Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!kth.se!sunic!mcsun!ukc!warwick!nott-cs!ucl-cs!news From: G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk (Gordon Joly) Newsgroups: comp.society.development Subject: Re: Who is on the net? Message-ID: <1632@ucl-cs.uucp> Date: 17 Jun 91 10:06:16 GMT Sender: news@cs.ucl.ac.uk Lines: 48 Mike Lawrie writes: > In <1591@ucl-cs.uucp> G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk (Gordon Joly) writes: > > >What I may be trying to say is that you may be able to put up a solar > >cell, with a $50 (that food for ~100 days in some areas) terminal and > >a modem, to push data down a telehone line "reliable for 3 hours a > >day", but where are you are going to buy or exchange or cannibilise > >spare parts for any part of the equipment that breaks down? > > What you are actually saying is a lot of trash, viz don't let > anyone start because it is conceivable that something might > possibly go wrong with their equipment and this could not get > fixed. > > You have not the slightest idea of what can be done with a "mirrors > and string" approach, and this represents a very disappointing > but not atypical attitude from someone in a high-tech country. If > you encourage something to get off the ground, you'd end up surprised > at what results could be achieved, if you kill it because the sky > might fall on your head, you get nowhere. > > Mike > -- > Mike Lawrie > Director Computing Services, Rhodes University, South Africa > ............................................... > Rhodes University condemns racism and racial segregation Re-reading this message again underlines a thought that has been bugging me. I find it hard enough to be understood in my own department, let alone in the Sotherm Hemisphere. I also wonder whether "email" is the medium of choice for all communitities in all parts of the world. With the X.400 protocol, voice-mail and pictures are possible. Anyway, it has be English or Spanish if it is going to be spoken/written. The Chinese dialects and Japanese are not the easiest for email transmission, as yet. I do not know about Cyrillic. Gordon. ____ Gordon Joly +44 71 387 7050 ext 3716 Internet: G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk UUCP: ...!{uunet,ukc}!ucl-cs!G.Joly Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, LONDON WC1E 6BT Order is paramount in anarchy.