Commentary
Bill Gates
http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/22/solutions-education-gates-oped-cx_bga_0123gates.html?partner=yahootix
Just comes to show you who controls Forbes... MSBBC too... because the
tax-funded site now gives room for this oil tycoon to sell his products.
Clayton M. Christensen And Michael Horn
,----[ Quote ]
| The current school system makes this hard, however. To see why, picture
| Microsoft Windows. It, like schools, is highly interdependent--you can't
| build or change one component unless you build or change the others, because
| each component affects the way the others function. Changing just a few lines
| of Microsoft Windows' code would necessitate rewriting thousands of other
| lines. A custom-configured version of Microsoft Windows would therefore cost
| hundreds of millions of dollars.
|
| Contrast this with Linux, which is a modular system. Anyone from the
| open-source community can tinker with one part of the code and produce a
| custom-configured operating system. Modularity allows for affordable
| customization, while the economics of interdependence mandate
| standardization.
|
| [..].
|
| To educate every child, schools must migrate to a modular architecture--from
| the current teacher-centric classroom to a child-centric classroom--so they
| can customize for each child. Computer-based learning offers a way. It is
| inherently modular and therefore easier and less expensive to customize to
| the way each child learns.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/22/solutions-education-christensen-oped-cx_dme_0123christensen.html?partner=yahootix
Windows XP takes Linux away from our children
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has just announced it will contribute millions of dollars to train
| students and teachers worldwide how to use its software. That means less
| exposure to Linux for our children and a continuing dependence on Windows XP
| and Vista.
|
| [...]
|
| Of course, before receiving any of this funding, the school must be using
| Windows XP or Vista. Microsoft has used this tactic in the past to crush
| competition, including its decision to give away Internet Explorer to starve
| Netscape out of the industry.
`----
http://tech.blorge.com/Structure
%20/2008/01/22/windows-xp-takes-linux-away-from-our-children/
Related:
Yoohoo! EU Commission! Are you watching?
,----[ Quote ]
| Here's some repulsive news from Microsoft, in an article on Yahoo!
| News titled, "Microsoft pledges cash for IT in developing world" but
| which I would more accurately, I think, call, "Microsoft Finds New Way
| To Be Anticompetitive"...
|
| Please remember this day, next time someone tells you how
| philanthropic Mr. Gates is. Monopolies these days not only crush
| competition, they're willing to crush a charity to make a buck. I
| would say any apparent cooperation with OLPC, therefore, is just for
| show, folks. Those "technical" difficulties won't be solved, I figure,
| until this new market is glutted with Microsoft on Intel Classmates
| and Asus EEE's, loaded with XP, that old-fashioned operating system,
| and none of their laptops can do for those children what the OLPC XO
| can do. P.S. Children don't need training to use an OLPC XO. It's
| designed to *not* need it. I hope OLPC patented everything before they
| show Microsoft a thing. For real. Otherwise, someday we'll be looking
| for prior art to overturn a Microsoft patent or two.
|
| Yoohoo, EU Commission! Are you watching these maneuvers?
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080123114324664
|
|
