The $100 laptop inching ever closer to reality

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:00 am

A novel plan to develop a $100 laptop computer for distribution to millions of schoolchildren in developing countries has caught the interest of governments and the attention of computer-industry heavyweights.

First announced in January by Nicholas Negroponte, the founding chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, the initiative appears to be gaining steam. Mr. Negroponte is scheduled to demonstrate a working prototype of the device with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday at a U.N. technology conference in Tunisia.

Although no contracts with governments have been signed, Mr. Negroponte says current plans call for producing five to ten million units beginning in late 2006 or early 2007, with tens of millions more a year later. Five companies -- Google Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Red Hat Inc., News Corp. and Brightstar Corp. -- have each provided $2 million to fund a nonprofit organization called One Laptop Per Child that was set up to oversee the project. Mr. Negroponte says five companies are bidding to make the laptop, although he declined to name them.

also, Steve Jobs offered to give each laptop OSX for FREE, but one of the project's founders stated "We declined because it's not Open Source". good for them.

good read for those that haven't heard this yet:

click me. yes. me.

Post by **Chupacabra** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:02 am

interesting

Post by **Grudge** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:05 am

It's a great initiative. I hope it works out.

Post by **Foo** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:14 am

I hope they pull it off, but it seems quite flawed. Computing is more than just desktop/laptop units, it's infrastructure. Even for classroom purposes.

Post by **Chupacabra** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:16 am

yeah, but atleast they'll be familiar with it and be better with technology.

Post by **Massive Quasars** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:31 am

If they put in WifiMax hardware, place solar panels on the back of the LCD screens, put in an ultra-long lived ultra-long lasting battery, and (finally) make them tougher than the panasonic "toughbooks"... wired infrastructure may be unnecessary.

Ideally...

Though, I'm hopeful something quite good will come out of whatever these companies manage to pull together.

Post by **o'dium** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:21 am

If they can fit what they do inside a xbox 360 for so cheap, they must be able to do a semi decent laptop at a bargain price.

For the kids.

Post by **Doombrain** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:41 am

how the fuck are you meant to play q3 and wind it at the same time?

Post by **o'dium** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:49 am

Doombrain wrote:how the fuck are you meant to play q3 and wind it at the same time?

Skill son. Look at duhard. He can play with his man stick AND rail your ass while plasma climbing.

What a guy.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:58 am

Why do the children in developping countries need laptops? I think there are more important problems there. Its not like here the school students all have laptops, so why not give them to the children here first?

Post by **Ryoki** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:17 pm

Yeah, a very cool initiative. It reminds me somewhat of the hole in the wall experiment by some indian guy... He'd put up computer kiosks in very poor neighbourhoods in India to see what the kids would do with this strange new technology.

Pretend this hyperlink is a small turtle and pet it ever so gently.

Post by **Grudge** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:54 pm

ToxicBug wrote:Its not like here the school students all have laptops, so why not give them to the children here first?

Ok, that has to be the stupidest thing I've read here today.

ToxicBug, you need to do humanity a service and remove yourself from the genepool.

Post by **Tormentius** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 6:21 pm

riddla wrote:
ToxicBug wrote:Why do the children in developping countries need laptops?
To grow up some day and be able to spell 'developing'?

Post by **stocktroll** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:05 pm

he has a point. Giving every kid a laptop is overkill. Kids can do just fine with having computer labs at school to do research on until they go to college and buy their own.
And I hate to say it but it also seems like an attempt to dodge the problem.
too much violence? ban guns and video games...
kids not doing good in school? give them laptops...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:32 pm

Grudge wrote:
ToxicBug wrote:Its not like here the school students all have laptops, so why not give them to the children here first?
Ok, that has to be the stupidest thing I've read here today.

ToxicBug, you need to do humanity a service and remove yourself from the genepool.

How is what I said stupid?

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 8:50 pm

stocktroll wrote:he has a point. Giving every kid a laptop is overkill. Kids can do just fine with having computer labs at school to do research on until they go to college and buy their own.
And I hate to say it but it also seems like an attempt to dodge the problem.
too much violence? ban guns and video games...
kids not doing good in school? give them laptops...

it's not for kids that "aren't doing good in school". it's to get them up to speed with the rest of the world. hence the term "developing countries".

Post by **Canis** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:08 pm

I think its a fun idea, but stocktroll is right. There are computer labs and such that will suffice for school. Kids dont need laptops at all. IMO this is a waste of money and is an initiative that's being used by companies to push their products (ie: Apple wanting to push their OS out there for "free"). It seems like a ploy to get kids hooked into the computing marketplace early on, so companies will sell more products. All that laptops are to schoolchildren are cool devices that the kids will use to one-up each other with. School up until high school is all about peer interaction, not about technological advancement. Most households have computers that kids can use to type reports, and if not, the computer lab is a perfect alternative.

Post by **dzjepp** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:47 pm

ITS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES CANIS!!!!!!1

Post by **Canis** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:52 pm

OH REALLY?!?!?! WELL THAT CHANGES THINGS DOESNT IT DZJEPP!!!!...

Post by **dzjepp** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:54 pm

YEAH IT SURE DOES BUD!!!!!!!!

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:16 am

Canis wrote:I think its a fun idea, but stocktroll is right. There are computer labs and such that will suffice for school. Kids dont need laptops at all. IMO this is a waste of money and is an initiative that's being used by companies to push their products (ie: Apple wanting to push their OS out there for "free"). It seems like a ploy to get kids hooked into the computing marketplace early on, so companies will sell more products. All that laptops are to schoolchildren are cool devices that the kids will use to one-up each other with. School up until high school is all about peer interaction, not about technological advancement. Most households have computers that kids can use to type reports, and if not, the computer lab is a perfect alternative.

so have something available at school but not at home? most kids in the states have a pc at home, not true for these other countries.

Post by **Foo** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:16 am

+JuggerNaut+ wrote:
stocktroll wrote:he has a point. Giving every kid a laptop is overkill. Kids can do just fine with having computer labs at school to do research on until they go to college and buy their own.
And I hate to say it but it also seems like an attempt to dodge the problem.
too much violence? ban guns and video games...
kids not doing good in school? give them laptops...
it's not for kids that "aren't doing good in school". it's to get them up to speed with the rest of the world. hence the term "developing countries".

But where are the job opportunities after education in these countries?

Tech knowledge isn't taught in schools in developing countries because there's little or no technology industry for the kids to make a career path into.

Hence the point about dodging the problem.

Need drives demand drives investment. There's no need or demand for tech education in developing countries. However there is need for industry (which should be the precursor to this initiative)

Put it on par with giving a farmer in cambodia the latest JCB tractor with the differential axels and air conditioning. Great.. but he can't afford to run it, nor are his fields large enough to warrant such a device.

These laptops seem a lot like 'here timmy... here's something you can play with at school, then never see again once you leave education. Enjoy!'

Access to computers for kids in developing countries: great idea. Billions of laptops with no mention of the other needed hardware which would make up a complete infrastructure = public relations bullsh.

Post by **mik0rs** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:19 am

Doombrain wrote:how the fuck are you meant to play q3 and wind it at the same time?

Couple that with browsing porn at the same time and you're fucked really.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:31 am

Foo wrote:
+JuggerNaut+ wrote:
stocktroll wrote:he has a point. Giving every kid a laptop is overkill. Kids can do just fine with having computer labs at school to do research on until they go to college and buy their own.
And I hate to say it but it also seems like an attempt to dodge the problem.
too much violence? ban guns and video games...
kids not doing good in school? give them laptops...
it's not for kids that "aren't doing good in school". it's to get them up to speed with the rest of the world. hence the term "developing countries".
But where are the job opportunities after education in these countries?

Tech knowledge isn't taught in schools in developing countries because there's little or no technology industry for the kids to make a career path into.

Hence the point about dodging the problem.

Need drives demand drives investment. There's no need or demand for tech education in developing countries. However there is need for industry (which should be the precursor to this initiative)

Put it on par with giving a farmer in cambodia the latest JCB tractor with the differential axels and air conditioning. Great.. but he can't afford to run it, nor are his fields large enough to warrant such a device.

These laptops seem a lot like 'here timmy... here's something you can play with at school, then never see again once you leave education. Enjoy!'

Access to computers for kids in developing countries: great idea. Billions of laptops with no mention of the other needed hardware which would make up a complete infrastructure = public relations bullsh.

well of course if the job industry is broken or non-existant, then it should raise eyebrows. to implement something like this would be silly if they just dropped them into their laps and said "k, have fun." we don't know the details other than the outlines of this project. who knows, maybe some of those problems will be addressed because of a movement or movements like this? be nice if it had a snowball effect and some other companies got involved in the educational part of it.

i just think it's great these companies are willing to help in some way and not just hoarde their cash.

Post by **plained** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:42 am

100 buc lappy?

mmm nah