The $100 laptop inching ever closer to reality

Post by **plained** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:58 am

it would be kinda big and heavey and ugly and not very feature rich you dig?

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 1:03 am

apparently you didn't take a look at the article. dugg.

Post by **plained** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 1:04 am

yea i did, send all your cash there and help

Post by **Geebs** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:43 am

It's not so that kids get a job in the tech industry, it's for education. Like, for example, if they can get information about HIV transmission, it might help with the AIDS timebomb in africa, that sort of thing.

Shame the poor buggers missed out on OSX though - they'll be too busy trying to recompile their kernel to actually get anywhere....

Post by **Foo** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:50 am

Geebs wrote:It's not so that kids get a job in the tech industry, it's for education. Like, for example, if they can get information about HIV transmission, it might help with the AIDS timebomb in africa, that sort of thing.

But that same kind of information could be dissemenated, probably much more effectively, with an initiative to supply a connection for teachers?

For the price of equipping 100 students with $100 laptops, you could furnish them with a whole lot of books, writing materials, and set up the teacher with increased access to learning resources.

Post by **Geebs** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:07 am

Foo wrote:For the price of equipping 100 students with $100 laptops, you could furnish them with a whole lot of books, writing materials, and set up the teacher with increased access to learning resources.

What teacher?

Post by **Foo** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:08 am

They're distributing these to schoolchildren.

You read the article rite?

Post by **Geebs** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:11 am

I assumed they meant "children of schooling age"

Post by **hax103** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:27 am

Well, I don't know how effective it would be but here are some positive points:

(1) With schemes like the Gutenberg Project and Google library, you have access to thousands to millions of books online.

(2) In the near future its expected for more schools to put their lectures online and even have advanced "distance learning" based websites where they not only give you the material but help test you (imagine flash or java interactive sites) to assess how much you retained.

(3) Many peeps think that education is the only real way for developing countries to catch up to the Europe/America standard. Not everyone needs to learn it all, just a small percentage who have the ambition and will lead the new industries. Also, its at the choice of the student - clearly some professions probably won't benefit from e-learning.

Its the old "Give a man a fish and he will have food for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will have food for a lifetime."

ToxicBug wrote: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 **stocktroll** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:03 am

ok even if its for developing countries, they dont need no laptop. Just build computer labs to teach students, much more efficient.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:23 am

for $100, why NOT a laptop? dude, they REALLY mean under developed or developing countries. it has a hand crank for power ffs for those that have limited or no electricity.

Post by **Grudge** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:54 am

stocktroll wrote:ok even if its for developing countries, they dont need no laptop. Just build computer labs to teach students, much more efficient.

The whole point with this project is that building computer labs in development countries actually isn't more efficient.

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:45 pm

wasn't there a really cheezy movie in the early 90's about the "$100 computer"?

Post by **Geebs** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:40 pm

Grudge wrote:
stocktroll wrote:ok even if its for developing countries, they dont need no laptop. Just build computer labs to teach students, much more efficient.
The whole point with this project is that building computer labs in development countries actually isn't more efficient.

"First, find a building....."

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:50 am

first real pics:

[url=rtsp://196.203.134.60/archives/pc-051116-1900-en.rm?start=00:01:26]UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Nicholas Negroponte Unveil $100 Laptop Prototype at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia[/url] *requires real player or alternative.

those noobs who are going to whine about realplayer, go here

if you watch the video just watch until it's unveiled. the rest of this extremely boring and a complete mess.

Post by **Massive Quasars** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 10:57 am

Not bad. I do hope it's sturdy.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:04 pm

Massive Quasars wrote:Not bad. I do hope it's sturdy.

aye. at least the crank is removable. looks like you could snap it right off.

Post by **DooMer** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:08 pm

DON'T GIVE THOSE LITTLE FUCKERS COMPUTERS, THEY'LL TAKE MY JOB

Post by **Dr_Watson** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:14 pm

dey took our jeeeeeerbs!

oh, and that thing looks like it was designed by fisher price.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:16 pm

Dr_Watson wrote:dey took our jeeeeeerbs!

oh, and that thing looks like it was designed by fisher price.

MIT, FisherPrice, yeah that's about right.

Post by **Canis** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 5:34 pm

What are the specs on that thing?

Post by **pookie** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 6:17 pm

Each country will get one for the photo op, then it will go into a musuem as the national super-computer. All the do-gooder's scratch will be safely tucked in private Swiss accounts by then.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:15 pm

Canis wrote:What are the specs on that thing?

It boasts a 7-inch screen that swivels like a tablet PC, and an electricity-generating crank that provides 40 minutes of power from a minute of grinding. Built-in Wi-Fi with mesh networking support, combined with a microphone, speaker and headset jack, even means the box can serve as a node in an ersatz VOIP phone system.

Under the hood, it's powered by a modest 500-MHz AMD processor, and uses a gig of flash memory for storage. But the key to building it cheaply enough to educate the world's children is an innovative, low-power LCD screen technology invented by Negroponte's CTO, Mary Lou Jepsen.

from wired.com

Post by **Canis** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:24 pm

So you could really quake it up out there in the jungle/desert.