Topic: billy (Read 4993 times)

Magic · « **on:** April 19, 2007, 11:20:21 AM »

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates launched an initiative in Beijing Thursday aimed at bridging the digital divide between technologically advanced and developing countries. Microsoft, Samsung sign broad patent accord
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The initiative, an expansion of Microsoft's "Unlimited Potential" strategy, involves offering governments a $3 software package called the Student Innovation Suite. It includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live Mail desktop.

The suite will be available by the end of this year to qualifying governments that are working to supply PCs to students to promote technology skills. In 2008, Microsoft will extend its availability to all countries with economies defined as low- or middle-income by the The World Bank.

"In each country it is tailored to the interests of the government and citizens, but it's about innovation, it's about integration, and it's about creating jobs in those regions," Gates said, speaking at the conclusion of the two-day Microsoft Government Leaders Forum Asia in Beijing.

Gates emphasized the role of technology in education, and said the software would be a first step towards offering children in the developing world greater access to computing. He referred to "my favourite Windows product, the Windows tablet," and said that tablet PCs could eventually replace paper in schools.

"Over time, students won't need to have textbooks. The cost of [the tablet] will be less than buying textbooks, and yet the experience of using it is dramatically superior than what you would have had with a paper-based experience," Gates said.

While Gates has always been a proponent of using technology to solve social, economic and health problems worldwide, this latest move is not purely altruistic, one industry analyst said.

"You'll find that Microsoft would be fairly open if pushed that they don't go into a market for philanthropic reasons," said Clive Longbottom, founder and analyst of Quocirca, a technology research firm in London.

Microsoft has to find more creative ways to distribute its software in emerging markets, where open-source software and Linux have a foothold, he said. Partnering with local governments and global organizations to reach students and developers is a good way to do that, he said.

Microsoft's Windows-based approached differs from other developing-world computing initiatives such as the One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC), which makes use of an open-source Linux operating system, combined with an Advanced Micro Devices microprocessor, and powered by a hand crank. OLPC has targeted a price for its laptop at $100 per unit by 2008, although Libya, Nigeria, Egypt, Rwanda, and Ethiopia ordered units priced at $150 earlier this year.

Libya has committed to providing 1.2 million laptops within a year, and Rwanda will offer 2 million laptops to schoolchildren within five years, according to the OLPC.

The OLPC effort has been led by Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab.

Technology's role in improving education is already established, according to Gates. He referred to a distance-learning experiment where the results of a class that experienced live instruction was compared to a remote education class. The latter received the lecture on DVD, and stopped the presentation every 15 minutes. The remote group could stop and discuss things wherever they wanted. Because it was start and stop, that was the group that did the best."

Microsoft and others needed to begin reaching out to the developing world through existing, lower-cost technologies such as cell phones and television to provide basic computing and educational opportunities, according to Gates.

ivan · « **Reply #1 on:** April 19, 2007, 11:25:32 AM »

Wow, did you write all that?

Banshee · « **Reply #2 on:** April 19, 2007, 11:31:24 AM »

Quote from: ivan on April 19, 2007, 11:25:32 AM

Wow, did you write all that?

Clearly his formal writing skills contest that assumption.

Cite your sources, tool!

12AX7 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 19, 2007, 11:32:31 AM »

Quote from: Banshee on April 19, 2007, 11:31:24 AM

Cite your sources, tool!

S/he can't.

Banshee · « **Reply #4 on:** April 19, 2007, 11:34:44 AM »

Quote from: 12AX7 on April 19, 2007, 11:32:31 AM

S/he can't.

Did you know the male pronoun has been neutered for use in formal writing where the sex of the referent is unknown or inapplicable?

And knowing is half the battle!

Thanks G.I. Joe!

Banshee · « **Reply #5 on:** April 19, 2007, 11:37:01 AM »

Also...

Quote from: Magic's profile

Gender:    Male
Age:    N/A
Location:    IRELAND
Local Time:    April 19, 2007, 12:35:57 PM

milifist · « **Reply #6 on:** April 19, 2007, 11:42:06 AM »

Screw G. I. Joe! Go Cobra!

(Yeah, I was one of those kids that bought Cobra stuff rather than G.I. Joe. I used to always cheer for the bad guys as well.)

pbsaurus · « **Reply #7 on:** April 19, 2007, 12:47:29 PM »

I always wanted legion of doom action figures.

Anyanka_was_framed · « **Reply #8 on:** April 20, 2007, 10:24:28 AM »

I prefer the GI Joe overdubs.

PORKCHOP SANDWICHES!

hackess · « **Reply #9 on:** April 20, 2007, 10:49:07 AM »

Help computer!

Min · « **Reply #10 on:** April 20, 2007, 02:57:59 PM »

I miss Bill.

ivan · « **Reply #11 on:** April 20, 2007, 03:12:54 PM »

Have you adopted another?

Because that does help.

Min · « **Reply #12 on:** April 20, 2007, 03:22:52 PM »

Since I split my time between my place and enrique's, I'm just not home enough to take care of a kitten. A cat would be fine, but kittens need attention, and that's the best part anyway.

I'll wait till school's out. I'll be doing summer school but I'll still be home alot more

ivan · « **Reply #13 on:** April 20, 2007, 03:32:17 PM »

Good.

I'm sure I've told you this, but when I lost my first after 18 years, I waited over a year before adopting another. I won't make that mistake again. That's over a year of not laughing at goofy antics and getting sat and purred on.

Min · « **Reply #14 on:** April 20, 2007, 03:33:38 PM »

Well. I still have Enrique.

Min · « **Reply #15 on:** April 20, 2007, 03:33:47 PM »

But point taken.

Anyanka_was_framed · « **Reply #16 on:** April 20, 2007, 04:43:56 PM »

And there's always cuteoverload in a pinch. It's not panacea but it helps and that's got to count for something...right?

Demosthenes · « **Reply #17 on:** April 20, 2007, 05:14:31 PM »

Quote from: Detta on April 20, 2007, 03:33:38 PM

Well. I still have Enrique.

* Demosthenes doesn't envy that litter box

pbsaurus · « **Reply #18 on:** April 23, 2007, 02:09:28 PM »

And the hairballs.

ivan · « **Reply #19 on:** April 23, 2007, 02:42:25 PM »

One of my cats, the smallest, has a disconserting habit of waiting for me to roll onto my back in the night, whereupon she leaps full onto my completely relaxed stomach, causing me to sit up with a loud OOF!!! She weighs about 7 pounds, I would guess. So I would say the giant Enrique litter messes and hairballs would be the absolute least of my problems.

Also, I'd have some explaining to do to my wife.

ivan · « **Reply #20 on:** April 23, 2007, 02:43:36 PM »

By the way, Pb -- I got my 4-track hooked up to a PC using 2 sound boards, and am starting to mix down my old stuff.

I'm reminded because one of my old songs is about hairballs.

pbsaurus · « **Reply #21 on:** April 23, 2007, 02:48:06 PM »

:kickass

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Author Topic: billy (Read 4993 times)

12AX7