6 ms·

The Digital Divide Starts with a Laptop Shortage

51 points by prostoalex 6y ago

MattGaiser 6y ago
Anyone know of groups gathering used devices? I’m sure that the number of older laptops just sitting around exceeds 5 million. Ideally someone would create a boot stick to wipe them, install Linux and Chrome, and easily pass them off to schools. Start a charity and you could even give people a tax credit for their old machine. I’m sure that $30 would get people to give up a lot of them.
- nxc18 6y ago
  I feel like shit sitting on so many perfectly good computers that I don't use regularly. I'd happily give them away and I've asked my educator friends if they know anyone in need. The response I got just now was that most of their students have laptops, but often internet/Wi-Fi is an issue. I live in a very affluent city, so I suspect the situation is far more dire a few districts away.
  - bmajz 6y ago
    You could put them up for free on Craigslist (or equivalent) and have people come to you that would put them to use. They might be opportunists but that might still be ok to allow circulation of the value that they do have.
  - interestica 6y ago
    You could fill a station wagon full of those computers and send it hurtling down the highway. ...To a less affluent city.
  - cosmie 6y ago
    School administrators have to sign up for the program, but T-Mobile offers free hotspots to eligible kids[1]. Although actual internet service is only half the battle. Chromebooks (used by my kid's school and issued/recommended by many districts) just seem to suck at connectivity. Even with a symmetrical 1Gbps internet connection, it was a non-stop battle for the first 2-3 weeks of school. A few things I learned along the way: - Chromebooks hate dual-band SSIDs. All of the kids were issued different Chromebook models, and this was a universal truth for all of them. Separate SSIDs for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz is critical. - Chromebooks hate mesh networks. May not be universally true, but is at least the case for the mesh network created using a standard ATT Fiber gateway and the Airtie extenders they sell[2]. No matter the disparity in signal strength, they'd do their damndest to try to connect to the AP they first connected to. - Chromebooks hate "wide band" networks (i.e. 40Mhz 2.4Ghz networks and 80Ghz 5Ghz networks). Even in uncrowded airspace, they seem to have problems. - Chromebooks seem to have decent plug-n-play support for USB ethernet adapters, but mediocre support for USB wifi adapters. Neither of which is found in the official documentation; the only way to have any confidence that a particular dongle/adapter will be supported is to cross-reference the chipset of the adapter with the net drivers in the source code[3]. - It's an oddly common issue for Chromebooks to have loose wifi antennas internally. Probably not in higher-end models, but definitely in the lower-end models issued by schools. I finally got things working stably, but it was mind-boggling how fussy they are. And many of the issues (such as the first two) only became apparent during live video streams, so it was a constant battle of fiddling with stuff in the evenings and testing it via performance during classes the next day. With the amount and type of troubleshooting required to get to that point, it's no wonder wifi issues are the prominent complaint. [1] https://www.t-mobile.com/business/education/project-10-million https://www.t-mobile.com/business/education/project-10-milli... [2] https://www.att.com/buy/accessories/internet-equipment/att-smart-wi-fi-extender-white.html https://www.att.com/buy/accessories/internet-equipment/att-s... [3] https://github.com/neverware/kernel/tree/master/drivers/net https://github.com/neverware/kernel/tree/master/drivers/net
- adammunich 6y ago
  Installing Linux on old laptops can be a real challenge sometimes. I've done it with 10+ old computers and driver inconsistencies can be a huge time sink.
  - monksy 6y ago
    I'm not sure how old of a machine you're talking about it feels like to me that the older the machine is, the more likely the driver issues have been sorted.
    - omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
      That's been my experience as well. The only exception was a K6-2 that I had to use march=k6-2 with.
      - monksy 6y ago
        Oh wow that's a really old machine.
        omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
        Yeah. It took I think a couple days to compile the base system, and several more days compiling desktop stuff and utilities. It was usable though, albeit very slow.
    - mjevans 6y ago
      By this point, anything still worth using is either 'sorted', or such trash that nothing else will be fun on it either. The really old stuff, if it still runs, that might be hell. You wouldn't want someone to do video-calls on it anyway.
      - itsoktocry 6y ago
        >By this point, anything still worth using is either 'sorted', or such trash that nothing else will be fun on it either. I've been installing various distro flavours on old laptops for a long time, and the experience only gets better. Personally, I can't remember the last time I had to struggle with a driver. I think the Dell I've got is from 2008, running Mint without issue. There are so many old/used computers out there that are capable of doing everything the average person needs, the people just don't know it. I had an acquaintance buy a $2500 computer to take some community college programming courses, because he thought you need a powerful computer to "run programs". Meanwhile, I'm over here earning a living on a t450s I bought for $300.
- ryanchants 6y ago
  I would look into FreeGeek. They take donated computers and strip them for a good parts and build good computers out of them. If you need a computer, you can volunteer with them and they'll teach you how to build computers. After a certain number of hours you earn a computer. And now you know the basic of swapping out the various parts. I haven't been involved in a while, so I'm not sure what the process is for laptops, but I know they reuse those as well. https://www.freegeek.org/ https://www.freegeek.org/
  - dvtrn 6y ago
    A few cities have yellow bike projects that operate under this same model. Volunteer some time, learn how to contribute and fix bikes, after enough time has passed, You earn a bike of your own. I love this kind of embedded, community driven pedagogy.
- waterheater 6y ago
  A great group I know of is Digital Bridge, based out of Milwaukee: https://www.digitalbridge.ngo/ https://www.digitalbridge.ngo/
pantalaimon 6y ago
It’s hard to believe that there is a computer shortage given how many still perfectly viable machines end up in the trash. I guess the shortage really is in people being able to refurbish them?
- wmf 6y ago
  Many schools want Chrome OS (which can be retrofitted onto old PCs but they may not know this) and they want a nearly-identical fleet to make support possible.
- ohazi 6y ago
  There are tons of laptops on eBay, but yeah, you have to be comfortable with a screwdriver and performing a clean install. The last "new" computer I bought was a decade ago. You can find 2-4 year old thinkpads on eBay, buy new batteries, replacements for anything structural or cosmetic, replace and max out anything that's upgradeable, and end up with a very clean, nearly top-of-the-line machine that's easily good for another decade, all for less than the Black Friday price of the current model.
  - Google234 6y ago
    I would rather spend a tiny bit more and not have to deal with that Enormous hassle. Each of those parts has to be shipped separately and has a chance to be defective. Also the new laptop will have a 1-3 year warranty
    - ohazi 6y ago
      I mean, sure, don't do it if you need the laptop tomorrow. But if there's a laptop shortage, and you need one for school, and have all summer to sort it out, it's really not that bad. What we have is really a new laptop shortage, because supply chains got all screwed up. But few people will notice the difference between Intel's 8th and 10th gen CPUs. We have mountains of "old" laptops that are perfectly usable... They're mostly just a little dirty.
      - 6y ago
mrlambchop 6y ago
After I stopped working this July, I collected as many old Mac's as I could from SF startups and refurbished them in my house, then distributed them to schools in the Bay Area who were most in need of IT equipment for their educators. Backbreaking work and I am extremely sick of of MacOS recovery right now (and the 1000 tricks needed to get each laptop back to factory condition), but totally worth it. Just today a teacher from Fremont wrote in with a heart breaking email about how much a difference a 2015 Mac Pro made to his day and how better his online teaching is because of it. Got through around 200 devices in total including some iPads. During my adventures distributing / collecting these laptops, I caught COVID - no good deed goes un-punished. I'm pretty sure there are at least 5k more Mac's sitting in companies IT closets from where they renewed equipment for employees but couldn't throw away the 3 thousand dollar device they bought 3 years prior - donating these is a tax break as well so the companies would be best to dispose of them than keep them around.
- kyleee 6y ago
  very thoughtful, god bless you
- f2000 6y ago
  Thank you sir for your generosity! My wife teaches second grade in a lower income bay area school district, she's rocking a 2012 macbook pro :-( Let's put it this way, the fan is always on what with Zoom, multiple chrome tabs with google classroom and other apps, and an old ipad mini feeding quicktime to serve as a poor man's document camera.
  - mrlambchop 6y ago
    Please send me a mail at hackernews@lamb-chop.co.uk and I'll hook your wife up with something more powerful. I've still got 20 laptops or so to distribute.
- judge2020 6y ago
  > I am extremely sick of of MacOS recovery right now What issues did you encounter? Shouldn't recreating the disk with Disk Utility remove all traces of the old MacOS install, or did you encounter issues with Find My Mac?
nwellinghoff 6y ago
Yeah I have like 6 perfectly good laptops sitting around. Its all about the time it takes to upgrade them to the latest OS and drivers. Pain If someone could make a program that “just does it” for you. It would make reusing old laptops of various configurations viable.
- mrlambchop 6y ago
  Having refurbished ~200 donated Apple devices, the vast majority of time was spent chasing down peoples Apple IDs and having them remove the device from their account so I could reset it. Very time consuming and painful to keep track of. At least 20 phone calls made to work through 2 factor issues as well.
WalterBright 6y ago
Before the pandemic, the local pawn shop always had 10-20 used laptops for sale. After, zero.
bArray 6y ago
Apparently the shortage of laptops could be because of a shortage of LCD panels [1]: > As I mentioned in last month’s update, back-to-school > programs run by large companies created a severe LCD > shortage on the market. The market, which already suffered > from low panel volumes (caused by the COVID-19 pandemic), > has now been practically drained of grade-A LCD panels > within the target price-range. As I explained last month, > purchasing from the open market isn’t an option. Open > market LCD panels come without warranty or reliable > quality assurance that vendors always offer. > According to some projections LCD panels ought to be > available again in December. Granted this projection is > accurate, we may see new batches available prior to the > Chinese New Year (February 2021). [1] https://www.pine64.org/2020/10/15/update-new-hacktober-gear/ https://www.pine64.org/2020/10/15/update-new-hacktober-gear/
WalterBright 6y ago
> It does not even have a functioning library, he said. I find this puzzling. I've bought probably over a thousand books of all sorts from thrift stores, often for less than a buck. I have a nice set of encyclopedias I cannot give away. There's a sign at the local used book shop "we don't want encyclopedias". There are two Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood I salt with good scifi books, no takers. The local supermarket parking lot has a dumpster which says it collects books, lots of mine wind up there. I gave a box of scifi books to the electrician who came by to do some repairs. I buy grab-bag boxes of scifi off of ebay for $.50 a book. Books are not hard to come by.
- adolph 6y ago
  Books are to libraries as loose unordered sheets of print are to books.
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    I don't have any trouble finding what interests me in the jumble of books the thrift store has.
- curryst 6y ago
  I think the implication they were trying to make is that the school library doesn't have any computers, so students can't use the library computers if they don't have one at home. If I'm wrong and they truly don't have a functional library, the school system is either woefully mismanaged or massively underfunded (or both)
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    If what they want is a computer room they should say that. I know public libraries offer computers, but that's a sideshow.
protomyth 6y ago
We ended up ordering refurbished Lenovo and HP laptops. It had to be done in smaller batches and took forever. We did manage to get one for every student. It is often overlooked in the conversation about connectivity that you need something in the home to hook to. We also put a public wifi outside the building. That helped a lot of students out.
hogFeast 6y ago
Seems to be true where I am too. I picked up an x230 for cheap pre-Covid, and it looks like x220s are now selling for 75% more than I paid. I am sure that it is possible to get these computers. For example, lots of places are shutting down offices to move to remote-only, and I am seeing tens of computers at liquidation auctions every week...but it is obviously difficult to get this to where they are needed (and at liquidation, these things are still being given away...$50 or so for a 4th gen Intel, with monitor/keyboard/mouse). But I suppose not many people know where to get things or how to make it work themselves. It always has to be new, new, new. Also, realistically, you should be able to do work on a phone...the idea with phones is/was that they are replacing the functionality of towers. It isn't ideal but it should be possible.
mjevans 6y ago
The Digital Divide, is a symptom of a few larger issues. * Wealth and funding divide, caused by lack of a (fully funding) national budget and distribution system. * An access to the Information Superhighway divide, mostly enabled by failing to classify the underlying structure as a utility, which all (taxpayers) pay to pave out (like roads) and then maybe have services on top of (like power, water, sewer; things that the very poor might have discounted rates on, but still first class access to). * A resource allocation issue; because having these research tools at home and a way of using them with the collective knowledge of our species (the Internet) wasn't even on the horizon before, and efforts to remotely approach it were hampered by the budget issues mentioned above. Yet even in the very affluent districts I suspect a computer lab at school or in a very nice library is the best current state of affairs. * As CGP Grey correctly noted (I can't remember if this was in a video, podcast, or just on a forum somewhere): schools are really warehouses for mass babysitting kids during the day and also places of training them to be humans, rather than animals. Surely I'm not the only person that, by the end of highschool, viewed schools as 'day prison for minors, with access to limited training'.
charliebrownau 6y ago
Just buy a Locally manfactored x64/chromebook/raspi.................... Ohh wait everything is made in Chiiiiiiiiiiiiina
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

51 points by prostoalex 6y ago

Anyone know of groups gathering used devices? I’m sure that the number of older laptops just sitting around exceeds 5 million. Ideally someone would create a boot stick to wipe them, install Linux and Chrome, and easily pass them off to schools. Start a charity and you could even give people a tax credit for their old machine. I’m sure that $30 would get people to give up a lot of them.

nxc18 6y ago
I feel like shit sitting on so many perfectly good computers that I don't use regularly. I'd happily give them away and I've asked my educator friends if they know anyone in need. The response I got just now was that most of their students have laptops, but often internet/Wi-Fi is an issue. I live in a very affluent city, so I suspect the situation is far more dire a few districts away.
- bmajz 6y ago
  You could put them up for free on Craigslist (or equivalent) and have people come to you that would put them to use. They might be opportunists but that might still be ok to allow circulation of the value that they do have.
- interestica 6y ago
  You could fill a station wagon full of those computers and send it hurtling down the highway. ...To a less affluent city.
- cosmie 6y ago
  School administrators have to sign up for the program, but T-Mobile offers free hotspots to eligible kids[1]. Although actual internet service is only half the battle. Chromebooks (used by my kid's school and issued/recommended by many districts) just seem to suck at connectivity. Even with a symmetrical 1Gbps internet connection, it was a non-stop battle for the first 2-3 weeks of school. A few things I learned along the way: - Chromebooks hate dual-band SSIDs. All of the kids were issued different Chromebook models, and this was a universal truth for all of them. Separate SSIDs for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz is critical. - Chromebooks hate mesh networks. May not be universally true, but is at least the case for the mesh network created using a standard ATT Fiber gateway and the Airtie extenders they sell[2]. No matter the disparity in signal strength, they'd do their damndest to try to connect to the AP they first connected to. - Chromebooks hate "wide band" networks (i.e. 40Mhz 2.4Ghz networks and 80Ghz 5Ghz networks). Even in uncrowded airspace, they seem to have problems. - Chromebooks seem to have decent plug-n-play support for USB ethernet adapters, but mediocre support for USB wifi adapters. Neither of which is found in the official documentation; the only way to have any confidence that a particular dongle/adapter will be supported is to cross-reference the chipset of the adapter with the net drivers in the source code[3]. - It's an oddly common issue for Chromebooks to have loose wifi antennas internally. Probably not in higher-end models, but definitely in the lower-end models issued by schools. I finally got things working stably, but it was mind-boggling how fussy they are. And many of the issues (such as the first two) only became apparent during live video streams, so it was a constant battle of fiddling with stuff in the evenings and testing it via performance during classes the next day. With the amount and type of troubleshooting required to get to that point, it's no wonder wifi issues are the prominent complaint. [1] https://www.t-mobile.com/business/education/project-10-million https://www.t-mobile.com/business/education/project-10-milli... [2] https://www.att.com/buy/accessories/internet-equipment/att-smart-wi-fi-extender-white.html https://www.att.com/buy/accessories/internet-equipment/att-s... [3] https://github.com/neverware/kernel/tree/master/drivers/net https://github.com/neverware/kernel/tree/master/drivers/net
adammunich 6y ago
Installing Linux on old laptops can be a real challenge sometimes. I've done it with 10+ old computers and driver inconsistencies can be a huge time sink.
- monksy 6y ago
  I'm not sure how old of a machine you're talking about it feels like to me that the older the machine is, the more likely the driver issues have been sorted.
  - omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
    That's been my experience as well. The only exception was a K6-2 that I had to use march=k6-2 with.
    - monksy 6y ago
      Oh wow that's a really old machine.
      - omgwtfbyobbq 6y ago
        Yeah. It took I think a couple days to compile the base system, and several more days compiling desktop stuff and utilities. It was usable though, albeit very slow.
  - mjevans 6y ago
    By this point, anything still worth using is either 'sorted', or such trash that nothing else will be fun on it either. The really old stuff, if it still runs, that might be hell. You wouldn't want someone to do video-calls on it anyway.
    - itsoktocry 6y ago
      >By this point, anything still worth using is either 'sorted', or such trash that nothing else will be fun on it either. I've been installing various distro flavours on old laptops for a long time, and the experience only gets better. Personally, I can't remember the last time I had to struggle with a driver. I think the Dell I've got is from 2008, running Mint without issue. There are so many old/used computers out there that are capable of doing everything the average person needs, the people just don't know it. I had an acquaintance buy a $2500 computer to take some community college programming courses, because he thought you need a powerful computer to "run programs". Meanwhile, I'm over here earning a living on a t450s I bought for $300.
ryanchants 6y ago
I would look into FreeGeek. They take donated computers and strip them for a good parts and build good computers out of them. If you need a computer, you can volunteer with them and they'll teach you how to build computers. After a certain number of hours you earn a computer. And now you know the basic of swapping out the various parts. I haven't been involved in a while, so I'm not sure what the process is for laptops, but I know they reuse those as well. https://www.freegeek.org/ https://www.freegeek.org/
- dvtrn 6y ago
  A few cities have yellow bike projects that operate under this same model. Volunteer some time, learn how to contribute and fix bikes, after enough time has passed, You earn a bike of your own. I love this kind of embedded, community driven pedagogy.
waterheater 6y ago
A great group I know of is Digital Bridge, based out of Milwaukee: https://www.digitalbridge.ngo/ https://www.digitalbridge.ngo/

pantalaimon 6y ago

It’s hard to believe that there is a computer shortage given how many still perfectly viable machines end up in the trash. I guess the shortage really is in people being able to refurbish them?

wmf 6y ago
Many schools want Chrome OS (which can be retrofitted onto old PCs but they may not know this) and they want a nearly-identical fleet to make support possible.
ohazi 6y ago
There are tons of laptops on eBay, but yeah, you have to be comfortable with a screwdriver and performing a clean install. The last "new" computer I bought was a decade ago. You can find 2-4 year old thinkpads on eBay, buy new batteries, replacements for anything structural or cosmetic, replace and max out anything that's upgradeable, and end up with a very clean, nearly top-of-the-line machine that's easily good for another decade, all for less than the Black Friday price of the current model.
- Google234 6y ago
  I would rather spend a tiny bit more and not have to deal with that Enormous hassle. Each of those parts has to be shipped separately and has a chance to be defective. Also the new laptop will have a 1-3 year warranty
  - ohazi 6y ago
    I mean, sure, don't do it if you need the laptop tomorrow. But if there's a laptop shortage, and you need one for school, and have all summer to sort it out, it's really not that bad. What we have is really a new laptop shortage, because supply chains got all screwed up. But few people will notice the difference between Intel's 8th and 10th gen CPUs. We have mountains of "old" laptops that are perfectly usable... They're mostly just a little dirty.
    - 6y ago

mrlambchop 6y ago

After I stopped working this July, I collected as many old Mac's as I could from SF startups and refurbished them in my house, then distributed them to schools in the Bay Area who were most in need of IT equipment for their educators. Backbreaking work and I am extremely sick of of MacOS recovery right now (and the 1000 tricks needed to get each laptop back to factory condition), but totally worth it. Just today a teacher from Fremont wrote in with a heart breaking email about how much a difference a 2015 Mac Pro made to his day and how better his online teaching is because of it. Got through around 200 devices in total including some iPads. During my adventures distributing / collecting these laptops, I caught COVID - no good deed goes un-punished. I'm pretty sure there are at least 5k more Mac's sitting in companies IT closets from where they renewed equipment for employees but couldn't throw away the 3 thousand dollar device they bought 3 years prior - donating these is a tax break as well so the companies would be best to dispose of them than keep them around.

kyleee 6y ago
very thoughtful, god bless you
f2000 6y ago
Thank you sir for your generosity! My wife teaches second grade in a lower income bay area school district, she's rocking a 2012 macbook pro :-( Let's put it this way, the fan is always on what with Zoom, multiple chrome tabs with google classroom and other apps, and an old ipad mini feeding quicktime to serve as a poor man's document camera.
- mrlambchop 6y ago
  Please send me a mail at hackernews@lamb-chop.co.uk and I'll hook your wife up with something more powerful. I've still got 20 laptops or so to distribute.
judge2020 6y ago
> I am extremely sick of of MacOS recovery right now What issues did you encounter? Shouldn't recreating the disk with Disk Utility remove all traces of the old MacOS install, or did you encounter issues with Find My Mac?

nwellinghoff 6y ago

Yeah I have like 6 perfectly good laptops sitting around. Its all about the time it takes to upgrade them to the latest OS and drivers. Pain If someone could make a program that “just does it” for you. It would make reusing old laptops of various configurations viable.

mrlambchop 6y ago
Having refurbished ~200 donated Apple devices, the vast majority of time was spent chasing down peoples Apple IDs and having them remove the device from their account so I could reset it. Very time consuming and painful to keep track of. At least 20 phone calls made to work through 2 factor issues as well.

WalterBright 6y ago

Before the pandemic, the local pawn shop always had 10-20 used laptops for sale. After, zero.

bArray 6y ago

Apparently the shortage of laptops could be because of a shortage of LCD panels [1]: > As I mentioned in last month’s update, back-to-school > programs run by large companies created a severe LCD > shortage on the market. The market, which already suffered > from low panel volumes (caused by the COVID-19 pandemic), > has now been practically drained of grade-A LCD panels > within the target price-range. As I explained last month, > purchasing from the open market isn’t an option. Open > market LCD panels come without warranty or reliable > quality assurance that vendors always offer. > According to some projections LCD panels ought to be > available again in December. Granted this projection is > accurate, we may see new batches available prior to the > Chinese New Year (February 2021). [1] https://www.pine64.org/2020/10/15/update-new-hacktober-gear/ https://www.pine64.org/2020/10/15/update-new-hacktober-gear/

WalterBright 6y ago

> It does not even have a functioning library, he said. I find this puzzling. I've bought probably over a thousand books of all sorts from thrift stores, often for less than a buck. I have a nice set of encyclopedias I cannot give away. There's a sign at the local used book shop "we don't want encyclopedias". There are two Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood I salt with good scifi books, no takers. The local supermarket parking lot has a dumpster which says it collects books, lots of mine wind up there. I gave a box of scifi books to the electrician who came by to do some repairs. I buy grab-bag boxes of scifi off of ebay for $.50 a book. Books are not hard to come by.

adolph 6y ago
Books are to libraries as loose unordered sheets of print are to books.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  I don't have any trouble finding what interests me in the jumble of books the thrift store has.
curryst 6y ago
I think the implication they were trying to make is that the school library doesn't have any computers, so students can't use the library computers if they don't have one at home. If I'm wrong and they truly don't have a functional library, the school system is either woefully mismanaged or massively underfunded (or both)
- WalterBright 6y ago
  If what they want is a computer room they should say that. I know public libraries offer computers, but that's a sideshow.

protomyth 6y ago

We ended up ordering refurbished Lenovo and HP laptops. It had to be done in smaller batches and took forever. We did manage to get one for every student. It is often overlooked in the conversation about connectivity that you need something in the home to hook to. We also put a public wifi outside the building. That helped a lot of students out.

hogFeast 6y ago

Seems to be true where I am too. I picked up an x230 for cheap pre-Covid, and it looks like x220s are now selling for 75% more than I paid. I am sure that it is possible to get these computers. For example, lots of places are shutting down offices to move to remote-only, and I am seeing tens of computers at liquidation auctions every week...but it is obviously difficult to get this to where they are needed (and at liquidation, these things are still being given away...$50 or so for a 4th gen Intel, with monitor/keyboard/mouse). But I suppose not many people know where to get things or how to make it work themselves. It always has to be new, new, new. Also, realistically, you should be able to do work on a phone...the idea with phones is/was that they are replacing the functionality of towers. It isn't ideal but it should be possible.

mjevans 6y ago

The Digital Divide, is a symptom of a few larger issues. * Wealth and funding divide, caused by lack of a (fully funding) national budget and distribution system. * An access to the Information Superhighway divide, mostly enabled by failing to classify the underlying structure as a utility, which all (taxpayers) pay to pave out (like roads) and then maybe have services on top of (like power, water, sewer; things that the very poor might have discounted rates on, but still first class access to). * A resource allocation issue; because having these research tools at home and a way of using them with the collective knowledge of our species (the Internet) wasn't even on the horizon before, and efforts to remotely approach it were hampered by the budget issues mentioned above. Yet even in the very affluent districts I suspect a computer lab at school or in a very nice library is the best current state of affairs. * As CGP Grey correctly noted (I can't remember if this was in a video, podcast, or just on a forum somewhere): schools are really warehouses for mass babysitting kids during the day and also places of training them to be humans, rather than animals. Surely I'm not the only person that, by the end of highschool, viewed schools as 'day prison for minors, with access to limited training'.

charliebrownau 6y ago

Just buy a Locally manfactored x64/chromebook/raspi.................... Ohh wait everything is made in Chiiiiiiiiiiiiina

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]