Tech in Far-Off Lands

Free access for everyone: We have service providers, our people have computers. Almost every Estonian has a cellphone — or two of them — and most have laptops. It’s already becoming impossible to work or to study without a laptop. But universal coverage is not the same as universal access. I have an idea which hasn’t been suggested yet. It takes advantage of the fact that we already have good coverage but our “free” Wi-Fi isn’t really free. To my…

Not surprisingly, Estonia has opened up an embassy in Second Life: Perhaps unlike other “embassies” in Second Life, Estonia’s is interesting because of its focus: they’re not here to show off the natural beauty of their lovely country and attract tourists. Instead they have settled to invite the visitors to experience a very high-tech country which is at the forefront of the computer and Internet revolution. It’s very likely that they’re planning to attract similarly-minded individuals, organisations, and governments from…

It appears there’s been an update to the Estonia cyberwarfare piece that I filed for The World on in August. In it, I interviewed Margus Kurm, Estonia’s chief prosecutor, who talked about a certain Dimitri — an ethnic Russian and Estonian citizen, who at that time was the only person that had been arrested in connection to the cyberattacks on Estonia in April and May 2007. BBC: A 20-year-old ethnic Russian man is the first person to be convicted for…

The Economist: Ultimately the OLPC initiative will be remembered less for what it produced than the products it spawned. The initiative is like running the four-minute mile: no one could do it, until someone actually did it. Then many people did.

Oh yes, I’m back in The Economist. Capsule hotels Thinking small Nov 15th 2007 From The Economist print edition Hotels with tiny rooms, pioneered in Japan, are spreading and evolving WITH their tiny, cupboard-like rooms and prices as low as ¥2,000 ($18) a night, capsule hotels have existed in Japan since the 1980s, but have not caught on elsewhere. They have, however, helped to inspire a new breed of inexpensive, no-frills hotels outside Japan that are not quite as small…

Paul Boutin links to this gem in this weekend’s WSJ: Some potential buyers are having second thoughts. Officials in Libya, who had planned to buy up to 1.2 million of the laptops, became concerned that the machines lacked Windows, and that service, teacher training and future upgrades might [therefore] become a problem. It now sells for $188, plus shipping. The higher price has made the laptop vulnerable to competition. Taiwanese, Indian and Israeli sellers of inexpensive Windows laptop see the…

I came across these delights on Paleo-Future: The Electric Train from Paris to Beijing Flying police Hearing the newspaper (aka “radio”) Cars of war (aka “tanks)

After the $100 laptop project, the fact that India’s building a $2,500 car got me interested. So I pinged Atanu Dey to see what his thoughts were on the subject, and here’s what he said: Cyrus: It scares me witless. Today oil touched $84 a barrel. India imports most of its fossil fuel requirements. It is a poor country and cannot afford high priced oil — and oil is going to become increasingly costly because the demand will continue to…

Slate: by Cyrus Farivar It’s been nearly two years since MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte revealed his ambitious plan to provide kids in developing countries with $100 laptops. Today, the One Laptop per Child foundation has announced that its cheapo device (now officially dubbed the “XO laptop”) will be made available to the American and Canadian consumer market for a two-week period in November. For $400, you can participate in the “Give One, Get One” program—your purchase gets you one laptop for…

Baltic Times: [Estonian President Toomas Hendrik] Ilves also talked up Estonia’s reputation as a centre of hi-tech excellence, saying: “Estonia has some positive experiences, like digitalised public services, that deserve to be explored by the others. We have gone far in reducing paper bureaucracy – it makes my life much easier to work with the computer. Our approach to facilitating computer use deserves to be examined by others.” “In Estonia you can use your computer anywhere and you have free…