I’m sitting here at my computer watching “The Good Wife” on my Slingbox, at the same time monitoring my email on Citrix. Most of the evening I listened to a shuffle of the several thousand songs on my iPhone hooked up to a spherical speaker less than 2 inches in diameter.
Earlier this evening I downloaded a couple more books onto Kindle and created PDFs of some local newspaper articles using a 4.2 ounce portable scanner and uploaded the day’s pictures and videos from my latest point and shoot and my Flip. Tomorrow I’ll use one of my flash drives to print off documents that I need for my meeting tomorrow.
I spoke with family members (and the office) multiple times on Skype, about half of them with video, for literally pennies while purifying my tap water with my SteriPen. All of my peripherals are hooked up to my USB port octopus.
I keep my iPhone charged during the day with a solar battery power source or my Hyper Mac Mini. I have a tetra-byte hard drive with every imaginable data source I might need in the next 8 weeks and a Nintendo DES if by any chance I ever find the time to get back into Dragon Quest (Golden Sun).
If it weren’t for food and the occasional gin and tonic, I would never have to leave my chair. And tonight I haven’t. Except for the gin and tonic.
So here’s the elephant in my room. The average annual income in Kenya is $730. (Answers.com). Most of the population earns less than $1 per day.
This article on technology in Kenya is very interesting: http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=29302
ReplyDeleteIt discusses the obstacles to getting the country "wired," some of which are the following:
•Less than 1% of the Kenyan population subscribes to a fixed phone line, and most of those lines are found in cities and towns
•Network facilities are concentrated in cities and towns, and 80% of the population lives in rural areas
•Even if phone lines were laid down in rural areas, electricity is largely absent
•Computers themselves cost more than the average Kenyan makes in a year
•Adult literacy is also an issue, as 30% of Kenyans cannot read or write. For reference, that ranks it 135th among the world's countries, which puts Kenya well into the lower 50%. Interestingly, the U.S. ranks 21st with 99% literacy, and Georgia and Cuba are the top 2 with just under 100%. But I'm getting off track.
Great post, Mom!
you are talking to the office on your sabbatical? shame on you. ; )
ReplyDelete