Ken Novak: Digital DevelopmentCommunications and info tech in developing countries, especially wireless broadband and high-value applications(Untitled)- January 31, 2005 The hundred-buck PC: "The founder and chairman of the MIT Media Lab wants to create a $100 portable computer for the developing world. Nicholas Negroponte, author of Being Digital and the Wiesner Professor of Media Technology at MIT, says he has obtained promises of support from a number of major companies, including Advanced Micro Devices, Google, Motorola, Samsung, and News Corp. The low-cost computer will have a 14-inch color screen, AMD chips, and will run Linux software...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/31.html#a2843 (Untitled)- January 31, 2005 ComTechReview: Winter 2004-2005. Interesting journal of digital divide articles, with recent addition of an international section. This edition includes a profile of the Owerri Digital Village, a project of a recent Reuters Digital Vision Fellow. (The fellowship is accepting applications this year until March 15, 2005)..http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/31.html#a2842 (Untitled)- January 26, 2005 HumaniNet - Tsunami Relief: "RBGAN working in Banda Aceh area of Indonesia. We have received additional confirmation that the RBGAN will operate in the Aceh area, although it is not within the guaranteed coverage area. Both the World Food Program and International Medical Corps confirm successful connections. (One user reported they were unable to connect.) We received this report on January 14 from an Inmarsat Land Earth Station (LES): "We have been told by Inmarsat that Regional BGAN works in.http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/26.html#a2830 (Untitled)- January 23, 2005 CMU project envisions computers even the poorest Third World farmer could use: Further coverage of Raj Reddy's project. "Sometime next year, Reddy plans to begin field tests in India, China and Africa of a device he calls the PCtvt ---- a combination personal computer, television, video recorder and telephone that wirelessly connects with the Internet. It all comes at a projected cost of $250 apiece. .. These computers, in turn, would link up with an ultra-low-cost broadband technology...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/22.html#a2824 (Untitled)- January 19, 2005 Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect: Nice intro to the software and its effects. "One example of how the world has already changed: Gary Lerhaupt, a graduate student in computer science at Stanford, became fascinated with Outfoxed, the documentary critical of Fox News, and thought more people should see it. So he convinced the film's producer to let him put a chunk of it on his Web site for free, as a 500-Mbyte torrent. Within two months, nearly 1,500 people downloaded it. That's almost 750 gigs.http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/18.html#a2814 (Untitled)- January 14, 2005 'Our government in Burma is lying when it says just a few people were killed': Aid workers "say the death toll is certain to be higher than Burmese officials have admitted. "It is in the thousands," estimated one foreign diplomat. .. Since the tsunami the military's grip has become even tighter. Conscript soldiers have been deployed on main roads leading out of the southern town of Kawthaung. They have orders to prevent foreign nationals from travelling more than two miles from the...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/14.html#a2804 (Untitled)- January 14, 2005 The politics of disaster: What happened in Burma from the Tsunami is still unknown. "for the first three days, the official version was that Burma had survived without a scratch. The uniformed gangsters who run the kleptocracy, ravish its forests and murder its citizens, expressed their heart-felt sorrow and decent regret at the news from the rest of the region, but made no mention of the waves taking Burmese lives. A meteorological officer from Rangoon explained the miracle. The border...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/14.html#a2803 (Untitled)- January 14, 2005 Nuclear test monitoring network useful: Here's a tidbit from Cringeley: "Here is word from a reader in the UK: "The infrastructure for a global tsunami warning system already exists. The system set up to monitor nuclear testing is capable of, detected, and pinpointed the South Asian tsunami as it happened. The monitoring headquarters is in Berkshire, England, and the head of the station had made suggestions in the past that its role be expanded to include earthquake and tsunami...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/14.html#a2802 (Untitled)- January 12, 2005 The Pen, Too, Is a Tool for Rebuilding: A view of tsunami reconstruction in India, where the local government and NGO sector are leading. "It occurs to me that the tsunami has done something not even Mahatma Gandhi could: It has brought fundamentalists together to work for a common cause. Since Dec. 26, three sworn enemies have been working with each other on the relief effort: The RSS, the Hindu extremists who are part of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party; their fierce rivals, the...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/12.html#a2801 (Untitled)- January 5, 2005 More on IBM tsunami recovery aid: "volunteer and corporate support that includes $1 million in cash and services, a total that may increase. IBM Corporate Community Relations worked closely with its US business partners to secure the technology -- as well as extra batteries, country-specific power supplies, Web cameras and fingerprint scanners -- over the New Years holiday weekend. IBM volunteers are now in the process of preparing the equipment for shipment to Bangkok, Thailand, where...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2005/01/05.html#a2774 |