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OLPC Mass Production Begins
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Jul 23, 2007 03:01 PM
from the long-uphill-battles dept.
from the long-uphill-battles dept.
chris_mahan writes to tell us that mass production of the $100 laptop is finally being ramped up. "Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines. Previously, the organization behind the scheme said that it required orders for 3m laptops to make production viable. The first machines should be ready to put into the hands of children in developing countries in October 2007. "There's still some software to write, but this is a big step for us," Walter Bender, head of software development at One Laptop per Child (OLPC), told the BBC News website."
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So, can we buy civvie models yet? (Score:4, Funny)
I'm waiting for the OLTRA... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So in a year or so... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So in a year or so... (Score:5, Interesting)
I think a more reasonable time frame is 10 or 15 years. I remember using BBSes in the mid 90s and dreaming about an internet connection and one of those funky email addresses with an '@' symbol in it. I would never, *never*, *NEVER* in a million years predicted technologies such as Wikipedia or Bittorrent. Nobody did -- not Bill Gates, not Negroponte -- not any of the Powerful Old Men in computers. It takes a generation of new kids who can think outside the box and have the free time and audacity to try something that everyone knows could never work. Even now very few wikipedia proponents would ever say that they thought it would be as successful as it is.
If millions of kids spend their formative years with a completely hackable, programmable, peer-networked computer, we are going to see a complete revolution of computing technology. It doesn't matter that they have brown skin, speak no English, or live in a jungle hut. They will do amazing things with programs and computers that the last generation would never think of. If there are millions of OLPCs distributed, the internet will be totally different 20 years from now.
Parent
Re:So in a year or so... (Score:5, Interesting)
My prediction is that most of these OLPCs will be 're-purposed' by adults and young, budding geeks in small villages. It's like when cell phones came into rural Africa. Mining companies saw it was too expensive to run phone lines all throughout the jungle, so they threw up cell towers. Villagers got a hold of second-hand cell phones, and low-and-behold, they started lining up buyers to buy their crops as they were harvesting them in the field, instead of dragging them all the way to market only to have them rot in the hot sun.
So the success won't be village school children learning from them, but the amazing new programs and communication technologies that both adults and children use *for their own purposes*, instead of doing what we think they should be doing with them.
One of the programming languages that is coming with the OLPC is Smalltalk. That means there will be a new generation of millions 3rd world LISP-like hackers spread all throughout the world. This will be their first computer language. Not c, not BASIC, not visual basic. This, I predict, will lead to amazing new programs.
Parent
Re:So in a year or so... (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:So in a year or so... (Score:5, Insightful)
Whereas you are quite happy to assume everyone that lives in a developing nation is corrupt, evil and not worthy of a chance at a better life. Of course all of us middle-class people in the West, our business leaders and politicians are all whiter-than-white. We're incorruptible!
Ever heard of a self fulfilling prophesy? Treat someone like a criminal and you'll generally force them to act like one: but try to help, do some good and a lot of people will respond. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the OLPC--and projects like it--will decrease the amount of crime in developing nations. People will be empowered to work on worthwhile projects, and it will build communication bridges with people in the West.
Wake up and stop dehumanising the rest of the world. There are arseholes everywhere, but there are plenty of good people too. Yes some OLPCs will appear on e-Bay, no doubt a few will be used to run scams (although most scammers already have computers), but the vast majority will be used for education. The benefits far outweigh any potential problems, it's really sad people like you can't see that and insist on branding whole nations of millions of people as scum (probably without having ever even visited the continent).
Parent
kids in the states (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:kids in the states (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Greetings from the Nation of Africa! (Score:5, Funny)
IN RETURN FOR YOUR HELP, YOU WILL RECEIVE AN AMOUNT OF NO LESS THAN 120% (POSSIBLY MORE) OF THE TRANSFERRED AMOUNT. PLEASE REPLY AT THE SOONEST WITH NOTIFICATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS DEAL, BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
YOURS RESPECTFULLY,
GENERIC AFRICA MILLIONAIRE PRINCE
1 AFRICA ROAD
AFRICA CITY, 12358
NATION OF AFRICA
Parent
Re:kids in the states (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
So who gets theirs first? (Score:5, Funny)
Poor child turns down OLPC computer (Score:5, Funny)
Can I get the African diistribution? (Score:4, Funny)
It's for a... sociological study in aesthetics... purely educational...
How did this get in production so quickly? (Score:5, Insightful)
* 2.1 Romania--No
* 2.2 Argentina--Yes
* 2.3 Brazil--Yes
* 2.4 Korea---driven by a few citizens
* 2.5 Libya--Yes
* 2.6 Nigeria--Yes
* 2.7 India--No
* 2.8 Uruguay--Yes
* 2.9 Rwanda--Yes
* 2.10 USA--Talking
Anyone that's worked government IT would tell you that it's incredibly difficult to get paid in a timely manner. On top of *just* getting paid, they've been paid so much the entire OEM chain is ready to mass-produce?
Someone somewhere has a lot of influence (e.g. money) to get this going because OEM's certainly don't work for free and governments rarely, if ever, are enlighted enough to see a good thing an let it pass. Who's pushing this and where's the money coming from?
Critical mass for sapience by 4/17/08 (Score:5, Funny)
The Diamond Age (Score:3, Insightful)
That does not compute (Score:4, Insightful)
Not really (Score:4, Insightful)
Considering that you are a brave AC, I am guessing that you already know this, and are just opposed to THIS project.
Parent
Re:Blah (Score:4, Informative)
In what is, IIRC, the largest launch country, Brazil, median income for black women (the worst off racial/gender mix) is $156/month. (source [reuters.com])
Heck, even Rwanda (which is one of the poorest nations that may get it early, through Libya purchasing it for them) has an average per capita annual income of $206 (source [state.gov]), over an order of magnitude higher than you suggested for "most" OLPC recipients.
Parent
Re:Blah (Score:4, Funny)
Personally, I suggest a new slogan:
"OLPC, Bringing Internet Porn to horny third world pubescent boys!"
They could include a complimentary subscription to playboy online and a safer sex care pack!
In all seriousness, Come on. Did anyone REALLY think that these things would be used for only "educational" purposes? Hell, I'll bet good money that the majority of them hardly EVER end up used for education. Unless you consider learning new sexual techniques "education".
Parent
Re:Blah (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When did porn become a bad word? Society's today seem to be fixated on how sex is bad for you.
I don't see how having access to porn should deter these users from eventually using it for learning. Its pretty much the same as when we first got access to computers and the internet (or in my day, bulletin boards). The first thing you do is look for porn, and once you've exhausted yourself, start learning to use the computer for other stuff.
As for illegal activity... the users who would normally gravitate toward
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Better? I don't know if you can even put them in the same category.
The fact is, these computer hardware manufacturers and the OSS community are pulling their own resources together for the vision of bringing technology and information to parts of the world that don't yet have it.
How a