Sub-$100 laptop design unveiled
Full Article Here:
Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, has been outlining designs for a sub-$100 PC.
The laptop will be tough and foldable in different ways, with a hand crank for when there is no power supply.
Professor Negroponte came up with the idea for a cheap computer for all after visiting a Cambodian village.
His non-profit One Laptop Per Child group plans to have up to 15 million machines in production within a year.
A prototype of the machine should be ready in November at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia.
Children in Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand, and South Africa will be among the first to get the under-$100 (£57) computer, said Professor Negroponte at the Emerging Technologies conference at MIT.
The following year, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney plans to start buying them for all 500,000 middle and high school pupils in the state.
Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, has been outlining designs for a sub-$100 PC.
The laptop will be tough and foldable in different ways, with a hand crank for when there is no power supply.
Professor Negroponte came up with the idea for a cheap computer for all after visiting a Cambodian village.
His non-profit One Laptop Per Child group plans to have up to 15 million machines in production within a year.
A prototype of the machine should be ready in November at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia.
Children in Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand, and South Africa will be among the first to get the under-$100 (£57) computer, said Professor Negroponte at the Emerging Technologies conference at MIT.
The following year, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney plans to start buying them for all 500,000 middle and high school pupils in the state.
Comments
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4557745057.html
Originally posted by M1C
the did put the part in saying it would weigh in at around 200 lbs. or the fact that it would not be able to run two programs at the same time that looks like the crappiest laptop ever maybe for a little kid but no one would really get it. poeple want everything they have on their PC/MAC, dvd-r, 2gb ram, 100 GB HD, etc, and have it weigh less than 1 lbs.
?????? Maybe I miss your point, but this is not about retail laptops for rich westerners, this is about an affordable, durable education computer that works in places without electricity for children in developing countries who have never seen a computer before and probably never would without ideas like this!!
If this ever becomes a real product I´ll donate 20 of them to a school class somewhere in Africa.
Who´s with me?
Originally posted by dutch pear
?????? Maybe I miss your point, but this is not about retail laptops for rich westerners, this is about an affordable, durable education computer that works in places without electricity for children in developing countries who have never seen a computer before and probably never would without ideas like this!!
ok good point but the problem I see after giving all these kids in the 3rd world contires is we then have to build wireless access points, and everything they need to use the laptops with there 4 usb ports, anyway if this is for a third world market why don't they use the 15,000,000,000 dollars and give them all educations, food, shelters, clothing, fight AIDS, teach safe sex, get jobs, stop crime. They are too interested in giving people laptops they won't use. I would take the computer and sell it for food if I was really one of the children they are trying to give this computer to.
Originally posted by dutch pear
?????? Maybe I miss your point, but this is not about retail laptops for rich westerners, this is about an affordable, durable education computer that works in places without electricity for children in developing countries who have never seen a computer before and probably never would without ideas like this!!
I have to agree, this is fantastic for most of the world. Here's more on the stats:
"The 500MHz laptop will run a "skinny version" of the open-source Linux operating system. It will have a two-mode screen, so it can be viewed in color and then by pushing a button or activating software switch to a black-and-white display, which can be viewed in bright sunlight at four times normal resolution.
The laptop can be powered either with an AC adapter or via a wind-up crank, which is stored in the housing of the laptop where the hinge is located. The laptops will have a 10 to 1 crank rate. When closed, the hinge forms a handle and the AC cord can function as a carrying strap. They will have four USB ports, be Wi-Fi- and cell phone enabled and come with 1GB of memory.
Each laptop will act as a node in a mesh peer-to-peer ad hoc network, meaning that if one laptop is directly accessing the Internet, when other machines power on, they can share that single online connection."
If this works, it would spawn a world generation of computer literate and communications available kids. Be pretty something to see.
But that's just me.
Originally posted by M1C
ok good point but the problem I see after giving all these kids in the 3rd world contires is we then have to build wireless access points, and everything they need to use the laptops with there 4 usb ports, anyway if this is for a third world market why don't they use the 15,000,000,000 dollars and give them all educations, food, shelters, clothing, fight AIDS, teach safe sex, get jobs, stop crime. They are too interested in giving people laptops they won't use. I would take the computer and sell it for food if I was really one of the children they are trying to give this computer to.
Originally posted by wilco
hey you can roll your eyes but I would just have to say I would take food clothes and shelter or maybe they could actually give me a generator for electricity before giving me a laptop computer which I won't know what to do with. Its all nice to say hey we want you to have what we have you can have peer to peer networking and all that but we aren't going to give you what you need just what we think you want, save people from injustice, hunger, AIDS, and then worry about what kind of operating system they use.
Originally posted by wilco
hey how old are you reading your posts gives me a headache i'm sure they wouldn't be giving these laptops to starving children instead of food or clothing or medicine or shelter.
I am 22, and I have been to countries like the ones the are giving these computers too. sorry about the headaches but its true they are using 15 billion dollars on computer to give to people that don't have what they need. If they can say free laptop meaning every single peice of the 200 million computers is free and donated that is one thing but the article I read states that there will be a fee and financing too the non-profit organizations.
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/Beginnings.html
Originally posted by dutch pear
And on the impact of computer exposure on third-world children read here on a fascinating experiment:
http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/Beginnings.html
glad to see that someone is doing it for free. I read another article about the $100 linux and it stated they would charge the government 1 mill just to start working on it they didn't say what the government said back, but in looking at many of the places that they are giving to the reason there are so many non-profit organizations helping the people is because the govt doesn't want to help them. The hole in the wall thing is awesome.. great link.
"For experts, like Nicholas Negroponte of MIT, Hole-in-the-Wall is a ?Shared Blackboard? which children in underprivileged communities can collectively own and access, to express themselves, to learn, to explore together, and at some stage to even brainstorm and come up with exciting ideas."
Which makes me feel good about the laptop project as well!
Off course the financing of all this is another issue, but I imagine a sponsor-project (Company X provided these schoolchildren in Uganda with free laptops!) for companies and organizations would be a big succes!!
Originally posted by dutch pear
actually, this project was one of the inspiration sources for the laptop project:
"For experts, like Nicholas Negroponte of MIT, Hole-in-the-Wall is a ?Shared Blackboard? which children in underprivileged communities can collectively own and access, to express themselves, to learn, to explore together, and at some stage to even brainstorm and come up with exciting ideas."
Which makes me feel good about the laptop project as well!
Off course the financing of all this is another issue, but I imagine a sponsor-project (Company X provided these schoolchildren in Uganda with free laptops!) for companies and organizations would be a big succes!!
I see your point that it would be from one company to a small set of schools but I just think that, I don't want to sound sacrareligious, but there are more important things then one computer for every kid in the world that the government would have to pay for in their country here
Furthermore, if the project takes off, then you have the opportunity to create assembly facilities near the target market (i.e. in the 3rd world) which seems to me to be a better result than any kind of donation.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
M1C: I think you, like so many people, are wasting time trying to dictate the importance of matters outside your control. Not only can neither you or I stop anyone from getting laptops into poorer environments, but it's also not really effective to even try to dictate what's better for a people. Ultimately, the people themselves will decide.
Furthermore, if the project takes off, then you have the opportunity to create assembly facilities near the target market (i.e. in the 3rd world) which seems to me to be a better result than any kind of donation.
So your saying that I shouldn't care what is happening to people in the world because it is outside my control...Go outlook n life who cares cause here in america we got it all. While that would be nice for them to manufacture the computers in their own country what would the be paid for making a cheap computer that they will just take home at the end of the day. You say we can't stop them from giving the poor people of these countries laptops and your right but the fact is that I can still have my opinion about what I think would serve the people of the third world countries more food, clothes, shelter or laptops I would pick laptops and they also state they already know there will be theft problems so there solution will be to put the names on the computer I know that has to work.
well this thread is getting stupid and actually it does belong in the "future Hardware" anyway so close it or move it please.
As to the ubiquitous wifi-network via ubiquitous cheap computing as a means of changing the power dynamics of the third world, I am reminded of the sci-fi novel Earthweb, where wifi-networked PDA's are airdropped globally, and the resultant market of expertise redefines consulting based on local specializations in a global betting market of winning ideas.
This has groundbreaking potential if done well.
Originally posted by M1C
I see your point that it would be from one company to a small set of schools but I just think that, I don't want to sound sacrareligious, but there are more important things then one computer for every kid in the world that the government would have to pay for in their country here
You are missing the point.
Even though your concerns are valid, this computer is a wonderful thing for many poor kids around the world.
If you are talking about famine kids in Africa or elsewhere then the first thing to be address is their basics needs like food and sanitation. I agree with you if somebody is dying of hunger the last thing they want to see is a computer, but for millions of poor kids that have "some" of the basics this would be a great tool for learning and expanding their horizons.
So be open minded and applaud this great idea. Remember, improving peoples education is a great tool to fight poverty and ignorance.