Aw man! That must be why the Honorable Mr. Ngoti Mbutu is not returning my calls. He happened to know my uncle, the esteemed Doctor Alfred Mookiemu, who unbeknownst to me was rich and was sitting on $9,764,546.56, when he was killed in a car crash with his whole family. Fortunately for me Mr. Mbutu was managing his account at the time of his death and found me in the International business archives. He is taking a great risk by contacting me to help me get my uncle's money. All he asked for in return was my bank account numbers, my personal info, and my Social Security number! Sadly, I haven't heard from him since I gave him my info. Gee, I hope the little fella is OK. He seemed like such a nice guy with his endearingly bad grammar and spelling.'

Judging by MS track record when it comes to security, they are doing the pirates a favor. Now the pirates have to go out and get security software that is undoubtably better than whatever MS provides...

I still contend that 90% of all illegal downloads comes from people who weren't going to buy the music anyway. The problem for the music industry is that piracy opens the world up to a larger variety of music. As a result, it's almost impossible for the industry to dictate the music trends. In this modern world it's much harder for the industry to ram "She Bangs, She Bangs!" down our throat. My cousin was so happy when he got a six record deal ten years ago. Then they promptly shelved him for the duration of his contract. Turns out my cousin sounded too much like their cash cow, Marc Anthony. These shenanigans happen all the time. In 1998 the record company shelved Chuck D, stating that market research showed that no one was interested in Public Enemy anymore. So he circumvented the record company by releasing the album on mp3.com and it went on to become, up to that point, the most downloaded album of all time. though he lost the battle with the record company, he was able to, thanks to digital downloads, rub egg in the face of the label execs. What the record labels are most afraid of is not piracy, it's the fact the digital era and the internet is going to render their services obsolete. Who needs a record company when you have the internet? The recording industry needs embrace piracy and re-adapt their business model to one that embraces the advantages created by piracy. As this article clearly shows, though album sales are down, concert sales are way up, and so are sales of paraphenilia. If you don't think the piracy model can't make money, then take a look at the Grateful Dead. They asked their fans to pirate their songs and to make bootleg tapes and distribute them freely. Then they went on to make a fortune on sold out concerts, t-shirts, books, magazines, etc.. They became the highest grossing act of their time! One last thing, another reason for more sales is that now you can buy your music unencumbered. That's major. DRM is terrible in that it severely inconveniences those who are trying to do the right thing. Meanwhile, the people using pirated goods have the freedom to play their music anywhere and on any machine or gadget they want to.

Lol! I think you're right. And had it worked out he might have gotten a Nobel for this. I have a netbook too, but seriously, wouldn't you want one of these? http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/27/olpc-xo-2-to-include-multitouch-and-possibly-haptic-screen-from/

The OLPC is a perfect example of what happens when business challenged intellectuals try to do something. The OLPC was and still is so ahead of it's time and it could have been such a huge success had it's release to the world not been so mismanaged. Every techno-geek I know, including myself, would salivate everytime an article appeared regarding the OLPC. And my mouth still salivates when I read about the OLPC II with dual opposing touchscreens. Had they not made it so difficult to get one, with the limited time offer and the buy-one-get-one-free policy, This thing would have completely taken over the market instead of the eeepc. Then they would have had the funds and the market demand to make them for under $100. And they would have been able to head off the MS threat. So blame Negroponte. His heart was in the right place but he bumbled it with his economic stupidity and as a result lost the window of opportunity to get this remarkable product out into the world. I think there is still a chance with the OLPC II. How many of us here can honestly say we wouldn't pick one up if it were available? I would buy two!

This one strikes a nerve. Why do Americans persist with the notion that being smart and doing well in school makes you a freak? Why do Americans hate intellectuals? Look at our presidential elections, anytime someone show any bit intelligence, everyone starts crying, "elitist!". That's partly how they killed Al gore's campaign. The Republican party made intelligence uncool and we ended up with Bush.

My nephew is now having to endure being called names like, "egghead!", and "professor!", because he does well in school and because he speak really well.

It's sad!

Good idea! Guantanamo bay is considered US soil, but they been able to circumvent the constitution there. So breaking a few Federal laws should be easy!

The stupid thing is the business model. They should just release the thing commercially to anyone who wants to buy in order to get enough orders to sell it on a massive scale and lower the price. OLPC was ahead of everyone on the netbook thing. They could have been what the eeepc is now. The eeepc was created because the head of asus wanted one of the OLPC laptops as a toy and couldn't get one. So they made their own. The Olpc could have owned the netbook market and it would have given them the means to change the world like they wanted. Just shows how academic heads can't run a business.

Every one knows, even the average consumer, that optical storage is a thing of the past. No moving parts is the next thing. Blu-ray makes no sense. It's a slight upgrade of yesterday's technology at tomorrow's prices. And don't forget, in order to get true image quality, you have to upgrade your screen, wires, video card, and monitor (assuming you want to watch on the computer. Makes no sense. You can buy a 500 gig drive for the price of three blu-ray discs. A 500 gig drive coupled with a hot swappable 30 dollar enclosure and you've saved your self hundreds of dollars on storage. But even spinning hard discs will soon be on their way out as solid-state drives take over. Buying into blu-ray technology now is as dumb as buying a stereo cassette deck 5 years ago or an LP record player 10 years ago. Also the average consumer may not know what drm is, but they know that there are too many restrictions. The DRM only screws up paying customers, where as the the limewire, bittorrent crowd can play their movies anywhere, anytime, in any country, and on any computer or home theater without the need for expensive and costly upgrades.