Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Darwinian Evolution of Indian Society? (Score 2) 346

@Boregardless: How about you stop your racist tripe and take a dose of facts:

The origin of MSRA has been primarily traced from Europe, and thats where today there are maximum infections (and deaths).

Read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin-resistant_Staphylococcus_aureus#US_and_UK

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) primarily originated from UK. MRSA was responsible for 94,360 serious infections and associated with 18,650 hospital stay-related deaths in the United States in 2005. MRSA is thought to have caused 1,652 deaths in 2006 in UK up from 51 in 1993. Worldwide, an estimated 2 billion people carry some form of S. aureus; of these, up to 53 million (2.7% of carriers) are thought to carry MRSA.[59] In the United States, 95 million carry S. aureus in their noses; of these, 2.5 million (2.6% of carriers) carry MRSA. As a matter of fact # of hospital aquired infections (that includes MRSA) in Europe ranges from 4% to 10% of all hospital admissions.

Comment Why isn't every disease drug-resistant in India? (Score 1, Informative) 346

I am not surprised that they found a drug resistant TB strain in India. The only thing that surprises me is why not every disease is drug resistant in India.

Many poor Indians would pop anti-biotic tablets like candies after buying them for few cents from an over the counter store (its in direct contrast to the US system where even after paying a fortune you don't get antibiotics). They are often cheap, more or less affective and gets them rid of the problems...but not always.

Antibiotics would require you to finish an entire course, else they become ineffective for ever. There are uneducated idiots in India who would pop one or two tablets and never heed to advice by the pharmacist (and at times they would not have enough money to buy the complete course too).

So why are we surprised that there is an emergence of a strain that no antibiotics can cure? Most likely the previous commenter is right - they haven't found an alternative antibiotic yet. I am sure some random Indian lab would develop it in a few months, but it won't work for long - its more of a systemic problem than a medical issue.

Idle

Submission + - Treasure worth $20.2bn found in an Indian temple (bbc.co.uk)

dooode writes: Perhaps Indiana Jones went to the wrong temple !! Indian inspectors have discovered a treasure trove in a South Indian temple in Kerala whose value is now thought to be 900 billion rupees ($20.3bn). They could open 5 of the 6 vaults, which as per temple records, were last opened 136 years ago.The troves of treasure were found buried in sand after temple officials discovered secret underground passageways below the property.

Wealthy temples are not uncommon in India, where patrons and devotees have made offerings for centuries. The sudden discovery of this temple's massive wealth has sparked discussion of how it might be otherwise used in India. Although, Oommen Chandy, Chief Minister of Kerala, says the wealth will stay right where it is. He says the treasure belongs to Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the state government will protect and will provide security to the temple.

Earth

Submission + - Rare Earth Metals ubiquitous under Pacific Ocean (www.cbc.ca)

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at the University of Tokyo published a study detailing massive deposits of rare earth metals. Rare earth metals are central components in many advanced electronics. In light of concerns over China's dominance in rare earth metals extraction, this could be major news for industries that have been searching for alternative sources.

Comment Re:If Indian businesses cannot operate securely .. (Score 1) 176

Duuh....Chill Dude.

"If blackberry communications are no longer privileged the companies would do XYZ"

1. Blackberry communications are indeed not privileged. Its just that the dumb Indian security agencies cannot get a way around it like the US.
2. If blackberries goes away, companies would switch to Nokia, Apple or any other damn device...

But what's really gonna happen is that Blackberry would cave soon, and tell the government officials, "you nutjobs should have figured it out yourself without creating a big fracas, but lets help. Anyways thanks for the publicity !!"

Comment Why Gossip - here are the facts you should know (Score 0, Troll) 188

There are two aspects to the article:

1. A security researcher arrested for possession of an EVM machine
2. The security researcher establishing the fact that EVMs in India are vulnerable to security attacks

As per 1, why is the Indian police wrong? If a stolen object is found with you, its you who are liable. Whether it was given by "unknown resources" is not important.

For 2. Is that something new? Is there any software system that is 100% secure? But don't we still use them - in banks, in flights and everywhere. The question is benefits vs risks. Now before someone argues about that here, I would say, please stop trolling and be reasonable. Indian election scenario is nowhere close to US or Europe or any developed country. If there is any real Security expert out here, he can vouch that security vulnerabilities are 90% because of humans and processes, and only 10% because of machines.

So what's the Indian voting scenario? We are talking about over 700 million voters spread across thousands of constituencies, in more than 5 phases, spread across more than 20 days, that involve more than 100 thousand administrative personals that are managed by an autonomous body called "Election Commission of India". During the election, the Election Commission has absolute powers. It can suspend bureaucrats, order an arrest, or re-voting in a particular constituency. Fortunately this is one of the few agencies in India that are widely respected (by all parties) for its non-partisan role. These EVMs just make it a bit easier for these election commission guys to administer a free and fare election. But still the entire operation is a no less a challenge...

Compare this with just 10 years back. When booth looting was a common story in some of the disconnected country side regions. You heard it right - booth looting refers to some armed men storming the election room, stamping ballet papers for their own candidates; and all it required was mere 20 minutes to alter the result. But these machines ensure that only "1 vote can be cast in 1 min". So even if there is any forced capture, in one hour these guys can cast at the max 60 votes. And one hour is enough for the security to arrive and take remedial action.

Also unlike US, the scale is huge in India. In order to really affect the elections one needs to rig a lot many machines, which is not very practical.

What these security researchers are suggesting is to dump the machines and go back to paper based ballet. What we must also consider is the cost of doing that. India spent around $1 billion for its last electronic voting based election. My question is that by spending N times the amount, and introducing paper based ballet, can someone ensure a free and fare election? If not, why rob this huge amount from poor people.

Comment Re:Are they not under water? (Score 1) 182

Neither is the recent flooding any form of joke for Pakistanis, nor is the safeguarding of its population (against terrorism) any joke for India.

Privacy may be a big concern in the US and EU, but most surveys in India actually give precedence to Security over privacy; even if it leads to Government spying on communication. Trust me, there is nothing facetious about this...

Comment Re:Why malign Pakistan or Blackberry? (Score 2, Insightful) 182

Pakistan has been the (alleged and many a times proven) source of funding for most terrorist attacks. Blackberry has been the alleged/potential medium for communication for terrorists that can not be traced. I see nothing draconian about Indian government requesting Blackberry asking for tracking their data, specially when ever other telecom provider does.

Btw. even today there is a news headline about how Indian police cracked a murder victim by tracking his cellphone calls:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Infosys-manager-confesses-to-killing-wife-held/articleshow/6308212.cms

May be Indian police men are not able to track such communications in Blackberries.

Comment Re:H-1B visas (Score 1) 209

Countries like India would love to have more Americans :) Bangalore has only about 30 thousand US citizens. More Americans in India would only increase the competitiveness of Indian companies.

Btw. as far as proportions go, Bangalore at any time has more outsiders than locals. The local Kannadigas are 5th when it comes to the population ratio. And perhaps that makes Bangalore more competitive than any other city in India when it comes to Information Technology.

Comment Re:Border Security? (Score 2, Insightful) 209

Yes, this is crazy. There are more than "11 million" illegal* Hispanic immigrants to US. The logic is, that by raising the fees for H1B, more money can be raised to control the immigration at the borders. There is nothing wrong with that, as every country has the right to determine the cost of its visa applications. But then is it logical?

The "total" number of H1B's has been 65,000. Out of this, only 20,000 applications got filled last year. And most of these applications are by people who are educated, English-speaking graduates. It does need some qualifications to get into companies like Intel, Microsoft or Infosys, be it any part of the world.

I am wondering what is more harmful to US? Is it those 60,000 underpaid IT-coolies who almost always have a bachelors or masters degree in their hand, or the millions of almost illiterate immigrants who cannot speak English, and out of which "many of them" rely on not-so-legal means of livelihood in US.

I visited a friend in Westchester, NewYork and found it funny that many people there could/would not speak English. It was even more idiotic that many of them had 5 kids, as US government provides child-support for each of them. This poor friend of mine is a Chinese national with a PhD degree who works as a researcher on an H1B, but it was ironic that his wife cannot legally work here even though she has a bachelors from a top university in China.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa

Slashdot Top Deals

"Money is the root of all money." -- the moving finger

Working...