anon5

I have worked for Infosys in the past. Now, following the path advocated by PG :-)

I mean that for the IT services Industry in India, Infosys has set a benchmark - Most respected company; Billions of dollars in revenue;great set of leaders who started it. So I meant that in the product space also, there should be Infosys quality companies in India. Or the Googles, Amazons, Yahoos of India, if you will.

I hope people with the spirit of an NRN Murthy, will start lots of product companies over here.

> I absolutely hate Krugman....

Why? ... Perhaps your views are different. Can you please point to a few good writers which you like with contrasting views than his.

(Asking a serious question. Since I, for one, like his views a lot)

I fully agree with you. I too can not do with partial information, especially in such matters - when the news is disturbing like death.

Particularly, if its a case of a young person dying, not knowing the reason can haunt you for some time. And few times, I have felt the shock has diminished a bit, once you know the cause of death.

But that said, if the family and friends conceal something because the deceased person wanted to, then that's also perfectly understandable.

My friend you mean well. But there is a quality problem in India. There is volume (i.e. high numbers of engineers). But quality is bad on an average and that's the honest truth.

To prove my point. Let's look at the topcoder country rankings [At HN, perhaps I don't need to explain what topcoder is. But if I need to then in one word. Its a place where you practice Dynamic programming :-) ]:

http://community.topcoder.com/stat?c=country_avg_rating

No. of red programmers in India are just 3: http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=AlgoRank&cc=356

Now just compare it to China: http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=AlgoRank&cc=156

Or Russia: http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=AlgoRank&cc=643

The volume of engineers thing caters to service industry very well. And the service industry mainly thrives for one reason alone. Don't listen to all the jargon all the titans of industry say. The reason is only one:

And that is:

1$ = 45 Rupees.

Service Industry is good in a way that it helps people have financial independence in a matter of 2 or 3 years. But some how, it has stayed there. Is there an Infosys like product company in India?

So there is clear lack of vision amongst the leaders in Indian IT industry. In other words very few high quality leaders. And all seem to be quite happy with the success they have achieved and now out to serve the nation. ... I hope I get proven wrong and in a decade we have Infosys quality product companies in India.

So although xyahoo is gracious enough to apologize. In practice it may be the case, that some exceptions apart, you will get low quality engineers over here.

I think, its the culture, which has been the issue.

It can be fixed but few things need to be done:

1) People have to stop using IITs and IIMs in the same sentence.

2) B Techs at IITs should want to continue with Masters at IITs, and not apply to US univs

3) More entrepreneurs have to stop cashing out midway (I often wonder, could bazee.com have been India's alibaba?)

4) The entrepreneurs have to move from a trader mindset to a creator mindset

5) More creators have to do their own startup than just feel pride in working for Google/Yahoo/Amazon

6) The VCs (in general) need to speak like tech-educated persons. Not act like fools who would rather invest in Real estate (one needs to control their urge to spill coffee on their suits)

PS: I noticed that I went on a tangential rant ... completely off topic. But I speak almost all of the above from experience.

EDIT: Added some spacing to make the points readable.

I am impressed that you read the bill, and then decided to support it.

I did not like the process of getting it done, for one thing. We are having this discussion in a much more civil way. But please look across the Internet (just a twitter search on 'Anna' will give you all colors of tweets). Particularly, in the earlier part of the fast. People are ready to bulldoze/dominate/abuse others...

The 'I am Anna', 'You are Anna' irritates me. No body can have such a steep rise in stock, in just four months ...

Wearing a black hat for a moment. The big suspicion I have is: 1) Anna was used as a tool by Mr. Kejriwal and Ms. Bedi. This is very different than what Gandhiji would have allowed to be done of himself. 2) Anna also did it primarily for fame a retired activist, getting his time in the sun at last ...

Now again wearing my grey hat: I do believe that Arvind Kejrival and Kiran Bedi are good people, basically. But good people also can be misled (they have to be more careful.)

I think, my note above is written in a sober tone. I have just hinted (or even stopped before that) some of my fears/concerns without going into some specific dark doubts that I have illustrated in this comment.

I agree with you on your second point. A person good for situation A may not be good for the position B. But that doesn't give a license to rubbish all of the person's achievements. As people at large seem to be doing the past few days.

You caught me in one of my several weaknesses (your first point). But you must at-least acknowledge that I said it myself.

Don't agree with your last para. Now you are presuming, I have not made an effort. I did not read the bill. But I made efforts - right from looking up wikipedia a few months back on 'Ombudsman' and many other things (articles/views etc.) ...

And second point in your last para: Please distinguish between ambivalence or (admission of confusion) regarding somebody else's action and accusing me of being confused. I spent 45 minutes, trying to articulate my views (it did tax my articulation capabilities) and re-read it before posting. I am not confused at all about what I am saying. I am only not sure, if what's happening is making sense in the right way. My hunch is that it does not.

EDIT: Corrected a few typos

We can at best hope that it is going to turn out well, in the end.

Anna Hazare is being hastily compared to Gandhi. Before this he had good credentials, i.e. was fairly well known in India, but he was just one-among-many-equals (not even first among equals) of social activists.

The positive though is that, the three most important people around him, also have got good credentials. Okay two at least (Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal). About the third - Mr. Bhushan - not much was known earlier.

Arvind Kejriwal in particular had worked very hard in the activism space, being one of the key guys behind acts such as RTI. (It may interest the HN community more, that he happens to be a product of IIT in India - the most reputable tech institution over here. )

But this sudden burst of 'I-want-results-now' sort of hyper activism. Has left an admirer like me confused at best. Confused, as to whether the good guys indeed are still on the right track. Or have broken down.

Broken down, akin to a website owner, who after years of toiling to build traffic the clean and hard way, have suddenly resorted to black hat SEO. (If the analogy is not obvious, I mean, just like dirty and unethical SEO, may be easy to build traffic. Similarly fast to death is an easy way to build frenzy. Not easy always, but easy once in a while, and this technique was being applied the first time in front of new TV media).

And just being good people and having good intentions is not enough. You have to be a lot careful with these things. As they say 'With power comes more .....'.

Want to recount an anecdote to make a point: Recently I had a reason to visit a village in northern India. I won't polish my words here - The experience was ugly. The village was very dirty. The people ultra lazy. Open drains all over the place smelling bad. People just sitting idle. Houses in the state of decay, but no body is working to rebuild them. Electricity comes only in the night, that of course is not their problem.

My family and me had planned to stay for 2 days there. But had to rush back the same day, as I could not simply just get myself to use the dirty toilet there. (Call me whatever - snobbish, unfeeling, uncaring, etc. but I am being brutally honest here)

So a thought occurred to me. That its not corruption-freedom they need now urgently. Its basic education (for their kids) and perhaps some inspiration (and some training also won't hurt) in life to get up from their haunches and start doing some work.

I may sound like a right wing capitalist here. But that's just a label, and my anon status gives me the liberty to write freely. And BTW, in general I am left leaning for various things - have followed Paul Krugman's writings for past few years. And also, I am a big fan of the Mahatma Gandhi. (I needed to say this, to give my fellow Indians, a background of where I am coming from. So before even you start getting to abusing me, please at-least bother to understand me)

On the matter of abuse, I feel sorry for Manmohan Singh our PM. People just don't have any broader perspective. And can just so easily be swayed from one side to another. Not long back - i.e. until about two years back - he was being hailed as a great person, who ushered India into liberalization of the 90s. Which allowed the GDP to become 8% from and liberated it from the Hindu growth rate of 3-4%. And allowed a great Indian middle class to emerge, etc. etc.

But now, the very same people, are just after his blood all the time. I was almost fearing that the poor guy does not get a heart attack, from so much pressure, while every body else is worried about Anna's health (no disrespect to him either).

Now on corruption: People don't even see the irony of what they are saying and supporting. In the past two years lots of scams have been uncovered - CWG & 2G-spectrum-allocation the most prominent of them.

IMO two things that were most instrumental for the uncovering were: 1) The RTI (right to information) law passed only few years back and 2) the CAG reports. Powerful personalities went to jail (still are in jail) and many others still live in fear.

So is that a good thing or a bad thing? Meaning, will people would have been better off if these were not uncovered or are people better off now that they are in fact uncovered.

The least the uncovering of these scams tells, is that the system is working. So one would expect that people will work towards empowering the current set of things (laws/institutions) which have proven that they are very effective. And not indulge in hyper-activism, the outcome of which is at best unpredictable. Even enact more laws, who is stopping.

But no sir. We want some more blood. And we want it now. So what, if the movement or agitation, call it whatever you like, shames India into looking like a Arab country. (Some lunatic journo, surely compared this with an 'Arab Spring' ... I almost heard him. )

Silent evolutionary things, are much more powerful, than a revolutionary change. The latter also can be helpful. But people leading them have to be sure. Really really sure. I honestly am still confused, at best. I still don't doubt the intentions of Kejriwal and Ms. Bedi. I hope they are guided well by their inner beings...

And did I miss an Obama like orator, to articulate the government's perspective on things.

EDIT: No disrespect to Arab countries either. My remark is only intended for the rulers (kings) of those countries, which have obviously been abusing the populace, who have now very bravely gathered the will to fight them.

Did you notice this Ad they had for Osborne? Please scroll down to see the 'The Guy on the left doesn't stand a chance' Ad, on the 2nd page of the article (http://technologizer.com/2011/04/01/osborne-computer/2/ )

It almost could have been an Ad for a 'Laptop' as we know it.

Agree with you, it should be competitor.

Did some digging about Adam Osborne. Made me quite sad for him...

It seems he was a failed (relatively speaking) genius. He is credited with building the first computer for people. Also was briefly considered a contemporary of Bill G and Steve Jobs:

"on April 3rd, 1981 when a startup called Osborne Computer Corporation announced the Osborne 1 at the West Coast Computer Faire at San Francisco’s Brooks Hall. It was the first true mass-produced portable PC and one of the most popular computers of its time" (Source: http://technologizer.com/2011/04/01/osborne-computer/)

He also: "he founded another company that also collapsed–but not before helping to pioneer the idea of really cheap software"

He later died in India at the age of 64, in 2003. Where he was born and educated when he was a very young.

Well I am a big fan of Sivers, along with guys like PG, and some others. So hate these sort of ... ignorant trashing.

>The dude's done nothing in the last decade other than promote himself

He gave his company to charity in 2008 (http://sivers.org/trust) that's well within last 10 years.

>Now he's an entreprenurial guru selling self-help advice?

Yes he is. Just like PG, Dharmesh Shah, Spolsky, he has also chosen to share his Startup experience, which I feel is very beneficial to lots of wannabes. I found this piece of his, one of the most brilliant pieces ever ... by anybody: http://sivers.org/multiply

> If he is, he oughta get a wig and a rent-a-yacht like everyone else on late night television

Looks like you don't know him at all. He instead lives in a minimal style and cycles a lot (http://sivers.org/biking)

>Sivers and his former company have been spamming me constantly for the last 10 years...

Can't speak for cdbaby.com . But Derek, surely, doesn't spam. He can't afford to. As he promises to reply to all (http://sivers.org/contact). And he does. Very meaningful replies (I have tried).

PS: For the first time (may be second) in my HN stay, do I strongly feel like downvoting some one... unfortunately can't.

What you say can happen. Agree with you. My main peeve is with any such list in the first place - "actors who don't matter...", 'techie greats who don't matter' etc. etc. Makes me very angry, purely from basic human feelings POV.

And its obviously a link bait - '10 people who don't matter...' easily attracts people on to read (or just page visit) '50 people who do matter...'.

One name (Zuckerberg) tells how foolish anybody who predicts future can seem. And therefore tech journos almost always do. 'Idiots just shutup' I say to them!

Another one (Torvalds) screams of insensitivity to the real impact created by some one. The journalist(s) deserves a whack in the back for this.

There are many people who do something noteworthy, and then fade away, for various reasons. Calling them out, in a derogatory manner is bad. 'Idiots just go away. Look at your loser self, in the mirror, when creating a list like this' I say again.

I will agree with the author may be on MakeMyTrip, but not on FlipKart. They may be a copy of Amazon. But for India it works very well. They can get US published books in India, in a matter of 10 days or so. Amazon takes some 30 days. I am a big fan and everybody I know also is. They execute super good. Totally agree on Rediff. It is like Yahoo of India. Difficult to say what it is.

And lastly don't we all know, bubbles are never predicted, but always explained with the benefit of hindsight.

Speculation alert ----------------------

Could be drug addicts. But my hunch says it could be some known persons to the unfortunate host, playing some dreadful prank. Reasons:

1) From the blog: 'All the while, Dj Pattrson was sending me friendly emails, thanking me for being such a great host, for respecting his/her privacy…. telling me how much he/she was enjoying my beautiful apartment bathed in sunlight, how much he/she particularly loved the “little loft area” upstairs… with an “lol” closing one sentence' This suggests motivation to cause a greater hurt. Thieves will just steal. Drug addicts may not punctually mail all the while.

2) Also I suspect the name DJ Pattrson, may have been carefully chosen. Note the author calls herself 'EJ' (and 'DJ' sort of rhymes). I tried jumbling Pattrson for some meaningful word, but could not get any.