jun 19th
skype, the free VoIP-based service for PC to PC phone calls, claims it has had 100 million downloads. it is fast becoming the gold standard for voice-over-IP, and the few times i have used it, i have not been disappointed: it seems better than other services i have used in the past. of course, the advantage is that it costs you absolutely nothing to talk to someone else on a PC anywhere in the world: the only requirement is a broadband internet connection and a headset/mike combination at both ends.
they also offer PC to landline calls at some 2 cents a minute. i have never tried it. they have also now started a mechanism landline to PC calls. some entrepreneur is planning to also offer mobile-to-skype calls, i just read about it somewhere.
this skype thing could become a phenomenon.
the founders of the scandinavian company were those behind kazaa, the peer-to-peer music and file downloading software.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Sunday, June 19, 2005
faithfreedom.org: Welcome to Eurabia! By Stefania Atzori
jun 18th
this was forwarded to me by someone.
some italians are concerned about the bending over backwards by europeans to accommodate islamic assertiveness. (the same italians would not be concerned about the bending over backwards by indians to accommodate italian/vatican/ratzingerian assertiveness, but that is another story).
a major reason for the failure of the euro vote in france and holland recently is fear of creeping islamization: they were scared of what would happen when turkey (and eventually bosnia-herzegovina and albania, all muslim-majority states) was allowed to join the EU. it would mean free movement of muslims from these states all over the EU.
there were other, economic reasons too, but this backlash against a growing islamic presence was a significant factor.
as in india, in europe too the marxists are the willing fifth columnists for the islamists. there was a remarkable article about the ichneumon wasp (that lays its eggs in the paralyzed body of a living host like a caterpillar: think of the film ALIEN). the marxists think they are doing islamists a favor by supporting them. on the other hand, the islamists don't need any such favors.
this was forwarded to me by someone.
some italians are concerned about the bending over backwards by europeans to accommodate islamic assertiveness. (the same italians would not be concerned about the bending over backwards by indians to accommodate italian/vatican/ratzingerian assertiveness, but that is another story).
a major reason for the failure of the euro vote in france and holland recently is fear of creeping islamization: they were scared of what would happen when turkey (and eventually bosnia-herzegovina and albania, all muslim-majority states) was allowed to join the EU. it would mean free movement of muslims from these states all over the EU.
there were other, economic reasons too, but this backlash against a growing islamic presence was a significant factor.
as in india, in europe too the marxists are the willing fifth columnists for the islamists. there was a remarkable article about the ichneumon wasp (that lays its eggs in the paralyzed body of a living host like a caterpillar: think of the film ALIEN). the marxists think they are doing islamists a favor by supporting them. on the other hand, the islamists don't need any such favors.
Welcome to Eurabia! By Stefania Atzori
When freedom of thought becomes an exception that confirms the rule, it means that a civilization is going back to the darkest era of human history, rather than evolving in direction of individual freedom and Human Rights. This is exactly what is happening to Europe , thanks to Islam. It's not a secret anymore; we are serving on a silver platter our countries to Muslims. They are flocking to Europe in droves and with arrogantly intend to change our lives, our laws and our values. Civility presupposes obedience to the laws of the country that host you; but it seems that Muslims, not only cannot respect any law other than Sharia, they also want demand that we live by their archaic laws. Our countries are being shaped to meet their needs. Because we are polite, we ratified The Declaration of Human Rights. We try to be understanding. Overall, we are reckless. With defiant disregard for consequences, our governments are subjugated by their demands, even though it means to penalize the natives.
Not long ago, we enjoyed the freedom of thought and could expose our politicians, the Vatican and any religion without fear or intimidations. Then, Theo Van Gogh was murdered for "hurting Muslims feelings" and now Oriana Fallaci is sued by the head of the Muslim Union of Italy and the Italian IADL, because her book, The Force of Reason, is considered "defamatory to Muslims".
Suddenly, criticizing or exposing Islam has become illegal and dangerous. Magdi Allam, an Italian journalist, writer and a great man of Egyptian origin, is living under protection for death threats received from Muslims. The same goes for a politician of the Lega Nord party, because he has criticized Islam in several radios. In this atmosphere, a few weeks ago, some Muslims founded a so called IADL [Italian Anti-defamation league]. Their job is, as they have stated in their mission statement, "to respond to the slandering of Islam and the Muslims community, by those who spread hatred and racism". They monitor blogs and web sites searching for what they call "racist, calumnious or anti-Islamic remarks".
A Muslim reported my site to this Islamic Gestapo and they wrote ordering me to shut down my site and threatened that should I not obey, they would ask my Internet host to close my blog. They also ordered me that I should put a logo on my site saying: "This blog promotes racial hate."
A similar request was forwarded by some Muslims in France when they asked the judge to write on Oriana Fallaci's book: "Warning! This book might be dangerous to your mental health!"
Should I not comply with their demands, they warned me, they would file a lawsuit against me and drag me to court for "slandering" Islam as they did with Oriana Fallaci.
Today, in Italy, my own homeland, I cannot express my opinion about an obscurantist, intolerant hate filled cult, because some bigots Muslims has decided to shut me up in every possible way. Since Muslims can't tolerate criticism of their faith, anything we say about Islam will be labeled as "racist". They call us Islamophoebe, racist while they portray themselves as victims of a modern Holocaust. We are bullied, threatened, spied, and forced to shut up. If this is not Fascism, in what ways it differs? While they call us infidel, immoral and filthy, they cry to be victims as soon as we say this belief is wrong. Their cult orders them to kill the kuffar, to make jihad against non Muslims, to murder the apostates, and still they have the chutzpa to portray themselves as the victims.
Muslims are taking over our countries. They are destroying our values, our laws and our culture. They are encroaching on our rights with the consent of our politicians, in the name of the so called multiculturalism and cultural relativism. While this is going on, communists march on the streets destroying shops and chanting anti-American slogans; Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian communist journalist, calls Islamic terrorism "resistance"; Leftist parties condone Palestinian suicide bombers; and anti-Semitism is rampant among Muslims. Well, welcome to Eurabia!
Saturday, June 18, 2005
asahi.com: japan and india can gain from stronger ties
jun 18th
it looks like some japanese at least are beginning to see the value of indo-japanese cooperation.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200506180140.html
may their tribe increase!
it looks like some japanese at least are beginning to see the value of indo-japanese cooperation.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200506180140.html
may their tribe increase!
nytimes: friedman on bangalore product innovation
jun 17th
belatedly. now it's no longer available on the nytimes page free of charge. hence here it is from the orlando sentinel.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpfried11061105jun11,0,3676990.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines
really, nobody's paying tom friedman to be so bullish on india? he's giving india publicity that money can't buy. he must be india's best brand ambassador around, now that poor dewang mehta has passed away (was bumped off?). friedman spoke at the TiE annual shindig in the silicon valley and was mobbed afterwards.
belatedly. now it's no longer available on the nytimes page free of charge. hence here it is from the orlando sentinel.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpfried11061105jun11,0,3676990.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines
really, nobody's paying tom friedman to be so bullish on india? he's giving india publicity that money can't buy. he must be india's best brand ambassador around, now that poor dewang mehta has passed away (was bumped off?). friedman spoke at the TiE annual shindig in the silicon valley and was mobbed afterwards.
BBC: restrictions on foreign investment in media relaxed
jun 17th
i guess this is good news in that it may loosen the stranglehold of the china-funded and saudi-funded papers. the bad news is that now we'll see more vatican-funded and baptist-funded papers :-(
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4101192.stm
notice the graphic on this page: prominent is a malayalam paper (probably the christian 'malayala manorama', can barely tell because the masthead is cut off) ) with the massive headline about ratzinger becoming pope and the half-page photo.
when the pope circus was going on acres of newsprint and oceans of ink in india were spent on it, and the sonia government chipped in with the famous three-day state mourning.
when swami ranganathananda (swami who, you ask?), head of the ramakrishna matham, died at the age of 90 -- and he was a renowned scholar and monk -- hardly any papers carried anything about him.
apartheid against hindus as usual.
Reuters: Indian airline IndiGo orders 100 Airbus jets!
jun 17th
this is certainly impressive. looks like there is a mad rush for aircraft for the indian market. all the action at the airshow seems to have come from india.
wonder what this will do to high-end, relatively high-margin train passenger traffic. maybe laloo's railways had better get their act together and make themselves more attractive to freight traffic. else it may find itself in the same boat as the american railroad system: limping along.
100 airbus jets! even with rakesh gangwal on board, that seems like irrational exuberance to me. where exactly are they going to find the pilots, for one thing? recently rono dutta, another veteran of air wars in the us, and now chief of sahara, had to cancel a bunch of flights because pilots defected en masse.
maybe in the next few years air travel will become much more rational and affordable. now it costs more to go to delhi from trivandrum than it does to go to singapore. once again, the dead hand of economic planning has distorted prices, skewed availability and generally screwed things up.
free market ki jai!
rajeev
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-06-16T130320Z_01_L16572097_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-TRANSPORT-AIRBUS-DC.XML
this is certainly impressive. looks like there is a mad rush for aircraft for the indian market. all the action at the airshow seems to have come from india.
wonder what this will do to high-end, relatively high-margin train passenger traffic. maybe laloo's railways had better get their act together and make themselves more attractive to freight traffic. else it may find itself in the same boat as the american railroad system: limping along.
100 airbus jets! even with rakesh gangwal on board, that seems like irrational exuberance to me. where exactly are they going to find the pilots, for one thing? recently rono dutta, another veteran of air wars in the us, and now chief of sahara, had to cancel a bunch of flights because pilots defected en masse.
maybe in the next few years air travel will become much more rational and affordable. now it costs more to go to delhi from trivandrum than it does to go to singapore. once again, the dead hand of economic planning has distorted prices, skewed availability and generally screwed things up.
free market ki jai!
rajeev
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-06-16T130320Z_01_L16572097_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-TRANSPORT-AIRBUS-DC.XML
Friday, June 17, 2005
fortune.com: michael dell says he will sell apple os
jun 16th
this is quite interesting. dell has been selling linux based boxes for some time. this is a major fallout from apple's recent embrace of intel chips for its future boxes.
can't paste the article from david kirkpatrick, as it screws up the formatting. sorry.
this is quite interesting. dell has been selling linux based boxes for some time. this is a major fallout from apple's recent embrace of intel chips for its future boxes.
can't paste the article from david kirkpatrick, as it screws up the formatting. sorry.
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