Jim Panttaja

Periodically I notice how many catalogs I receive in the mail. Recently I have had a weeks worth of mail forwarded to me at a time - and the stack of catalogs that I promptly throw in the recycling bin was staggering.

I found Catalog Choice. This web site let\’s you register your address(es), and names of recepients of catalogs. Then you can choose catalogs, choose the appropriate addresses and names, with the customer id. Catalog Choice will contact the sender and cancel the catalogs. They say it may take as much as 10 weeks - but if this works, it will be a huge savings in trees. So far, in three weeks of going though my mail and registering catalogs, I have requested that I be removed from 30 (count them) catalog lists. I had no idea the number would be that high. I wish I had done this ten weeks ago.

I blogged a couple of months ago about seeing a skunk in the city. I continue to see him (or her) once or twice a week on my morning bike ride. Many of the runners going up (or down) McDowell Grade near Fort Mason don’t even notice him - though a woman last week was quite startled to see him run across her path.

But this week - there were two - trotting along together - across the roadway.

This is a project that we have had an eye on for awhile: One Laptop Per Child. Their original goal was to create a computer that would cost under $100. But the real goal is summed up in this part of their mission statement:

OLPC is a non-profit organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community.

So the computer is just a tool in this effort.

There is a special promotion starting on November 12th - their Give One, Get One program. For $400, you get one XO laptop, and donate one to a child in the developing world. You also receive a $200 tax deduction. And - yet - there’s more (from the letter we received from them):

Additionally, T-Mobile is offering donors one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot locations throughout the United States, which can be used from any Wi-Fi-capable device, including the XO laptop.

It is worth getting one (perhaps to give to your child or grandchild) just to open your mind up to what it makes possible:

Mesh networks

Incredible power consumtion

Cool power generation devices

Python, Logo

An Rss reader

A Wiki

The capabilities are incredible - spend some time on the site - and then imagine what you can do with yours - and imagine what a child in the developing world can do with theirs. Maybe you need to buy two and give two…

[Update 12 November 2007]

Bob Zurek has also commented on this program.