July 2010 – Frank Leonhardt's Blog

India’s $10 laptop joke

There was a time when “Made in Hong Kong” was a byword for a cheap and nasty knock-off of the real thing, that didn’t really work. This was in the early 1970’s, and was pretty much true. In the late 1970’s I was horrified to discover that I’d bought a piece of electronic equipment “Made in Hong Kong”, but as it turned out, it was of really good quality and still works flawlessly today.

Hong Kong has now been assimilated by mainland China, and it seems that everything is made there – and is often none the worse for that. India has taken over Hong Kong’s mantel, although in this time of political correctness you don’t hear comedians joking about it.

But why is this? India seems to be a country desperate to be taken seriously – it has a space programme for no other reason than this. But artefacts manufactured in India tend to be either rough and ready, or inferior and semi-functional knock-offs of something made better elsewhere.

While still musing on the above I was sent this:

India develops world’s cheapest “laptop” at $35

NEW DELHI | Fri Jul 23, 2010 1:43pm BST

(Reuters) – India has come up with the world’s cheapest “laptop,” a touch-screen computing device that costs $35. India’s Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal this week unveiled the low-cost computing device…

Apparently this thing, which looks like an iPad and runs Linux, would soon be produced for as little as $10. This in incredible. (Not credible). India’s Education Minister knows nothing about electronics or computing, and has announced this in spectacular style to the world. Apparently it was designed by the Indian Institute of Technology, and the Indian Institute of Science. Apparently they’re “elite” and “prestigious”. Their spokeswoman, Mamta Varma, said the device was feasible because of falling hardware costs. What they actually are, if this is anything to go by, is a laughing stock.

Of course, most people don’t know much about computing devices, but generally they have the good sense not to pretend they do. For the benefit of this majority: There is no way you can put a processor, colour touch-screen display and enough memory into a box for $10. It’d cost that for the battery and power supply.

Apparently this marvel has the facilities for video conferencing (i.e. a fast processor and a camera) and can run on solar power. Hmm. You’d need more than $10 worth of solar cells, for a start.

However, this won’t be “Made in India” – Sibal stated they were in discussions with a Taiwanese company about manufacturer. For $10? I don’t think so!

If India doesn’t want to be treated as a joke it needs to start by muzzling its ministers.

22-July-1022-July-10

No Justice for Ian Tomlinson

The CPS isn’t going to prosecute anyone over the death of Mr Tomlinson at the G20 protests following an unprovoked attack by a police officer (Simon Harwood). They say that he was definitely assaulted, but they can’t prove the link between the assault and his subsequent death. “There is no reasonable chance of a conviction” because of this. Two pathologists though he was killed because the injuries lead to a heart attack, one thought it was a heart attack that might have been from natural causes.

Actual Bodily Harm was also ruled out because, apparently, there’s dispute as to whether the internal injuries caused by fall lead to his death, and the appropriate charge would then be manslaughter – and you can’t have both.

Common assault (from the baton attack), which caused a less serious injury, can’t be pursued because the six month time limit has expired.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (Kier Starmer QC), Steven O’Doherty and Tim Owen QC are responsible for this decision. Kier Starmer (named after Keir Hardie) is, of course, closely associated with the Labour party and the previous government (appointed in 2008) .

This is a disgrace. There’s nothing more to say.

13-July-1020-July-10

Raoul Moat was a dangerous killer

Am I missing something here? Raoul Moat, a established life-long violent criminal, went on a rampage with some guns and shot three people, killing one of them. The police finally corner him, and at great risk to themselves, try to talk him into surrendering. When he finally gets around to shooting himself, the next thing we hear is that the Police Complaints Commission is going to investigate, and BBC journalists are wringing their hands and talking to his friends and relatives, who are moaning and wailing about their tragic loss. What about the relatives of the people he murdered or seriously injured?

Good riddance! The only reason I can think of for the police not to have shot him on sight (once identify had been established and he hadn’t relinquished his weapons) was so that he could hang later – but that’s wishful thinking.

I wouldn’t normally approve of the police shooting criminals, but in this case the facts appear so clear cut – no misidentification, and clearly armed and dangerous. Whoever got close enough to fire a Taser at him deserves a medal for bravery. I can only hope it hurt like hell.

8-July-108-July-10

Andrew Lansley and Jamie Oliver

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley and media personality Jamie Oliver are on a collision course, if you read the headlines. But they’re both right.

Jamie Oliver headed a campaign a couple of years ago, the thrust of which was that we shouldn’t be feeding children junk, and school dinners were a prime example of junk. Andrew Lansley said it wasn’t the business of the establishment to go lecturing people, and to do so was counterproductive. This isn’t the same as saying Oliver’s point was wrong.

Statistics are now being bandied about, the latest being that the uptake of school dinners has risen slightly. Very slightly. Yesterday’s statistics were used to suggest that less children were eating school dinners than before the campaign.

This is missing the point – it’d still have been a success if the numbers had halved. Apparently about 40% of pupils have school dinners. This means that over the last couple of years, 40% of pupils have stopped eating junk and are now eating something decent. Result!

Lansley is also right – there’s no point in lecturing idiots. Intelligent people can, and will, review the evidence and make a good choice. You don’t need to lecture them. We will always have idiots, too, and they’ll always fly in the face of the facts – more so if you keep mentioning them. Whatever the solution to the junk food problem is, lecturing idiots is not the answer.

Speaking of statistics, I’ve recently heard the one about life expectancy being much reduced for lower social classes being trotted out, especially by New Labour types. It’s true. Someone living in an inner-city dump in Scotland lives on average 10 years less (in rough terms) than someone classed as “affluent” and living in London. However, if you look at these figures alongside the smoking and alcohol consumption rates in the same areas you’ll see it has nothing to do with disposable income or educational level. More people die young in Glasgow because more of them smoke. This is nothing new, but it’s not mentioned by “social” politicians trying to get a bigger handout for their part of the country. Attenuate these statistics with diet too, and I suspect the death rate disparity will disappear altogether.

6-July-108-July-10

Sage data files

Sage Line 50 ACCDATA contains a load of files, and nowhere have I found any useful documentation as to what they are. Here’s a summary of what I think they are. They’re all data files unless otherwise stated. Most of the rest are indexes to the corresponding data files.

Anyone with more information is positively encouraged to leave a comment! Presumably Sage know, but they don’t seem that keen on publishing the information.

1..n.COA	Chart of Accounts
ACCESS.DTA	Access rights for users
ACCOUNT.DTA	Control Information (stuff across all accounts – VAT?
ACCRUAL.DTA	Accruals
ACCRUAL.DTA	Currency
ACCSTAT.DTA	Account Status
ASSETS.DTA	Fixed Asset
ASTCAT.DTA	Fixed Asset Categories file
ASTINDEX.DTA	Fixed Asset index file
BANK.DTA	Bank
BANKWWW.DTA	Bank WWW data
BILLS.DTA	Bills
BNKINDEX.DTA	Bank index file
CATEGORY.DTA	Category definitions
CONTACT.DTA	Contacts
CONTINDA.DTA	Contact Records index file
CONTINDD.DTA	Contact Date index file
COURWWW.DTA	Courier Resources
CREDWWW.DTA	Credit Resources
DEPARTM.DTA	Departments
FINRATES.DTA	Credit Charge
HEADERS.DTA	Transaction Headers file
INVINDEX.DTA	Invoice Record index file
INVITEM.DTA	Invoice Line Items file
INVOICE.DTA	Invoice Headers
MISCWWW.DTA	Miscellaneous Resources
NOMINAL.DTA	Nominal
NOMINDEX.DTA	Nominal Record index file
PREPAY.DTA	Prepayments
PUOINDEX.DTA	Purchase Order index file
PUOITEM.DTA	Purchase Order Line Items file
PUORDER.DTA	Purchase Order Headers
PURCHASE.DTA	Suppliers
PURINDEX.DTA	Suppliers record index file
QUEUE.DTA	List of users currently using
RECUR.DTA	Recurring Entries
REMIT.DTA	Remittance Line
REMITIDX.DTA	Remittance Line index file
SALES.DTA	Customers
SALINDEX.DTA	Customer Record index file
SAOINDEX.DTA	Sales Order index file
SAOITEM.DTA	Sales Order Line Items file
SAORDER.DTA	Sales Order Headers
SETUP.DTA	Setup information – manager passwords &c
SPLITS.DTA	Transaction Splits file
STKCAT.DTA	Stock Category
STKINDEX.DTA	Stock Record index file
STKTRANS.DTA	Stock Transactions file
STOCK.DTA	Stock
TODO.DTA	Task Manager
TODOIDX.DTA	Task Manager index file
USAGE.DTA	Transaction Usage’s file