humandoing software: Comments

Don’t forget that this plan...

Bryan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:20:00 GMT

Don’t forget that this plan does not include the “special value feature thing” that allows your evenings to start at 6pm instead of 9pm for the purposes of “unlimited evenings/weekends”.

Posted to: Quick / Simple Analysis of the Super Awesome iPhone Plan

I tried what Joao said,...

Miguel — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:36:00 GMT

I tried what Joao said, but I just got another error:

mdadm: error opening /dev/md0: No such device or address

Solution is to type “modprobe md” to load up the md kernel module… or something. Anyway, it works now. Thanks!

Posted to: Software RAID HOWTO - Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)

Andy Croll: The xbox is...

Daniel Wintschel — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:15:00 GMT

Andy Croll: The xbox is hiding beside the desk, out of view, connected to the 42” Sharp Aquos at 1080p w/5.1 surround… :)

-d

Posted to: New Office

I don’t see an Xbox...

Andy Croll — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:51:20 GMT

I don’t see an Xbox in the picture… they do look very nice on the big monitors using the VGA cable.

Posted to: New Office

Sorry to make a totally...

Chu Yeow — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:49:00 GMT

Sorry to make a totally unrelated comment to this post, but I just noticed you got an Aeron chair. My back and I are officially envious of you and yours.

OK maybe not so unrelated – I also use Tomato Firmware on my router and it’s great.

Posted to: Tomato Firmware with Buffalo WHR-G125

I for one do not...

Brandie — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:36:00 GMT

I for one do not think you are ugly or a stupid loser #$&&@!#%$. People do not realize that you cannot solve the problems of a modern society with the technology a postmodern society has created. Other parts of the world are not all postmodern as of yet, and do not have the same life objectives that we do. We have a life that allows for us to ponder education on a whim, to better ourselves or fill our time, because we generally do not have immediate life threatening problems to deal with every day when we wake up. We take for granted that we can feed our children and drive around in our gas sucking cars, and that makes us blind to how the rest of the world really lives. Education can only be of great assistance once these countries can stop worrying about food, shelter and safety, in which case this would trigger their shift into postmodernism. If and when we are lucky enough for this ever to occur, we can heap education on them because they will be in a position where they can make use of it. Unfortunately, we are not there yet.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child, Part Two

Thank you this saved my...

Yaphi — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:36:00 GMT

Thank you this saved my ass. Leopard comes pre-installed with Cap 2.0 and I didn’t know that.

Posted to: Capistrano Upgrade Problem

I’m 100% with you. This...

Eric — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:54:00 GMT

I’m 100% with you. This program makes my blood boil as well.

What’s worse is that Negroponte was my graduation speaker in May this year at Northeastern University, and the entire thing was just an infomercial for his stupid OLPC program. I’m STILL bitter!

“Here kids, you’re going hungry and dying of thirst but you can use this laptop to look at porn.”

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

I’m with you, Daniel. You...

Dennis — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:03:00 GMT

I’m with you, Daniel. You don’t build a school or give a laptop to kids who are starving. First, you feed them / give them shelter and potable water… then you give them the tools to make it on their own in this world.

it would be like riding on your white horse after a hurricane and handing out gift cards.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

You think that because of...

Someone from Brazil — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:33:00 GMT

You think that because of one personal experience you can generalize? I work in a Brazil Scum in São Paulo City and I can write an article with the same tone of your but saying: please, poor people here doesn’t need your shit houses, in scuma you can have an easy one! The people wants change, opportunities and education! I have worked in a lot of projects that use computar an Internet access has a base, and I can say for sure: This has much more impact in scums that the assistencialist programs here. But if you write this article to fill good, and sleep dreaming that you and your wife goes to heaven, that you make some difference… ok go ahead.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

“You might tell me that...

blah — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:12:00 GMT

“You might tell me that I’m ignorant, that I’m trying to repress people in third world countries, and that I stand in the way of progress. Well – here’s what I have to say to you”

Ignorant yes. You aren’t repressing though, It’s a blog post. You also won’t be standing in the way of progress. Progress will merely pass you by.

Aiding people to survive will produce another generation needing aid to survive. Aiding people to survive and providing a good source of education, may just break that cycle.

you complain about the spending of 13.5 Billion, Yet wear your $400 house like a badge. Don’t kid yourself, poverty is huge, you didn’t even begin to make the beginnings of a dent in it. What you did was help some individuals. the 13.5 Billion aims to help considerably more than that.

Education and raw materials would let them build their own houses, and you’d be amazed at the human ability to get raw materials. Perhaps if you weren’t playing the great white stranger striding in to help the poor helpless natives you could have paid for the raw materials and helped twice the number.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

I take your point but...

duncan — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:07:00 GMT

I take your point but I think you are wrong. You sound like you were on some Habitat for Humanity project. In that environment educating the children is way more important than building a house that some local shithead official can steal on a whim.

In fact your post pissed me off so much I have just gone here and bought two http://laptopgiving.org/en/give-one-get-one.php

Hopefully they have designed the olpc so that it is so childish that the parents won’t be able to sell them to adults.

Well done for building the houses though – I would love to do something like that.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

Hi Daniel,With all due respect,...

Paul Vallee — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:23:00 GMT

Hi Daniel,

With all due respect, I worry that you might be missing the point. Can’t they, maybe, need a house, and a laptop? You know, shelter for now, and a tool for a self-directed education, hope for the future, etc.?

It doesn’t seem very either-or to me. After all, I have a house… and a laptop.

Paul

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

Everybody helps in what little...

James — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:15:00 GMT

Everybody helps in what little way they can. Some build houses, some design laptops. Houses are one thing, but other developing countries depend more on education to make the leap and become more successful. An OLPC is perfect for this. It reduces the needs for textbooks, etc etc – There is little point being cynical – they’re trying to help, too. Saying that they could be more effective by doing something else is like saying you could be more effective by focussing your rants onto something that is more damaging (free rice from bono). In a way, you are hypocritical because of this.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

you remind me of those...

jcy — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 10:14:00 GMT

you remind me of those dudes who complain about the cost of NASA while there are homeless people out there.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

You must address the basic...

Thraxamer — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:30:00 GMT

You must address the basic needs before the other needs can even be considered. This is what the author is stating, if I read him correctly.

For many ~~- if not most -~~ of these communities, the basic needs aren’t being met. It’s not an instance of “giving fish” instead of “teaching to fish.” That statement alone implies laziness or ignorance on the part of the recipient, which isn’t necessarily the case.

These people have no resources. The fact that they are capable of any sort of survival speaks volumes as to their resourcefulness in the face of adversity. They need education, sure, but they also need to be in a position where they can become receptive to education.

As stated above, there is no guarantee that the people in these impoverished rural areas of the world would, in fact, have access to basic Internet service. Sure, it would be good if they could have the access and training so that they might educate themselves. It would be a greater good if the basic needs of these people were addressed first. If they can get clean water, if they can sleep on the dry floor of a sturdy home, ~~then~~ they can start thinking of ways to improve their current situation. At that stage, it would be more appropriate to give them laptops. Sadly, many of these communities aren’t anywhere near that stage.

I mean, if I were in need of clean water and trying to find ways to keep my family alive, the last thing on my mind would be whether or not I could consult Wikipedia… or download Peggle, for that matter.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

“Give a man a fish...

John Doe — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:28:00 GMT

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

While I do agree that building homes and providing clean water are of higher importance in the short run, the laptops COULD have more of an effect in the long run.

The reason these people don’t have houses is that they are poor. The reason they are poor is that, as a nation, they have nothing to offer the rest of the world in terms of goods and services. If they do not modernize they will be doomed to living off of handouts forever.

Hopefully, the laptops will inspire the children to learn professions that are useful in the world at large. Maybe ten or twenty years from now companies will be outsourcing programming work to these under-developed countries.

Building a house is all well and good for the person living in it, but it falls short on helping to establish a strong, stable economy.

So basically, you give them the fish (houses, water, food) and others will teach them to fish (help them develop a means to provide themselves with food, water, and housing.). There is certainly room for both approaches.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

You provide very valid points,...

David Rossi — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:25:00 GMT

You provide very valid points, and anyone with even half a brain shouldn’t see reason to outright flame you. However this issue goes beyond simply giving people laptops or houses. This goes back to the old saying “give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish” You built a family a house, they are thankful and receptive. Teach them the same thing, and they can build a village. We westerners hope to give a piece of what makes us for the most part successful, that is our technology. By doing so we catapult children in lesser fortunate countries into a position where they know and have learnt how to deal with todays technology.. This they will feed down to the next generation and so on. Give them the time to learn to use it, they will embrace it and will flourish. In the end, they will be better off once they too have Learnt how to build a house from Google :)

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

I think you bring up...

Steve Ritter — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:15:00 GMT

I think you bring up an interesting point of view. The fact of the matter is support the OLPC project and giving developing countries the basic resources they need are not mutually exclusive. It reminds me of the people who say that we shouldn’t spend money on NASA when there are homeless people in America (or some other similar domestic problem). It just doesn’t make sense to me, because we could do both, we just choose not to.

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...

One more thing—you mention that...

Rick Copeland — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:07:00 GMT

One more thing—you mention that the cost of building the house is $400. Does that include paying for your labor and travel? My guess is no. How many laptops could you have purchased – and shipped – for the price you paid for your travel alone? If you really want to talk about efficiency, wouldn’t your time have been more efficiently spent earning more money at whatever you do for a living in order to hire locals to build the stilted houses?

Take this with a grain of salt, of course, as I’m spending time commenting on a blog rather than working right now. ;-)

Posted to: One Laptop Per Child...