I absolutely agree.. Full disclosure: I am an Indian.

The management of businesses in the US and the first world make it seem like the Asians are all hardworking geniuses and that is why all the work is being outsourced to Asia - but the truth is that the work is only being farmed out because the salaries in Asia are much lower than in the first world.

The truth be told, for the most part, the Asians aren't as skilled or as educated as their western counterparts. Not to say that Asians don't have degrees - there may in fact be more Asians with postgraduate degrees than the first world.. and not that Asians are stupid or lazy either.

It is just that the educational institutions in most Asian nations are there simply to hand out degrees not an education. In the west, a lot of students take up courses because they enjoy the subject - but most Asian students take up courses with a view of getting a high paying job - with very little interest in the subject. And this impacts the quality of their skill and also their overall understanding of the subject.

By the way, when I say Asians, I am also including Indians into this - we are also part of Asia.

The Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) put out a notice in 2010 claiming that Huawei is involved in spying for the Chinese government.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-05-07/news/27580384_1_chinese-telecom-huawei-technologies-ren-zhengfei

I think the similarity is very easy to see. Galileo was silenced because his views contradicted the consensus of the time. You can only miss this fact if you are already pretty religious in your "beliefs" about climate change and you view any dissenting opinion almost like heresy or blasphemy.

Many people who post comments on Slashdot and most US-centric websites assume that if someone posts anything critical of climate change research, they must necessarily be a Republican Teabagger. Many of us are not even Americans and we don't live in the US - we are not being paid off by your oil companies. We have nothing whatsoever to do with your internal US politics.

Some of us believe that climate change may be occurring. But we are not certain about what is causing it. The scientists keep blaming it on the use of fossil fuels and a lot of the discussion seems to surround it.

Vast tracts of forests are being completely cleared for industries and housing, and though this does find mention in the IPCC reports, most of the cure for global warming which is given in scientific publications seems to focus only on things like alternate energy. Very little is actually spoken about reversing the deforestation - about increasing green spaces. Why is that?

At a higher price. They should see the Touchpad version 1 as the promotional for the second version of the Touchpad. There are so many people who have purchased Touchpads now that there is now a market for WebOS apps unlike earlier.. and also there are enough people who have used Touchpads to know that HP can make a very decent tablet.

I am not trying to be a jackass or be sarcastic. But let me ask you why you aren't considering starting a protest? I wouldn't advise violence of any kind though for the simple reason that the ultimate result of violence is more and more hatred.. and the cycle of violence will be hard to stop.

But there are so many homeless people in the US - and so many unemployed people; many of whom who lost their jobs because of the greed of the banks and the super rich. These people may be very willing to join in a protest - but they need someone to start it for them; and also handle all the planning and the logistics involved.

If you are a person who can handle this, why don't you consider starting the protest. I am serious.

If one were to sit down and write out a plan for a long, prolonged protest which is both popularly supported as well as sustainable - at least sustainable enough to bring about change, then what would that plan include:

1. It would include a set of points which the government / wall street must agree to. This must be clear and specific so that progress can be measured. These should be communicated very clearly to the government and to all volunteers who join the protest.

2. It would include setting up volunteers to:

a) Recruit more volunteers

b) Provide the logistics needed to handle the crowds

c) Manage the marketing
c.1) To transfer the enthusiasm of the core group managing the protest so that the crowd can buy into the overall vision behind the protest.
c.2) T-Shirts, banners and all sorts of media work

d) Manage the dissemination of news and public relationships

e) Handle the legal aspects such as permits, getting legal services to those who are arrested etc.

f) Manage the generation of funds

g) Manage the accounting of the funds so that there is no misappropriation etc.

I am sure there are many on Slashdot who may be willing to step in to help with this.

I am not American and neither do I reside in the US, but if I were there, I would definitely either start this protest or join in long term in the protest.

People travel out of the US for treatment not because US is lagging behind technologically, it is because the healthcare in the US is ridiculously expensive. A lot of people travel to places like Asia for treatment - and most Asians are known to be deeply religious - especially parts of South Asia where most people go for treatment - Thailand, India, Malaysia etc.

Face the facts - US is pretty advanced technologically including in medical science and for some types of treatment, US is absolutely the best. There are a LOT of people who travel to the US for treatment - even from Asia; but they are mostly the very wealthy because US is by far the most expensive place in the world for healthcare related services.

Flash does a whole lot more than HTML5 does - including providing access to web cams etc. To consider Flash dead just because flash cannot be embedded directly as a tile on the metro interface is stupid. Users can always opt to use a browser with flash enabled. I will be very surprised if many users on Slashdot don't install a new version of the flash plugin everytime they install an OS from scratch.

Well, I signed up just before you ;)

Thanks Rob for all your work. Learnt much from this site over the years and have been grateful for what you put together. The term slashdotted exists thanks to you :). Best of luck with whatever you set out to do.

I know it is cool on slashdot to blame religion for everything and sundry. Also, I know it is considered cool to mouth off about things that you know nothing about - especially if religion is also blamed for something in the same post.

But here are some facts:
1. The number of deaths from Malaria alone each year is around 1 million.
http://www.malarianomore.org/malaria

2. The number of deaths from TB alone each year is around 1.7 million (2009 figures)
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/

These are numbers for just two diseases. I challenge you to find me statistics which indicate that religion is directly responsible for at least 2.7 million deaths each year.

The highest temperature ever recorded anywhere in India was just south of 52C... and Bangalore is a place with very temperate climate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_weather_records#Highest_temperature_ever_recorded

Bangalore never gets above 40 C.. and very rarely does it get over 35 C. It is true that a large number of trees were cut down and the temperature did go up, but it wasn't anywhere close to the 10C that you claim.

Noticed an error in my post - it should read:
If you configure it with the following specs it comes to about *USD 1749/-*. If you are too lazy to read the article, I have given the specs below:

The Apple Macbook Pro 17 costs (USD 2578/- with anti-glare screen and display port adapter for VGA)

Here is a laptop which has similar or better specifications than a Apple Macbook and an excellent support service. You can checkout reviews of Powernotebooks for an idea about the quality of service they provide. NOTE: I am not associated with them in anyway. I have heard very good reports though.

Not a Dell, but better (for approximately USD 1749 or about than GBP 1077.50). Check this out:
http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=924

If you configure it with the following specs it comes to about USD 1595/-. If you are too lazy to read the article, I have given the specs below:

17.3” Full HD 16:9 Wide screen (1920x1080) LED-Backlit Display with Super Clear Glare Type screen vs 17" 1920x1200 Anti-glare on the Macbook Pro 17
nVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M 192bit w/1.5GB GDDR5 vs Intel HD Graphics 3000 on the Macbook Pro 17
Intel® Core i7-2630QM (2.0~2.9GHz, 45W) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads,
8GB (2x4GB SODIMMS) DDR3/1333 vs 4GB on the Macbook Pro 17
750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM (16MB Cache Buffer) vs 750GB SATA 5400 RPM on Macbook Pro 17
Integrated 802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN + Bluetooth V3.0 + HS Combo Card
Windows 7 Premium (with CD)
3-Year Labor 1-Year Parts (Year 2 & 3 Labor by PNB)-Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Support. vs No apple care plan on Macbook Pro (you can purchase a 3 year Apple care plan for 349.. the advantage is that you get international support unlike in the case of Powernotebooks.com)

In case you missed it - there is domestic toll free support in the US for the lifetime of the product with Powernotebooks.

So all in all a wonderful deal if you are in the US. Again, I am not associated with this company in any way, shape or form. Just pointing out that there are far better deals than buying a Macbook Pro.

Communism isn't the only alternative to laissez faire capitalism. A LOT can be achieved if capitalism is regulated. We have laws which prevent cartels, monopolies etc.

Companies have rules in place to prevent their employees from receiving gifts from vendors, clients and so on because they know that this can lead to a situation where there is a conflict of interest. But how is that there is no law that prevents senators, members of congress etc from receiving any funds from a company / trust / or any other organization? The politicians should be paid a salary from public funds and not allowed to take any money or any other consideration from any non-governmental organization.

I know you think you are pretty smart for making that observation - and those with mod points on slashdot here will be falling over themselves to mod you up because of the hivemind.

However, there is a huge difference between scientology and other religions - especially the more benign ones such as Christianity, Buddhism etc..

For one thing, every rite/ritual/creed of scientology is given on a pay-as-you-go basis.. no other religion does that.
For another - no other mainstream religion actively seeks to "disconnect" you from your friends and relatives
No other religion has actively infiltrated government and its agencies with the express purpose of thwarting an investigation.
No other religion has a policy that explicitly states that overwhelming legal force, harassment, lies and slander must be used to torment any opponent.