Libya Purchases 1.2 mil Wind-up Laptops 258
An anonymous reader writes "The government of Libya is reported to have agreed to provide its 1.2m school children with a cheap, durable laptop computer by June 2008.
The laptops offer internet access and are powered by a wind-up crank. They cost $100 and manufacturing begins next year, says One Laptop per Child.
The non-profit association's chairman, Nicholas Negroponte, said the deal was reached on Tuesday in Libya.
Professor Negroponte told the New York Times in an email that the project mirrored Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's political agenda of creating a more open Libya and he also expressed interest in purchasing the computers for poorer African neighbors."
Ummm (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ummm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ummm (Score:5, Informative)
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When closed, we intend it to be rained on or survive a dust storm.
Terrorists! (Score:5, Funny)
rhY
Re:Terrorists! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Terrorists! (Score:5, Insightful)
If Iraq is a classic example of 'how not to do regime change' then Lybia is a classic example of 'how to do it right'.
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"negotiation"? I don't recall us doing much negotiation with them. As far as I can tell, it was 1) we kicked their ass back in the day, 2) put them in esentially a permanent penalty box, and 3) they saw what happened in Iraq and decided they didn't really want to go through that. That's what really changed their mind.
And it certainly wasn't accomplished though appeasement.
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Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Regime change?
So Gaddafi is no longer the boss in Lybia? No, he's still there.
But it's a democracy now, right? No, still dictator for life.
At least, he's not a terrorist, is he? Well, it's been proved that Lybia has destroyed at least 2 airliners.
If the official story about Lybia was true, it would be such an asset for the current administration that they would be talking about it every day. Yet, Gaddafi's "redemption" receives a surprisingly low media coverage.
When you read between the lines, you realize that Gaddafi got an exceptional deal. 1. He got pardoned for his terrorist acts, 2. economic sanctions were lifted, 3. the US has stopped trying to kill him. In exchange for that : 1. he gave up a non-existing WMD program, 2. he paid a token sum to his victims' families, 3. he gave up terrorist activities (which he had not been able to pursue in the latest 10 years because of the embargo). In exchange, US/UK got 1. drilling rights for Lybian oil, 2. a good PR case for their "War against Terror" (TM) brand.
The irony is that, in 2003, Iraq and Lybia were very similar. Both were led by homicidal madmen, both were under UN embargo, both had no WMD, both were rich in oil.
There were just 2 differences. Lybia was actually a terrorist state and Iraq was not willing to give access to it's oil.
Guess which one was invaded...
Re:Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Iraq gave plenty of access to it's oil -- it was selling as much as it could, as fast as it could to finance it's war with Iran.
You forgot the teensy fact that we had tens of thousands of troops sitting next door to Iraq; had suppressed most of their military; and had all the logistics already in place. Iraq was primed, Libya was not. Iraq was a perfect buffer to Iran -- we don't give a shit about a buffer with Tunisia, Algeria or Egypt. Libya complied with the conditions set upon it by the World Court and U.N., Iraq did not.
There are plenty of things to bash this administration about without having to make some up.
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The reports I've seen about Libyan WMD were even more vague than those about Iraq. Libya is a tiny country which had been under severe embargo for 20 years. I've got a hard time believing they could have developped anything remotely functionning. Anyway, if you have sources about specific programs being dismantled, please post them.
If true, Gaddafi's redemption is also an ONGOING event. Considering this administration catas
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Troops next door? What difference does that make? We have lots of troops next door to canada, does that justify an invasion?
I dont think the GP is being naive, Ithink you are. This is how politics works. The Bush administration needed a high-profile "win" on the waro n terror. Quadaffi saw the opportunity and took it. The west got its oil and Libya is now open for business. Wh
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So Gaddafi is no longer the boss in Lybia?
Not only that, but Libya is no longer spelled "Libya" either.
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The amount is 2.7 billion USD. That's a lot of money here in Australia, which has (almost precisely) 10 times the GDP of Libya (US$64 billion). (For reference, the GDP of the US is $12 trillion.)
So assuming that you could simply compare percentages of GDP for hardship (which you shouldn't, but it provides a guide) that would be roughly equivalent to the US handing over US$504 billion. No way is that a token sum.
If you want to take it another way, the 2005 C
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Personally I find it interesting that, in the build up to the current war in Iraq, the US administration tried to make out that Saddam Hussien had proven links to the funding of terrorist activities in the west - which now turns out not to be true - whereas Gaddafi is known to have directly funded and supported international terrorist operations for many years, and yet now he is our best mate. I wonder why that is..?
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Haliburton is now the official state-sanctioned construction company of Libya.
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Oil. (Score:3, Informative)
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Really? Care to back that assertion up?
Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism have been proven by documents showing he helped to fund the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The PFLP, whose history of terrorism dates back to the "black September" hijackings of 1970, was personally vetted by Saddam to receive oil vouchers worth £40 million.
The deal has been uncovered by US investigators, trawling millions of pages of documents showing a network of diplom
New Meaning (Score:3, Funny)
back to the future (Score:3, Funny)
"It's the Lybians!"
Before the comments roll in... (Score:5, Insightful)
Its 6 years old but sure makes for nice reading. Stuff like that makes the OLPC worth it IMO.
Would be nice.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Also I had heard they were going to remove the wind-up power, I guess they changed their mind again? I think these seem really cool and would love to get my hands on one...
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Yeah, I can see it now:
$100 laptop sold on eBay for $3735928559
Also (Score:2, Funny)
how about one laptop per child in US? (Score:2, Insightful)
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because that would be socialism, apparently (which is way bad). strangely enough, spending $300 billion to fix iraq for iraqis is just peachy.
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That should be "over $300 billion" and "\"fix\"".
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try living in a socialist country like mine before spewing bullshit, thanks
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where's the profit in that?
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giorgiofr, you forget you are speaking to an American Liberal. The kind of socialist that the leaders of the old Soviet Union used to call "Useful idiots". What else would you expect BUT bullshit from them?
Re:how about one laptop per child in US? (Score:5, Funny)
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OLPC makes the laptops and sells them to governments, they would be stupid to waste all their current capital giving the machines away and running out of money. If the US government wanted to buy these, or probably even a state government they would be available to american children
another problem is that in america kids usually have too much computer access rather than too little.
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While this is true, there are many children in the U.S. with very little access. These are the children who would benefit from these, not the average suburban brat. Politically, our current administration would like to get rid of public schools, much less fund an iniative to aid the poor.
cost per day of Iraq fiasco (Score:2)
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Foreign aid is best paid out in weapons.
Damn socialist.
Too Bad India Opted Out (Score:3, Insightful)
India is purchasing Intel's offering (Score:2)
Intel's offering is beefier and costs ~$100 more. Also note that Intel doesn't have a minimum order of 1,000,000 units unlike the OLPC project.
Great Scott! (Score:4, Funny)
Wind up? (Score:2)
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I posted just one minute after you. According to this: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_myths [laptop.org] the crank has been dropped and
Wind-up crank? (Score:3, Informative)
Is this more shoddy BBC journalism? I thought this had been dropped from the OLPC spec a while ago?
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Glad that's sorted.
Not wind-up. WIND up. (Score:2)
okay, that was pretty lame. its not worth ruining my average postinthwhoops.asdflksubmit
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They haven't even met their $100 target even without the laptop. Maybe Libya will buy them for $100, but they don't "cost" that on the BOM even without the handcrank
Libya: highest std of living in Africa (Score:5, Informative)
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But now that you bring it up, extrapolating from AIDS [wikipedia.org] I'd say that the STD rate is rather lower in Libya than in most of Africa. Assuming that the data on that page is accurate, of course. The distribution in that graph [wikipedia.org] is a bit odd (notice which countries are colored green).
Std of living = "standard of living" (Score:2)
Re:Libya: highest std of living in Africa (Score:4, Funny)
O
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Improves Morals (Score:5, Funny)
Wind-up laptop (Score:2)
If was of a really high spec you could call it a tip-top wind-up laptop.
It's damn good idea (Score:3, Interesting)
Question is: Are those kids going to learn something or just ignore those computers? Thing is that there're not many things to play with in Libya. Of course if you don't count sand.
That creates very intresting experiment. You have a lot of kids who have nothing to do except playing with computers. Almost 24/7. And they have friends who do the same... What kind of outcome we can get?
I personally think that Qudaffi is not stupid. That's a great investment in future. And great chance - where else can you buy valuable education for $100? If I'm right, we will see many other contries to follow the suit.
Somebody tell me what to think (Score:2)
The real question is (Score:2)
Exactly what SORT of connectivity are we thinking about here? It's all well and good for Libyan kids to have crankbooks, but what are they going to access? Is it really a good thing if Libyan schoolkids can do nothing more but read illustrated passages of Gadafi's Green Book [wikipedia.org]?
The Libyan regime continues to be repressive and illiberal; the simple addition of a few handcrank laptops will in itself do nothing to change that. I know it's not popular to say this on /., but technology does not solve all probl
1.2 million python programmers in the making (Score:2)
some more coders joining the ranks before long.
Libyan ISP (Score:2)
Although there are now several commercial ISPs operating in the country I believe they're all still heavily monitored by the military. Providing ready access to the Internet for all your nation's school children is highly empowering -- potentially a very pos
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ihre Papiere schnell (Score:2, Funny)
Gitmo for you
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Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
Judge by facts, not because your own dictator says "evil man over there".
Yes, human rights are still a problem. But a country that just legalised imprisoning people without charge, trial, access to lawyer and for as long as you like is not really the party that should speak accusingly of other parties on this matter.
Get rid of your own dictator first before you tell others to do so.
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Maybe in the Eastern hemisphere. Certainly wasn't (and isn't) the case here....
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Democracy is the most mediocre system, ruling by the law of averages.
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IMHO the period of the Cold War was one of the safest and most peaceful ever. It kept the lid on a lot of hate (religious, racial, territorial etc.).
Just like Saddam in Iraq - that's the leadership they needed! A "strong man". A brute that would keep them in line!
Now what have they got? Freedom(tm) and total chaos and destruction.
Freedom
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Education works. Laptops are a nice way of showing some effort on that front.
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The maker is being completely idiotic not selling them to geeks. I'd pay $200.00 for one right now for tinkering. Hell as a backpacking/camping PC it's down right perfect!
So the third world will get their money via paypal and ebay, and geeks get them in spite of the sillyness of the company/foundation making them.
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Somehow I highly doubt that those kids in the poor countries could engage in any financial relationship with anyone abroad.
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FYI, there are 384.2 laptops in a ton.
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Now, how many fit in a Library of Congress?
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Maybe not, but:
1 - It's ripe pickings for an entrepreneur with a load of cash and truck to buy all the computers off of the folks for $20 each and sell the slew on eBay for $200 each.
2 - How many are going to "fall off of the truck," as we say here in the US. You may see whole pallets for sale on eBay.
jfs
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The maker just sold 1.2 million of these. I wouldn't call that "being completely idiotic".
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Perfect for what? Kindling? Sure, GPS maybe, but even then there's better / simpler / easier to carry solutions. This post is just screaming for a nature / technology soviet russia joke.
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reallly? so tell me some as I have tried many. nothing will last more than 2-3 days away from all power. this is light and does not need a mule with solar panels to carry the charging system.
so please oh wise one. what is there that is better, simple and easier for porable computing while in the wild?? I have tried EVERYTHING available commercially and none can handle the needs of daily use and being away from any power source for 5-7 d
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
And if their Jamahiriya government style wanted to 'rape their own country and KEEP those poor kids poor" why would they be buying the laptops or trying to create a more open Libya?
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Read here:u ll/443254b.html [nature.com]
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/f
The six are all foreign workers. Poor conditions at the hospital led to 400 kids getting AIDS, and now the Libyan "government" is trying these six in a death-penalty case to try to blame them for the poor conditions at the hospital.
Libya is a 3rd-world hell-hole, but it doesn't have to be. There's plenty of money, they just need to can the idiot running the place and get an actual government. Probably the best piece that I've read on Libya:
http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/in-the- land-of-the-brother-leader/12/
In Michael Totten's words: Libya is the most oppressive state on earth next to North Korea.
I would strongly suggest that anyone in Libya who may be reading this to read the "Declaration of Independence" of the US. There you will find that you have a duty to can the dictator. Note: DUTY.
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I disagree with the statement that Libya is the most oppressive state next to North Korea. True, they rank 152 out of 157 in Economic Freedom [heritage.org] as well as 162 out of 167 in Press Freedom. [heritage.org] But Iran and Burma are below Libya in both. That may just be arguing
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If we have eliminated second world countries as a category, then I guess my thoughts don't really
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I want to challenge your perceptions. (Score:5, Insightful)
It is a rich continent and although technology ("progress?") hasn't reached every corner that does not mean the images of doe eyed children starving to death in the middle of nowhere are emblematic of the entire continent.
Something the computer _CAN_ provide is information. What I mean is you can take all the supplies you like but unless you have a hand book or instruction manual those supplies (unless it is just food aid) are all but useless. Imagine having the biggest reference book ever openly available for you and your tutors. Want to build a damn for hydroelectricity in your village? Search for it. Want to build a wind turbine? Search for it then search for companies that can supply and ship components you can't make.
When you talk of providing modern medicine - yes, great. Now look at who rapes who. The "west" (with its extraordinarily tight grip of patents, trademarks, copyrights on most modern drugs) is implicit in the denial of medicine to these countries. Why? Because the corporations of the west will not sell drugs in those countries at the low prices required.
Libya is certainly not as ravaged as your post would indicate. It's a rich(ish) country with food, oil, medicine etc etc. Although maybe their dictator is a bit loco. Then again, he certainly seems to have grown up a lot over the last 20 years.
Other problems in Africa (Darfur, Ethiopea, Eritrea, Congo Basin etc) are cause by _WAR_. If it wasn't for the gutless inaction of the UN then maybe, just maybe those problems would have been sorted out (or at least the long road to recovery) long ago.
Sorry if it sounds like I'm ranting but.. well.. I guess I am.
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USA life expectancy: 77.85 years
Yup, they're just about starving, there. I can see the corpses piling up daily...
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It's the same as in any society. Not the poor started to use computers and internet in the US and Eur
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Have you got the right country? To quote Wikipedia "These oil revenues and a small population give Libya one of the highest GDPs per person in Africa and have allowed the Libyan state to provide an extensive and impressive level of social security, particularly in the fields of housing and education"
Their standing on human rights still leaves much to be desired but most US sanctions have been pulled now and Condi has been a-visiting to shak
Read the Summary At Least (Score:2)
They want to make these laptops brightly colored so that if an adult is seen with one of them, it will be widely known that they have stolen fro
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Substantial revenues from the energy sector coupled with a small population give Libya one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, but little of this income flows down to the lower orders of society.
Qadhafi sees himself as a player in pan-African politics. This is the sort of thing he can afford to do for "his" people and the neighboring countries. Cynicism aside, it's good to see an African purchase.
(As a side note, I thought there was recently an article that the price was going
Actually (Score:2)
The UK has had over 350 years of working at democracy. The US has had over 200. We have had time to get fair
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I hope someone else's submission goes through so that we can have a proper discussion about it on
Libya is no longer a state sponsor of terrorism (Score:2)
You mean was on the list [slashdot.org]. The current list of state sponsors of terrorism [wikipedia.org] is down to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.
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Well, unscrupulous press agents in the white house made a big deal was made of the success of the air raid because it killed some of his adopted kids even though it missed him - so I'm sure he's personally as pissed off with former administrations as Dubya was about an attempt on his father. I've heard the 20th aniversery of the bombing was marked by a a peace concert with a lot of rock bands - history has moved on.
Giving ed