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Wood PCs For A Nepalese School
An Anonymous Coward writes: "The BBC runs a story about a Nepalese teacher who collects
old computer parts to set up the first computer-equipped school in
Nepal. They assemble the parts into wooden boxes! If you have old parts left, maybe you can donate something, too."
So I just read the article, I come back and saw a few comments had been posted at they were all a bunch of wise-ass remarks about the wooden cases. WTF!?!
Ok, check it out people, this guy deserves props of the highest magnitude. He's out in the middle of no where. His home is poorer than the poorest part of the US, hell, they didn't even get a phone until a few years ago, now they have one.
Did he let that stop him? No!
HE went out, got a bunch of old computers and began building working units.
He hit a roadblock, namely the fact his village didn't have any power, so you know what. This TEACHER went out and set up his OWN POWER generators in a nearby stream.
This guy's improving his home. He's single-handly turning in into something from our 1700's into something from the early 1990's. That a big freakin' technological jump and something he should be commended for. All you assholes need to show a little admirination (and respect) for what this gentleman and his village have done.
If I had the cash (read: not a poor student) I'd buy this guy a GSM hook-up myself.
This may be off-topic, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
While I was working throughout the Mediterranean, I met several Nepalese security officers. Those familiar with British military history may recall that Nepalese soldiers, b.k.a. Gurkhas, have been used by the Brits for several wartime, policing and security activities.
Unfortunately, the Gurkhas got a huge black eye courtesy of the Brits when they were used to kill peaceful, unarmed Indian protestors, including children, during Gandhi's early days. Aside from that unfortunate incident, the Nepalese have been great friends of the Brits and have worked and fought side-by-side with them for nearly 200 years.
The Nepalese I met were, as a whole, some of the most courteous, respectful, hard-working and fun-loving people I've ever met. In short, I've never met a Nepalese that I didn't like.
I want to add that I don't hold any grudge against the Nepalese nor the Britons for past indiscretions. There is not a race, religion or nationality on the planet that hasn't committed an atrocity at some point in history. But by today's standards, the Nepalese are really good people.
If anyone on that side of the world deserves our help, even if it's just old computer parts, it's them.
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
That would take...money -
The typical income of a working person in Nepal (if they get paid in money) is about 50 US a month.
It is more likely that they use wooden boxes because PC cases are relatively bulky, heavy and generally not worth shipping out to nepal.
The computer *is* the motherboard, ram etc. Why bother to waste energy carting the cases up into the mountains when perfectly good wooden boxes are available locally?
Right... talk about a PR nightmare!
Microsoft Lawyers Shut Down Rural Nepalese Computer Lab Due to Alleged Licence Violations
I'd love to see MS go after this guy... they'd get massacred in the press, and end up having to give the guy a truckload of brand new PC's and software just to save face.
Whatever happened to JonKatz?
(1) Gathering your stuff to send
(2) Packing carefully
(3) Finding out how much shipping will cost
(4) Send that amount of money
Better yet, sell your stuff on ebay and donate the proceeds! Make sure you tell bidders where the proceeds will be going in case they feel generous.
hopefully the telco ran at least two twisted pairs, otherwise a half duplex tx/rx protocol would be needed. that would require a state machine. which could still only be a PIC chip, so still quite feasible.
or, perhaps a little less practical, how about using some computers with two modems for repeaters? the modems could be put in leased-line mode to avoid the need for dial tones, and then perhaps you would only need a battery to power up the line between two stations. how far could the stations be apart? the signal would be decoded and regenerated each hop. seems like any basic routing software could be used to support PPP packet forwarding, or else some simple C program could be written to echo whatever comes in on a character-by-character basis.
Wood cases seems like a pretty cheap way to do it. Only trouble is, wood does not block radio frequency interference very well. (If it did, radios wouldn't work in our houses :-P )
What are the chances of nearby RF causing problems in these computers? Could include anything from data corruption to mysterious system crashes. Another possibility is RF from the computers interfering with other nearby RF devices. ("Why does my garage door go up and down every time I click on 'OK'?")
I guess you could alleviate this with some aluminum foil pasted to the inside of the case, grounded (for you UK'ers, that's "earthed") of course. That would block the electric fields but wouldn't help any magnetic.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
When I read this, I couldn't help but think of all the inevitable comments that come up about bloat/speed in KDE/GNOME/Mozilla/StarOffice/Whichever piece of software hits your hot button.
Someone always belittles the complainers and points out how cheap memory/processors/HD is these days.
Something like this reminds us of how fortunate we are and how spoiled we have become.
It's also a pointed example of why monopolies whose software must run on the biggest and newest hardware cannot be left to own the entire computing field.
Way to go guys. If I wore a hat, it would be off to you.
IQ is an outdated method of determining intelligence, and is biased towards the west, remember IQ tests were created in the USA when ppl were also using shock therapy to treat schizophrenia, that puts the relevance of IQ tests in perspective huh... there are countries that dont even recognise IQ as a measure of intelligence.
if you had the serious impediments to education that nepalese children have, do you think you would score anything close to what you would on your IQ test? ever had to trek 3 days over mountains and then catch a helicopter to get to school???? (thats a true story btw)
given those figures you quoted, the higher IQ's appear in the wealthier countries... theres already a $300 US billion flow from the third world to the first each year.. by your logic we should further increase the lead of the first world at the expense of the third world? thats more flawed than the IQ tests themselves =p
id feel a lot more comfortable with you espousing your elitist -BS- if it actually had some scientific basis other than flimsy tests which were developed by, and for, Americans in a time when people considered themselves safe under a nuclear umbrella and sprayed DDT around like it was water.
While your statistics are very how you say,"interesting", I have been to Nepal (have you?) and I would venture to say the people there are far from retarded. In fact the people are quite wonderful and intelligent in ways number pushers like your sort could not even fathom. For one, they have created a system of Hinduism/Buddhism that it elegant, diverse, imaginative, beautiful, etc.
The Newari people(one of Nepals many many ethnic groups) are considered some of the worlds most accomplished urban planners.
Your so lovely quote, you're so worth quoting!!
World resources, especially computer hardware, should be reserved for the world's most intelligent poulations. It is these population that have the capability of raising world economic standards. Yes, these are the only ways you can help the people of Nepal: Contribute to the economic growth of the first world and educate yourself about eugenics.
Your Christain Eugenics doctrine is a veiled attempt at Nazisism and really needs to be shoved very far up the collective nether region of people who spew this rhetoric. I know your a troll, but I am risking Karma to call you on it.
The people of Nepal at this point need education, in the form of computers, reading materials, sex education and the like. It is our culture who exposed them to this world of "development" where they lost their isolation and now have to be part of the "real world". With that comes a loss of culture and values as they struggle to be part of your paradigm of statistics.
I say fsck it. And fsck you for wishing the extermination of anyone. Don't you creepy twisted Christians have anything else to do with yourselves than hide behind a veil of false science? Just one look at the websites promoting the cause lumps ya in with the rest of the right wing wackos.