PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register) [LWN.net]

PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 14, 2006 7:57 UTC (Wed) by rmstar (guest, #3672)
In reply to: PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register) by yokem_55
Parent article: PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

It seems to me that this iniciative might also be helpfull in disabusing naive 1st world people of their faith in their overly simplified economic theories. Do you really think that a laptop injection will make their economies viable? Do you really think the reason many of these countries are in the state they are is just lack of laptops?

Don't get me wrong. I hope they enjoy the nice laptops. But it won't solve much of anything beyond the lack of cheap laptops.

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PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 14, 2006 8:09 UTC (Wed) by hingo (guest, #14792) [Link] (3 responses)

The ability to read and do basic math will certainly solve lots of 3rd world problems. As it happens, OLPC will help illiteracy, since now people will have something to read.

The ability to know what's going on in the world will surely help a lot of 3rd world problems. As an example, email and/or a mobile phone is often pretty high on the wishlist of poor villages. It comes right after clean water, food and medicin. The reason for this is that farmers gain a tremendous advantage if they have some clue of the going rate of their products outside their own small community, when some big shot comes and makes a ridiculously low offer.

As it happens OLPC will make people better connected to world news. And, as it happens, better communication is usually helpful to foter democracy in general. See, you're wrong I'm right :-)

PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 14, 2006 18:25 UTC (Wed) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link] (1 responses)

Its clear that the strategy behind the device is a trojan horse one - sell the device as an e-book, then see what students are able to do with a flexible, net-connected, programmable tool. -- Ethan Zuckerman

PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 14, 2006 18:51 UTC (Wed) by beoba (guest, #16942) [Link]

Dont sell them hammers! They could be used to.. uh.. BUILD BOMBS!!!

Can I have my paycheck now?

PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 15, 2006 9:10 UTC (Thu) by rmstar (guest, #3672) [Link]

You are underestimating the literacy of many of these countries, and are misunderstanding the nature of their problems. In some ways one would prefer to assume that if people act in selfdefeating ways, and/or keep consistently falling into tragedy, it must be because they don't know any better.

Wake up. If it were that simple there would not be any of these problems by now.

PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 14, 2006 10:35 UTC (Wed) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (2 responses)

Laptops provide people opertunity to learn and communicate.

Remember it's just about internet access and not just having the laptops to do home work on.

Right now, for the first time in history, all levels of society have free and easy access to large amounts of information just as long as they have the basic equipment and internet access. Previously in order to get equal amounts of information you had to be wealthy in a already rich country and attending a large university.

Now all you need is internet access. A child in Ugaunda will have access to the same amount of information that I have living in the United States. Of course most of it will be in English, but thats nothing compared to having to figure out a way to get a scholorship to some European or U.S. University in order to just read books or do research.

PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 14, 2006 11:01 UTC (Wed) by MathFox (guest, #6104) [Link] (1 responses)

You are assuming that the OLPC computers will be connected to the internet; allthough I think that may happen in the future, the first priority will be networking the kids with their schools. The goal for these laptops is to make distribution of educational material more convenient. One USB stick can hold the equivalent of over a hundred schoolbooks and is much more convenient to transport than a crate of dead-tree books.
It's hard to predict what will happen as the next step; internetworking between schools, telco's offering a private education network, collaborative writing of textbooks by rural teachers, "ugandapedia.org"... It will be interesting to see which development paths the people themselves choose.
For the first five years they won't be an internet problem.

PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 14, 2006 18:15 UTC (Wed) by freemars (subscriber, #4235) [Link]

Owners of OLPC computers who share a slow link to the internet will have a powerful incentive to keep out any malware which would use up limited bandwidth.

PCs to developing world 'fuel malware' (Register)

Posted Jun 14, 2006 12:57 UTC (Wed) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link]

>Don't get me wrong. I hope they enjoy the nice laptops. But it won't solve much of anything beyond the lack of cheap laptops.

Possible not immediately. But doesn't history agree that when a population increases in knowledge, standards of living follow?
We'll have to check back in a couple of decades and see if
a) the program has traction, and
b) anything improves.