As one person who is admittedly sometimes overly-engrossed with the wonders of bleeding edge technology, it's a kind of whiplash to occasionally be catapulted to the other side; the dull edge if you will. Wired has an article

today that did just that to me as I was reading it. It's obviously new and interesting or they wouldn't bother reporting it. It's got VoIP and solar panels and Linux and all the kewl tech things I and most Wired readers (and IDers too) enjoy. But the take away this time wasn't how Inveneo was mashing these things together in some poor region of the world - we've heard these stories before. Nope, the mechanism that launched my sensibility to the other side of my skull was something so obvious that, well, it made me realize that an Industrial Designer shouldn't ever be in the position of saying "Oh, yeah". I shouldn't ever be reminded of the basics because to be an effective designer, one needs to always keep them in mind. From the article:Mark Summer, Inveneo's CEO and co-founder, said that while most people in the United States have access to a telephone and can communicate with anyone in seconds, it is not so in these remote areas.

"Every time they want to do anything, they have to walk down the hill for three to four kilometers," said Summer. "Being able to make a local phone call is a big deal to them."When I was in grade school, one of my classmates proudly raised her hand and announced to the class that we could make phone calls to Hawaii... all the way across the ocean. Everyone laughed. That was a long time ago now. In retrospect, it really isn't funny unless you're ignorant of the big picture. She had it right all along.

{Photo source: Inveneo}