[tt] NYT: Laptop With a Mission Widens Its Audience

[Eugen Leitl]

On Thu, Oct 04, 2007 at 04:13:11PM -0400, Premise Checker wrote:

> The NYT article says that the $100 laptops will be able to connect with 
> each other in a school. So all third-world  schools need is an Internet 

We still don't have a robust, global mesh protocol, after all those years.
PV-powered wireless routers can link up single villages across many miles
of terrain, assuming free line of sight.

> connection and educational software. I don't know how good free 
> educational software is, but satellite Internet will be necessary in many 

Educational software is uniformly horrible, and the free kind is even worse.
There needs to be authoring software which individual teachers can use,
publish under a suitable license to be globally shared.

> places in the third world. Here's an idea of the cost, based on Hughes 
> Net's charges.
> 
> Dnload/Upload  Satellite  Monthly
> Kb/sec         (one time) Fee
> 
> 700/128        $300       $ 60
> 1000/200       $300       $ 70
> 1500/200       $300       $ 80
> 
> 1500/300       $600       $100
> 2000/500       $600       $180
> 
> http://www.nationwidesatellite.com/hughesnet/?g4100

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuraya

http://www.thuraya.com/content/thuraya-coverage.html

http://www.thuraya.com/content/high-speed-data-services.html
 
> What other barriers to making every child in the world proficient in 
> reading and mathematics remain to be discovered.

In absence of qualified teachers, current computers are worse than 
useless. Letting kids surf the Internet unattended will have roughly 
the same effect as planting them in front of a TV.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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