$100 Laptop Takes Flight in Thailand 162
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.
Only 500 (Score:5, Funny)
If not "a laptop for every child" is a bit short
It's a trial run. (Score:5, Informative)
It's a trial run - from tfa:
Re:It's a trial run. (Score:4, Funny)
It's a trial run - from tfa:
Thanks for clearing that up. We all seriously thought that there might be only 500 children in Thailand. The GPP did not pretend to misunderstand this point purely for comic effect.
Re:It's a trial run^H^H^HFFlight (Score:3, Funny)
$100 Laptop Takes Flight in Thailand
I certainly *want* a flying laptop! And for a meager $100, too. I suppose the FAA, BAA and IATA are keeping these out of other hands around the world. Those lucky thai!
I for one welcome our new flying laptop overlords
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Well, they *did* just catch JonBenet Ramsey's killer there...
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Signed,
Emily Latella
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where can I order mine? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:where can I order mine? (Score:5, Informative)
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There was a movement (I don't remember the links) that you could sign up for where you pledged $300 dollars for a laptop with the intent that the extra money would buy laptops for children. However, I think that the $100 laptop guys have yet to accept that offer.
Re:where can I order mine? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:where can I order mine? (Score:4, Insightful)
When this project is brought up (and it had its share of
By keeping to mention the 300-dollar deal, I think it's easy for the editors to keep people aware of this possibility, and do their little contribution to which is, imo, a very good start in helping the third world countries partially keep up with the rest of the world.
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The deal has not, as far as I am aware, been discussed as a possibility officially. It is only a proposal made by unrelated people, and due to the wording of the pledge (signatories pledge to only purchase the laptop for $300, and only if over 100000 people sign by October), it is inconceivable that it will be successful except as an indication that there is interest in buying the laptops at an increased price.
Also, from the prices I have seen, $300 barely pays for two computers. It certainly won't pay f
Re:where can I order mine? (Score:5, Interesting)
Subsidizing the hell out of something and send it to the Third World is a good way to guarantee that it'll end up being sold right back to the First World, if there's any kind of demand.
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Case 2: The trial run of ~500 fails miserably, and Negroponte says "boy am I glad the initial run was only 500 instead of >1 miilon!)
There are two main things to fixing poverty in the undeveloped world: proper inter- and intra-national distribution of food, and educating the masses (althou
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Really, though, Thailand is not that poor. Prime Minister Thaksin is himself worth something like US$600m, being a telcom baron and the richest man in the country. The rest of the country is fairly well developed when seen in comparison with other countries in the area. Try visiting Cambodia or Laos and then comparing the experience to Thailand.
When I originally read about this deployment of laptops last week, I wondered why Thailand
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Warranty coverage? (Score:2, Redundant)
I know these laptops are built to be rugged, but is it really a good idea to send them flying through the air?
Re:Warranty coverage? (Score:4, Funny)
It's all the rage. Jon-Benet's killer was apparently doing it there, too.
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Last I saw, obesity was a major problem facing american schoolchildren. I say we make them carry the laptops and a UPS in addition to the books, not instead of them. And let's take away the schoolbuses and cars, too. I would like to be
Anxious to see them in action (Score:5, Insightful)
I am anxious to see these laptops in action. I have heard a lot of criticism that rather than laptops, the poor children of the world need clean water and nutritious food first. This is, of course, true. But such criticism supposes that all the poor are living in mud and filth. Not true - some have their basic needs somewhat met, and perhaps education is next on the list of needs.
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Re:Anxious to see them in action (Score:5, Insightful)
Furthermore, the facilities and workers for producing such laptops are in place, and they themselves cannot benefit 3rd world children in terms of food and water and health care. But can they contribute? Yes, they can, and that $100 going in exchange for the production of those laptops is not equivalent to $100 dollars worth of food! If things are balanced right, the value of the machines will be right and will not outweigh money spent on other items such as food.
Food and water are essential, but it's unfair to say that the laptops would not be beneficial just as well. More pressing needs may exist, but every little thing helpful counts.
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It really shouldn't be and all-or-nothing proposal and you might think that OLPC should start marketing t
Re:Anxious to see them in action (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem lies basically at bringing the information to them, and a laptop like this would create a path for the information to flow (it could even be preloaded with classes' material) and teaching means as well (it could have educational and interactive software).
I think that basic needs MUST be addressed first, but if you want these people to progress in the society, the only way to achieve this is through education.
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The problem isn't so much 'bringing the information to them' but 'bringing the information to them in a way that doesn't take too much time away from meeting their basic needs'. This is why improving the base quality of living is so important.
Here's a for instance. Let's say that a child in some part of the world has 16 waking hours a day, and it takes 12 of those to get food, clean water, etc. This means that there are 4 hours left for education. I am not convinced that a person can learn more in 4 hours
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Probably nothing exciting is going to happen with these laptops. As the story suggests, the kids will mainly use the laptops to read textbooks. Then again, they'll have access to a lot of books they didn't previously have access to — which is probably exciting for them.
One thing folks miss when they criticize this probject: it will save the countries that buy them a lot of money. Buying and transporting books is expensive.
The projects that do the best for the developing world address mundane, ungl
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Cable TV never delivered on the kinds of promises of learning and interesting programs the companies made to us. It took the internet, wikipedia, youtube etc.
I'm sure that after a time these laptops will stimulate a relatively large growth in the web in the countries it is seeded in. Many web-sites in the native language will appear and although much of it may be porn, a lot will be of direct use to th
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And yes, many such folk are illiterate. So they'll be after their kids to learn to read, so the whole family can go online.
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Where do you get your information? The official line is that the laptops cost about $130 to make, and that's without any subsidy. That's the official line from the project. If you have any information to the contrary (beyond your own ignorant opinion as to how much it costs to build a laptop) let's see a pointer to it, or at least a reference I can find at the library.
Your notions about the economics of printing books is pure fantasy. Paper is not that cheap, and your statements about the cost of transpor
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It's unclear quite how useful these things are going to be, but t
Ebooks for the poor (Score:2, Funny)
Reading DRM'd books on an 8 inch screen. Sweet! And all you have to do is turn the crank madly to see anything. These poor kids are gonna end up with right arms like Hell Boy.
Re:Ebooks for the poor (Score:5, Funny)
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Doesn't cranking madly lead to impaired vision?
Re:Ebooks for the poor (Score:4, Funny)
At least they could put a crank on each side so the kids can look like Popeye!
Re:Ebooks for the poor (Score:5, Informative)
The books are NOT DRM'd. The entire system is strictly freely-licensed.
It doesn't have a hand crank anymore.
So, in other words, STFU because you're either ignorant or trolling.
Free textbooks as a trial balloon for DRM e-books? (Score:2)
But if this projectd works in developing countries, the major publishers in developed countries will likely use the result to promote similar projects, except with oppressive DRM. You've all read "The Right to Read" by Richard Stallman [gnu.org], right?
Re:Free textbooks as a trial balloon for DRM e-boo (Score:2)
They could, except I would expect the people behind the OLPC effort to refuse to sell the device to people who want to use it as a DRM'd ebook reader. Besides, if they wanted that then they could just ask Sony to make them one instead!
And yes, I have read The Right to Read. In fact, it's one of my favorite tools to explain DRM to people, and I've cited it on Slashdot many times myself.
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That's my point. If OLPC is successful, developed countries are more likely to try it themselves with Sony DRM reader devices.
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First of all, there's no reason they couldn't do that now. Second, a Sony ebook reader is more expensive than one of these laptops (even without any subsidy). Aside from complete stupidity or publisher kickbacks, there's no reason for any school system to even consider it (which, of course, makes it all the more likely).
Of course, I still don't understand what you're getting at. Are you trying to say that we shouldn't support OLPC because it might give the proprietary dumbasses here stupid ideas?
Re:Free textbooks as a trial balloon for DRM e-boo (Score:2)
But if this projectd works in developing countries, the major publishers in developed countries will likely use the result to promote similar projects, except with oppressive DRM. You've all read "The Right to Read" by Richard Stallman [gnu.org], right?
One problem with this, why would any non/undeveloped country buy into and use closed systems with DRMed media when they can get Open sourced for less?
I read recently where in Africa a project is working that uses cheap computers and satellite receivers i
Closed source stuff is free too (arrr matey) (Score:2)
Because of DRM they aren't free. Sure it may be given away at first but once it's widespread then comes tyme to pay up when the company demands payment for continued use or for updates.
FalconRe:Free textbooks as a trial balloon for DRM e-boo (Score:2)
I would have but my copy had DRM.
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Who's providing the free textbooks?
Yeah, it has a footpedal doofus! That's completely different!
Actually they discussed several things, including using a foot pedal, and a crank on the external power supply (as opposed to the original design connected directly to the laptop), but they don't appear to have made a decision. The picture in the FA shows
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The picture credit is "Getty Images/AFP", the text is from AP. Some editor dug up a file photo to illustrate the story. The crank is not part of the current design. Besides, just about every village in Thailand is electrified, they'll use mains power directly or to charge the battery.
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Wikibooks [wikibooks.org], among other things [laptop.org]
The "STFU" was in response to the DRM bit as well. Or, in fact, it was almost entirely in response to the DRM bit, because the only way someone could possibly think this project would even consider using DRM is if they were entirely ignorant about it. FYI, the people designing the thing are huge advocates of Free Software, Creative Commons, etc. There's no w
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-Eric
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Nobody that I know of has ever proposed a good open-source DRM system, to the point where I'm beginning to think that it's impossible. DRM is security through obscurity; obscurity is anathema to open-source software; therefore it's very hard to try to implement DRM on an OSS platform, unless you use binary blobs or something.
The use of systems like this, combined with strong licensing (if you could make the
No Hellboy arms actually (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, the real models (ie: non-3d illustration) dont have cranks [com.com]:
Gratuitous monopoly granted by the UN (Score:2)
Some trick. Obtain a worldwide monopoly on a device that isn't fully designed. Only at the UN.
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Laptops instead of books (Score:4, Insightful)
While good to get some tech in these kids hands, I can't help wondering about permanence. Without the printed page, past facts are easily changed to suit current attitudes. I know this isn't quite the case yet. But as we go farther down the road with ebooks, it will be a concern.
Who are we at war with today?
Re:Laptops instead of books (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this is a non-issue here.
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I still have a geography book from the 1970s which describes Russia or the USSR as a godless dictatorship and Iran as a friendly tourist destination and ally of the US. I've held 60-year-old children's textbooks from Nazi Germany describing Hitler as a brave Nordic warrior fighting against the "Dirty Jews", complete with cartoon drawings showing the 'evil' Jewish bankers (complete with stereotypically large noses and evil squity eyes) and landlords evicting the 'poor
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permanence of printed books (Score:2)
These objects are more permanent then an electronic copy. If a powerful group wanted to 'rewrite history', they could never destroy all of the old copies of these text. There are hundreds or thousands of copies of these same texts laying around in attics, closets and museums throughout the the US and Europe.
Tell that to the early Christian church. Sure it may be possible to find old books but then the authorities can do what the Vatican did when some old books of the early church were found at Nag Hamma [gnosis.org]
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If even a few people splurge on a $29.95 USB device and keep copies of every electronic text they're given, then changes in such things as the "official version of history" and the "current stance of the scientific establishment" can be tracked and compared with similar collections from around the world. It's a lot better than paper, which requires keeping 30-year-old copies of the En
The problem is the current trend of DRM (Score:2)
In theory, that's nice idea an that how stuff should be done.
The problem, is that, in practice this is going to be much more complicated. DRM (or Digital Restriction Management, as RMS calls it) is a nice e
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You my friend are suffering from a mild case of Tinfoil Hat Syndrome. Electronically stored text is easily as permanent as a dead tree version. (Digital storage medium lifetimes aside). A pdf on my computer will not change its facts
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Without the printed page, past facts are easily changed to suit current attitudes. I know this isn't quite the case yet. But as we go farther down the road with ebooks, it will be a concern.
That's right, ebooks are easier to edit and via satellite are easy to update. If a printed book is found to have errs it has to be reprinted whereas ebooks are easy to edit then transit to update the book on a harddrive.
FalconRe: (Score:2)
I agree with you that we do need to be concerned about facts changing with time and how do we record the past (in fact I think this happens all of the time, and it appears to me it happens mostly due to negligence and not due to
in the west (Score:1, Insightful)
Crank For Porn (Score:1)
Obligatory, given today's news (Score:2)
Taking flight? (Score:5, Funny)
Preemptive (Score:2, Redundant)
If your response was gonna be "why dont they worry about feeding them instead" you are an idiot, and should frankly just shut up.
And yet, here in the US... (Score:4, Insightful)
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If there were ever a case of apples to oranges, this is it.
In the first place, for all we know the kids will be expected to put their computers away and work with the teacher much of the day -- ju
Happening in the US (Score:2)
Maine?
Big state, northeast corner of the nation, not exactly a hippy-dippy/anything-goes/lets-try-new-things-for- the-heck-of-it/cost-means-nothing kinda place.
They've been putting laptops in the hands of their students for a few years [google.com] now.
They're not alone, other school systems have done the same. Colleges too, many now require incoming students to have a laptop.
As to "force their students to deal with paper textbooks", that's mostly an artifact of the textbook publishers. Indeed many parents, educator
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No, yours is bad science.
Tides are (roughly) symetrical on both sides of the planet; therefore for high tides it's the halfway-inbetween parts that simultaniously (approximately) experience low tides. Learn more at Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
Metaphores aside I believe that education results in greater stability, greater productivity, and improved quality of life for everyone. Large inequalities have a habit of working
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When we have real elections and the good of the people is actually being looked after again by the government. To OLPC the US would only take the price of 20 days of the war in Iraq, but none of the members of congress stand to make much money off of that, so fat chance.
rhY
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Also, most of the schools around here require one of the fancy $100 TI calculators (presumably because of the graphing capabilities, but I think it is so the teacher doesn't have to actually "teach" math, but instead just in
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Interesting that my mother-in-law, a junior high math teacher, complains about exactly the opposite. That the students whine about learning math, and insist that a calculator is a proper way to learn math. She does not let them use a calculator until they have mastered the mathematical concepts. And before you start criticizin
Sounds like a good idea, but questions remain (Score:5, Interesting)
I see some problems, however.
The minimum wage in Thailand is just below $100 per month. That's right, $100.
What if the notebook computer gets damaged through fault of the kid?
What if the notebook computer gets damaged through no fault of the kid?
What if the notebook computer gets stolen?
What if the notebook computer gets sold by the kid / his [drug-addicted] [financially distressed] parent?
A family with one minimum wage earner could be pushed into financial ruin by any of these events.
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Yes, if they get busted, that's a problem - that's why they're as rugged as possible. Probably the kid just exchanges it for a working one. (If they break several, then you've got a problem kid, I guess...)
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Purchasing power parity (Score:2)
And the minimum wage in the United States is just below $900 per month. How much does an entry-level Windows notebook computer cost? What if the notebook computer of a student in such a developed country gets stolen or damaged?
the only problem is... (Score:4, Interesting)
Books are *great*. Reading off of a computer screen is *terrible*.
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Yes... and we're expecting people with little or no computer experience to install and configure this software... on Linux?
The more important issue in this one is "harder to look on with a friend". At 8", the screen is going to be hard enough to use when you're hunched over with your face a few inches fro
Installation is the school system's job (Score:2)
The OLPC laptop's Linux operating system, as well as the annotation and collaboration applications, will be preloaded by the time that the child gets one. Figuring out how to make a working install image is the job of the OLPC organization and the client school systems.
Studies using
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harder to read at length
Can you back up this assertion?
I agree with most of the post but I have an issue with the above part. I know when I read long pages on my computer if I don't read a printout of and read on the screen my eyes get sore and I get a headache. This is true with crts, I don't recall if it's true with lcds as I haven't used one in years. Hopefully within a few weeks I'll find out as I'm planning on getting a new laptop.
FalconUntested tech = snakeoil (Score:2)
2) No one knows how the mesh network will work
3) No one knows how hard the batteries will be to keep charged
4) No one knows how usable the software apps will be
5) Nobody gets a refund if any of these wishful thoughts fall through
Re:Untested tech = snakeoil (Score:5, Insightful)
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1) No one has seen the magical lowcost screen yet
Just because you haven't seen it, it must not exist.
2) No one knows how the mesh network will work
Mesh networks are common technology.
3) No one knows how hard the batteries will be to keep charged
How hard is it to keep your batteries charged? Lots of people in the developing world have electricity, generators, solar power, and yes, hand cranks.
4) No one knows how usable the software apps will be
Because you haven't "approved" them,
Off-Topic Question but... (Score:2)
Is there a repository of software to be loaded on these things somewhere? It would be interesting to see what goes into these things.
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After work conversation... (Score:4, Funny)
"Um, no, but we do have this ghetto laptop."
"Can you eat it?"
"No."
"That's great. Maybe we can look at pictures of food then."
TCO? DRM? (Score:2)
Hank crank was replaced with Foot pedal (Score:2)
The pictures are of the prototype. Isn't there a picture of a more recent model?
Printing?? (Score:4, Funny)