Paulo Rebêlo Wired News December 2002 In Brazil, physically disabled individuals may no longer need to buy expensive software to operate computers and surf the Web, thanks to a free application developed by programmers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. By downloading a program called Motrix, disabled people can read, write and interact… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News September, 2002 Weblogs certainly have a worldwide audience. Still, no one’s quite sure what makes them so hot in Brazil. One of the leading countries in registered blogs at Blogger, Brazil has recently gotten its own local version of Pyra Labs’ creation — translated into Portuguese and complete with additional features,… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News August, 2002 Imagine a celebration of digital art that bans works focusing on anything related to computers and technology. This is the idea behind Art.Ficial Emotion, an international exposition featuring digitally produced art created at some of the leading media centers worldwide. The main objective of Art.Ficial Emotion is to provide… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News July, 2002 In the eyes of many musicians and artists in Brazil, popular music as a form of pleasure and art ended in the Western world long ago. The mixing of music with commerce isn’t a new concept, but the introduction of file-sharing on the Web has turned attention to the… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News June, 2002 Few people enjoy taking medicine, but how about if it came packaged in candy or ice cream? That’s what the Brazilian National Association of Magistral Pharmaceutics (Anfarmag) is bringing to Brazil this year. In an official note earlier this month, Anfarmag said that med-candies are the best solution for… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News May 2002 In another attempt to close the gap between the wired and the unwired, Brazil will install computer kiosks in post offices around the country, where people will be able to log on to the Internet. Correios, Brazil’s postal agency, hopes to have the kiosks up and running by the… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News May 2002 An illegal but well-known underground market for genetically modified crops is growing fast in Brazil. But oftentimes, farmers who bought the seeds with promises of better yields at lower costs have reaped financial disasters and plantation damages instead. The problem seems to stem not from defective genetically modified organism… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News March 2002 Frustrated by a government that either can’t or won’t address epidemic levels of commercial piracy, a broad coalition of Brazilian industry created an advertising campaign it hopes will appeal to Brazilians’ sense of fair play and economic self-interest. The industries of software, music, clothes, toys, cable TV and movies… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News March 2002 In the United States, printer companies reap most of their profits by selling ink cartridges rather than the printers themselves. That’s not necessarily true in Brazil, where remanufactured ink cartridges sell for less than half the price of the original. Despite efforts by big companies to convince consumers that… Continue reading →

Paulo Rebêlo Wired News February 2002 PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — The World Social Forum wrapped up several months of business with the usual proposals for making the world a better place, but the stark reality remains: All talk is meaningless unless the richest nations pitch in and help. The forum, founded as a kind of… Continue reading →