Indian Computer in Guyana - The Simputer's First Day.

Posted July 22nd, 2005 by Taran

I wrote about how the Simputer arrived this past Wednesday, and I've been playing with it off and on as time permits - between projects and work. I tried taking some photos, but they didn't come out very well - but I'll do more as I go into the features of the Simputer. Of course, I need to update that Wikipedia entry!

My first reactions were obviously glee. To be honest, my Simputer and I are still in the honeymoon phase - but there's no denying how easy it is to use. The documentation for the Simputer remains untouched; I have explored almost all of the features except the internet connectivity. I've done the diagnostics, set calendar appointments and even linked it to my laptop, though I have to do some work on the laptop to make it Simputer-developer friendly. That's no reflection on the Simputer :-) Basically, it's an excuse to fully install Linux on this thing, and I finally have all the tools I need to do it. That probably will get done this weekend.

The accelerometer has not ceased to amaze me. I wish it would so that I stop fiddling with it; there is more to the Simputer than that.

I did hit my first hiccough: The power adapter doesn't work in Guyana because it uses two prongs. Of course, the Simputer was developed in India and is sold mainly to Indians. In fact, I think that I may be the only person outside of India who has one. Pretty soon my friendly Amida Simputer may gain a Guyanese accent. As far as I know, it's the most well travelled Simputer out there. When someone from MIT Media Lab told one of my colleagues in Brazil at the regional WSIS meeting that they 'couldn't get a Simputer' to help develop the '$100 Laptop', I wrote back that... I was getting one. I find it doubtful that I have more resources than the MIT Media Lab, so I find that doubtful. But back to the power adapter.

But before I even needed the Power Adapter - I had kept track of the time. Out of the box, the Simputer gave me twelve and a half hours of experimentation before I checked the status page and saw that the battery was low. Not dead, mind you - low. And with the help of Dr. Persaud, who I bothered from his day at work (left), I was able to recharge the Simputer by doing surgery.... no, no, he lent me a power supply.

The Simputer fully recharged in less than an hour, it seemed - I forgot to time it this time, but I will recharge it in the future. It uses very little power, and yet is very capable.

I've put in contact information on it, wrote notes for myself and scheduled meetings with it so far. It dutifully alarmed when 15 minutes prior to when I had a meeting today, and it even has a growing list of phone numbers in it - and tonight, I easily backed up everything to the Chikrit (USB drive) and played chess - it won this time. If there's a fault I have with the Simputer so far, it's that it has beaten me at chess and it's not human so I can accuse it of doing something wrong. :-)

There's an eLibrary on it - and one of the books is apparently in Hindi, which is interesting because I don't know Hindi, but I do know a few people who do. In fact, I think I'll ask someone to read it. That's another unspoken thing about the Simputer - it's already supported in 2 languages that I know of. That and Tux showing up when it boots is just... cool.

I have some information on how the Simputer is being used in India in businesses, and I'm going to revisit that information and write that up this weekend as well. I have some ideas on what it can be used for in the Caribbean context as well... but I'm waiting for the ideas to develop a bit more before I write about them.

Hopefully this weekend I'll have better pictures so I can post them. After all, I have the only Indian built Linux handheld for thousands of miles. I may not be cool, but it sure is!