"Why does poverty still exist despite decades of development aid? In this talk, Iqbal Quadir explains why "aid does damages: because it empowers authorities instead of people," and advocates a new approach to development from below, "by the people for the people." His own experience as a child in Bangladesh and later a banker in New York brought him to realize that "connectivity is productivity" -- and that a simple cell phone has enormous power. Now his telecom company, GrameenPhone, offers service to most of rural Bangladesh, creating new opportunities by connecting villages to the world."
I think there's another talk where they explain how thanks to mobile phones some African fishermen can now make a few more miles to sell their fish were there is the most demand. Finally Internet profited to my life, I don't see why African people could not make sense of it. It's easy to discard something as not useful for other people when you're already benefiting of it.
Under which conditions ? because, isn't it true that with our best knowledge and more massive founds, as of today, going to Mars would result in a catastrophe that no one would allow to happen ?
Another thing I may add, the quick development of ADSL here came from competing, innovation driven, startups.
The historic national operator is required to let other operators use its lines (thought they have developed an expertise in this domain by now), lines that where in their time funded as public service. This operator seems closer to the US companies: ADSL service is not as good, with low speeds like 8MBPS, poorly thought set top box, high price of around 45$ a month, no real TV and Tivo-like services, AOL style installation softwares when I just had to connect a RJ-45 for my ADSL line to be recognized by XP. So I guess that it's a very good thing that Google looks into it, if I understood well what happens now in the US.
Probably, maybe, you're right. But then why is the difference from which server the TV come from is of matter? it's still possible because of solid 20mbps copper lines. Thats the thing I don't get: if we had fiber optics already, but no it's just the old copper infrastructure that is enough to provide optimal speeds, of course depending on the distance from the dslam.
Certainly the USA will find a solution that fit their particular needs, possibly a more modern one, but in the meantime it still seems strange to see that near modem speeds are considered broadband and good enough, like this other poster who seems honestly happy with 50kbps up, wtf ?
I just wonder why what cheese eating surrender monkeys do (as free HDTV content via ADSL, though limited to this day to sport events or concerts) in the USA is "not possible".
I forgot beets, carrots, French beans, onions.. do you have a reason to have singled out 3 expensive vegetables to make your point, other than tricking people in believing a lie ?
All basic vegetables, cheap long cooking time meat, fruits, they are all cheaper by weight than industrial food is, save the most absolute crap.
As examples:
Potato salad, do you think it's more expensive to make it yourself ?
Eggs with puree or salad ?
Long cooking meals with cheap meat ? (Tagine, Borsch, Pot au feu, etc)
Varied rice and vegetables salads ?
Pizza (for memory: flour, water, herbs, tomatoes, eventually cheese, or whatever you have at hand if you wish) ?
Bread ?
Pasta meals ?
Vinaigrette and salad ?
I can't imagine many industrial meals that come cheaper than home made ones. Of course you'll you need some organization sense, especially since you can't keep fresh things as long as preprocessed food, a financial investment at some point in cooking ware and spices (it's really small, but some people maybe don't have the motivation for it), and to have a least a slight but solid basis in cooking skill, and not overlook it as something everyone knows like walking, it isn't. Cooking also maybe demands a little involvement and imagination.
"So what if the internet is half as fast as it could be"
Is it ? coming from a country where my ISP is very cheap, reliable, honest and has a lot of services (like tivo for free with the providen Adsl set top box, or your free very own TV channel to broadcast whatever you want, free phone calls for 50 countries, etc, etc), with extremely consistent 16mbps down 1mbps up in a town of 40.000, I have never noticed a problem with Internet speed.
I don't now much, but isn't this debate just a side effect of the very bad ISP companies that US have? like, "oh, Internet is so bad, where's the problem from? neutrality!" rather than just stupid and unreliable ISPs, who cap everything, don't have a so great technical expertise, and don't even provide the (low) advertised speeds to begin with ?
"Built like a tank, too. It was still in regular use until just recently, and still worked flawlessly without so much as a cleaning over 20 years later. They don't make them like that, anymore."
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that "they" still do. I guess that this CD player with kind of very expensive and very high end for the time, and well, if today you wish to put an equivalent sum of money in a CD player (say 1500$ of today?) it will be sturdy.
It's just that nowadays we mostly buy things at the Chinese price, but good products will always be available for lots of money (and lots of money was the "normal" price years ago, and less people bought shiny things).
I think that no game is the best ever like no movie and no album is the best ever. The great thing in art is that it is not rational enough to stand such a definitive organization.
I may have to state that I instinctively consider that video games are artworks as they share the core features of other art forms, and I see no rational objection either (to the first objection I can imagine, I can answer that modern art creators already used people/public to participate to the live creation of artworks), so 1+1=2. Apparently this guy agrees: http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/a rticle.php?articleID=299
Also, while HL was an outstanding game, amongst a few dozen others, you seem to put on its shoulders a much wider thing, Internet gaming. And a lot of great games have few to see with Internet. At the moment I'm having a blast with Railroad Tycoon (needed more after Theme Hospital) and it doesn't need no "Internet", telegraph is far enough. And on the other hand MMORPGS....may.... have existed without HL. And, well, even Half Life 2 doesn't really need the Internet, if not to make me cringe because of Steam.
More importantly, vanilla Half Life was a great game, no need to put on its shoulders the invention of "the web 2.0" to explain its importance in the heart of gamers. Let's not overlook the excellent storyline (from a gaming perspective) and gameplay (AI, interface, etc).
It is saddening that one of the most versatile and important crop (the third before modern times I believe) has been discarded as "collateral damage" of Cannabis prohibition. Well, if it's that way around.
Actually I find it rather useful. No later than a few hours ago, my last novel suddenly got an additional chapter about how great the Microsoft company is, and it's very well written and interesting. Now if I only could find who wrote it, because there are some details that doesn't fit well with the rest of my story.
"A combination of low quality hardware, poor digitising algorithms
and sloppy mixing does produce audibly awful results compared with say an inexpensive 12 track mixer
and a good old tape recorder."
At the same time, a combination of low quality analog hardware and sloppy mixing does produce audibly awful results compared with say an inexpensive M-Audio sound card and a good old software sequencer.
A movie is still artwork, not only books are. So, it may indeed have been closer to the book, but is is a material problem, not an artistic one. I mean: nothing says that if the director have gone out of his heartfelt way to imitate closer the original, maybe without getting that particular sense of it, thus having its own way.
There's not a scale of closeness to the original thats makes art good or bad. It's something else, and a heartfelt artwork will always be thousands times better than a half assed perfect copy. I wish the lord of the rings guy did knew that.
Apple related threads sound like we're not talking about consumer products: even the naysayers sometime seem to be their own kind of zealots. Those may be good or even great products (didn't try), but still, it is mainly a marketing strategy.
"So in the end, I am convinced it is perfectly correct to say that this is all because of that EU directive and the horrific combination of fascists and idiots that supported it (to save the children) and (to catch the terrorists)."
Maybe also because those countries have a stronger socialist tendency, and that socialism has a lesser respect of individual rights than free-market capitalism does.
"I spoke to a guy who does DRM for an online game publisher. Once, they rewrote their algorithm which instantly rendered all existing cracks for the games useless. Sales jumped by 40% that month. Why? surely none of those who cracked the stuff would have bought it anyway?"
I downloaded for free an album that I didn't had. Gave it to a friend. One week later, said friend told me a coworker of hers bought the album after hearing it in her car.
I downloaded a game for free, a mainstream game from an editor which doesn't have an active anti-piracy stance, and next week my step brother bought it.
"Chavez is rapidly militarizing"
Let's hope he won't support dictators, use it's secret service to help future terrorist hubs, invade and utterly destroy countries with no regard whatsoever for their populations, when there is any left after the rampage, have secret prisons, legitimate torture. That kind of stuff.
By here most houses have gardens. With Google Earth's precision one could easily plan easy access to lots of houses, which in this case is far worst than a front view. So, well, it's technology, we have to do with it, because I feel that it would be a disservice to forbid Google Earth, or to make laws so that all views of the world become private in some ways, out of fear.
Slashdot Mirror
I would like to know how you arrive to this conclusion, and what are the consequences for Wikipedia, and what are the kind solutions you envision ?
"Why does poverty still exist despite decades of development aid? In this talk, Iqbal Quadir explains why "aid does damages: because it empowers authorities instead of people," and advocates a new approach to development from below, "by the people for the people." His own experience as a child in Bangladesh and later a banker in New York brought him to realize that "connectivity is productivity" -- and that a simple cell phone has enormous power. Now his telecom company, GrameenPhone, offers service to most of rural Bangladesh, creating new opportunities by connecting villages to the world."
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/79
I think there's another talk where they explain how thanks to mobile phones some African fishermen can now make a few more miles to sell their fish were there is the most demand. Finally Internet profited to my life, I don't see why African people could not make sense of it. It's easy to discard something as not useful for other people when you're already benefiting of it.
Under which conditions ? because, isn't it true that with our best knowledge and more massive founds, as of today, going to Mars would result in a catastrophe that no one would allow to happen ?
Another thing I may add, the quick development of ADSL here came from competing, innovation driven, startups.
The historic national operator is required to let other operators use its lines (thought they have developed an expertise in this domain by now), lines that where in their time funded as public service. This operator seems closer to the US companies: ADSL service is not as good, with low speeds like 8MBPS, poorly thought set top box, high price of around 45$ a month, no real TV and Tivo-like services, AOL style installation softwares when I just had to connect a RJ-45 for my ADSL line to be recognized by XP. So I guess that it's a very good thing that Google looks into it, if I understood well what happens now in the US.
Probably, maybe, you're right. But then why is the difference from which server the TV come from is of matter? it's still possible because of solid 20mbps copper lines. Thats the thing I don't get: if we had fiber optics already, but no it's just the old copper infrastructure that is enough to provide optimal speeds, of course depending on the distance from the dslam. Certainly the USA will find a solution that fit their particular needs, possibly a more modern one, but in the meantime it still seems strange to see that near modem speeds are considered broadband and good enough, like this other poster who seems honestly happy with 50kbps up, wtf ?
I just wonder why what cheese eating surrender monkeys do (as free HDTV content via ADSL, though limited to this day to sport events or concerts) in the USA is "not possible".
In this program there's a passage about skin color, which more or less say the same thing as you did:
e y+of+man&search=Search
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=journ
I forgot beets, carrots, French beans, onions.. do you have a reason to have singled out 3 expensive vegetables to make your point, other than tricking people in believing a lie ?
Or try leek, potatoes, beans, turnip, salad. All are very cheap (well at least in continental Europe).
All basic vegetables, cheap long cooking time meat, fruits, they are all cheaper by weight than industrial food is, save the most absolute crap. As examples: Potato salad, do you think it's more expensive to make it yourself ? Eggs with puree or salad ? Long cooking meals with cheap meat ? (Tagine, Borsch, Pot au feu, etc) Varied rice and vegetables salads ? Pizza (for memory: flour, water, herbs, tomatoes, eventually cheese, or whatever you have at hand if you wish) ? Bread ? Pasta meals ? Vinaigrette and salad ? I can't imagine many industrial meals that come cheaper than home made ones. Of course you'll you need some organization sense, especially since you can't keep fresh things as long as preprocessed food, a financial investment at some point in cooking ware and spices (it's really small, but some people maybe don't have the motivation for it), and to have a least a slight but solid basis in cooking skill, and not overlook it as something everyone knows like walking, it isn't. Cooking also maybe demands a little involvement and imagination.
"So what if the internet is half as fast as it could be" Is it ? coming from a country where my ISP is very cheap, reliable, honest and has a lot of services (like tivo for free with the providen Adsl set top box, or your free very own TV channel to broadcast whatever you want, free phone calls for 50 countries, etc, etc), with extremely consistent 16mbps down 1mbps up in a town of 40.000, I have never noticed a problem with Internet speed. I don't now much, but isn't this debate just a side effect of the very bad ISP companies that US have? like, "oh, Internet is so bad, where's the problem from? neutrality!" rather than just stupid and unreliable ISPs, who cap everything, don't have a so great technical expertise, and don't even provide the (low) advertised speeds to begin with ?
"Music industry", one word too much.
"Built like a tank, too. It was still in regular use until just recently, and still worked flawlessly without so much as a cleaning over 20 years later. They don't make them like that, anymore."
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that "they" still do. I guess that this CD player with kind of very expensive and very high end for the time, and well, if today you wish to put an equivalent sum of money in a CD player (say 1500$ of today?) it will be sturdy.
It's just that nowadays we mostly buy things at the Chinese price, but good products will always be available for lots of money (and lots of money was the "normal" price years ago, and less people bought shiny things).
I grabbed my weed removing attachments and am ready to party.
[/doing the Bender]
I think that no game is the best ever like no movie and no album is the best ever. The great thing in art is that it is not rational enough to stand such a definitive organization.
a rticle.php?articleID=299
....may.... have existed without HL. And, well, even Half Life 2 doesn't really need the Internet, if not to make me cringe because of Steam.
I may have to state that I instinctively consider that video games are artworks as they share the core features of other art forms, and I see no rational objection either (to the first objection I can imagine, I can answer that modern art creators already used people/public to participate to the live creation of artworks), so 1+1=2. Apparently this guy agrees: http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/
Also, while HL was an outstanding game, amongst a few dozen others, you seem to put on its shoulders a much wider thing, Internet gaming. And a lot of great games have few to see with Internet. At the moment I'm having a blast with Railroad Tycoon (needed more after Theme Hospital) and it doesn't need no "Internet", telegraph is far enough. And on the other hand MMORPGS
More importantly, vanilla Half Life was a great game, no need to put on its shoulders the invention of "the web 2.0" to explain its importance in the heart of gamers. Let's not overlook the excellent storyline (from a gaming perspective) and gameplay (AI, interface, etc).
It is saddening that one of the most versatile and important crop (the third before modern times I believe) has been discarded as "collateral damage" of Cannabis prohibition. Well, if it's that way around.
Actually I find it rather useful. No later than a few hours ago, my last novel suddenly got an additional chapter about how great the Microsoft company is, and it's very well written and interesting. Now if I only could find who wrote it, because there are some details that doesn't fit well with the rest of my story.
"A combination of low quality hardware, poor digitising algorithms and sloppy mixing does produce audibly awful results compared with say an inexpensive 12 track mixer and a good old tape recorder." At the same time, a combination of low quality analog hardware and sloppy mixing does produce audibly awful results compared with say an inexpensive M-Audio sound card and a good old software sequencer.
A movie is still artwork, not only books are. So, it may indeed have been closer to the book, but is is a material problem, not an artistic one. I mean: nothing says that if the director have gone out of his heartfelt way to imitate closer the original, maybe without getting that particular sense of it, thus having its own way.
There's not a scale of closeness to the original thats makes art good or bad. It's something else, and a heartfelt artwork will always be thousands times better than a half assed perfect copy. I wish the lord of the rings guy did knew that.
Apple related threads sound like we're not talking about consumer products: even the naysayers sometime seem to be their own kind of zealots. Those may be good or even great products (didn't try), but still, it is mainly a marketing strategy.
"So in the end, I am convinced it is perfectly correct to say that this is all because of that EU directive and the horrific combination of fascists and idiots that supported it (to save the children) and (to catch the terrorists)."
Maybe also because those countries have a stronger socialist tendency, and that socialism has a lesser respect of individual rights than free-market capitalism does.
"I spoke to a guy who does DRM for an online game publisher. Once, they rewrote their algorithm which instantly rendered all existing cracks for the games useless. Sales jumped by 40% that month. Why? surely none of those who cracked the stuff would have bought it anyway?"
I downloaded for free an album that I didn't had. Gave it to a friend. One week later, said friend told me a coworker of hers bought the album after hearing it in her car.
I downloaded a game for free, a mainstream game from an editor which doesn't have an active anti-piracy stance, and next week my step brother bought it.
See, you have one anecdote, I have two.
"Chavez is rapidly militarizing" Let's hope he won't support dictators, use it's secret service to help future terrorist hubs, invade and utterly destroy countries with no regard whatsoever for their populations, when there is any left after the rampage, have secret prisons, legitimate torture. That kind of stuff.
By here most houses have gardens. With Google Earth's precision one could easily plan easy access to lots of houses, which in this case is far worst than a front view. So, well, it's technology, we have to do with it, because I feel that it would be a disservice to forbid Google Earth, or to make laws so that all views of the world become private in some ways, out of fear.
At the same time, only top 40 (or wanabe top 40) music is always over compressed and, well it's not a great loss.