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Working Model of MIT $100 Laptop a Hit
Posted by
timothy
on Thu Jun 08, 2006 01:00 PM
from the encheapening dept.
from the encheapening dept.
capt turnpike writes "The One Laptop per Child association and its chairman, MIT Media Labs's Nicholas Negroponte, unvelied a working model of their $100 laptop at the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX) show, and the little laptop that might was a hit. It's got a version of Fedora Linux, is rugged, and each unit will work as part of a wireless mesh automatically. From the article: "However, as Negroponte put it in his address, One Laptop per Child isn't all about the laptops. The main goal is to tap into the ability of every child to toss away a manual and figure out how to make gadgets work on their own, thus helping children help themselves to learn." eWEEK.com also has photos."
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News: $100 Laptop Takes Flight in Thailand 162 comments
EmperorKagato writes "Nicholas Negroponte's project for every child to have a laptop will come true for over 500 students in Thailand. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expects each child to receive a laptop instead of books as the books will be provided electronically.
The laptop, mentioned previously on Slashdot, will now be brought to children in Thailand in October and November, with hopes for future shipments to Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina in 2007."
This story selected and edited by LinuxWorld editor for the day Saied Pinto.
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Teach a kid to fish... (Score:3, Funny)
From Negroponte's address in TFA:
Negroponte then went on to say:
Re:Teach a kid to fish... (Score:5, Funny)
Also, since they have to be cranked, all those kids will also have Popeye forearms.
I would like to be the first to welcome our future giant forearm/elite hacker overlords!
Parent
Re:Teach a kid to fish... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
For the children (Score:3, Funny)
Re:For the children (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:For the children (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:For the children (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
$130 (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't that the $130 [guardian.co.uk] laptop? Or did they manage to bring the cost back down?
Re:$130 (Score:5, Informative)
"According to Negroponte, the $100 laptop will initially cost around $135 and he expects the price to drop to $50 by 2010."
Parent
Re:$130 (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
It uses NiMH. (Score:3, Informative)
Just for third world counties? (Score:5, Insightful)
The main goal is to tap into the ability of every child to toss away a manual and figure out how to make gadgets work on their own, thus helping children help themselves to learn.
I'm in an engineering degree, and I'm shocked at the lack of this ability in college students at american schools! I'm tickled by the fact that we're so set on helping foreign education, when our own educational system is in dire need of....some bloody education.
Re:Just for third world counties? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Just for third world counties? (Score:5, Interesting)
Every time I talk to a kid and they say something like "Algebra sucks. I'll never use this again in my life" I want to jump out of my skin. And hell, I didn't know it myself, because I was taught the same way. I just ended up in a lot of fields, not even complex fields, where you had to have a grasp on practical math.
If you teach the answers then people are always going to be looking for someone to tell them the answers. If you teach people how to find the answers themselves using manuals, newsgroups, and, if all else fails, their damn brain, then you'll end up with well educated people.
Parent
OMG THE SICKENING COLOR! :) (Score:3, Funny)
Everything else is great, but PLEASE TONE DOWN THE COLOR.
Re:OMG THE SICKENING COLOR! :) (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:OMG THE SICKENING COLOR! :) (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously, aren't bright reds and oranges supposed to make you a little nuts if you're surrounded by them too much?
Not really. Colors have different effects depending upon the culture. For example, Americans tend to associate orange with hunger, but in the far East it is considered soothing. Some colors do have cross-cultural implications, like splatters of red increasing blood pressure and stress, but those are usually less prominent. Offering a variety of colors provides options for different regions.
Parent
Re:OMG THE SICKENING COLOR! :) (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
This will all be worthwhile (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This will all be worthwhile (Score:5, Funny)
KUNTA PSOT!
Parent
It's not a toy / specs (Score:5, Informative)
The specs?
500 Mhz chip
128 MB RAM
512 MB Flash Memory
no manual? (Score:3, Funny)
>and figure out how to make gadgets work on their own, thus helping children help themselves to learn.
So in other words, a global pandemic of people who don't know how to RTFM.
Third worlds gap widening (Score:5, Insightful)
This device and plan, if it can be pulled off, could be the single most import thing in helping third world populations on a large scale over the long term.
It's not the technology itself, per say, but the communications that it enables. Getting cell phones into places is a similar type of project. Things as simple as finding the market price of lets say rice, can apparently make big diferences in building economies.
Want one? (Score:5, Informative)
They are thinking from a western POV.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:They are thinking from a western POV.... (Score:5, Insightful)
In reality this isnt focused at those people, but rather the ones that have overcome that daily struggle and have what is considered a decent live there, education is the next goal for them.
Parent
Re:They are thinking from a western POV.... (Score:4, Informative)
They are fairly clear that they are looking for national ministries of education to purchase them in bulk and distribute them nationally through schools on the basis of "one laptop per child", not only is this goal reflected in the name of the project (One Laptop Per Child), but detailed more specifically in the FAQ [laptop.org]:
How clear can they be?Parent
You are thinking from a narrow POV (Score:4, Insightful)
It certainly does, and if you were paying any attention you'd find lots of organizations devoting to addressing those immediate needs.
OTOH, if they don't deal with the longer-term needs of education and economic development -- both of which dirt cheap, mass-produced computers that are nearly universally available can help with -- those underlying problem driving those "immediate needs" that are temporarily alleviated by cash and food will simply worsen, and more cash and more food will be required to acheive the same results.
Parent
At least someone will be learning engineering ... (Score:5, Funny)
... so that by age 18 they can change their professional name to "Bob" and tell Americans weaned on PlayStations that "WiFi connections do not involve 'gremlins,' sir;" "any software company offering free pornography for each install probably should not be trusted" and "there is no 'feng shui' component on your iPod, and if there were it would not be defective, and if it were defective then no, it would not be covered by AppleCare."
Yay capitalism ;->
Huh, that laptop already exists (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh that's right. $800 back in 1997. By Moore's law, that should be about $25 now. So with a color screen, USB, and wireless, $100 isn't bad. Lost the touchscreen though. :-(
Brilliant, MIT Media Labs (Score:3, Interesting)
Speaking about the OS, great that it uses fedora core.. Open Source for a Good Cause. Way to Go.
BTW, fire the designer for that orangey look..uh..wait..may be this might catch on like the old ibook..keep him for the timebeing.
n00bies on the raise (Score:3, Interesting)
As a future warning for Fedora community, expect sudden jump in n00b questions in several different languages. Also keep in mine that those n00bs are mostly children. Please refer "RTFM" as "Read The Fine Manual" and "STFU" as "Stop Talking Fast, User".
And most importantly, every time you use "LOL" and "ROTFL" and "LMAO", just remember; You are laughing with them, not at them.
Thank you,
concern citizen from Softer Gentler Linux community
An idea (Score:3, Interesting)
But hey! I have an idea. Let's make the price $200 in western world and each computer that we buy, will give one for free to someone in developing countries! $200 isn't much for a working computer. Plus, atleast for once, you get a good feeling for buying something that you don't really need
Re:An idea (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
0=360 (Score:3, Insightful)
But then, IBM said it was impossible to keep its HD and PC businesses before selling them to Hitachi and Lenovo. Those companies are making big profits continuing the business.
Making money and new products when you're positioned at the top of the computer business is now so easy that it's looped all the way around from "impossible" to "inevitable".
Why just third world? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why just third world? (Score:5, Insightful)
Forgive me for saying this, but:
b/c those same kids have PSP's, Ipods and cell phones... If their parents wont buy them a computer why should the public give them one for free.
Parent
It has to be said.... (Score:5, Funny)
The educated tend to leave (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Food? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Food? (Score:3, Insightful)
How about this: These laptops aren't meant to replace food, and they're not gonna throw them after people that's starving instead of food. But these people also need to LEARN. And that's what these are for. Man, you people just wanna feed those poor kids instead of learning them how to feed themselves.
Re:Food? (Score:5, Insightful)
Typically, people starve in the third world because they lack the skills and/or resources to provide anything to the global economy that can be exchanged for food, and because the subsistence agriculture that they do have the skill to do is inherently risky, threatened by pollution and climate shifts, and often not the way that the people in power can make the most money; further the crop failures are as often the result of bad agricultural methods as they are by actual drought.
Enhancing education helps deal with the underlying problems that cause starvation. OLPC is certainly neither the whole solution, nor the component most related to short-term needs. But there are lots of other groups involved in addression the problems of the developing world, and pissing on OLPC because it doesn't address all the problems, or the one piece you think is most immediate, is idiotic.
The people doing OLPC aren't hurting the efforts of organizations like the Red Cross or Food for the Poor. Indeed, it seems to me like it goes hand-in-hand with the efforts of small business development and microcredit in the third world that have demonstrated that building economic capacity by providing basic assistance aimed at enabling individual productivity can have considerable effects in dealing with the crushing poverty that produces hunger.
This is, really, about helping developing societies develope more of the tools they need -- in terms of human capital -- to feed themselves.
Parent
Re:Food? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is for children that have overcome the daily quest for food.
Why do people insist on thinking this is for children that dont have any food and live in ditches.
Not every poor person falls into that category.
Parent
Re:Food? (Score:3, Insightful)
I think this is a great humanitarian initiative, showing that there is more to living than just staying alive. I'm not saying we should stop with the food, but this here i
Food AND an education! (Score:4, Insightful)
This has been addressed many times.
Yes, kids need water, food, vaccinations, a place to sleep, and if they and their communities are to be successful and self-supporting an education also.
Is a $100 laptop extravagant for supporting an education? No,because it's multipurpose tool offering information, tutorials, communications, and soon after distribution locally built & relevant applications. By offering these kids access to the larger world, to an education in their own language, to contribute and distribute materials, it gives they, and their communities, opportunities to break their cycle of poverty.
It's not an either/or proposition between food and education, BOTH are needed, one fills the short-term need and the other the long-term.
Parent
Re:Where's the crank? (Score:3, Informative)
"This working model sported many differences from the early prototypes that were seen previously. The biggest change is that the laptop no long features a directly attached crank for powering the laptop in areas without electricity--the crank has now been moved to the power supply."
Re:Where's the crank? (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Usability? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:butt-ugly, but (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Me so hungry (Score:4, Insightful)
If all we did was feed starving people, they'd be dependant on us forever, and would have rampant overpopulation and disease. By educating the parts of the continent that is slightly better off, they can help themselves, and then help their neighbours help themselves.
Parent