Cuba Lifts Ban on Home Computers 290
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."
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:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:This is not news... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Offer them free I2/NLR connectivity! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:This is not news... (Score:1, Interesting)
So it's an interesting question whether the embargo is a good idea or ever was.
I do have to wonder, though, what connection you're making between Cuba and the war on terror [sic]. You're referring to Guantanamo? Guantanamo was leased by the United States long before the war on terror turned it into a prison camp, and the prisoners there don't tend to be Hispanic but Arab, Persian, or Afghani.
Re:Bandwidth and freedom (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
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 jerking off - it can be fun, and it can make you feel good, but it's no kind of solution to your problems.
First, we'd have to start with our own administration(s).
Please explain what the big new empty prison in Alaska is for.
Prescott Bush was a major contributor to the SS, today we are preparing for the new Third Reich to spring forth from America. The concentration camps are already being constructed all over the nation.
Just cover your eyes, ears, and mouth all at once!
I didn't suggest that everything was rosy in Cuba, although I am suggesting that things would be better there than they are here if we weren't crapping them up.
American culture is entirely dependent on people who either do not know or do not care at all about what they are doing to the rest of the world. Our culture is entirely dysfunctional and is falling apart at all the seams. Mental illness is on the rise and it's not just because head shrinkers are nutballs who think everyone is as crazy as they are; things are getting crazier all the time.
It's called a satellite uplink (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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.
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.
Re:This is not news... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is not news... (Score:3, Interesting)