Alex Little

Although I’ve not been in Ethiopia very long, my technology habits have adapted quickly. The main changes I’ve noticed are:

• I’m not using Google search. Or, in fact, any search at all.
  I can’t actually remember the last time I googled something, it will have been when I was back in the UK, though I’m sure Google will have remembered for me. The sites I visit consist almost exclusively of Gmail and my feed reader.
• I write all emails and blog postings in text files first (including this one).
  Because, firstly it’s far quicker at internet cafes to cut and paste something I’ve already written. Secondly, it means I still have a copy when internet connection drops, as frequently happens. And I do mean frequently – with almost every second page the connection has been lost. Third, I can write at home, ready to (fingers-crossed) upload at work the next day. Unfortunately it doesn’t mean I make any better use of a spell checker!
• I now care about image file sizes.
  Though not, as you may expect, for the people who are going to be viewing them, but rather selfishly for my own ability to upload them. I’m pretty sure most people reading this will not be on slow dial-up speed connections, but that’s what I’m using to write this and reducing any image file size makes uploading far more reliable (and less frustrating).
• I use Ubuntu almost exclusively.
  Since I loaded Ubuntu onto my Asus Eee PC and my desktop machine at work is Windows/Ubuntu dual boot, I basically only use Ubuntu. The main reason being that the machines will be less susceptible to viruses, which are pretty rampant here (see next comment).
• I carry around a USB drive all the time.
  Although there are servers, people at work here don’t generally tend to use them for storing their work, all of which tend to be either on their desktops, or on USB drives. So documents are shared by taking them on a USB drive and copying to the other users machine. This goes for printing too, although we have 2 large printers in the dept, neither are networked, nor is there a network shared area to put documents to be printed. With few anti-virus programs installed (and even fewer actually up to date), and this widespread use of USB drives, viruses are everywhere. I end up carrying a USB drive to get documents printed and shared and to move files between home and work – ‘the cloud’ doesn’t exist here.
• No-one has ever mentioned the word ‘backup’
  I not seen any evidence of anything being backed up. Most PCs are just set up to operate standalone, only connected to the network to get access to the internet, so the closest anyone gets to backup is to copy documents onto their USB drive. I heard a story about a phd student who had the only copy of his thesis on a USB drive, which then got corrupted, losing 2 years of work!
• I use a download manager and count download time in days.
  The chance of downloading anything larger than about 1Mb with any reliability is slim to zero. So I now use a download manager (the DownThemAll Firefox plugin) for almost everything. I’ve spent several days trying to download (with the Ubuntu download/package manager) the whole 11Mb of Thunderbird, it’s now at 29% (on 21st Oct), so should have finished by Halloween.
• I haven’t sent an email to someone who sits just down the corridor.
  Email generally isn’t used within organisations, almost all communication seems to be done either face to face, phone or via letters. Very few organisations have their own email servers, Mekelle Uni does, but few people have an account, so staff just don’t seem to be used to using email for work purposes. The ‘purple stamp’ may also have a part to play, in that any form of official request couldn’t be made by email. Digital signatures spring to mind but I’m probably getting ahead of myself.
• I actually phone people!
  As a result of not using email to communicate with colleagues, I actually phone people. Although, like most staff here, I don’t have a phone on my desk, I end up using my mobile and buying plenty of top-up cards for it. There are only a couple of desk phones in our department, and they’re with the dept head and his secretary.

Pretty much all of these things boil down to that fact that my colleagues and I don’t have quick, easy and, above all, reliable access to the web.