Most American schools are pretty good, even the ones constantly dissed by the media. Our kids go to US schools run by the municipalities. We know both sides of the equation. Most Americans see the Indian kids doing well in school. So they think India got another billion of them from where they come from. No, it is sample bias. It is the best educated and most hard working Indians make it to USA. After the dilution of standards due to the gaming the system by H1B shops like TCS, Accenture, Infosys etc you got the glimpse of just the next strata. And there are grads orders of magnitude worse than even the latest H1B back in India.

You over estimate the university degrees from India.

I am from India. I know what I'm talking about. But for a few good schools like IIT, IIM, IISc, AIIMS, NITs etc rest of what passes for college education in India is nothing more than rote-memorization and regurgitation. Both the Physics Nobel laureates of Indian origin (Raman and Chandrasekhar) are alumna of the University of Madras. Today, that univ does not have a single math prof capable of correcting an answers in a Real Analysis examination. The syllabus specifically says, "Real Analysis, with theorems and proofs as stated in the book Real Analysis by Apostal". You deviate from the proof given in that book, the professors are incapable of checking whether it is right or wrong. It is a disgrace to call it a university.

If I remember it right, it was the desire to find the secret tracking device that made Anakin get into hardware, and then on to pod racing. Granted, it was a kind of dumb to build a protocol droid to find a tracker, but kids are kind of dumb that way.

But the point is, I see a whole generation of potential Sith Lords emerging, all getting their crack in hardware by building a scanner to find the tracker installed by the Jabba-the-Car-hut dealerships.

And the angels too. Don't forget the ghosts, wraiths, phantoms, etc.

And the zombies. Never forget the zombies.

What was the 40k low end model?model E? That is the highly anticipated model. This one is a plaything for people with too much money.

Which the Sky Mall has been selling for ages and ages ...http://www.skymall.com/rfid-blocking-bill-fold---silver/SWD101.html#start=6

Of course there is no nationwide popular vote. But fact is more Americans voted for Democrats and they don't have the majority in the House. In a well designed system the House should match the vote. It does not.

The Republican rep who got 50% + 1 in a low turn out safe red district primary does not care about any Republican running for statewide office or the national offices. His/her biggest concern is the next primary fight, coming in two years. They alienate every voting bloc in the larger nation to get through the next primary.

The Republicans won the house after losing popular vote. Such a dichotomy has happened only once in the last 200 years. The current power of the Republican party stems from the gerrymandered districts. (For example: In PA Republicans lost the popular vote by 2 % and took 13 out of 18 districts).

Now democrats who won in Obama wave of 2008 are defending deep red districts and might lose them. In 2016 the Republican senators who won in the 2010 wave will be defending. This Republican senate majority will not last long.

The House majority will last longer. The gerrymandered districts and the hold on the state election system is making the Republican primary the real battle to win. That is creating very very hard right wing reps who take extreme positions. They alienate all the emerging vote blocs with impunity because they invulnerable. It is creating big trouble for Republicans running for Statewide offices.

I just saw in Costco a HP Chromebook, 13 inch full HD screen, 1 year of 4G service (I think capped to some ridiculous 200 MB per month. But still good enough for very occssional use), 10 sessions in domestic flights, etc. Priced at 300$. Paired with T-mobile. T-mobile has some great pay-as-you-go data plans too.

So HP is pushing a souped up Chromebook, and a bare bones PC, along with bare bones chromebook and the usual standard formfactor laptops. Looks like HP is throwing everything on the wall and is waiting to see what sticks. It might drop the bare bones chromebook price down too. Come Christmas I would not be surprised to see same spec chrome book at 99$ or 129$

Basic selling point of Chromebook is not just the low price, it is a low maintenance streaming device, with a full keyboard and better screen. HDMI out, bluetooth keyboard, ... why would I even think of buying Roku or chromecast, or smart TV?

Microsoft announced that starting from 2015, there will be a grand fusion of ALL User Interfaces. All devices, from wearable watch like device, to 4 or 5 inch phones, to 7 or 10 inch tablets to 15 or 18 inch laptops to 23 to 36 inch desktops will all use the Microsoft Band UI as the default UI.

There will be a hidden hotspot at the lower left corner to bring up the phone UI, and it will have another hidden hot spot and the mid point of left edge of screen to bring up the tablet UI, and that will have a hidden hot spot at top right to bring up the laptop UI and there will be a hot spot on the top left to bring up the desktop UI.

So, in one fluid motion, you can hit all the four corners and move up and down the UI. National Association of Chiropracters and Carpel Tunnel Healers of America welcomed the new UI and gave 10$ off coupons to all Microsoft users.

The wearable device was to be called Microsoft Banned. Apparently the marketing mavens thought that name would be a bit hit among the Linux, Apple and Chrome aficionados. You know the growing segment of users. But as usual their Chinese maker misspelt the name in the production run.

Almost all the engineering and mathematics and physics papers would depend on Pythagoras theorem. Even if not in the usual a^2 + b^2 = c^2 form, it would be in sin^2(theta) + cos^2(theta) = 1 form. But to my knowledge there is only one paper (The Imperturbility of Elevator Operators, by S Candlestickmaker) cites Pythagoras and the gem about PI = 3 for large values of three.

So some of the most widely used scientific discoveries never get cited.

That explains why my work did not make it to the top of this flawed metric.

Here is another link that is more readable. In a more easily readable form Candlestickmaker, S., and Helpit, Canna E. 1955, Compositio Math., 237, 476.

Giftcourt. M. F. 1956, J. Symbolic Logic, 237, 476.

Nostradamus, M. 1955, Centuries (Lyons).

Pythagoras — 520, in: Euclid — 300, Elements, Book I, Prop. 47 (Athens).

Shopwalker, M., and Salesperson, F. 1955, Heredity, 237, 476.

The merchant is also a small player compared to the banks and credit card companies. It is the credit card companies and banks that rake in the usurious 25% and 30% interest. They are the ones who maintain the system. They are the ones that authorizes the transaction. It is them who should bear the cost.

But they don't. They have paid off the politicians and are legally looting from small players.

Credit cards have a 50$ limit for liability for fraudulent transaction for the account holders. It is not due to any magnanimity or kindness of the credit card companies or the banks. Nor are market forces and competition forcing them to offer this. There are just two big players and they would collude rather than compete. It is the federal law. It protects the consumers when credit is extended electronically. When there is no credit involved there is no protection. As consumers we should demand the liability against fraudulent transactions to be part of any better system we transition to.

We should demand similar protection against ALL electronic charges, whether or not credit was involved. Telephone slamming should be included too. Our bank accounts need protection too. The burden of proof should be on those who are responsible for the installing and maintaining the system. Not the little guys who are users of the system.

In the current system, the cost of fraudulent transaction is not borne by the credit card user. Some slashdotter posted saying, the protection stems from the loan being advanced, so the protection is available even if the credit cards not used, but if actual credit was extended. In the proposed CurrentC system there is no loan advanced. So there will be no protection.

These slime balls would offer the same liability protection "voluntarily" in the introduction period. Once it takes hold they will transition out of that, and leave the customers holding the bag for fraudulent transactions.

But I don't think customers are going to fall for this. Someone steals your hard earned money, and the CurrentC system gives you a run around, the bad publicity travels fast. So they may not be able to weasel out later. But still I would rather have the protection from a federal law rather than the kindness of a private money dealing company. Money changers were found to be unscrupulous by one Jesus, son of Joseph, Nazareth, Judea some 2000 odd years ago.