RE: [DDN] user demand for openoffice 2.0
Hi Folks, It may be odd coming from me, but let me give you some ideas about why Microsoft is probably NOT behind any conspiracy with Barnes and Noble: o BN carries lots of other Linux and Open Source books on their shelf o There are few books published that are under Microsoft's control, ergo no real weapon to use against BN o Amazon and other book vendors are selling Open Office books. I mention Amazon because the average Linux person who wants an Open Office book will think of Amazon first and BN next (or last). Or they will Google for the book and then just order it over the webfrom.Amazon. o A google for open office gets you a lot of books and pamphlets about having no cubicles in your office space. Unfortunately it makes the books hard to find through searching techniques when you do not know the author's name. o There are also Star Office books that talk about the same thing as Open Office books, but they are a lot easier to find at Amazon because of the Open Office concept which has nothing to do with our favorite software, but lots to do with having a wide open office space. Between these two issues, the search market is shattered a bit. I will point out that Solveig Haughland also wrote Star Office 6.0 Office Suite Companion, carried by BN AND they still list her Star Office 5.2 Companion even though it is only available through their Authorized Resellers. o BN carried (and still carries) the OpenOffice 1.0 Resource Kit by Solveig Haugland. It may be that the book is simply moving too slowly for them to commit to V2.0. o It might be interesting for the publisher of Solveig's book to take shipping statistics to BN of other major book dealers, like Borders or Amazon. Perhaps BN is not promoting it enough, or not arranging the books for sale enough. It would probably be un-ethical for the publisher to name the actual stores and their buy rates, but they certainly could state that several large retail stores purchased this book in these quantities. o While the number of end-users of OO are climbing because the number of Linux workstations is climbing, the number of windows machines being sold on the desktop is still 6-7 times the number of Linux desktop machines. Also search engines work on the considerations about whether or not someone bought the last searched item. More people buying Microsoft Office books, the higher in the search list. Now interestingly enough, when you google for open office and book, you get a pointer to a book on Microsoft Office because there is a page listed that shows open office document as a menu item, and somewhere else on that page there must be bookbut I hardly think that is a tactic by Microsoft. My solution? Just give more business to Amazon. Sooner or later BN will come around. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association Board Member Emeritus: USENIX Association (2000-2006) (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Bill Gates Gets Schooled
Hi, There is an interesting article in Business Week [June 26th, 2006] regarding some of the Gates Foundations efforts in changing the school system. I think it indicates that when it comes to education, as in solving issues of the Digital Divide, it takes more than gold to create glitter. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association Board Member Emeritus: USENIX Association (2000-2006) (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Membership of the UN Global Alliance governing bodies rejects/excludes the FOSS Movement from the overall process!
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: However, traditionally the free software development model has involved collaboration rather than boycott as its main tool. I will also note that as I go through the lists of the steering committee, the advisory committee, the High-level Panel of Advisors, and the list of participants I seem to see a relatively balanced set of attendees. Granted, while I see IBM and Microsoft on the advisory committee, and no one directly from FOSS there, I also see at least three groups in the attendee list that list themselves as FOSS. I agree with Tom. We need to work through those who are going with collaboration. FOSS has gotten to where it is by convincing people that it is the way to go, not just standing back and yelling at them. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association Board Member Emeritus: USENIX Association (2000-2006) (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] One Laptop Per Child - possible functional prototype photos
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: While I agree that there _seems_ to be a pointing device under the keyboard, everyone was using an external mouse in the photos. That leads me to believe that an external mouse is still required. I know that people who use both the Touchpad type of mouse and the Thinkstick type of mouse often use an external mouse for fine detail work such as drawing. I do not use a mouse 99.99% of the time, since most of my work is selecting of objects, but I do carry one for either detailed work or long instances of doing a lot of mouse work, where I find it more comfortable using the external mouse. All of the pictures seem to have a touchpad and some buttons below it, indicating a built-in mouse. Cheers, md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] (no subject)
Dave, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: Jon, Christian Einfeldt (of the Digital Tipping Point film) turned me on to this thread. You were spot on. It's a RAM thing - we've tried to tell the system builder that supplies Fry's over and over again that shipping a machine with 128mb RAM but also relying on that same RAM for driving the onboard video is just a terrible experience for customers. They are kowtowing to the Fry's buyers, who only really want to use the machine as a loss leader so their sales people can upsell to more expensive gear. Cheers, Kevin La Rue VP Marketing, Linspire I had forgotten that the machine shared its RAM with its video card. This is one reason why Linux needed so much memory. Normally it would run slow, but not intolerable, in 128 Mbytes of memory. However, I will predict that windows will also work slower than molasses on this machine (IF IT WORKS AT ALL) until you add more RAM. The last time I knew MS Windows XP needed 256 Mbytes to run well on a reasonably (non-shared video RAM) machine. It is not the software, or even a bad machine design for the market. It is just a bad system builder, and an ugly loss-leader business model used by Frye's. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] PC Magazine reviews $159 Linspire computer
I believe she already has the software she uses on a day to day basis Playing the devil's advocate (these words take on new meaning), she should check her licenses. Software purchased bundled with another machine is often not transferable to another system. I'm disappointed, because this configuration amounts to a very bad configuration from a marketing perspective. Linspire is bloated, and the makers of Linspire must surely be aware that their software takes up a certain amount of resources to run. Why release a machine that's configured to draw attacks and criticism for abysmal performance? Linspire may not have had much to say about it. It is not their computer, they just have their OS on it. It was up to the company that built the computer for Fryes, and Fryes itself that make the poor call. According to the Linspire marketing guy, Frye's was using this as a loss leader. According to Wikipedia: In marketing, a loss leader is an item that is sold below cost in an effort to stimulate other profitable sales. In the loss leader area, the first thing that a person might buy is more memory, and the service of installing it. But if they have to do this, then the system automatically costs more than the $159. Another loss leader technique is bait and switch. Advertise a low-cost computer, and when it looks like a dog in the store, sell a higher priced one. I can not be sure that this is Frye's tactic, but if it smells like md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] PC Magazine reviews $159 Linspire computer
Dave, One more thing, the PC Magazine article did also mention the slowness of the machine with the stock 128 MBytes of memory, and said that when they upgraded to 512 Mbytes (two 256Mbyte sticks of memory) the machine became quite snappy. They also said you would not mistake it for a Athlon 64 or an Intel P4. So for $40. more they said it became a quite capable office system, although noting that serious gamers would probably still be a bit disappointed. Then again, serious gamers spend way over 4000 USD for a machine. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] PC Magazine reviews $159 Linspire computer
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: want to go straight back to the Windows machine they're familiar with. Since this machine has no Windows license, I assume that she will buy the Windows distribution at a store, or from an OEM who will channel the license fee for her? Likewise the license for Microsoft Office, Photoshop, and all the other things she is used to? md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] PC Magazine reviews $159 Linspire computer
Dave, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: The machine had an AMD 2400+ processor with 128 Mb DDR RAM...absolutely no reason for it to be running that slowly, other than Linspire's code bloat. [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: so abysmally that my friend has insisted that I install XP for her. I'm doing this, as well as adding a RAM upgrade. Before installing XP, why not try a different version of Linux, or at least a re-tuned version of Linspire. In fact, one thing that MIGHT make the Linux system really slow is whether or not DMA has been turned off for the main disk drives. I had a Linux system that was slow, and finally I realized that the DMA had been turned off for the hard drives (sometimes necessary for CD-ROMs), which made the system work really SLOW. OR it could be that (to be easy for the former Windows users) that they did something like mounting the file systems synchronous, or using log-based file systems on a mostly read-only file system. Yes, the people who package the system should have done this, but with your explanation of their attitudes, I would not be surprised. I also am aware that the pre-V2.0 versions of Open Office (Alpha and Beta versions) were REALLY slow, and right before V2.0 came out the speed of Open Office improved DRAMATICALLY. It is possible that the version of OO on Linspire was one of these pre-release versions. In any case, try pulling down a version of Fedora or SuSE 10.0 and putting that on the machine, making sure DMA is turned on for the hard drives after installation. Warmest regards, maddog -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Intel: Poor Want 'Real' Computers (fwd)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: Giving laptops to all the children would impact the culture too much too quickly. I am not sure that I agree with this. We should help them use their computers wisely, and help them understand that it is a tool, not an end. In Western Samoa many years ago the government gave each village a TV and a Video Tape player. Then each week the government sent out two video tapes filled with educational information. You could bet that Wednesday and Thursday nights would see the people of the village sitting in their communal fala, notebooks on their knees, taking notes about what they thought was important to their lives. On Friday the tapes were mailed back, to be re-recorded. So TV, the bane of western civilization to so many, was actually useful to them. And most people will differentiate the documentary from the sitcom in importance of teaching and information. Health information, environmental information, information on how to manage money or run a business. The delivery system is important, since it has to meet the needs of the people, but the tailored content is just as (or more) important. The content has to be tailored to them, and that is what the Internet can allow to happen. Printed paper fits a cost model that says it has to apply to a large (or relatively large) audience. Wikis can fit a cost model that says the information can be of use to a very small number of people, maybe even as small as one or two people separated by large distances. Techniques of digging a bore-hole in Africa might be very useful to someone living in another desert thousands of miles away. To your statement, I have seen a much different approach to using computers when they are omnipresent. They become more of a natural extension of what you need to do. Notetaking, information lookupthe quality of the experience is exponential when you don't have to wait, or you don't have to hurry because someone else is waiting. There is a group of people, collectively called the cyborgs, who experiment with ever-present computing, trying to see the difference between ever-present and intrusive computing. Some of this work was done at MIT's Media Labs, but is now being done at other universities. Who knows what the culture might lose before members even became aware of the value of what would be lost?! I would hope that we would encourage people who have these computers to capture and preserve their cultures through the use of the computer and the Internet, to explain to them that their culture is important, and other people are interested in how they live, what they think, and how their culture acts. From that viewpoint, it would be nice if the computer had a small video camera and microphone built in, or a small scanner, but these could be tools that would be shared among the users, to keep the costs down. Let them record the stories and songs of their cultures and spread them to the world. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Passing off junk P1 and P2 machnes to third world!!
Barrett said.. We work in the area of low cost, affordable PCs, but full-function PCs, he said. Not handheld devices and not gadgets. Pardon me. I am surprised that Mr. Barrett is ignorant of the fact that Intel owns at least 50% of the design of the CPU chip in the Simputer. They obtained that from Digital when they bought our FABs and our work on the StrongARM. Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StrongARM Intel continues to make low-power chips for PDAs (handheld devices) as the Intel XScale. They must have caught him on a bad day (like the day after he found out that AMD won the deal for the laptop). md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Open Hardware? Was: Microsoft Donations: Roses with Thorns?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: I'm curious about the concept (and practice?) of Open Hardware as analogue to Open Source ... To what extent is this concept, is anyone doing anything along these lines? Where do such discussions take place? There have been a couple of examples of openhardware, some more vigorous than others. You can read about the pros and cons of it here: http://opencollector.org/Whyfree/ And there are some designs at: www.openhardware.net as well as a certification program started by a friend of mine, Henry (no relation) Hall, that was more or less still-born in 2002 at www.open-hardware.org Some projects, like the Simputer, allow you to license the design at a reasonable fee. Some companies, like www.solarpc.com, offer to license their designs to countries that wish to build their PCs locally, giving local people assembly jobs, etc. There are some other projects like http://www.zapatatelephony.org/ that have the schematics, parts lists, etc. online for building peripherals. Unlike software, however, most hardware designs have a limited life due to changes in availability of chips, minimum expectations in functionality and speed (very few people want a Z80 design today). On the site openhardware.net there is a nice design for a small development system utilizing the Dragonball processor which could be built by high school students. Alas, the Dragonball (once the basis, I believe, of the Palm Pilot) is no longer built by Motorola. Also, more and more hardware designs are descending into integrated circuits that are designed with sophisticated (read expensive) software tools, simulated on sophisticated (there is that word again) software, then built in a Fabrication plant. Typically not something to which your average high school has access. Colleges, perhaps. I remember a web site that allowed you do develop printed circuit boards and test them out for free, then submit them to a company for manufacture. I have heard about web-based tools for integrated circuits that are the same, but there is still that cost of making that first one. Then after you make the first one, comes the issue of making more, and setting up a manufacturing line and quantity buying that can make them cheaper than Taiwan. In a lot of areas it is not the cost of the hardware itself, but the import duties put on it by governments. Witness the fact that laptop computers going into Brasil are typically 50-100% more expensive than in the states, and we both buy them from Taiwan or China (for the most part). Basically I think it comes down to this (and please pardon the simplification): o software you can do on the back of a napkin, napkins are relatively free o hardware you need to have a signal analyzer, and that costs money maddog (who has done both hardware and software) -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Video: the $100 laptop at WSIS ?JUNK MAIL? 4
$100 laptop? No worries. I might also point out that there are many CPU chips that have been made by FABless companies. I do not believe that MIPS ever owned a FAB, nor has Sun Microsystems (SPARC). I worked for Digital when we had our own FAB plants for making the Alphas. We also did FAB work for lots of companies that had designs, but no FABs. When it comes to FABs, there may be very strange bedfellows. I agree, this is a non-issue. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Digital Inclusion Funding
Hi, I will make this as clear as I possibly can. I apologize if I am stating the obvious to a lot of you. As a user and proponent of Free Software, and also as one who is concerned about the Digital Divide, I will not discourage people from applying for development grants from corporations like Microsoft. On the other hand, I strongly advise that you look at the terms and conditions of the grant and think about whether those terms and conditions will limit the effectiveness of your work. I have experienced grants from corporations where they limit where the research is used, or put limitations on the distribution of the research because it is intertwined with their own code and business base. I have known cases where these issues were effective in never letting that research be used by the people who could have most benefitted from that research because it did not fit the business interests of the company doing the funding. All I ask is that you think about your project in light of the Terms and Conditions of the research, its distribution, and the market base of the software you use as the base of the research. I will also admit that often there are grants from corporations where there are no strings attached, and I have not taken the time to look at the current one from Microsoft to see if that is true of this one or not. Even if I had, each person has to make this decision in light of their own project, their own work, and their own constituency. In the end it is your decision, and that decision may be to apply for the grant even if these limiting conditions exist, but you should go in eyes wide open, and not having blinders due to large amounts of money. Warmest regards, maddog -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Creating the $100 Laptop
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: You know, it's a matter of time before digital cells with cameras (or just plain cameras) are used to copy books out of libraries. Would that be a bad thing? :-) No, and most copyright law was not meant to prevent the single copy. Originally it was meant to stop publisher B from buying one copy of a book from publisher A (or the author) and just printing copies to their heart's content and selling them without paying royalties. It seems to me it was only when the photocopying machine came into being that the issue of copyright got extended to single copies, then single pages. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Google Earth for Nonprofit Organizations: Let's All Try It, and See What Happens
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: I second Dave's sentiment. What about all of us Mac OSX users? I'd be cranking away at it if it was available. Shucks. Or the 60,000,000 Linux and *BSD users? md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Digital inclusion in Brazil - What to learn
Ami, I forgot to mention that I also observed a young girl in the Telecentro running a program which taught her the proper way to brush her teeth. So learning C was not the only lessons being taught. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Digital inclusion in Brazil
Hi Ami, I travel to Brazil several times a year for various Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) conferences. I have been following the Telecentro sites for some time. They vary from cites in the middle of the city of Sao Paulo where the city government is funding them along with other community centers (dancing, small business development, etc) to places which the community itself puts together a Telecentro out of an abandoned building, donated computers, FOSS and volunteers. When I visited the one in Sao Paulo, I saw not only people using the computers to scan the web, send email and edit documents, but volunteers teaching people how to program in the C language, using the computers as a lab. I also saw people learning systems administration skills, so the Telecentros were going beyond just the idea of simple computer skills. I have heard that in other areas people thought the Telecentros would not survive, that people would break into the buildings and steal the computers. This (for the most part) has not happened, since the inhabitants of the area value the services of the Telecentros so much that they keep an eye on them, and people who stole the Telecentros' computers would have a hard time reselling them, so they look for easier prey. In some areas the Telecentros are creating a reverse blight, giving traffic to an area that ordinarily would not have people going past, and therefore opening up the area to small shops, etc. One small piece of bad news is that the choice of software for the Telecentros is becoming a political hot button, and there is at least the threat that some of the Telecentros might be forced to switch to proprietary software. This would be bad for the people who want to learn how to use the computer at the Telecentro, then use the same software in their homes. Most of them can not afford proprietary software, so they would have to pirate it, if proprietary software were used to instruct them. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win? HBS Working Knowledge
I found it interesting because they seem to think that the war is between Microsoft Windows and Linux, not between proprietary software and Free and Open Source Software. They rely on issues such as Microsoft making money on Microsoft Office while they can lower the price of Windows. But what happens if OpenOffice eats away at those profits also? And MySQL or Postgres (or even ORACLE and DB2) eat away at Microsoft SQL? Secondly, they talk about Microsoft's dominance in the world, yet they ignore the fact that there are only 850 million general purpose computers, and 6.3 Billion people, which means that 5.6 Billion people have not selected their operating system yet. (Yes, I know that most of them will never own a computer in their lifetime...but the dropping price of hardware makes this interesting). Thus while Microsoft owns 90% of today's desktop market, they only own 8% of the possible total. Finally, what happens if any of the major world economies (or emerging economies) decides to protect their developing FOSS industry with heavy import duties on Microsoft software? This could change the impact dramatically also. Or if the WTO really comes down on piracy, and makes people in these countries actually start paying for their Microsoft software? I have no doubt that Microsoft will not give up the fight easily, but to say that FOSS will never win is like saying (in the 1700's) that heavier than air craft will never fly. I found the study (as most studies trying to predict the future) a bit simple and fairly useless. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Update on the Simputer
Taran, One of the things that interests me about the Simputer is the inclusion of two USB ports. Thus hooked to a power supply and a USB disk drive, USB keyboard and USB mouse you might be able to have a fairly interesting desktop (although with a fairly small screen). Lots of PDAs do not have this capability. If you get a chance you might want to try it in this configuration as part of your evaluation. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] emergency alert emails get treated like spam (fwd)
Taran, When I said reply and react, I did not mean directly by email. I meant that they read the SPAM and somehow reward the SPAMer by buying the service or reacting in some way that is traceable to the email sent (perhaps by clicking on a specific link in the email). I agree with the article completelyit supports my point. Intriguing; considering most SPAM I get is spoofed, I don't see how a reply would be possible. Yes, but it is only MOST SPAM, and is only one way of people doing impolite things in driving the cost even lower than the 1/100th of a cent by using other people's resources. We still have the issue of the SPAMers who consider it their right and/or where it is perfectly legal to SPAM, or where they feel they are SPAMMING for the good of humanity. I got a request to complete a survey today from three college students. Nothing in their request really makes me think it is anything other than that, and they probably sent it out because it was the easiest way to get input to a social problem (Do parents know what their children are drinking?). A laudable goal. Yet it was unsolicited email, and therefore SPAM by my rationale. If a billion people woke up tomorrow and decided to ask only one question of the world's population via email, we would be in big trouble. We live in a world where we need to train people in the acceptable etiquette of the Internet, just as we trained people about other forms of acceptable etiquette. And we need world-wide laws for those who decide that living in polite society is below their needs. Good article. Thank you for inspiring me to find it on the web. :-) I try to inspire people. :-) md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] emergency alert emails get treated like spam (fwd)
Well, SPAM is employing a lot of people. That's probably the real problem. I think that the real problem is that people reply and react to SPAM. That is what makes SPAM profitable. Unfortunately it is also a hard habit to break in the general population. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Solar Energy
Hi, www.solarpc.com has a variety of motherboards and cases that can be built up into low-power (less than 10 watts), low-voltage (12 volt) systems at reasonable prices. And batteries can store the electricity for night and not-so-bright days. While these low-power-consumption computers are not aimed at the high-end game-playing market, they do have multimedia application with some of the higher-end boxes. More importantly for a lot of countries: SolarPC recognizes that it is important for many large organizations to be able to obtain consistent PC products for projects that may take years to complete. They also understand that people around the world need to have low cost access to Solar's long life PC's. To promote that idea SolarPC subscribes to the OpenHardware concept. With OpenHardware large organizations can obtain a perpetual license for SolarPC designs to build or source machines for their internal use. In addition organizations in countries outside of the US have the option to manufacture SolarPC's locally if the cost to build them is less than the import cost plus customs duties. Note, however, that ambient temperatures greater than 95 degrees F should add a fan to the box, which increases power consumption, and these low power requirements usually mean a Flash disk as the hard drive (which is not necessarily bad in dirty or salty climates). md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] FW When iPod goes collegiate
I am fairly sure that a lot of concepts in education have not been updated to the Internet age: o Does the student really have a license to record the professor's lecture in the first place? Just because a person has paid tuition, it does not mean that they do have a license to do anything they want with any specific presentation. I have paid to go to a lot of lectures where it says no recording device allowed. Events where I speak often have me sign a form allowing them to put my presentations up on the web or re-distribute them. I am often asked if people can record my presentation and put it up on the web. I appreciate the request and usually grant it. Sometimes I ask that they not put an audio recording up on the web since I use a lot of sarcasm in my talks, and this could be construed in a way that I had not meant it. If the professors have not signed a release with the university, then they may own their presentations, or at least what happens to them beyond the individual and personal use by the individual student. o Does that license allow the student to broadcast that recorded lecture? In the days before the Internet the difficulty of an individual taking a recording and broadcasting it was high, so the incidence was low. People did not work into the agreements with the students what they could or could not do with the lectures they recorded. Most of the recordings that students made were just to help them fill out their notes. Sometimes students made recordings for fellow students that overslept or were working, but still you had to make copies to take it beyond one or two classmates. Now as it becomes easier and more frequent for people to put the recorded lectures on the Internet for distribution, the issue rises to the top. I could foresee a day where one student comes to the class (unfortunately scheduled at 0800 on a Saturday morning), records the class, and the other students simply listen to it later. Some professors might view this as a detriment, since it limits the interactiveness of the class. Others might view it as a good thing if the students were actually awake enough to listen to what was said, then discussed it on chat or in a wiki. In reality, I think that the university should record the lecture, and make it available on the web for the studentsat least they would have more control over the actual content. o There are other issues. What happens with partial recordings, derived works, accreditation for the professor, etc.? What happens if the professor's lecture is taken out of context? It sounds to me as if this is a job for a Creative Commons(R) style of licensing. I guess college students could be sued, why not? The RIAA can go after kids, so the precedent has been set. If something strikes you as intuitively wrong about this whole thing, you're not alone. If my son or daughter was going to a university that sued a student for making a recording of a lecture and pod-casting it, I would simply suggest to my child that perhaps they were at the wrong university, and should seek out one that is more progressive. I agree that it feels intuitively wrong, and even more wrong when you consider that the tuition that the student pays is only a small part of the cost of education. In a publicly funded institution, the tax payers pay the bulk of the costs, along with grants from industry. IMHO, the efforts of these professors belong to the public, since it is the public that pays their salaries. This is why I applaud the efforts of M.I.T., Rice University and others who have volunteered to put all of their materials up on the web and make them available to everyone. I have hopes that cool heads will prevail, and we should praise the progressive institutions and decry the draconian ones. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: FW: [DDN] Simputer
Jesse, I will add still more anecdotal evidence to this discussion: Apache is the most used webserver in the world. It is a Free and Open Source package, and sits at the gateway to most server systems. If Free and Open Source is by its very nature hackable, why haven't more disasters occurred due to the use of Apache? Why don't more people use close-source proprietary servers? BIND is probably the most used nameserver in the world. It too is Open Source. Surely smart crackers could look at the code and find exploits. SENDMAIL probably carries more email long-distance than any other mail transport. Eric Allman wrote it about twenty years ago, and it has been Open Source the entire time. Just because a piece of code is Open Source does not mean that it is more or less vulnerable to attack. But it can be patched a lot faster, particularly across multiple hardware architectures from multiple hardware vendors, across multiple versions, once an exploit is known. Regards, md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Technology Blackout Day
Hi, So what technology will they do without? Computers? Cell Phones? Lights? Heat? Running water? Flush Toilets? Books (Printing Press is Technology)? I asked this question for two reasons. Most of you responded to the first reason, that of a society that does not know (for the most part) how deeply they depend on technology and how a lot of things that guide, control and govern their lives work. My favorite story along these lines was a true experience that I had with a man that believed micro-wave ovens cooked food using atomic energy, and that the food was therefore radio-active. (sigh) But the second reason I asked this question is because there are people right now in the former Soviet Union who do not have enough electricity to run their schools, and enough fuel to heat the schools. There are people in Africa that do not have running water or flush toilets. We talk about the Digital Divide on this list, but these people are still suffering the analog divide, and even the analog divide uses technology. It would be interesting to see Technology Backout Day embrace the true meaning of no technology, just to let people know what it really is like. Warmest regards, maddog -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Simputer
Hi, A project that I have been tracking for over three years has finally made it to market in a big way. That is India's Simputer project (www.simputer.org) The Simputer is a design for a low-cost, PDA-like computer that could be shared among users. Why do I say PDA-like? While most PDAs can really be used by only one person, the Simputer has two USB ports as well as a smart card interface and a 4-pin serial interface. It can handle wireless USB attachments, and comes in both a lower-cost monochrome screen and a higher-cost color screen. It uses a low-power, but high speed StrongARM processor, and the operating system is Linux. You could also hook on lots of other peripherals to the USB ports (one is master/slave and one is master), such as disks and other networking devices. The system was designed for use not only by English speaking people, but people who write in Hindu or Kannada. It also has an application that allows you to capture handwriting, so you can just write in any language. For the illiterate, there is also a text-to-speech for Hindi and Kannada, to allow illiterate people to use the Simputer. Illiterate people are often not stupid, they just can not read. And for them to communicate back, the Simputer has a built-in microphone and speaker. Most interesting is that the Simputer was designed as a project by universities and people who wanted to do good things, so the hardware design is readily available, and the Linux OS is pure GPL, with no hidden stuff. Finally, the vision for this PDA-like device was that it would be shared among the people of a village or area, with each villager having their own flash memory data stick to hold their own data, and just borrowing the PDA when they needed to use it. You can see the finished product at: http://www.amidasimputer.com/ and it was announced only two days ago. The current costs (300 USD for the monochrome and 480 USD for the color version) is a bit expensive if you think of it as a PDA, but two items: o it is based on a manufacturing run of 50,000 units, and could come down considerably in higher volumes o this is not really a PDA, but a complete computer system, and its costs could be shared Take a look at it, and let me know what you think. I congratulate the team that designed, built, and brought this to market. maddog -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Technology Blackout Day
So what technology will they do without? Computers? Cell Phones? Lights? Heat? Running water? Flush Toilets? Books (Printing Press is Technology)? md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Guide to Rural Telecentres Published in Brazil
Hi, It is projects like these that make me call Brazil the Shining Star of Free and Open Source Software. Note that the report and all of the software necessary to duplicate the effort is available for download. Score: Brazil 2,536,357 Others 5,212 [Note: These scores are only estimated, completely prejudiced and totally without any practical measurementthey just feel right. :-) ] md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] 'Digital Divide' Narrowing Fast, World Bank Says
Hi, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: I guess the report only focuses infrastructure, and then it is not that false that the World has more cellulars and more computers. The last figures that I had on this was that the number of general purpose computers in the world (desktops and low-to-mid-range servers) was in the order of 550,000,000 systems. Now this number is probably a year old, and certainly we could have cranked out a few more. Some people might think that we should have more than that, but I think there have been a lot of computers that get real old, and are really not very useful, or burn up, or get flooded, or any number of other thingsso I am willing to go as high as 1 billion GP computers in the world. Now I (white, anglosaxen, male, capitalist pig that I am) have about ten of them in my house, and probably about five or six others that might have fit into this description of GP computers if you squinted at them hard enough, so I don't think that 1,000,000,000 is very evenly distributed throughout the world. When I see recent numbers that say that 30% of the households in the US still do not have computers, much less connections to the Internet, I just HAVE to wonder where people get off saying that the Digital Divide is shrinking fast. If the richest country is this way, then what about some of the others? The last I knew there were towns in Russia that were picking up sticks to burn in fireplaces outside the schools so the kids could be warm. We should hold the next WSIS there...at this time of year. The point that I am trying to make is that we DON'T even have the machinery and infrastructure in place, much less all the other stuff. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] confirmed: DDN meetup in Boston this Thursday, 5pm
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: Perhaps strong individualistic tendencies are part of the lists. :-) They certainly are a part of New England Yankees (not to be confused with the New York Yankees). md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] confirmed: DDN meetup in Boston this Thursday, 5pm
so it's not just for Linux geeks like Taran and Mad Dog. :-) Unfortunately Jon maddog Hall: * programmer * systems administrator * product manager * educator * author * businessman * collector of antique clocks, Edison Phonographs and Player pianos/organs * Linux Geek can not attend, due to a pre-scheduled dinner meeting. On the other hand, he will be at the GNHLUG (www.gnhlug.org) booth (#1331) most of the time (when he is not in meetings, speaking, etc.) at Linuxworld, so if you wish to stop by and say Hello, he would be happy to meet you. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Boston
If people would like to set up a formal Birds of a Feather Discussion group one of the days of the conference (it may be either in the morning or the evening depending on what rooms they have left) I could apply to IDG to get it made official, which means that we may attract more people to the discussion. A smaller group could always meet later. Although it is late in the planning cycle, I am fairly sure they might accommodate us. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Boston
[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: I think that's a good idea, but most of who who happen to live in Boston probably won't be able to attend since we're not registered. I have coupons that would let any DDN members into the trade show floor, the Keynotes and the BoF sessions for free. They would have to register to get a badge, but the registration would be free. You could register on-site with these coupons. Perhaps two meetings would be better. One for trying to get more involvement and understanding to the issue. The other for the regulars to meet face to face. If anyone would like to attend the BoF, please send me a note PRIVATELY (without copying everyone else on the list) so I can hold out enough coupons to give to everyone. Please only ask for the coupons if you need them and intend on using them. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Open Source Software in the Developing World
Hi, I have been going down to Brazil (and other South American Countries) for over eight years talking about the use of Free and Open Source Software in their economies. Especially in Brazil, where the government works with private industry and the FOSS groups to solve problems, they know that the issue is not just how much the software does and does not cost in money. That is why they call the movement Software Livre! instead of Software Gratis! (sorry about the exclamation points, but they are not mine). There have been times when companies in Brazil could not even get started, not because the software was really expensive, which it was, but because it was not available in Portuguese. Would you believe that not everyone in the world speaks English? And because it was not in the best interest of the large company based in the United States to generate a Portuguese version of the software, a company in Brazil almost did not existalmost did not employ eighteen Brazilians. Or the fact that the software could not be changed to meet Brazil's exact needs, but fit only seventy per cent of what they needed. I have sat in Digital Divide discussions (not on this list, by the way) where the only thing discussed was how to make countries safe for a company's IP so they could try to sell their product to people who could not afford it. Nothing was said about creating an industry or business in that country so the people could generate the revenue to buy the software. It made me sick. Lula is smart. He sees what is happening with FOSS and the Telecentros. He can see that companies who want to talk to him only want to get their software in, and have no real interest in his country. He knows that he may get a good deal today, but later on they will figure out a way to wring the money out of his country. He sees where his country can innovate with FOSS and develop a real information age economy, not dependent upon some other nation. He sees what has happened to Cuba, isolated from computer technology for 40 years, and knows that it could happen to Brazil. Lula has met the kids in Brazil that work on FOSS, and he can see that they are three or four times more knowledgeable than the ones that work on closed source, proprietary software. He has been told where the real innovations have come from: o TCP/IP o WWW o Distributed file systems o Windowing systems o Distributed security (Kerberos) The United States sees things in a unique way. Imagine how the US military would feel if they were asked to put an operating system into their tanks and planes that was written in China, and where they could now have access and control over the creation of that software. Imagine how the USA would feel if all 1.6 Billion Chinese started generating Software Patents, and the money for IP started flowing out of the USA instead of into it. How long would the USA be supporting the concept of Software Patents? If Bill thinks that Lula and Brazil are his biggest worries, he should take a look at Malaysia. Finally, as a resident of the small country of New Hampshire, I must say that we have a lot of out-of-work software people here, and I am tired of sending my money to the small country of Redmond, Washington. I want to keep it in New Hampshire, and pay our software people money to help me tailor the FOSS software exactly to my needs. There is only so much maple syrup that Bill can eat. But those software people buy local food, local housing and pay local taxes, and that is good enough to slow down my Digital Divide. md -- Jon maddog Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
