the stranger? Canada, Britain and Australia seem to be doing very well with these kind of point based systems.
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sas-dot writes
"We all know Nicholas Negroponte's $100 OLPC. India, which was a potential market, rejected it. India's Human Resources Development ministry's idea to make laptops at $10 is firmly taking shape with two designs already in and public sector undertaking Semiconductor Complex evincing interest to be a part of the project. So far, the cost of one laptop, after factoring in labor charges, is coming to $47 but the ministry feels the price will come down dramatically considering the fact that the demand would be for one million laptops."
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An anonymous reader writes
"Remember the UMPC, that little tablet that Microsoft once called Origami? Well it looks like that Intel has scrapped the idea of promoting the UMPC, in favor of a much smaller (and less capable) Mobile Internet Device (MID). The UMPC is now heading for a market niche, where it may be replacing the tablet PC as a mobile computer for field technicians. The MID takes on the role of the original UMPC concept, but it won't run Vista."
