Category: Computer/tech

The hotel I’m in right now has free internet access (score!) but the way they have their system set up it won’t work with my Mac. In addition, I think that the Chinese government has made it impossible to access my blog the way I usually do. Luckily I can add posts another way, but that means I can’t put pictures in my posts or have spell checking either. In addition, posting new pictures to my Flickr account is a lot harder. I think I’ll just go to an internet cafe in the next couple of days to upload my newest pictures, but in the meantime, all of the others are up, just go to my “all the rest” page under the my photos page. I hope to have everything running smoothly soon.

I’ve changed a few things about the workings of the blog, I think the RSS feed is a different one. Those of you who were using RSS, you might want to check into that…

My friend Randy sent me an article from the BBC about the latest report from the UN on Global warming. This is the same report that I had commented on earlier, I had seen the summery of the summery, this is the full blown document (over 1000 pages). My initial ideas still stand, and I was really disappointed in the BBC article (more on that in another post), but I want to address an assumption that all global warming disaster scenarios ignore. As it seems the sea level rising is no longer much of a threat (worst case scenario 25 inches in 100 years, more likely to be around 18 inches), the idea of drought comes to the forefront.

All of the terrible scenarios put forth assume that our technology will stay the same for the next 100 years. Think about the state of the art in 1907 and then think about now. Can you imagine trying to describe an iPod to a person back then? How about a computer or the internet. Most people did not have electricity or running water back then, let alone cars. Around 40% of the population worked on a farm, and if you were a minority or a woman, forget about achieving anything professionally. Hell, women couldn’t even vote! Technology improvements have continued to speed up, there’s no doubt that the next 100 years will see much more progress than the last.

As regards to global warming and it’s (reasonable) consequences, is it such a stretch to think that technologies in desalinization and agriculture won’t improve in the next 100 years? Desalinization plants are here now (see Dubai), so the technology already exists. If it becomes clear that drinking water will be hard to get, you can bet that companies will try like hell to make the best desalinization plants for the least amount of money (because of competition) and that could usher in an entirely new age. With large enough ones, entire countrysides could be irrigated.

All of this is assuming of course that there is nothing done to screw up the progress. A slowing economy will lead to slower rates of technology advances. Government meddling (tariffs, taxes, or granting of monopoly power) in the prices of technology (like desalinization plants) will ultimately lead to higher prices for that technology. The last 100 years is a great example of how far we have come, and I have great faith in our ability to keep improving given the right incentives like profit and real need.

Isaac

global warming economics technology future wealth thrid world development

For those of you that are tech savvy, I now have an RSS feed for the blog. I LOVE RSS, it cuts down on my surfing activities quite a bit, and that’s a good thing when you’re paying by the minute.

Isaac

OK, the site is up, at long last. I waited a couple of days for my account to OK’d, I had expected it to be up in a day. I went to the internet cafe today to check and viola! My account was up! Of course I couldn’t log in or anything… I later found out that there was a DOS attack, but they managed to get it under control in a few hours. My only obstacle after that was the upload speed at the cafe. It varied dramatically from about 5.5 KB per sec to 2 BYTES per second… I would get status bars telling me I had 4 minutes left, 10 seconds later I had 2900 minutes left… The videos might have to wait until I can figure out a faster way of uploading. In any case, I now have my own place on the web! If any of you need an email address, just let me know, I can set you up with no problem.

Isaac

Still waiting to hear back from dreamhost on the validation of my account. To their credit, they have responded to my questions very quickly and say that I will be up and running “later on this afternoon.” Of course since I’m 8 hours ahead, I’ll have to do it tomorrow. Of course you’ll be reading this the day after I get it all done:-)

One other note, the cobblestones in Sana’a are certainly not chosen for wet traction. It has been drizzling all day and the streets are really slick. The motorcycle taxis are still zooming up and down the streets. I wonder how many accidents are going to happen due to the combo of slick pavement and questionable brakes (most cars and motorcycles here look like they are barely running and need significant repair). I try to stay off the roads on days like today:-)

Isaac

Soon I will have my new domain set up. Along with a new place for my website and a new email system, I’ll have a place for a new blog! Why? Well, there are some real advantages, not least of which is that I will have all of my posts at my fingertips. I don’t know how likely it is that my (former) blogging site will go under, but who knows what can happen. I’ll also now have an RSS feed and be linked in with some services that keep track of blogs. It’s also going to be easier to write and take care of things at home. Yes, I know I can write blogs in a WP, but it never worked real well for me. With this, I’m actually typing in the program itself and just have to update my webpage to post. Last, but not least, I do think this looks better, even with the customization tools available at Livejournal…

All of my old posts will be availible, I’ve relabeled the old link just in case any of you (or me) might want to go back and quote something I wrote to use against me:-) With any luck, I’ll have everything up and running in the next few days. That includes a new email address and website address. My RSS feed should be up too. I’m pretty excited, the new host (dreamhost) is a MUCH better deal than .Mac, it’s about half the price (after a coupon and a 2 year commitment), offers 15 times the storage space and absolutely sick bandwidth. What really got me with .mac was how buggy and slow the email was and the total lack of customer support. I wanted to complain about something so I went to their support page. I tried to log in but got the message that that support account had been suspended due to “security concerns.” That’s it, no info on how to get in touch with someone, no chance to confirm my identity, nothing. So goodbye .Mac, it’s the only Apple product I’ve bought that I was dissapointed in….

I’m hoping that the blog gets to more people now too. There are some background things going on that will make this blog more visable and individual posts come up through the search engines. One of my current housemates read my blog before coming out and I’ve had a couple of people email me about Yemen and studying Arabic. With any luck, this move will improve people’s chances of getting in touch with me to discuss things…

Wish me luck getting everything set up, if you’re reading this it means that I succeeded!

Isaac