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http://www.cherrypal.com/secure/index.php

Right there. Yeah, might be crap, but sure is cheap

Actually, I had to go clear out a session cookie, which they set from the included sessionId in the link. After I cleared the cookie, I was able to see the product using this link: http://www.cherrypal.com/secure/product_info.php?products_id=13

The original link has the guy's session in it. http://www.cherrypal.com/secure/product_info.php?products_id=13 works

AC wins the prize, too bad we don't know where to send it. The specs list the SD slot as supporting 8GB, that makes no sense... But scares me away.

Umm. It's here. The website is a little amateurish, but it works. Maybe it's a PEBKAC problem?

If I do that it sends me back to http://www.cherrypal.com/secure/login.php. I do not have scripts disabled.

My basic feeling is that a company that can't make a website can't make a netbook either

True dat, bro: BUSINESS will dictate! Good catch. However, there's the problem of the shortage of hybrid interaction designer/coders right now (and in the forseeable future) so don't expect most Flash sites to translate to HTML5 too soon.

I shudder imagining the future where HTML5 replaces most of Flash's current niche though:
Imagine more of the obnoxious CSS floating banner ads on webpages and Flash ads redone in HTML5.

At least you have Flashblock with Flash. It's easy for browsers to block popup window ads, but how're you going to block obnoxious CPU-hogging javascript/css content?

I really hate the way most webpages now average >100kb (too bad for users with data plans measured by the kb for their smartphones) and the way tons of sites have gone AJAX and you can no longer surf them on low-spec devices like the OLPC XO-1 (first-hand experience) and Cherrypal Africa with JavaScript turned on.

DHTML is just as or more CPU-hungry than Flash if done wrong. Flash is not bloated - it's SWF content creators that don't know how to optimize that's the problem, not the platform itself.

I wish more sites would just go back to plain HTML and make mobile versions that degrade gracefully if Javascript is turned off/unavailable and stop using AJAX where it's really needed.

funny how asus "invented" the netbook right after the OLPC pricepoint was set.

It takes a long time to design such hardware. I'd bet on at least 6 months.

Could it be that selling commodity computers for a small margin was less of an "invention" and more of a reaction to competition?

Two flaws in your argument. First, the OLPC was never direct competition. At the time it used processors about half the speed, and the gap has stayed approximately the same since then.

Second, Asus makes a lot off their netbooks. A best guess at manufacturing costs is $150-$200. Then Asus ships them to North America and sells them for $350-$500.

The original 7 inch EEEs had a sub-$90 manufacturing cost around 8 months ago. I caught several stores offering sales on new ones for $99. Since then a small company has started making similar netbooks for the same price.

Conclusion: There's huge profit margins on these things. That's quite a different tale from the OLPC.

Please do. However, since most laptop/netbook designs have the case and motherboard designed for each other, I'd be amazed if they really are cobbling together laptops from spare parts. RAM, hard drives and optical drives maybe, but I suspect in general they're just shifting job lots of machines. Check out their flagship "Bing" laptop. Apart from giving the laptop the same name as the MS search engine (surely designed to attract controversy and hence publicity) if you click on the thumbnail you can see it's a rip-off of the polycarbonate MacBook, and not a very flattering photograph either. I can't help thinking this company is just a far-Eastern box shifter, maybe with some nice ideas at heart, but not a designer of original equipment. Maybe I'm just a cynic...