I'm just back home after three weeks in Lusaka, Zambia, where our vsat link running at 128kbps up, 384kbps down is costing us just over $2,000USD per month.
Yes, geo sync sat latency is a pain, but we'd take affordable bandwidth whatever way we can get it.
Against this kind of price gauging, people are still making it work (http://link.net.zm/?q=node/230), but there like everywhere else, early adoption is costly (http://link.net.zm/?q=node/217).
--- "Students today can't prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend upon their slates which are more expensive. What will they do when their slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write!" -Teachers Conference,1790
"Students today depend upon paper too much. They don't know how to write on slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can't clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?" -Principals Association, 1815
"Students today depend too much upon ink. They don't know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil!" -National Association of Teachers, 1907
"Students today depend upon store bought ink. They don't know how to make their own. When they run our of ink they will be unable to write words or ciphers until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education." -The Rural American Teacher, 1929
"Students today depend upon these expensive fountain pens. They can no longer write with a straight pen and nib (not to mention sharpening their own quills). We parents must not allow them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of learning how to cope in the real business world, which is not so extravagant." -PTA Gazette,1941
"Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country. Students use these devices and then throw them away. The American virtues of thrift and frugality being discarded. Business and banks will never allow such expensive luxuries." -Federal Teacher, 1950 ---
When I took my 3rd year CompSci OS course, we used an OS called Oberon on which we implemented the minix filesystem for a stiffy drive (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, 1998).
This was only the practical component. It was totally disconnected from the theory for which we used a (good, IMHO,) book by Deitel .
I liked the theory but not the OS (Oberon; you think linux has interface blues!?!?). Which in turn meant I liked the theory but not the practicals. However, I was exposed to both teory and a real life OS with it's own design decisions etc. which was open for me to analyse and critisize. Going back to the theory then meant I could match the decisions made by the designers with the tradeoffs, benefits & penalties explained in theory.
I think linux (or a scaled down version of it) is an excellent idea for CompSci practical work. Especially because of the Open Source nature and the *nix introduction it offers.
In South Africa, there's an ISP called InfoSat that uses a Linux box as a router for LAN setups of their satellite feed. A single satellite card for incoming traffic into the Linux box, distributed on a LAN from there. Check them out on www.infosat.co.za. Maybe they can help out with info on how they did it.
Slashdot Mirror
http://sc13.supercomputing.org/sites/default/files/PostersArchive/post161.html
I'm just back home after three weeks in Lusaka, Zambia, where our vsat link running at 128kbps up, 384kbps down is costing us just over $2,000USD per month. Yes, geo sync sat latency is a pain, but we'd take affordable bandwidth whatever way we can get it. Against this kind of price gauging, people are still making it work (http://link.net.zm/?q=node/230), but there like everywhere else, early adoption is costly (http://link.net.zm/?q=node/217).
From attrition.org:
---
"Students today can't prepare bark to calculate their problems.
They depend upon their slates which are more expensive. What will
they do when their slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be
unable to write!" -Teachers Conference,1790
"Students today depend upon paper too much. They don't know how
to write on slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves.
They can't clean a slate properly. What will they do when they
run out of paper?" -Principals Association, 1815
"Students today depend too much upon ink. They don't know how to
use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never
replace the pencil!" -National Association of Teachers, 1907
"Students today depend upon store bought ink. They don't know how
to make their own. When they run our of ink they will be unable
to write words or ciphers until their next trip to the
settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education." -The
Rural American Teacher, 1929
"Students today depend upon these expensive fountain pens. They
can no longer write with a straight pen and nib (not to mention
sharpening their own quills). We parents must not allow them to
wallow in such luxury to the detriment of learning how to cope in
the real business world, which is not so extravagant." -PTA
Gazette,1941
"Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country.
Students use these devices and then throw them away. The American
virtues of thrift and frugality being discarded. Business and
banks will never allow such expensive luxuries." -Federal
Teacher, 1950
---
When I took my 3rd year CompSci OS course, we used an OS called Oberon on which we implemented the minix filesystem for a stiffy drive (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, 1998).
This was only the practical component. It was totally disconnected from the theory for which we used a (good, IMHO,) book by Deitel .
I liked the theory but not the OS (Oberon; you think linux has interface blues!?!?). Which in turn meant I liked the theory but not the practicals. However, I was exposed to both teory and a real life OS with it's own design decisions etc. which was open for me to analyse and critisize. Going back to the theory then meant I could match the decisions made by the designers with the tradeoffs, benefits & penalties explained in theory.
I think linux (or a scaled down version of it) is an excellent idea for CompSci practical work. Especially because of the Open Source nature and the *nix introduction it offers.
In South Africa, there's an ISP called InfoSat that uses a Linux box as a router for LAN setups of their satellite feed. A single satellite card for incoming traffic into the Linux box, distributed on a LAN from there. Check them out on www.infosat.co.za. Maybe they can help out with info on how they did it.