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Wireless Pedal Power Computing in Laos
An anonymous reader writes "'An innovative, pedal powered, wireless network provides Internet access to off-grid villages in Laos,' using LINUX-based software which is being localised into the Lao language.
The 'Jhai Foundation's makes the Jhari computer, which consists of a single-board PC (the MZ-104 based upon the Mach-Z single-chip computer - equivalent to a 133 MHz 486 system), uses "embedded" circuit boards, the sort that are used in industrial equipment, and is devoid of moving parts such as fans or disc drives, made to operate for long periods of time without service or attention.'"
...of the episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where Rocksteady and Bebop have to pedal to keep the Technodrome's power running. Yes it does.
...how much pedaling must be done to power a computer? Admittedly they mentioned they were using low power parts and all, but it seems like you would need to pedal for a while to store up enough charge in the battery to use the computer for even a short while.
It seems to me the project isn't finished by far. But I feel envious, here are people doing good for a large group of people that need it the most. Other goups come to mind. Why don't *I* do something like this? It would make the world a better place and I would have fun doning it. Infact, why are we not all do something like this?
-- (:> jms cs.vu.nl (_) --"---
Basically, this system could work without maintenance or electricity in any of it's elements for many years. And that is just amazing.
"The equipment will be powered by electricity stored in a car battery charged by "foot cranks" which are essentially bicycle wheels and pedals hooked to a small generator. The generator is connected to a car battery and the car battery is connected to the computer. Connection with each computer to the others will be by radio local area network (LAN). Each village will connect to one repeater station powered by a solar means on the ridge near the river valley. That station will then send the radio signal to the microwave tower nearby and eventually to a server in Vientiane that will connect the villages to the internet."
When will my hamster be able to lose fat and power my linux box at the same time?
Hans: dat compudah is for da girly-man.
Franz: ya, mine is a beowulf cluster.
Hans: ya, of Crays.
Franz: ya, und they are overclocked.
I can see other uses for lower power consumption computer devices. The fact of the matter is that computers and their associated equipment suck up a lot of power - people or groups interested in limiting their power usage could utilize these to great benefit. Public schools are always interested in lowering their costs - our local high school, for example, has hundreds of computers running at any given time. The electricity costs to the district as a whole must be astronomical. For basic websurfing and word processing, which is the primary function of most school computers, these would be ideal, and I can imagine that the cost savings in terms of the power bill would quickly pay off the initial investment. *shrug* Just a thought.
Just an american (european) way of thinking that anyone who is not in the US / europe must be living in straw huts and hunt wild animals for a living.
There are actually educated people in the 'third' world (*wow*). The fact that they come up with a method of running PCs without burning fossile fuels is something we should envy. Especially now with a completely flopped 'sustainable world' congres in south AFRICA.
I would love to have one of those spring-powered radios but the fact is our 'first world' society is so fixed on CO2 production we can't get them here.
If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
Naah. Would never get there by 10:00am the next morning.
Cheers,
Ian
Perhaps, it is for that very reason, my friend. Education and ideas are severely limited in poor parts of the world. With such 'poor man' technology remote villages can develope learning programs through 'net resources freely available. And perhaps, if written English in unknown to anyone in the village, on of our resourceful people can write a web page translator from English to "..." remote language. the point is. The sooner poor continents like Africa get wired, the sooner they will take command of their lives from the last vestiges of colonialism. Education can save them from Aids, kick start the economy, and provide people a way they can network against warlords. Who knows? But it is a resource they must have. You have been flamed. The Mayor has spoken.
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
Uh? Like how does it make you steal a child's meal if your village gets a generator which can be used to generate electricity by foot pedals? Instead, they could use the SAME generator and battery for warming up the food. Just if Anonymous Cowards started surfing the whole day, it might become a problem
Providing the villages with access to information and with means of communication can instead change something in the long run too. Or?? Did you have a point, if so please explain - your comment did not make any sense to me.
This is nothing new...
Gilligan did this years ago for the Professor.
One thing that would be awesome is if there were some form of e-banking available through this sytem. Right now all their "savings" are in Lao kip, which is about as worthless as a third world currency can be. They would be very happy if they could save in dollars.
Some of you may laugh at the idea of using 486s, but I can tell you I saw a lot of Lao hunters out using muzzle loader muskets that must have been 150 years old. If the technology works and it's available, it doesn't matter how outdated it is.
Spam is not a "fact of life", nor any kind of "natural" force. It is an anomaly, an effect of the fact that the recipient pays the cost of the message, nothing more. Buh.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I would love to have one of those spring-powered radios but the fact is our 'first world' society is so fixed on CO2 production we can't get them here.
Of course they are available. For example, see wind up radio, here or any other link from google.
Sure, a 486-class system will be sluggish with KDE, but as long as it has a healthy dose of RAM, it'll do fine.
:-P
As for the banal comments about Laotian/third-world intelligence, the fact is that these people are human beings with the very same potential that we all have. The difference is that many of them have simply not had the same opportunities. This project aims to rectify that problem. A Cisco and Dilbert 2-thumbs up!
While watching Discovery Channel here in Tokyo a month ago or so (I admit it, I'm a Discovery junkie), an interesting comment regarding mammoth-hunting early homo sapiens was made. The jist of it was that if you took one of these early homo sapiens and raised them in our world, they'd have just as much potential for success as any of us.
I would hope that might make folks who spew "third-world-stupid" comments think twice before doing so. Opportunistically challenged does not equate with stupid. Unless, of course, you're married to your sister and live in a trailor park somewhere in the South.
I guess this is why the US is against renewable energy - they just haven't a clue!
Tom.
Oh arse
Some simpler X11-based toolkits should run fine on that kind of machine, but KDE and Gnome are both pretty resource hungry.
Hmm, pedal-powered computers you say? And you thought you got upset that a file was taking so long to download!
But seriously. Why not use a $200 800MHz PC from Walmart, and just swap the hard drive with some solid-state storage? I'm sure it would be a much lower-cost solution, and shouldn't use up signficantly more power (especially if you underclocked the CPU).
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Here is how I used a mouse to power an ARM based CPU. I cant see it taking a whole human to power a PC.
Maybe they should use lower power chips?
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Wouldn't it be interesting to have a race for the "most usable minimalist machine for daily use", instead of the biggest, brightest, prettiest, etc.
I mean, what does it take to browse the internet, receive email, write a letter, do kitchen maths, and some coding ?
It would make a change from hyping the latest graphics card and fastest cpu and prettiest casings....
ZFMicro (maker of the MachZ - now called the ZFx86 CPU) is currently involved in a lawsuit with National Semiconductor over National's commitment to act as silicon foundry for the ZF design. See http://www.zfmicro.com/pdf/InvBusDailyZFvsNSC.pdf
From the article: "National had sales of $1.5 billion for the year ended May 27. ZF's Sales peaked at about $4 million in 2001 and have virtually ceased as a result of the dispute with National."
Use of an embedded board based on this chip may prove to be less than prudent. Of course there are plenty of other embedded boards that will run Linux...
(like Detroit) have worse health care systems/infant mortality rates than Libya, for example (despite the US sanctions), yet still many USians connect to the internet.
I guarantee you that the mothers in Detroit that give birth to babies already addicted to crack are *not* the same people that spend a great deal of time on the internet.
One more time, ladies and gentlemen. The internet is not *all* it's cracked up to be. It is not a hot bowl of soup, nor is it your teacher. It's certainly not your parents, and it really shouldn't be your friend. It's a tool. And, a lot like a wrench, it's not the answer to every problem.
After a long, back breaking day at work, the farmers return home to pedal up some power for a relaxing evening of web surfing.
As soon as the computer was booted up the people started downloading movie trailers -- unfortunately they were all in Commodore 64 format!
Hey, if you're like me and you don't have the skillz to hack a laotian l10n or the time/committment to travel to Laos (though this is incredibly appealing), you can always just give some of your hrrible corpulent filty soul-polluting lucre to their cause. I spend $5 on lunch without thinking about it. This is cooler than lunch.
Two days this week I eat home-make mac'n'cheeze and the project gets the $5 I save. It's that simple. For us consumer-americans, realizing the power of our spending choices is the first step to re-taking a position of active relavence in society.
Howard Dean for president
This would be great for all of those fat, donut eating programmers in the US who sorely need some exercise while they work (I am one of them.)
Laos is a fantastic place, with great people. While I appreciate that it is cool to do this from a technical perspective, I would think that providing water filtration (or even running water!) to these villiages would be a more worthwhile endeavour.
One of the most striking features of these towns (aside from the baling wire power grid) is how isolated they are. I predicted (two years ago) that I had found one spot where I could be saved from e-mail for at least another decade. Guess I was wrong.
If anybody makes it to Xam Nua, let me know if one of my favorite places is still as beautiful with telephones and internet access! (Vang Vieng surely is not!)
I would add to this that if someone is really interested in helping out, time is the most valuable donation. You don't need too many qualifications to teach (or to assist at a school), and it is rewarding.
The costs:
Airfare to Bangkok - $550
Train to Vientiene - $20
Truck to the middle of nowhere - $2
Month's living expenses - $200
It really isn't that hard!
Can you imagine the weight you'd lose running FSCK on a 120 gig drive?
They are the ones with enormous thighs.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu