Exactly. But Negroponte is about PR and vapor, not producing actual solutions or products.

So, ignoring the rest of what OLPC has delivered, the 380,000+ computers in the hands of Uruguayan students that have raised the average computer literacy of 8 year olds to the average level of 18 year olds prior to the project aren't "actual solutions or products"?

Even when I was young and fit exercise and pleasure never went together - people are wired in different ways.

Hardly. They care about making companies happy sure; when "development" requires little skill, more people will line up for the job, pay will be less.

If yesterday were today yesterday, then today is tomorrow today.

Indeed, if we can produce enough for everyone *and* have enough jobs for everyone by cutting everyone's hours, that's the way to go.

this poll will give quite similar results to the where-do-you-live question.

It's scary, really. Imagine how easy it would be for a predator to create an online persona that is NORMAL? When this guy, who's status is regularly updated with lines such as "ayyy yo cause when i git crunk i like to toke...yaa digg??/? ahhaahaahh", is able to have even one successful conversation.

this older couple in their late 40s early 50s. And they were telling me that they went to a rave a few weeks ago in Toronto. It was strange. But then Torontonians would have thought it was cool anyways.

Use this experience as evidence that you need to implement a robust software testing regiment.

You've got to handle that problem at the application layer, preferably as soon as possible.

Before converting it to a double or float point or whatever you are using, you have to do some data verification. Similarily, you wouldn't want someone putting in "ABC.75" dollars, because that can't be parsed, you have to handle all those scenarios.

You check if there are any Comma's. If so, how many characters follow the comma. 2 would be like 1,00 (one dollar) , and 3 would be like 1,000 (one thousand dollars). In no case in English formatting should a comma be followed by any less than 3 characters, and assuming they are inputing their information properly, French users won't have any more than 2.

Similarily, you apply the exact same logic for periods, just vice versa. This will allow your program to determine which standard is being used independant of operating system OS.

Once you've nailed that, you can change comma's to decimals or what not depending on which case you are in, and then converting it to your double from there.

You should be able to test it on your own at least a few times, to make sure it works, then it SHOULD work across all OS languages.

OK, here it goes: Don't make stupid mistakes like that.

Just like there will never be $20 cell phones?

There aren't $20 cell phones, that's the subsidized price. If you were a phone company, or someone in a position to collect a monthly fee for running these netbooks, you certainly could dump them for $20 on a shelf at Wal-Mart, provided they come with a 2 year contract for whatever you're selling...