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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?
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.