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Cuba Lifts Ban on Home Computers
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Sat May 03, 2008 08:25 AM
from the hello-computer dept.
from the hello-computer dept.
ianare writes "The first legalized home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, the latest in a series of restrictions on daily life which President Raul Castro has lifted in recent weeks. The desktop computers cost almost $800, in a country where the average wage is under $20 a month, but some Cubans do have access to extra income. Internet access remains restricted to certain workplaces, schools and universities on the island which the government claims is due to low bandwidth availability. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is laying a new cable under the Caribbean, but it remains unclear whether once the connection is completed, the authorities will allow unrestricted access to the internet."
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This is not news... (Score:5, Interesting)
What's new, though, is that [startin soon], they are going to be sold without operating systems... No more windows pre-installed. Or so I've heard. Now we only need tons of Ubuntu disks to give away at the sotre.
Re:This is not news... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:This is not news... (Score:5, Funny)
Unfortunately, I think they'll have trouble getting the valves/tubes for those old 1950s models, and they probably won't be of a high enough spec to run the latest malware.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Either share your wealth with us, or we'll share our poverty with you.
It applies to more than just 1st vs 3rd world.
Re:This is not news... (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you realize that is a sign of how far your country has fallen? It was when people said that of your people that your country was great. Now, you rely on exploitative economics and war where once you relied on yourselves, and marvel that a people could take care of themselves.
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Re:This is not news... (Score:5, Interesting)
You'd be surprised at how resourceful Cuban people are...I am amazed at how they make some of those old cars still work with no parts available...
I'm Scottish. My grandfather had a lathe, a welding set, a bandsaw, a circular saw, various soldering irons, dies and taps etc. Parts for engines were made now and then, weights for fishing etc.
My father has it all now.
I dare say it'll be mine one day too, but I haven't a clue how to use any of it.
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Re:This is not news... (Score:4, Interesting)
The clutch actuating rod broke on my motor home while I was in the Welsh mountains once. A visit to the local Ford dealer revealed that they no longer made the part, and scrap yards were a waste of time.
So after buying a portable gas torch, a few brazing rods, a hacksaw and a bolt, I was able to braze the bolt to the end of the broken rod and fix the problem immediately. It was the strongest part of the van after that.
Also, because initially I had to get from the mountains to the town where the shop was, I got the clutch working by stealing about 4 feet of wire from a fence, and winding it back and forth between the pedal lever and the clutch release arm. This I then tightened up using a screwdriver between the strands which was kept from unwinding by being wedged against the vans body. That worked for 3 days before I got to do the permanent repair.
It's not hard to do these things, just takes a little bit of application.
BTW, I consider this hacking in one of its truest forms.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Hell...I did something similar with my last car...the part was $300 from Saturn, and I was like BULLSHIT because it was a tiny piece of the part that broke. Ended up drilling two holes, grabbing some wire (this is where you caught me...I had fencing wire in my garage...nice heavy gauge) and wove it between the two pieces. I kept it that way until I boug
Re:This is not news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Just an idea, since my US government is all about supporting an open and free Cuba, it might not be bad idea to lead some sort of initiative to proliferate computers to the people. I know the government might frown upon something like this, but it would give America the moral high ground, which is something neither side has been worthy of so far.
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Re:This is not news... (Score:5, Informative)
There is no reason any import market has to be a black market, Cuba is free to trade with the rest of the world, including Europe, and as such has an open market to exploit.
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Re:This is not news... (Score:5, Informative)
The US has tried to threaten companies that if they deal with Cuba, they can't operate within the US. The EU got very angry over the issue. Whether the US managed to frighten companies off, I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised though.
As for the "decades old grudge", yes, it is a grudge. When Castro ousted the US-backed Batista, the US lost control, and US Policy towards Cuba has been about control right from the beginning. A condition of the US troops withdrawing from Cuba in 1901 was that they sign the Platt Amendment, which gave the US all sorts of powers over Cuba. It was very much a Godfather-style "offer you can't refuse". Although the Platt Amendment was repealed in 1934, the US kept one of the clauses which was the Naval base at Guantanamo. According to the Platt Amendment clause, it can only be removed with the consent of both parties, which is completely ridiculous.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There was a funny incident in Canada, I think it was related to the Helms/Burton act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms-Burton_Act [wikipedia.org] where the Canadian Wal-Mart stores were found to be selling Cuban made clothing, and the US government ordered them to stop. So they (briefly) stopped. Canadian newspapers found out and it was turned into a big sovereignty flap on this side of the border. The Canadian government then forbade any company operating on Canadian soil from obeying the embargo, and Wal-Mart's Cuban
Re:This is not news... (Score:4, Insightful)
The EU did pretty much the same thing, but it's sure to have frightened away some companies. Saudi Arabia makes Cuba look like a model free society, yet the oppressive regime there is supported by the US. The US stance against Cuba has nothing to do with freedom or democracy. Indeed the history of US policy in the region has been one of deterring democracy, not promoting it.
The US wants cooperative governments that are friendly to US business interests. The current government of Venezuela fails both those tests, so despite being a democracy, the US is trying to undermine it and there was of course the coup attempt in 2002 as well. Such a coup attempt is far easier to organise in an open society like Venezuela than in Cuba, which is probably one of the reasons Cuba has been closed up so tight for so long.
The US is also trying to undermine the current Bolivian government for much the same reason. The US government far preferred the previous business friendly regime, despite the massacres perpetrated against the Bolivian people.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not even that, I'm sure there are many American entrepreneurs who lobby to trade with Cuba. Problem is there is a vocal Cuban community in the key election state of Florida that is strongly against dealing with Castro. Most people in the US don't have a strong opinion on the subject, so you end up with politicians catering to a vo
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Re:This is not news... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
"Persian or Afghani" ? You mean indo-European ? Those are countries, not ethnic groups. You cannot recognize an Afghan from a Dutch, except for language and predisposition to blowing himself up (oh sorry it's called "religion")
Actually, ethnic group does apply. The base of the word ethnic is the Greek word ethnos, meaning nation. Now, as to whether the term "ethnic group" has any useful meaning is a matter of debate. Personally, I think that when the members of the ethnic group generally self identify themselves as members of the ethnic group, the term has some use.
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Re:This is not news... (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:This is not news... (Score:5, Informative)
MS is not a US corporation any more than it is a European, African, East Asian or Indian.
Microsoft is a Washington corporation[1], incorporated under Washington law[2]. Its registered office, pursuant to Washington state law[3], is at 920 Fourth Avenue, Suite 2900, Seattle, Washington[4].
While Microsoft may have subsidiary and/or partner corporations in other countries, there is no doubt whatsoever that the "real Microsoft" is an American corporation, based in America, run by a board of American businessmen and an American Chief Executive officer, responsible to a largely American base of stockholders. Any contention otherwise is surely a joke.
[1] Washington Secretary of State, Corporations: Registration Data Search: Microsoft Corporation, http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=600413485 [wa.gov].
[2] Wash. Stat. s 23B.01.010 et seq., available at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?Cite=23B [wa.gov].
[3] Wash. Stat. s 23B.05.010(1), available at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=23B.05.010 [wa.gov] (requiring that "[e]ach corporation [under this Title] must continuously maintain in this state
[4] Microsoft, Articles of Incorporation, available at http://www.microsoft.com/about/companyinformation/corporategovernance/articlesincorp.mspx [microsoft.com]
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Re:This is not news... (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:This is not news... (Score:4, Informative)
What's new, though, is that [startin soon], they are going to be sold without operating systems... No more windows pre-installed. Or so I've heard. Now we only need tons of Ubuntu disks to give away at the sotre.
I was over there in 2005, and visited a few folks who already had computers at home, but good to hear it's now legal. In a couple of net cafes I visited in Havana, all the computers had the KDE desktop, but I didn't get a chance to see what was running under it.
Many Cubans access e-mail and net at the post office, Correos de Cuba, and the lines were usually long.
These were just some observations while there.
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Re:This is not news... (Score:5, Informative)
In practice, it means that the discussion is a *discussion*, so you can see everything everyone said, instead of letting things get changed and redacted later on. All things considered, not being able to edit is a good thing.
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Censorship or bandwidth problem? (Score:4, Interesting)
The main problem I see is that they are using mostly unlicensed copy of windows, since Windows licenses can't be acquired in Cuba.
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Re: (Score:2, Informative)
From a quick look on Google maps, it would seem that the distance between Cuba and nearest American soil (Key West) is slightly under 200km.
It would be possible to string up a wireless link, indeed the current record is 238 miles (383km - link [blogspot.com] ), so it is possible.
I think the bigger issue is the legality of doing this. The embargo on Cuba does not only apply to the governments, but to citizens of both countries. You setting up a wifi link is a violation of that embargo, and could get you in serious tr
It's called a satellite uplink (Score:4, Interesting)
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Bandwidth and freedom (Score:5, Insightful)
The main problem I see is that they are using mostly unlicensed copy of windows, since Windows licenses can't be acquired in Cuba.
Hey, how come Cubans can order PCs and not have to pay for Windows? Heck, they are already once step ahead of us.
If the US was smart, strike and agreement with Cuba, given them decent pipe access via Florida so long as they put 1 million uncensored PCs on it in say 2-3 years. That will reach 1 in 11 Cubans. Free flow of information is a true friend of democracy.
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Re:Bandwidth and freedom (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Would that ideological bullshit include free speech? Cuba isn't "critical" to anything anymore. It's a vestige of the cold war. The last time they were critical was in the 60's when Kruschev tried to deploy nukes there.
Cuba is not militarily strategically critical, it is ideologically strategically critical. I thought I had made that clear, but perhaps I should have said it three times so it would sink in.
You want a change? Vote.
Uh, perhaps you didn't notice, but Bush actually never got enough votes to be president. There were more than enough uncounted votes in each case which, if tradition would be borne out, would have decided both elections (well, there would never have been a second one) for Gore. Voting is about as effective as jerkin
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If they have a MRI, it is probably booked up for the elite. Do you think some farmer is getting top of the line treatment?
And this differs from the US how, exactly?
Farmers in the US have to pay for their own health insurance, which may not actually cover the tests they need. Trust me on this. I've gotten socked for $2000 for a test DESPITE having health insurance and DESPITE it being supposedly covered. Why? I don't know, but the insurance company sure as hell wouldn't pay.
There's nothing quite like having a sudden unbudgeted $2000 expense. It's one of the reason my credit card is maxed out.
Then you have to realize that quite
Re:Bandwidth and freedom (Score:4, Insightful)
and a UK parliamentary commitee, went over and made a similar report:
* In Cuba it was one doctor per 175 people, in the UK the figure was one doctor per 600 people.
* There is a commitment in Cuba to the triple diagnosis (physical/psychological/social) at all levels.
* Extensive involvement of "patient" and the public in decision making at all levels.
* Integration of hospital/community/primary care via polyclinics.
* Team-work that works is much more evident both in the community and the hospital sector and the mental-health and care of the elderly sites visited were very well staffed and supported.
# Poor facilitiesâ"buildings in poor state of repair and mostly outdated.
# Poor provision of equipment.
# Frequent absence of essential drugs.
# Concern regarding freedom of choice both for patient and doctor.
Parent
Re:Censorship or bandwidth problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Any targeted security risks from using a closed-source unaudited OS like Windows (via US-government-endorsed backdoors) would likely apply whether it was paid for or not. Ditto lock-in issues, etc etc
Cuban here... Censorship? (Score:4, Interesting)
I would say, both parts are true. Cuban bandwdith is severely limited, thus, it is obviuous that certain key areas are prioritized (oddly enough, universities aren't - we have a 1mbs for 10 thousand users at mine).
On the other hand, that doesn't explain why don't we have conectivity even within our countries (it is faster to download Debian from the internet that it is to download it from the cuban mirrors [softwarelibre.cu]). There is even one law to address this issue [mic.gov.cu], that has been largely ignored except on the part of giving monopoly-like powers to our phone company. And it even seem they find cheaper to use satellite to connect two places within the city, than to lay a couple hundred metters of fiber to the nearest hub.
With that, though, I'm willing to call (the ministry of informatics and communications, the phone company, whatever), ignorant rather than evil. I do accept that the reason for that is technical (that we are forbidden to hook to the fiber optics that go around my country). But, there is censorship. Over time, I've collected a set of domains that seem to be banned. No one never confirms it, and the banning works as if the remote server was not working, but routing the request through a proxy server, you find out that it is indeed working. And more recently, we got this other law [mic.gov.cu], that was publicly mentioned by this guy [vivirlatino.com], and forbids chats, formus and mailing lists.
So, we have everything. We have serious technical difficulties caused by the US (internet access). We have serious technical difficulties caused by who-knows-who (intranet access). And, we have censorship. I have high hopes that if the first one is solved, the rest will follow. However, for the sake of my country and our socialism... I do wish that the last two are solved first.
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Offer them free I2/NLR connectivity! (Score:2)
Re:Offer them free I2/NLR connectivity! (Score:4, Insightful)
Think they'll like to pass on getting US style medical.
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Re:Offer them free I2/NLR connectivity! (Score:4, Informative)
Stop believing the Lies a few socialist nut jobs are perpetrating.
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Re:Offer them free I2/NLR connectivity! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Their "claim" is correct (Score:2, Insightful)
Let's hope . . . (Score:2, Funny)
DEAR AMERICANO - I HAVE BEEN LIVING CUBA SINCE 1951. MY FATHER HAS STASHED AWAY 500 MILLION BILION CUBAN PESSOS IN BASEMENT HERE IN HABANNNNA. HE ALSO HAS LARGE SUPPLY OF CUBBAN CIGARILLOS THAT HE BEEN QUIETLY TAKING ONE PER DAY SINCE 1962 FROM CIGAR FACTORY. HE NEEEDS HELP GETTING THEM OFF OF THE I
Chavez is laying a new cable under the Caribbean (Score:3, Funny)
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Re:how this works for the Empire (Score:5, Insightful)
There are no American restrictions on Cubans. The American restrictions are on Americans (with a few even more bullshit extensions attempting to extend the embargo to non-American companies who deal with Americans; even Canada won't put up with that shit) . And calling an embargo "imperialist" is pretty rich... what would you call it if the US had normal relations with Cuba and there was a Starbucks and a McDonalds on every corner in Havana? Oh, right... you'd call it "cultural imperialism" or something similar.
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