CNN's reporting that a scientist at the University of Florida has developed a "brain" grown from 25,000 neurons extracted from a rat's brain that is capable of flying a plane in the F-22 flight simulator. According to the article, the brain and the simulator established a two-way connection to send and receive signals and eventually, the brain learnt to control the flight of the plane based on the information it received about flight conditions.
By 808140 (welcome to my friend's list! BTW, his handle and UID are the same ?! )
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=126468&cid=10582302
Re:A Brief Explanation (Score:5, Insightful)
by 808140 (808140) Friend of a Friend on Wednesday October 20, @10:27PM (#10582302)
Your question is a good one, but it has no answer. I'd like to explain why. It's a matter of philosophy.
You see, science (especially in popular consciousness) is seen as the discipline which endeavors to answer the question "why?" with respect to various observable phenomena. These questions have been at the center of human thought for well, ever. We created religion in its various forms to answer this very class of questions.
With the advent of science, it seemed as though we finally had a way to truly answer these questions, but unfortunately this stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of what science is. Science does not try to answer nor can it answer the why. The why has no answer.
Let me explain. Science (and specifically the scientific method) is designed to determine, through experiment and falsifiability of hypothesis, the way the world behaves and to model its behaviour. Because these theories often have far reaching consequences, laymen (and even scientists, unfortunately) often make the mistake of thinking that their theories explain the why. But they do not; they simply explain the how.
Let's explore this a bit. Newton's law of gravity did not explain why gravity exists. Why two bodies fall together is anyone's guess -- why, as a question, demands a reason. There may very well be a reason that two bodies fall together -- a popularly believed one is that some supernatural being designed it that way -- but physics does not, indeed, cannot, conjure up a reason by simply observing and modeling the way those two objects fall together.
An example of this in more human terms: suppose you have a batty friend, and everytime you say foo, he says bar, like clockwork. You would quickly observe this and would, in your mind, be able to construct a hypothesis based on this behaviour -- when the subject hears foo, he says bar. And you could construct a series of experiments that test this hypothesis -- perhaps you would find that in the presence of blondes, he utters baz instead. This knowledge would allow you to predict his behaviour in certain situations, but it would say nothing whatsoever about his reasons for it. Nor could any amount of observation ever explain the reasons.
Now, in physics this is obfuscated by the discipline's drive to isolate core phenomena. That is, it has been noted that often phenomena we observe are caused by smaller, less obvious phenomena. So, for example, attempts to make gravity fit into quantum mechanics have driven physicists to suggest that gravity as a force is mediated by a graviton, or what not. If this were ever demonstrated by experiment and became widely accepted, a laymen might ask, "why does gravity behave the way it does?" and a physicist might explain that it has to do with property xyz of gravitons. But this is not an explanation.
This is simply telling the listener that the macroscopic observable phenomenon of gravity is actually made up of several, less easily observable phenomena. This is all well and good, but you'll notice that it actually explains "how" gravity works. "Why does my house keep out the rain?" "Because it has a roof." It seems logical, but it isn't. Because the roof is how it keeps out the rain -- the reason it keeps out the rain is something much more subtle, like, "Because the designers felt that the house's inhabitants would rather not get wet."
Science answers the how of things, and it does this exceedingly well. It cannot (and for the most part, does not even attempt) to answer the why. But why and how are so muddled in the way people think that lots of folks (scientists included) are deluded into thinking that science will eventually explain the big questions like "why does the universe exist", and "why are we here."
If you've ever asked a scientist the latter question, you may have gotten something along the lines of "We're here as a result of abiogenisis, followed by billions of years of evolution, catelysed by Darwinian natural selection and occasional random mutations." He hasn't lied to you; there's evidence to support everything he says. But he's explaining how we got here, not why we're here, which is why this answer is somewhat less satisfying than we hoped it would be. He's not answering the question we asked. He probably doesn't even realize it. In fact, we ourselves may not realize it.
When a religious person says, "We're here because God made us in his image", he has no evidence, and is essentially selling you what he believes and so we're often unsatisfied, because we feel that he lacks the credibility of science, which is based on falsifiable principles deduced from observable phenomena. But the religious person is actually attempting to answer the question you asked: he's giving you a reason for our existence, even if it seems to be a facile one.
Religions don't make this distinction easy on themselves because they foolishly get caught up in trying to answer the how, too. So they make up stories about Adam and Eve or Pandora's Box or whatever their creation story is -- this mythology is a primitive attempt at answering the how, and science does this in an infinitely better and more reliable way.
But Science can never answer the why. This is chiefly the realm of religion an philosophy. Who knows why gravity works the way it does? It just does. Obviously, if I drop an apple, it falls. It has done this for all time and I induced from this that next time I drop an apple, it will also fall. I explain at what speed it falls by careful measurement, and find that for bodies with mass that differs enough, the acceleration is relative the masses of the two bodies and inversely proportional to the square of their distance from each other. All good, that. But it isn't why.
I'm agnostic myself, by which I mean that I don't believe in God but don't write off the possibility that such a being could exist (in the days of the luminferous aether, I probably wouldn't have believed that special relativity was true, either, but as I've been shown proof, I've changed by viewpoint -- I suppose I would do the same if "proof" of God could be given). But I think that this subtle distinction between the how and why is one of the reasons that so many of the most brilliant scientists have been religious. Ultimately, you realize that you can never induce intent by just observing operation. At best you can make educated guesses. At best.
So, yeah, to sum up, Science: how? Religion: why? And the two are linearly independent, if you will. And therefore do not conflict. You just need to make sure that you let science answer the how and religion the why, and not get caught up in ridiculous mythologies that are falsifiable by modern science (Noah's Ark, for example, or Adam and Eve).
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Microsoft Pays Dearly for Insults through Ignorance
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In Other News... (Score:2)
by GillBates0 (664202)
on Thursday August 19, @05:58PM (#10017515)
(http://slashdot.org/~GillBates0 | Last Journal: Wednesday July 14, @10:15AM)
Microsoft Pays Dearly for Insults through Ignorance
Microsoft has lost millions of dollars simply because its employees were not geographically aware. Interesting laundry list of decisions that were made without taking political or religious aspects into consideration.
--
PS:Slashdot's 10^7th comment [slashdot.org]
[ Reply to This
]
Starting Score:
1
point
Karma-Bonus Modifier
+1
(Edit)
Total Score:
2
I/O, I/O,
It's off to disk I go,
A bit or byte to read or write,
I/O, I/O, I/O...
");
According to this CNN story, Chief executives from 150 of the largest U.S. companies (including Coca-Cola, Alcoa, Boeing, Burlington Northern, Deere and General Motors) are lobbying against the technology industry, accusing them of selling software vulnerable to hackers and too difficult for consumers to use safely. The group cites estimates from the nation's banks and savings institutions that attacks by viruses and worms cost that industry more than $1 billion a year. Their complaints "reflect exasperation by companies over the expense and hassle of keeping their computer networks safe for consumers". Interesting that they seem to be addressing about the entire "technology industry", when most of their complaints stem from software produced by a single Company. Good to see Joe MegaCorp industries beginning to realize the importance of computer security, nevertheless. Hope it's not too late for them to withdraw their grandiose Windows ATM plans.
Saving it here for me to read when I need it.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105817&cid=9013783
Re:Not Applicable! (Score:5, Informative)
by statusbar (314703) on Thursday April 29, @07:16PM (#9013783)
(http://www.jdkoftinoff.com/)
The problem that I have experienced with tomboys is that:
1) They dislike other women
2) They prefer to hang out with other guys instead
3) They end up having lots of male friends
4) These males, unless they are gay, are usually not real friends
5) 'Accidental' cheating occurs.
--jeff++
(only subscribers can see entire comment history, we freeloaders have to the "Latest 24 of n Comments".
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=104748&cid=8916471
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=104758&cid=8917306
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=104802&cid=8922306
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=104926&cid=8932158
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=104941&cid=8933853
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105022&cid=8939408
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105198&cid=8953169
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105189&cid=8958850
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105347&cid=8966700
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105412&cid=8971691
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105572&cid=8985442
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105607&cid=8989035
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105836&cid=9008131
And here is the entire "Info" Page pasted here, to make it easier to correlate the links to comments. I could've done this the hard way, but no time right now. In order to correlate the comments to links above, start from the bottom, and continue up (pasted comments in reverse order
More on this development on Google News. Thursday April 29, @03:04PM 2
attached to Google Files for IPO
If the future arrives...that is Thursday April 29, @02:07PM 1 2
attached to Diamond Age Approaching?
Looks like the message seeped through at last Thursday April 29, @12:13PM 1 5, Funny
attached to Microsoft's Strategy Memos
Perhaps to catch a glimpse of the future.... Tuesday April 27, @04:35PM 2 5, Interesting
attached to Chernobyl Becomes Tourist Hot Spot
Loads of money being misused Tuesday April 27, @04:13PM 1 2
attached to Notebooks Replace Textbooks in Texas
net thugs? Tuesday April 27, @03:40PM 1 5, Funny
attached to The War Of The Word
c'mon autozone, have a heart... Tuesday April 27, @12:56PM 1 2
me! me! Tuesday April 27, @12:37PM 6 5, Funny
attached to AutoZone Responds To SCO
Shameless school plug Tuesday April 27, @10:17AM 1 2, Offtopic
attached to NETI@Home to Examine Net's Strengths
Move up one iteration at a time Monday April 26, @05:29PM 1 2
attached to Moving Up the IT Ladder in a Poor Economy?
Hope this will bring us closer to Monday April 26, @09:35AM 7 5, Interesting
attached to Synthetic Life In The Lab
What i love even more is Sunday April 25, @03:37PM 1 5, Informative
attached to How The DMCA Affects Search Engines
Is that a.... Saturday April 24, @03:04PM 3, Funny
attached to Biometric Voice Recognition Credit Cards
Wikipedia is your Phriend Saturday April 24, @10:58AM 5 5, Interesting
attached to Poll: Best Perfect Number?
Fever and Agent Smith's golden words Friday April 23, @03:31PM 3 5, Insightful
attached to Satellites Show That Earth Has a Fever
Totally agree Friday April 23, @10:20AM 2
attached to Koolio, the Beer Delivery Robot
Also, it doesn't say which OS Thursday April 22, @11:41AM 5 5, Interesting
attached to DOD Kicks Up Cybersecurity Efforts
How about money
attached to Poll: Favorite Vending Machine Purchase?
messed that up.... Wednesday April 21, @05:46PM 3, Interesting
More power to Akamai! Wednesday April 21, @05:43PM 3
5, Interesting
attached to Akamai -- The Other Huge Distributed System
Not to nitpick but... Wednesday April 21, @03:01PM 2
4, Informative
attached to This Robot Collects Fingerprints
Potential Application Tuesday April 20, @05:29PM 3 5, Insightful
attached to Montreal Parking Meters Run Linux
It should be the school's responsibility Tuesday April 20, @11:34AM 4 5, Insightful
attached to MPAA Infiltrating Campus Nets with Software
My parents voted Tuesday April 20, @10:35AM 1 5, Informative
attached to India Starts All-Electronic National Elections
Super 8mm Home Projector (Score:5, Interesting)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Thursday January 22, @06:41PM (#8060990)
(http://slashdot.org/~GillBates0 | Last Journal: Saturday February 07, @08:37AM)
My father has an old Super 8mm home projector lying around, with a bunch of home movies, which are lying around catching fungus. For nostalgia's sake, we still sit around once/twice a year and watch the old old movies projected on the 1.5x1.5 meter screen. He desperately wants to convert them to digital format, because they're really fragile. Any pointers, one how to go about this in a cost-effective manner? We've tried the brute-force method of re-filming the projected video off the wall, but it's *very* lossy. Some of the rare stores that do it charge anything from $5.00 per foot of film and up, which will cost a *lot* of money for the 200 odd reels lying around. Not exactly on topic, but any pointers to do it at home (I am willing to shell out upto $1000, if I need to buy a kit or something) will be *most* welcome. Thanks!
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/06/2139205&mode=thread&tid=146&tid=99 Re:Writing better? (Score:5, Funny) by ee_moss (635165) on Saturday February 07, @03:57AM (#8210560)
you'll end up teaching them more about English grammar than they ever would have otherwise learned.
I think the exception to this is my high school spanish teacher. She didn't know English and she didn't know Spanish. We argued for 3 weeks whether the word "Spanish" in the sentence "We are in la clase de la Spanish" (yes, that's how she said it) was an adjective or a verb. She argued in favor of the verb. Ah, public education.
One funny thing to note is she once gave out referrals (passes to go see the principal) to 2 students for "sending psychic messages during a test." The kids were staring at their papers very intensely and, to her, were apparently communicating answers psychically. Another one of her students jumped out of her second story window while she was teaching class, and she didn't know until he came back upstairs through the door.
Long time no update: current count (21 rejects, 5 accepts).
2004-04-01 19:49:18 April Fool's roundup (articles,humor)
As we near the end of April Fool's day, here
on the US East Coast, I thought it'd be useful (and funny) to roundup the
list of this year's hoaxes in one easy to maintain story. Here are the
ones I have so far (in addition, ofcourse to michael's current rampage of
real-submissions-unedited stories): Google Copernicus
Center is hiring, The EFF acquires the
US DoJ. Wikipedia is also tracking this year's
hoaxes.
And another one! Am I getting good at this or what!
DARPA Grand Challenge Kicks Off March 13th
Posted by
timothy
on Monday March 08, @10:40PM
from the for-great-justice dept.
GillBates0 writes "A quick reminder that the DARPA Grand Challenge is due to kick off March 13, the coming Saturday." He points to this "quick recap of the teams participating in the event," as well as details about the available satellite feeds. "The Atlanta-Journal Constitution is running a story about the event today. Quoting Frank Dellaert, co-director of Georgia Tech's robotics lab from the article, 'I would have trouble driving some of these roads myself. I think it's beyond the capabilities of autonomous vehicles today.' (shameless school plug). We'll see if the participants can prove him wrong."
Iphtashu Fitz adds a link to the New York Times' coverage of the trans-Mojave race, whose participants include "among other things a seriously tricked out motorcycle. The race is being run by the Pentagon, who is offering a $1 million prize to the builders of the first robot to successfully navigate a 200 mile route across the desert.
Yay! Another accepted story!
Microsoft Agrees Settlement Over MikeRoweSoft.com
Posted by
simoniker
on Monday January 26, @01:49PM
from the all's-fair-in-love-and-war dept.
GillBates0 writes "CNN's reporting that Microsoft Corp has settled with Mike Rowe, persuading the teenager to give up his domain name in exchange for costs of changing the existing domain to a new Web site, Microsoft certification training, an Xbox, an invitation to a technology festival at Redmond and some other gifts. Includes a choice quote from Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler: 'We wanted to do this in a way that's going to foster his interest in technology'. Mike had received a 25-page letter from Microsoft informing him he was committing copyright infringement, and threatening legal action, as reported earlier on Slashdot."
One more to add to the list today
Northwest Airlines sued over sharing passenger data 01/21/03 11:30am
Unfortunately I lost the html content that I submitted, when Mozilla crashed
I resubmitted the GoogleMail story with an additional link from CNN, and Simoniker posted it! Cool. Another thing...the guy did fix my single/double quotes and changed the links around a bit....who says
GillBates0's 1 Accepted Story
Google Eyes New Email Service, Expansion on Monday January 19, @04:02PM
Posted by
simoniker
on Monday January 19, @04:02PM
from the ultimate-internet-moogles dept.
GillBates0 writes "According to a CNN/Reuters story, Google is
developing a service to attach its lucrative keyword-based advertising to
email: ''I'm sure Google is getting more and more concerned about locking
in users. It wouldn't surprise me if they did something very sophisticated
with e-mail,' said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, who
tracks the industry.' Apparently, Google has purchased an e-mail management
software maker and registered the domain name googlemail.com. The article
also speculates that Google is slowly on the way to becoming a
full-fledged portal, with the gradual addition of more and more portal-like
features like Froogle."
This was the earlier reject for the same story: Ad now, GoogleMail: 01/17/04 (12:45pm)
According to this Times of India story, Google is developing a service to attach it's lucrative keyword-based advertising to email. "I'm sure Google is getting more and more concerned about locking in users. It wouldn't surprise me if they did something very sophisticated with e-mail," said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, who tracks the industry. Apparently, Google has purchased an e-mail management software maker and registered the domain name googlemail.com. The article also speculates that Google is slowly on the way to becoming a full-fledged portal with the gradual addition of more and more portal-like features like Froogle.
The Universe as a Computer: 12/15/03
Wired ran this interesting article last December about the computational nature of the Universe. The article touches on many theorems and constructs integral to modern computer science: Turing Machines, the Turing-Church Hypothesis, Conway's Game of Life, Finite State Machines, etc and speculates how the same theories can be used to explain the functioning of the Universe. Some choice quotes from the article: "The universe seems to behave like a vast cellular automaton". "In a sense, nature has been continually computing the 'next state' of the universe for billions of years; all we have to do and, actually, all we can do is 'hitch a ride' on this huge, ongoing Great Computation". It remains to be seen, however, whether God is the programmer, the software or the hardware which runs the Universe. If this is true, Science is just the process of reverse-engineering the software and hardware that make up the Universe.
Student discovers largest known prime number: 12/11/03; 13:10(approx)
Close on the heels of the SETI story on
Something weird happened today. A new article showed up in the Old Articles section as yesterday's article...complete with date and everything with 0 comments posted ( I got FP! as AC ofcourse, at my first attempt ever!):
600 New Species of Fish Discovered
Posted by Hemos on Wednesday October 22, @09:22PM
from the cataloguing-it-all dept.
zenobr writes "Some 300 scientists from 53 countries are creating a record of all known marine life, in a project reminiscent of an aquatic Doomsday Book. So far more than 15,000 species of fish have been catalogued and 2 to 3 thousand more are expected to be catalogued before the project's end in 2010. Over 500 of the fish catalogued thus far are thought to be new to science. Full story on BBC News"
The next time I refreshed
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/2 3/2143200&tid=
However, when I tried to access it again, I got the error message.
Not subscriber, or not subscribed page
You can't see this story because it's scheduled in the future, where only subscribers can see it.
Either you are not a subscriber to Slashdot, or you have indicated you don't want Stories pages ad-free, or you have set your daily limit of ad-free pages to lower than the default 10. Any of these three possible issues can be resolved at your subscription page.
LOL
Strings OMG!! (Score:4, Funny)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Tuesday September 02, @04:26PM (#6853248)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
Einstein once wondered aloud whether "God had any choice" in creating the universe.In principle, strings can unite all the forces of nature, including gravity, in a single mathematical framework.
So what happens when God messes up on bounds checking, or memory allocation for strings?
Segmentation fault. Asteroid dumped *shudder*.
I guess we're lucky He decided to steer clear of pointers.
long long ago;
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=76985&cid=6853248
A typical traveler's guide (Score:3, Funny)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Wednesday September 03, @01:27PM (#6860509)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
This book really does look like a typical traveler's guide with large print, bold headings, a good use of colour and text boxes.
Does it have any good ideas on how to get there and back?
long long ago;
[ Reply to This ]
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77073&cid=6860509
Time for a
by GillBates0 (664202) on Wednesday September 03, @05:05PM (#6862880)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
Where is the Broad?
1. At home, cooking dinner
1. Working
2. Not working
3. Reloading Slashdot
4. I don't know a broad, you insensitive clod!
5. Making out with CowBoyNeal
ooh...broadBand....
never mind.
long long ago;
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77094&cid=6862880
NOT about compiler code generators (Score:5, Interesting)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Thursday September 04, @12:55PM (#6870244)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
I've been doing R&D work with compilers (Ada/C(++)/Java(bytecode generators)) for quite a while now, and the first thought that occurred to me was that this is an article/book about the code generator pass in compilers.
But apparently, it is not. I, for one, wasn't too happy seeing the term "code generator" applied to superficial software that generates HTML/user level code for standard dialog boxes etc. HTML isn't code in the first place, anyway.
Maybe I'm being too fussy about this, but a code generator, traditionally has always meant a part of the compiler back-end which actually translates intermediate code to machine-level instructions. VB and other UI tools generate stubs for the most part...well maybe they are code generators, but I'm just not too happy about the choice of terms.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77200&cid=6870244
Can we fit an anti-MS rant here (Score:5, Funny)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Friday September 05, @12:45PM (#6880579)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77200&cid=6870244
Infrasound in movies (Score:3, Interesting)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Monday September 08, @08:35AM (#6898715)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
If Infrasound can be produced by normal speakers/woofers, it could be used to add a significant chill factor in horror movies. I bet howling and those spine-chilling wooooooo wooooo sounds *shudder* classify as Infrasound? Because they certainly scare the shit out of me.
And what's the big deal here...instead of the ghosts scaring people, it's the ghosts producing infrared sound that scares people.
I'm still scared of my Infrasound producing ghost-overlords.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77619&cid=6898715
I have seen many of these! Spooky! (Score:5, Funny)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Monday September 08, @10:46AM (#6899702)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
Any
I've seen a large number of these mysterious tiles. They too have strange writing on them, which sometimes makes lewd suggestions or tells offensive jokes. I have always wondered how that writing was created on all those tiles. I've usually noticed these mystery tiles in restrooms stalls at schools, offices, and even airports in many major cities around the world! It's good to know people are starting to investigate the matter.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77642&cid=6899702
Da' finga' (Score:5, Funny)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Monday September 08, @01:28PM (#6901388)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
"We're willing to hold out our version of an olive branch," Sherman said.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77663&cid=6901388
Monsters Inc (Score:4, Funny)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Tuesday September 09, @10:08AM (#6909258)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
Now kids will be scared of RIAA reps under their beds.
12 year old kid: Mommmmeeee come quick! There's a big bad slobbering RIAA-man under my bed! *sob*
Mommy: Don't worry sweetheart, we will make the big nasty RIAA-man go away. Take that *biff* *bash*. There you go honey, go to sleep now, he's dead.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77200&cid=6870244
Welcom'... (Score:5, Funny)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Wednesday September 10, @03:03PM (#6923672)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
Da only thin' I can 'tink of is:
I, fo' on', welcom da' new musubi cookin' overlords
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77200&cid=6870244
What the case really is (Score:5, Insightful)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Thursday September 11, @12:49PM (#6932404)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
During the economic boom, and even before that, the US has always needed employees. The high job to population ratio meant less qualified people to fill up job vacancies. That's how the H1 visa program came into being, and was greatly appreciated during the 1990's boom.
Unlike the US, India, being a developing nation, with a very large economy has always had a dirth of jobs. There are a few hundred people to fill up a single job vacancy. Thus, India has *never* felt the need for foreign employees.
However, I know for a fact that a large number of Americans/Europeans (and even Russians in defense companies) regularly work on contract basis. I had a Russian neighbor long back, working in India on a 2 year contract with a defense company.
So people, before you start flaming, ponder over the fact that a law for hiring outside employees doesn't exist because there hasn't ever been a need for it. Now with the outsourcing, it may not be too long before the government comes up with an H-1 like plan.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=78091&cid=6932404
Somebody sure's having a good weekend (Score:4, Funny)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Sunday September 14, @01:58PM (#6957831)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
An authentic Native American open pit salmon barbeque (salmon run permitting) will be offered on Friday evening. Lunch on Saturday will be the Willow Creek version of a mall food court. Various fund-raising groups will provide a wide variety of luncheon choices, including Indian tacos, hot dogs, hamburgers, desserts, and snacks. A classic pit-barbequed beef dinner by the Willow Creek Kiwanis Club is on tap for Saturday evening.
If only the
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=77200&cid=6870244
The Indian Brain Drain. (Score:5, Interesting)
by GillBates0 (664202) on Sunday September 14, @04:36PM (#6958522)
(Last Journal: Friday August 29, @09:38AM)
So global companies grow globally. Shouldn't India be a little upset that we have most of their software programmers here?' Heh."
The Indian government has been concerned about the "brain drain" since 1990 or so. Atleast that's around the time they started acknowledging the fact that it was a serious problem.
The government puts in a lot of money into the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Regional Engineering Colleges. Tuition fees and on-campus living expenses are greatly subsidized for students who are admitted to these colleges based on national-level exams (like the IIT-JEE believed to be the toughest [educationtimes.com] exam at it's level in the world).
A large percentage of graduates from these colleges look for higher salaries and better jobs outside of India: in the US and Europe or Asia, and given the huge amount of resources that the government (and tax payers) pumped into their education, it naturally gets the jitters when students choose to work abroad.
The Indian government has lately taken to giving pep talks in colleges, in addition to distributing booklets explaning the effect of brain drain on the local economy.
I think brain-drain is essentially an outcome of globalization. Technology, irrespective of where it is developed benefits the world as a whole.
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