Category Archives: Tech

Bill Gates again denounces H1-B visa curbs

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So does this mean that Microsoft is hiring?

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates slammed the federal government’s strict limits on temporary visas for technology workers, saying that if he had his way, the system would be scrapped entirely. “The theory behind the H-1B (visa)–that too many smart people are coming–that’s what’s questionable,” Gates said Wednesday during a panel discussion at the Library of Congress. “It’s very dangerous. You can get this idea that the world is very scary; let’s cut back on travel…let’s cut back on visas.” Federal quotas on H-1B visas, capped at 65,000 last year, have long been a sore spot for Microsoft and other technology companies. But, Gates said, the increased caliber of research institutions in China and India means that curbs on immigration and guest-workers will pose a greater threat to America’s competitiveness than ever before. [News.com]

Of course, the rudimentary pro- and con- noise from elected officials:

“I think there was a post-9/11 effort to cut down on visas,” added Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat. “I think this was a mistake.” Rep. David Dreier, a California Republican, was left defending stricter immigration rules. “We can’t be so naive as to think there is not a very serious problem” with terrorists entering the country, he said. [News.com]

News.com: Gates wants to scrap H-1B visa restrictions

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Effect of rising salaries on India IT

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India’s offshore dominance on the wane because of rising salaries? Hell no, says/hopes/prays Marc Hebert, the VP of a Silicon Valley company that has a branch in India:

Some even speculate that rising salaries in India will erode the cost advantage over U.S. IT workers, ultimately returning offshore jobs to American soil. But that’s only one side of the story. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reported death of Indian outsourcing is greatly exaggerated. The counterargument rests on two pillars: productivity and scale. Salaries may increase, but there are offsetting factors such as experience, infrastructure, high productivity levels and economies of scale to consider. Let me put it another way: The cost of doing information technology in India is falling, as the range and complexity of projects that can be offshored to India is increasing. [News.com]

News.com: The end of India’s offshore dominance?

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Man of La Gaza

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A couple of tech entrepreneurs are on a quixotic quest for peace in the Middle East: they’re holding screenings of the movie Gandhi in Palestine.

… more than two decades after the movie “Gandhi” filled theaters worldwide, the first version dubbed in Arabic was screened here, with the blessing of the Palestinian leadership… The film… has been issued previously with Arabic subtitles, but never before dubbed in the language. The organizers said they received permission from Sony Pictures to show it without charge in Palestinian communities.

Organizers of the “Gandhi Project” plan to show the film throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip… [and] to the large Palestinian refugee communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The project is bankrolled by Jeff Skoll, billionaire co-founder of eBay, and Iranian-American serial entrepreneur Kamran Elahian, founder of Cirrus Logic. They’ve brought in Ben Kingsley to host some of the screenings, but they’re running into some resistance:

Ben Kingsley, who won an Oscar for his starring role as Mohandas K. Gandhi, was in Ramallah as a guest of the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas… “It’s not possible,” interjected Sudki Safat, a friend of Ms. Afanah and an official in the Ministry of Education. “I know Gandhi and his principles. But I also know my enemy very well… Gandhi would fail if he faced the Israelis…”

Several said they were interested in other aspects of Indian resistance to British colonial rule, like economic self-reliance and the boycott of British products… “… I don’t think we have the means to boycott Israeli products.”…

Palestinians argue that they have pursued nonviolent resistance at various times over the years, to no avail… Israel, meanwhile, says the Palestinians as a whole have never made a strategic decision to abandon violence.

Meet Dell-jit

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Michael Dell personally opened a campus for his eponymous computer company in Mohali, a suburb of Chandigarh, today. The campus will house both sales and support:

The company employs more than 7,000 people in India, its largest work force outside the United States…. “Certainly the scale of India is pretty awe-inspiring,” [said Michael Dell]. Dell has one call center in the southern city of Hyderabad and another in India’s technology capital, Bangalore… [News.com]

Dell Inc., which had revenues of over $45 billion last year, would be the first major company to set up its centre in the Quark City complex being built here… by [a] software giant – Quark. Many other leading IT and software companies from India and abroad are expected to locate at the Quark City complex that is being planned with office spaces, residential areas, complete underground parking, 100 percent power backup and a lively entertainment area with shopping malls and multiplexes. [ToI]

We welcome Dell to the land of sardars in shades on scooters with sidesaddle Sikhnis, wax-tipped moustaches and mooli parantha. And we offer this unsolicited advice: the 12-step program for keeping your Punjabi workers happy is, the dhaba should be no more than 12 steps away.

Aliens vs. Predators

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First the Capitol building, now Bangalore? Taking a page from 9/11, Kashmiri militants may be targeting a powerhouse economic sector:

Documents seized from three members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist group killed in an encounter with police on Saturday revealed that they planned to carry out suicide attacks on software companies in Bangalore… Most of the technology companies in the city have already set up disaster recovery plans and special disaster recovery sites that could be used in the event of a terrorist attack… [ComputerWorld]

There are fears that Bangalore may have become a safe haven for Naxalites, the LTTE and also terrorist organisations and that the high-profile IT companies are the soft targets. [NDTV]

A 20-member team armed with automatic weapons… was rushed to the spot. They also took along the newly acquired bullet proof Rakshak jeep which can fire teargas shells from within… One such company whose name has been found in a diary seized from the militants is Polaris. Shams apparently had visited the Polaris office last year to prepare a map of the office. [ToI]

There’s no Polaris office listed in Bangalore, so take that with the usual Times of India helping of salt.

I gotta say, it’s the height of stupidity to attack a city that quarters defense contractors. You’d only make it personal. Do ya think the next generation of weaponry would specifically be designed to jam a warhead right up their crevices? Chakde phatte, Dr. Strangelove.

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Is your computer vegetarian?

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To y’all 220 million vegetarian desis: Is your favorite Asian restaurant’s idea of vegetarian food ‘yes, it has veggies too’? Do you marvel at how many ways some insidious bastards work meat into veggie dishes (pepperoni in pasta salad, rice cooked in chicken stock)? Are you sick of throwing away soup you bought without parsing the ingredients like a copy editor? Bored of restaurant menus that read meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, sprig of parsley?

Soon, you may also have to check whether your PC is made from animal products. Researchers are turning chicken feathers into computer motherboards:

To turn feathers into a usable product, they are first plucked from the birds at chicken-processing plants and then the hot, wet feathers are immediately hauled to Emery’s plant. There the “undesirable parts” like chicken heads, feet, windpipes and fecal matter are sorted out from the truckload of feathers. “They’re not a nice sight, to put it mildly…”

… Emery converts the feather fiber into keratin mats that resemble paper towels. They are then placed into a mold, layered on top of one another and infused with a soybean resin that hardens and forms the composite. The material is then put through the circuit-printing process to become a circuit board.

This gives new meaning to the expression ‘my new machine really screams.’ Ironically, the same people who think Gandhi, Jim Morrison and John Lennon drinking their own urine is disgusting, think eating cows fed chicken poop is perfectly ok.

But things are looking up for those who steer clear of digestive recycling: instead of ordering mu shu, you can now order Moo Shoes.

I like my Zeitgeist mirchi, thanks.

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But inquiring minds in Amreeka wanted to know, too. From the Google Blog:

Wednesday, February 16, 2005
A richer Zeitgeist brew
If you were in India, what would you search for? Inquiring minds from Mumbai to Bangalore wanted to know, so now there’s a new Google India Zeitgeist. Among the most searched-for queries in January: the tsunami of course, and Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai.

Want some Zeitgeist? Help yourself…beta. Continue reading →

Racial facials for digital mugs

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St. Andrews Perception Laboratory’s “Face Transformer” allows you to change the age, race or sex of a facial image. The web-based Java app can also morph a photo into the style of a famous artist, caricature, or even an ape.

All you need is a browser that supports Java and a digital face image (JPEG or GIF format). Of special interest to SM readers may be the races, which include Afro-Caribbean, Caucasian, East Asian, and West Asian (their term for South Asian). The whole process is relatively quick and easy. The hardest part is finding a decent photo. While you search for one, here’s a few tests that I ran through the system:

Aishwarya Rai, Actress

Wanted to use Preity Zinta (in a variety of ways), but y’all seem quite smitten with the lovely Ms. Rai. So, whatever, you win. It must feel good to win. It doesn’t feel good to lose.

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First desi CEO in the Dow Jones?

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As y’all know, the CEO of HP, Carly Fiorina, was fired yesterday for architecting a failed merger with Compaq. If the head of HP’s flagship division were elevated in her place, Vyomesh Joshi would become the first desi CEO of a company listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (as far as I know).

The Dow Jones includes just 30 blue-chip stocks such as Procter & Gamble, Boeing and Microsoft. The mustachioed, light-eyed Joshi has long been a tireless advocate for HP printers.

[The board] did not rule out promoting someone from within the company… the most likely candidate would be Vyomesh (“VJ”) Joshi. He had been the widely respected head of HP’s printing and imaging division and was recently put in charge of a new unit that combines the printing and PC businesses… one analyst asked Wayman whether the company was concerned about Joshi leaving if he were not named the new CEO… Milunovich added though that it would be important for HP to hold on to Joshi. [CNN]

In three years in charge of the printer unit, which delivers 73 per cent of the company’s operating profits, he boosted profit margins from about 10 per cent to almost 17 per cent at the end of last year. HP could ill afford to lose Mr Joshi, but he may be deemed unsuitable for the top job because he has no experience in corporate computing. [Financial Times]

HP, with $80B in revenues, would actually be the perfect company for this to happen to first because it’s not the hippest company in the world. It’s slightly dowdy, carrying around a pocket protector, an RPN calculator and a combover, but its products tend to be intelligent and dependable. Just like a desi uncle.