lunarchy

One Laptop Per Child

I was discussing this project to develop a $100 laptop for children in developing countries with Penny yesterday: Talking Tech - WSJ.com. She works in healthcare with the elderly and I think there could be an interesting extension of this program to the elderly, particularly those that are living in residential care. Increasingly the concept of the "silver surfer" will become a reality as we who have grown up with ICT start to dribble, smell of wee and are packed off to stare at the telly in a tawdry communal living room. Having affordable wirelessly capable comms in our laps may well improve the quality of the little life left in us. It will also keep our legs warm.

Cidade de Deus

Finally got to watch City of God. Absolutely beautiful, scary and sad. I was really impressed how a number of stories and characters were conflated from the book and crafted into a really clever story. It was also brilliantly shot & edited with a lot of flourishing that I wasn't expecting. And all this with a group of non-professional actors. And the music. And Brasil. Wow.

Enthusiasm & Confidence

 Been thinking a lot about the importance and entymology of enthusiasm recently. In the Greek original, it had a sense of being possessed by god, inspired. Wikipedia points out that it wasn't fashionable to be enthusiastic post Glorious Revolution as it had been seen as being factor in the start of the English Civil War. I've also been thinking about confidence and the ability of some to trick others into feeling confident too. Mark McGuiness has a nice sequence of thoughts about the relativities of the two conditions Wishful Thinking » Blog Archive » 5 Reasons Why Enthusiasm is Better than Confidence