Monthly Archive for May, 2007

Nintendo on the latest ‘technical divide’

Published
by
Graham
on May 9, 2007
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From TechRepublic:

Great work is being done to narrow the gap between the technical haves and the have-nots across the planet. At MIT, Professor Nicholas Negroponte seeks to equip every child in the developing world with a laptop. In Kenya, the government is supporting assembly of inexpensive PCs as part of university curricula, ultimately designating those computers for distribution throughout the African continent.

At the same time, on the most granular level, I wonder if a similar technical divide exists inside your own home. One person is probably expected to provide solutions when it’s time to install the wireless network, redirect the satellite dish, or retrieve a lost document. The have-nots sit and wait.

Internet encyclopedia to list all 1.8 mln species

Published
by
Graham
on May 9, 2007
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From Reuters:

From apples to zebras, all 1.8 million known plant and animal species will be listed in an Internet-based “Encyclopedia of Life” under a $100 million project, scientists said on Tuesday.

The 10-year scheme, launched with initial grants of $12.5 million from two U.S.-based foundations, could aid everyone from children with biology homework to governments planning how to protect endangered species.

“The Encyclopedia of Life plans to create an entry for every named species,” James Edwards, executive director of the project which is backed by many leading research institutions, told Reuters. “At the moment that’s 1.8 million.”

U.S. schools may join inexpensive-laptop project

Published
by
Graham
on May 9, 2007
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From TechRepublic:

The nonprofit One Laptop per Child project said on Thursday it might sell versions of its kid-friendly laptops in the United States, reversing its previous position of distributing them to only the poorest nations.

“We can’t ignore the United States. … We are looking at it very seriously,” Nicholas Negroponte, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology academic who founded the project, told analysts and reporters.