Manufacturer Picked For $100 Laptop

IZ Reloaded writes "MIT has picked Taiwanese firm Quanta to manufacture its $100 laptop. From PCWorld: 'Under terms of an agreement with One Laptop Per Child, Quanta will devote engineering resources to develop the $100 notebook design during the first half of the year, according to a statement issued by the group. At the same time, Quanta and the non-profit organization will explore the production of a commercial version of the laptop.'" Apparently they don't think it's ineffectual either.

Comments

So much for the Compy 386 LT

[ackthpt]

The stock for Strongbad Industries, of Strongbadia (Pop: Tire), took a severe hit on the news.

like my good friend, Craig Barrett says, it is no good if our sales no asplode

BTW, how do you spell Barret(t?), even Intel seems to forget.

Re:So much for the Compy 386 LT

[superid]

In other news, cardboardium alloy futures plummet.

Sub-contractor

[Anonymous Coward]

Actual production of the laptop will, of course, be outsourced to the Ohio Art Company.

Crank Now

[Nom du Keyboard]

Once upon a time you had to crank your Victrola to play your music.

Now you can crank your notebook to play your MP3's.

Poor choice

[blueadept1]

One laptop per child? If they used the manufacturers that Nike uses, they could surely turn out at least 3 laptops per child per day.

Forecast

[wombatmobile]

The group did not offer an explanation for the numerical difference between this forecast, which would involve shipments of at least 7 million notebooks, with the forecast that initial shipments could number 5 million units.

They have to count everything by hand and estimate large numbers until they build the first laptop for their own office use.

Perfect

[Moby Cock]

These things are going to be so stable!!

Quanta never crashed, definitely never crashed.

Re:"Business at the Speed of Thought"-ish?

[drinkypoo]

Brilliant! you can plough a field with a $100 laptop.

Maybe you can't plough a field with it, but you can learn something about crop rotation, so that maybe you can avoid completely depleting what little good soil you have to work with, so that it lasts more than few years.

And now, on a lighter note:

KABINDA, ZAIRE--In a move IBM offices are hailing as a major step in the company's ongoing worldwide telecommunications revolution, M'wana Ndeti, a member of Zaire's Bantu tribe, used an IBM global uplink network modem yesterday to crush a nut.

Ndeti, who spent 20 minutes trying to open the nut by hand, easily cracked it open by smashing it repeatedly with the powerful modem.

"I could not crush the nut by myself," said the 47-year-old Ndeti, who added the savory nut to a thick, peanut-based soup minutes later. "With IBM's help, I was able to break it." Ndeti discovered the nut-breaking, 28.8 V.34 modem yesterday, when IBM was shooting a commercial in his southwestern Zaire village. During a break in shooting, which shows African villagers eagerly teleconferencing via computer with Japanese schoolchildren, Ndeti snuck onto the set and took the modem, which he believed would serve well as a "smashing" utensil.

IBM officials were not surprised the longtime computer giant was able to provide Ndeti with practical solutions to his everyday problems. "Our telecommunications systems offer people all over the world global networking solutions that fit their specific needs," said Herbert Ross, IBM's director of marketing. "Whether you're a nun cloistered in an Italian abbey or an Aborigine in Australia's Great Desert, IBM has the ideas to get you where you want to go today."

According to Ndeti, of the modem's many powerful features, most impressive was its hard plastic casing, which easily sustained several minutes of vigorous pounding against a large stone. "I put the nut on a rock, and I hit it with the modem," Ndeti said. "The modem did not break. It is a good modem."

Ndeti was so impressed with the modem that he purchased a new, state-of- the-art IBM workstation, complete with a PowerPC 601 microprocessor, a quad-speed internal CD-ROM drive and three 16-bit Ethernet networking connectors. The tribesman has already made good use of the computer system, fashioning a gazelle trap out of its wires, a boat anchor out of the monitor and a crude but effective weapon from its mouse.

"This is a good computer," said Ndeti, carving up a just-captured gazelle with the computer's flat, sharp internal processing device. "I am using every part of it. I will cook this gazelle on the keyboard." Hours later, Ndeti capped off his delicious gazelle dinner by smoking the computer's 200-page owner's manual.

IBM spokespeople praised Ndeti's choice of computers. "We are pleased that the Bantu people are turning to IBM for their business needs," said company CEO William Allaire. "From Kansas City to Kinshasa, IBM is bringing the world closer together. Our cutting-edge technology is truly creating a global village."

(Found here by doing a google search on 'bantu tribesman modem'. Damn, that joke is a classic.)

Re:What will happen

[Anonymous Coward]

What will happen is that 3rd world kiddies who previously just needed medical treatment for malaria, HIV, etc. will now also require testing for eyestrain, myopia, etc. Factor in the cost of the prescription lenses that most of us computer users seem to end up wearing, and suddenly the $100 laptop doesn't look like such a good deal.