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maartsen

Listed below are comments made by maartsen between Friday, 19th December 2008 and Saturday, 14th November 2009.

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Highlights from the road 8:50pm on 14 Nov 2009 Kopf hoch Kleener.. and welcome home!
Charming Brussels 4:50pm on 31 Jul 2009 Mark, congratulations on your new position - I have greatly enjoyed those Brussels posts, these past few years, if only because I sort of preceded you, as a Dutch journalist, now living in the USA, after a seven year stop in the UK. I no longer "journalism", but journalism is like cancer - you're never quite shod of it.

It will be fascinating to see what you make of this country - what befoxes many expatriate Brits is that the cultural and ethnic connection they expect to find in "the Colonies" is largely not there - you'll be told "I love your accent", but what the average American then doesn't tell you is that they really don't know what you mean by "fortnight".

So, I am much looking forward to reading your musings, especially your reaction to the American culture freight train, which tends to run over you like a juggernaut, and is not at all like you see on television.

I have one request, though, one that I make as a former journalist (NUJ London Freelance Branch), and as a long term resident of this country (I've been here since 1985). Please try to drag yourself away from the main metropolitan areas, occasionally. It is hard - all the years I spent in New York, then in Washington, D.C., I tended to focus on what happens in the main corridors, on the East and West coasts. But I've since moved to the countryside (albeit within driving distance from three international airports, one wants to experience, but not be cut off from civilization..) and discovered that much what makes America America actually takes places among the American people, and most of those do not live or work in the main urbanizations. Living here in rural Virginia has taught me more about the United States, and about America, than I ever learned in my sixteen years in New York City and Westchester County, and you really don't begin to understand Americans until you are where the parking lot in front of your office building is cleaned by a chain gang from the local jail, across from the square from you (four miles from the White House...).

But for now, you'll have your hands full settling in. Feel free to call on me if I can help in acquainting you with your new home, all of your colleagues "visit America", they don't really live in it - and that is, in view of your work, perfectly understandable, it is a tough and busy job.

Welcome to our side of the world - and should you ever pine for Belgian Lady Godiva chocolates, we have those in abundant supply. We have Belgian waffles, as well, but I've never been able to figure out what is Belgian about them, and the same goes for "Dutch cleaners" - we're not that clean, to begin with, but, like everywhere else, most cleaners here are Korean.... Best of luck!
Going mobile in Barcelona 9:53pm on 16 Feb 2009 I am not sure what is special about "a device which takes a 3g signal and turns it into a portable wi-fi hotspot". I've had one since mid-2007: the D-Link DIR-451 router takes a Sierra Wireless 3G card, and delivers 802.11G, 4 LAN ports, and even a printer port.. It takes 12-24VDC, and so can be used on a power supply as well as in a vehicle.
Negroponte - missionary not manufacturer 1:19pm on 19 Dec 2008 Negroponte comes from academia, a place where one is at liberty to invent and promote technologically new concepts. Typically, something coming out of a lab is picked up by a manufacturer, and taken into production if it shows promise, and can be shown to adhere to the industry rulebook, and make a profit.

As a developer with UNIX skills, I've bought and played with a couple of Linux products - using them effectively requires a new user to learn this operating system. But in today's commercial world, and even in much of academia, MS Windows skills are a necessity, not so much as a subset of computer skills, but because most students will use Windows when they progress into "the real world", both on the server and on the client side.

So, wanting to blanket the world with a laptop that does not teach children to use Windows at the same time as they learn computer skills is disingenuous. It combines an experimental facet of computer learning (the OLPC's operating system, completely unproven in teaching learning skills) with a device that would be useful if it taught more about the world that students must live in, in their future.

I equate Mr. Negroponte's efforts with what Al Gore does - solving problems that do exist with tools unfit for the purpose. Mr. Gore will have us believe we can save the earth by buying different cars and light bulbs, when in fact pushing back our pollution problem can only be done by not using cars and light bulbs at all; Mr. Negroponte teaches children to master computers they will not be using in their future life - nobody will be writing (affordable) brokerage applications and shopping carts for Linux on the OLPC, so in the OLPC one now introduces a need for children to completely relearn their computing skills, down the road.

Engaging Microsoft for this purpose would have been a good move, had it happened at the very beginning - Bill & Melinda Gates' foundation would have likely been amenable to funding a project where Microsoft's charitable involvement would have helped both that manufacturer and third world countries. Another very available source of funding is the World Bank, whose deep Third World development pockets are never exhausted.

Both Negroponte and Gore are examples of what happens when theoretical gurus are let loose on the world without the help of real world industry principals - it is nice to have ideas, but they have to be made to fit by industry integrators, and by financiers. Large egos and Nobel Prizes don't mean a thing in education, or in achieving affordable and long term useful solutions that benefit all, and are sustainable.

Menno Aartsen
Fredericksburg, VA
http://aartsen.net

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