NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
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a decade running around the world talking to cell<br />
phone manufacturers — everyone I could think of —<br />
saying, ‘Look, we can support 100 languages, it’s<br />
a big market.’ They didn’t care. People say, ‘Why<br />
don’t you go talk to Nokia?’ I have talked to Noki<br />
a. Again and again and again.”<br />
Lamine Dabo and Nouhan Sano, Guineans who live in<br />
Bangkok, where there is a prosperous and close-kni<br />
t Guinean community, have had a similar experience<br />
. They have been trying to persuade manufacturers<br />
to develop an N’Ko cellphone since 2007. Dabo and<br />
Sano’s gem-importing businesses take them all over<br />
Asia, and all over Asia they bring their list of<br />
more than 17,000 N’Ko words. Dabo says it’s possib<br />
le to build a cheap cellphone with N’Ko as its lan<br />
guage, a camera and slots for two SIM cards — a ne<br />
cessity in Africa, where reception is often spotty<br />
. When he went to Guinea and Mali to discuss the p<br />
hone with distributors, he said, he was mobbed wit<br />
h interest. But his briefcase was filled with reje<br />
ctions from manufacturers. Some asked him to put u<br />
p the money himself. “Everyone says it’s possible,<br />
but the money is not enough for them to make it a<br />
priority,” he said.<br />
Dabo and Sano are still trying. It might seem stra<br />
nge that the fortunes of N’Ko and of indigenous la<br />
nguages around the world should depend on the abil<br />
ity to subtitle “24,” to write with Windows and, a<br />
bove all, to text. But for hundreds of heritage la<br />
nguages, a four-inch bar of plastic and battery an<br />
d motherboard is the future of the past.<br />
~~~~~~~~~~