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It makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
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My three year old is able to sit down with my iPod touch and run through a variety of games. He knows how to unlock it, scroll through the menus, and choose which game he wants. There are coloring games, letter and number games, a
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"With great hope,
Junior"
Please don't let your kid get too curious with the laptop!
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E-book readers will be the killer app for next year's net-tablets, IMO. The good ones will likely use Pixel Qi screens [youtube.com]. As for OLPC, they're doing great pioneering work, which launched the netbook phenomenon. Pixel Qi will provide OLPC the paper-like screens at cost. In e-book mode, the battery should last days, not hours, and with the overall reductions in cost for the multi-touch display, processor (can you say ARM?), and power system, net tablets for under $100 may just be possible. Frankly, I'll ho
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Don't worry, knowing Negroponte this thing will be running Windows Vista by next year.
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Dear Mr. Negroponte,
Want to help third-world countries to get affordable laptops for their children? Here is a reasonable way to do it:
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Program crashed. Politicians != fairness. Impossible instruction given.
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Great vision, but is technology the answer? (Score:4, Insightful)
From the OLPC website:
They even go on to say that this is about education, not laptops [laptop.org]. So why are they working on building these devices when if all they want is a cheap Panasonic Toughbook? It seems that instead of trying to build cheaper devices, they could partner with a company (like Panasonic) to provide this kind of technology on the cheap.
By focusing so much on the technology, we are forgetting that the purpose of these devices is to enable kids around the world to become more connected. This can be done with an old Toshiba Satellite laptop from 2001, you don't need the latest and greatest software to access the Internet.
Re:Great vision, but is technology the answer? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
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>So why are they working on building these devices when if all they want is a cheap Panasonic Toughbook?
Probably because being rugged isn't good enough for their need and they also want to have laptops which are: low power and readable outdoor..
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Of the the most compelling (for its market) features of the OLPC is its tiny energy consumption, which can even be recharged with a hand crank. Some of these people don't even have an energy outlet at home.
Try that with a 2001 Toshiba Satellite.
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It seems that instead of trying to build cheaper devices, they could partner with a company (like Panasonic) to provide this kind of technology on the cheap.
Wait, so instead of partnering with companies to produce a cheaper laptop, they should partner with companies to produce a laptop, but cheaper?
Yeah, they're already working with existing companies on designing these things. They have a variety of specific needs. They want them to be rugged but lightweight, since they'll be used by children. They need them to use very little power, since the idea is to use give them to children in areas where power infrastructure isn't good. On top of all their other en
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It's questionable whether a publicly traded company like Panasonic could do it, unless they argued that the good will generated by a massive at cost project is of sufficient benefit to share holders to justify it. Part of the power of OLPC, potentially, is that it doesn't have to generate a profit.
Of course, the downside to that is that they can more easily do stupid things, like not take a profit where its available by exploiting demand in the first world and marketing it there as well, instead doing some
Sorry what? (Score:3, Insightful)
Dual screens? E-paper? Touchable displays?
Surely what you really need to make it cheap is cheap components and low R&D costs. Toughen up a netbook for god's sake! At the time the last OLPC came to everyone's attention, it was a fairly revolutionary idea. Then Asus released the Eee range and others quickly followed suit. Nearly all of them make the OLPC look like last year's trash and for not much price difference.
Re:Sorry what? (Score:5, Funny)
At the time the last OLPC came to everyone's attention, it was a fairly revolutionary idea. Then Asus released the Eee range and others quickly followed suit. Nearly all of them make the OLPC look like last year's trash and for not much price difference.
Exactly. The lesson here is that if you really want private enterprise to do something, you have to set up a nonprofit to do it first and give it away to poor people. That way, the for-profit companies will think you're threatening their turf (even if they had no intention of doing whatever it is you're doing in the first place), and they'll go out of their way to compete with you (and crush you).
So, I suggest we form a non-profit company called "one trip to Mars for every child" and announce we're going to be designing a spacecraft to take poor children on trips to Mars. I predict Boeing and Lockheed will have competing Martian colonies with twice-daily commuter service within a year.
Parent
Re:Sorry what? (Score:4, Insightful)
> I suggest we form a non-profit company called "one trip to Mars for every child"
> and announce we're going to be designing a spacecraft to take poor children on trips
> to Mars. I predict Boeing and Lockheed will have competing Martian colonies with
> twice-daily commuter service within a year.
As a counter-example, I'd point out that your scheme hasn't been a huge success for the plethora of "three square meals a day, clean water and some clothing for every child" non-profits. It could just be they need a snappier name...
c.
Parent
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> You kidding me? Look at how many privately run prisons there are in the US.
As bad as the incarceration rates are in the US, I haven't heard about a whole lot of children in them. Then again, who knows what RIAA/MPAA lobbyists are doing behind the scenes...
c.
Modded funny but I think you were close (Score:2)
Only a non-profit could take the risk of a new form factor that no one thought they would need or want. Laptops kept getting bigger and bigger. Who knew people would once again want to put up with tiny keys and bizarre resolutions. Actually there are many who bemoan some of the sacrifices now.
I am still awaiting the netbook craze to settle down into a form which the majority thinks is both very portable and easily accessible. Its getting close.
As for why N. wants a new device, because its far easier to
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Can we start a "50Mbps for every child" right here in the US, and maybe get some decent internet?
I'm serious. It works. [arstechnica.com]
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Exactly. The lesson here is that if you really want private enterprise to do something, you have to set up a nonprofit to do it first and give it away to poor people. That way, the for-profit companies will think you're threatening their turf (even if they had no intention of doing whatever it is you're doing in the first place), and they'll go out of their way to compete with you (and crush you).
Funny AND true!
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The screens are about $20 a piece, so a second screen, which doubles the screen area, is only $20 more - MINUS the cost of building a cover (folding the screens serves that purpose). So the incremental cost is less than $20. It's too bad they dropped the two-screen model ... it's a good idea. If you've ever worked with dual monitors on your computer, going back to one is unthinkable. It just works so much better.
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"Without the OLPC driving, the industry had no interest in net books."
So the fact that OLPC computers have been so profitable convinced the industry to make netbooks?
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Did they ever get the manufacturing cost under $100?
I saw an old EEE (Celeron - 600mhz?) going for $135 new a month back.
Epic Sales 101 failure. EPIC. (Score:3, Insightful)
What's that you say? You have a better version coming next year? Well, thanks for being so honest - we'll put our checkbook back in our pocket rather than giving you money for the obsolescent model now.
Oh, what? There'll be an another new version soon after that? Well, that's just great! Give us a call back if and when it's ever available - we'll do lunch.
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What's that you say? You have a better version coming next year? Well, thanks for being so honest - we'll put our checkbook back in our pocket rather than giving you money for the obsolescent model now.
And what reasonable company doesn't come out with a "better version" of whatever they sell next year?
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2 displays == 2x the cost (Score:2)
So why not make individual units which can optionally be connected together to then function as a 2-display unit?
William
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So why not make individual units which can optionally be connected together to then function as a 2-display unit?
Sounds like a great idea. Is there a tablet PC / cell phone that when put next to another one will act as an extended double screen for one of the devices ? Put 12 cell phones together for a normal size (albeit mozaicized and overpriced) monitor. Bonus points if they guess their positions relative to each others.
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2 displays == 2x the cost
That's only true if the entire cost comes from a single display. It's like saying that having 2 GB of RAM in your computer makes it twice as expensive as it would be if it had 1 GB of RAM.
The attention whore problem (Score:3, Insightful)
The trouble with the OLPC is that it's mostly a vehicle so that Negroponte can hang out with heads of state and such. Actually shipping product is secondary. It's all about national-level deals. Remember when OLPC had a "buy 2, get 1, give 1" program, and they botched basic order fulfillment?
Those things should be in bubble-packs alongside the graphing calculators, with the price down to the original $99 by now. They don't need a fancier model. They need a cheaper model. They're being run over by the netbook industry. Netbooks are down to $100 if you buy in bulk from China. Look on Alibaba.
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When you're a computer scientist, your most effective path to help others is to leverage your computer science knowledge. Attempting to fix the world hunger problem without the appropriate background would be a foolish waste of time.
Then again OLPC has been a foolish waste of time so far, so it may not have mattered either way.
Fixed it for you (Score:2)
When you're a computer scientist, your funnest path to help others is to leverage your computer science knowledge.
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Yea, because keeping them ignorant of computers, unable to access huge amounts of knowledge about farming, irrigation, planting techniques, home building techniques, and plumbing best practices is the way we want to go here. I suppose to you it's best if we just shovel rice at them until we fall on hard times as a society ourselves and aren't able to anymore, then they just starve to death.
To you all the internet is is Facebook and porn I guess, but if you start googling things about how to build the base
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huge amounts of knowledge about farming, irrigation, planting techniques, home building techniques, and plumbing best practices is going to change fuck all in a place like Ethiopia when all they need is rain !
Sometimes, unfortunately, shovelling rice at them is all that can keep them alive.
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Imagine if it were possible to do more than one thing at a time. Then we could provide food aid as needed, AND work on raising education levels.
Nah, it'd never work.
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Yes, unfortunately, in a place like Ethiopia which is so volatile weather-wise, and so much of the basic necessities like food and clean water is dependent on having a good rainfall each year, the best (and possibly most cost effective) thing in the long run they could do is move everyone somewhere else, and cordon off the whole damn place as uninhabitable.
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Considering that the developed world hasn't been able to provide food for everyone who needs it why should we add another task to not complete?
You know, I believe I've worked at start-ups like that ... they didn't make it.
Not everyone is starving or rich (Score:2)
huge amounts of knowledge about farming, irrigation, planting techniques, home building techniques, and plumbing best practices is going to change fuck all in a place like Ethiopia when all they need is rain !
Sometimes, unfortunately, shovelling rice at them is all that can keep them alive.
The world is not neatly divided into "have an SUV" and "on the brink of starvation". The OLPC project (now rebranded to lowercase olpc according to TFA, for whatever bizarre reason) is targeted at places where children have their basic food needs fulfilled, and have a school they can go to that at least sometimes gets electricity. One of the biggest deployments is in Peru, for instance. If you feel that shoveling rice at ethiopians is the only worthy humanitarian cause, please put your time and/or money wh
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What exactly are plumbing's best practices as applied to an old well a few miles away?
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Seriously? I thought the world had gotten past the notion that computers were frivolous toys or first-world luxuries.
The truth is, food aid doesn't really work, at least by itself. You feed the current population, don't solve any of the systemic problems that led to the hunger, and you end up with another generation of hungry people.
What the developing world needs is development and mass empowerment. And that means, among other things, education. If you know of a tool that packs more educational potential i
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Unfortunately, most of the systemic problems developed because of the actions of more developed nations. Education can't solve it beyond the extent that some lucky ones might be able to escape and become part of the system.
Re:Priorities (Score:4, Insightful)
I just can't help thinking that sorting out such basic problems as hunger and poverty...
The only real solution to these problems is education. Everything else is just a temporary fix.
Parent
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"I just can't help thinking that sorting out such basic problems as hunger and poverty should be slightly higher on the list than whether they can play Facebook and post on Twitter."
Shouldn't it also be more important than you posting on /. then? How many orphans have YOU fed today?
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