yyyuuu

I don't know why you are being downvoted. You put forward a valid point. Perhaps the fanboys here could understand the desperation most of the world still lives in, even today!!!

Forgive my ignorance, but what would happen if Apple chooses to ignore this ruling and doesn't pay any retroactive tax at all?

Could it still be business as usual?

It's sad to see the recurring condescending attitude of HN crowd towards China and it's recent (and well deserved) technological prowess. C'mon guys, all said and done, China is kicking ass. You've got to give credit where it's due.

Cutting edge or not, the next century will be driven by China simply because the momentum that they have generated.

The only thing that still remains a red flag for me is China's lack of democracy and political instability that may come due to it.

Well, if you leave out the Lutyens' Delhi, pretty much all of Delhi is like that.

What shocks me the most is that how people here just accept the despicable state of their surroundings and just go on with their lives. I know of folks that own Audis and Mercs, but live next to a dumping yard. Now what is the point of having all that money, when you get see/smell only filth most of your life.

I had visited Delhi for the first time around twenty years ago, and it seems that despite of all the measures like CNG driven public transport and Metro, the situation has only gotten worse.

Unfortunately the political will here is too weak to effect a disruption to the current state.

I have been living in Delhi for around one year now, and as one of the other comments pointed out, this city is filthy and extremely polluted even by Indian standards (Note: I am an Indian and have traveled to and lived in many Indian Cities).

Here are some things that in my opinion make this one of the worst places to live:

- Filth, Garbage, lack of sanitation. Most of Delhi is filled with garbage. There is Garbage lying everywhere. People throw in out of their cars on roads while driving. People dump plastic bags filled with garbage to nearby streets on a daily basis.

- Pollution. Its monsoon season here in Delhi right now and for the first time in a year, I was able to spot a few stars in the sky last night. The rest of the year, the air is filled with a haze of noxious gases. I have seen vehicles emitting large plume of white smoke and no traffic policeman cares to stop them and ask for their pollution certificate. Garbage dumps mentioned by the OP are literally like mountains with smoke emanating from various parts all the time.

- Lack of space. Ok. There is no space in Delhi. For one to walk or jog.

- Angry culture. I am sad to say that I have never seen more road rage incidents anywhere else. People have very little patience and respect for fellow individuals seems to be missing more often than not.

If they had not detected even once, then your points hold. But they did detect, so the point is that they were able to see? What more do you want? It simply shows that people can sense photons. Maybe not all the time, but sometimes for sure.

Internet has played an important role in developing countries. The western/rich countries may have already reached a kind of plateau of streamlining of services facilitated by Internet, but for the large part of developing world, Internet has started to emerge as a major force only in the last decade or so.

E-commerce, easy/free availability to information/knowledge etc .. are all changing the social and economic landscape in developing countries rapidly and this change is going to continue where there is even a partial political will for it do so.

The problem might be of lack of trust between a manager and his team. He assumes that most would shirk work given the slightest chance.

Sorry but I don't really get it ... what harm would enabling radio on a phone would do?

That is quite strange ... Here in India, most people own an android. And Radio App is pre-installed in almost all those phones. You just have to plug-in your earphones to start using it. I expected that behavior to be universal.

A lot of interesting titles floating around in this thread!

How do you guys choose your next book or Where do you find out those books which peak in the 'interestingness' factor?

Especially, those which are non-technical,fiction, pseudo-fiction etc..

It's quite strange, how easy it is to build a valuation

A large part of today's population already resides in big cities around the world. Would it be more plausible to research on how we can improve the situation in the current cities, instead of starting from scratch.

It's like Software, where you come up with a large code base that is ridden with problems, but somehow works most of the times. You can either dive into that and improve it or you start writing your own system from scratch.

I am sure YC would have thought about this. Just want to know why they choose starting from scratch.

Some specific names of the cities you had in mind would be really helpful.

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly is infrastructure software?

Any major players in the market using this tool?

As an embedded developer, should I spend time on this course? What are my gains if I do so?

Sorry for my ignorance, but How will extreme levels of RF noise disrupt the modern day life?

Tesla, Solarcity and SpaceX are eventually going to merge together to create an hyper advanced ecosystem of extremely fast travel, within and outside the confines of Earth. Hyperloop is going to complement this ecosystem quite well.

Basically, Elon Musk is walking into the history books and folklore and we are the ones to witness his humble beginnings.

His efforts/ventures, if successful even marginally, will play a large part in the next technological jump that Humans are going to take as civilization, the previous one being the Western Industrial revolution of the 19th century.

Chill dude ..

I really wonder sometimes about the great gap there lies between the problems that we face in third world v/s the problems that are faced by people in first world countries.

Here in Delhi, and even more so in rural parts of India, connectivity to services like internet,banking,healthcare etc. is still a luxury for the majority. Most people here wouldn't even understand this hot issue of iPhone unlocking request by FBI.

When I see folks on HN, indulge passionately in discussing the most minute detail of this Apple issue, I really wonder how long would it take for my country (or for that matter, the majority of the world population that still lives in poverty and distress) to come to a stage where we can start thinking about the next basic right that comes once you have achieved the food, water, shelter part of life, that being privacy.

There aren't many books which are as popular as A Short History of nearly everything by Bill Bryson.

It is funny and easy read, yet covers a lot of ground. Also brings to the fore the eccentric characters of Science community in a sincere manner

how far is our current tech from cryo sleep?

Most science fiction assumes that humans will survive long duration space travel through chemical induced sleep, waking up only when they are about to reach the destination.

Is it just science fiction or do we have someone working aggressively on this.

Very interesting!

Nothing much mentioned about sudden decline in its popularity.

I guess, Games that are tied with the tradition of a culture tend to have a longer lifetime.

The one difference between China and India is that of Democracy. Even though both the nations boast of a corrupt governance system, yet the fact that in India, a non functioning government is more likely to get kicked out by an increasingly well aware population, makes it a safer bet in the long term I guess.

To Quote Thomas Friedman[0]:

"If India and China were both highways, the Chinese highway would be a six-lane, perfectly paved road, but with a huge speed bump off in the distance labeled "Political reform: how in the world do we get from Communism to a more open society?" When 1.3 billion people going 80 miles an hour hit a speed bump, one of two things happens: Either the car flies into the air and slams down, and all the parts hold together and it keeps on moving -- or the car flies into the air, slams down and all the wheels fall off. Which it will be with China, I don't know. India, by contrast, is like a highway full of potholes, with no sidewalks and half the streetlamps broken. But off in the distance, the road seems to smooth out, and if it does, this country will be a dynamo. The question is: Is that smoother road in the distance a mirage or the real thing?"

[0] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/opinion/bangalore-hot-and-...

My personal experience has been the exact opposite. I left my first company not because of my Manager. It was because the company had started showing signs of decline. I had been working with my manager for more than four years and he was a real gem. But even he couldn't do anything about the nonsense that was being churned out from the top levels of the company. His best team members left long before he did, and it was not his fault.

why would you want to do that? Kill innocent civilians because the leader has a hydrogen bomb.

There are better ways to deal with this. Diplomacy ... perhaps

Been watching it for 2 minutes now, and still no birth out of China or India, the two most populated nations in this world.