Bruce Sterling at SXSW

Reknowned sci-fi author Bruce Sterling is speaking at SXSW (read: "South by Southwest") in Austin. Mike Wayslik is doing a damned fine job of blogging his speech, which includes these gems on off-shoring and computer security problems:

2004 is a very cheerful year for some people - India is waking up all over right now. As a futurist, I spend a lot of time trend-spotting India. They're making amazing progress in living standards for a billion people.

Freaking out over Indian offshoring is a short sighted point of view. If you want to keep a large number of people ignorant and backwards, try it out in your own country instead....

I spend a lot of time thinking about computer security. Under this administration, security has gotten steadily worse. Viruses, phishing, torrents of porn, pharmaceutical fraud is reaching unprecedented rates. About 1/3 of the spam online is being sent from people whose unsecured computers have been enslaved. Because it's impossible to secure a Microsoft system. "Outlook is a flaw with a mailer attached to it."

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