nettime: kabinda (fwd)

[marie@t0.or.at (Marie Ringler)]

>Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 21:20:08 -0400 (EDT)
>From: malgosia askanas <ma@panix.com>
>To: avant-garde@jefferson.village.virginia.edu
>Subject: kabinda (fwd)
>Sender: owner-avant-garde@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
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>Reply-To: avant-garde@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
>
>From: qwerty@aei.ca
>Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 20:47:53 -0400
>To: invisible-college@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
>Subject: IC: kabinda
>
>
>        KABINDA, ZAIRE
>
>        In a move IBM officials are hailing as a major step in the
>company's ongoing worldwide telecommunications revolution, M'wana Ndeti, a
>member of Zaire's Bantu tribe, used an IBM global uplink network modem
>yesterday to crush a nut.
>
>        Ndeti, who spent 20 minutes trying to open the nut by hand, easily
>cracked it open by smashing it repeatedly with the powerful modem. "I could
>not crush the nut by myself," said the 47-year-old Ndeti, who added the
>savory nut to a thick, peanut-based soup minutes later. "With IBM's help, I
>was able to break it."
>
>        Ndeti discovered the nut-breaking, 28.8 V.34 modem yesterday, when
>IBM was shooting a commercial in his southwestern Zaire village. During a
>break in shooting, which shows African villagers eagerly teleconferencing
>via computer with Japanese schoolchildren, Ndeti snuck onto the set and
>took the modem, which he believed would serve well as a "smashing" utensil.
>
>        Just after Ndeti shattered the nut, a 200-person Southern Baptist
>gospel choir, on hand for the taping of the IBM commercial, broke out into
>raucous, joyous song in celebration of the tribesman's accomplishment.  IBM
>officials were not surprised the longtime computer giant was able to
>provide Ndeti with practical solutions to his everyday problems. "Our
>telecommunications systems offer people all over the world global
>networking solutions that fit their specific needs," said Herbert Ross,
>IBM's director of marketing. "Whether you're a nun cloistered in an Italian
>abbey or an Aborigine in Australia's Great Sandy Desert, IBM has the ideas
>to get you where you want to go today."
>
>        According to Ndeti, of the modem's many powerful features, most
>impressive was its hard plastic casing, which easily sustained several
>minutes of vigorous pounding against a large stone. "I put the nut on a
>rock, and I hit it with the modem," Ndeti said. "The modem did not break.
>It is a good modem."  IBM was so grateful for Ndeti's demonstration that
>they gave him a new, state-of-the-art IBM workstation, complete with a
>PowerPC 601 microprocessor, a quad-speed internal CD-ROM drive and three
>16-bit ethernet networking connectors. The tribesman has already made good
>use of the computer system, fashioning a gazelle trap out of its wires, a
>boat anchor out of the monitor and a crude but effective weapon from its
>mouse.
>
>        "This is a good computer," said Ndeti, carving up a gazelle with
>the computer's flat, sharp internal processing device. "I am using every
>part of it. I will cook this gazelle on the keyboard." Hours later, Ndeti
>capped off his delicious gazelle dinner by smoking the computer's 200-page
>owner's manual.
>
>        IBM spokespeople praised Ndeti's choice of computers.  "We are
>pleased that the Bantu people are turning to IBM for their business needs,"
>said company CEO William Allaire. "From Kansas City to Kinshasa, IBM is
>bringing the world closer together. Our cutting-edge technology is truly
>creating a global village." The Bantu tribesmen are members of an
>ever-growing, international community of users who have turned to IBM to
>solve their networking needs.
>
>
>
>
>          Normatron Division Normatron
>          Le Groupe Absence
>          ______________________________________
>          qwerty@aei.ca
>
>
>
>
>
>     --- from list avant-garde@lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
>
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