Hmm, at least I don't have to make up crap to post on slashdot, Steve.
What shit that I pulled? I don't even know WTF you're talking about. AFAIK, the only thing I did that got Lee Thorn's panties in a bunch was tell him he didn't have a clue technically (which he doesn't), and have a Lao girlfriend. And, I'm having a great time in Accra, thank you very much. I've also been invited to stay longer, 'cause they like having my expertise around. It's actually rather nice working on a volunteer project where people treat me with respect, as opposed to with contempt. You should try it sometime, Steve... I only worked a month with Lee Thorn and it drove me nuts!
Email me privately if you guys need any more lessons on how to build a wireless network, or embedded computers. I'm actually doing a lot of both right now (and getting paid to do it, instead of paying to do it) and it makes me realize how poor the technical design really was on the whole JHAI project.
Well, if your dreams include Mongolia, you could check out Geekcorps, and see if they wanted people in your areas. I'm working with them in Ghana right now, and it's pretty cool. Check out:
If you dig down, they've got maps on the site... It's actually not that hard to get to, partly because it's only an hour and a half drive out of town. There's a stretch of bad road for 4KM to Pohn Kham, but that's no big deal.
The thing is, this is not a needy, remote village. This is a right village in a rich province of Lao. They even have electricity now -> the wires were strung up earlier this year, so the Pedal Power is almost irrelevant (although, with electricity what it is there, having the batteries is still pretty important).
It's really pretty simple wireless technology that's in use all over the world. I'm in Africa right now, and there's a whole tonne of wireless setups around... that's how they provide internet most places. Which is, of course, plugging up the 2.4GHz spectrum like you wouldn't believe...
I first heard about these guys on slashdot last year. I went and worked with them in Laos. And, what I thought was a bad situation went from bad to worse.
Sure, Laonux is cool -> anything to make technology accessible to more people. But the whole remote IT project was fundamentally flawed.
No planning to speak of. No actual understanding of the conditions. No testing. No risk analysis. And a manager with a head so into marketing he couldn't get his nose out of it for long enough to realize that he was biting off more than he could chew. All he saw was an opportunity to make money off of it for his foundation.
It was essentially conceived as a vehicle to do a couple of things:
Obtain fortune for the techies working on it.
Obtain fame for the JHAI project in lao to get it more funding.
Turn into a business opportunity for everyone when it was hugely successful.
The first launch was a complete sham (and a failure) -> there were invites sent out to everybody and their cousin months before the launch date. At that point, nobody'd even bothered to try out the software involved on the eventual hardware. It failed essentially because they hadn't bothered to test it out. And, because the "lauch date" was so all important, instead of finishing it, everybody went home!
This would have been a cool idea if:
It had been planned in an effective way by people who had a clue.
It had been made to benefit the Lao people instead of the people making it.
If it had been built as something to last, instead of the best that they could come up with.
Now, they're trying to do it again. But, they still haven't spent the adequate amount of time planning and testing, and yet they're setting a launch date and inviting all the relevant people. And it's going to fail.
My guess, is that they'll have the whole thing work, limpingly, on the launch date. Then, nobody will be around who can actually maintain it, and it'll all break down within 4 months. All that effort wasted, and everybody who's been a part can put it on their resume and say "look, I've been selfless." Because they've put no resources into training people, or into any kind of backup. They're just doing like the dot com's... waiting for the crash, but completely surprised when it happens. Either that, or it'll be so buggy that nobody will ever bother using it.
Slashdot Mirror
Can you tell I don't post to blogs much? Port Knocking
And this one doesn't rely on security through obscurity. Check it out: Port Knocking
Hmm, at least I don't have to make up crap to post on slashdot, Steve. What shit that I pulled? I don't even know WTF you're talking about. AFAIK, the only thing I did that got Lee Thorn's panties in a bunch was tell him he didn't have a clue technically (which he doesn't), and have a Lao girlfriend. And, I'm having a great time in Accra, thank you very much. I've also been invited to stay longer, 'cause they like having my expertise around. It's actually rather nice working on a volunteer project where people treat me with respect, as opposed to with contempt. You should try it sometime, Steve... I only worked a month with Lee Thorn and it drove me nuts! Email me privately if you guys need any more lessons on how to build a wireless network, or embedded computers. I'm actually doing a lot of both right now (and getting paid to do it, instead of paying to do it) and it makes me realize how poor the technical design really was on the whole JHAI project.
Well, if your dreams include Mongolia, you could check out Geekcorps, and see if they wanted people in your areas. I'm working with them in Ghana right now, and it's pretty cool. Check out:
http://www.geekcorps.org
or, for what it's like:
http://www.geekhalla.org
Cheers,
Liam
If you dig down, they've got maps on the site... It's actually not that hard to get to, partly because it's only an hour and a half drive out of town. There's a stretch of bad road for 4KM to Pohn Kham, but that's no big deal.
The thing is, this is not a needy, remote village. This is a right village in a rich province of Lao. They even have electricity now -> the wires were strung up earlier this year, so the Pedal Power is almost irrelevant (although, with electricity what it is there, having the batteries is still pretty important).
It's really pretty simple wireless technology that's in use all over the world. I'm in Africa right now, and there's a whole tonne of wireless setups around... that's how they provide internet most places. Which is, of course, plugging up the 2.4GHz spectrum like you wouldn't believe...
...these guys actually knew what they were doing.
I first heard about these guys on slashdot last year. I went and worked with them in Laos. And, what I thought was a bad situation went from bad to worse.
Sure, Laonux is cool -> anything to make technology accessible to more people. But the whole remote IT project was fundamentally flawed.
No planning to speak of. No actual understanding of the conditions. No testing. No risk analysis. And a manager with a head so into marketing he couldn't get his nose out of it for long enough to realize that he was biting off more than he could chew. All he saw was an opportunity to make money off of it for his foundation.
It was essentially conceived as a vehicle to do a couple of things:
Obtain fortune for the techies working on it. Obtain fame for the JHAI project in lao to get it more funding. Turn into a business opportunity for everyone when it was hugely successful.
The first launch was a complete sham (and a failure) -> there were invites sent out to everybody and their cousin months before the launch date. At that point, nobody'd even bothered to try out the software involved on the eventual hardware. It failed essentially because they hadn't bothered to test it out. And, because the "lauch date" was so all important, instead of finishing it, everybody went home!
This would have been a cool idea if:
It had been planned in an effective way by people who had a clue.
It had been made to benefit the Lao people instead of the people making it.
If it had been built as something to last, instead of the best that they could come up with.
Now, they're trying to do it again. But, they still haven't spent the adequate amount of time planning and testing, and yet they're setting a launch date and inviting all the relevant people. And it's going to fail.
My guess, is that they'll have the whole thing work, limpingly, on the launch date. Then, nobody will be around who can actually maintain it, and it'll all break down within 4 months. All that effort wasted, and everybody who's been a part can put it on their resume and say "look, I've been selfless." Because they've put no resources into training people, or into any kind of backup. They're just doing like the dot com's... waiting for the crash, but completely surprised when it happens. Either that, or it'll be so buggy that nobody will ever bother using it.