ComputersLet's see. There are about 180 households, about 90 of them have at least one computer. Of these, 80 are connected to the internet, most by modem, a few lucky ones (I'm green with envy) through our local network. Our router is connected to our ISP (Mishkei) by a 128kb framerelay connection.
Among the younger kibbutzniks, 60% have computers and practically all of them have an internet connection.
1 Summer 2001: He's done and got his PhD.
Update May 2002: The number of private internet users is almost 100 now, one of them has a broadband cable connection, and about a dozen are hooked to our 10-mb LAN. The framerelay has been expanded to 256 kb and we are about to install 10 mb-VDSL connections to the homes of the members. Update February 2003: more than 50 members have been connected to the local area network via a 10Mb vdsl connection and the bandwidth of our internet connection has been expanded to 1Mb, which may be enough for the coming 3 months. We've also changed our ISP (Bezeq international). Update August 2004: Our Internet connection has been upgraded to a bandwith of 2 Mb upload and ½ Mb download, we have a new firewall and a bandwidth monitor. About 110 private users are connected to the LAN, more than two thirds of all households. Update November 2005: Another bandwidth upgrade to 4 Mb by 1 Mb hasn't been as successful as last year's. We are still having a few teething problems. |
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The private ownership of computers by the over-sixties is still relatively rare, though quite
a few use them at work. Ruth (here with her late husband, Zion) was one of the pioneers
among the elderly, writing plays and essays. Arie R. uses the computer for composing music. Shammai
writes his dissertation on Husserl 1, Yoav L. is into programming.
There are about 50 households of people over sixty, only about ten of them have computers.