You're right about that, home internet access is much less, but there also aren't cybercafes everywhere, so I wouldn't dare to say the whole nation can get internet access. 1/3rd of the country are internet users.
I live in Argentina and I haven't heard a thing about the government buying a any OLPCs. At $100 a piece, you'd think the government would announce if it was going to spend a hundred millon dollars! But not a single mention in the papers, nada.
not if you're writing a comment or anything like that, but when I have to fill a multipart form with my personal information, I have it automated and done in less than 10 seconds. Your techinique sounds clever, but there's a chance you're missing legitimate emails
That's true, but for me, being able to take my data with me and not be locked (cough, Hotmail, cough) will make that service more attractive, and therefore there's a bigger chance I'll use it. On the other hand, I know people (generally not tech-savyy at all) who stick with Hotmail because they'll lose all their emails if they switch.
Sometimes me and my friends play what we call Drunk Scrabble. The rules state that if you can pronounce a word, and make up a definition that sounds credible, it's valid. No real words are accepted, unless they're really funny words.
It's not serious at all, but it's way more fun to play!
Consider you're accelerating horizontally until you reach sufficient speed. You'd just have 1g pulling you downwards (or upwards, if you're upside-down) and 2g pulling you sideways (centripetal or lineal acceleration). That adds up to perceived 3g.
and they needed the account anyway to use MSN (I know you can sign up for MSN with another email address, but it's really hard to find that site)
It's amazing how, quite often, I tell people my MSN Messenger address, they're so amazed it's hosted in my own domain instead of @hotmail.com. Not that it's too hard to find www.passport.com, it's most people don't distinguish between MS Passport and Hotmail.
Quite funnily, I'd say more than 50% of people around my age (say, 16-25) use gMail, while practically no-one over 30 even knows there's anything beyong Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail.
Also, imagine if you instantly had your content available accross the world (as opposed to just one country at a time). Shows could instantly be a hit world wide.
I think you're forgetting there's a language barrier. That model only works for funny/dumb stuff, or something without dialog. Not everyone speaks English; you'd have to dub it or add subtitles in every language out there, and the process itself is quite expensive. That's the reason why most shows here (in Argentina) air 2-3 months after it's shown in the US. It's quite funny though that commonly torrented shows are subtitled by fans or groups before it's broadcast on cable.
I live in Argentina, which is pretty much dirt poor. Of all the computers I've seen in my life (and I do tech support for a living) I have yet to see a home PC with a legitimate copy of Windows. It's simply not possible to afford it, since the retail price is more or less 2 months minimum waige.
About a year ago, the government started to put some pressure on PC retailers (mostly small-sized shops) so they'd stop shipping machines with pirate Windows copies. Since deliverying a PC without an OS would look bad, they started putting different linuxes on.
Guess what? now I get several phonecalls a month saying 'Uhm, I bought a new computed, and it came with this... Linux thing... I don't understand what's going on'. And then they ask me to go and install Windows so they can use MS Word and IE again. How do I explain to someone that OpenOffice works just as well when they don't get the difference between Word and a.doc file?
Me, I'm a happy Debian Unstable user, but I can't expect some Joe Sixpack to understand what's going on with his computer. They work mechanically, and if anything changes, they just call someone that knows what's going on. Sadly a little K or a footprint isn't the same as a Start button.
All I can tell you is that here, in a third-world country, people ain't going to switch to Free Software anytime soon. They'll just keep using pirated software and complain about how nothing works as it should.
Slashdot Mirror
You're right about that, home internet access is much less, but there also aren't cybercafes everywhere, so I wouldn't dare to say the whole nation can get internet access. 1/3rd of the country are internet users.
but only 1/3rd of the population has internet access
I live in Argentina and I haven't heard a thing about the government buying a any OLPCs. At $100 a piece, you'd think the government would announce if it was going to spend a hundred millon dollars! But not a single mention in the papers, nada.
not if you're writing a comment or anything like that, but when I have to fill a multipart form with my personal information, I have it automated and done in less than 10 seconds. Your techinique sounds clever, but there's a chance you're missing legitimate emails
That's true, but for me, being able to take my data with me and not be locked (cough, Hotmail, cough) will make that service more attractive, and therefore there's a bigger chance I'll use it. On the other hand, I know people (generally not tech-savyy at all) who stick with Hotmail because they'll lose all their emails if they switch.
Sometimes me and my friends play what we call Drunk Scrabble. The rules state that if you can pronounce a word, and make up a definition that sounds credible, it's valid. No real words are accepted, unless they're really funny words.
It's not serious at all, but it's way more fun to play!
Consider you're accelerating horizontally until you reach sufficient speed. You'd just have 1g pulling you downwards (or upwards, if you're upside-down) and 2g pulling you sideways (centripetal or lineal acceleration). That adds up to perceived 3g.
Good try, but I guess you haven't seen Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket?
hahaha, wish I had mod points. thanks for the laugh
Quite funnily, I'd say more than 50% of people around my age (say, 16-25) use gMail, while practically no-one over 30 even knows there's anything beyong Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail.
Somewhat like the Mona Lisa
I live in Argentina, which is pretty much dirt poor. Of all the computers I've seen in my life (and I do tech support for a living) I have yet to see a home PC with a legitimate copy of Windows. It's simply not possible to afford it, since the retail price is more or less 2 months minimum waige.
.doc file?
About a year ago, the government started to put some pressure on PC retailers (mostly small-sized shops) so they'd stop shipping machines with pirate Windows copies. Since deliverying a PC without an OS would look bad, they started putting different linuxes on.
Guess what? now I get several phonecalls a month saying 'Uhm, I bought a new computed, and it came with this... Linux thing... I don't understand what's going on'. And then they ask me to go and install Windows so they can use MS Word and IE again. How do I explain to someone that OpenOffice works just as well when they don't get the difference between Word and a
Me, I'm a happy Debian Unstable user, but I can't expect some Joe Sixpack to understand what's going on with his computer. They work mechanically, and if anything changes, they just call someone that knows what's going on. Sadly a little K or a footprint isn't the same as a Start button.
All I can tell you is that here, in a third-world country, people ain't going to switch to Free Software anytime soon. They'll just keep using pirated software and complain about how nothing works as it should.