First Photos of MIT $100 Laptop 659
An anonymous reader noted that MITs $100 laptop was unveiled at the Seven Countries Task Force Meeting. It runs a special version of the Fedora linux and it comes with native wireless lan support. You can see the
photo album, and you can pledge to buy one at triple price... in order to donate 2 of them to children.
I would love to buy one (Score:4, Interesting)
cant they sell me a plain black one?
sure as hell would replace my pda/ipod/other crap I haul around
Re:Freedom where art thou? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:These look great! (Score:2, Interesting)
/. effect (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:These look great! (Score:4, Interesting)
Gates maybe, but Jobs offered OS X free of charge but was turned down. He tried, they refused.
Re:Hand Powered? (Score:3, Interesting)
My current laptop has a 10.4' screen at 1024x768, and I actually use it as my main machine, both for writing and development. My plan was to complement this machine with a full-size desktop, but that purchase got delayed for various reasons and I found I don't need one after all.
Yes, the screen is small, but since I sit close to it (the whole machine being compact), it's not a problem for me in practice.
missings modes? (Score:3, Interesting)
For less then $1.00 a day... (Score:2, Interesting)
Sorry for being cynical, but every time this comes up, it amazes me. Good idea, but priorities seem out of wack.
Re:Freedom where art thou? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry to break it to you, but in most countries $100 per student will not provide the above, nor even come close. So if you are willing to donate significantly more than $100, then by all means please do and perhaps you will be able to make a lasting impact on one student`s life.
However, if you only have $100 to donate, this laptop probably will have the largest impact on a child`s life. I personally like to get the biggest bang for my buck, so I will be donating to this project, even if I do end up donating more than $100 (so that my money is able to help more than one child).
Cheers.
Sign the Pledge and Mean it...Slashdotters! (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, Yes they are not offical offering the thing up for sale, and it might never happen, but its worth it just to show support for the idea.
If it came to be I'd more than likely donate the third machine too...although it might also make an interesting hack project, see how much effort it would take to add a real power supply and/or battery.
For the cheap-arsed geeks out there (Score:5, Interesting)
And we all want one for $100, and we'd all gladly pay up to $400 for one. I've got a PowerBook, and I'd still love one. I wouldn't have to worry about it, but it would be really handy.
This may indicate a market for such a device. Not a PDA, not a full-on "outfitted for war" laptop, not a (god damned useless) e-reader, not a handheld gaming rig, but the space between.
This is the space for essentialy a portable, truly open device that will let us surf the web, and run shells, and edit text files or to-do lists, but that won't break us financially if it's snatched from us on the subway.
MIT is showing us the market, and they're refusing to compete! Why have none of us embraced this yet?
My formula would be a Gumstix and an eInk display, maybe? Anyone have any better ideas?
Re:These look great! (Score:5, Interesting)
Belinda and Gates are attacking a different set of problems and they're doing it everywhere. I think their viewpoint is that this project's priorities are out of whack. Education is great, provided the person will live to use it.
Letter from Bill and Melinda Gates [gatesfoundation.org]We believe health is the cornerstone of human development. When health takes hold, life improves by all measures. Conversely, poor health aggravates poverty, poverty deepens disease, and nations trapped in this spiral will not escape without the world's help. In Africa, the cost of malaria in terms of treatment and lost productivity is estimated to be $12 billion a year. The continent's gross domestic product could be $100 billion higher today if malaria had been eliminated in the 1960s. And if HIV infection rates continue at their present levels, the world will likely see 45 million new infections by 2010 and lose nearly 70 million people by 2020. That's 70 million of the most productive members of society - health workers, educators, and parents.
Therefore, the foundation's Global Health program works to ensure that lifesaving advances in health are created and shared with those who need them most. Our primary focus areas are HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, child survival and childhood immunization, and maternal and reproductive health.
To begin, we invest heavily in research to help discover new and better products, particularly vaccines. The foundation also supports work to develop products that can be manufactured and distributed. Then, once a product is developed, we work to make sure that there are systems in place to adopt and sustain these new drugs as they become available. The foundation is a major supporter of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). This alliance has provided basic immunizations to over 8 million children who would not otherwise have been immunized. As a result, GAVI has already saved an estimated 500,000 children's lives.
---The most pessimistic person could view this project akin to what Apple did when working with schools to get Apple software & hardware in cheap: become the defacto standard via goodwill. Get in early so that when they leave school they come back. Besides, that same person's pessimistic view will believe that they'll be stolen from schools as they'll be the most valuable thing in the school. (due to the fantastic engineering fortitude which is obvious to all).
Internetcafes (Score:2, Interesting)
The laptops would still be broken or stolen quite fast. Also, without an internet connection and printer they would be of little use.
Internetshops with a good/fast internet connection and a low hourly rate are of much greater use imho. It would be a lot better if every village had one or two computers with a fast (wireless) connection, that the entire village can use.
Re:These look great! (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's look at other problems. Many countries in Africa are politically unstable. Certain tribes/countries/ethnic groups want to kill the others. They are raised to think of the "other group" (whoever that may be) as the enemy/evil/not-to-be-trusted. It has been proven that the Internet can break down borders. On a forum (including ones like this), you can have people from dozens of countries putting in their opinion. It helps people to understand their near and distant neighbors.
Finally, some countries have a culture of corruption. When aid gets sent from foreign countries, there is sometimes lots of "palm greasing" just to get the supplies to those who need them the most. And even if the supplies get there, sometimes a few guys with guns take it all away. This is "just the way things are." So, what happens if the children are educated to realize that things do not have to be that way? It is possible that in a decade or two, opinions could start to change.
This is not just about reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic. This is about changing the way that people see the world.
I do admit that this OLPC is not LIKELY to do all of that. But if it changes the life of even a few children, maybe those children will grow up to be the next president/prime minishter/grand poobah of their countries.
I have some relevant experience here (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hand Powered? (Score:2, Interesting)
Yet another well meaning 1st-world-centric idea (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm sure this will help people in the third world (Score:3, Interesting)
Need a job? Get a laptop!
No running water? Crapping in a ditch? Get a laptop!
yeah, this will help those people out.
Re:Would Jobs have liked the pledges? (Score:3, Interesting)
In one they said they were going to leave it up to the government to buy and supply to schools. That's just BAD BAD BAD, especially when you have so many people like us willing to help.
Second, Negroponte said they might, eventually be available for retail sale, but "I doubt you'll be able to buy them at Best Buy."
Still, I'll sign up... I think it's a great idea, and my son could probably use something like this next year; his own computer that he can take with him and link it up to our home system to print and so forth. We already have a wireless network. And if he's going to play games, he'll have to do it on our computer and we'll be able to keep an eye on him... this little laptop isn't exactly going to be a good gaming machine (well, text adventures might come back in vogue).
Re:Foolish thinking (Score:3, Interesting)
You can't do anything to improve conditions untill the governments, and whatever priesthood (generic term), that is in power wants those better changes. It's corruption that keeps the citizens in poor conditions, not the lack of available laptops. So now they will still have poor conditions, but now they'll have a laptop to play with... perhaps even to sell in order to afford food or rent for that month. Having a few cheap laptops around isn't going to fix the irrigation system you mention. That problem came about mainly because the people that set it up didn't leave documents or instructions on how it operates. Someone shows up, installs something beneficial, then leaves without proper instruction. Laptops will show up, nobody will have proper instruction, and in a few weeks it's being used as a doorstop or something to set a hot kettle on.
Cheap laptops don't address the issue that there are a great number of countries in Africa, for instance, where superstion runs rampant. The connection there is that superstition is a sign of blatant ignorance, and there's no way to fix ignorance (you can't really fix stupidity either). The laptops will just be turned into plastic bricks.
Re:I'll wait for the final version. (Score:3, Interesting)
God help them if they're relying on the largesse of their suppliers.
Re:Freedom where art thou? (Score:1, Interesting)
I'd be interested at a hundred bucks. Add a 2.5inch external 80gig drive for another hundred and you've got a killer little movie machine/jukebox that's at least as good as the car DVD toys they sell at Best Buy for three hundred bucks. And you could download your photos to the thing while you're out in the wilderness. This thing is marketable big time. It's just not being marketed right. Call it the Happy Camper computer. Sell them to people going to Burning Man. Hell, get Wal Mart to carry it in the camping section. The charity thing is fine and good, but why not just sell them directly at the going price? That seems like a much faster way to rack up a hundred thousand sales. It's emminently marketable.
How about a 12V adapter?
Seems silly to have a decent product and then to assume the only way you can move it is with charity donations. Just sell the damn things.