One Laptop Per Child

In searching for materials (to help expand the English teacher's vocabulary in adjectives), I was surprized to find this Amazon ad in Time magazine. I took one look at the ad and said, hey! those laptops look awfully familiar. They're the same ones that the students at my school use--the XO.


Apparently in 2007, Uruguay was the first country to place an official order for child-friendly laptops from the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative:

[OLPC] has a simple mission: to create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each and every one with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

Sounds like a walk in the park. But not all may be as rosy as it seems. This article has much to say on the topic. Among other serious problems, one powerful corporation is putting their weight against the internet provider contracted by the OLPC, Ceibal.

A major challenge for Ceibal, among several: the national telco monopoly, ANTEL, is not overly enthusiastic about free wireless internet. That is an understatement. Who will ANTEL get to pay their rates (4 times higher than in the US at 1/4 the GDP, thus 16 times more expensive than here!) when by using your kid's XO you get access for free?

Hurdle after hurdle the laptop program must face, but Uruguay is well on the way to achieving its goal of a laptop for every schoolchild in the nation. They only have Montevideo left to furnish with XOs.


Personally, I think the goal of laptop for every child is great. Even though the computers run extremely slow and teachers complain that the kids only want to use them to play games and download videos, I still think they have a lot of potential. Children have to learn to use the internet to be successful in today's world. Those without computer access are at a severe disadvantage compared to their peers in other countries. There is no way to escape the fact that technology has become a cornerstone of modern civilization, and children who do not have the opportunity to become versed in technology are missing a vital part of the education they need to be successful.

Beef Panties

Spell Check always did anger me.

This article is the perfect example, from over at Revealing Errors, of how spell checker messes us up. Apparently Reuters posted a story that proclaimed the recalling of beef panties. What are beef panties, you ask? Well, in short, I have no idea, nor do I want to know. The whole idea goes something like this:

Quaker Maid Meats Inc. on Tuesday said it would voluntarily recall 94,400 pounds of frozen ground beef panties that may be contaminated with E. coli.

Of course the article was talking about beef patties, not beef panties.

This error can be blamed, at least in part, on a spellchecker. I talked about spellcheckers before when I discussed the Cupertino effect which happens when someone spells a word correctly but is prompted to change it to an incorrect word because the spellchecker does not contain the correct word in its dictionary. The Cupertino effect explains why the New Zealand Herald ran a story with Saddam Hussein's named rendered as Saddam Hussies and Reuters ran a story referring to Pakistan's Muttahida Quami Movement as the Muttonhead Quail Movement.

Hardy har har. Snortle snort. Silly spell checker results make us chuckle, but also sorry, very very sorry in the case of big news organizations that publish stories about beef panties. I myself get frustrated over words like globalized, rhetor, and problemetized. Spell checker is bad for language, very very bad.

And yet, I so spell checked this post. Hypocrite, I am.

Leave the Bag of Cash by the Unmarked Car...

I had no idea text-to-speech things even existed on the internet. There are websites that you can go to, type in words, and have the computer read it back to you out loud. Phrases. Full Sentences. Whatever you type in, they read back to you. At Cepstral, you can choose your voice, rate, pitch, and effect. I'm partial to William, although Amy has a nice intonation as well. Yay, who doesn't like to play around with cool technology toys? It's actually a great idea. Especially for people with speech or hearing difficulties.

On the other hand, you know, these are also great for kidnappers, perverts, pranksters, and other assorted criminal offenders...
But that's beside the point, right?

iTouch, he he he

I started blogging this post from an iPod touch. Oh la la.

Soon Aemelia is about to be the proud owner one of these hot pieces of metal.

Funny thing. I didn't realize the official name of the device was an iPod Touch. I thought it was simply called the "iTouch." So in conversation, I start talking about iTouch this and iTouch that. My friends thought I was some kind of weirdo creep talking about how I like to touch things. Nooooo. An iPod. Really that's what I meant.

Now the jokes never stop. iTouch.


Good thing Apple saw the futility in potentially naming their product that. The puns would get out of hand in about, oh, one minute.

Robots that Flirt

With a post on robots a few days ago, I felt it appropriate to post about robots that flirt now (and I thought hugging robots were bad). They have a new-fangled thing that frequents singles chat sites to gather information from suitors. They pretend to be a person looking for love and derive as much info from them as possible. The robots come in different profiles, from "romantic lover" to "sexual predator." They can respond to questions much like a real person can.

The artificial intelligence of CyberLover's automated chats is good enough that victims have a tough time distinguishing the "bot" from a real potential suitor, PC Tools said. The software can work quickly too, establishing up to 10 relationships in 30 minutes, PC Tools said. It compiles a report on every person it meets complete with name, contact information, and photos.

This is a new level of robot creepiness.

Robotics

Lee Gutkind came to campus last night to give a talk. He is a well-known creative non-fiction author. He read a bit from his book, "Almost Human: Making Robots Think." He said quote, "The book is about one triumph and 55,000 disappointments." Well, if that doesn't make you want to read it...

But really, his stories were pretty interesting. I think robots are taking over the world. Or at least Lee thinks so. Nerds are now making robots to be autonomous thinkers. They can play soccer. They can take care of you in old age. They can give you hugs.

No really. You can buy yourself a hug robot with velour arms. It will take care of your "spirit."

Excerpt from Lee Gutkind's book:

Dozens of cavorting mechanical creatures, along with tangles of wire, tools, and computer innards are scattered haphazardly. All of these zipping and zooming gizmos are controlled by disheveled young men sitting on the floor, folding chairs, or tool cases, or huddled over laptops squinting into displays with manic intensity.

I can definitely picture that.

Car Smileys or Frownies

You know how they first came out with mood rings and then moved on to digital AIM smiley faces? Well, now they have advanced to the point of Driving LED Emoticons to share your emotions with the rest of world according to ThinkGeek. You can stick a lovely glowing representation of your mood in the back window of your car. Now every driver can know to ride on the brakes for awhile when behind a frowny face car. I love the disclaimer, "May not be legal in all states. Check your local laws before use." Do people really buy stuff like this? And what would you do if the emoticon changed in the middle of road? Was it something I did?