http://laptop.org
Posted on 02/13/2007 8:31:42 AM PST by blam
Developing nations to test new $150 laptops
15:43 13 February 2007
NewScientist.com news service
From Brazil to Pakistan, some of the world's poorest children will peer across the digital divide this month – reading electronic books, shooting digital video, creating music and chatting with classmates online.
The non-profit "One Laptop per Child" project, founded by MIT academics, will roll out nearly 2500 of its $150-laptops to eight nations. The experiment is a prelude to mass production of the kid-friendly, lime-green-and-white laptops, scheduled to begin in July 2007, when five million will be built.
Its technological triumphs include a hand crank to charge its battery, a keyboard that switches between languages, a digital video camera, wireless connectivity and a version of the Linux operating system tailored for remote regions.
The project's operators say the price should fall to $100 apiece next year, when they hope to produce 50 million of the so-called "XO" machines. It could then dip below $100 by 2010 when the aim is to reach 150 million of the world's poorest children.
"We're pledging to always drive the price down," says Walter Bender, the group's president of software and content. "Rather than continuing to add features to keep the price inflated, we're keeping the feature set stable and driving the price down."
A string pulley, which Bender likens to a "salad spinner", will soon replace the hand crank. A minute of pulling generates 10 minutes of electricity. The display switches from colour to black and white for viewing in direct sunlight.
Food and medicine
State educators in Brazil, Uruguay, Libya, Rwanda, Pakistan, Thailand and possibly Ethiopia and the West Bank will receive the first of the machines in February's pilot, before a wider distribution to Indonesia and a handful of other countries.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientisttech.com ...
My response to this idea is similar to my response to "affordable housing," which is in turn similar to Winston Churchill's attitude toward a Parliamentary plan for substituting cheap, coal-fired destroyers for the oil-fired modern destroyers the Royal Navy had asked for. Churchill asked, "Who would breed slow race horses?"Keep building better houses, and let the poor buy the old ones.
Keep building good computers, and driving down the cost of production. While these guys are fussing around making something cheap which has a generator in it, others are making Blackberries and such - and that is what the entry level computer for the poor man will look like.
Just another waste of money. I think that pencils or shoes would be of more use, but we must assauge our guilt over having computers by giving every child on earth one. It is just silly.
It's an efficient OS therefore they can keep the CPU costs low producing an inexpensive and useful tool.
Damn, now I will get 100 of those "I am from Nigeria" emails. My email is practically useless already....
I can't help but wonder how soon they will be available on Ebay.
Yup. I typed college English papers in Wordstar, running on CP/M on a Zenith machine with a wood case and 8" floppy drive. That, and a daisy-wheel printer got the job done.
Good find.
Additionally, I can't see this not becoming a boon for the child pron market, as it seeks employees from the third world.
Good grief...
A minute is a long time to pull. 10 minutes on the computer goes by quickly.
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