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There’s a great article on the Times Online about the One Laptop per Child, or OLPC. This was a philanthropic initiative to get laptops into the hands of kids in developing countries. It’s been slow to deliver, and, according to this article, that’s because some large technology companies have done their best to kill it off. Apparently some large near-monopolies saw a cheap laptop for children as an attack on their market share.

Read the article for the details.

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about travelling with a laptop.

Many of us have laptops that we take with us when we travel for business, and sometimes when we travel for pleasure as well. What other stuff do we take? Over the page, I’m listing the contents of my travel kitbag. Feel free to add your own in the comments. (more…)

Richard Stallman is coming to New Zealand. For those that don’t know Richard, he’s the driving force behind free software. Apparently he’s a compelling speaker.

If you have any interest in software, or in intellectual property issues, he’d be well worth getting to hear. Check out his timetable. Alternatively, catch him on the radio on Saturday morning.

…in a geeky kind of way. Over in the hill in Featherston, Rowan Smith has posted a video of the Huygens lander hitting Titan. There was no camera crew, of course – this video is part live feed from a camera on the bottom of the probe, and part visualisation from the instruments. And there is sound from a mic on the lander.

Go on, you know you want to.

Computerworld is carrying an article about Mark Harris’s attempt to get more information about ACTA – a secret treaty that the New Zealand government has just finished calling for submissions on. The Government gave him 13 of the 91 documents he asked for, and crossed out material in most of those 13, as well. Mark has a lot more information on his site.

I talked about this on the radio a few weeks ago. And here’s my submission to the Government – which still hasn’t even been so much as acknowledged, over three weeks after I sent it.

Frankly, the potentialities here are scary – ACTA could do everything from killing off free software to stopping innovation on the Internet, but virtually all the information we have about it comes from leaked documents. Our government is negotiating in secret, and will probably end up giving away more of our rights like it did during the last Copyright Amendment Act.

This really is not good enough. Our government should have nothing to do with this, and we should all be telling them that. Now.

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about the World Internet Project – a survey of how New Zealanders use the Internet, set in context by comparing it to other surveys around the world. The WIP was run in New Zealand by AUT University and partly funded by InternetNZ.

There are some intriguing results to the survey. Read on for my speaking notes or listen to the podcast.

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There’s a blog post on the New York Times saying that Wikipedia might introduce a system of approvals for edits. The problem Wikipedia is trying to solve has been around for a while – people apparently go in and delete or alter chunks of material about current topics, especially politicians, usually in violation of Wikipedia’s policies such as the neutral point of view. People and companies have been caught trying to spin their entries, or paying others to do so.

Various solutions have been tried, such as locking political articles close to elections, or only allowing certain people to edit the most controversial ones. What’s now being proposed is that all edits to the encyclopedia should be approved by a member of some trusted group before they go live.

This is a shame. The core of Wikipedia was its “anyone can edit” ethos. This was a fantastic idea that has worked a whole lot better than its critics said it would. It’s why Wikipedia has succeeded in building such a large corpus of knowledge ahead of other online and offline encyclopedias. And yes, at times its authority is open to question, but it makes a great place to start researching something.

It seems as though human nature is catching up with the policy unrestricted editing that has made Wikipedia so great. I’m sorry about that.

Today on Radio New Zealand National I talked about keeping your email secure. Nothing in email can be truly secure because its sent as plaintext across the Net, but there are steps you can take to make it harder for others to read your mail, and to make mail more usable if you travel.

Read on for my speaking notes or listen to the podcast.
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There’s been a lot of complaining about the ongoing costs of the Apple iPhone 3G in New Zealand. The iPhone has a relatively low ‘headline’ price of $199, but only when attached to an expensive calling plan. People are expressing outrage at this.

Let’s get real. Ever since mobile services were launched in this country, networks have subsidised handsets (i.e. telephones) off the monthly line and calling charges. The iPhone is no different. Vodafone has made it clear what it costs to buy the handset without a plan (about $1,000 depending on model) which is up there, but nothing out of the ordinary for a high-end phone.

Staying real, let’s look at the issue facing New Zealanders wanting to make mobile calls. It’s got nothing to do with the cost for the latest bit of shiny kit. It’s got everything to do with the cost of mobile calling in this country. We pay over half as much again as the OECD average. That’s got to be due to the effective monopoly that Telecom and Vodafone have enjoyed until now.

Perhaps the iPhone plan costs announced after the marketing hype while serve as a way of highlighting our expensive calling charges. But it’s those calling charges that are the problem, not the handset cost.

This is supposed to change. Telecom are to launch a network that will compete directly with Voda’s 3G network – you should be able to buy a handset for one network and take it to the other network. And the third market entrant, New Zealand Communications, is *still* waiting in the wings. Please, guys, get on with it!

Adam Gifford has a good take on this over on the Herald.

Because I’m on holiday with my family.

I had the best of intentions of writing a crisp, focussed, piece about technology and culture – iPhone pricing in New Zealand, maybe – but I’ve spent time with my nearest and dearest instead. And that’s no bad thing.

See you next week!