[Olpc-open] Re: [OLPC Security] Application bundles and delegation

[Edward Cherlin]

On 2/14/07, John Kintree <jkintree at swbell.net> wrote:
> Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Computers are usually replaced after 3 or 4 years. The problem is not
> that the computers become less capable, but that software to do more
> also requires more hardware in every generation.

> I appreciated and mostly
> agreed with your comments, Edward.  On the point of rapid obsolecence, if
> many of the new applications can be handled at the server side instead of
> the PC side, the lifetime of the OLPC laptops may be extended.  For example,
> real-time translation of spoken words from one human language to another
> would require more processing and memory than the OLPC laptop will have, but
> if it can be handled on a voice translation server "out there" on the
> Internet, the OLPC laptop will remain good enough.

There you run up against the limitations of school servers and
external bandwidth, either of which imposes much greater costs. School
servers will need to be replaced at three or four year intervals, in
any case, regardless of their size and capabilities.

Bandwidth in developing countries is primarily a political issue,
since incumbent monopoly telcos don't want to cannibalize their
primary revenue streams. Even Voice over IP is illegal in Nigeria,
Bangladesh, and elsewhere.

The regulatory and competitive environment will change over time, but
currently a 128 Kbps satellite connection in rural Nigeria goes for
more than $1700/month. There is no hope of getting a copper landline
connection in many of these areas; the copper wire would be stolen as
soon as it was installed, as happened in Iraq immediately after the US
invasion. So we have to look at WiMax and other wireless technologies.
It will take several years to work all of this out technically,
organizationally, and financially, even after local licensing can be
managed.

>  John Kintree
>  http://home.swbell.net/jkintree/islt/

-- 
Edward Cherlin
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