Living in a poor community in Brazil has its moments.
Once I received a new credit card in the post, and following the standard instructions, cut the old card in half and threw it in the trash.
A few days later one of the kids down the road said to me, "you know that credit you broke? My mum's going to glue it back together".
It's normal practise for someone to go through all the trash here looking for anything that might be of value. I now cut cards into tiny pieces and distribute them through several trash bags.
It seems to me that this could make the web a whole lot more accessible to visually impaired, either through the use of text-to-voice gadgets or for making sites less graphical and conversely more readable for those with less than 20/20 vision.
What encyclopedia software do you have/want? I'm working with youth in Brazil and find that this seems to be one area in which Linux is way behind Windows at the moment.
People always say "Wikipedia" but for that you have to (1) have an always-on internet connection (2) speak English (30,000 articles in Portuguese vs 200,000+ in English, although I imagine Spanish must have more than Portuguese). Plus the pretty graphics just aren't there yet.
I've thought about the software for a Linux based encyclopedia and it doesn't seem to be too hard, the big issue is relevent, translated content. Do you have any suggestions? Email on the above address is you do.
..that I could use now to teach basic computer skills to at-risk kids here (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). I have a friiend visiting the US next month who could bring a few back. I have Portuguese Win98 licenses for them which will do what we want (486s would be fine).
To translate "Obrigado pelo carinho!" I'd suggest "Thank you for your support"; "...your cherish" won't do, because "cherish" is a verb.
Carinho is a hard one to translate - it would probably be closer to something like friendliness (concern, tenderness, carefulness).
Don't laugh too much - that Onion story has been making its way around Christian circles, often being regarded as near gospel-truth.
I was recently at meeting of some 1,000 pastors from the São Paulo (Brazil) Pastor's Council where this report was read out (having been translated into Portuguese) and presumably believed by the majority because it had 'come from the Internet'.
I really don't care if I get ads or don't, but I do want to see Slashdot alive and well years and years and years from now.
Now I don't know whether selling advertising will in the long-run be sufficient to keep slashdot going, but I'm pretty darn sure that if we all paid our money we'd see/. continuing.
Free software as a concept is one thing, but let's value what's worthwhile and not be stingy...
For months now I have been receiving an unsolicited (ie SPAM) "Children Labour News Service" email. The message contains no unsubscribe information, and the return address (childlabournews@vsnl.net) always gives a message saying that the mailbox is full.
I've tried for months sending polite messages to any possible addresses on this host, and even the listed address in the whois database, always to no avail.
Short of a pre-emptive nuclear strike, I can only see some form of blacklist as the only possible solutions to stop these messages coming to me!
As someone who's just recently closed down a community-computer centre for at-risk teens, I'd have to say that on first thoughts I'd have to agree to the basic premise of this article.
It's not the computers couldn't help these kids - some of them have become quite technically literate - it's just that they really do have other necessities, like staying alive and graduating from primary (grade) school.
The most value for the majority came not from IT subjects that I taught (basic hardware maintenance, introduction to programming) but from the times-tables quizes which they had to pass in order to play games, or the CD based encyclopedias that they used to do research for a school project. Some definately benefited from the 16 hour basic introduction to computer courses that I did.
Anyway, I've recently shut down this project, turning it into, of all things, a church. It'll still have a couple of computers available for the school work etc, but my priorities today are much towards trying to get these kids away from the drug gangs, staying in school, not being killed etc. I've seen too many die over the past few years, and sadly, our IT technology really hasn't helped solved that problem at all.
on those not-so-rare occasions when the spammer is really sending from an ISP (usually hotmail in my experience) and not just forging the return-to address, to immediately forward the message with headers to the abuse@isp.com address.
Some of the Brazilian ISPs notify me when the user's account has been disactivated, which really makes my day. One down, a squillion to go!
I agree with your comments about technology here in Brazil. I live in a morro but own two cellphones. My bank (Itau) had online banking years before my New Zealand bank got online!
However, my comments weren't directed just at Brazil but in any similar situation to that which we have in the morros and favelas - lack of educational opportunities, real poverty, etc.
It's just that I've seen some really weird "Americo-centric" ideas of how to help the world's kids, and figure that American's need to understand some of the practical implications of their ideas.
It reminds me of a kid I knew who - as a prize for being a top student - won a trip to Disney World. The next year he bombed out in school. I think the exposure to another world so completely different to his - to which he has no reasonable chance of ever belonging - just scrambled his brain too much!
My suggestion to this article would be: give the PDAs away as prizes to the 3,000 kids who make the most Real Change in their own communities, maybe by helping in some small project, maybe by just being nice to someone, somehow. I don't think technology by itself can make people nicer - and that's really what the world needs!
As someone who's been working with at-risk kids in Brazil for the last eight years, I'd like to suggest some things that I think you wouldn't want to do:
- Don't assume that everyone everywhere speaks or even understands English - or even has a basic grasp of literacy!
- Don't assume that a fifteen-year-old in the two-thirds world has the academic background or world-view as an American kid - remember that many of them won't have even finished primary (grade) school!
- Please don't assume that American kids have something important to teach these other kids - or that two-thirds world kids would necessarily even want to talk to Americans (other than to ask for money)
- please remember that poor in the two-thirds world often really means poor and that these kids mightn't be able to buy spare batteries, use phone lines or the Internet, or maybe have even pen and paper.
I really can't imagine any useful application of this technology. Some kids, I'm sure, will try to use the PDAs as GameBoys or trade them with someone for food or Nikes.
Anyway, I hope I don't come across as too much of a wet-blanket, it's just that I've met some fairly "out-there" ideas for helping Brazilian kids.
I've been unable to access the site http://disvr.cjb.net/freedv referenced in the article. If this is an offical Symantec decision, why aren't the binaries available from http://www.symantec.com? I just searched their site for the word "DesqView" and found no mention of this supposed release.
The alternative http://www.chsoft.com/dv.html posted here contains binaries but I can't see any mention of any official announcement by Symantec about the binaries now being in Public Domain.
The site
http://www.freemm.org/DesqView%20X/, also mentioned in postings here on Slashdot, (and last updated Wed Apr 11 2001) says the following:
I built this page as soon as I heard that DesqView/X is available. As soon as I confirm the legality of the download, I will load the binaries up on this site. For right now, you can download DesqView/X from Amos Vryhof's page at: http://disvr.cjb.net/freedv/. There are also many useful links there
It seems to me that this rumour has been around for a few months now.
...for seven years now, and would like to through out the following random ideas.
(1) Some people have said that it's smarter to work and donate your money. I personally wouldn't throw my money near *any* big-name aid agency, as I've seen what happens to the money that is given to some of these places.
(2) Often we have very unrealistic ideas of what people need. The teens I work with in a Rio slum need to finish primary school, not learn computer science. But computers can help. I've run free computer courses, and also use computers for educational tasks such as encyclopeadias.
(3) Geeks can learn to do other stuff, like first aid, visiting families to assess need and give out food etc.
(4) People need people. Although changing infrastructures and eliminating corruption are lofty ideals, as foreigners we have no right to meddle in another nation's internal affairs, espeically politics. But we can help individuals. It mightn't change the nation all at once, nor eliminate all of the problems overnight, but it does make a difference to that person.
Slashdot Mirror
Living in a poor community in Brazil has its moments.
Once I received a new credit card in the post, and following the standard instructions, cut the old card in half and threw it in the trash.
A few days later one of the kids down the road said to me, "you know that credit you broke? My mum's going to glue it back together".
It's normal practise for someone to go through all the trash here looking for anything that might be of value. I now cut cards into tiny pieces and distribute them through several trash bags.
It seems to me that this could make the web a whole lot more accessible to visually impaired, either through the use of text-to-voice gadgets or for making sites less graphical and conversely more readable for those with less than 20/20 vision.
What encyclopedia software do you have/want? I'm working with youth in Brazil and find that this seems to be one area in which Linux is way behind Windows at the moment. People always say "Wikipedia" but for that you have to (1) have an always-on internet connection (2) speak English (30,000 articles in Portuguese vs 200,000+ in English, although I imagine Spanish must have more than Portuguese). Plus the pretty graphics just aren't there yet. I've thought about the software for a Linux based encyclopedia and it doesn't seem to be too hard, the big issue is relevent, translated content. Do you have any suggestions? Email on the above address is you do.
.. -.. --- (try here if, like me, you don't actually remember those days.
...we could fire them at Ozzie (in retaliation for underarm bowling perhaps)
..that I could use now to teach basic computer skills to at-risk kids here (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). I have a friiend visiting the US next month who could bring a few back. I have Portuguese Win98 licenses for them which will do what we want (486s would be fine).
Oops: the url disappeared from that post. It should be www.paulcull.org/los
Wordperfect 8 is still available for Linux - you can download it from my site. I've also posted some installation instructions here.
...second time lucky!
Remember all those 'Rumo ao Penta' posters around in 1998? At least they finally got used this time around.
...although where I am (interior of RJ) nobody seemed very interested until they had won the first few games.
Still it was a great ending to what started so badly. I hope they keep Felipão on for a while.
To translate "Obrigado pelo carinho!" I'd suggest "Thank you for your support"; "...your cherish" won't do, because "cherish" is a verb. Carinho is a hard one to translate - it would probably be closer to something like friendliness (concern, tenderness, carefulness).
Don't laugh too much - that Onion story has been making its way around Christian circles, often being regarded as near gospel-truth.
I was recently at meeting of some 1,000 pastors from the São Paulo (Brazil) Pastor's Council where this report was read out (having been translated into Portuguese) and presumably believed by the majority because it had 'come from the Internet'.
(I can't work out why the above URL isn't showing up in my preview - it should be http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/harrypotter.h tm).
I thought it was funny!
I really don't care if I get ads or don't, but I do want to see Slashdot alive and well years and years and years from now.
Now I don't know whether selling advertising will in the long-run be sufficient to keep slashdot going, but I'm pretty darn sure that if we all paid our money we'd see /. continuing.
Free software as a concept is one thing, but let's value what's worthwhile and not be stingy...
Just my $5 worth...
>WordPerfect 2000(L) is available for download on >Morphious Where? How? Is it legal. Thanx.
For months now I have been receiving an unsolicited (ie SPAM) "Children Labour News Service" email. The message contains no unsubscribe information, and the return address (childlabournews@vsnl.net) always gives a message saying that the mailbox is full.
I've tried for months sending polite messages to any possible addresses on this host, and even the listed address in the whois database, always to no avail.
Short of a pre-emptive nuclear strike, I can only see some form of blacklist as the only possible solutions to stop these messages coming to me!
Does anyone else have a better idea?
As someone who's just recently closed down a community-computer centre for at-risk teens, I'd have to say that on first thoughts I'd have to agree to the basic premise of this article.
It's not the computers couldn't help these kids - some of them have become quite technically literate - it's just that they really do have other necessities, like staying alive and graduating from primary (grade) school.
The most value for the majority came not from IT subjects that I taught (basic hardware maintenance, introduction to programming) but from the times-tables quizes which they had to pass in order to play games, or the CD based encyclopedias that they used to do research for a school project. Some definately benefited from the 16 hour basic introduction to computer courses that I did.
Anyway, I've recently shut down this project, turning it into, of all things, a church. It'll still have a couple of computers available for the school work etc, but my priorities today are much towards trying to get these kids away from the drug gangs, staying in school, not being killed etc. I've seen too many die over the past few years, and sadly, our IT technology really hasn't helped solved that problem at all.
Just my two cents worth...
Please someone mod this up - it's bloody brilliant!
on those not-so-rare occasions when the spammer is really sending from an ISP (usually hotmail in my experience) and not just forging the return-to address, to immediately forward the message with headers to the abuse@isp.com address.
Some of the Brazilian ISPs notify me when the user's account has been disactivated, which really makes my day. One down, a squillion to go!
I agree with your comments about technology here in Brazil. I live in a morro but own two cellphones. My bank (Itau) had online banking years before my New Zealand bank got online!
However, my comments weren't directed just at Brazil but in any similar situation to that which we have in the morros and favelas - lack of educational opportunities, real poverty, etc.
It's just that I've seen some really weird "Americo-centric" ideas of how to help the world's kids, and figure that American's need to understand some of the practical implications of their ideas.
It reminds me of a kid I knew who - as a prize for being a top student - won a trip to Disney World. The next year he bombed out in school. I think the exposure to another world so completely different to his - to which he has no reasonable chance of ever belonging - just scrambled his brain too much!
My suggestion to this article would be: give the PDAs away as prizes to the 3,000 kids who make the most Real Change in their own communities, maybe by helping in some small project, maybe by just being nice to someone, somehow. I don't think technology by itself can make people nicer - and that's really what the world needs!
As someone who's been working with at-risk kids in Brazil for the last eight years, I'd like to suggest some things that I think you wouldn't want to do:
- Don't assume that everyone everywhere speaks or even understands English - or even has a basic grasp of literacy!
- Don't assume that a fifteen-year-old in the two-thirds world has the academic background or world-view as an American kid - remember that many of them won't have even finished primary (grade) school!
- Please don't assume that American kids have something important to teach these other kids - or that two-thirds world kids would necessarily even want to talk to Americans (other than to ask for money)
- please remember that poor in the two-thirds world often really means poor and that these kids mightn't be able to buy spare batteries, use phone lines or the Internet, or maybe have even pen and paper.
I really can't imagine any useful application of this technology. Some kids, I'm sure, will try to use the PDAs as GameBoys or trade them with someone for food or Nikes.
Anyway, I hope I don't come across as too much of a wet-blanket, it's just that I've met some fairly "out-there" ideas for helping Brazilian kids.
According to the owner of the site refered to in the article:
The story is spurious. Misleading. False. Symantec haven't released the binaries as public domain.
Come on Slashdot, you can do better than that. At least an offical acknowledgement that you've run a misleading story is in order...
So, you're the owner of the site referenced in the article?
Two quick questions:
1. Is your site up now?
2. Do you have anything in writing from Symantec allowing the distribution of the binaries?
Or is the story basically lies, in which case Slashdot has just turned into the biggest warez site on the web.
Has anyone actually confirmed that this is true?
I've been unable to access the site http://disvr.cjb.net/freedv referenced in the article. If this is an offical Symantec decision, why aren't the binaries available from http://www.symantec.com? I just searched their site for the word "DesqView" and found no mention of this supposed release.
The alternative http://www.chsoft.com/dv.html posted here contains binaries but I can't see any mention of any official announcement by Symantec about the binaries now being in Public Domain.
The site http://www.freemm.org/DesqView%20X/, also mentioned in postings here on Slashdot, (and last updated Wed Apr 11 2001) says the following:
It seems to me that this rumour has been around for a few months now.
Finally, if this is true, why isn't there any announcements about it on comp.os.msdos.desqview?. And why did Amos Vryhof, presumably the owner of http://disvr.cjb.net/freedv recently start his own OpenDVX project on Sourceforge?
I'd love for it to be true, but until I see some official announcement from Symantec, I can't say that I believe it.
(1) Some people have said that it's smarter to work and donate your money. I personally wouldn't throw my money near *any* big-name aid agency, as I've seen what happens to the money that is given to some of these places.
(2) Often we have very unrealistic ideas of what people need. The teens I work with in a Rio slum need to finish primary school, not learn computer science. But computers can help. I've run free computer courses, and also use computers for educational tasks such as encyclopeadias.
(3) Geeks can learn to do other stuff, like first aid, visiting families to assess need and give out food etc.
(4) People need people. Although changing infrastructures and eliminating corruption are lofty ideals, as foreigners we have no right to meddle in another nation's internal affairs, espeically politics. But we can help individuals. It mightn't change the nation all at once, nor eliminate all of the problems overnight, but it does make a difference to that person.
My story is online at www.pcebrasil.org
I tried to download the Star Office 6 beta recently, but for some strange reason it tells me that it can't find SOT638MI.DLL (ok, on Win Me, I admit).
Anyway, I tried to visit StarOffice.com and got the following message:
StarOffice.com Temporarily Shutdown
A Power Failure has damaged our main host...
Will come back soon...
Is this the right site? Does anyone know what happened?