by the meltingpot: September 2009

Now Reading!

Indeed, what is at work in the recent return of realism is the revenge of geography in the most old-fashioned sense. In the 18th and 19th centuries, before the arrival of political science as an academic specialty, geography was an honored, if not always formalized, discipline in which politics, culture, and economics were often conceived of in reference to the relief map. Thus, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, mountains and the men who grow out of them were the first order of reality; ideas, however uplifting, were only the second.
And yet, to embrace geography is not to accept it as an implacable force against which humankind is powerless. Rather, it serves to qualify human freedom and choice with a modest acceptance of fate. This is all the more important today, because rather than eliminating the relevance of geography, globalization is reinforcing it. Mass communications and economic integration are weakening many states, exposing a Hobbesian world of small, fractious regions. Within them, local, ethnic, and religious sources of identity are reasserting themselves, and because they are anchored to specific terrains, they are best explained by reference to geography. Like the faults that determine earthquakes, the political future will be defined by conflict and instability with a similar geographic logic. The upheaval spawned by the ongoing economic crisis is increasing the relevance of geography even further, by weakening social orders and other creations of humankind, leaving the natural frontiers of the globe as the only restraint.
So we, too, need to return to the map, and particularly to what I call the “shatter zones” of Eurasia. We need to reclaim those thinkers who knew the landscape best. And we need to update their theories for the revenge of geography in our time.
Here is the link for the whole write up.

Now at 2nd place

My view is that relations between countries in the coming decades are most likely to reflect their cultural commitments, their cultural ties and antagonism with other countries rather than other factors. Quite obviously, power will continue to play a central role in global politics, as it always does. But usually there is something else behind conflicts. In the 18th century in Europe, the issues to a large extent involved questions of monarchy versus the emerging republican movements, first in America and then in France. In the 19th century, it involved states identifying themselves through nationalism. In the 20th century, ideology came to the fore, largely, but not exclusively, as a result of the Russian Revolution. We had fascism, communism and liberal democracy competing with each other. Well, that’s pretty much over. Liberal democracy has come to be accepted, in theory at least, around the world, if not always in practice. So the question really is what will be the central focus of global politics in the coming decades? My argument remains that cultural identities, antagonisms and affiliations will not only play a role, but play a major role in relations between states. The full interview is here.

This is the 3rd

Every citizen in the City of Richardson will be able to access 756 Kbps of internet connectivity for free, from anywhere in the city. They will be able to access the internet from their homes, schools, restaurants and parks using standard wi-fi connections which are now installed on almost every notebook computer. That is almost as fast as many so-called high speed broadband connections that one pays dearly for today, and several times faster than the various hotspots at your local coffee shops. And I should note that the tax-payers of the City of Richardson are not paying one penny for this, and in fact are going to see additional revenues as a benefit. ... At the beginning of this letter, I suggested that this would be one of the fastest worldwide rollouts of a technology ever seen. It was just 20 years ago that the first cellular systems were being built. The rollout for mesh wireless systems is going to make that look slow. There are several reasons I make this assertion. But they all center on the facts that installing mesh systems will be cheaper and easier than any previous system and the economics in both the developed and especially the developing world will be so radically compelling. Throw in the fact the any astute politician will want to be at the front of this parade (They will all want to say, "I was the man who helped bring free internet to everyone!") and the groundwork is laid for rapid deployment. In Richardson and elsewhere, MeshLinx is offering the basic infrastructure for free. This avoids all the time consuming, political budget battles in the cities. When a service is offered for free, much of the mandated competitive process is eliminated. Next is the low cost of installation of the system. As noted above, Richardson is a city of roughly 100,000 people living in 27.4 square miles. It will "only" cost about $2,000,000 today to lay the wireless blanket I mentioned above. It will cost a great deal less in the future, as MeshLinx is building the pods at a pace of 100 a month today. The maximum output of the US pilot assembly line is 500 a month. When the demand exceeds this (and it will in a very short time) discussions have been held to move volume production to China. Of course, the world will need tens of millions of pods. The cost for a pod will be a fraction of today's cost, with that installation number for a city like Richardson soon being half (or less) the cost of today. What does that $1 or 2 million get you? The infrastructure to be an internet connection, telephone, security, entertainment provider and a whole lot more company. As noted, it will get cheaper as the number of pods being made each month rises, thus lowering their costs dramatically. This technology does have scale. The cost of physically putting up a pod is not a large part of the equation, as you simply need to run a power line, attach a few bolts to a mount on the side of a building or light pole and then off to the next point. Think about the 40,000 homes and businesses in Richardson. If and (hopefully) over time when 10% decide to pay $50 a month for 10-20 Mbps high speed internet access you could see a revenue of $2.5 million a year just from internet access. Now add in all the other income possibilities (phone, entertainment, security and don't forget advertising revenue on the free service!). Think about your town or country. What would service like this be worth? If you are a small city that does not have high speed connections available, how many businesses that could bring jobs do not come your way because they need reliable communications for their work and their employees? If you are in a developing country, where internet access is difficult and expensive, it will open whole new vistas. Couple that with the various programs which want to give cheap laptops to kids in poor countries, and you could see significant social progress in a generation. Here is the link.

Monday, September 21, 2009

To a new schedule.

I've been trying to shift to a new schedule. I'm trying to go to sleep by 10.30pm and wake up the following morning at around 6 am.

As I've been habituated to staying up late at night, it's really tough to get myself used to the new schedule.

It has been a lot of efforts so far--but I'm trying.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Surfing the Net!

I've been trying to install Microsoft Office.But I had to cancel the installation on every attempt because of error 1305.

I was totally flummoxed because installing and uninstalling Office is always a routine task.

And I could not go online to visit help centers and forums to get an idea what error no 1305 was because there was total outage of BSNL networks.

I've just visited a forum and got a step by step intructions to get around the error.

I'll doing the actual installation tommorow.

Tonight I'm surfing the Net!

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Of India China border affairs

Temperature on the Inida China border is rising day by day. The GOC of Northern Command is visiting Leh to personally take stock of the Chinese army's movement there.

Indian Express has a news report here.

What's most intersting is the comments of the readers on the news report.

Monday, September 07, 2009

An extremely timely and illuminating write up

I've just read an extremely and illuminating write up in Foreign Policy magazine.The piece is titled "The Revenge of Geography" by Robert D.Kaplan.Below are 2 excerpts dealing with India specific conditions:

"The Indian subcontinent is one such shatter zone. It is defined on its landward sides by the hard geographic borders of the Himalayas to the north, the Burmese jungle to the east, and the somewhat softer border of the Indus River to the west. Indeed, the border going westward comes in three stages: the Indus; the unruly crags and canyons that push upward to the shaved wastes of Central Asia, home to the Pashtun tribes; and, finally, the granite, snow-mantled massifs of the Hindu Kush, transecting Afghanistan itself. Because these geographic impediments are not contiguous with legal borders, and because barely any of India’s neighbors are functional states, the current political organization of the subcontinent should not be taken for granted. You see this acutely as you walk up to and around any of these land borders, the weakest of which, in my experience, are the official ones—a mere collection of tables where cranky bureaucrats inspect your luggage. Especially in the west, the only border that lives up to the name is the Hindu Kush, making me think that in our own lifetimes the whole semblance of order in Pakistan and southeastern Afghanistan could unravel, and return, in effect, to vague elements of greater India."

....

"The Taliban constitute merely the latest incarnation of Pashtun nationalism. Indeed, much of the fighting in Afghanistan today occurs in Pashtunistan: southern and eastern Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan. The north of Afghanistan, beyond the Hindu Kush, has seen less fighting and is in the midst of reconstruction and the forging of closer links to the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, inhabited by the same ethnic groups that populate northern Afghanistan. Here is the ultimate world of Mackinder, of mountains and men, where the facts of geography are asserted daily, to the chagrin of U.S.-led forces—and of India, whose own destiny and borders are hostage to what plays out in the vicinity of the 20,000-foot wall of the Hindu Kush."

The link for the whole write up is given in the left bar titled 'Now Reading'.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Changed times and the time-changers!

How time has changed!

Catching the seasonal flu virus was such a routine part of every day life--so mundane.

But in the times of swine flu,it's such a big deal. It makes me extremely uneasy when I caught the seasonal flu virus a week or so back.

I've been resting since then. I think I'm out of the virus cycle now.But I'm taking no chances. I'll be resting for yet another 2 days.

When I say 'rest' I'm still into my daily chores. And I came to realize during the last few days that shopping is one of most energy sapping chores. There are always so many things to buy.

When I went shopping this evening,I saw a Reva car. It was so tiny! Even if it's a 2 seater,it looks so good on the samll roads of Manipur.

Electric cars,like Reva should be the future. I like it. New products like Reva should be time-changers!

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The problem of blank monitor solved

That I had so many days without internet made me tinker with my desktop.

My first attention was drawn to the problem of the monitor. The problem is it remain blank,showing nothing even if the computer booted up perfectly normal.

I even took the monitor to the computer hardware store on two ocassion. They billed me for the suposed repair they made on it and the monitor remained blank after 2 or 3 days after I brought it back home.

The key idea is here that it worked for 2 or 3 days immediately after I brought it from the hardware shop. Then, it returned to its noraml state--remained blank.

So, shifting the location of the monitor made it work?

Is it something to do with place where I put my desktop on?

Finally, I came to think that it must be the magnetic field that interfered with the cathode ray.

The woofer which I placed next to the monitor housed a considerably-sized magnet. Then, the cfl bulb which I placed just above the monitor has also a in-built surge controller, which again means a magnet. Finally, the power supply of the router of the dsl has also an in-built surge controller.

Did the 3 among themselves built up an over arching magnetic field that disturbed the cathode ray of the crt monitor?

I removed all 3 of them and now, the monitor is working.

My only regret is the cfl bulb. If you placed a cfl just above a crt monitor, you get an extremely good glare killer.

by the meltingpot

Now Reading!

Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd