PHNOM PENH: When Thul Rithy first moved to Phnom Penh as a young man he lived in a simple pagoda with monks and exercised his keen thirst for knowledge.
“I read a lot of books. I went to a university and in a year I read nearly every book in the library,” he said.
This was back in 2004, a time before smartphones and easy internet access in Cambodia. But Rithy was already starting to understand the depths and possibilities of learning on the Internet.
“I would download books and print them. But I could never read all of Wikipedia.”
His eager adoption of technology opened up a career revolving around start-up ecosystems, tinkering with software coding and, more recently, experiments with blockchain technology.
He started SmallWorld, a co-working space and tech incubator for young entrepreneurs in the Cambodian capital in 2011. And now SmallWorld is taking big steps towards a new technological frontier - building its own computers to encourage the next wave of learners, coders and engineers.
The concept is to provide a low-cost, high-performance laptop equipped with ready-to-run open source software. Rithy will initially target “students that have maybe never touched a computer before,” but is open to selling to the wider public under his new Koompi brand, which means book of knowledge in Khmer.
The product - to be available for purchase in August - is an aesthetic, compact computer that closely resembles an Apple Macbook Air. Its desktop is a hybrid of Window and Apple software and is designed to be clean and easily accessible for new users.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as ... p-10364288
Powerful, cheap and Cambodian: Computer dreams being born in the kingdom
- Bong Burgundy
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Powerful, cheap and Cambodian: Computer dreams being born in the kingdom
Bringing the news. You stay classy, nas, Cambodia.
Good luck to the bright young lad.
- batshitcrazyweirdo
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McPhisto wrote:Good luck to the bright young lad.
I went to a university and in a year I read nearly every book in the library,” he said.
I agree, and good luck!But I could never read all of Wikipedia.
I love bitches n gonna fuck Texas and the USA+ right up their god damn ass! Hallelujah!
He cannot open a competitive computer factory here, it's crazy, especially since Chinese PCs can come here tax free if you have any connections, thanks to the current state of affairs.
Even assembly only would be unlikely to be profitable.
He probably just can many PCs wholesale with his own logo from a Chinese factory and resell them.
Even assembly only would be unlikely to be profitable.
He probably just can many PCs wholesale with his own logo from a Chinese factory and resell them.
- batshitcrazyweirdo
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WHAT!!!!!!!jackrossi wrote:He cannot open a competitive computer factory here, it's crazy, especially since Chinese PCs can come here tax free if you have any connections, thanks to the current state of affairs.
Even assembly only would be unlikely to be profitable.
He probably just can many PCs wholesale with his own logo from a Chinese factory and resell them.
Would you dare to say his open source is ... fake?
Oh yeah, and ...tinkering with software coding and, more recently, experiments with blockchain technology.
Its desktop is a hybrid of Window and Apple software and is designed to be clean and easily accessible for new users.
I love bitches n gonna fuck Texas and the USA+ right up their god damn ass! Hallelujah!
I was surprised too, even assembly requires a skilled, dedicated workforce and preferable economies of scale. None of which Cambodia is especially renowned for.
But setting up cheap imported laptops with a Khmer version of simplified Linux, sure, why not.
But setting up cheap imported laptops with a Khmer version of simplified Linux, sure, why not.
- ផោមក្លិនស្អុយ
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I’m not good at reading romanised Khmer words but I’m pretty sure that the brand name Koompi is the same word as is used for the Bible.
Interesting choice of company name.
Edit:just looked it up and it can mean any book/manuscript written by hand. But I reckon most people would understand it to be a religious term.
Interesting choice of company name.
Edit:just looked it up and it can mean any book/manuscript written by hand. But I reckon most people would understand it to be a religious term.
- Barang_doa_slae
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Thatlogos wrote:But setting up cheap imported laptops with a Khmer version of simplified Linux, sure, why not.
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