A Computer for Africa
B Gruff
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=921
No doubt will cost more than the hand-cranked version, but it looks to me
like a "real" PC, running off less than 10W, which means it can be powered
by a small(-ish) solar array.
Dust-proofed, no moving parts.
(Linux, of course!)
Roy Schestowitz
With such a nifty flat screen (I can see KDE), could they only afford
peripherals that have not been pulled out of some film from the 70's? Quite
frankly, the $100 laptop seems to bear much more potential and could be sold
in numbers that verge half a billion within a couple of years. I, for one,
would love to see it come true. *smile*
billwg
"B Gruff" <bbg...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:47r6adF...@individual.net...
Of course it's linux, goat! Who else but a dedicated linuxer would sit
out in the sun with the ants biting their behinds hunched over such a
piece of crap? Probably just grepping away through their \etc files
trying to figure out how to get a Winmodem card to work so they can
connect to COLA and report in!
Or do they have phones, too?
billwg
Ray Ingles
> Of course it's linux, goat! Who else but a dedicated linuxer would sit
> out in the sun with the ants biting their behinds hunched over such a
> piece of crap? Probably just grepping away through their \etc files
> trying to figure out how to get a Winmodem card to work so they can
> connect to COLA and report in!
>
> Or do they have phones, too?
No one does snide contempt like billwg! And with so little to justify
it...
--
Sincerely,
Ray Ingles (313) 227-2317
A citizen of the USA will cross the ocean to fight for democracy,
but won't cross the street to vote in elections.
B Gruff
> On 2006-03-15, billwg <bi...@twcf.rr.com> wrote:
>> Of course it's linux, goat! Who else but a dedicated linuxer would sit
>> out in the sun with the ants biting their behinds hunched over such a
>> piece of crap? Probably just grepping away through their \etc files
>> trying to figure out how to get a Winmodem card to work so they can
>> connect to COLA and report in!
>>
>> Or do they have phones, too?
>
> No one does snide contempt like billwg! And with so little to justify
> it...
Do you mind? That is one of the best postings by baa-lamb that I've ever
seen:-)
B Gruff
oops - I take it back!
THAT is baa-lamb's best-ever!
chrisv
A rare one in which he didn't lie.
Rick
Why are you such a jerk?
--
Rick
The Ghost In The Machine
<bbg...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote
on Wed, 15 Mar 2006 18:56:13 +0000
<47r6adF...@individual.net>:
ARM 500 MHz processor
250 MB
2.5GB flash card
8.5W-17W power
Resolution 1024x768, thin-film transistor, XGA
Monitor technology: LCD
Operating Systems: RiscOS, Linux
Military implications, anyone? :-) Also, good for emerging
countries such as Africa and as handouts for the poor. The
main thing missing is a wireless modem.
--
#191, ewi...@earthlink.net
Windows Vista. Because everyone wants a really slick-looking 8-sided wheel.
ukuntu
That's not KDE, its RISCOS -looking a bit like this
http://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/bsgfx/os/riscos-scr-01.jpg
and being the OS that Windows95 etc. KDE, Gnome and a whole load of other
"desktops" are modelled on.
RiscOS is a damn good (for its size), OS; runs from ROM, boot in a few
seconds, is very efficient on RAM use, and generally beats the sh*t out
of both Windows and Linux for its size and its CPU/RAM requirements.
I used to have an Acorn ARM computer myself years ago, it was a 8MHZ CPU
(running at 4MIPS), with 4MB of ram, a 40MB hard drive... and it was
quicker to use by a long way than my first PC... which was a Pentium 133
with a massive 32MB of ram and something relatively enormous like a 512MB
hard drive..
ahhh... happy days.... (mostly).
BearItAll
Oh no, more spam emails from africa coming up, begging for money or someone
pretending to be the ex head of industry and wants your help stealing a few
million dallars.
And as for the poor people, it doesn't look like you can cook in it, got too
many holes for carrying water, and they have no doubt heard you can catch
virus's off them. So when the local malicia boss and his boys turn up and
bash the head of the house while asking him to hand it over, he is only too
glad to be shot of it.
So who has the computers we are meant to be giving these people? The
governments, the military and the rich. Which then has the potential to
build an even larger gap between the few african rich and the many african
poor. It also means that of those who do have access to computers, those
that also have access to the Internet can look and drool over the things
the west has, how much waste we create, how much of the world resouces we
squander.
So starts a jealousy, a bumbling anger that eventually grows to hated then
later someone will be so angy they are willing to strap a bomb to
themselves and kill as many people as possible as a way of saying 'will
someone please listen to us'. Once they have their first marter others will
join in and it will keep growing until someone realises theres oil under
the african's feet and bombs the lot of them, just to save the hassle of
relocating them.
However, I could be wrong.