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Walter Bender has finally spoken on his resignation from One Laptop Per Child. In an email to me, he says he doesn't know about any plans for Windows XP on the XO laptop, so my fears of a Microsoft take-over of OLPC may be unfounded.

Summary and original speculation were complete BS.

To keep in the spirit of the thread, XP smells worse than your shiny metal ass.

Yours sounds sufficiently hooped to warrant a keyboard replacement. Too bad we can't get parts except through cannibalization, esp. since they're so cheap . They could probably sell them to people in developed nations for a 400% markup. I'm guessing you'd probably pay $20 for a new keyboard.

The summary does read like something out of a consumerist society -- "Product break, what we do now?" Well, you fix it.

I wonder if OLPC is regretting G1G1 at all, putting thousands of XO's into the hands of people for whom it was never intended. The XO is for children and geeks, and if they ever plan to release one to the general North American consumer public, yes, they've got a lot of work to do. In fact, I'm not even sure it would be possible in the near future at the price point they're aiming at.

I got one of these Dec 21st, and the whole rest of my life has disappeared while I play with it. Very addictive little machine.

I have Xubuntu on it in a dual boot system, with ubuntu on an SD card. Followed moocapiean's directions. Works great. No glitches.

So, as for it being hackable, I'd say that it's easy to *change*, in ways it wasn't originally intended to run. You don't have to break anything to do that, so maybe it's not strictly speaking hackable. But then, nothing open source is hackable.

Depends on your definition hackable.

The fact remains that OLPCNews has not been forthcoming with disclosing the connection between Intel and the blog founder. Burying the association between Intel in obscure link trails that first lead off-site, and then back onsite to a post in a comment section is hardly full disclosure of the fact that Wayan Vota, the founder of the OLPCNews blog was not just "an employee" of Geekcorps, he was the Director.

Here's a quick summary of Geekcorps -- IESC Geekcorps, a $10.5 million portfolio of technology-focused international development programs operating in nine countries, for the International Executive Service Corps. And, "Geekcorps has partnered with Intel Emerging Markets Group in Intels Discover the PC initiative focused on delivering products and technologies that are specifically designed to meet the unique needs of people in emerging markets."

Geekcorps (with Wayan as the Director) was promoting the Intel Classmate PC to developing countries at the same time that Wayan was operating the ostensibly independent "OLPCNews" blog. The Intel Classmate PC is a competitor to the OLPC XO device, and Intel has been accused of using it's market presence to undermine the efforts and goals of the OLPC foundation. The manner in which this association has been hidden may give new meaning to the term, "security through obscurity."

If you really believe that the XO is the best thing since sliced bread then why is it that companies arent lining up to buy them for their employees? If it really was the best deal wouldnt everyone want them?

The target for the OLPC is education for children. It's not available for general sale so companies don't have anywhere to line up even if they wanted to.

The OLPC is a non-profit organization that is able to get non-profit prices from the manufacturer. They avoid much of the cost with a commercial laptop by doing bulk sales with the local ministries of education who in turn take care of the distribution. Much of the price for commercial machines is due to sales/marketing/distribution costs.

Also note that it is not just a laptop project but an educational project. There's some more infrastructure involved such as the XS school server.

Over time I expect to see variants of the OLPC-XO laptop itself as well as commercial alternatives available using some of the interesting technologies introduced such as:

• Bitfrost computer security
• Per laptop activation/developer keys for firmware security
• Dual mode display

The XO has only just started to be mass-produced so be a bit patient and even though it may not have OLPC in its name there will be some products available which will contain some OLPC based innovation within them.

Someone hasn't been paying attention

To be honest I haven't read olpcnews a lot, so I just now looked at a few december 2007 articles to see if I was wrongfully criticizing him (and I was, from looking at the december 2007 articles :-)).

Then I looked at a january 2007 article: I quote:

When you look at the Children's Machine symbol, the "XO", what do you see? Do you see an oversized child's head and body, happy in play as suggested by the OLPC Wiki? Or do you see what Docdtv sees?

[The "XO" icon] looks very much like a symbol widely associated with mortality, toxicity and military killing - the skull and crossbones [...] The binding of the symbol to these horrific meanings is a reflection of a biological fact about the last parts of a human corpse to decay, and is not especially tied to a particular culture.

Personally, I don't see that myself, but I can see his point. The "XO" icon could be seen in a non-positive way if you are more familiar with other cultures or even chemistry, than Boston-centric thinking.

don't you agree that the "spin" on this story is unnecessarily negative? Note that he doesn't say anything bad about the logo, somebody else did and he's just reporting it.

Personally, your logo reminded me of the highly minimalistic dutch cartoon rabbit Nijntje and not of the Jolly Roger flag (it's the whiskers).

Some more:

January 2007, OLPC and youth gangs quote:

If students are taught to "learn learning" in the absence of guidance and direction from elders who can instill the moral values required for the youth to develop and accept their cultural norms and rules, what is to stop them from using the OLPC XO to obtain their "wants" in the most efficient means possible - theft?

(I didn't understand the problem -- surely there are good things to be learned as well as bad things from the global community?)

Of course the hilarious july 2007 Nigerian porn story; funny story but please notice the use of the English:

While I've discounted the OLPC child pornography fears of others and we've explored adult OLPC XO uses, I haven't spoken about the potent mix of Internet access and the natural curiosity of children, especially those reaching puberty, to go looking for images others may not want them to see.

This paints the writer as an objective, trustworthy, even fatherly advisor. This kind of usage of English makes my skin crawl because he managed to magic away the word "but" by starting the sentence with "while", see: "I've discounted the ... fears of others ... [but] I haven't spoken about ... natural curiosity of children". By the way, I agree completely with his conclusion:

Porn surfing is not a technical problem to be solved with filters, it's a human nature issue addressed through a comprehensive cultural integration process.

And about your screen: (I admit i'm cherry-picking now)

june 2006 Ethan Zuckerman review quote:

Yep, power-hungry, delicate, expensive, hard to repair, and of course somehow readable in daylight.

I guess you must have greatly impressed him then, by actually realizing it :-)

Somewhere (in 2006?) the tone of the articles changed.

This is the last one, very positive: april 2

To be honest I haven't read olpcnews a lot, so I just now looked at a few december 2007 articles to see if I was wrongfully criticizing him (and I was, from looking at the december 2007 articles :-)).

Then I looked at a january 2007 article: I quote:

When you look at the Children's Machine symbol, the "XO", what do you see? Do you see an oversized child's head and body, happy in play as suggested by the OLPC Wiki? Or do you see what Docdtv sees?

[The "XO" icon] looks very much like a symbol widely associated with mortality, toxicity and military killing - the skull and crossbones [...] The binding of the symbol to these horrific meanings is a reflection of a biological fact about the last parts of a human corpse to decay, and is not especially tied to a particular culture.

Personally, I don't see that myself, but I can see his point. The "XO" icon could be seen in a non-positive way if you are more familiar with other cultures or even chemistry, than Boston-centric thinking.

don't you agree that the "spin" on this story is unnecessarily negative? Note that he doesn't say anything bad about the logo, somebody else did and he's just reporting it.

Personally, your logo reminded me of the highly minimalistic dutch cartoon rabbit Nijntje and not of the Jolly Roger flag (it's the whiskers).

Some more:

January 2007, OLPC and youth gangs quote:

If students are taught to "learn learning" in the absence of guidance and direction from elders who can instill the moral values required for the youth to develop and accept their cultural norms and rules, what is to stop them from using the OLPC XO to obtain their "wants" in the most efficient means possible - theft?

(I didn't understand the problem -- surely there are good things to be learned as well as bad things from the global community?)

Of course the hilarious july 2007 Nigerian porn story; funny story but please notice the use of the English:

While I've discounted the OLPC child pornography fears of others and we've explored adult OLPC XO uses, I haven't spoken about the potent mix of Internet access and the natural curiosity of children, especially those reaching puberty, to go looking for images others may not want them to see.

This paints the writer as an objective, trustworthy, even fatherly advisor. This kind of usage of English makes my skin crawl because he managed to magic away the word "but" by starting the sentence with "while", see: "I've discounted the ... fears of others ... [but] I haven't spoken about ... natural curiosity of children". By the way, I agree completely with his conclusion:

Porn surfing is not a technical problem to be solved with filters, it's a human nature issue addressed through a comprehensive cultural integration process.

And about your screen: (I admit i'm cherry-picking now)

june 2006 Ethan Zuckerman review quote:

Yep, power-hungry, delicate, expensive, hard to repair, and of course somehow readable in daylight.

I guess you must have greatly impressed him then, by actually realizing it :-)

Somewhere (in 2006?) the tone of the articles changed.

This is the last one, very positive: april 2

To be honest I haven't read olpcnews a lot, so I just now looked at a few december 2007 articles to see if I was wrongfully criticizing him (and I was, from looking at the december 2007 articles :-)).

Then I looked at a january 2007 article: I quote:

When you look at the Children's Machine symbol, the "XO", what do you see? Do you see an oversized child's head and body, happy in play as suggested by the OLPC Wiki? Or do you see what Docdtv sees?

[The "XO" icon] looks very much like a symbol widely associated with mortality, toxicity and military killing - the skull and crossbones [...] The binding of the symbol to these horrific meanings is a reflection of a biological fact about the last parts of a human corpse to decay, and is not especially tied to a particular culture.

Personally, I don't see that myself, but I can see his point. The "XO" icon could be seen in a non-positive way if you are more familiar with other cultures or even chemistry, than Boston-centric thinking.

don't you agree that the "spin" on this story is unnecessarily negative? Note that he doesn't say anything bad about the logo, somebody else did and he's just reporting it.

Personally, your logo reminded me of the highly minimalistic dutch cartoon rabbit Nijntje and not of the Jolly Roger flag (it's the whiskers).

Some more:

January 2007, OLPC and youth gangs quote:

If students are taught to "learn learning" in the absence of guidance and direction from elders who can instill the moral values required for the youth to develop and accept their cultural norms and rules, what is to stop them from using the OLPC XO to obtain their "wants" in the most efficient means possible - theft?

(I didn't understand the problem -- surely there are good things to be learned as well as bad things from the global community?)

Of course the hilarious july 2007 Nigerian porn story; funny story but please notice the use of the English:

While I've discounted the OLPC child pornography fears of others and we've explored adult OLPC XO uses, I haven't spoken about the potent mix of Internet access and the natural curiosity of children, especially those reaching puberty, to go looking for images others may not want them to see.

This paints the writer as an objective, trustworthy, even fatherly advisor. This kind of usage of English makes my skin crawl because he managed to magic away the word "but" by starting the sentence with "while", see: "I've discounted the ... fears of others ... [but] I haven't spoken about ... natural curiosity of children". By the way, I agree completely with his conclusion:

Porn surfing is not a technical problem to be solved with filters, it's a human nature issue addressed through a comprehensive cultural integration process.

And about your screen: (I admit i'm cherry-picking now)

june 2006 Ethan Zuckerman review quote:

Yep, power-hungry, delicate, expensive, hard to repair, and of course somehow readable in daylight.

I guess you must have greatly impressed him then, by actually realizing it :-)

Somewhere (in 2006?) the tone of the articles changed.

This is the last one, very positive: april 2

To be honest I haven't read olpcnews a lot, so I just now looked at a few december 2007 articles to see if I was wrongfully criticizing him (and I was, from looking at the december 2007 articles :-)).

Then I looked at a january 2007 article: I quote:

When you look at the Children's Machine symbol, the "XO", what do you see? Do you see an oversized child's head and body, happy in play as suggested by the OLPC Wiki? Or do you see what Docdtv sees?

[The "XO" icon] looks very much like a symbol widely associated with mortality, toxicity and military killing - the skull and crossbones [...] The binding of the symbol to these horrific meanings is a reflection of a biological fact about the last parts of a human corpse to decay, and is not especially tied to a particular culture.

Personally, I don't see that myself, but I can see his point. The "XO" icon could be seen in a non-positive way if you are more familiar with other cultures or even chemistry, than Boston-centric thinking.

don't you agree that the "spin" on this story is unnecessarily negative? Note that he doesn't say anything bad about the logo, somebody else did and he's just reporting it.

Personally, your logo reminded me of the highly minimalistic dutch cartoon rabbit Nijntje and not of the Jolly Roger flag (it's the whiskers).

Some more:

January 2007, OLPC and youth gangs quote:

If students are taught to "learn learning" in the absence of guidance and direction from elders who can instill the moral values required for the youth to develop and accept their cultural norms and rules, what is to stop them from using the OLPC XO to obtain their "wants" in the most efficient means possible - theft?

(I didn't understand the problem -- surely there are good things to be learned as well as bad things from the global community?)

Of course the hilarious july 2007 Nigerian porn story; funny story but please notice the use of the English:

While I've discounted the OLPC child pornography fears of others and we've explored adult OLPC XO uses, I haven't spoken about the potent mix of Internet access and the natural curiosity of children, especially those reaching puberty, to go looking for images others may not want them to see.

This paints the writer as an objective, trustworthy, even fatherly advisor. This kind of usage of English makes my skin crawl because he managed to magic away the word "but" by starting the sentence with "while", see: "I've discounted the ... fears of others ... [but] I haven't spoken about ... natural curiosity of children". By the way, I agree completely with his conclusion:

Porn surfing is not a technical problem to be solved with filters, it's a human nature issue addressed through a comprehensive cultural integration process.

And about your screen: (I admit i'm cherry-picking now)

june 2006 Ethan Zuckerman review quote:

Yep, power-hungry, delicate, expensive, hard to repair, and of course somehow readable in daylight.

I guess you must have greatly impressed him then, by actually realizing it :-)

Somewhere (in 2006?) the tone of the articles changed.

This is the last one, very positive: april 2

To be honest I haven't read olpcnews a lot, so I just now looked at a few december 2007 articles to see if I was wrongfully criticizing him (and I was, from looking at the december 2007 articles :-)).

Then I looked at a january 2007 article: I quote:

When you look at the Children's Machine symbol, the "XO", what do you see? Do you see an oversized child's head and body, happy in play as suggested by the OLPC Wiki? Or do you see what Docdtv sees?

[The "XO" icon] looks very much like a symbol widely associated with mortality, toxicity and military killing - the skull and crossbones [...] The binding of the symbol to these horrific meanings is a reflection of a biological fact about the last parts of a human corpse to decay, and is not especially tied to a particular culture.

Personally, I don't see that myself, but I can see his point. The "XO" icon could be seen in a non-positive way if you are more familiar with other cultures or even chemistry, than Boston-centric thinking.

don't you agree that the "spin" on this story is unnecessarily negative? Note that he doesn't say anything bad about the logo, somebody else did and he's just reporting it.

Personally, your logo reminded me of the highly minimalistic dutch cartoon rabbit Nijntje and not of the Jolly Roger flag (it's the whiskers).

Some more:

January 2007, OLPC and youth gangs quote:

If students are taught to "learn learning" in the absence of guidance and direction from elders who can instill the moral values required for the youth to develop and accept their cultural norms and rules, what is to stop them from using the OLPC XO to obtain their "wants" in the most efficient means possible - theft?

(I didn't understand the problem -- surely there are good things to be learned as well as bad things from the global community?)

Of course the hilarious july 2007 Nigerian porn story; funny story but please notice the use of the English:

While I've discounted the OLPC child pornography fears of others and we've explored adult OLPC XO uses, I haven't spoken about the potent mix of Internet access and the natural curiosity of children, especially those reaching puberty, to go looking for images others may not want them to see.

This paints the writer as an objective, trustworthy, even fatherly advisor. This kind of usage of English makes my skin crawl because he managed to magic away the word "but" by starting the sentence with "while", see: "I've discounted the ... fears of others ... [but] I haven't spoken about ... natural curiosity of children". By the way, I agree completely with his conclusion:

Porn surfing is not a technical problem to be solved with filters, it's a human nature issue addressed through a comprehensive cultural integration process.

And about your screen: (I admit i'm cherry-picking now)

june 2006 Ethan Zuckerman review quote:

Yep, power-hungry, delicate, expensive, hard to repair, and of course somehow readable in daylight.

I guess you must have greatly impressed him then, by actually realizing it :-)

Somewhere (in 2006?) the tone of the articles changed.

This is the last one, very positive: april 2

I write of OLPC News. I am not Wayan Vota, but have known him form some months now as we exchange constant emails about subjects. This is a case of real bad reporting on slashdot.

1- Wayan Vota is NOT an 'Intel Employee'. Ok, in some point his company did business with intel, but to call him a paid blogger by intel is a long conspiracy stride by an uninformed net echochamber. He is getting married today, and I think this is not the wedding gift he was expecting.

2 - OLPCnews is not "anti-olpc" or "pro-intel". You have clearly never read o line of that blog. Some headlines:
"Classmate PC: Intel's Two Hour-Long Joke"
"Intel Can't Take the (Low) Heat & Power of OLPC XO"
"Halloween Horror Story: Nigeria Buys Windows XP Classmates"
I challenge anyone to find a post truly complimenting Intel for it's classmate. There are posts criticizing OLPC, but mainly criticizing some negroponte's statements, some of the foundations failures or something that was left unaswered, after all we are an independent news source. But never a post was written against the fundamental idea of one laptop per child and most posts on the XO are clearly praising it.

Alexandre van de sande
blog.wanderingabout.com

I write of OLPC News. I am not Wayan Vota, but have known him form some months now as we exchange constant emails about subjects. This is a case of real bad reporting on slashdot.

1- Wayan Vota is NOT an 'Intel Employee'. Ok, in some point his company did business with intel, but to call him a paid blogger by intel is a long conspiracy stride by an uninformed net echochamber. He is getting married today, and I think this is not the wedding gift he was expecting.

2 - OLPCnews is not "anti-olpc" or "pro-intel". You have clearly never read o line of that blog. Some headlines:
"Classmate PC: Intel's Two Hour-Long Joke"
"Intel Can't Take the (Low) Heat & Power of OLPC XO"
"Halloween Horror Story: Nigeria Buys Windows XP Classmates"
I challenge anyone to find a post truly complimenting Intel for it's classmate. There are posts criticizing OLPC, but mainly criticizing some negroponte's statements, some of the foundations failures or something that was left unaswered, after all we are an independent news source. But never a post was written against the fundamental idea of one laptop per child and most posts on the XO are clearly praising it.

Alexandre van de sande
blog.wanderingabout.com

I write of OLPC News. I am not Wayan Vota, but have known him form some months now as we exchange constant emails about subjects. This is a case of real bad reporting on slashdot.

1- Wayan Vota is NOT an 'Intel Employee'. Ok, in some point his company did business with intel, but to call him a paid blogger by intel is a long conspiracy stride by an uninformed net echochamber. He is getting married today, and I think this is not the wedding gift he was expecting.

2 - OLPCnews is not "anti-olpc" or "pro-intel". You have clearly never read o line of that blog. Some headlines:
"Classmate PC: Intel's Two Hour-Long Joke"
"Intel Can't Take the (Low) Heat & Power of OLPC XO"
"Halloween Horror Story: Nigeria Buys Windows XP Classmates"
I challenge anyone to find a post truly complimenting Intel for it's classmate. There are posts criticizing OLPC, but mainly criticizing some negroponte's statements, some of the foundations failures or something that was left unaswered, after all we are an independent news source. But never a post was written against the fundamental idea of one laptop per child and most posts on the XO are clearly praising it.

Alexandre van de sande
blog.wanderingabout.com

I write of OLPC News. I am not Wayan Vota, but have known him form some months now as we exchange constant emails about subjects. This is a case of real bad reporting on slashdot.

1- Wayan Vota is NOT an 'Intel Employee'. Ok, in some point his company did business with intel, but to call him a paid blogger by intel is a long conspiracy stride by an uninformed net echochamber. He is getting married today, and I think this is not the wedding gift he was expecting.

2 - OLPCnews is not "anti-olpc" or "pro-intel". You have clearly never read o line of that blog. Some headlines:
"Classmate PC: Intel's Two Hour-Long Joke"
"Intel Can't Take the (Low) Heat & Power of OLPC XO"
"Halloween Horror Story: Nigeria Buys Windows XP Classmates"
I challenge anyone to find a post truly complimenting Intel for it's classmate. There are posts criticizing OLPC, but mainly criticizing some negroponte's statements, some of the foundations failures or something that was left unaswered, after all we are an independent news source. But never a post was written against the fundamental idea of one laptop per child and most posts on the XO are clearly praising it.

Alexandre van de sande
blog.wanderingabout.com

As a frequent contributor to OLPC News, and as someone who only knows Wayan as the editor of the site, I cannot say this strong enough: OLPC News can be critical but it is an open space for different points of view regarding OLPC, though it is not a place for fawning praise on everything Mr. Negroponte says and plans. I am strongly opposed to the idea of OLPC, especially since my country has fallen for its spell, but besides finding a welcoming but critical audience and a very committed editor, Wayan Vota has never biased contents, opinions or contributors. He is not an Intel employee, he is not even working at Geek Corps anymore, and he has actually published an extremely negative review of the Classmate (http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/intel/classmate_pc_intel_joke.html). So please do not exhibit the bias you find in other people's opinions just because we don't buy into everything OLPC tries to sell.

old, stale, dealt-with astroturf?

The Silicon Valley Sleuth article is a year old this month, based off of Chris's blog post from 2006, was explained in the comments at olpcnews here (quick summary for you non-RTFA-types; he worked at a non-profit organization that partnered with tech firms to bridge the digital divide, and yes, one of them was intel; it's as much having on-the-ground experience with ICT projects as anything else): http://www.olpcnews.com/software/operating_system/mandriva_classmate_linux.html ; and the guy doesn't even work at the same organization anymore. By posting anonymously, you have to wonder who's astroturfing whom?

Jeesh, go visit right now. The lead article's titled "10,000 Give One Get One XO Laptops Going to OLPC Mongolia". Hardly the stuff of astroturfing.

You really want _negative_? Go visit their forums (same site) and read the posts from the hundreds of "Give One Get One" donors who've been out $423.95 for over two months now and still have no XO laptops to show for it, due to OLPC's incompetency and inability to manage the program. _That's_ negative stuff.

Full disclosure: I'm one of those unfortunate donors.

/tsg/

Just in case anybody's wondering why Vota hasn't posted anything to explain this... I think he might be a little busy at the moment, since he's getting married today.

Not that that affects any conflict of interest either way, but he is a private citizen who's been running the blog in his spare time for at least a year. Sucks for him that this hits Slashdot today.

For my part, I've been reading olpcnews for a while and I think it's a serious stretch to call it "highly critical" of OLPC. Vota seems to love OLPC in general and has started a forum for Give-One-Get-One donors (like himself) to post hacks, guides, and help for the machines. He's pretty critical of Negroponte, but it seems that that's mostly because he (reasonably) believes that Negroponte's utopian rhetoric harms the project.

I'm not sure I've seen him weigh in strongly either way on Intel, but he's certainly very against seeing Windows on the OLPC, and has posted articles from other authors that are quite critical of Intel. So IMO: pro-Intel bias, maybe. Anti-OLPC bias, no way.

Just in case anybody's wondering why Vota hasn't posted anything to explain this... I think he might be a little busy at the moment, since he's getting married today.

Not that that affects any conflict of interest either way, but he is a private citizen who's been running the blog in his spare time for at least a year. Sucks for him that this hits Slashdot today.

For my part, I've been reading olpcnews for a while and I think it's a serious stretch to call it "highly critical" of OLPC. Vota seems to love OLPC in general and has started a forum for Give-One-Get-One donors (like himself) to post hacks, guides, and help for the machines. He's pretty critical of Negroponte, but it seems that that's mostly because he (reasonably) believes that Negroponte's utopian rhetoric harms the project.

I'm not sure I've seen him weigh in strongly either way on Intel, but he's certainly very against seeing Windows on the OLPC, and has posted articles from other authors that are quite critical of Intel. So IMO: pro-Intel bias, maybe. Anti-OLPC bias, no way.

Let's take that in context.

The enormity of the price overrun is attributable to M$ getting OLPC to increase the specs drastically until the hardware became at least theoretically possible to run M$ Cruftware. If M$ boosters cannot kill the OLPC, they have to at least slow it down by any means necessary. Failing to do so means that a market for notebooks opens up without their monopoly. Todate M$ business model has focussed largely on leveraging the desktop monopoly Bill's mom got for him from IBM. We have a few decades of experience to watching M$ products and services become less and less competitive. Preserving the monopoly is the only way to keep the cult going.

Further, if Linux takes over the new market, or even breaks into it, the old markets will want it, too. We're almost there, with manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo almost offering Linux pre-installed.

It wouldn't work because the source alone isn't enough.

To teach? Maybe not, but it's a start.

It's Fedora. The rest are simply applications. So...try to set this thing up with a fresh Fedora. Or even Edbuntu. You'd see the problem pretty quickly.

I don't see it... given that these "simply applications" are a large part of the point.

Apparently you don't get it. It is "WIFI". They're using standard wireless frequencies and protocols. There's nothing magical about it. Anyone can listen in.

Yeah, their neighbor, the sheep herder, is going to have a laptop with AirPwn on it.

I'm not really sure how you can do ad-hoc wireless networking (this "mesh" concept) and expect it to be secure.

You continue to show little grasp of technology. I suggest you look into amatuer radio sometime...not to say amatuer radio gear is the solution, but it will give you a clue.

Dismissive and not helpful. I am not saying the technology doesn't exist, but I do think the XO is an easier solution, and probably cheaper.

But hey, if you think you can do it better, go do it. Maybe Intel would be interested.

I can access Wikipeida with an old cell phone. What's your point?

How big is the screen on that cell phone? What's the resolution?

How about the interface?

Unless we're talking about iPhones (which are quite a bit more expensive than the XO), what's your point?

Secondly, Wikipedia is the worst thing to use to educate. It probably wouldn't be in their language

Close enough. No, it wouldn't be it Quetchua, but Spanish is the language of education in Peru.

Regardless, Wikipedia was just an example. Suppose they do want to learn English -- there are resources online, and tons of text to practice on.

And you're being unreasonably dense. The OLPC doesn't have new technology. This kind of screen is the first I've seen in a mass-produced device, true, but it's not magical.

Strawman. I didn't say it's magical. I do believe it's much better than a cell phone.

Hint: Hand cranked generators have been around for YEARS!

So?

Here's the point: As far as size is concerned, there relationship between size and usefulness is not linear. Either things need to be small (hand sized), or reasonably sized (laptop sized).

For kids, this is apparently the right size.

The area in between is not useful, and has failed multiple times in the market.

For adults. Your point?

If it's a toy, take the kids. If it's the wonder platform you think it is, take mine.

You talk to them, then.

At the very least, it is inspirational.

The XO isn't being taken seriously, which is why people are dropping out of the program like flies. It was an interesting experiment, but it failed.

It failed to produce what you apparently expected. It's not a laptop for grownups, it doesn't do things that would be considered essential if we were talking about, say, high school in middle-class America. But that doesn't make it a toy or a failure.

You see, it succeeded in its actual goals. (In fact, that story was on Slashdot recently. Try reading that TFA, too.)

From what I heard, you're on the right track. Jepsen contributed her display patents to OLPC. She did a lot of important work for them. Criticizing her for going into business seems completely unfair. OLPC is a charitable organization, and is not permitted to compete in the market. For these technologies to take advantage of the market, they need to be developed by a business. This could be very good for them.

The $350 model doesn't. Its only when you shell out $400 or more that you get the webcam. For the same $400, you can get 2 OLPC XO machines, one for your mom, and one as a gift to a child in another country. You'll also get a MUCH better video display (800x600, 1024x768 and 1200x900 instead of the wtf 800 x 480), 3x the battery life, etc.

I believe there's a pilot in Nigeria underway. Here's another person from Nigeria's view of the OLPC.

I want to know why he thinks that the only people getting these laptops are starving refugees living in tents, where the money spent on the laptop is literally food out of their mouths. He can't do the most basic research?

I'm wondering whether the OLPC project makes sure that the working conditions of the company who produces the laptops are fair...

How about combining the two things and re-orienting CompUSA as a channel to sell and support XO laptops to kids all over and work with school districts to use them to maximum advantage?

This would mean that CompUSA would be a lot different but it's an interesting idea...

It seems MS is trying hard to get XP to work on the OLPC, but since the SD connection is not a standard one, they need to make the drivers to all the hardware themselves AND they so definitely can not touch any olpc GPL code they need to be very careful! Things are not going as smooth as MS would like it to be.

Some interesting stories:
concerns for this all
general info about the things MS is doing

I think one difference the XO can make is in the level of desire some kids will have for becoming literate. Sure, nothing will reach every kid. When kids have the chance to be included in Google, Yahoo, Disney, Nickelodeon, and more because they have the laptop, they'll be less likely, I think, to disdain reading as something just stuck-up rich people do.

It's terribly discouraging growing up sharing 40-year old History books and not being able to do participate in the activities the other kids can. If the kids see that they can get their fun information using this tool, that's not as boring as a textbook. When they see the information is more current, that will help. When they can have interactive instruction outside the classroom, that will help.

I remember some of the most popular games when I was in school were Darwin's Island, Sim Earth, Oregon Trail, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Those types of things kept kids enthralled for hours. They're fun and educational, and they require a computer. I used to live with a woman whose daughter loved to sit at the computer and play with those self-reading books. She'd set it to only pronounce words when she'd click on them, and it helped her reading and spelling.

No, the XO's not a magic bullet. No, there's not a real effective way to isolate a population of real people in a laboratory environment, either. One can compare similar situations in different areas with and without the laptops. One can also compare an area before and after their introduction. Neither is tightly controlled, but when discussing the differences the other environmental factors can be considered. Any social science is not perfectly controlled, but statistically important trends do sometimes be found. The best way to do that is to have as many experimental groups as possible so that independent factors can be found to overlap here and not there.

It's my humble and relatively safe prediction that the laptops will help, but not as much as their proponents hope. My biggest fear about them is that the adults might focus too heavily on the technology and not on how to apply it.

That's always my biggest fear when I hear abut technology in schools. I think the folks at OLPC are actually running an end around on that issue with the XO in many ways though. Much of the right type of software has been worked out in advance and preloaded. They're laptops and they're promoted as individual laptops, so just sticking a few at the back of a room and never using them isn't much of an option. Early trials with the machines shows the kids will self-direct activities with the machines when at home, and that they tend to share their newfound skills with older family members.

Take a look at the 60 Minutes piece with Negroponte to see more about that. School attendance in a village in Cambodia increased by 50% after the introduction of more conventional laptops, because the kids thought so much of being able to use the computers. Now, I'd say in Birmingham, where electricity and running water are common and school attendance is mandatory, it's not going to make as notable a difference. It could still help keep kids interested in learning, though, even if not in traditional school.

As opposed to what? And obviously, the laptops are not being parachuted into villages with no support. The schools where they are being distributed have servers (and electricity). Read about the deployment in Uruguay.

It's also been suggested that although getting sick from your drinking water is indeed quite unpleasant, that you'll end up with an immune system that's much stronger overall as a result.

Bullshit. Heard of cholera? Dysentery? Bilharzia? Typhoid? No one is stronger for having these, if they survive. I had typhoid once in Indonesia, it took 6 months to get over it. Would you condemn millions to die in infancy for this fatuous neo-Darwinist theory? Try mixing some sewage with your Evian and see how you go.

You mean as opposed to wholesale? I bought them from the OLPC G1G1 program under the same terms and conditions I would have expected from any vendor.

No you didn't.

Education is the target market for the XO.

Nice punt. North America is not a target market for XO. It is being offered here purely out of necessity.

Or rather, I'll service what needs to be serviced and replace what needs to be replaced. Unlike most notebook computers offered at this price point, the XO is intended to be user-servicable by untrained technicians; the stated goal is to make it maintainable by the kids themselves.

That's nice, but... Despite what is intended, it is not user-serviceable. More here.. In other words, if anything breaks you can't get spare parts, and you probably will not be able to reassemble it once you take it apart.

Oh, so now we're talking about ASUS? Okay. Because the Eee PC is designed to be a ultra-light-weight laptop computer and not an educational tool. It's not designed for kids. The target market for that device (and similar ones) is people who do most of their work on a desktop machine but want something portable for light-duty work.

Do not allow facts to cloud your opinion.

I don't think the XO's will play Halflife; I'm not too worried about that.

Yeah, you beat that strawman to a pulp. Bad, bad strawman! Take that!

They also might not be the best choice for watching YouTube videos, shopping at Amazon, etc.

Translation: they will not grow with the students. Bravo! Gold star for you.

I'm fully expecting the now-plus-three-years version of the XO to be fully compatible with the ones I'm getting.

Are you expecting the current XO to be compatible with the now plus 7 year XO? Memory and storage have consistently shown themselves to be the most valuable upgrades available.

Check on this: http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/g1g1/give_one_get_one_globally.html.

http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/keyboard/olpc_patent_infringement_scam.html I like how the Nigerian patent office has an @yahoo email address!! Prepare for things to start getting wierd.

Here's a pointer to a method for ordering one if you are located outside the USA and Canada.

There are also reports that folks in Europe have been able to place orders by phone. This would only work for phone orders - the web site (PayPal) only allows USA and Canadian shipping addresses.

Here's a pointer to a method for ordering one if you are located outside the USA and Canada.

There are also reports that folks in Europe have been able to place orders by phone. This would only work for phone orders - the web site (PayPal) only allows USA and Canadian shipping addresses.

Technically, the human-powered battery charger is now a pull-string, not a hand-crank.

Remember MS has already created a program (Unlimited Potential) to sell XP (sans Office) for $3/pop to government programs in developing countries. OLPCNews covered this before, during the last MS on XO scare.

This is exactly what OLPC needs. Before getting too excited about it, read up on OLPC. Not only does it fail to address real educational concerns, the interface is sufficiently proprietary that these kids aren't going to learn how to use a standard GUI.

Kudos to Microsoft for supporting this platform, and hopefully Classmate PC will be able to bridge this gap with a real system. Certainly the OLPC business model is exciting and I think given the opportunity to buy a student this kind of computer would be something better for students and teachers to work with.

$100 bucks is cheaper than my friggin blackberry!

However, there are some darker sides to it. Online addiction is epidemic in China. Also, if the OLPC is actually successful, some suggest that their owners would man a CAPTCHA solving army .

Despite some of my reservations (some of them in common with Pogue) I really hope that this "little laptop that could" becomes widely adopted. If it is, it will be game changing on so many levels. It is so much more than a teaching tool. Not only will it redefine who gets to participate in the market of ideas, it will change the pricing for laptop prices across the board. Perhaps even quicken the convergence between cell phones, PDAs, laptops, and other media centers. The little device is just wicked cool.

However, there are some darker sides to it. Online addiction is epidemic in China. Also, if the OLPC is actually successful, some suggest that their owners would man a CAPTCHA solving army.

In the end, I think these risks are worth the benefits. And wide adoption is the least of the project's worries. It seems as if adoption is taking off a little too slowly.

Wii Sports with the foot-operated power generator, anyone?

I find it hard to believe that Intel is trying to undermine the OLPC project in this way.

Who do you think is funding OLPC News, a 'concern troll' website that hides its affiliation behind the thinnest veneer? The site's main producer (and owner of the domain) is a guy named Wayan Vota. This Wayan Vota is also the head of Geekcorps, a USAID-funded semi-government agency that does IT-related development work. Wayan Vota is also tied in closely to HP and Intel's efforts, sitting on Intel's development committee, and helping to coordinate the Classmate PC inititative.

But you'd never know that from the OLPC News site. Wayan never once discloses this glaring conflict of interest, nor does he anywhere (that I've found) acknowledge that he might have a stake in the game as anything other than a concerned observer.

Rest assured, Intel is doing the old Fox 'News' routine on OLPC. I personally find that behaviour despicable, and since this came to light, I've dropped all support of Geekcorps, whom I used to promote quite actively in Development circles.

The first time I heard about this was after Bill Gates (and the intel ceo) blasted the OLPC project. After a quick google, here is an article from a year ago about the subject:
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS2619367620 .html

Negroponte's publicly challenged the criticisms, reminding Gates and Intel that this is NOT a consumer machine. "We're going to help them make a Win CE version, so geez, why criticize me?"

Second, in response to complaints about the price, they have said for a long time that the $100 price point is the eventual goal, not the initial cost. From http://www.olpcnews.com/prototypes/olpc/olpc_xo_10 0_dollar_laptop.html

"The project's operators say the price should fall to $100 apiece next year, when they hope to produce 50 million of the so-called "XO" machines, before dipping below $100 by 2010 when they aim to reach 150 million of the world's poorest children.

"We're pledging to always drive the price down," Walter Bender, the group's president of software and content, told Reuters. "Rather than continuing to add features to keep the price inflated, we're keeping the feature set stable and driving the price down.""

I heard they expected after mass production for it go from $100 down to $50. It'll get their eventually.

I heard they expected after mass production for it go from $100 down to $50. It'll get their eventually.

I heard they expected after mass production for it go from $100 down to $50. It'll get their eventually.