A Good Computer for Every Child

Imagine the joy of watching a young child eagerly tear open the box to their brand new laptop.

It’s a family picture to be treasured forever.

Now imagine that child living in, say, Libya.

As discussed previously here on The Tech Free Press, the American nonprofit organization One Laptop Per Child hopes to put an inexpensive laptop in the hands of every child in the world.

It’s an admirable, but somewhat impossible mission. However, I applaud the effort and truly hope that eventually every person in the world has access to their own computer.

Although originally slated to cost just $100 per device, One Laptop Per Child recently announced that each device will cost approximately $175.

Hopefully the price increase will not deter some third world countries from purchasing the devices for their school-age children. Their cost is justified and necessary.

In fact, I believe that certain technology companies in the U.S. should pony up some free hardware and software so that the price of these devices can return to $100.

Instead of squabbling over who makes the best “cheap” laptop, a consortium of PC manufacturers and software companies should make a concerted effort to develop a durable and technologically capable PC that will cost $100, or less.

It can be done!

Instead of spending millions of dollars on useless advertising campaigns, companies like Intel, Dell, Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe should spend some time improving the educational prospects of children throughout the world.

Doing so will improve the lives of these children and build an even bigger customer base for these companies.

It’s a win-win proposition for everyone.

Drunken Pirate Denied Teaching Degree

In what appears to be an egregious miscarriage of justice, a Millersville, PA woman was denied a teaching degree because of a photo on her MySpace page.

Do university officials, employers, and others have a right to use your MySpace, FaceBook, blog, or other online information against you?

I think not.

Stacy Snyder, 27, posted a picture of herself wearing a pirate costume and drinking from a Mr. Goodbar cup at a 2005 Halloween party. The photo was accompanied by the caption “Drunken Pirate.”

Millersville University claims that Snyder was promoting underage drinking. However, at the time Snyder was 25 years old and legally old enough to drink alcohol. There is absolutely no evidence that Snyder did anything illegal.

I believe that the university has overstepped the boundaries and applied their own narrow-minded standards.

Have these officials forgotten what it's like to have fun?

Snyder, a mother of two, should be lauded for obtaining her teaching degree and not condemned for having fun at a party and sharing it with her friends and family.

Employers and university officials have a right to do background checks on their prospective employees or students, but delving into their personal lives to this degree is definitely leading down a slippery slope.

While it is illegal to ask about race on an employment application, it’s no stretch of the imagination to realize that viewing someone’s MySpace page could lead to discrimination of many types.

Background research should be limited to the information that is supplied on the application. If an employer or university official wants to view a MySpace page, then they should ask for the link instead of using Google.

I sure hope that my present or future employer doesn’t find my new band’s Web site and realize that I play drums. They might not like the music we play or want a wannabe rock star on staff.

Heaven forbid that I have a life outside of work.

Speed up Firefox

Firefox is a great browser, but it can definitely use a little boost in speed. Our friends at CNET provide this great tip that will increase the speed of your favorite browser with just a couple of clicks.

Follow this URL to learn more: http://www.cnettv.com/9710-1_53-27253.html

Reality Show Winner Elected President

The new political reality show “Independent” will utilize MySpace and YouTube auditions, and it may influence the 2008 presidential elections.

Does this thought frighten you? It should!

Although the concept of this new reality show is an exciting and innovative use of the Internet, the winning “prize” has a lot to be desired.

According to a recent Reuters story, “Mark Burnett, the producer who popularized reality television, and Internet social network MySpace will unveil a new reality TV and Internet series that aims to groom one young politician or community leader to represent young America.”

The winner of “Independent” will receive $1 million that they can use to launch a new political party, donate to a political cause, or enter the U.S. presidential race.

Is this really a prize worth winning? I don’t think so.

First of all, it would take a lot more than $1 million to successfully start a new political party. In theory, it could be done. But as the Green Party demonstrates, creating a new political party is much more difficult than winning a reality show.

Next, if you win $1 million on a reality show, why should you have to donate it to anyone?

Finally, would the winning representative of young America meet the minimum age requirement and even be eligible to enter the presidential race?

"The whole point of “Independent” really speaks to what young Americans want," the British-born Burnett said. "If you look back, the (political) system was supposed to work this way."

This brings me to my nightmare.

Let’s suppose that “Independent” energizes the young voting base and the winner actually does get elected president. Do we really want the winner of a reality show running the country?

Stick with the tried-and-true formula Mark Burnett. Give the money to the winner and let them fade into pop-culture history like most of the other reality show winners. If they are really destined to become president, let them earn it with their talents and experience. Such a course will make them a much better leader.

The temporary fame and fortune of a reality show should influence pop-culture, not American politics.

Cell Phone Gaming Revolution

The latest cell phones from Japanese mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo have the potential to be oodles of fun, but could also create havoc in crowded places.

The FOMA 904i series phones contain motion sensor hardware similar to the controllers in the Nintendo Wii. This advance in technology will revolutionize cell phone gaming.

Users will now be able to play games by moving their phone or waving their finger, not just pressing buttons.

Cool!

Imagine the sounds coming from bathroom stalls and back seats once these new phones and physically interactive games hit the market.

On a serious note, technology that encourages people to get physically active is almost always good. Like the Wii, these phones have the potential to create games that will be fun to play AND healthy.

Who knows, you may even be able to use your cell phone with your Wii console.

From a technology standpoint, I wonder if the next step for this technology will be multi-player games. Imagine groups of teens running through the mall playing virtual tag, or some other type of game.

Okay, maybe that scenario does have the potential for a little chaos.

However, a little harmless fun is certainly safer than text messaging someone while driving down the highway.

These phone will hit the U.S. market sometime after their May release in Japan.

I can’t wait.

Want to Earn a Million Bucks?

I have belatedly discovered what I believe is the easiest way of earning $1 million bucks.

Create a Web site that contains 1 million pixels. Sell each pixel for $1. Sit back and watch the money roll in.

Alex Tew, 21, of Wiltshire, England, launched The Million Dollar Home Page in the fall of 2005. In less than five months he sold 1 million pixels at $1 each.

Sweet!

Instead of taking out loans or asking his parents to pay for college, the entrepreneurial Alex conceived of this idea and is now able to pay for his own education. This is a fantastic idea.

The only knock that I have on this business model is that hustling pixels limited him to just $1 million.

However, if this idea is any indication, I’m sure that Alex will come up with another successful money-making venture to pay for grad school.

US Texting Champion Crowned

Congratulations Eli Tirosh.

Tirosh, 21, the current West Coast Champion, won the title of US Texting Champion yesterday by besting East Coast Champion Morgan Pozgar, 13.

In a tense final, Pozgar appeared to win the competition. However, a misspelling of the Mary Poppins song "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" gave Tirosh the title.

After typing that word, I can see why she may have had some problems wrapping her thumbs around it.

Cudos to the victors. Tirosh walked away with a cool $25,000, while Pozgar pocketed $10,000.

I previously mentioned this competition a few weeks ago, and while I still think that a US Text Messaging championship is a bit absurd, I am happy to see that we've taken the text messaging addicts off of the road for a short time.

This text messaging competition seems very similar to the Rubik's Cube competitions that began more than 25 years ago, or even the current rash of video game competitions.

While I don't understand the thrill of these competitions, I certainly don't deride the participants. In fact, I give them credit for finding creative ways to enjoy their passion.

That being said, even 13 year old Pozgar understands the value of a good quote.

"It's all about the thumbwork," said Pozgar. "It's about balance."

How could ESPN have missed this golden opportunity?

Celebrate Earth Day

The GM robot was right.

Do we think of the sadness and rejection that our electronic gadgets feel when they are replaced without so much as a thank you for months of loyal service and reliability?

Nope.

All that we think about is using the new gear. I’m guilty, and so is every uber-geek that I know.

After all, who wants to dwell on legacy hardware?

As we approach another Earth Day, let’s take a few minutes to contemplate what we can do to conserve our natural resources, reduce landfills, eliminate toxic waste produced by consumer electronics, and reduce the sadness and rejection felt by our old electronic hardware.

Here are a few ideas for you to consider:

• Replace electronic hardware only when it breaks or is truly no longer useable.
• Repair broken devices instead of replacing them.
• Research a product’s repair history before purchasing to ensure you are buying a durable product.
• Dispose of electronic hardware through a certified recycling program.
• Donate old electronics to an organization that will refurbish and reuse the equipment.
• Pass on your used electronics to your children, either at home or their school.
• Encourage businesses to donate used electronics to an organization that will refurbish them for continued use.
• Give your old computers to an underprivileged family so they can become part of the global Internet community.
• Turn off electronic equipment when it is not in use.

Don’t let the GM robot’s message of sadness and rejection go unheeded. Instead, think of the message sent by the emotional American Indian of the 70s as he saw his beloved Earth being destroyed by waste and pollution.

Let’s do our part to ensure that Earth Day is no longer a plea to do the right thing, but instead becomes a day to celebrate our success at sustaining our planet’s beauty and natural resources.

Technology Aids VT Students and Families

My thoughts and prayers for the last 24 hours have been with the faculty, staff, students and families of the Virginia Tech family.

While scouring the major news sites for information of yesterday's senseless acts, I realized that technology played an integral and useful role in the tragedy.

Students and staff used cell phones and text messages to contact their loved ones to let them know that they were safe. When the cell phone network was overloaded, many people turned the fun-Net into the Useful-Net by posting messages on their Facebook and MySpace pages.

I am glad that technology played such a prominent and useful role in the senseless tragedy. Technology does, after all, have many good and positive qualities.

Hopefully school and government officials can use these examples to organize technology resources that can help the community in this type of situation. My suggestions are:

• Improve cell phone and computer networks to handle traffic spikes during an emergency.
• Educational and government organizations should develop, publish and publicize electronic communication plans for emergency situations.
• Educational facilities should organize cell phone groups to rapidly send message alerts to a campus community.
• Use the Emergency Broadcast System to send alert messages to the community.
• Use digital highway signs and digital billboards to broadcast alert messages.
• Encourage the use of Web pages, Facebook and MySpace as a communication vehicle for notifications.

It is my sincere hope that another tragedy like this will never occur. If it does, hopefully technology can be used to save lives or relieve the fear and worry of parents, family and friends of those involved.

Kiss Your Dream Job Goodbye

Do you think that these e-mail address names are cool, hip and trendy?

• alliecat
• foxylady
• bigbadjim
• bacardigirl
• sillygirl
• gigglepoo
• hunkalicious

These names might be cute if you’re in high school or college, but if you are using them on a resume or job application you can kiss that dream job goodbye.

According to a recent MSNBC story, “electronic resumes linked to job candidates with quirky and “unprofessional” e-mail names are rated lower by potential employers than those with professional names.”

First impressions usually form lasting impressions, and in a competitive job market you don’t want to have an employer question your character or professional ability.

E-mail names are not the only offenders. As IM and text messaging supplant e-mail, these names are becoming equally important.

Think of what a prospective or current employer will think if they receive an IM from onehotbabe or bighunkystud. Names like that will make an impression, but not always the one that you want.

If you use a questionable name for your e-mail or IM, create a new account that you can safely use in a professional setting.

Save the cool, hip and trendy monikers for your friends and family. Your parents may worry about the e-mail they receive from sweetsexychick or an IM from whiskeydude, but at least they will still welcome you with open arms when you come home for the holidays.

Randomly Dial a Soul Mate

Wanna meet that special someone? Then grab your cell phone and start randomly dialing numbers. Your soul mate could be just a phone call away.

Sound far fetched? Think again. This very thing actually happened to a couple in London.

After chuckling a little bit, I realized that the odds of finding love through random dialing are no different than more traditional methods. Think about it.

• Do your odds actually improve after a few drinks? They might, depending on what you look like.
• Can you really trust your friends to set you up on a blind date? Hmmmmm.
• Want to make enemies at work? Date a co-worker.
• You can rely on those inflated profiles and fake pictures found on click-a-mate online services, right?

Finding your mate often seems like a random and magical act. Some call it destiny.

How many couples do you know who have an “odd” meeting story? I don’t know many who don’t.

I think that those odd stories are what a blossoming relationship needs because it gives the couple a very special memory to share. After all, how exciting can it be to tell your friends that you married your cubicle neighbor?

Duh! Boring!

After all, are the odds of randomly dialing an axe murdering psychopath any greater than meeting that person in some other way?

Go ahead, give it a try. That’s what those unlimited weekend minutes are for.

Increasing the IT Work Force

A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story piqued my interest, not necessarily for the stated good intentions but for what wasn’t said.

The story explains how local businesses are visiting Milwaukee area public schools in an attempt to excite students about technology with the hopes that some of them will eventually pursue IT careers.

Without a doubt, this is a wonderful idea that will help build the area’s technology base in the future.

I know that the story was focused on the drive to encourage students to become interested in technology, but it made me wonder why very little has been done to encourage and enable adults to break down the barriers that prevent them from pursuing technology careers.

According to the Journal Sentinel, unemployment in the Milwaukee area rose to 5.5% in the last 12 months. That’s a large workforce that is available now, not in 5 or 10 years.

With such a large pool of unemployed citizens, why isn’t something being done to encourage and train these people to pursue IT careers?

Certainly some of them will have the aptitude and desire to learn the requisite skills. All that they need is the right training and a chance to learn.

I realize that there are a multitude of opinions about improving the unemployment rate in the city of Milwaukee. Here are some of my ideas for what our community can do to improve the job prospects for the unemployed and our local IT workforce:

• Encourage training schools such as ITT Technical Institute and PC Pro Schools to create campuses within the city of Milwaukee, especially in areas that have high unemployment rates.
• Encourage local businesses to create on-the-job-training programs for entry level IT positions.
• Create a program to salvage retired computer equipment from local businesses and provide this free gear to people who do not have a computer.
• Provide free broadband connections to homes where someone is training for an IT career through a registered program.
• Hold IT related job fairs in areas of the city that have high unemployment rates.
• Broadcast public service announcements on television and radio that promote IT related careers and provide training related information.

As a product of the Washington High School Computer Specialty Program in the 1980s, I realize how vital the job fairs and technology programs are to public school students.

Hopefully Milwaukee area leaders will see the importance of technology based training programs for adults that simply need some guidance, encouragement and a chance to pursue their dream.

Surely the community and local businesses will benefit.

Professional Text Messaging

Calling all uber-geeks!

The world’s first text messaging competition will be held in Los Angeles this coming Saturday.

According to a recent Reuters’ story, “Players will compete in groups to see who can text set phrases quickest and without errors, with the winner getting a $10,000 prize and advancement to the finals in New York City on April 21.”

Once again parents have been proven wrong. Teenage text messaging addicts can now get paid to get their frenzied digital fix.

Can an ESPN competition be on the horizon? Stuart Scott has definitely got the lingo and the flair for it.

Perhaps I will ask my kids for text messaging lessons so that I can earn some money on the side in order to buy the latest speed-text-messaging gear.

Instead of watching television or playing video games, my family can spend our quality time texting each other in order to build our speed and endurance.

Maybe one of us will even become a Professional Text Messager, or as any true uber-geek would call us, a PTM.

Apparently, anything is possible.

Digital Worship

Are you too busy to make your regular church service this week? Don’t worry. You might soon be able to worship on-line from the comfort of your own home.

Churches are quickly turning to the Internet to post videotaped services and other educational classes in an effort to make worshiping a part of your everyday life.

At first I scoffed at the idea as being nothing more than another way for the televangelists to rake in a quick buck. However, after more reflection, I am beginning to warm to this idea.

I believe that videotaped church services can be advantageous in several ways.

• You don’t have to worry about missing church if you’re out of town.
• The homebound can worship at their own church.
• Visiting a church Web site is a good way to “visit” a new church, especially if you are searching for a church before moving to the area.
• On-line video is an excellent way to educate a congregation.
• Video can be used to attract new members.
• You can replay the service if you don’t understand or remember something that you heard while attending your regular weekly worship service.
• You can attend church everyday.

However, use caution when it comes to the virtual collection plate. Like all other Internet related transactions, you should beware of scams and other on-line predators. Shady televangelists are still around, and the Internet provides a fertile new medium for them to pedal their phony prophesies.

As Mary Chapin Carpenter says, “Forgiveness shouldn’t come with a debt.”

On-line video provides an excellent medium for legitimate religious groups and churches to spread the Word, and is a hi-tech medium that all churches should consider employing.

Millions of uber-geeks are surfing the Web waiting to be saved. There is no better way to reach them than the communications medium that they are most comfortable using.