Hehehe, I had forgot completely about the Z80 computers.
Let's put it this way: _every_ home has a TV. Add mesh networking and you can actually wire-up whole cities with 20 bucks devices. This is soo cool.
Ok, I'm not saying this is what it does. For what we know, it could be completely crap. But, just imagine:
- You have 30 dollar box - so you can put about as much brain-power in it as a router.
- For really poor countries, LCD screens are a waste when you have TV. So, you just throw in a TV-out, which was cheap 20 years ago.
- From my experience in wiring relatively "wild" places, if you have boxes plugged in a power socket, the people will put the actual wire the place themselves. That's if you don't have OLPC's mesh networking.
This stupid-looking white box could do most for developing countries then anything else in the last 10 years. Except of course mobile phones.
There are many reasons, mostly to do with skewed priorities. I'll describe one of ways priorities get skewed. There is a disproportionately large film and TV industry with a lot of political backing which are interested in getting TV into as many homes as possible. In the south Indian state I come from, one of the election promises by the current chief minister (somewhat equivalent to a governor in US) was a free TV for every family. The same minister owns a private TV Network. What best way to get more audience than use government money...
I bet you have a computer though. I also didn't have a TV for about 6 months, I never bothered to buy a new one after my last one broke. But I would guess that anyone that doesn't have a computer already is VERY likely to own a TV.
Ok, I'm not saying this is what it does. For what we know, it could be completely crap. But, just imagine:
- You have 30 dollar box - so you can put about as much brain-power in it as a router.
- For really poor countries, LCD screens are a waste when you have TV. So, you just throw in a TV-out, which was cheap 20 years ago.
- From my experience in wiring relatively "wild" places, if you have boxes plugged in a power socket, the people will put the actual wire the place themselves. That's if you don't have OLPC's mesh networking.
This stupid-looking white box could do most for developing countries then anything else in the last 10 years. Except of course mobile phones.