TechPlus+ | Technology & Development Redux

  • Still Bad Back

    My back is progressing slowly. Thats is the good news. Now I have more mobility but I quickly found out that I cannot t sit down for more than 20 minutes in a row. The pain and stiffness are easy reminders as to why this is not possible. So I decided to pay avisit to…

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  • Bad Back Back

    My back is progressing very slow in spite of all the additional medicines I got from my doctor. One of them is a pain killer which helps but it is just a panacea. I know… Although I can now move around the house (slowly and gingerly ) I cannot sit for long periods of time.…

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  • A Bad Back

    I woke up this morning with severe pain in my the left side of my lower back. In addition, I also had apparent infection in my right eye which was all stuffy and wet. When it rains it pours indeed… I managed to take a shower and get dress and was ready to make an…

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  • Donor iInterest on OLPC

    Last Friday I received a call from the Mission of Spain to the UN requesting a meeting to discuss possible support for OLPC. So I had to wear a nice tie and shirt for the ensuing meeting which took place today. The meeting with the Mission’s Deputy went quite well. I presented UNDP’s take on…

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  • Donor Interest in OLPC

    Last Friday I received a call from the Mission of Spain to the UN requesting a meeting to discuss possible support for OLPC. So I had to wear a nice tie and shirt for the ensuing meeting which took place today. The meeting with the Mission’s Deputy went quite well. I presented UNDP’s take on…

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  • Meeting with MOFA on Non-Core Funding

    This morning BDP and BRSP met with Mr. Nobuaki Ito, Director of Multilateral Cooperation Division, Economic Cooperation Bureau, MOFA at the Japan Mission to the UN. Minutes of the meeting were prepared by MOFA and are available. The big idea here is the “unification” of all non-core contributions to a single source of funding. It…

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  • Beta Laptop

    I received a message from the OLPC team informing me that I will be receiving a B laptop early this week for testing purposes. The unit is being FEDEX to my office. I saw a similar machine a couple of weeks ago when a rep from OLPC based in NYC came to my office and…

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  • On Leave In Bogotá

    I am back in Bogotá for the first time in two years. And once again, I must admit the city has changed for the best. Before, when I left twenty or so years ago, it was a small, gray and cold city, in addition to dirty and a tiny bit on the boring side. Today…

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  • In the press but…

    Early this morning, I got a call from a UN colleague who told me that I had made an article in a local press web service. The article is here: http://www.innercitypress.com/undp121306.html. Inner City Press has been running for a few days an exposé on UNDP. It is clear that inside information is being furnished to…

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  • e-voting Selected Papers

    Found this uselful site (http://www.social-informatics.net/evoting.htm) that is being maintained on a continuous basis by the Department of Science System Assessment at the Rathenau Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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  • Sansho the Bailiff

    Kenji Mizoguchi’s (1898-1956) films are in deep sharp contrast with those of the better know and more popular of his contemporaries, Akira Kurosawa. Some critics argue (like Bazin) that some of the films of the latter were heavily influenced by the films of John Ford et. al. and the Western genre, masterfully adapted to Japan’s…

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  • Film Review: Sansho the Bailiff

    Kenji Mizoguchi’s (1898-1956) films are in deep sharp contrast with those of the better know and more popular of his contemporaries, Akira Kurosawa. Some critics argue (like Bazin) that some of the films of the latter were heavily influenced by the films of John Ford et. al. and the Western genre, masterfully adapted to Japan’s…

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  • Open Source and the NY Times

    I was interviewed for a NY Times on the Open Source vs. MS Windows “war.” The article was published yesterday. It is here. The article’s title, however, seems to mix so-called shareware with Open Source. Those are two very different animals. And, as expected, my first name is misspelled. So what else is new? Cheers,…

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  • South Africa BTOR

    1. The two day mission to Johannesburg/Pretoria on 14/16 May had two objectives: 1) To participate in the ICTD Strategy Task Force meeting that the Department of Communications (DoC) is leading with support from the Markle Foundation; 2) continued dialogue on the OS Resource Center with representatives of CSIR 2. The Task Force meeting took…

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  • Mozambique BTOR

    Mozambique BTOR 1. The two day mission to Maputo on 12-14 May had three objectives: 1) assess the status of the ICTD programmes; 2) assist the CO in the ongoing ICTD mainstreaming efforts; and 3) discuss with GoM and the CO the planning of the ICTD Strategies workshop 2. The ICTD programme has been advancing…

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