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Comment by MoreMoschops | Hacker News Reader

Such nonsense. Horrifically US-centric in dealing with a global technology, and ignoring that tone of voice carries so much information in a conversation that simply cannot be expressed well in the written word (despite the heroic attempts of some people to stick smiley faces everywhere).

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A skype call can give the same information but you can send a message first, asking if the recipient has time.

This also requires a functional computer, a steady power supply for it, and an internet connection reliable enough and fast enough to handle it. In large portions of the globe, this is laughable.

A telephone needs a couple of wires and can be powered remotely (those of you who still have basic landlines will recall that they often keep working when the power to your house is out), and is a fantastically simple technology to repair and maintain.

In some parts, mobile phones (AKA cellular phones, AKA handy phones) are leapfrogging landlines because they require even less physical hardware and maintenance - it's not the case that everyone has one; rather, someone has one and sells use of it. People use it to make voice calls.

But then most of the world hasn't got clean water either, so that is kind of a straw man.

In the western world (which is really the only part of the world where we can meaningfully talk about technology) the internet connection is usually fast enough, and smart phones are plentyfull enough that it doesn't matter.

If you want to talk about tech only in the Western world, that's great. Stating that the West "is really the only part of the world where we can meaningfully talk about technology" is just nonsense, though. Technology can be applied everywhere. The laws of physics don't magically stop outside the Western world.

Sure, but on the other hand they are so far behind us that the though of rural Africa developing high tech is laughable.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/african-student-tran...

Note: Lome is the capital of Togo, not rural or isolated.

  > they often keep working when the power to your house is out

Emphasis on the often. If the phone company also loses power, then you don't have phone lines. IIRC this happened during the NorthEast blackout of 2003.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003

MoreMoschops I double that nonsense and raise you 1. I just read two TC articles from HN and both articles seam to be written as pure hyperbole. If you are in the business of writing news then write something of value, and please stop writing articles without some good data to back up your opinions.

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