Slashdot Mirror
GeekCorps v2.0
GeekAbroad writes "GeekCorps has sent its second wave of volunteers to Ghana, Africa. The group has re-made Geekhalla where you can read about their experiences (yes, it's a blatant slashcode rip-off). There are a few good writers in the group and lots of new content being posted. Check it out." We had a story last year about GeekCorps.
I think we could all take a valuable lesson from GeekCorps. Most of you are content sitting in your apartment all day "fragging" your friends in The Sims, but if you stop and think about it, there are people dying at an alarming rate on the other side of the world. Quite frankly, I'm sick of all you people whining about censorship world hunger in your Slashdot posts. If you "really" cared about the well-being of others, you'd get off of your La-Z-Boy and go out and do something about it. GeekCorps should be commended for their bravery and you should all be ashamed of yourselves.
I found the site to be clean, legible, and a pleasure to read, things that I've never accused Slashcode of being. It's like comparing the layout of Google to Yahoo: it's so much cleaner that you wonder why you go to that other site in the first place.
If it's a Slashcode rip-off, then I hope they eventually provide source, but that might be asking too much... I bet Slashdot *still* looks like a black page in older browsers, too...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Hey! Wait a minute! You're on to something here. The geekcorps guys must have realised this. I know what they're tinking! Create a population of African computer geeks who can't get laid! The rest of the population dies out in 20 years and the geeks inherit Africa! It's fucken brilliant!
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Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
************************************************ ** *
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
I have to question one of the implicit assumptions that you make:
What's so wrong with leaving those in power alone, or maybe allowing them to increase their control in the country?
I understand why you wouldn't want to leave a murderous tyrant in power, but why not leave an ineffective/confused/modestly corrupt government inpower? The reasons I can think of for leaving the government in power are:
1) stability is important for growth. If people have to contend with a revolution/government change that could get bloody, that does bad things to their ability to work/be productive/attract foreign capital.
2) a well fed people are a moral people. If you can make a place stable enough so that folks don't have to worry about the coup of the week, then you can get down to fixing the real problems. In my opinion, a great deal of the fixing can be done from the bottom up. If the people do well, they can worry about things other than finding dinner, and that includes government. Working on the economic problems first, even if it means stabilizing/entrenching a less than ideal government, might help people more.
What do you think?
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
This was posted to comp.os.linux.hardware on 10/14/1999, reacting to efforts to help out the third world:
Well, I read some of the responses and got tired of the arrogance and ignorance. We are running an internetcafe in "the third world". We run a Master, connected by modem to the internet with a 233 Pentium. We have different terminals, one of them is an old 486, 66 MHz, 16MB RAM, 560 MB harddisc. Thew master runs squid as proxy server.
On the 486 we installed a basic Redhat 5.2, did need more than 300MB. Our windowmanager is fvwm2. Netscape 4.08 is our browser. It takes a long time to start up, Java and Javascript are causing problems but besides of this: IT WORKS WELL!!!
-even gringos say that our internet is superfast!
Your main problems will be different, caused in poor education: Users won't be able or willed to typw even simple commands like "startx". What happens after a power shortage? (Here we have at least five per week, usually it goes fine but sometimes you spend hours on fsck....)
So: We installed Linux because the government of Colombia was confiscating hundreds of computers just in this city because of the use of illegal software. (The government does this service for Microsoft to receive guns...) But no one here was able to install or operate our system. This will be your main problem. -As someone who did't even now what is a RAM I had to learn it myself.
Your most important problem will be: Will you find people that have the ability to learn Linux and operate this system.
Hardware is the second question. -I spended weeks to find a Linux compatible modem: They import just the cheap windows hardware.
--Well, it's no fun, but in the end it works. Even with a 486 and 16MB Ram...
Good luck...
Enrique
sponsor a kid in Ghana, kill a kid in Colombia...
:)
assuming your cofee is colombian
What you seem to have missed (did you read anything on their web site?) is that the infrastructure stuff isn't there now, so to do the geek job, these guys aften have to fix the infrastructure.
Parts of Ghana are already in the 19th century, but it's the part of the 19th century when things didn't quite work.
Anyway, just fixing sanitation and agriculture is generally not a service, it's a marriage. Teaching people to fix their own wiring is a true service, and teaching them a skill is giving them hope for a better future. Search Google for 'Abraham Maslow' for more information on the need for hope.
Of course, I got my opinion from reading and studying and considering the effectiveness of past 'humanitarian' projects. I've never been there.
I do agree with you up to a point -- my first reaction was this was a patronizing effort: "If only the world had ICQ and hackers, they'd be as good as us." But at the same time, despite the somewhat self-aggrandizing nature of "GeekHalla" and "GeekCorps," I can see value in what they're doing. Some of their projects are helping small businesses and training workers.
One could argue that they should all be there as Peace Corps volunteers, building aqueducts and sustainable agriculture--developing countries certainly need that infrastructure as much or more as they need IT. But at the same time I think there's something admirable about putting one's skills to work in this kind of way. Is it possible that it's just as narrowminded to neglect technological training and development as it is to neglect basic education and safe water? It seems that they both are part of a comprehensive development program.
-schussat
The hour of noon has passed. Let us go and get some Kentucky Fried Chicken.
It IS a blatant ripoff of slashcode! They used some of the same stuff word for word! Here's the proof:
they have <html> and </html>
slashdot has <html> and </html>
they have <head> and </head>
slashdot has <head> and </head>
they have <title> and </title>
slashdot has <title> and </title>
The have a menu on the left and slashdot can have a menu on the left. They have articles, slashdot has articles.
They got tricky with their link to "Read More" though...
Slashdot's link says "Read More" and their's just says "more" obviously they're not as smart as slashdot because slashdot has more words and they're all in title case.
The list of similiarities goes on and on. Let's sue those do-good, pony tailed geeks for ripping off Slashdot's GPLed code!
What a dumbass thing to say. I don't think I've ever intentionally trolled till now.
As to the real discussion... knowledge is power, but if I were starving and a group of over-fed geeks were trying to teach my about computers I doubt I'd be too interested. The problem is I don't have a clue if they're really starving or their water is dirty or what the real truth is. The media and Sally Struthers would like me to believe all this, but I just don't trust cnn or Sally all that much. Maybe I should get off my ass and go find out for myself. Until I do that I don't think I'm qualified to have an opinion if the Geeks are doing a good thing or not... well aside from my opinion about those thieves stealing all that free code that is.
G
It is great to see them doing some good. I hope that this continues and isn't just a flash-in-the-pan like so many other geek endevours I read about on /.
THarris from Geekhalla writes on their site: "The air-conditioned expatriate havens - I've seen a few now already in my week here - annoy me. As I see fat, rich people inconsiderately acting as they wish with no regard whatsoever for the people around them it just makes me want to SPIT!(This is accepted here, I've heard so I hock a loogie now in honour of all those kind and gentle people who make the effort.) Cheers my comrades. We can make the difference. Not all of us are ignorant, obnoxious buffoons. We know it's true. See you at the street-stalls and market places.
I'll see the rest of you in HELL!!"
It seems presumptuous to be in foreign land for a week and decide that the fat "ex-pats" are all ignorant, obnoxious buffoons. It's particularly surprising given Tim's well-traveled upbringing. Such aggressive language seems ill-considered from a group that would do well to bring the local community together, rather than broaden its divisions.
Geekhallans may not have talked to those they demonize. In many cases white Africans have been there for generations, so if they're pre-judging national origin of these so-called ex-pats based on skin color, they may be surprised to learn family histories.
If the wealthy seem fenced off from their community, or neighborhoods seem racially segregated, here's an article from Salon that may broaden your perspective: Rape, robbery and anguish in the new South Africa. Ghana is certainly very different from South Africa, but there are examples across Africa of racial intolerance that can lead to such divisions. For that matter, "fat, rich" Americans usually live very separately from their less fortunate fellow citizens, as well.
To condemn a group of people as ignorant without understanding their perspective is ironic.
People in africa are not dumb, they just have less information.
I read slashdot for the articles.
I'd rather see internet nodes spread far and wide. As more individuals publish opinions and commentary from backwater sites, it becomes harder for official sources to pronounce authoritative lies.
The more sources you have for information, the better you can be at evaluating those sources and information.
This more decentralised source of available information might well be useful when it comes time to decide whether and how to invest in Ghana.
Ed Craig "Who cares what you think?" George W. Bush, 4th of July 2001
Even though I am 99% sure that the Urban Existentialist is a troll based on previous posts, I have to respond to this one since it currently rated + 5 insightful implying that this is what the Slashdot community thinks of Geekcorps and Geekhalla.
It is true that most African's live in the kind of abject poverty that most Westerners can't even imagine let alone endure. It is also true that basic infrastructure like regular power supply, potable water, health care services, etc. but this doesn't mean that this should somehow preclude African's from the fruits of the 21st century. I've looked at the projects page at Geekhalla and I am impressed by what they hope to achieve. Instead of being like most Westerners whose only thoughts of Africa occur when they guiltily switch the channel whenever one of those commercials asking for money to feed starving children who can be fed for less than $1 a day shows up, these people are contributing something. It is in extremely poor taste for you to bash them for donating their time and resources to a society desperately in need.
Frankly I'm glad they're doing this, with the advent of the Net I've kept in touch with friends I left behind via ICQ and email whom I thought I'd never talk to again due to the prohibitive costs of calling or locating them after they moved. Anyone who is helpingwith the proliferation of the Net in Africa has my thanks and undying appreciation. Oh by the way, for all the other people who are bashing them for going to Africa to make web pages and teach OO programming What the fuck are you doing for the poor and starving of the Earth.
PS: I just spoke got an email from a friend I haven't seen since 1997 who lives in Nigeria and he told me he has a job writing VBA applications for a local company and he is brushing up on his COM and C++. Hope that makes some you guys think before you rate this kind of jingoistic claptrap up.
Grabel's Law
Because the snark was a...
> the group has re-made Geekhalla where you can > read about their experiences (yes, it's a > blatant slashcode rip-off) interesting, i swear i saw pages with an index on the left and content on the right a long time before i, or anyone else, had ever seen /.
This sig intentionally left blank.
They need to be brought into the 21st century. That includes: running water in every house, always on electricity (fuck California, look at the other 49 states, they're doing just dandy), functional roads, democracy that doesn't involve civil war (say what you want about the Florida debacle but no one died!), decent medicine (BillG is working on that), oh and of course the willingness to accept sexual education and stop the male chauvanism that's turning the continent into a fucking blackhole.
Come to think of it, the internet would probably work incredibly well for the last one. Unless of course their net connect was censored for 'indecent material'...
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Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
Heck, the US needs flash like it needs raw sewage in the water. ;)
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
What's funny, though, is that my Social Implications of Information Processing class recently went over just this type of idea. As it turns out, computers in third world countries often make the situation worse. Why? Because it helps those in power, with the ability to run computers, stay in power. It helps the rich get richer and has no end effect on helping the poor at all. In the class discussion, every single person in the room concluded that trying to get computers and the Internet into third world countries is not only stupid it's counter-productive. There are better things to do for $2000!
The people in developing nations need a much better infrastructure - this is one of the reasons the US is able to produce and consume so much food - it can get the food grown in California over to Maine and vice-versa. That requires an infrastructure. That requires roads, one of the first things that needs to be developed. Then running water and a sewer system would help a lot - not just wells. (In other words, water to every house, not just water to the select few, or a central well.) Medicine would help - creating hospitols would greatly help. Any sort of local, comprehensive, medical care would really help the nations.
What we decided in the class discussion is that there are many, many, more important things to do in regard to third world nations than simply giving them computers and internet access. Giving them the things we take for granted would be a huge help. Giving them computers is showing a large lack of understanding for any of the real problems.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
I always thought that if you left the safety of your monitor's glow, you'd wither up and blow away.. This is impressive, I wonder if they have to wear protective clothing.
air and light and time and space
The importance of AIDS in Africa has been drastically overinflated for political correctness reasons. Far more Africans are affected by malaria.
Don't get me wrong, AIDS is a very bad disease, especially in Africa. But far, far more people die every year due to inadequate measures to eradicate mosquitos.
Worldwide, an outrageous 500 million people contract malaria every year, and 2 million die from it.
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Ikaruga scoreboard (supports netranking)
In defense of my emphasis on malaria, I do still think it's worth emphasizing that disease, especially since it is much cheaper to combat.
To change the subject, here's one final thought on the future of Africa. In 1945, Japan was a bombed-out wreck. Its population was so malnourished that generations of Americans grew up thinking Japanese were naturally short. Today they are one of the few richest nations on earth. Yet compared to Africa, Japan is devoid of arable land and most natural resources.
Any third world country could potentially experience this kind of economic miracle.
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Ikaruga scoreboard (supports netranking)
I'm not saying that computers are the end-all, but wouldn't anything help at this point?
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Carmack is an elitist, pseudonerd bastard.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
"Dude, one more time. Listen this time:"
/. and see what everyone is posting about this kickass trip we're taking. Well, that and porn. I also need more porn"
"WHERE IS THE CLOSEST HIGHSPEED ACCESS POINT?"
"Cmon dude, I need to check
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Let me give you the lowdown
Patronizing? Patronizing?! If there's one word to describe this post, that's it. "How could those poor Africans possibly learn anything about computers? They need to spend 200 years in a dark industrial age first." Right. Every time this subject comes up, people moralize about the need to send food over there before computers, without considering any sort of economic reality, namely, that all the humanitarian aid in the world isn't going to do any sort of long term good without an economic base for them to build on.
You talk about the excercise being "patronizing," then say that we need to "bring them into the 19th century." Don't those two statements strike you as a little odd? That you accuse people of trying to establish computer literacy and an internet infrastructure in a developing country of being patronizing, then say that said country needs to be brought into the 19th century?
Your offhanded and incoherent slam at Americans - "save it for your Imperial dreams" - comes off as very ironic, considering the problems in these countries stems from 19th century British imperialism. Exploiting these countries for the resources Britain needed in the industrial age is what ruined their economies and political systems - building new mines there isn't going to help anything.
If it ain't broke, you need more software.
I can't bring myself to agree with a lot of the posting here, the wringing of hands and concern that before we set up Pentiums and WANs we should feed Africa, work on infrastructure, stabilize political scenes, defeat AIDS, etc. I think all those things need to be actively tackled, and are actively being addressed by those with the know-how, but some people are endowed with gifts to intuitively understand and enjoy TCP/IP and OOP instead of the engineering behind irrigation systems. For a group to forego the cushy material benefits of the Western world to share their joy...hey, let 'em rip.
Tangentially: I hadn't heard of Geekhalla before, but for the past week, I've been wondering whether volunteer projects like that existed or not. My own bent is toward medical care, and how computers make critical drug inventories and access to patient records so much more efficient. Maybe not the e-commerce stuff so much. I know first-hand that hospitals in the US don't have the slickest IT in the world due to budget constraints, so I have doubts that international volunteer groups have much at all in that department. Last night, I did a search on Freshmeat for "humanitarian", thinking I'd look into any open-source projects that might be cooking, but alas came up with zero records returned. The time isn't there for me to start my own project right now, but I'm wondering if I might clear some clutter and obligations in my life and start something. I've been reading about organization like Doctors Without Borders, wondering what people with the wiggle to understand complex information systems could do for trans-continental organizations like that, using lingua franca technology like Linux and FreeBSD. Just in the little probing I've done, it looks like there's an enormous impact computer gurus could make, and considering the level of commitment other highly skilled professionals like surgeons and physicians can make, why not IT folks?
However one of the issues that is real and that is how to run projects. The people can work well as individuals but project working and engineering come in second place.
See my journal, I write things there
Our goals have been to try to take processes away from eaily corruptible officials and give it to semi automated systems which are harder to lean on.
Did it help, well maybe a little. Maybe more people can come after us and continue our work out there.
Bravery though is most a load of balls. Personal danger is probably less than walking around NYC, probably less (was nearly bombed once). Health problems are nothing like as bad as malaria, but amoebic dysentry is no joke either!
Working from -30C to +42C.....
See my journal, I write things there
I would of loved to praise you for writting this, too bad your an Anonymous Coward!
Why don't we all just stop sucking back three coffee's a day and donate the money for one of those cups of coffee and sponsor a kid.
> here is a shortage in the number of geek females
Yeah and we female geeks love it! =)
...Pentapod
All I ask is a warm bed, a kind word, and UNLIMITED POWER
i was in mozambique, botswana and south africa in january, and the real problems faced are not specifically the lack of technology, but rather the lack of infrastructure. with people paying for 9600 - 28800 baud dial-up access over a poor phone line by the minute, there is little opportunity to explore the world of the internet and have locals develop the technology needed to form a stronger digital presence. this is less true in south africa than in mozambique and botswana. when i discussed the purpose of geekcorps and how i plan to join some day, people were excited, but realized that in many ways our knowledge would be hindered. all i can recommend to those of you who make big bucks in the US or elsewhere is to contribute to world associations who are trying to develop the country's infrastructure quickly and cleanly.
the fact that you said that makes me shutter.
Well, I'm sorry to dissappoint you kids, but thats just not the case at all. What Ghana needs is not a bunch of pony tailed do gooder 'geeks' (how they can have pride in that despicable word is beyond me, but then I'm not American), its sanitation, agriculture, education, books (thats right, old fashioned books, not Internet connections), and end to civil strife and decent irrigation. Once it gets these things we can start to consider some light industrialisation, perhaps.
Doesn't it strike anybody else that this whole exercise is patronising and absurd? Jesus, save the technical talk and trying to bring them into the 21st century - lets bring them into the 19th century first.
What I have said is the plain honest truth as I see it. I have been to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ghana, and the problems I have seen there are all the same.
This project is just a liberal dream. We need to get practical types there, who know about practical issues and can teach the practical natives. Sending people versed in OOP design is pointless, and a patronising waste of money ('Oh look! You too can be like the white man' - save it for your Imperial dreams).
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
I think of little else but you.
sung to Eminem's I'mma kill you... sil-at-antioffline.com
When I was just a little Jr Admin
My bosses used to tell me these crazy things
They used to tell me my daddy was an evil bofh
They used to tell me he'd rmuser me
But then I got a little bit older and I realized they were the crazy ones
And there was nothing I could do or say to change them
Cause that's just they way they were
They said I can't rap about broken scripts no more
They didn't say I can't rap about perl no more
Slut, you think I'm not a coding whore
Till my terminal are broken and don't work no more
These motherfuckers are thinking I'm playin'
Thinking I'm sayin' this shit 'cause I'm thinkin' it
Just to be sayin' it
Put your scripts down bitch I ain't gon' shoot you
I'mma trap you in my sys fscking chroot you
Shut up, slut you're causing too much chaos
Just gcc file.c -o file ok ma
Oh, now he's rm -rf'ing his own mother, abusing her
Worse drinking diet coke, and we gave him the Slashdot cover?
You're goddamn right bitch, and now it's too late
I'm downloading from Freshmeat 9600 baud is making me wait
I invented violence you vile, venomous, vomital bitches
Vain, vicadin, vrin-vrin-vrin
Texas chainsaw, left his brains all
unmangling code while his thoughts barely hangs on
apache, mutt, postfix, what!
spam more RAM, I'M NUTS, YOU HERE ME JUST NUTS
Bitch, I'mma chroot you
You don't wanna fuck with me
Girls leave, you ain't nothin' but a slut to me
Bitch, I'mma chroot you
You don't got the balls to beef
We ain't gon' never stop beefin'
so stop emailing me
You better kill -9 me
I'mma be another sysadmin dead
For poppin' off at the term with scripts I didn't sed
But when they kill -9 me
I'm bringin' the world with me
Bitches too, rm -rf don't mean a thang to me
I said you don't wanna fuck with Sys addee
Cause Sys addee will fuckin' chroot you
You don't wanna fuck with Sys addee
Cause Sys addee will fuckin' chroot you
Bitch, I'mma chroot you
Like a Windows sys I'mma reboot you
In a colo with mildew, Cali, no power still dude
Fuck with me, I've been through hell, shut the hell up
I'm try-na to re-configure this machine on ebay to sell it
I ain't Acid code but I code on acid
Got a new touch screen with X86 added
Woops, is that a subliminal hint? No!
It's criminal intent, to sodomize Linux again
Sysadmin offend? No, Sysadmin'll assault
And if you ever give it to him you'll give him an impulse
To chroot again, then if he does it again
You probabaly end up jumping out of something up in the tents
Bitch, I'mma chroot you
I ain't done, this ain't the chorus
I ain't even chown your dir yet replace more and less
A Windows box is bluescreened after restart it three or four times
In a crash but that's normal ain't it Norman?
Serial scripted hiding scripting material
In a cereal box on top of your stereo
Here we go again, we're out of out medicine
Out of our minds, and we want in yours
Let us in
Or I'mma chroot you
You don't wanna fsck with me
Girls leave, you ain't nothin' but a slut to me
Bitch, I'mma chroot you
You don't got the balls to beef
We ain't gon' never stop beefin'
so stop emailing me
You better kill -9 me
I'mma be another sysadmin dead
For codin' off at my term with scripts I didn't sed
But when they kill -9 me
I'm bringin' the world with me
Bitches too, you ain't nothin' but a girl to me
I said you don't wanna fuck with Sys Addee
Cause Sys adde will fuckin' kill you
You don't wanna fuck with Sys Addee
Cause Sys Addee will fuckin' kill you
Know why I say these things
Cause newbies screams be creepin' in Sysaddee's dreams
And the way things seem, I shouldn't script these things
From php to perl better forget shitty JSP
ASP, whatever, I hate these things
Fsck postgres, I hope this mysql'll isn't compiled jinxed
Motherfuckers want me to come on their slashdot
Just to argue with them 'cause the moderators stink?
Fsck that, I'll choke Jon Katz to CmndrTaco
From timothy to all seventy thousand pounds of her
From the princapal to student body and counseler
From in school to before school to outta school
I don't even believe in breathin'
I'm leavin' air in your lungs so you can keep screamin'
For me to seep it
Okay, I'm ready to go play
I got the servers from Ebay
I'm ready to make everyone's site lag
You faggots keep egging me on
Till I have code some scripts till you beg me to stop?
Shut up, give me your hands and feet
I said shut up when I'm talking to you
You hear me? Answer me
Or I'mma chroot you
You don't wanna fsck with me
Girls leave, you ain't nothin' but a slut to me
Bitch, I'mma kill -9 you
You don't got the balls to beef
We ain't gon' never stop beefin'
so stop emailing me
You better kill -9 me
I'mma be another sysadmin dead
For piping some bash script then parsing it with sed
But when they kill -9 me
I'm bringin' the world with me
Bitches too, you ain't nothin' but a girl to me
I said you don't wanna fuck with Sysaddee
Cause Sysaddee will fuckin' chroot you
You don't wanna fuck with Sysaddee
Cause Sysaddee will fuckin' chroot you
Ha-ha-ha!
I'm just playin' (l)user
You know I love you
"When I was a Buddhist, it drove my parents and friends crazy, but when I am buddha, nobody is upset at all"