[kictanet] My Take: Affordable computers

[Bildad Kagai]

On Aug 28, 2009, at 8:12 AM, Victor Gathara wrote:

>  I am thinking here of donations of used computers that can
> make their way into the country through a regulated and monitored
> channel (such as ComputerAid) who will also have responsibility to
> ensure EOL disposal according to WEEE standards to prevent dumping of
> electronic waste.

Victor,
In your position, you know very well that these second had computers  
are not donations. You can ask Tony Roberts how much he is paid to  
dispose a computer from Barclays in UK, that eventually finds its way  
to a school in Mau. And the Mau school pays for shipping and other  
costs....but besides all these politics......DFID might consider to  
fund a specific study comparing the final 'landed' cost of a dumped  
computer versus a 'clone' assembled with new parts at Crescent  
Technologies or JKUAT taking into consideration the kazi kwa vijana  
created....if it has not been done already. PS. I am speaking as a  
'contributor' to this mess here, because I also have problems  
disposing my old computers and printers in the office. Most of the  
times, its easier to take them to a school in shags that cannot afford  
the electricity bills of running them...and... just live with the  
guilt like everyone else despite being labeled as The Hero who brought  
us computers.

One reason IBM sold its hardware unit was because Moores Law states  
over time, the cost of hardware approaches zero and the cost of power  
consumption and capacity of the hardware doubles every 18 months.   
Thus, bringing 5 year old computers to Kenya only drains too much  
power when we should strive to bring consumption per watt down. At  
least, just based on power consumption alone, dumped computer should  
never see the 'light of day' at the Kenyan port if locally assembled  
computers will consume half of the wattage today....especially now  
when everyone is striving to go green.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000868.html

Google, for example, has watched its energy consumption almost double  
during the past three generations of upgrades to its sprawling  
computing infrastructure. It recently unveiled a major new datacenter  
site in a remote part of Oregon, where power costs are a fraction of  
those at Google's home base in Silicon Valley. But cheap power may not  
be enough. Last year, Google engineer Luiz Andr� Barroso predicted  
that energy costs would dwarf equipment costs -- "possibly by a large  
margin" -- if power-hungry datacenters didn't mend their ways. Barroso  
went on to warn that datacenters' growing appetite for power "could  
have serious consequences for the overall affordability of computing,  
not to mention the overall health of the planet."

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