Road trip

A trip to Ocracoke it ain't, but we're on the way to Grandma's. We realized Lucy's highchair (Chicco brand) was easy enough to pull out of the trunk and use at this rest area. I'm checking my email, using Twitter mobile (http://m.twitter.com), and Blogger from my cell phone while Lucy eats. Life is good with the mobile web!

Comparing midwest floods to Katrina

I've noticed emails like this begin to circulate. They make me mad.

> Subject: Flooding in Iowa/Illinois
>
> "I have been reading about and seeing the devastation of the floods in
> Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. It is terrible. I have heard it compared to
> the devastation of Katrina. One thing I haven't noticed. I have not
> noticed anyone blaming President Bush. I have not noted any looting. I
> have not noted anyone spending any money vouchers on Tattoos, Body
> Piercings, Drugs, or Parties. I have noticed people helping each other and
> working together. Not just sitting around and waiting for some Government
> Agency to bail them out and give them a bunch of freebies, and then
> complaining that what they are given is not enough. Perhaps the Press has
> just missed that. Can anyone explain this?"

This is a hillbilly comparison--and, frankly, racist. There's a big difference between A) abandoning thousands of people for days without water, shelter or adequate security while the incompetent cronies that President Bush hired to run federal agencies debated what they could or should do and B) responding immediately to provide shelters, FEMA trailers, the national guard, and other agencies to make sure that people in the midwest have been safeguarded during (even before) the floods.

I'm proud of the way Iowans have responded to our local disasters, but that does not change the fact the local, state and federal governments failed miserably to serve the victims of Katrina. Even President Bush himself has acknowledged that our government did not respond appropriately to that disaster.

Here on campus!

Having a great time with 17 students in our new IT Masters 2008 cohort. This morning, we've been exploring some mobile tools like GOOG-411 and SMS.

Looking for pictures?

If you know us very well, then you know that Magda is much better about taking and organizing our family photos. Bookmark the albums page of Magda's website, because that's where you're gonna find the best pictures of Lucy, etc. For example, check-out the Spring collection.

OLPC embraces Windows

The New York Times reports that the OLPC project and its founder, Nicholas Negroponte, have decided to adopt the Windows operating system for their XO laptop. Apparently, Negroponte is convinced that developing nations are not as interested in the XO laptop running open-source software and would prefer a "familiar" Windows operating system. This is stunning to me, because the truly innovative open-source operating system (Sugar) which currently runs on the XO laptop was designed from the ground up to empower people who have never used a computer before--who are perhaps even illiterate. It's really disappointing to see ground breaking innovation and what I believed to be one of the main pillars of the project, its open-source nature, thrown out the window to conform with some perceived norm which is Windows. It's ironically sad that the project which inspired a whole new genre of ultra-mobile PCs, most running open-source Linux operating systems which have much more modest hardware requirements, has now itself turned its back on the very same open-source community that played such a critical role in developing the XO laptop. 

To be fair, OLPC says that it will continue to offer the Sugar operating system as an alternative to the Windows version which is said to be available in September. Clearly, Nicholas Negroponte believes he can sell more machines to developing nations with the lure of Windows, but I dare say Negroponte has derailed the OLPC project and done it irreparable harm by betraying the community which helped him develop the first XO laptop.