Skeptics Question OLPC's Focus With $75 Tablet 159
With the recent announcement of OLPC's shift in focus, many are criticizing the nonprofit's attempt to design what could be seen as unrealistic hardware at an impossible price point. "The OLPC project has become an unrealistic hardware 'dream' and lost its focus on education, wrote blogger Wayan Vota on OLPC News, which has followed the OLPC since its inception. The project comes up with unrealistic hardware designs and price points that destroy its purpose even more, he wrote. 'Excuse me if I get mad at the XO-3 hype. I'm angry at the energy devoted to fantasy XO hardware instead of OLPC educational reality. I miss the original OLPC Mission, where children, not computers, controlled our dreams,' Vota wrote."
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:1, Informative)
Well, yeah. We also launched CIA ops to goad the Soviets to invade Afghanistan, then followed that up by persuading the Afghans to mount a rebellion that we knew right off would be met with horrific reprisals that would devastate their country, all in the hopes that it might make an already collapsing country collapse a little bit faster.* But who's counting?
* (But it didn't -- contrary to Reaganite mythology, the Kremlin didn't bankrupt itself with rising military costs; Soviet defense spending was flat throughout the '80s. Hell, Afghanistan may have even stabilized them for an extra half a year or so, since they got to ship the most independent and potentially rebellious parts of their military off to get blown up by the mujahadeen.)
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:1, Informative)
Heh, somehow I knew that was coming. "Invasion" is a misleading word, but it did at least reveal your own ignorance. The Soviets did invade. Don't get me wrong. But they invaded at the request of the current Afghan government who was having problems dealing with an aforementioned Afghan mujahideen. The Soviets were helping an ally against a fundamentalist terrorist group being funded by the US.
So yes. that is in fact your bad. Dumbass.
ole.org (Score:1, Informative)
This is why the Open Learning Exchange was founded by Dr. Richard Rowe. He had been President of the OLPC project and broke away primarily to concentrate on the supplying educational software to the kids. See http://ole.org/about/faq/ [ole.org]
You need courseware before you need laptops. Indeed, OLE's initial plan doesn't require laptops for the kids.
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:2, Informative)
I'm sorry, but Afghanistan was broken before the U.S. military arrived...before 9/11 happened.
Who said anything about the US military? In the 1970s, Afghanistan was a great place. I talked to a guy who visited their as a tourist, and he said all the people were friendly and welcoming. In every hotel he stayed at, there were two little hash chunks on the nightstand, like mints.
Generally countries tend to do well when their territory isn't use strategically for international power games.
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sorry, but Afghanistan was broken before the U.S. military arrived...before 9/11 happened.
Who said anything about the US military? In the 1970s, Afghanistan was a great place. I talked to a guy who visited their as a tourist, and he said all the people were friendly and welcoming. In every hotel he stayed at, there were two little hash chunks on the nightstand, like mints. Generally countries tend to do well when their territory isn't use strategically for international power games.
Right, if it wasn't for the U.S., Afghanistan would be a wonderful country. The Russian invasion has nothing to do with the change, it's all the fault of the U.S..
Re:Irony (Score:2, Informative)
It was pretty obvious that Intel was making buku bucks off the advertising associated with the original platform. The OLPC guys got taken for a ride by associating with Intel on that one.
Beaucoup.
I hate grammar nazis, but... Dude.
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:3, Informative)
Disclaimer: I've actually been to Afghanistan. Lived there for a little while, and, inshallah, will return before the mission ends. So not just idle speculation; actual experience.
The AC above has the right of it: the Afghans had their own Communist revolution. When that didn't go well, the Afghan government of the day invited the Soviets in. Of course, Russia/The USSR had interests in Afghanistan going back hundreds of years, so that decision to invade wasn't exactly pure altruism... but yes, the Soviets were invited in.
And smelling payback for Vietnam, the USA chose to fund a group of religious fanatics ("terrorists" or "freedom fighters", your pick) who then proceeded to bleed the Soviet Union dry.
Not that the Soviets have any right to be proud of their conduct either.... they did some horrific things while they were there.
Following the victory over the Soviets, the USA took their money and left, leaving the country in the hands of men who rather enjoyed killing people and who had neither the skills nor the means to effectively govern. And from that festering mess arose the events of 9/11.
Karma, as they say, is a bitch.
A full reading of recent (last 50 years) of Afghan history is enlightening. Lots of very bad men; precious few heroes.
DG
Re:Not just being grumpy (Score:3, Informative)
That's exactly right. The only reason the OLPC group set out to design the XO in the first place was that there were no computers in that size and price range at the time. They simply did not exist.
Well, now they exist. Cherrypal is selling them. [teleread.org] They're not going to have the same kind of standardized architecture that the XO does, but nonetheless they're Real Live Computers that can run real operating systems (and by "real operating systems" I of course mean Linux).
OLPC ought to be putting educational software on those rather than blowing more money chasing this touchscreen pipe dream.