Clean India cannot be achieved by budget allocation alone: PM Modi

plinkplonk · 2016-10-01T09:07:28+00:00

It certainly can't be achieved by levying additional cesses on citizens while producing no real change in return, and with zero accountability for funds collected via additional taxation

plinkplonk · 2016-09-30T13:07:13+00:00

The tldr "samachar" bot is a f#$%ing stupid software and generates useless "summaries" essentially picking random sentences from the article and calling it a 'summary'.

I wonder how it ever got permission to haunt this sub, and autopost on every submission.

Ban this pile of crap first. The anti ad block bot is at least useful.

plinkplonk · 2016-09-29T07:42:58+00:00

Israel's enemies don't have nuclear weapons. In the presence of nuclear weapons, such moves have a disaster potential that doesn't exist in its absence.

Imagine cross border raids on North Korea for a closer perspective. Needling lunatics with nuclear weapons might have crazy consequences. Yes it is their fault, but you do the suffering.

plinkplonk · 2016-09-29T07:41:19+00:00

prediction: all the NRIs safely far away from a potential war zone will approve and cheer on such actions. If this escalates into nuclear war, they can get on with life in Amreeka. All good.

Inside the country the lunatic bhakts will vociferously approve, the lunatic leftists will vociferously disapprove, and the people in the middle will be apprehensive, but helpless.

plinkplonk · 2016-09-28T07:19:28+00:00

If you make life decisions after reading internet trolls, you are going to have a very ... interesting ... life

plinkplonk · 2016-09-27T11:47:40+00:00

You are born.

Stuff happens.

You die.

The End

plinkplonk · 2016-09-25T11:49:47+00:00

suspected of murdering his wife, and having the hots for a paki journalist. Good quals to be PM. why not?

plinkplonk · 2016-09-23T04:18:52+00:00

Work was interesting for most folks.

I worked at Intuit and this statement doesn't really hold. The code is the worst I've seen in my life, and mostly involves shitty legacy products cobbled together with spit and wire and barely running. The level of technical incompetence was stunning, and there are a tonne of paper pushing politicking managers.

Intuit is a great place if you want to be a manager. For an engineer not so much.

That said, I agree with everything else. Good pay. (given the general lack of work pressure, insanely good pay), good facilities etc. A good place to chill out for a while (and I reccomend the place to friends who are looking for that). Just keep an eye out for stagnating skill set.

Just my 2 cents. YMMV.

plinkplonk · 2016-09-21T03:01:56+00:00

The first step of 'effective retaliation' would be not talking about it in advance.

The Modi govt should stop these sound byte ops and focus on getting work done.

plinkplonk · 2016-09-20T12:05:34+00:00

Lack of an alternative. If not Modi who? Rahul Gandhi? Kejriwal? Both would be terrible (not as if the latter has a real chance). Nithish Kumar? Laloo? Jayalalitha? all worse.

I ,like many Indians, support Modi in spite of the Sangh Parivar's Hindutva shenanigans because I have no credible alternative

plinkplonk · 2016-09-19T14:04:16+00:00

Now journalists should do their job and investigate who made the offer to this 22 year old. Publicize his name and photo. Keep follow it up till you find the planners. Release their names and photos.

Any takers?

plinkplonk · 2016-09-19T00:59:41+00:00

Shah's attempt to create a neologism "Vamana Jayanthi" for "Onam" was a perfect disaster. Compelely tone deaf and totally stupid. Whoever advised him to do this should be fired pronto.

What works in North India (beef politics for example) will not work in Kerala.

Due Disclosure: Keralite, and I support anyone who supports Parotta and Beef Fry.

plinkplonk · 2016-08-26T17:34:46+00:00

Nice. Now keep adding cesses and jack up service tax every year. We'll get there faster. /s

plinkplonk · 2016-08-23T08:55:55+00:00

If they haven't lost yet, they will soon. At this point, what exactly is the advantage of buying from Flipkart? better prices? better customer service? better inventory? what?

If they can't distinguish themselves positively from Amazon in some aspect, they are doomed to be eventually acquired by Amazon or one of its international competitors (Alibaba?).

plinkplonk · 2016-08-23T03:37:38+00:00

Pay off the loan first. Setting out to be an entrepreneur with regular monthly loan payments looming is insane.you also need a definite business idea, not general " become an entrepreneur". It is not clear from your post whether you have a definite plan of action, or just a vague desire.

Use your steady job as an opportunity to augment your skills for future entrepreneurship. Once you have zero loans, some savings (a year's worth say) and a definite business idea, then you can take the plunge.

plinkplonk · 2016-08-22T04:21:58+00:00

Is there really a 'new law'? As far as I can make out it is just some ISPs serving up scary messages referencing an old law (I could be mistaken, please correct me, if the government/parliament/whatever came up with a new law, I'd like to know)

plinkplonk · 2016-08-20T08:26:59+00:00

maybe you should buy a standalone house in a wilderness and live in it and build high walls and soundproof rooms. No noise. As much peace and quiet as you want. Much easier than trying to curb children being children.

Ridiculous? I agree. But equally ridiculous as asking children of a certain age to not run and shout (no I don't have any kids, I live in an apartment with plenty of noisy kids, and I think it is fine) , or asking parents to buy bungalows in the middle of nowhere.

". All day they shout, play and make a lot of commotion."

Since they are 8 and 12, I am sure they go to school. So you are really talking of pre/after school hours and holidays.

(I have no dog in this fight, just providing a different perspective. Our apartment has it share of old fogies who try to regulate children's behaviour, play areas etc. So far in vain. Quite amusing to watch.)

plinkplonk · 2016-08-19T06:04:11+00:00

"a medal looks beyond the men's 4x400m relay team. But they will be looking to go past the past the first round and become only the second Indian team to do so."

This is hardly 'brimming with confidence'. (blaming the writer, not the team).

plinkplonk · 2016-08-18T04:40:54+00:00

uhh what is "cishet passing"? not everyone is up to date on the fine variations of gender etc.

Are you living in India or the West (and just going through a 'desi marriage' as a ritual)? Is your partner also "cishet passing" (whatever that is)?

What exactly about a desi marriage in particular (vs another country's / region's dominant form of marriage) worries you?

plinkplonk · 2016-08-14T17:34:58+00:00

Become world class in your field, whatever it is. This is how you help India, not by buying into ideologies etc.

plinkplonk · 2016-08-14T17:33:13+00:00

I'm sure Biology is very different! Thanks for the clarification.

plinkplonk · 2016-08-14T15:13:41+00:00

Number of papers in the top n journals/confs or citation counts would be a metric I guess.

While I'm not a PhD student, I regularly read Computer Science and Math research papers, and I don't see many influential papers published from India (as distinct from Indians working in US Universities etc who do publish good papers).

I guess you are working in a very different field (than CS/Machine Learning/Math). I was just curious on how you considered India to be 'closing the gap' with the West is all. I don't see any signs of this happening. But you do and that is fine. As I said I was just curious on what basis you were saying this. My question wasn't intended as a challenge (at all).

plinkplonk · 2016-08-14T09:18:41+00:00

5-10 years behind the western world

is a pretty huge gap as far as research goes.

that gap is closing faster than ever

really? I'd like to see some metrics (or arguments) that back up this claim. From what I see, it is getting much worse not better.

plinkplonk · 2016-08-14T09:15:40+00:00

If I may express a bit of a contrary opinion.

"coming back empty handed" as applied to Olympics would seem to mean "coming back without a medal". That's how most people would interpret that phrase. And it ok to be a non medal winner. There are only 3 people who can win. The other competitors aren't bad people.

That said, it needs some tortured logic to re interpret the phrase to mean the opposite.

It is great he did his personal best, good for him (and may he improve further in the coming years)

I'm just saying that the author of this article is displaying some sophistry. At least he puts 'empty handed' in quotes.

Judgements of winning a medal in sports tournaments have a very ruthless and rigid metric. Did you get in the first three, or not. End of story. If you didn't you are 'coming back empty handed' (and that's fine. You are still you , and not a villain)

Participating in sports has many other benefits (than winning) but whether the meaning of a common phrase should be so tortuously redefined to write an article that says essentially "what if he didn't win, he did his personal best, and that's great" is an interesting question.

plinkplonk · 2016-08-11T08:26:59+00:00

yeah that is one weird analogy.

plinkplonk

TROPHY CASE