Nose tweaking time

You may disagree with Hugo Chavez and his policies – just another tin-pot communist dictator – but he sometimes has some decent ideas. His recent decision to tax gas companies based on their profits is one, tweaking the nose of the US government is another. Inviting the Russian fleet for a sleep over is sure to upset someone in the US State Department, not to mention the Pentagon. Now, using a trade connection with Portugal (Britain’s oldest ally), he is helping supply Venezuela’s children with computers. Venezuela is ordering one million low cost laptops based on the Intel Classmate that has been designed for schools. This is part of a $3bn bilateral trade deal with Portugal that also covers housing and utilities. Portugal is manufacturing the laptops under license from Intel. Called Magalhaes (Magellan), the laptops will have on board low-power Intel Atom chips designed for laptops. They will also come with digital cameras and a broadband net connection. As an operating system, the machines will run a version of Linux developed in Venezuela. Now, although the laptops will have internet capability, how much access will they actually have? Communist run countries certainly have a history of limiting ‘net access. Scared of the people becoming too knowledgeable about the real world I suppose.