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Preview Of The $100 Laptop
cynical writes "Harvard's Ethan Zuckerman, founder of GeekCorps and Global Voices, got a chance last week to drop in on Nicholas Negroponte and get a preview of the $100 laptop Negroponte has designed for students in the developing world. Zuckerman talks about both its hardware and the One Laptop Per Child project, and asks the readers for suggestions for innovative ways the $100 laptop can be used." From the article: "The mockup I saw was about the size of a large paperback book. There's a stiff rubber gasket around the edge of the machine, which can double as a stand. The keyboard on the mockup was detachable, but will probably fold out on a hinge ... Two trackballs, surrounded by four way buttons, on each side of the screen act as controls, and function keys on the back act as additional buttons.)" We've previously reported on this device here on Slashdot.
The demo was yesterday afternoon, and while , I learned a great deal more about machine than I have from previous articles, or Negroponte's talk at Pop!Tech. He was able to answer a whole set of questions for me, and raise an entire set of new ones, which, I suspect, will take a number of years to answer accurately.
That's a misquote. It wasn't Negroponte giving the talk, it was Negrodamus.
In the FAQS section of the linked site it is described how they were working with this laptop in some village in Cambodia without electricity and that it was the brightest item in the house at night!
Now I know they can hopefully recharge the batteries by solar cell but when dealing with people who need the basics of existence doesn't this sound just like a great idea from an ivory tower academic?
What happens when parts need replacement? WiFi? This just sounds stupid.