Bringing The Internet To Borneo -- By Sea

dcigary writes: "CNN has an interesting story about the attempts to bring Maylasian citizens into the Internet Age. Now, they just have to wait until the infrastructure in the country catches up." Actually, this wouldn't be a bad idea of parts of the U.S. (and elsewhere), either.

Comments

Re:sounds like buzzword compliance to me

[Goonie]

IANAM either, but while all those things are important, but Malaysia is in a different category to, say, Sierra Leone or Papua New Guinea (to pick a couple of random examples). As I understand it, Malaysia is industrializing rapidly and it's getting to the point where the country is ready and needs IT skills, and this looks like a cost-effective way of allowing the more remote and impoverished areas of the country in on that.

BTW, Malaysia could also do with a Prime Minister who isn't so racist, anti-Western (he did his doctorate in Australia and he's hated us ever since), and inclined to throw his political opponents in prison on trumped-up charges, if it wants to convince the world it's a modern democracy.

Brief exposure to computers

[PD]

I watched the sales guy at a Radio Shack for 5 minutes in 1978. He programmed the TRS-80 Model I they had there to print out my name with the TAB() option to zigzag across the screen.

PATRICK
PATRICK
PATRICK
PATRICK
PATRICK
DRAPER
DRAPER
DRAPER
DRAPER
DRAPER
(etc.)

The useful thing that I learned in that 5 minutes was that I *really* needed to get one of those things.

yeah but....

[kabeeb]

How much can a brief exposure to a computer allow people to learn anything useful? It seems lke a lot of money to spend for a limited end.

It may be better for countries to invest in putting permanent centers in every town, even if they are old computers and no internet access. Internet access could come with time, and in the meantime the catch-up could begin.

Kabeeb

Why was PD's comment moderated funny?

[dustpuppy]

Perhaps some of you 'young' people who have grown up with computers and the Internet all your lives don't understand how valuable or influential a five minute exposure to something cool can be.

My very first exposure to a computer was in 1986 when I saw a friend's dad use Printshop on his PC to print out a birthday card. That totally blew me away! From that day on, I longed for the day when I could afford my own PC to do exactly the same thing.

My friends dad had only demonstrated the PC for 5 minutes, but that was enough to set me on my career path of IT. So while I can understand how people may think that PD is being funny, his comment actually is insightful and it is five minute exposures like the one PD described that do launch a lot of people's careers!

Re:Availablity abroad and at home

[Kiss the Blade]

In the long run, I think Thrird world countries will benefit from being tardy to take up the internet.Consider the experience of London in the 19th century, when it was the most technologically advanced city on Earth. It meant that it was the first city to deal with the associated problems - pollution, crime, sanitation, desease, transportation etc City's that came after, such as New York, were able to learn from the experience that London had already encountered, and plan accordingly. The problem with being a pioneer is that you don't have any examples to go on when you encounter problems.

Possibly Malaysia, which is I suppose a 'second world' country, will be able to use the lessons of the West to its advantage.

Possibly, as it does not have much of an infrastructure at the moment, when it does get one it will be modern and designed for the internet specifically, in the same way that London's street plan is 'designed' for Victorian times, and consequently Victorian levels of traffic, wheras Los Angeles was designed in the age of the car, and so is a much more pleasant place to drive a car in.

KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.

My service.

[Black Parrot]

I live on a remote desert island, and for my IP services I have to save up all my packets for a week, and ship them out on the boat that swings by to drop off medical supplies. I get the replies a week later.

This really makes for slow downloads, which means I hardly ever get that coveted f1r57 p057.

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