alex

I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts and several news articles about OLPC, Intel Classmate PC and Magalhães. There are basically two classes of posts:

International posts arguing on the great technological advances of the OLPC, the mastermind behind the project or the non-profit motivation against the be-evil empire of Intel

Portuguese posts trashing Magalhães based on the previous arguments or about the political opportunism of the Portuguese government, the ruling party and the prime minister José Sócrates

Because I have a very different opinion on this subject I decided to do this post!
Let me start by saying that I won’t argue on the technical advances of the OLPC or that Sócrates didn’t took advantage of the situation. I like Magalhães because it has a much bigger chance of being a success than OLPC. Here are some of the differences that make me think this:

Intel and J.P. Sá Couto (Magalhães manufacturer) are in it for the money and that’s what motivates them

OLPC is a NGO with great vision but no money, as stated on OLPC blog by OLPC’s founder Nicholas Negroponte: “Like many other nonprofits that are facing tough economic times”

Magalhães runs Windows and Linux (Caixa Mágica)

OLPC only supports Linux. There is a Windows port that was developed internally by Microsoft

Magalhães shall (I expect) be widely available in Portugal, Venezuela and other countries - The e-escolinha project will give away 1 Magalhães for each 20 Portuguese citizens

OLPC projects have been a nightmare mainly due to bad operations and logistics: “Other than the incredible Carla Gomez-Monroy who worked on setting up the pilots, there was no one hired to work on deployment while I was at OLPC, with Uruguay’s and Peru’s combined 360,000 laptop rollout in progress”

OLPC’s goal of under $100 looks great in slides and speeches, but the actual price on Amazon is $199, which can be better used helping 8 entrepreneurs around the world on Kiva

Magalhães is priced €258 at FNAC because Intel and J.P. Sá Couto need to pay operational costs and still make a profit

Basically OLPC is all about technology sand box and an utopian vision that a $100 laptop will help the poor. Magalhães is about the economic development of all the partners involved, including Intel, manufactures and countries deploying them.

This blog has been a bit sleepy. Due to some lack of time and subjects, i’v been slowly adopting the micro-blogging-band-wagon and have been posting updates on Twitter.

Just turned 21, Ellen Page will surelly kick ass at the movies.

Recently nominated to win an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her participation in Juno, Ellen will surelly get one in the next years. If you haven’t seen it yet, book some time to go to the cinema and watch Juno.

Ellen’s great performing skills got my attention when I rented Hard Candy. Hard Candy is thriller about pedophilia with only 5 actors where most of the shots are done inside one house! Without any fancy action stuff the movie can really get your attention till the end. Check it out at your local dvd rental service.

Not a long time ago there was some media coverage about the attack done by activists on a genetically modified crop: Correio da Manhã

When I saw this on the evening news I was really pissed about these so called green friends. This farmer, from the Algarve, invested in technology that would produce better products with less raw materials like water or petrol. Although he did everything by the law, these guys felt they should “save us” from the genetically modified food! This kind of thought is an illness that we have in our European society and economy. Here are some thoughts on this.

Organic food is the agriculture Louis Vuitton
I will never contest that organic food can be healthier. I prefer to see the pigs and cows “playing” around in the farm than packed in warehouses. Organic food sales are booming, but every time someone pays a premium for organic food it’s basically subsidising European old-fashioned and expensive agriculture in detriment of low cost African or Asian products.

European Union protects French farmers
This is not new (Times), but I had some hope that Europe would be ashamed about the CAP (Common Agriculture Policy) and cut the subsidies before 2013. NO! We keep pumping our tax money to a dying business. Not only are the subsidies a stupid economic action (promotes laziness) the agriculture quotas also impact the farmers. Check a recent article on The Economist

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are your friends
It’s pretty basic and no brainer! If you can crop healthier tomatoes with half the water, drought proof and with a third of the costs, why would you choose something different? As technology advances GMOs will get better and, at the end, consumers can always decide what they buy. I advise reading this article on the subject.

Europe should move it’s money more to GMO and less to Organic! Don’t try to stop technology or economic self-regulation…

Para quem não conhece, este é um titulo de um filme dos Monty Pythons:
imdb

Como alguns de vocês, eu ainda não sei bem o que vou escrever aqui, mas para já reservei o nome.

Stay tuned…