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In 2008, MIT University in the US gave the developing world a spark of hope for its children’s futures with OLPC – One Laptop Per Child. The XO ‘$100 laptops’, low cost, hardwearing machines, were meant to revolutionise education for millions of children in underprivileged communities, giving them some of the opportunities that our own children take for granted. The XOs were initially rolled out to South America, where they found avid support from Uruguay. Despite this, they have not been met with much enthusiasm elsewhere and due to the lack of commitment of governments to bulk order, are actually priced closer to $200.

Although the OLPC scheme did not have quite the welcome that was expected, the organisation continued in its endeavour to fulfil its mission, rolling out to East Africa and the Middle East in 2009. This year shows no difference in their determination and the latest project is aimed at extending the XO to older children in the form of the XO-HS. It doesn’t stop there; already there are plans of creating a touch-screen tablet (XO-3) with wi-fi, high-quality pictures and video, as well as 3D graphics – take that Apple!

My hope for the future is that OLPC gains more support from governments and private organisations alike. Perhaps an extension to the less privileged among us in the developed world will help to cut their costs and really deliver a $100 laptop, as well as the obvious benefits. Whatever the case, I fully agree that these initiatives are about the “philosophy of education” – the right for every child everywhere to have extended to them the best education possible – rather than the computers themselves.

Way to go OLPC!

It’s the talk of the town… Microsoft’s new motion-sensored Kinect.

There has been much scepticism about the product, dampening Microsoft’s spirits at the time of the launch.

Although Nintendo have been offering motion-sensored games for years now, this is the first game EVER to not need a hand held device to control it. Not only that but it also supports live video chat with a voice recognition device!

What I have to say is: stop criticising and start encouraging. Every little step forward brings us closer to the next level of gaming and technology. It may not be revolutionary but it could lead to the next big thing. It won’t be long before we’re actually playing in 3D, virtual, worlds across the internet

I, personally can’t wait to try it!

Despite the best efforts of the weather to thwart it, the opening of the Isle of Wight festival last weekend heralded the start of the summer for the UK. As avid festival-goers have been gearing themselves up for the music, revelry, and general crazy antics that these next few months are sure to bring, organisers have also been preparing for the demands of the festival season.

I’m only a baby when it comes to festivals, having attended my first one only four years ago (and every year since). Even in that short time I’ve noticed many changes in people’s general attitudes to staying ‘green’ at festivals and the post-mayhem clean up; some bad, some good.

Apart from the obvious green initiatives, such as recycling points, last year at V Festival introduced me to the cash-back scheme on paper cups, a simple but ingenious way to stop people dropping their cups here, there and everywhere. I also heard tell that Shambala boasted solar powered showers and Bestival was using waste bio-fuel from local traders to power its shows.

That’s not all!

In preparation for my own festival trip their year, the geek in me decided to do some digging into what I could expect in the way of responsible partying. It turns out that Glastonbury goes all out: from environmentally friendly Shee-Pees (oh yes, you read it right) and composting loos (nice to know the waste won’t go to waste), to ecological hand soap and shower gel, solar powered showers are not the only thing on the menu this year.

While environmental awareness and care do seem to be becoming top priority, it is not enough for the festival organisers to be doing all the work. It is also up to us, the masses, to ensure that we do our part. So, from one festival junkie to another, please take public transport or car pool when you can, take your rubbish with you, don’t leave your tents on the pitch – and enjoy the season!

We would all have to have been living under a rock for the past few weeks not to know about all the reforms the new government has been introducing in an attempt to clear public debt and regain the strength of our economy. One of the issues closest to my heart is education.

We’ve been told that the university system is in need of ‘radical change’ because of the drain to the tax payers – and ultimately to government coffers. It is getting harder and harder for universities to obtain government funding, which now seems to be mostly (if not in some cases solely) based on research, as apposed to teaching, and students are footing bills of a minimum of £3,000 a year.

Does this seem right, though? Some would argue that a university education is a luxury rather than a mandatory requirement and so should be paid for by those that want to pursue it. My view, on the other hand is that these students who are having to work almost full-time jobs while getting their education are the future of the economy and should be offered support to in turn strengthen said nation. Even when students are willing to pay (or rather, not having a choice but to do so), a university that is focused on research cannot be spending enough time and effort on teaching to a level that would have been mandatory of education standards only a few years ago.

So, what do we want to see happen? Are we willing to let our education system go the way of the US and make it a commercial industry only for the elite? Do we ignore the bright stars who could make our nation great again because we’ve become obsessed with the ‘buck’? Do we finally decide that university is for teaching and the research department is for research? Will plans for new initiatives of distance and flexible learning be our saving graces? Only time will tell.

Well it’s been long-awaited, taken ages to arrive, and tortured by Hype and Bunkum. But here it is, the Ipad. The one I have is 64Gb and costs around £700… In short it is the big bro of the iPhone with more apps. It does do loads, and most of it, it does well, however, it is not quite there on the hardware. Paying for apps annoys me, no Flash support also does and its too heavy for its size.

At first glance it’s a cool bit of kit – if you like Apple stuff, that is.. Quite good to use, but you soon tire of all the bits and bobs that are pushed into it. WiFi and graphics are passable, but sadly lacking in many areas. Screen could have done with being bigger, much bigger, at least 15” and OLED, not the small 9.7” it is. A DVD-RW drive would have been nice, so would a standard USB or memory card slot, also a network or firewire or any type of connection usable on the fly. A Digital camera or web cam also would have been good to have. Battery, “lasts all day” they say, well best I got was about 6 1/2 hours from a full charge. Oh and it can’t multi-task!

Really as it stands it’s a toy, a gizmo, a poser’s excuse for IT skills who stand in pubs talking IT 5H1t… and you have to have a PC to connect to. Good job I didn’t buy it for me, it was for a customer who “Just had to have one”… But I had a full week to play with it, but hand on heart, personally I would have taken it back to the shop within hours, I was soon bored with the lack of features and finding $ signs on the end of interesting apps, the free ones were fun while they lasted, but you wouldn’t use many of them that often.

As a person that hates iPods, iPhones and Macs in general, it only reinforced my hatred of Apple products. I wouldn’t buy a netbook, or a palmtop ‘cos of the 10” or less screens, and the iPad is in the same class as them. £700 would get you a great laptop with all the features and far more use than this iPad.

If the boys at Linux Labs knocked one of these pads out, it would have been full hardware featured and full of usable software with no ownership costs, as would it have been Open-Source software.

In a world where it seems that the Dollar is going up and down like a fiddler’s elbow, is the UK’s coalition government good for the economy? It appears it is, I am getting more and more enquiries for overseas work, in fact more in the last 6 weeks than I have had in the last 4 years. It also seems to have stimulated the white goods market, and also heralded another price drop on the IT front, with some components now up to 25% cheaper than they were 6 months ago. That has brought on a new wave of sales in what was a stagnant market place. But I still find it hard to understand why most of the world does trade paid for in Dollars. Historically the dollar it is the most unstable currency in the world, probably better for everyone to use the Euro or Pounds Sterling instead, even for our Asian based suppliers!

That brings me on to the World Cup. Love football or hate it, millions of £s and $s are being spent on it. Shops, mobile phone companies and even banks are offering money back to their customers “IF” England scores a goal or even wins this year. A pretty safe bet for them, seeing as England last won it in 1966! Are our boys really worth all this hype (and their salary)? Today you will see nearly every other car flying England flags, which will be tossed in the bin in a few days time and win or lose the footballers still get over paid for their 6 weeks stint. I say to the England squad, if you don’t win the game, you don’t get paid for it, that would give them a little more incentive to win! All the time footballers get 20k just for getting on the bus to go to a match……

Then we have the Olympics 2012, again millions over budget and why? For most of us no real gain either.  Even some of the work needed is being farmed out to other countries!!!

Time for a sporting rethink, yeah it’s great we compete, and for many of the real athletes out there, living on a tight budget, a bit of fame and reward if they get a gold or silver medal, but all too short lived for them and at what cost to the country and us? Most of the workers in the UK have had suffered redundancies or pay freezes. Many who lost their jobs can’t get back into work due to the stale recruitment market. I can’t see how we can get this investment in the Olympics back, even if it is hired out to the locals as a new amenity later, most can’t afford to use it, if they are on the dole. I have also heard that local hotels have been forced blocked booked at governmental fixed rates to facilitate visiting sporting personnel, in some cases at less than half the normal cost of a room, that’s not good for local economy.

I feel all this money should have been re-invested in our business markets instead. Get the UK back on it’s feet, people back in jobs. If the money spent on just the 2012 Olympics had been used to reduce the commercial rates on new shops and businesses, reduce their TAX liability for the first 3 years, long-term jobs would have been created and secured.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all sports, but in the good old days of footballers working “Down Pit” for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and having to take time off unpaid to train or play matches in their baggy shorts and hobnail boots was the days of real football.  All we have now are Pop/Movie star types, overpaid and doing Jack for the good name of sportsmanship or the sport.