Solar Wi-Fi To Bring Net to Developing Countries

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

Slashdot | Solar Wi-Fi To Bring Net to Developing Countries

“TreeHugger.com has an article today on a new wifi development organization: MIT and the UN have teamed up to provide kids living in the world’s least developed nations $100 laptops, their 2 watts of juice provided by hand or foot crank. Cool, but… what’s a computer without internet access? Enter Green Wi-Fi, a non-profit that seeks to provide ‘last mile internet access with nothing more than a single broadband internet connection, rooftops and the sun.’ Their wi-fi access nodes, which consist of a small solar panel, a heavy-duty battery, and a router, can be linked together to extend one internet connection into a larger network. The two guys who started the company - Bruce Baikie and Marc Pomerleau - happen to be veterans of Sun Microsystems. Deployment is set to start in India at the end of this summer.”

And this comes after India said that they weren’t interested in the $100 laptops. But anyway. It really isn’t that new. JuliaD and I used to blog about experiments like this, in Laos I think, a number of years back, but times have changed, and it is time to see this in wider deployment. Strangely enough, it would also work for cottagers.

Hydraulophone Hands and Feet

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

Hydraulophone Hands and Feet

Originally uploaded by Squeakybear.

Steve pointed me to some pictures taken of his playing his hydrophone in Kensington Market recently. He’s all hands and feet!