Linux Compatible Equipment
March 20, 2006The most common question I see on mailing lists is“I bought XYZ recently, and now I can’t get it working under Linux. Can anyone help me?”
Given the fact that Linux is only a second priority for most vendors when it comes to driver support (especially for consumer items), wouldn’t it have made sense to check whether the item you are about to purchase is supported under Linux before you spend your money?
Participating
I have been driving (and been driven by) a number of communities over the past decade.And one thing that continues to amaze me is the effort it takes to get people to participate in any meaningful fashion.
When I ran my BBS, I was constantly trying to make people stop downloading files, and getting them to start messaging in the forums.
Today, with the Internet becoming the world’s biggest BBS, and with countless mailing lists, web forums and other modes of mass communication, I find that just about everyone likes to stay in “lurk” mode - i.e. read-only.
Then, when a community dies for lack of participation, they look for all sorts of reasons.
IT Slowdown in India
This is an old article that I wrote in May of 2001 - many months before 9/11. I was quite shocked when I re-read it recently, only to find that half a decade later, it is as relevant as it was when I first wrote it.
Since one of the reasons for this site is for it to be a single place where one can find all my old articles, I am moving it here. –ac
I have been quite vocal with my reservations about India’s “techno slavery” approach to IT business, and I definitely haven’t made any friends at NASSCOM that way.
Sure, the tech slowdown in the US *has* been a rude awakening for Indian IT companies, but I bet that we haven’t yet seen the worst of it.
COMversations Update
March 19, 2006It’s been a long time since anything happened here - but that is about to change.
First and foremost - a new interface - I decided to dump my old homebrew stuff and switch to WordPress. This will allow for comments, some additional stuff, and make my management job easier, so that I can concentrate on the writing.