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January, 2009:

Ubuntu-ifying the eeePCs (Netbook Mania Part II)

Jan 23rd, 2009
by melissa.
2 comments

(Warning: This one is for the techies)

So I mentioned before that I purchased a bunch of eeePCs to test out in the health clinics and to use in the management agencies as asyncronous web servers and health information management devices.

I suppose to some extent that in retrospect these clinics will have wanted Windows on these laptops so I’ll eventually have to port all of the software to windows, but for now my systems are running on Ubuntu.  It’s just easier that way. 

Installing Ubuntu was remarkably easy. There’s instructions online here, as well as lots of hints and fixes.  This is sort of my simplified version for the particular eeePCs I was working with.

Ingredients:
    1 latest distribution of Ubuntu (currently 8.10)
    1 external usb cd or dvd-rom drive (e.g. the LG-GSA-E50L 8x USB DVD-RW)
    1 eeePC (i.e. the eeePC 1000HA, 10in, 160GB, 1GB RAM, 6-cell Battery)
    1 wired Internet connection (and presumably an ethernet cable)
    Note: In theory you can also install from a USB Stick

Instructions:
    1. When turning on the eeePC, press f2
    2. Verify that a) wifi is turned on (this is for later) and b) the usb device is listed first in the boot order
    3. If the dvd device is not connected, with cd burned with the latest copy of ubuntu on it inside already, do that now, and then continue booting
    4. Install and continue, following normal instructions
    5. After install completes, update all packages via a wired Internet connection
    6. From fixes page, you will note that wireless does not yet work. You’ll want to follow the instructions there, but do not do the modprobe ath5k. However, you do need to install the backport modules:

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic

Wireless should work after this. I used Ubuntu Ibex 8.10

I neglected to put in all my arguments for netbooks vs the mac minis we used in the Ghana consultation network, vs locally purchased desktops, vs actual servers. Basically it boils down to the fact that the netbooks have built in batteries, so we don’t have to purchase UPSes to use as backup power for then the power goes out. And we don’t have to track down a separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse every time we want to do something, which was frankly a pain, when we were working with the minis in Ghana, and couldn’t access them via the network. Laptops are designed to be disconnected from power on a regular basis, and have built in peripherals. Convenient. And actually cheaper than the minis, if a little underpowered, comparatively.

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Netbook Mania

Jan 21st, 2009
by melissa.
10 comments

So one of the outcomes of my study last August is that admittedly.. people don’t want mobile phones for their health records, they want laptops. And these new netbooks – well they cost the same as these smartphones. But last August, the eeepcs had a battery life of 1.5 hours and only about 4MB of storage. So when they died in the middle of the comparative studies, all of the people I talked to changed their minds and said that battery life was a non-starter; they had to have something that would last. I did a little shopping though – and for just about $50 more, you can get a standard hard drive (instead of solid state), and a 6 cell battery, and end up with a 10in eeePC that lasts for 7 hours and has 160GB of hard drive space.

Even without the new configuration, people are raving about these netbooks. They won’t let me take them back to the states, and people keep buying them off me – so I have to replace them when I get back home, using the cash people give me. More stuff to carry when I come back – it’s a wonder I always make it through customs with my 6-8 laptops..

The reaction to my laptops this time is that everyone wants to buy these off of me “when your project ends” – to which I always say that when my project ends, the laptops will still be in use because the project will continue without me – unless they are already certain of my failure (I hope not!).

The proposal for now is twofold: two of the laptops will be used as asynchronous web servers, akin to the design used in the Ghana Consultation Network, allowing the Program Management Office in Mbarara and the Management Agency Head Office in Kampala to access claims information even when their Internet connection is down – basically, since the processor will certainly be slow, it will be a caching agent. (I might try Google Gears as well and see if that works better, but this is something that I can intelligently back up and that they can own locally.) The rest of the laptops will be allocated to two of the private health clinics for use in administering their claims forms. However – a primary distinction from the mobile phone solution is that they don’t include communications technology. I will explore a couple of options – including both a sneakernet style solution of sending the forms by SD card, or the more expensive solution of attaching a falcom modem to the laptop, which essentially doubles the cost of the laptop. A few other clinics will be assigned mobile phones, and the remaining clinics will be controls – I will visit them, continue to run surveys, and observe claims administration, and monitor their transcations, but I won’t deploy services there for at least the first 9 months, although I may encourage my partners to independent conduct their own deployment (i.e. with my supervision but not done by me) towards the end of my study.

This study involves simultaneously understanding both the technical feasibility of these solutions and the financial feasibility of these solutions – it will take time to make the service providers understand the ramifications of the various solutions – and the resultant costs and benefits to them. What are the tradeoffs they will make in the end? I think different providers will choose different means in the end.. and it is entirely possible that they might choose to purchase a laptop but not use it for online claims submission, purely for its other utilities. Or because the service provider is of higher means and higher claim volume, they might choose to do online claims submission and pay the service fees because timely payment is so extremely critical for them. I’m curious to see what happens, and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.

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Where Were You When Obama Became President?

Jan 21st, 2009
by melissa.
1 comment

How many millions of people were watching CNN, MTV, and whatever other media (BBC, NPR, etc) from how many hundreds of places to see the inauguration? I updated my facebook status on my phone as one friend pondered whether Obama liked porcupines and another studiously avoided CNN, and my department sent out an email having successfully set up a CNN broadcast in our building.

I, however, was nowhere near South Hall – and instead enjoying pork and chips in at the Grand Holiday Inn in Mbarara, Uganda, the trading town in Western Uganda where I am based for the next year for my dissertation fieldwork. It’s an urban center – not quite the locus for most of the private health clinics where I’ll be working, but the location of Mbarara University of Science and Technology, where I’ll be teaching, and sort of the center of gravity for the private clinics – they all come here to restock their medical supplies.

On the inauguration – expecations here run from high to indifferent. The newspapers all feature Obama’s picture on the front page, both yesterday and today. The radio programs have “Obama” speaking as a guest, while people call in to discuss Bush’s legacy as the president who gave the most aid to Africa. People have high hopes – but simultaneously know not to have high expectations of the president of a country with an economy currently in shambles. Yet just Monday night I was just approached by a hotel manager wanting me to help him get to the USA so he could “raise so much capital for his business.” His plan? To work hard in the hotel industry and save money.

Most people I spoke to didn’t seem to be planning to watch the inauguration – yet when one of my coworkers was checking in to her hotel at about 3pm (4am Pacific, T-4 hours), the reception was playing CNN, which had already started the countdown to the inauguration. (It transpired later that whatever the reception played – the entire hotel had to watch, since they controlled the cable access for the entire building!!)

Later, I discovered that my place didn’t have a tv, so when the time came, I went back to my coworker’s hotel room and joined her to watch the festivities. The power was out, so there was a super-loud generator running just outside her room competing with the volume of the (heh) 13 in tv. The walls of the room were an odd shade of lime green. She called many of her friends and family to see if they were watching too – “how can you be watching cartoons when history is happening?” I found it strange that we could be off work and watching – while many of my friends had to be at work or class and couldn’t get away to see it. Yet at the same time, part of the (ahem) cnn experience was also seeing people all around the US watching the inauguration on giant screens everywhere else. It’s crazy to be a part of such a shared experience.

So. Where were you when Obama became president?

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Peace Makes Progress in DRC

Jan 19th, 2009
by melissa.
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Special Envoy Olesegun Obasanjo addresses Security Council on Great Lakes Region UN-backed talks in DR Congo making slow progress, envoy tells Security Council 15 Jan 2009, UN News Centre

Tensions between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda are beginning to thaw as on-going peace talks, aimed at ending fighting in the east of the DRC between the Government and the main rebel militia in the region, are making slow progress, the United Nations envoy facilitating negotiations told the Security Council today. 

Lyn from HEAL Africa just sent out her perspective on the talks:

from Lyn Lusi
date Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 7:12 PM
subject: This is letter TWO, all about Congolese POLITICS in North Kivu

Yesterday, as I was driving into the hospital, we were stuck on a street for almost 5 minutes by an endless cortege of hundreds of motorbike taxis, – lights glaring, horns blaring, people screaming, to celebrate the peace agreement signed on 16th January between Rwanda and Congo. Even the Mai Mai have decided to sign on for peace once again.

We sincerely hope that it is true. There have been no serious incidents of fighting since Christmas. When the Congolese government and CNDP met Nigerian ex-President Obasanjo in Nairobi before Christmas, it became obvious that they had nothing to fight about with the Congolese government, so they went home and started fighting amongst themselves. Nkunda heads one faction, and his second in command, Bosco, heads the other. Both are indicted war criminals. Strangely, it is the Bosco faction that has signed the peace agreement in the latest round of peace talks; but Nkunda has said Bosco does not speak for the CNDP.

All of this manoeuvering is the subject of endless speculation: maybe the split is engineered so that Rwanda can have two options: peace or war. According to the peace deal, the Rwanda army will come into Congo officially, and hunt down the FDLR alongside the Congolese army, and all the CNDP will join the Congolese army (Back to square one! Do not pass Go! Do not collect 200!) On the other hand, the Rwandans keep their options open to continue fighting as before alongside the other half of the CNDP.

Some rather sinister indications about what is really going on have come from Kigali. At the US embassy party, the new ambassador appointed in August apparently said that one of the objectives of his government in the region would be to redraw unjust boundaries that were fixed in colonial times. Either he is a total idiot speaking only for himself, or else he has revealed the secret agenda of the US in the region: that would also indicate he is still a total idiot. We can only hope that the Obama administration will take a more impartial and intelligent approach to resolving conflict in this region.

The FDLR militia of course are not happy about this agreement. The only FDLR that can be easily found are the ones who have settled into villages in North and South Kivu. To hunt them down means more suffering and violence for people in the rural areas. The ones who are really dangerous are in the forest, constantly on the move and impossible to find. The women of the region, (Hotense Maliro, media officer from HEAL Africa is one of their leaders) have organised together as Sauti ya Wamama WaKongomani (Voice of the Women of Congo). They held a demonstration on Friday in Goma, and are planning to lobby the Ministers here in Goma for the talks, for a peaceful approach to the FDLR. There is no space and no future for them in Rwanda; the only lasting solution is to give them space to settle in Congo, and approach them with messages of inclusion and peace building. This is the challenge of the church, and our partners the Nehemiah committees are prepared to take up this challenge.

So the message of this letter is mainly hopeful, but with reservations because politicians have their own agendas and never tell us the whole truth. Continued prayer is needed! Thank you for being alongside us with your prayers.

LL

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