Showing posts with label sustainable growth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sustainable growth. Show all posts

Saturday, August 27, 2011

On Parliamentary Despotism & the Rise of Democratic Oligarchy

Complacence of the Indian Polity has led to the Rise of a Democratic Oligarchy and has resulted in Parliamentary Despotism. Our elected no longer represent the electorate's interests, primarily due to the electorate's self-induced slumber. However, when the spell of this slumber is broken a stalemate is reached; where the "representatives" do not want to yield to the political supremacy of the Polity, refuse to work in the interest of the People, but merely find it their duty to continue their control of the State, wield their powers without paying heed to the purpose of its grant. The disturbing fallacy then results and eclipses the bright sun of democracy where the means to the end become the end unto themselves. The Electorate on the other hand of such a stalemate seeks accountability, compliance and a return to the call of duties of the State.

History teaches us the drastic fall outs of such stalemates - The American Revolution (primarily a fight against virtual representation, the "No Tax Without Representation" Slogan) and the Indian Struggle for Independence (Purna Swaraj - complete self rule), both bringing about a re-institution of the Grundnorm (narrowly construed as a nation's Constitution).

The current Political Stalemate has now forced us to consider our options, whether to re-institute the Grundnorm, that has served us so well during the era of judicial activism, or retain this archaic machinery only to be reoiled with enactments that bring about transparency, accountability and honesty and weed out corrupt grime that has made the running of this leviathan politically, socially, and economically inefficient.


Sunday, October 3, 2010

Salvage Inc.

The flag has to be borne by someone. So the soldiers of open source march on without Oracle!!! It is sad that Oracle does not think OOo to be worth its while. Yet the believers still strive to compete against M$ Inc.




Reference:

Future Ubuntu Releases Will Ship with LibreOffice an OpenOffice Fork





Saturday, September 4, 2010

Ubuntu: The First Seduction

Introduction of the Paid Market Space will give an opportunity for Mac & Windows application and software vendors to reach Linux customers directly. People who shift from Mac or Windows will then have an option to continue to use their favorite proprietary software even in Linux. This is a move to earn revenue as well as make the free desktop Linux popular. Shuttleworth has once again shown his brilliance at marketing!!!



References:

Ubuntu 'Maverick Meerkat' erects own App Store






Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Re-Create a New Internet ...

Create an extreme so that the obvious becomes relevant and important. The Google-Verizon deal did just that for net neutrality. Polarization was the only way oblivious Internet users could be awoken from their dream that all is now no more well. Governments in the name of net neutrality want complete control of what we do, and so do private corporations, with or without their cartels.

The NEED to create a parallel Internet, like most parallel economies, never had a more compelling argument like the Google-Verizon debate has sparked off!!!



References:







Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Jail House Break!!!

The DMCA does not crack down as expected, but Apple has surely been bitten by the Copyright Board ruling on Cellphones, both for adding unapproved software installation as well as untethering of phones to run with all operators. Let the free market rule, without any anti-competitive measures forcing the consumer, who has ownership rights over his phone, to give-up his usufructory rights. Sadly of course, violation of contractual terms, thereby voiding of warranty, has not been held as a conscionable violation, merely the DMCA Copyright violation has been waived, so to speak!!!





References:

DMCA ruling supports smartphone jailbreaking, unlocking

Copyright Office OKs iPhone 'Jailbreaking'

Jailbreaking the iPhone: Not a Federal Offense

iPhone Jailbreaking: Legal, but Dangerous

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Let he who is without sin, cast the first Apple!!!

Disparagement is the only word that comes to mind upon reading the following. One and all phone makers are dismissing Apple's claims of signal drop upon strategic handling of other smart phones. Now what is to be seen is, whether the Law of Defamation of Goods comes to take a bite at the Apple after its almost eaten by the Antennagate!!!





References:

Apple's iPhone 4 Antenna-gate Gambit Pays Off

More phonemakers condemn Apple's defence of iPhone 4


Samsung dismisses Apple's claims on smartphones









Sunday, June 20, 2010

Clone Wars ... Let the Price Competition Begin!!!

The next year from today shall see cut-throat competition in the touch screen and qwerty cellular phone market with the rise of Indian phone makers and their value driven product targeting. This Clone Wars of new cheaper models to their expensive branded siblings is driven by two determinants: Newer Open Source OS and Local Hardware development.





References:

G-Fone 777 Dual SIM Phone now in India

Samsung debuts Bada, its own OS with launch of Samsung Wave in India

Smartphone Apps, Android Phones and the Search for Open Mobile Ecosystems

Samsung S8500 Wave: 5 MP camera AMOLED touchscreen handset @10000 in India

INQ to launch a touch screen, Android based mobile phone in India!

Micromax Q55 Bling Price and Features







Monday, June 14, 2010

Saved by the Dell!!!

Dell is riding the wave or is just being supportive or is trying to push in Ubuntu based Servers in future, it all would be seen in time, but as of now Dell is the only one out there that thinks Linux has a chance and is betting heavily on it!!!



References:

Dell flirts with Ubuntu as Windows rival

Ubuntu 'more secure' than Windows, says Dell

Dell Says: "Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft Windows"

Ubuntu safer than Windows, its official





Saturday, June 12, 2010

War of the Roses: Back-stab ... Adobe justifying Apple's fears!!!

On the 11th of June 2010, Adobe announced their discontinuance of Linux 64 bit support for Flash 10.1, a move that has left many Linux desktops Flashless so to speak. Linux 64 bit first came into existence way back in 1993 when DEC released the 64-bit DEC OSF / 1 AXP a UNIX-like operating system (later renamed Tru64 UNIX) for its systems based on the Alpha architecture followed by the year 2000 release of Linux on zSeries, much before Windows (in 2001) or Apple (in 2003) even created their 64 bit OS versions!!! More so Linux has been aligning with Adobe till WebM comes along. But this move of Adobe totally changes the scenario and creates a rift for Linux to now start suspecting Adobe and seeing reason in Apple's fears. Much is rest to be seen. In the meanwhile all 64 bit Linux users are inter alia without the benefit of YouTube for starters!!!



References:

Adobe Closes Flash Player 64-bit for Linux Labs Program

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta 64bit For Linux Discontinued ~ Web Upd8








Friday, June 4, 2010

Minority Report ... ACTA

Efforts to criminalize the acts of infringement in stages of inception or planning, fashioned as Imminent Infringement, is being pushed. It is the first non-Anti-State thought crime being envisaged. India, for reasons of keeping Medical Companies' profiteering hopes alive is opposing such an effort, and the fallouts shall be beneficial for technology and innovation.



References:

India to sabotage ACTA

China, India To Raise Concerns At WTO About “TRIPS-Plus” Measures, ACTA

India Steps up to Plate to Fight US ACTA Piracy Pact








Friday, May 21, 2010

Employee Control sees new Depth!!!

I have always wondered whether this would stop at an extreme point on the scale from 1 to 10; but always find that Employee Control redefines the 10th limit each time, to push it further into the 11th, 12th and 13th degree of absolutism and insanity. The only thing that could be said here is ... "GET A LIFE, you freaking controller of lives"!!!





Reference:

Is playable Pac-Man getting Google's home page banned?




Thursday, May 20, 2010

War of the Roses: Battle Lines Drawn

Now it seems clear, a waste of effort on part of MS & Apple, howsoever apart their goals might be, that the new age is not theirs for the keeping, since Google pretty much owns the commanding share of web content search, management, and formatting. Given Google's commitment to net-neutrality, MS & Apple sure would have a fair chance, but that would also be on the Google turf. Adobe's prudence in being on Google's turf on strategic terms would sure pay-off in future, despite being as closed as Apple and MS themselves are!!! Its now just about taking sides: Google or Anti-Google ... such a determinate factor this ... eh!!!





References:

Is Google's WebM a game-changer or a big mess?

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Unix-like versus Unix-like ... the War of the Roses!!!

Apple is about to be left in the ice cold winter of the snow leopard with its new tactics of taking on Adobe. Google and Canonical are already developing flash based tools and developer kits and ignoring Apple or any new video format it may want to float on a large scale (SVG for instance). Adobe seeks to launch flash in the HTML5 era and Apple is competing hard to beat it. Apple's closed door policy is not going to work given the Unix revolution having become more competitive with Google and Canonical gunning for the original Unix cousin called Macintosh OS.

Besides, I wonder why are the FTC and the EU Commission not taking cognizance of Apple's behavior!!!



References:

Apple and Adobe's war of words heats up

Ubuntu Wants Adobe, Even if Apple Doesn't - PCWorld


Google's Chrome now silently auto-updates Flash Player








Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Apple of Deceit ...

The Devil works its ways through the apple once again!!! Trade related restrictions upon partners is not only abuse of dominant position but also a road to take over the universe like Darth Vader! But little do we all realize that Apple has already made us slaves by selling us bare bones and thereafter requiring us to run those bones with purchased muscles, skin and the works at its app store.

Apple also restricts access to open source developers to develop freely executable applications for its operating systems/embedded software.

I hope to see the Competition Commission of India taking a peek and wrestling with this sumo Apple for exacting fairness.


References:

EFF Breaks Down Apple's App Store License

EFF posts Apple's Iphone SDK licence terms





Monday, March 1, 2010

Green Fuel: Animal that fails to get tamed!!!

Crop production cycles of bio fuels cumulatively fail to meet emission standards, a classic case of environmental externalities being considered. Do we have a no go on bio fuels then?! The only remedy then is solar, until we discover silicon pollution; or wind, until we discover high cost of maintenance; geo-thermal, until we discover fissure safety depletion ... is there actually a remedy to the energy crisis of our times or are we doomed inevitably??!!!



References:

Biofuels could increase emissions

Biofuel is not as green as it seems




Saturday, February 20, 2010

Enforcing freedom ... to be free

One of the major landmark settlements and probably a de facto precedent, the enforcement of a dream seems to be coming true. Law is now being used to free the once constrained and fettered premises that law itself imposed!!!



References:

A Big Victory for F/OSS: Jacobsen v. Katzer is Settled

Settlement in benchmark case means FOSS licenses can be enforced





Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Meaning of Self Governance ...

all celebrate the adoption of the Constitution of India today but in fact no one has ever celebrated the Constitution since its inception ...

a true celebration entails practicing its tenets in our daily lives ...




Reference:

Kiwi school stands up to government and Microsoft


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Opening up to the source of creativity ...

Then why does Indian Government have to spend on MS Windows licensing ?!! The Delhi High Court uses Vista, so do many government offices. We sure lack political will to eradicate profiteering and enforce judicious use of taxpayers' money.



References:

California blesses open source as 'acceptable'

California Warms Up to Open Source Software in Government








Friday, January 8, 2010

The Wolf of Environment amongst the flock of Unemployed Sheep assisted by Artificial Intelligence ...

Run the local newspaper wala out of his livelihood, cashiers jobless, bill payment haats closed, so we now see how the New Year will evolve with such resolve !!!

New Year equation:

Value Added Services + I.A. = Unemployment



References:

Save trees, Save Environment great message by idea mobile

'Environment' is Idea Cellular's next big idea