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Gates Mocks MIT's $100 Laptop
QuietLagoon writes 'Reuters is reporting that Bill Gates is making fun of the one laptop per child initiative to revolutionize how the world's children are educated. 'The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen,' Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington. 'Hardware is a small part of the cost' of providing computing capabilities, he said, adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support. 'If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type,' Gates said.'
While I think Gates is right to mock these laptops, I don't think he understands the realities of the problems of helping others around the world. The only thing that helps others is letting them find or create their own opportunities to better their futures. Taking care of people today is counter-productive and can destroy opportunities in the future.
Computers don't make opportunities. Teachers don't make opportunities. Public funding of projects, businesses and markets doesn't make opportunities. Opportunities come when a given community finds that is can accomplish something that others in a market want.
The Internet won't help here -- it isn't here to educate, it is here to help people meet each other's needs. The people using the Internet to better themselves are already living in an economy that enables them to find opportunities to better themselves. That realization is enough to give the average person the desire to make their lives better.
Gates is right -- the $100 laptop is useless. The people it is being built for do not understand opportunity because their community leaders have robbed them of any chance to better themselves. Many of the world's poor live under the thumb of a small group of elitists who think they can help the poor through force. They attempt to provide what their poor needs today, without realizing that just giving someone something doesn't offer any hope for the future. This is especially true if what you're giving them today doesn't really help them enough.
The Bible offers the old fish cliche -- give a man a fish and he'll eat today, teach a man to fish and he'll eat forever. This is very important when making a consideration towards helping another person. I hate helping others through tax-and-spend wealth redistribution: there is no accountability in how the money is spent. I give all my charitable dollars (in the past few months, over 50% of my income) only to those I can hold accountable. This sounds like a "quid pro quo" situation, but it would be no different if it was my own brother or child or best friend. If the person I am helping is not making attempts to support themselves, then my help is wasted -- time, money, love or support. There are others who want to help themselves but are in a position (for whatever reason) that they just can't. These are the people I help.
I would never fund anyone in another country, never again. When I was younger I funded some Ehtiopian charity group, and a few years later had the opportunity to visit Ethiopia. The charity group's office was luxurious and the people working for it lived a very nice life. They found an opportunity: take advantage of idiots in other countries who can't hold the charity accountable. The people the charity was meant to help received very little of the finance and support promised, and what little they did receive did not give them any hope for the future.
It is this hope that creates opporunities. I've seen poor people climb out of poverty with no help from anyone, just because a simple opportunity opened up near them. I just visited Europe and Asia, and I saw thousands of very poor people taking advantage of opportunities that we in the U.S. would never consider doing. Many of these people realized their time investment could offer them the chance to save for the future, to give their children a better chance, to even save some money so they can better their own lives -- in the future. I would never give a homeless person a home, a car and a credit card. I would never give an uneducated person a computer or an education. I would never give a hungry person money to buy food. I would never fund health care of people who don't care about their lives or the lives of their children.
But I would open my home to the homeless person, if they were willing to make steps to find how they can house themselves in the future. I would (and do) spend time with poor families to give their children a chance to learn in some way so that they could take on
'The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk
Fscking rich snob. You know, this git travelled around the world, donates money to fight diseases in 3rd world countries, but seems to have this wild belief that these backwaters are going to have telecommunications to each school and house, let alone broadband.
He SAW the crank handle, what part of "they use this because they don't even have electric" doesn't he understand? It's crap like this that gives the west a worse reputation, never mind invading oil countries, but doing bugger all for poor african nations. Geez, Bill, go back to feeling all warm and fuzzy inside about your Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, or maybe you could free up $100B and give people in these developing backwaters with shite infrastructure some electricity, running water and telecommunications. Then maybe the destabilizing wars will settle down, which actually go a long way towards contributing to the diseases you like to fund the fight against, and the people won't be on the move so much and they can all get down to the business of e-commerce.
Cripes... I can just see some kid sitting in an adobe house in a rural village looking at his bright shiny Dell laptop with Windows Vista installed, 2 GB memory, 200G HD, whizzy graphics, and wondering if he could use it as a hard surface to practice his writing on.,
Bill's probably really spiteful because it doesn't spread the market penetration of Microsoft. So where's his effort? If he hasn't got one, he shouldn't be spitting on others.
we give money to underprivileged congressmen to help develping strategies for them to look the other way.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
You would hope with his experience in the public eye, that he would have learnt that nobel efforts to help the less fortunate should be encouraged. Good luck to MIT and anyone associated with the project.
__
Funny Porn @ Laugh DAILY
Slashdot made fun of this. Now Gates made fun of it. Now we will see Slashdot slam Gates for making fun of it.
But he has put his money where his mouth is concerning helping needy children. He hasn't sold them $100 computers, but he has given away for free various medicines worth billions of dollars over many years. So I think his criticism should be seen in that context. I think he's expressing genuine concern.
Well of course, its only a couple hundred dollars more... I could've easily afforded that when I was a kid and spent three years saving up for an $80 used nintendo console.
And in other news, victims of Hurricane Katrina have finally returned to New Orleans to find that places of business have shut down and their homes have been destroyed.
When asked how he felt about people that are homeless, Bill Gates commented, "Their house got destroyed? So why don't they just buy another one? Boy, some people are just stupid!"
Gates then proceded to laugh at a little boy who's family was on welfare. "He was so skinny! Why didn't he just eat something? Boy, some people are just stupid".
He then wiped his ass with a 100 dollar bill and lit it on fire in front of a blue-collar laborer.
Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
Bill Gates - for his stunning work in stunting industry growth and naysaying alternatives to his medieocre product!
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-TJ
He might as well yell "Move to the food! Move to the food!!!"
This article is clearly flamebait. So allow me to participate in the opening salvo.
I think it's interesting how Gates proposes a solution where we need to put people to support the product, thereby charging money indefinitely. Keep your customers dependant, it's his tried and true component to his business model.
Perhaps Gates (and his wife Malinda) are satisfied with vaccinations and hand outs. Things like food, clothing, water, etc. While these things are very helpful in the short run, they unfortunately result in the poor remaining dependant on you for more hand outs. This is convenient if you wish yourself to be seen as a provider.
What's more valuable to you, food or a tool that could possibly help you learn how to procure food indefinitely. These laptops could be very valuable communication devices. Sometimes, it's just an open dialogue with someone intelligent that sparks the learning process.
It seems like Gates is walking up to someone who desperately needs just basic transportation and telling them that a $1,000 junker isn't what they need. They need a high performance Dodge Viper with a personal mechanic to maintain it. Broadband connection? Why? I thought I read that these $100 laptops were going to have radio frequency repeaters so that information could be sent from laptop to laptop and act as routers for each other.
You know, even if these laptops are mediocre or even a complete failure, at least someone tried to provide the tools to escape poverty permanently.
Either Gates thinks that poor equals stupid or he's got something against MIT. These must have been some very hastily made remarks--think before you speak no matter how rich you are. It also doesn't help that the article implied he recommends a Microsoft "Ultra-Mobile" laptop instead (costing 6 to 10 times more).
My work here is dung.
maybe you attach a malarial vaccinator on a usb port and he'll be happy. or add a full-price copy of vista.
go get it
1 - They ignore you
2 - They ridicule you
3 - They fight you
4 - You win
May as well fit the computer with some "tried and true" *cough* Microsoft Windows *cough* software while you're at it...
LINUX ONLINE POKER: Linux Poker
Gates was never a real visionary. Excellent business man right from the very beginning but he never really had the visionary spirit. It brings up the debated comment about memory, it is dumb to most people, but really it isnt that dumb of a comment, just a lack of vision in what could come next. He knows business, not technology, he just happens to be in the tech business. He could have just as easily been in a different business and been very successful
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
He's donated billions of dollars worth of medicine to children all over Africa and elsewhere. If anyone in this world has "put up or shut up," it's Mr. Gates. He is expressing genuine concern.
They're running Linux on these things aren't they? No market share for Microsoft.
Gates has valid points, but they're overshadowed by his oafishness. And it's really strange given the amount of money he pours into Africa every year. Bizarre.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
For real. I mean, why hand-crank those things? Why don't they just plug them into the power outlets in the wall? I see about 6 or 7 outlets from where I'm sitting. I would assume that everyone everywhere else in the world has the exact same resources available to them that I do...
This guy's the limit!
'...geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type,' Gates said.'
You forgot to add "from his Windows CE powered PDA IM message"
2) Businessman interested in protecting his market (computing) and preventing the competitors (linux) from gaining a significant foothold in the developing countries.
I'm guessing it's a little bit of a mix between the two; his bias will naturally have him play devil's advocate.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
If you're going to supply an OS, geez, supply one where file access rights aren't going to be managed by third party corporations.
You don't solve the problem of 3rd world technology and computing by dumbing it down and providing a tool that does a few things. You go in and build infrastructure, support the communities and develop them from the ground up.
The future of computing isn't wind up "puters" that can send email, it's rich clients, broadband and infrastructure. For the cost of R&D, support, delivery and maintenance on these you could easily give these countries wireless broadband infrastructure, jobs and start building up economies and getting "real" services in instead of giving them a bone and hoping they're happy with it.
i could go to toys r us and buy toys more powerful and less costly than these wind up devices.
good idea.. i guess so for what they're trying to do but it seems like a horrible waste of talent to dumb things down because we don't want to help these countries get where they need to be but find some way to make money off them and hope they enjoy a dumbed down device.
Darn, the last 5 stories in the homepage come straight from digg uhuhhuh!
Next:
100MHz Nintendo DS
1 Terabyte of Solid State Hard Drive Space!!
British Survey: Linux Gaining Ground on Windows
Possible Earthquake Predictor Invented
-5, Sad but true
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Indeed. I mean, how are poor, illiterate masses supposed to install Office (tm) on those things? Or run Windows Media Player(tm)?
Clearly, since the only reason for anybody to use a computer is to provide a justification for spending money on Microsoft products, the sub-$100 idea is just goofy.
hang brain.
It seems that almost all of the technology that Gates has mocked has come back and bit him on the ass. We all know that the Internet is just a fad, noone needs that much memory, and so on. While some of the claims to quotes are questionable, the pattern still exists. He mocks alot of things he didn't come up with first. I fail to understand the hero worship this asshat gets from the general populace. They assume he is some kind of computer genious. He really is little more than a very good business man/thief.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
...he added, noting that many starving children would prefer a fine confection to gruel and cold milk.
This tagline is copyrighted material. Please send $10 for an affordable replacement.
Wasn't he reluctant to offer Windows in a scaled-down version for developing countries? Now he's slamming someone's efforts to help spread technology. You'd think he'd be big enough to say, "More power to them. This is good no matter who's doing it." Ah, but it's not him and he's not profitting from it. So much for his big heart.
Sheesh, can he be any more arrogant? Most of the areas that they are targeting for these laptops don't have electricity and running water.
So Bill, what are you going to do to improve the situation?
being rich does not make you understand others.
With a $100 price point about the only thing Microsoft has is the Windows CE runtime license. That leaves little room for $$$ applications, etc., and definitely not the Office cash cow, Windows, or the perpetual upgrades & licenses that goes with them.
The only real way to make a useable $100 computer (decent display & keyboard, and network connectivity) and have usable apps (browser, e-mail, spreadsheet and wordprocessor) is to use good quality, inexpensive components. Open source fits the bill, and that leaves Microsoft out in the cold.
One teacher told me the kids were required to submit their history reports in MS Word format, with requirements to use X pieces of clipart and a number of other "features". It's history class, not MS training - using MS products effectively should not be part of the grade. Submitting it hand-written on paper should be good enough. BTW, the teacher was complaining to me - not supporting this silly stuff, but she was told they had to do it.
If these people are so damned impoverished, why don't they get off their lazy asses and go to the ATM machine and withdraw $200 in twenty dollar bills? And these children are starving to death? Here's an idea for them: Go to McDonalds and order a Double Quarater Pounder Extra Value Meal. That's, like, a half pound of meat. And as for these kids needing computers, I think it's high time they pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, went to newegg, and built a decent computer for around $500. Jesus, how else are they going to manage their stock portfolios?
When you've contributed as much to charity as Gates has, you can open your mouths. Until then, shut the fuck up. He's criticising ONE PRODUCT that will probably never make much of a difference anywhere. It's his OPINION. I guess he's not allowed to have one that differs from yours, though.
... when informed that some people in poverty have no bread, Gates replied Let Them Eat Cake"
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
So...do you think that when you have BILLIONS of dollars...you MIGHT not understand the huge benefit of a $100 Computing Platform that has a hand powered generator? Bill Gates has officially moved into the realm of "Rich/Powerful guys that don't know WTF is going on around them". Anyhow... I'm highly encouraged by the $100 laptop & think it will be a huge benefit to the world. Is it the best hardware choice for kids that get to ride to headstart in a HUMMER H2? No. Is it a great choice for families that live in Mobile Homes & Dirt Huts? Yes. Will Scottsdale Arizona benefit much? No. Will millions of these laptops be donated to schools & communities around the world? Yes. 3 Words Billy: GET A CLUE
Spaceballs Movie Trivia! Fill in the Blank: "I'm surrounded by ________."
I gather he's really pissed that they chose Linux and not Windows to run on it, and even offered windows for free.
FTA: and with a tiny little screen," is one of his criticisms. Yet... also FTA: "Gates showed off a new "ultra-mobile computer" which runs Microsoft Windows on a seven-inch (17.78-centimeter) touch screen."
Let's see: His criticism of the 100 dollar laptop is that it has a small screen, which point he makes right after demonstrating a computer with a small screen.
Hello? Bill? Clue?
From this article:
... and this article:
Even tech titans like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell are talking to Negroponte about his plans. Jobs initially dismissed the laptop as a "science project" but is now contributing ideas. Dell had his staff vet the cost of the device's components. And Gates would like Negroponte to use Microsoft software rather than the free open-source alternatives that Negroponte currently favors.
Software behemoth Microsoft has also yet to determine its involvement in the $100 laptop scheme, although at present the use of open source software will preclude it from contributing a Windows operating system.
However, Bill Gates met with Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT's Media Lab, who is involved with the $100 laptop project, to discuss Microsoft's participation in the scheme, the WSJ reported.
Interesting how Microsoft initially wanted to be involved. Bill Gates wasn't mocking the project then, but now it seems Microsoft isn't involved, and even though the laptop itself hasn't changed, Bill Gates is having a go at it.
Interesting.
I'm not normally one to defend Bill Gates, but in this case its I feel I need to. For those who remember the Seinfeld episode, poor people don't want Muffin Stumps.
e _id=170 for an explanation.
:) ) and runs on urine. Guess you'll be drinking a LOT of water.
see http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minut
Whats the point of having a "PC" if it can't perform to the level an average user would expect. Tell you what, I'm gonna create car for the poor. The catch is, to make it cheap enough it only goes 20mph (yes I'm in the state
"Build something idiot proof, and someone will build a better idiot" - Samuel Clemens
Imagane a generation of children brought up using Linux, not Windows. That is his worst nightmare.
http://gnn.tv/articles/476/White_Man_s_Burden
He has "given away for free various medicines" so that countries that were thinking of ignoring the laws that protect the formulas of said medicines and mass produce them no longer have a reason to. The same international laws that protect his windows monopoly.
When Marie Antoinette was told that the serfs didn't have any bread to eat, her response was "so, let them eat cake!". This wasn't supposed to be some sadistic afluent sneer against the poor and unwashed masses, but rather, her standard of living was so disconnected that from her perspective, if there wasn't bread to eat, then you could just have cake instead. To someone in such a position, the concept of starvation was very foreign.
I think the same thing might be said here. I have a hard time believing that Bill Gates can have any concept of what life is like for the extremely underprivileged, and consequently how he can have any relevant ideas on providing computer access to these same people.
I remember years ago, when 56K modems were the "speed kings" and the internet was heavy into its "boom" phase, I was having a conversation about the whole "internet phenomenon" with a favorite college professor of mine who was from Kenya. It was a very sobering moment when he said that where he came from it was considered a high luxury to have a telephone, much less a computer, or a "broadband connection". And he wasn't from the poorer regions of Kenya.
So while the concept of a "hand cranked computer with a small screen" might seem silly to people who have a "standard of computer living" that is very high, it's very likely that such a system is the very bread that is needed and can be sustainably incorporated into the culture. And to suggest big monitors and broadband is not much different than suggesting that these same groups, when they run out of bread, that they should just eat cake.
Just my 2c.
RFC2119
Slashdot didn't make fun of the computers, it was more of disbelief - the project is very ambitious and $100 price tag seems to be unreachable. Lots of us, /. nerds would love to get that thing, but we see it as vaporware, a dream that won't come true.
On the other hand, Gates is mocking the strengths of the idea and shows real shortsightedness. He says the cost is network and software, which is bullshit. The software is to be Linux so no real cost here. The network doesn't need to be broadband, and likely won't be - and the bandwidth can be donated by country using existing data lines, HAM radio and different other really cheap options. A single broadband line for whole school, it's neither expensive nor impossible. The remaining BIG cost is the hardware and only a guy with several $bln on his account can consider it negligible. Gates imagines this: OS: $150. Broadband line: $300 installing, $30/month. Other software (MS Office, antivirus, anti-spyware etc) $200. So why not round it up to $1000 with the hardware. The guys at MIT think: OS: $0. Software: $0. Network: old HAM radio: $0 (donated), old 2nd hand modem $5, bandwidth govt-sponsored. Hardware: $100.
$100 may be a year or two of hard saving for an average family in some countries. $1000 is for most of them completely out of reach.
So either aim at this unrealistic $100 (and maybe laugh with us about how vaporware this is) or just give up.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
'The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen,' Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington.
How big is the screen on Origami?
"big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support." I guess he is talking from the Windows user experience...
Senor Gates: these computers will not use any licensed software.
Oh, so it's ok for Bill to dream of a computer in every home when it's his software that's going to be on them, but it's wrong when someone else tries putting "a computer on every kid's lap" because he had nothing to do with it.
I think he forgot when HE learned how to use a computer, the things didn't even have displays, so why complain about a computer that's 1000 times more powerful than anything he used when a teenager?
And he might be a philantropist and yadda yadda, but he's into welfare and not into really helping people improve themselves. Helping them survive is one thing; helping them learn and thrive is another very different one. Let's see Bill donate several million computers *without* ties to MSFT software and then I'll believe he's really concerned about the MIT computer being a fiasco.
Give a kid medicine and he'll live to starve tomorrrow; show him how to use a computer and he'll be able to live decently for the rest of his life.
Except when it comes to tech. Then he tries to gouge these people. Look at the nambia.net stories of MS "generosity". I don't see his donations as much more than PR. Its great that these people are getting this food/medicine/money. But really, the motivations need to be examined before you declare this guy as anything genuine.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
...Considering the standard theme on his Fischer-Price PlaySkool os.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Gates also said that big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support. The argument that applications are more expensive than hardware is similarly disingenious: if you pay Microsoft their extortionate retail prices, yes applications are expensive. The same goes for support: paid support is expensive, community-based support is cheap.
Will these machines have some kind of programming environments on them? If people can learn languages that the computer industry value they can become useful workers. Companies could employ programmers from these poorer areas and the promise of a better life could push students to work as hard as they can in these subjects.
There is a better than average chance that, ten years from now, Mr. Gates will have done more to help poor people in poor countries than anyone in history, ever. And you tell him to put up or shut up? Sheeesh...
Problem is that there are several vaccines. I myself remember getting tons of them for hepatitis and influenza in high school. Oh, that's right, the flu has many forms and flu shots are administered yearly. Oh, and for the major forms of hepatitis (when administered properly) it's is a series of shots done over years.
Wow, vaccines aren't as simple as we think!
Pull your head out of your ass. As an American, I can look at our countries vaccine consumption and even I recognize that our infrastructure isn't up to snuff with providing vaccines. If a smallpox vaccine is cheap, why hasn't it been administered to all healthy adults that have little to no risks? Why have I only had one flu shot? Why do they make such a huge deal about flu vaccine shortages on the news?
Providing vaccines to poor people is an ongoing process. They will always be reproducing. There will always be new viruses. They will therefore always need me. What if I gave them an education and they either figured out ways to earn money to outsource it or figured out how to develop vaccines themselves? That's a long way away but we need to start them on the right path.
My work here is dung.
I'm glad that he's spending all the illegally gotten gains on good causes.
But would life be better if competition had caused operating system software to go towards zero (it's approximate real cost). Goods and services which depend for their production on computers (ie. just about everything) would be cheaper. Whole countries would not be exporting $billions to him every year, and instead would be able to spend that money on investment and growth.
I suppose we'll never know.
Rich.
libguestfs - tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images
seriously melinda isn't going to be happy with him
she spends all that time trying to make him a decent human being and he throws it back.
you know what would have had wow factor if instead of mocking this project he put some money into it.
so what if it doesnt run windows surely there's no need to assimulate or destroy everything.
now that would have been good publicity and maybe improve microsofts image.
wonder what mr jobs take is on the 100 dollar laptop..
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
Gates is just spreading the usual FUD. He seems to "misinterpret" the simple facts and spins till they're dizzy.
...and being able to actually power it without an outlet would help readability too. The crank is only one of several ways to provide power, it can also get powered just like a "decent computer".
Shared: It's "One Laptop per Child"; no sharing.
Diskless: The machine has peer-to-peer networking built in; disks would be slower.
Tiny screen: It's a bigger screen than my PocketPC. And I bet 6 of those screens are bigger than his 6x more expensive "alternative".
Network cost: It's got builtin wireless networking; no network expenses needed.
Application cost: That's why they didn't choose Windows.
Support cost: It's a total package; if it's broken in either HW or SW, replace the entire machine and fix the broken one centralized.
Broadband connection: Because these educational systems are meant to be used for downloading the latest movies? Besides, the wireless network will probably be a lot faster than the 56k6 modems a lot of people are still using.
Reading what you type: That's where the dual-mode LCD screen comes in; something a "decent computer" hasn't got...
Crank:
I think that debunks all of Gates' lies.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
He didn't donate money. He donated shares he couldn't otherwise sell. He gets a tax break for the market value and the charity sells them. I agree what he has done is commendable, but it was also party motivated by SEC and IRS rules.
He's just bitter because a while back he tried to horn in on the initiative and make them go they way he wanted, and got rebuffed.
... and with a tiny little screen.'-- Oh, okay, Bill, but cellphones without disks and with tiny little screens are okay? I'm guessing those cellphones run some variant of Windows which magically makes up for all the other shortcomings of the device.
The USA Today article I found says he thinks cellphones are the way to go to get the world's poor online.
But then he goes on to say in this article, 'The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk
A cautiously optimistic Nigerian teenager is secretly plotting a MySpace oil scam involving aforementioned $100 crank-based computers.
>"The computers lack many features found on a typical personal computer, such as a hard disk and software."
I pity those poor children, trying to run a computer with no software. Can't we at least get them some of that "free software?"
"Oh wait, that's right! The $100 laptop runs Linux! It'll have the full free catalog."
Bing! Agenda Detector...That's why Bill Gates is mocking it! ...and the uncritical media ("lack[s]....software") are going along
with it.
"Bill Gates attacks $100 laptop" is to "George Bush attacks Iran" as "$100 laptop runs Linux" is to "Iran supplies oil to China."
Stand up and shout.
He has through his own and other charities. Perhaps you missed it, Gates and Bono were Time's 2005 "People of the Year" for their charitable work.
/. late last year...) He had some ideas on the design of the device: no only that he also offered a free custom version of Windows for the machine. Negroponte very rudely ran Gates off. This is tit for tat if you ask me, but of course being /., Negroponte and the $100 notebook can do no harm and Gates is Satan, incarnate...
Gates offered his advice and help with the $100 notebook. (this was on
Says Gates, who makes billions off of support for hideously expensive software.
Furthermore, Gates added:
"Also, let them eat cake"
From TFA:
...being developed with the backing of rival Google Inc.
/. had some comments similar to Bill's...
What? You expect him to applaud? Think 'ol Bill is gonna back something supported by a large rival?
And so what if his "ultra-mobile" computer sells for $600-$1000; windows XP sells for a chunk of change too, but that didn't seem to stop him from dropping the prices and doing what he had to do in order to get the product to the target audience.
If memory serves, the last time the issue of the $100 PC came up,
Gates is merely providing temporary solutions.
That's what he does best.
He keeps these people dependant on him by never giving them the tools to break free and learn en masse.
Yeah, billions have been given and he's a person of the year according to Time.
You know what? Without giving these people what they really need, people like you will falsely praise him as being the greatest philanthropist ever. The poor need education above all else.
Only through education can anyone permanently break the bonds of poverty.
My work here is dung.
I found the idea of a 100$ Notebook IDIOTIC from the start. Either make it free ( as in beer) or let it be. Even if a kid wanted to save up 100$ do you think the poor family will allow it's kids to save up 100$ to buy a computer? Are you kidding me? That 100$ are needed for the family to survive.To buy animals.To buy clothes. And he is also right on the whole support issue too. What are the kids supposed to do with the "notebooks" if they can't connect to the internet and there in nobody to show them how to use it? These are kids that have quit school to help support their family. This whole thing is a stupid idea from the start , by people who have no ideawhat the 3rd world needs. Gates has enough experience in the matter to express his critic. Now mod me troll if you want.
-- TRUST ME! I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!
Before his critique, Gates showed off a new "ultra-mobile computer" which runs Microsoft Windows on a seven-inch (17.78-centimeter) touch screen.
Those machines are expected to sell for between $599 and $999, Microsoft said at the product launch last week.
no comment.....
"Hardware is a small part of the cost" of providing computing capabilities, he said, adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support.
Well, all networking, apps, and support I run on my laptop are free. I'm not here to plug my favorite OS but it's not Windows and it certainly doesn't cost me anything.
The way to reach the masses will be through video games, mobile devices like smart phones and media players, and ambient computing devices -- not cheaper PCs, which are fundamentally designed for productivity workers. The vast majority of the world's population has no use for spreadsheets and word processors.
Nooface
In Search of the Post-PC Interface
Is Bill Gates supporting open source? (In a round-about way)
Come on. Get a grip. He's not the $B he is because his products are truly affordable to the world.
Geez
Compared to what is going on in the rest of the computer industry, everything that has come out of Microsoft recently has indicated an appalling lack of innovation in Redmond, just a need to keep pushing on with selling Windows licenses in different ways.
I'm writing this under Windows XP as I haven't got around to installing Ubuntu on this laptop (tonight hopefully, although I think I will have to keep an XP partition for Nero), but apart from the OS, I am not using one MS application. Firefox, Gaim, Skype and OpenOffice.org 2 do all I need them to do at work as well as and possibly better than their MS counterparts, and what's more, I can run the same desktop on Linux or OS X (my needs are simple and few, but what do you do when you aren't running World of Warcraft?).
Microsoft will never lose their market domination, but they are starting to deserve it less and less, and the more people who can be convinced that its position is not a right will hopefully mean that it will actually do something other than snipe at the slowly building competition.
How can you fit a quality error message on a screen that small?
The same applies to $100 desktop program. You can look at it as a way to fight microsoft on desktop market, gaining a big share in the future.
I'm not protecting Gates in this partucular situation, I'm just a little bit skeptical about this $100 desktop program too.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
Well, yeah, it's useless for Vista. It turns out that poor people don't need eye-candy or bloat.
Bill Gates is just annoyed that this laptop isn't running Windows. Microsoft was originally trying to get involved in this project, but they were not accepted, so now they're FUDing it.
This is making me think he only gives money to charities to improve his PR. But now I just think he's an asshole with a stick up his ass, if he didn't have a monopoly on software, then software prices wouldn't be any where near as expensive as they are now. Infact I suspect OSS wouldn't even have half the support it does if it wasn't free software which works damn well.
The people getting these laptops are the sort of people who have never heard of a PC outside of people traveling, other than reporters and celebrities they have probably never even seen technology beyond a basic projector or TV. They don't need to have half the crap he suggested, just a simple game they can play where they learn to read and write (dear Grammar nazis, fuck off before you even start on me today). Give them a way to read a dictionary, an e-book or just see the world outside their shanty town/close walk.
We often forget that people outside our own countries don't know much about the outside world except people comming into give them support or raise their PR. Now with these lap tops they stand a chance of learning more about not only themselvs but the entire world and while the knowledge gained won't be up to "adult level" for another 10-20 years, to make a huge difference. It's a small step on the way to fixing a lot of "class" type problems around the world. These are the super low class, all they desire to be is low class, so why not train them to be working class and give them the skills they need to not only achieve this but also to survive in a world which forgets them untill they're standing at the edge of a cliff Lemmings style
I like muppets.
This is for 3rd world and 2nd world countries where they can't afford "real" PCs with "real" OS's and most likely don't have a phone line to use dialup internet or even be able to call up Dell or HP or whoever. This needs to "just work" and by "just work" be able to relay to others who have net access, be able to work without batteries or mains power and be able to perform its tasks without spyware and viruses corrupting the OS.
Obviously he wants to pitch a solution with XP or CE because that's where he makes his money... hell, even if hardware were a minor cost - which apparently it ISN'T since there is a huge difference between a standard laptop and this one - is he really going to give away XP/CE and Office? Hell no! He wants his piece of the pie and there's nothing wrong with that. The problem is that he doesn't understand that the target audience for this laptop are people who have probably never seen a laptop, much less used a computer.
I'd hate to be there when the villagers are using their HP notebooks and the battery craps out. They would probably use it for kindling after that.
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
I recently acquired a couple of older laptops to send to aquaintances in Zimbabwe. They both run pretty well, except for dead battaries of course. However, DHL wants $300 to send the heavier one to Victoria falls. I paid a total of $100 for the two computers. Parcel Post would only be $80 (for six week deilvery), but you can't send things through the Zimbabwean post office and expect them to reach their destination. Hopefully I can get the cost down by removing and mailing the batteries, paring down the pachaging and just shipping the valuable bits by reliable carrier. But for now, the barrier to me giving away laptops in south central Africa is shipping cost.
It is cowardly, and a betrayal of whatever it means to be a Jew, to act as a white man
-James Baldwin
...he didn't say "If they have no bread, then let them eat cake!", that was Maria Antoinette. What Gates really said was "If they can't read well in those small screens $100 laptops have, let them have a decent computer! (A $500-$1000 Origami, maybe?)". He also said "If they can't type and cranck the thing at the same time, let them plug a decent computer in a outlet, which must be avaliable in any house in third world countries". After all, what is $1000 for a third world country child? Is it something that could feed their families for about a year? Oh, yes, it is!
One point Gates seemed to miss here is that the lack of capacity of the machines and their low price is also a way to avoid them to be robbed or sold.
So say we all
My wife visited Kenya last year on an eco-tour. She sent me an email from the only internet cafe they passed on the whole 2-week trip, which had eight terminals sharing a single 28.8K connection that dropped every few minutes and had to be redialed.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
...the corporatists like Gates are the kind of people who will make the world a better place. God he needs to get a clue about how to behave in public! What a dick.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support
Applications don't have to have big costs associated with them.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
And nowadays 1GB isn't enough for anybody?
Make up your mind, Bill!
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
I reckon if anything that Bill is scared because if these things ever did become consumer devices that his shitty Origami project would go down the tubes just like all their predecessors. After all, how many would buy some lousy pen device costing thousands when something costing a tenth could do all they need.
It's not just consumers either. I can well see these things being useful in warehouses and other places where you need computer access but not the bother of having devices on charge all the time.
There are quite a lot of analysts saying that if the first world were to stop donating to Africa, the continent would sort itself out.
That's mainly because those familiar with the African situation know that in almost all cases the food and basic resource supplies only keep the local warlords in power and the population there barely alive. What Africa needs is not donations - they make the situation worse - but an own economy producing their own food and their own tools. Cut the donations and help Africa do that rather than keeping up the status quo.
(Btw, when talking about Africa I mean the poor and unstable countries of Africa, not countries like South Africa.)
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
what he means to says is profits. For a well designed computer the software and support is pretty cheap. Networking? Last I checked a chunch of removable media in the mail still had more bandwidth than any broadband you care to name, and that's dirt cheap. OTOH, providing software in need of constant upgrades and support and fun but uncecessary networking services is prtty damn profitable. I guess if gobs of money's my aim, I'd be selling cheap wintel boxen too.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Gates is right. Don't give them some tiny, barely functional laptop. Give them one with a big screen to display the Blue Screen of Death. That will allow them to experience the 21st Century like the rest of us.
PRIVATE American citizens donated almost 15 times more to the developing world than their European counterparts, research reveals this weekend ahead of the G8 summit. Private US donors also handed over far more aid than the federal government in Washington, revealing that America is much more generous to Africa and poor countries than is claimed by the Make Poverty History and Live 8 campaigns.
6 52005
Church collections, philanthropists and company-giving amounted to $22bn a year, according to a study by the Hudson Institute think-tank, easily more than the $16.3bn in overseas development sent by the US government. American churches, synagogues and mosques alone gave $7.5bn in 2003 - a figure which exceeds the government totals for France ($7.2bn) and Britain ($6.3bn) - according to numbers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which deal a blow to those who claim moral superiority over the US on aid.
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=730
Seems Gates would mock anything that doesn't put money in his pocket. What's good for free software is bad for people making money from proprietary software, so no prizes for guessing why Gates would want to brush this type of thing off.
The better question would be, when will we ever see this machine?
I saved a cat once, so that means I can go mock someone who saves a cat in a different way right? FUCK NO!
Gates needs to sit his ass down and shut his mouth. If he cares so much for these people why doesn't he pony up a few million dollars every month? The guy has enough money that he would struggle to spend the intrest per month outside of MS's blackhole departments. So why isn't he going "okay, you use windows (at a reduced fee kekekeke) and I'll put up the money to sort out a system which will deliver power to every village (a generator would work perfectly) and 1 laptop could go to a village who now have light and heat. Add a well to that and you have some very very well off people in African terms.
I like muppets.
..if you're going to spend resources to build infrastructure in 3rd world countries, how about we spend it on more practical infrastructure. For instance, if you or Bill Gates are against $100 laptops for their silly cranks, instead of suggesting we build a country-wide infrastructure for wireless networking, how about suggest we build a country-wide infrastructure for electricity. Or clean water. Or vaccinations. Etc, etc, etc.
In the context of spending money on dumbed-down laptops, your idea is tops; however, when you broaden the scope a bit, you're still faced with some of the problems they tried to address in the $100 laptop project (i.e. adding a crank to power the laptop, because electricity isn't available 24 hours a day in their area..how frustrating would it be knowing that you don't have power, but you do have wireless connectivity?)
--- What
How about we scrap the laptop idea, and give poor people food? I know if I was starving to death, I'd really want to check to see if someone emailed me a hamburger.
Since when did operating systems become a religion?
... you are an asshat.
(Ordinarily I would balk at the use of the word 'ass' in this way, since I am English and would much prefer to use the correct form of 'arse', but I'm afraid it just doesn't work as well.*sigh*)
And, incidentally, little outbursts like this will ensure that your attempts to 'launder' your public image, so that future generations consider you as some kind of benevolent god rather than a little rich kid who gets his kicks pushing others around, will ultimately fail.
He said what we should be making and giving them cheaply are basically cell phones that you can hook up to a TV and keyboard and use as a computer
Considering that my cellphone here in Canada still has dead zones, and very high data charges - and we're one of the more developed countries for telecommunications - I don't think that this is very likely to happen. Not that it isn't a nice thought, but such things require a lot of work in themselves, and then a constant support-base to keep the network running without interruption.
Cheap computers likely require support too, but on an individual basis, and without as much immediate need.
Anything you've seen calling this an attempt to "solve the problem of 3rd world technology and computing" was market speak. This is no different to anything else - a step forward.
Infrastructure? These laptops are infrastructure. And I can't think of anything more "from the ground up" than KIDS.
Wireless broadband infrastructure? And what do you propose they connect to this wireless broadband? Sounds like your fantasy world is a step ahead of the rest of us.
I'm sick to death of smug Slashdotters pissing on this project as if they know better than MIT and the UN.
It has to be reasonably big for ergonomic comfort - you couldn't surf, let alone do distance learning classes or whatever on a cellphone for any length of time. I do agree that apart fromit does sound very much like the Blue Angel PDA, and that can run Linux now.
Remember, Bill Gates is also the guy who said computers would never need more than 640 kb of RAM. So . . . let's not treat him like he's a visionary. On the upside, it is nice to see the world's largest 'Nix-driven company (Google) lie up for a fight with MS.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
If Mr. Gates thinks kids won't sit typing into too small a screen, I'd suggest he take a look at the kids texting madly into their phones.
It is we who are the dinosaurs, Mr. Gates.
And I wish my laptop had that cheesy-looking wind-up thing to use on the long train-rides (of course it wouldn't work cause my laptop uses way too much power)
Also, once the project is started and the engineering is done, the goal is that the 100 bucks will cover the costs of producing it so it won't even be a charity anymore, you can make as many as needed and sell them cheap to 3rd world educational institutions (of course donations to help them buy them would still be wellcome) Bullshit. More powerful perhaps in terms of Mhz or some other silly measure of computational power, but there are no real, general-purpose computers this cheap on the market, because it is not a very profitable buisness and doesn't have a lot of demand here anyhow (because most of us can afford better).
If the thing was windows-enabled, he'd be going on and on about how low-cost/free hardware was a vital part of some "end user experience feature package" that only microsoft could deliver to the developing world blah blah blah Oh, and his lapdog intel is also out of the loop .. karma -5 from bill ...
While I can understand your feeling of frustration and disappointments over the less than perfect and effective programs of some charities, I would suggest that you've thrown out the baby with the bathwater.
When you set out to achieve something in private business, in local charities, in anything that demands cooperation of large groups of people, do you expect it to happen perfectly and without waste? I would suspect not. Rather it seems that you've set an impossibly high bar for foreign aid programs to meet.
Secondly, I completely agree that all donors SHOULD understand an organization and its achievements before sending any money. In this context, it is important to remember that there are many motivations behind forein aids. Some use it to get rid of surplus food. Some use it for political ends. Some use it to subsidize exports. Some are enriching the middlemen. Some actually succeeds in helping the receipients! It is indeed critical to understand who and what one is donating to. Because of this, I do not donate to telephons and only give directly to groups with established record of effectiveness: Oxfam, Care, etc.
Thirdly, you are dead wrong that the people of the world have no hopes and don't care about their children. By and large, people everywhere wants to improve their own living conditions and that of their children. Cheap computing CAN be a small part of creating more opportunities for them. No, it won't feed those bordering on starvation. Yes, it CAN help small enterpreneur to better manage their business and provide education where few teachers are available.
Lastly, I do agree that changes in US policies can greatly benefit many people around the world. But please bear in mind that many programs are best done people to people, bypassing governmental involvement (less chance for corruption too). Secondly, US policies are the way they are due to very powerful vested interests. They would not be easily changed and it could take a long time. Just look at the environmental movement and how long it took to change policies and how much resistance persists. If you are working on such policies changes, I applaud your efforts. That, however, does NOT preclude the need to support sustainable development assistance in parallel. From you post, I believe that you care too much to leave this entirely to the politicians. So please DO support people to donate responsibly and hold the charities accountable.
For some useful background, I think this site has a lot of good information: (Via the Chronicle of higher education / Arts & Letters Daily):
http://www.tnellen.com/ted/tc/computer.htm
Essentially, the benefits of using computers in basic education are dubious at best. It could perhaps be useful in conjunction with the internet, as a textbook replacement, but I doubt service quality is going to be good enough if you have to use a crank-powered laptop.
- A simple, useful, rugged, easy to replace or repair machine.
- A self-sufficient machine that can work offline (i.e. no powergrid, no telecoms connectivity) and still be useful.
- A machine that is cheap, doesn't attract much attention and has little resell value (do you want kids to get mugged or worse for carrying an expensive computer on them?)
- A machine that doesn't need expensive commercial software. Sorry Bill, even a couple of hundred dollars is a lot of money in the 3rd world. People should be able to spend it on more essential things (e.g. their home, healthcare, other vital needs)
and finally
- The 3rd world has many outstanding needs that sitting in front of a computer won't solve. The best thing a computer can provide in many places is access to knowledge that helps people improve their lives and communities.
Market penetration. Same reason he doesn't bother prosecuting piracy in China. The product is free to produce and he knows they can't (or won't) pay for it, so he "gives it away free," gaining goodwill and convincing people that Windows is the only operating system worth having.
Personally, I don't know that these laptops will do much to help these people. Yes, it gives them access to information, which will hopefully allow them to overcome the cultural barriers they have preventing them from having good food, but who will control the laptops?
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Spoken like a true billionaire. Perhaps he should be pennyless and see if squinting is a big issue in the use of the systems. If the systems were his new clameshell, he would be all for it.
Gates put on his top hat and monocle then drove to boardwalk laughing all the way.
So why is a small screen computer that cost $500-$1000 a good thing? Talk about open mouth insert foot!
If a small screen is a bad thing Bill just came out with the most assine product ever by his own admission. There goes another $100 million to pointless R&D instead of the foundation.
There was one commenter who had been to Africa multiple times that said the problem was with the wrong kind of education. Western teachers would go to an area and teach the best and brightest. These people would take there educations and leave, never to return. While deep education was helping individuals, it was actually hurting the communities.
What Africa needs is broad education. Take a few simple concepts and teach it to everyone. The $100 notebook could help this. (or hurt) Rather than supplying a villiage with one supper bang-up machine with a satellite broadband connection so that a few individuals can get enough knowledge to leave, the small laptops provide a framework that many people can use to communicate sharing their knowledge. These things are supposed to have a wireless systems built in so that they can connect to each other in a mesh. Sounds like just what they need.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
The man makes a very valid point.
Hardware is an insignificant part of the problem. The infrastructure should be where the focus is.
If we could get cheap electric generators, water purifies, and telecommunications (sat uplink?) then I'm pretty confident we could find them some hardware to take advantage of those things.
There are millions, make that billions, of old computers laying around that can be donated or sold for far less than $100, and why do they need laptops anyway? So they can carry them to their big business meeting? A schoolhouse with some desktops and an electric generator is much more useful.
I really can't see the purpose of getting people these $100 laptop when there is no communications infrastructure. What good is the computer if they can't get online. The huge benefit of getting them on the web is so that they can have access to piles of information that was otherwise completely inaccessible to them. Books, news, events, all uncensored and up to date.
Without the communications infrastructure they can use the computer for what? Typing? Why would they need to make nice documents or excel files when they don't even have electricity? Couldn't they just use paper?
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
Dear Steve,
These little computers are scaring the B'jaysus out of me.
I recken they're after all me gold!
Maybe if I slag the shite outta them, they'll go away.
Bill.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
"geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking".
I can't find the crank.
Gizmos Gagets For Ninjas
The Five Talents program turns "poor" into self supporting entreprenuers with dignity. Each participant in the program supports not only themselves, but their employees and extended family (not everyone is cut out to be an entreprenuer). Proceeds from the loans are ploughed back into the program. I am a little concerned about the program starting to resemble the World Bank if it gets too big, but right now they are doing a wonderful job of helping the worlds poor become self sufficient.
I think it's pretty clear that Gates is just covering for Ballmer's earlier comments:
"...I've done it before and I'll do it again. I'm going to Fucking Kill(TM) $100 laptops for children!"
If this had gotten more press it may have been a nightmare for Microsoft (not to be confused with Microsoft Nightmare, the codename for Microsoft's next OS after Vista) so Bill had to step in.
I am surprised that nobody pointed this out. While Bill Gates' argument has several holes, as does Negroponte's pet project, Bill's statement reflect a fear. The fear of simple computers that store most of their data online, use a simple (ergo, Non-MS) OS and mostly platform independent online applications. Phew, Microsoft would just become a 'had been' if that happens. I remember that Sun did a lot of talk about Network Computer in the mid 1990's. Cheap, diskless terminals wherein all the apps and storage were done remotely on web servers. Seems like Google is going to do it now.
His donations are a drop in the bucket for him and the benefits in taxes and stupid idiots like you believing his is a saint far outweigh the monetary costs.
Only two words I need say: "SOUR GRAPES!"
Man is the lowest-cost, 150-pound, nonlinear, all-purpose computer system which can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.
sure, go ahead, use it as your .sig...
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Before his critique, Gates showed off a new "ultra-mobile computer" which runs Microsoft Windows on a seven-inch (17.78-centimeter) touch screen.
... and with a tiny little screen
The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk
In other news, Microsoft's "ultra-mobile computer" is going back to the product design division, because Bill Gates just announced he doesn't like tiny little screens.
You would be entirely right if the goals for these laptops were to support the technological infrastructure of a country.
But that is NOT their purpose. They are meant to be simple tools for teaching, communication, and management for individuals and small communicities.
What you've failed to consider is that half the world lives in rural area where reliable electricity is questionable. It's pointless to talk about rich clients and broadband when you never know when the lights will go out.
the third world needs more of this...
I think it's important to provide kids in underpriveleged countries, like Nigeria, with cheap laptops so they can learn how to do 419 scams at an early age. The money stolen from Americans and Europeans can only help the local economies.
"The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen"
lol. Did old billy gates just slander one of his own products unintentionally?
They just announced something just like that last week... of course they don't want $100 for it.. more like $1000
I just returned from a trip to the Philippines, where Internet cafes were plentiful and seemed to attract plenty of customers. Some of them were filipino nerds and others were filipinas looking to snag a Western husband or boyfriend. Still, they are beyond the reach of most; employed Filipinas make about 200 pesos [US$ 4] a day, making Internet fees of 25 pesos [$0.50] an hour prohibitively expensive.
Cellphones are generally prepaid and you buy "load" in packs of 100 pesos [$2] and up. A text message, the most common mode of communication, costs one peso [$0.02].
For middle class Filipinas, cellphones are major status symbols. I met several people with cellphones that cost 13,000 pesos [$260] and up. These phones are actually quite a bit nicer than the cellphones I've seen in common use in the US. The most common seems to be the Nokia 6630, with a nice big clear color screen, a camera and bluetooth. I could imagine using it for SSH in a pinch. Its user interface looks slick but I found it quite difficult to learn how to use. A lot of tiny buttons with almost invisible labelling made it very difficult to figure out how to get to places you might have fumbled yourself to minutes before. I suspect that if I'd had more time using it I really would have liked it, probably more than my T-Mobile Sidekick.
A Filipina is never without her cellphone. It is such a significant part of her life that westerners with romantic or even friendship connections with her can get jealous of the phone! I started calling it Celly, and treated it like a member of the family. I even took pictures of Celly like she was another family member. My picture of "Celly Eating" while she was on the charger got laughs from everyone! My Filipina friends laughed and enjoyed being asked about Celly's health!
Celly's health is a real concern; my friend with the 6630 got a multimedia message system virus. "Celly is very sick," I told her. I suggested we go to the Internet cafe and I would try to cure Celly. The mobile.f-secure.com web site has eradication tools as well as anti-virus software for Celly. Everyone was very impressed that I was able to cure Celly even though all I did was download and run the removal tool! The most difficult part of all this was trying to figure out how to access the web browser on the phone's convoluted user interface.
My friend, of course, later complained about her cellphone bill for data access, which skyrocketed thanks to Celly's illness. (The virus, of course, sends copies of itself to everyone it can find). I'm glad I was able to cure Celly for her before she faced even worse problems.
Of course most of the actual multimedia use of Celly was sending jokes, photos and funny cartoons and animations around to her friends. And most of her computer use was talking to foreigners in her quest for an American husband. My friend read her Yahoo mail on Celly but otherwise didn't make much use of the Internet features.
Sometimes I wonder about how these high-brow people pushing the $100 computer would think of the use real people make of this technology. Endless chats on the computer with foreigners, trying to lure them to the Philippines with promise of romance might not seem like the most idealistic use in the world. But I can tell you, it's the use that's going to be made as technology seeps into the third world.
Engagement in world affairs may be the exclusive province of people who still believe in some way in their government. Shortly after I left, there was a coup attempt in the Philippines which lead to a state of emergency. I was far more engaged in this than my Filipina friends. "That's just something going on in Manila [the capital]" was a typical comment.
In the US, I don't know if we really believe in our government all that much, but at least we consider the news as a source of entertainment. In the Philippines, the people have warmer relationships with each other and seem to have less need for this. They are desperately poor, a
Ok, I spent some time looking at the websites, learning how to contribute, the list of participating countries, but...
:
I don't see any status information. Therefore, questions to the knowledgeables
- Is the design of the lime PC fixed ? Where can it be found (I mean, the real specs, which proc, which wifi adaptater, etc...)
- Is the distrib chosen or in the process to be made ?
- Has the distribution begun ? Is there a date for the planned begining of the distribution ?
- What is the name of the MIT's software developed to establish the "local network mesh" central to this initiative ? Is it done ? Can it be tested ? Even in developed countries it could prove useful for nomadic uses...
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
$100 may be a year or two of hard saving for an average family in some countries. $1000 is for most of them completely out of reach.
Even if they could save and spend $100 on a laptop. (Which to many would be like $1000-$10000 to westeners), consider this:
Many developing countries are subject to "load shedding" (planned power outages). In India, I have noticed the following:
So I would think that $100 laptop better be pretty robust against power fluctuations. (These people aren't able to buy a new one everytime another breaks). Repair might be an option [I believe I saw an SMT station in a place that advertised "cell phone repair" -- I was quite shocked!], but I'm not sure how affordable that would be.
Cell phones appear plentiful in India, but I have a feeling it is still their wealthy "few" (relative to the rest of the population) supporting them. Most of their population is contained in rural villages -- which may not be able to (financially) support wireless internet.
[Hopefully someone more knowledgable than me can add/subtract on some of these points]
But I can say this: Bringing computers to developing countries is not going to improve education [much]. Computers in education have been a dismal failure in the US. (e.g. classroom learning). [My english skills are not any better for having played "WordMunchers" on an Apple/IIe] For example, my arithmetic skills would be much better if I didn't rely on matlab to correctly multiply 5x5 matricies... My symbolic manipulation skills would be better if I didn't occasionally fall back to Mathematica, etc, etc....
What computers WILL do is cause powerful social change. It will allow people to widen their horizons (if willing) without travel. It will allow them to better see what is going on in other parts of their country & world. They will be able to discuss philosophical issues with people outside their village, etc.
On the other hand, I'm not sure if governments really want the above. These kind of social transformations could have a destabilitizing effect. I would think more aware people would be less tolerant of corruption & other government excesses.
It's easy to shit on others ideas but until he comes up with an affordable alternative who cares what he thinks. I suppose Jobs has his shorts in a knot too because they aren't bundled with an Ipod. Sheesh doesn't he understand the whole electricity issue in poorer areas of the world?
damn right. one of the things I wondered when I first saw this was "can I have one?"
A few days back we were arguing that a university shouldn't require students to purchase laptop computers, because "they only help you do schoolwork more efficiently, not better."
Ah, but now Bill Gates weighs in, and says the "hand-cranked" laptop would be useless for kids in impoverished countries, and we slap back at him for that.
How is it "bad" for a university student in the U.S. to be required to have a laptop computer--with the argument that it really doesn't "help him learn"--but it's GREAT to give this "$100 laptop" to a kid in the third world?
Is it because the second is "compassionate"? Or is it really because we don't want to be on the side of Bill Gates for any reason whatsoever?
Me, I say give each of these villages where the kids live, a small library with basic learning books in it. It would probably end up costing about $100 per kid anyway. But more to the point: A kid who is at the START of the learning curve is going to benefit more from the books than from the computer.
And yes, I DO believe the kids going to the U.S. university ought to have a laptop. It's an "age appropriate" learning tool.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
Giving them all see-n-say units that run some conveluted stripped-down version of linux (anybody else in the world would be nervous to run it as an internet gateway, nevermind a user environment..) is not the answer.
I think most of what Gates' is trying to say basically makes sence. Give the man some credit, you might all not like the products, but he DOES know how to make a dollar.
Windows has more viruses because linux has more virus coders.
uh-oh, bill gates has something to say so lets all reply with anti-microsoft comments. it's funny how a website devoted to nerds comes across as a website visited by morons.
it seems as though bill gates had a point that none of you will ever admit. the $100 laptop is a great step toward many things but i don't think thats what mr. gates was trying to negate.
listen to his points and stop taking shit out of context. i don't know about all you wonderful nerds that can access the internet with a tin can and have loads of fun with it but i wouldn't be able to deal with using some 8-bit tiger electronic wannabe laptop trying to do something an 8-bit tiger electronic laptop could probably do better. shit, i've used friends computers that were still running windows 95 and haven't been formatted since 1995 which were so fuckin laggy and worthless that it was pointless to try and do anything with.
bill gates wasn't saying that we should set africa on fire and spit on homeless people. bill gates was saying that having some kind of dream that a $100 dollar laptop could change the world was farfetched. kinda like how all you stupid ass linux nerds can't accept that linux is a waste.
now watch me get modded down...
honestly, i don't know why i bother reading slashdot anymore.
fact: microsoft > linux
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/30/technology/30gat es.html?ei=5090&en=3e90b107dc9a4d71&ex=1296277200& adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=11425 25465-ocesH4iewp00qNOD9NJq1g
So a cellphone is to be Microsoft's "alternative" to a laptop. Granted, there's a point...
A cellphone is better at communication. IF YOU HAVE a cellphone network.
A cellphone is using less power. IF YOU HAVE any power at all.
A cellphone is smaller. WHO CARES, this ain't Hongkong.
Let's not get into the comment about "small, blurry displays" here...
I mean, I can of course see the reason why MS would consider this a better idea. You get people onto the cellphone craze and create more addicts who simply CAN NOT LIVE without sending short messages and press those thing (that would certainly become some kind of status symbol there as well as they did here) against your ear.
You hook people into year long paying contracts that make them pay now, pay tomorrow and pay forever. Instead of having them pay ONCE for their laptop that will serve them for years to come, that might even be used by the next generation of students too (since Linux does not need more horsepower with every generation of the OS).
It sure is more interesting for MS. But the interests of MS don't matter here.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Fascinating how these PR memos about how wonderful Billy boy is, without mentioning the MILLIONS that M$ siphoned from poor African governments, schools, hospitals, etc. for M$ licenses for windoze, etc. Bill merely robs from the poor, then gives a few dollars back to the poor, with great fanfare, in order to stroke his megalomaniac ego.
Bill Gates, charity...talk about an oxymoron, or better yet, just talk about a moron. Bill is nothing more than a PR man with a slick marketing machine to sell junk to gullible businesses, gullible school administrators (and I personally know of the millions spent here, since I am constantly fighting the administrative idiots who continue to send millions to M$, while school needs are ignored, and despite that I've been running a hassle free high school linux computer lab for YEARS at zero software cost), and likewise gullible hospital administrators.
Bill Gates, robber baron of our time...
He SAW the crank handle, what part of "they use this because they don't even have electric" doesn't he understand? Yeah becuase Bill Gates is stupid and had no understanding of technology and where it does and does not exist. Are you retarded. Did you even think before you typed this? BG is a BILLIONAIR for a reason. You can bash MS motives and practices. Your just following the heard with the rest of the ./ cows. Bash Bill its fun. You still have to give the guy credit where credit is due. He IS a smart fella. You cannot be the richest man in the world from starting your own tech company and not have a clue as to what tech exists where in the world. Of course he knows.
MISSING - Sig file. 2 years old black and white and very funny. If found please email me.
how many would buy some lousy pen device costing thousands when something costing a tenth could do all they need?
How many would buy a $40,000 car when a $20,000 car will do just fine?
How about Apple's entire existence? Sure, some people believe that OS X justifies a huge hardware premium, but most, just like the way Apple's computers look.
Lot's of people do not want a hand-crank $200 device because it doesn't look cool, and it won't do EVERYTHING their $600 laptop can do.
These devices, while noble in spirit, won't do anything to get basic medical attention, clean water, food, and shelter to the poorest of the world. Don't even get me started on oppressive/corrupt governments. These issues need to be solved before a $200 computing device will become useful to the target user.
-ted
Didn't read past the subject line, eh? Yeah, I'd post anonymous, too, rather than show my utter pig-headed side connected to my nom-de-plume. There are very solid points in the body of the text, you just need to read past the opening sentence.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Gates was ridiculing the $100 laptop for having a small screen when Microsoft's new ~$500 Oragami device line has a small screen with an 800x480 resolution running a full version of Windows -- the sort that is increasingly running on 1680x1050 and larger screens? Astounding.
We can't help it Bill uses a cluster of linux-pc's to do his computing work, of course he thinks the laptops are inferior.
I rm -rf
Like a shovel, or an irrigation timer...
The flaw in your, and other, arguments supporting bigger infrastructure and more powerful machines as the solution is that it would be too much, too late. These things take time, money and a lot of effort for a good, but late return.
What would be a useless toy to us, could be just the ticket there. How productive were people using their computers 15 years ago vs. 25 years ago? Yes, Excel is waaay more powerful than VisiCalc, but do then need Excel? Hell, an 8086 running DOS applications would be more helpful than, say, nothing.
A simple email and browser capable system would allow people to research and exchange ideas with others around the world. Need information to fix a generator, build a water pump or irrigate a field -- google.
Email would allow messages to be sent at anytime, without having someone to monitor the HAM radio 24/7.
Sometimes, simple is better. Especially when the alternative is nothing.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I mean, honestly, these children in developing countries need access to clean drinking water and such trivial things as medicine to keep them alive. They don't need some underpowered gadget they have to crank on in order to learn about the world they are missing out on.
I find that most university students in developed countries seem to believe that every child in the world needs the same access to information and lifestyles that they enjoy, and this isn't the case. It is wrong to impose western philosophies on the developing nations. In many cases, it is unsustainable. These nations are poor and children are dying because the economy isn't strong enough to support the kind of lifestyle western people are trying to impose on these children.
Education will not solve famine and drought. It is one thing to understand what famine and drought are, or even devise a solution, but if a country isn't rich enough to implement some solution, and the world keeps flooding these regions with cheap recycled computers, how will this solve famine and drought?
Computers are an excess technology. Something not required for life but only attained once a person has reached a quality of life where they can sustain themselves with food, clothing and shelter and have enough excess money to afford a computer. Computers do not improve a person's quality of life, they are a result of having a high quality of life. I am so disappointed when people claim that all a poor nation needs are computers, that computers will help them and aid them in developing their economy. Sorry, these nations need money, period. They need food, clothing, shelter, clean drinking water and medicine, period. And they need to be able to sustain themselves with these basic necessities. Selling trinkets on eBay is not the kind of economy that a developing nation needs to gain access to their basic needs.
Once you can live without threat of dying from starvation, and have a roof over your head, and can sustain that lifestyle, THEN you can worry about education and gaining such materialistic things such as computers.
The western world sees some children playing in the dust over in some poor country and feels that they need to go to some ivy league university in order to have a meaningful and enjoyable life. I think the child will be just as happy to play in the dust if he or she new they would have a full meal waiting for them at home and could eventually contribute to the family by growing their own food on a farm that can sustain plants or helping the community by building wells or farming. These children do not aspire to become doctors or lawyers making a quarter of a million dollars to drive their SUV's around town destroying a little bit of the Earth in their wake.
MIT has to KISS it. Keep It Simple Stupid. And the simplicity of this situation is that these children do not need cheap recycled computers, they need access to the basic necessities of life.
Besides, where the heck are these kids going to get internet access?
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Wasn't it Bill Gates who called the internet just a "passing fad" as late as 1995 and wasn't Windows exceptionally late to the internet (especially out of the box) which is a good thing because so we now have a protocol (TCP/IP) that actually works and not something like "MS-Word" that's incompatible even with itself.
So now all of a sudden Bill states that computers don't make sense at all without internet when that's exactly what most of us had ten years ago and what (among other things) Microsoft grew up with. It really amuses me to read now that i diddn't learn anything at all from the computers at our school with no network, weak processors and small screens.
What BG is saying now is that computers make no sense without all that network, the latest and best OS, big screens and whatnot. Either take the whole package or nothing, and if you're already taking that big package it doesn't really make a difference to buy an expensive computer too (and of course a windows license).
It's obvious that Microsoft has a problem with computers that are cheaper alltogether than their OS even at a discount, but that's Microsofts problem, not anyone elses. So that's why we have Bill Gates mocking those cheap computers and stating against historic facts that computers like that are worthless (if in education or elsewhere).
"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself." -- Bill Hicks
My treo 650 is pretty awesome, and the kybd is not too bad to use. They have plug in externals for it, but I am happy using it as is for most stuff. Typing a paper would be a chore, but if I did that I would use an external kybd.
I would like to see a bigger version with a 800x600 screen and 20 GB Ram, one day...
Slashdot made fun of this. Now Gates made fun of it. Now we will see Slashdot slam Gates for making fun of it.
If you can find that the same people making fun of the computer are the ones making fun of gates, then you might have something.
I don't understand how comparing the opinions of one subset of a group of people with the opinions of another subset is "insightful".
I would add: What percentage of Gates' yearly income does he devote to charitable causes? In the US at least, it is the poor that give the highest percentage of their income to charitable causes:
http://www.newtithing.org/content/NTG_research_FI
"If affluent young and middleaged [tax] filers had donated as high
a proportion of their investment asset wealth to charity in 2003 as did their less affluent peers, total individual charitable donations that year would have been over $25 billion higher, an increase of at least 17%."
I wish he would focus on funding the underlying causes of problems instead of the results of those problems. Instead of extending someone's wretched existance a short while longer, why not improve the infrastructure that these people live in? That would be a longer-term benefit.
...folks to spend $1000 per device, I like this option. ;)
From Wikipedia: "Steve Jobs had offered Mac OS X free of charge for use in the laptop, but according to Seymour Papert, a professor emeritus at MIT who is one of the initiative's founders, the designers want an operating system that can be tinkered with: "We declined because it's not open source"[4]. Therefore Linux was chosen. Microsoft's Bill Gates has attempted to convince Negroponte to use a version of Microsoft Windows on the laptop, but Negroponte turned him down. Some of Negroponte's friends told him Microsoft might then attempt to craft its own version of the laptop, but he responded such a development would be "great", as it would speed up the process of delivering cheap laptops."
Maybe Microsoft is ticked off with MIT because they were too insistent on OSS, and they view that as a threat.
A minor quibble, the US/Soviet writing in space story is false
Man, you really need that seminar!
Shocker! Bill thinks this is a bad idea. Raise your hand if you're surprised.
What he's really saying is this:
"Hey, this has the potential for bringing computer use to a large population that cannot afford the current solution model. Microsoft is not part of this answer! Worse, Linux IS part of it. I better crank out some FUD or this idea may catch on elsewhere.
First off, 'poor people need broadband and a proper machine to run it on...' Yeah, that sounds good! Now, what else..."
OK, either gates doesn't know anything about computing, which he obviously does starting M$ etc... He's getting old (possible, but unlikely)... or it's just FUD to try and sell the new MS based products over there instead:
... and with a tiny little screen," Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington.
"The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk
"Hardware is a small part of the cost" of providing computing capabilities, he said, adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support.
Firstly, not having a disk is a perfect way to save money in a shared environment. These things aren't going to get perfectly looked after in the harsh living conditions some of these developing countries, and crime is common place. The hardware needs to be as cheap as possible so that if it gets damaged it can easily be replaced (straight swap instead of support needed) and to deter the thought of stealing them - imagine the security costs for all the computer ctr's in the developing world - further with regards to support, if all the applications are remote the support for those is easily managed in one place with good security!
The applications can be free - although he does have a relatively valid point re: screen size... but I don't think it's too much of an issue!
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. - Douglas Adams
Dada21 is the undisputed master. I worship the ground he walks on.
I remember laptops that had small screens and very little RAM and processor speed, but 10 years ago Americans used them to run businesses. In a poor country these would be cutting edge technology, but from the point of view of wealthy countries we couldn't imagine doing business on these machines even though we used to.
Can I bum a sig?
[nt]
Normally, my opinion is that complaining about spelling is a sign that a person has nothing of substance to argue, and thus is really admitting defeat in a debate. I think that when the original poster gives the "I'm right because I'm educated" argument, and then specifically discusses how they would solve poor spelling, AND makes spelling errors, we have an exception.
I guess Bill hasn't heard about how popular Blackberry are.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
He's just mad that hisOS costs twice as much as an entire computer
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
Well, if there is no bread, let them eat cake. What's the problem?
Do you work for him?
Cause the only people i know that make assumptions based of perceived policy are the people i talk to that work for him.
Wish I had mod points - your post should have been +5 funny, not troll.
If these handcranked machines were selling for $200 tomorrow in a consumer model, I'd buy one like a shot. I would too, but if I remember right, they've stated that they're going to refuse to sell them in the west. Which just screams vaporware to me.
Perhaps you'd better define your terms, because we must have differing values for either "fair" or "free" or possibly both.
Are the slaves in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reading the Wall Street Journal these days?
This $100 laptop has Billy Boy pooping his pants. Since the only hope for MSFT's continued dominance is to get people in developing countries to pay for a copy of Windows, he's toast. Instead of that, the UN wants to GIVE AWAY these laptops to every poor child in the world. The kids will grow up learning what a boon free software is, and how powerful collboration and cooperation can be in guiding their lives and reaching their goals.
MSFT doesn't get a cent from this, and when these kids are computer-savvy, they certainly won't look to MSFT for their next system's OS. The whole concept of BUYING software will be totally alien to them.
People are ignoring the message because the messenger is Bill Gates.
Giving third world children crappy laptops is not going to do anything to help them. First of all, there WILL NOT BE ANY OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE for these laptops... the specs are too different from a normal PC to use normal open source software off the bat, and since the laptop is restricted for purchase to governments, you are not going to have any open source community of hobbiests or developers working on it. ONLY school kids and government officials will have access to these things. Where is the internet connectivity going to come from? Part of giving people laptops is allowing them to contact people in other countries, to establish possible buisness connections, to keep them up to date on weather or medical info, to help them trade seeds and capital goods to spur development, etc. It is a glorified e-book without internet connectivity.
What happens when a family, who makes $200 a year, decides that selling their $100 laptop and buying food is worth more than having a glorified e-book reader? How long is this laptop going to last? What happens if people lose it or it is stolen? What infrastructure is there to repair these things? Are these private property, or owned by the government?
If we really wanted to help the third world, we would stop giving huge amounts of aid and resources to local dictators, and end restrictions on trade and our huge farm subsidies that western countries use to undermind competition from farmers in the third world. The $100 laptop is a feelgood solution looking for a problem.
Yes, a hundred thousand people IS "a lot", so yeah, there probably are "a lot" of people who were happy with Sadam. Ofcourse, everything's relative. The majority of the 27 million Iraqi's would be calling you all sorts of names if they could hear you right now.
And yeah, Castro sure does put on a good PR show doesn't he? Organized crowds of "supporters"....pre-written "man-on-the-street" interviews....oh, and I especially like the wall he's having built to stop his people from looking at the horrible messages being propagated by the American embassy. What a wonderful dictator Castro is! EVERY country should have one just like him!
Wasn't it the Kenyan government that did a cost-benefit analysis and found the $100 computer was cost-effective as a replacement for textbooks? This seems to be sound reasoning if the numbers are correct.
Yes, in much of the world, "give a man a fish and he will trade it for guns or drugs, teach a man to fish and his boat will be stolen by the first guy you gave the fish to." I don't think Kenya fits into that category.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
The last thing you want in a shared computer is local storage.
Really.
In fact the last thing you want in a shared computer is a computer.
A personal computer is great when you can afford all the support infrastructure for a computer, but you can build a terminal a lot cheaper and it can do 90% of the stuff 90% of the people actually need. Let's face it, for a lot of people a computer is primarily a communications device. When people say "World of Warcraft is the new golf" they mean "it's chat with scenery".
"adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support."
Did Mister Gates understood that the laptop is not to use M$ Software Crap and instead go for open source ?
The west does not pile food into the stores of Africa at low cost but we do screw with them in two other ways. We do make it impossible for Africans to export food in the West because of our tarriffs on their food and subsidies on ours. We also dump food into famished regions at zero cost which undercuts the food sales of any African farmers.
The real problem with Africa though is best represented by Zimbabwae which exported enough food to her neighbors to feed everyone until the leadership went nuts and destroyed their farming system from top to bottom so that they cannot even feed themselves now.
Bill Gates is actually angry and terrified both.
... AMD and GOOG and Nortel and (other firms besides). AND many firms just plain believe in the project, and are kicking in resources out of goodwill. ... they're either missing a key fact, or trying to divert attention from it: when all is said and done, OLPC/HDL is likely to have defined a new 'platform'-level definition of computing. Massively reduced power consumption levels; entirely novel and different use of LCD screens; onboard wifi mesh; ...
He has proposed - seriously - using cellphones + keyboards as 'emerging world' machines. Now *that's* a seriously tiny screen.
And he's wrong - actually, he's worse, he's actually lying - about the 'sharing' aspect. One Laptop Per Child: could be be more clear?
And he's technically off base on the hard disk - given the plummeting prices for flash, a basic laptop can do v. nicely indeed sans HD -- so long, that is, as it isn't running a multi-gig OS.
Some realities about the HDL:
1. Quanta, the world's largest actual manufacturer of laptops has signed on to make them.
2. Announced funding and investment from
3. Developer kits should be available in two months.
4. OLPC outreach to the Linux - hacker community is yielding huge energies focused on software for this.
5. While Gates (&, sadly, Craig 'gadget' Barrett and Bill Siu at Intel) and others have lampooned this
What upsets Bill Gates is evident - oops, open source machine installed base could exceed Windows installed base in as little as three years.
I'm sick of hearing BS like "what good is a computer without internet". Have you folks actually been to the 3rd world? A $100 laptop can hold all sorts of useful information for poor rural farming communities. A kid that can call up that knowledge can supply an entire community with answers. Just a few examples:
- My farming crop is dying/giving poor yield. What am I doing wrong? What soil type am I farming on? What do I need to know about planting, watering or harvesting this crop? Is the crop I've planted even suited to the place/soil/climate? I can't buy pesticides. How can I fight off harmful bugs or animals that destroy my crop? Could I plant something else and get a better return for my family and community? How should I take care of this new crop and get the best yield from it?
- My livestock is becoming ill. What's wrong with it? What disease could it be and what causes it? Should I separate the healthy animals from the sick ones? What can I do help keep my animals healthy?
- A kid in our village is sick. What's wrong with the kid? Is it a disease or deficiency? Did it get bit by something? What do we need to do to help him until we can find a doctor or nurse to take care of him?
What should we NOT do to help the kid?
Seeing that this computer is extremely more powerful than the first computers I ever used, and most of us for that matter. I don't see why this is useless at all. You have to start learning about computers somewhere, why not on a cheap easily accessible computer that doesn't require electricity! I think Bill Gates fears one thing, more open source programmers! This project is bound to make quite a few of those :).
Is not people who will be doing self-hosted development. They'll be looking for information on how to build a simple reverse osmosis filter to provide clean drinking water in their village, or how to build a wind generator to get a few dozen watts of power to have a couple of lights at night.
"He's donated billions of dollars worth of medicine to children all over Africa and elsewhere. If anyone in this world has "put up or shut up," it's Mr. Gates. He is expressing genuine concern."
He is pouring ridicule on those who are trying to help the worlds needy people. I think that this shows how his concern is *not* genuine. I expect that the few billions he has spent, has been carefully calculated to be of good value to himself.
The only "genuine concern" he is expressing is the concern that his potential market is ebbing away.
My faith is expressed through Nihilism. Do you understand?
What part of "one laptop per child" don't understand, Bill?
I have always preferred:
Build a man a fire, and he is warm today.
Set a man on fire, and he is warm for the rest of his life.
The line is very big and clear. It seperates the evil (Bill) from the good (Melinda) and it is very easy to see.
Perhaps Bill is mocking the $100 laptop for a few reasons:
1) Its not going to run windows.
2) Its going to run Linux
3) It is not using the Intel chip. Perhaps there isn't a cool name like WinTel for the laptop.
Just a few thoughts.
Regards,
An Anonoymous Coward.
"Richest Man In World Mocks Poor Mans Computer"
At a press conference on Friday, Bill Gates, the (sometimes) richest man in the world, mocked the One Laptop for Every Child initiative for it's proto-type $100 laptop. "It's a lame design," said Gates, "Don't they know computers with 7" screens need to lack a keyboard to be revolutionary?" The CEO went on to explain that the real cost of computing came from the time it takes programmers to develop revolutionary software like Clippy(tm), not the hardware, which for cheep end computers these days is "a minor $400 expence anybody can afford". In conclusion, Gates recommended that third world school districts like that of the Iyam Hugaari province in southeastern Nigeria, "Really aught to quit penny pinching and buy their kids XBox 360s" which he described as "hav[ing] some real computing power".
Tried nambia.net and couldn't find a thing there. Are you sure it's spelled right? namibia.net doesn't seem to work either.
Certified Microsoft Notworking Specialist
"No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer."
"We will never make a 32-bit operating system, but I'll always love IBM." (at the launch of MSX)
"There are no significant bugs in our released software that any significant number of users want fixed." (1995)
"There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's no one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft."
I personally live in Argentina. And I must say that the problem here is not that were a developing country. We used to be one. But not anymore...
Since "dear" president Menem, which privatized and sold all national enterprises to foreign capitals or directly closed factories, railways, etc our country is deep into corruption and bad politicians and this is precisely supported by international interests
How is that related to U$S 100 laptop? You might wonder... Well, A LOT. Because here perhaps politicians would give a couple to relatives, friends and so on in a "chain of favours", keeping the possibility away from people who really would appreciate/need it
And, finally, the importation taxes... Here industry is dismantled, no factory, no local producers, but despite of that we have a protectionist policy of imported things that makes (beside salary and currecy conversion: I do linux technical support 9 to 18, Monday To Friday and get paid about U$S 270 and U$S 1 = AR $1) imported thing price unaceptable... For example LOMO LC-A camera is U$S 100~140 in the world, guess how much is it here: U$S300 yep! big robbery...
If people from developed countries want to help us, they should notice what are doing with us with that 'globalized economy' thing, and not support such corrupted governments here. After all, you lose too, because Nike prefers paying U$S 100 per month to an Indonesian worked that U$S 2000 to an united states worker...
Spoken like a rich, out-of-touch, self-serving bastard.
Well, before this I thought, based on the fact that students in the States do WORSE when they have computers than when they don't, that this was a bad idea.
But now that I see Bill Gates doesn't like it.
So it now has my full endorsement.
...because he has a point that the machines will sell as sweet candy for the simple reason of consumers getting much for little money. This will in turn cause a major psychological effect which in turn will cause consumers to turn down likewise but more expensive products (pda's etc), and thus lead to a decrease in price for these products. It will be good for competition in the long run, and perhaps good for workplaces too if innovation ensues.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
Giving third world children crappy laptops is not going to do anything to help them. First of all, there WILL NOT BE ANY OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE for these laptops... the specs are too different from a normal PC to use normal open source software off the bat, and since the laptop is restricted for purchase to governments, you are not going to have any open source community of hobbiests or developers working on it.
Bollocks, there's already plenty of software for it. As far as availability is concerned, well the Sharp Zaurus is hard to get by outside of Japan, yet there's hundreds of people developing and adapting existing Linux software for it worldwide, mostly for fun. Besides, those 3rd world countries who are going to buy it (Brasil?) already have plenty of competent programmers to do just this. They could also spend a few hundred bucks here and there to send development machines to select Free Software hackers.
Last but not least, there's already emulators for Palm / Pocket PC / Symbian OS devices, I fail to see how one could not be easily implemented for this gadget.
gates is full of....
first he tries to get involved, then he creates his own version of the 100$ (origami), then fudges the 100$ laptop saying it doesn't have that much power under the hood, complaining about infustructure? Earth to bill.. they aren't playing movies, these things HOPEFULLY will be used with learning software and telecommunication systems to give them access to the web, learn to read, speak and many other things people take for granted in this country and other countries.
instead of acting like a child because he wasn't included. he should have said I will donate enough money to fix the infustructure, get involved in hardware specs, or give 1000 kids the tools they need (100$ pc or anything else he things is appropriate) to learn or better yet FOOD, CLOTHING, SHELTER, THE LIST JUST KEEPS GOING.
earth to gates, charity work isn't a contest or a place for childish actions... do some good and shut up if you make stupid comments like that.
The Nokia 770 is essentially what this computing profile becomes. Nothing in it but an OS and general applications. It uses other devices for access (router/cell), and is a web based product in reality. With a 480 by 800 screen it is useful for browsing as opposed to most devices, but lacks a keyboard. Something alomng the lines of the soft keyboard/cases would work great here.
I disagree that such a profile is useless. Couple with something like an education cube dropped in villages it would be perfect. In fact, this is something that I am working on. A wireless acess point/web server with educational content. Add a bunch of $100 dollar laptops and stir.
How many governments ban such a project would be a great indication as to whether they really think it is effective!
One of the big problems of Africa is the habit of replacing food crops with cash crops. Converting wheat and other grains with coffee, cotton, or anything else that will sell on the open market. I think the original theory (beyond base greed) is the world market for a cash crops is higher per growable acre than food crops. Basic capitalism gone wrong. You plant a cash crop, sell it on the open market and end up making enough money on it to buy the grain you would have grown on the same amount of land and a small profit over that to help you run the country. Looks good on paper but the money usually gets wasted on civil war and general corruption so the cash comes in but usually too little gets spent replacing the food that was supposed to be bought to make the whole thing work.
I... I can't explain what it is. It's like the core of my being was somehow attuned to a cosmic shift, like the poles were flipping, like a Sith was redeemed and came back to the Lightside.. like a glacier just broke through a wall in hell.
..Or he was caught in a lucid moment between mind-control sessions of the MS-PR-FUD-spin-witchdoctors.
If these words are truly Gates'.. Oh, oh! I think I'm going to say it- I daresay I'd *agree* with them! *GASP* Forgive my blasphemy!
Yes, we understand these tags always apply: fud, dupe, typo, slashdotted, topic name
I wish he would focus on funding the underlying causes of problems instead of the results of those problems. Instead of extending someone's wretched existance a short while longer, why not improve the infrastructure that these people live in? That would be a longer-term benefit.
It's much worse than that. Almost all the money donated to Africa ends up feeding absurdly corrupt dictatorships. Then, people starve while stupid governments waste resources that should be used to build an infrastructure that lets people have decent jobs so they don't need to ask for food elsewhere. Money is not the problem, corruption is!
Mobile phones and development
:::
Less is more
Jul 7th 2005
From The Economist print edition
Mobile phones can boost development in poor countries--if governments let them
[Image] (iAfrica)
IMAGINE a magical device that could boost entrepreneurship and economic activity, provide an alternative to bad roads and unreliable postal services, widen farmers' access to markets, and allow swift and secure transfers of money. Now stop imagining: the device in question is the mobile phone. Not surprisingly, people in the developing world are clamouring for them, and subscriber growth is booming. The fastest growth rates are to be found in Africa, albeit from a low base. Already, 80% of the world's population lives within range of a mobile network; but only about 25% have a mobile phone.
The primary obstacle to wider adoption is the cost of handsets. In the rich world, these typically cost around $200 (though most pay less than this thanks to subsidies from network operators), or less than 1% of the average income per person. In the developing world, in contrast, a $50 handset would account for 14% of the annual income of someone earning $1 a day. So the first step in promoting the adoption of mobile phones, say operators in developing countries, is to reduce the cost of the handsets. Several such schemes are under way: in particular, several operators in developing countries have joined together to aggregate their buying power, and Motorola, the world's second-largest handset-maker, has agreed to supply up to 6m handsets for less than $40 each (see article). There is already talk of prices falling below $30 next year.
Industry observers believe cheaper handsets could expand the market by as many as 150m new subscribers a year. As well as boosting economic development in poor countries, this will help to close the "digital divide" between the communications-rich and communications-poor. Governments, you would have thought, would be doing everything in their power to promote the spread of mobile phones.
But rather than treating mobile phones as an important tool for development, many governments see them instead as an opportunity to impose hefty taxes and milk a fast-growing industry for all it is worth. In both Turkey and Bangladesh, for example, anyone buying a new mobile phone must pay a $15 connection tax. Many countries slap large import duties on handsets and impose special taxes on subscribers and operators. In many cases, these taxes double the cost of acquiring a mobile phone. As handset prices fall, such taxes will become an ever more prominent obstacle to wider adoption.
Governments should reduce these taxes at once. Indeed, by doing so, they can both speed adoption and increase revenues. High import tariffs discourage legal imports of phones and encourage people to buy them on the black market instead. Reducing such tariffs would boost revenues as legal imports increased. Lower taxes on phone calls would encourage adoption and increase the tax base. It can be done: both Mauritius and India have recently reduced their taxes and tariffs.
Mobile phones have created more entrepreneurs in Africa in the past five years than anything else, says the boss of one pan-African operator. Promoting their spread requires no aid payments or charity handouts: handset-makers, acting in their own interest, are ready to produce low-cost phones for what they now regard as a promising new market. Mobile operators across the developing world would love to sign up millions of new customers. But if developing countries are to realise the full social and economic benefits of mobile phones, governments must ensure that their policies help, rather than hinder, the wider adoption of this miraculous technology.
--
Mobile phones and development
Calling an end to poverty
Jul 7th
In Soviet Russia, laptops mock you!
so that they don't need to be ALL wired, just one with access to a WAN.
The infrastructure can be very sparse and still communicate (web pages & podcasts) effectively. Its just slower than we have in the west.
The substrate technology is by Sysco and developped from the 'cell' network that was developped for the latest generation of 'cell' services of the US Military for their 'wireless' network-centric warfare.
Its not up to the level that the military would need but its quite acceptable for peer-to-peer communication between these units. Keeping the storage on the network and repyling on on storage cards (of up to 1/2 BG if the people in the village can afford them) means the machines can do effective work off-line and communicate via the 'cell' network to the server.
Yhe closer the machines and the more machines available on the loose peer-to-peer network, the better the quality of the connection.
Gates can go screw himself. He's just pissed off that someone is doing something with computers and he's not in on it.
Remember Microsoft's motto was/is/will remain: "A Computer on Every Desktop."
But they're in the bush and thus have no need for a desktop.
Gates is seeing that his model of computing is completely ineffective under those circumstances.
Tough luck Bill.
Just hope your model doesn't get swapmed by wireless hand-cranked tablets.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Thin client:
Only this round, it's Larry Page instead of Larry Ellison. But the song and dance from both sides are the same. Microsoft wants to sell OS and software for Intel fat clients, and Oracle/Google want to sell hosted services for thin clients, so they can hold all the data. Fat vs Thin clients.
Edith Keeler Must Die
A cat in the narrow makes crazy jumps.
If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type
Well, broadband connection is not necessary imho. A lot of people in the US still have 56k (like me) because no broadband is available.
As for the people supporting the users, well, that is what open source has a community for as well as for the applications and the OS. Not everything has to run Windows for $500 and Office for another $500.
That the thing has a small screen is not a big problem. In my time, we called a 14" color CRT on 800x600 a BIG screen, heck even the "Origami" computers don't have such an amazing big screen.
Mister Bill is here of course talking in his own interest because he cannot sell a fully supported, fully loaded (both hardware and software) laptop-like computer for $100, just his OS costs more than that.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Exactly what I was thinking.. When I started with computers (like my Atari 800XL) I didn't have a modem for the first 5 years. The communications infrastructure was a typical sneakernet, me calling round to my friends to copy audio tapes with software.
:) so it would look so silly the parent's wouldn't want it.
These PC's can be used for educational software, such as audio-based games which teach the children to read and write while playing with it even if they don't go to school (which is often impossible because they have to work from a very early age to survive).
When they get older and are interested they can try writing software themselves or sharing stuff with friends by meeting up and having a 'lan-party'. The Internet is not required for communications, it's just a lot slower without it. But time is one thing these people do have.
So, I completely agree with your comments.
I am a bit worried though if these laptops will ever arrive at the children they're intended for. Even if they make it through the corruption, I'm afraid the parents will take them for themselves just because it's a prize toy. One of my friends worked in Africa as an aid worker for a year and she said that most men there are the macho-head of the family and children are regarded with contempt.
The man of the house gets all the best food, the leftovers go to the wife & children. Would they allow their children to possess something cool like a laptop (which is definitely a status-symbol) which they don't have themselves? I'm afraid not. I guess MIT could make it look a bit more childish (paint bunnies on it or something
And a PS to all the flaming idiots I've dealt with 9 billion times over the MIT laptop: before you post your reply, buy a fish. Name it "Life". So you'll have one.
Then you'll have the opportunity to patronise them directly.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
This is something that could end up penetrating the market in the united states too. I think it's perfect for a young child in America or any other developed country, it looks sturdy, has a USB port for a thumb drive, and can flip over and read like a book. With the right software and interface, it could take over the youth market and get kids working with educational programs and off of myspace and MSN Messenger. I think these teenage social networks and such are what are destroying our youth, something like this may be a solution.
Sig: I stole this sig.
we mock his software all the time. He complains that children will have to crank the thing all the time while they're trying to learn how to type... as opposed to having to become a computer tech in order to keep an MS system going. And he says they need to have better screens etc. Obviously he doesn't understand that not everyone is a billionaire, and those that live on less than US$1/day probably can't even afford this $100 laptop, let alone one with a better screen and all the bells and whistles he thinks are essential. Kind of mirrors Windows in a lot of ways -- lots of bells and whistles that don't really add much to the experience, but demand more and more RAM and processor power. Yeesh.
no further comment needed. He mocks usage he fails to understand, and has so little reality on the limits under which some culture must function that he completely misses the point. One of the eventual pitfalls Microsoft will fall into is the fact that many many countries simply cannot afford the prices for Windows and related software.
I was 8 when I got my TI-94a... I read the instriction book, I learned BASIC by reading HCM Magazine and the damn thing only had a tape drive... If that isn't a steep learning curve I don't know what is, but I certainly didn't need any "support" or "connectivity" or large screens or whatever... and I was ok with the tape drive...
If you haven't had anything else before, anything at all is an improvement.
Support staff my ass mr. gates... the millions of children around the world can handle the support themselves.
Show me how they're "genius" just because they run a DUMBED down version of linux as well? And can you prove your point without showing how immmature you in swearing your point across?
A step forward for american capitalism, hardly solves the needs or requirements of 3rd world countries. These people aren't going to be doing wordprocessing, learning spreadsheets or typing up novels on these things. They're going to be selling them on the black market to US kids who want one to take apart because it runs linux. I don't think people who are this piss poor and abandoned by there nation give a hoot if the darned thing runs linux or not. Have you ever BEEN to these 3rd world places? Democracy isn't going to flourish because of these, kids won't learn because of these and those that get them won't be any more connected or enriched because of these.
Get them books, get them power, teach them the power of societies and civilazations that have stable and supportive forms of government. Teach them economics, teach them to communicate, help build infrastructure but for gods sake don't just give them something like this and expect it to solve the problems that go much deeper then you care to think of.
These people don't have food, yet alone a computer. They don't have security. They don't have places to keep this stuff. This computer isn't going to network them, open up channels of communication, enable or embrace freedom or teach them anything we don't already teach them. Schools may have this for students to do whatever but unless we open up the channels of communication these tools are as useless as what they're limited to do when they get them.
Well DUH , if we didn't waste millions on these useless wind up toys they could have wireless devices and infrastructure in place. Perhaps even running Power, installing cell towers and solar power distribution and wind farms. If people can't cook, eat, get news and connect then what good is typing up stuff on a cheap laptop?
I'm sick of people who think they know nothing and suggest that the UN and MIT or anyone for that matter simply knows better. You have a brain. Use it. And by your point why don't you trust Gates opinion considering he's done more for these people than the UN and MIT combined in many cases?
I'm a firm believer in teaching man to do something and giving them the tool to do so; but i don't think the tool we need to be spending money on right now is a linux computer or a windows computer or any computer for that matter. Hell getting all of these people blackberries would be cheaper and more effecient.
Maybe good Old 'Dollar Bill Gates' should dontate some of his billions and not just a few mere millions for decent computers to developing countries so they can get into the 21st century, instead of dissing someone else's good works.
Teach man to fish, and they'll deplete the oceans.
"While the OLPC originally planned to make the laptop available only through governments, Negroponte has indicated that they may partner with well known brand-name manufacturers to create a commercial version which would sell for about $225, that would subsidize units in the developing world." [wikipedia]
/.'rs comments.
This is a great! If people will pay $300 for an Ipod, I am sure people would buy these computers even without reading some of the other
From my life experiences and then more so from witnessing up-close the aftermath of Katrina here in Mississippi, it is clear to me that you can't just wait around on governments or governing bodies to rectify situations. Take action that advances the principles you believe in! Making these computers available in the US for profit could raise valuable capitol to aid in the ongoing production and development of this unit, as well as raising awareness of the project in the first world. Whenever you pull one of these out I am sure you would get some questions about it... And whenever you get a question that would be an opportunity to educate the people about the project.
This laptop has great potential for education in the third world, and it has an amazing potential here as well... There is no telling what great and innovative uses people will find for it, both in business and in day-to-day life.
Allowing world-wide access to these computers is a great idea.
Oh... and who cares what Bill says.
a device costing over $1000.00 with a 7 inch screen, requires a power source, and applications cost extra.
I know if I was poor and barely had enough food to eat, I'd happily trade a fortune I don't have that could feed my family for god knows how long for a laptop! Maybe we can give the kids "I'M STARVING AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LAPTOP" T-shirts while we're at it.
Seriously, laptops like this would better help people in developing countries (that is, countries where people have some money to spend that they don't need for survival). It could certainly enable them to educate themselves, their children, etc.
But in a lot of countries the last thing the people need is a laptop. Sure, they'll be able to watch porn, read your blog, and purchase Trogdor polos online, but that wont solve their immediate needs. A laptop might help you plant smarter, and a tractor might help you plant faster, but neither will feed your children or stop the neighboring tribe from slaughtering you.
I could imagine the same sentiment being raised before cellphones made it to Africa in a big way. "The socioeconomics of the region are incompatible with widespread adoption of modern mobile technologies. They'll be too expensive to maintain and the village-bound populace doesn't have the need for such devices." Yeah, right.
Take Gates and Barrett's statements for what they are: Attempts to inspure FUD by the leaders of the two companies which have the most to lose should OLPC succeed. This must be an especially difficult issue for Gates, since his philanthropic and capitalistic motivations are in direct conflict.
Kevin Fox
Gates is a technocrat, he seens no need for renewable resources, he lives in a mansion, he is the fucking richest man in the world, his ego is huge, he thinks humans are going to transcend into machines, of course he thinks cheap laptops that will replace him are a bad idea. Imagine this, if instead of spending their time toiling in sweatshops or producing code for microsoft people were able to participate in the development of open source software, i know many projects that could use help. Having free communication via linux, these are the anti-thesis of trusted computing, they are a wound in the side of Bill Gate's empire. And the memetic infection of software freedom and secure communications could be spread, and if the technological infrastructure were to fall or if you were in an area without a grid and hyper development as in a rural or mountainous area you could figure out how to use these laptops to pretty much solve any problem if you could maintain access to the internet. Ever hear of relays, wifi extenders, line of site wifi for 2 miles, solar powered hubs that interconnect with the mesh. Obviously these devices would be able to be changed and fixed and customized, something like a bunch of OpenWRT54G hubs could be solar powered and rigged to relay to these laptops. I don't know it seems like a good idea to me and who really likes Bill Gates?
Anyone remember Bill's first book? I remember reading about his grand scheme and vision of a bunch of shiny wonderful technology coming out to improve schools, businesses, and personal lives. Or has Microsoft decided that spending billions on challenging patents, entering the game console race, and continuing to release slightly more improved versions of it's OS is more important that working on the technology surrounding it?
I remember when Windows 95 came out way back when, as a kid I was stoked to finally have a real improvement over Windows 3.1, let alone DOS. I'd sit there for hours just playing with the damn OS like it was cool. I'd make it do all kinds of seemingly stupid things. Over time, with each new version of Windows came little innovation, nothing new and shiny to look at or play with. The GUI remaining largely the same, the backends were always changed, but rather than innovate and create a new look or a bunch of new features, they rehashed the same crap over and over.
Of course Bill seems to apply this logic to hardware as he does to software, he obviously doesn't seem to get that hardware is changing, getting smaller, running faster, using less power. The MIT laptop is an absolutely wonderful piece of real innovation that cannot be told otherwise. Now how it will be applied time will tell, but I don't believe Bill has the right to play down on real innovation when he has barely made any real step in software or hardware innovation since the beginning of Windows.
It's a shame too, I was kinda hoping those digital wallets he talked about would come to, but then again I doubt I'd appreciate someone coming by and hacking my digital wallet. =)
Gates sez: "The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk"
Bill does know that OLPC stands for One Lapop Per Child right? Where's the shared use there?
Kevin Fox
Gates suggests that instead of $100 laptops, all poor people should get Acer Ferraris, instead of turning the crank they should plug into the wall outlet, and instead of using a mesh network to share a modem line they should all get Comcast cable modem service.
He goes on to propose champagne as a solution to the clean water problem, and of course, if they have no bread, they should just eat cake.
In poor countries $200 is annual income. If we compare it with poor family in USA with 20K income and then extrapolate logic...How many families in USA (rich or poor) can afford $100x10=$1000 laptop for their kids??? None....Add on top of it...monthly $45 for wireless broadband(which is outrages compared to $10 in other countries)....Even US families can't shell out $1000 budget for their kids laptop. Gates is right. A half functional laptop is as good as fully functional PDA. And what kids are going to do with this fancy $100 PDA? appointment with their farmer? todo grazing cattle or reminder to fetch drinking water....???? It will be better to give a fully functional(anything MS or Linux or OSX as OS) $400 desktop, keep it at public place and have some library books in that room. 10 kids will enjoy that computer than only one kid having precious item of $100.
If these things take off, Windows will be marginalized. No matter how many goodies they cram into Vista, folks that are only making a few bucks a day aren't going buy it. And once MS is no longer the de facto standard, life for Bill and Co. will get a lot tougher.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
go google the word S-A-R-C-A-S-M....... and then post something barely reasonable......jeesh
And anyway, internet only flourished in our countries once there was a large enough base of computer owners. It is possible for a computer to be useful without the internet. And these computers won't be going into any black market because they're so low tech, and going straight to the bottom of the social strata in most cases. The black market has no interest in a children's computer being handed out for free by the government. The only people to sell these to are the ones getting them for free (discounting your batshit insane idea that Linux-using American kids alone will fuel a worldwide black market).
And who exactly are the "we" you seem to be exalting? You think America or the developed world are regarded as "teachers"? Europe is seen as a good area to migrate to by many, but as the recent cartoon protests have shown, nobody's lining up for assimilation.
I explicitly stated that contrary to what you bigoted Slashdotters are repeating to yourselves, this isn't a magic solution. Your shitty strawman argument won't work on me. Why don't you read an objective article on this thing and tell me if you see anything about it saving the world?. Are you talking about this quote? "Every single problem you can think of, poverty, peace, the environment, is solved with education or including education." At no point does Negroponte claim that his laptop solves every single problem. He is just implying that it can have a wide-reaching effect. If you take this to mean that he thinks it will solve every problem, you are assuming that every aspect of education revolves around computers.I don't trust Gates because he's in it for money. He has competing products to sell. His worldview revolves around his dream of hardware being free and the OS being what people pay for. This laptop is a huge threat to the credibility of this. The UN does this stuff because it's part of their purpose, whereas Bill Gates wouldn't give nearly as much if it weren't also an effective tax dodge, and besides that, being rich and providing funds doesn't mean he knows a thing about practicalities. I'll trust the judgement of the UN and the several governments waiting to buy millions of these laptops before the judgement of Bill Gates and you, thank you very much.
Not that I disagree with the idea of the MIT laptops -- I think they're a great idea, and I hope they actually make it into the hands of people that can do some good with them. I'm just saying that a web-enabled cell phone is a considerable tool in its own right, and shouldn't be discounted.
That makes no sense. Gates is wrong either way by your context. If the $100 laptop is useless, so is Gates' cell phone idea. Gates wasn't saying building a $100 laptop was a bad idea, he was saying that HIS way is the correct way. He's still basically just doing the same thing.
Twinstiq, game news
Bill understands this just fine. If I'm aware that people in Africa don't have reliable power much less broadband, then you can be sure Bill is too. The only reason he's mocking this is because it runs FLOSS. He won't tolerate people using free software en mass, even if he won't reduce the prices of his products so they can use that instead. Yes, people asked him to make MS Software affordable for Africa, and he refused.
Would someone mod the parent back up at least to 1? Agree or disagree, there's nothing there that remotely qualifies as a troll.
He is just pissed off because he can't force them to upgrade to winblows vista on this unit.
Karma: a simple way of silencing those with unpopular views regardless how correct or just that view might be.
There you go - idiot idealogue again.
Asshole.
Give a man a fish and he'll go away. Teach him to fish and he'll steal your bait and tackle.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
What people need to realize is that Bill Gates is a ruthless business man who knows how to be in the right place at the right time. He made his entire fortune by embracing other people's ideas and extending them to be successful in the market. Everything from the Altair port of BASIC, to purchasing a CP/M ripoff to sell IBM as DOS, to announcing a non-existant "Windows" to compete with VisiOn, to cheating Spyglass out of a web browser to compete with Netscape. He doesn't know what will work until someone else shows him how. Then, and only then, does he make sure he nails the market before anyone else does.
However, I think these recent comments come from the brilliant ruthless businessman, not the "me-too" technologist side of his personality
These little laptops are a major threat to Microsoft. Not because they are directly taking a market away from Microsoft--MS isn't really interested in people who can't afford more than $100--but because those kids (and the economies of their countries) are going to grow up. And someday, a few of them will be potential MS clients, either because they've somehow managed to make enough money to afford a computer, or because they are hired by a company that uses computers. Except that all of their knowledge and experience will be with Open Source software, and the chance that they will switch to Windows at that point is pretty small.
So Gates is in a real bind here. These are hardware, not software, so MS cannot simply flood the market with free computers the way they did with Internet Explorer when they were trying to capture the Internet. It's one thing to provide shared Wintel computers at a deep discount to schools, but these guys want to give a computer to every kid at $100 a pop! Even Microsoft can't afford to compete with that. Microsoft doesn't even make computers, and nobody who makes Microsoft compatible computers can make them for anything close to that price.
So the best Gates can do is sneer at it, and hope to discourage the project as much he can.
Maybe Mr Gates thinks that everyone is able to buy an IBM laptop, or even an SGI one, but even for second hand laptops, 100 is lots less that what it would cost you a P100 machine.
I liked very much the project and the designs, first the Green one, and on the website, I also like the blue one http://laptop.org/download.es.html
First thing I liked was screen based on eInk, allowing low power consuption crank-alternative power, and the power cord on the strap for carrying it, I will not enter to consider if computers is the thing they most need to improve their status, but having cheap computers, will allow to get lot's of e-books for stuying, getting more from the internet, and thus, enabling further knowledge adquisition than if they would need a book from a local library (supposing they have one).
At least, everytime I see some charity asking for books, they ask normally for used books, they may be not all equal, but at least, they have some contents that renders profitable for education.... having those computers, e-books for all childs and wireless communications would make easier access to education and to get peace.
And so, if Mr Gates consider they're useless, there's no problem on that, give us the $100 laptop, and buy $1000 Laptos for all children in need for one... (and some way to get electricity also...)
Pablo Iranzo Gomez (https://iranzo.github.io/)
And i won't read anything you have to say because your as closed minded as they come. "It runs linux, so it will solve the worlds problems"
FU and your blind mind. YOU are part of the problem. I've been there. My father works out there a good portion of the year. Believe me a wind up computer is the last these these kids and poor folks need. They need an end to civil unrest, they need an end to blight and famine. They need electricity, they need medecine, they need to get rid of the things that the "Western societies" have overcome. Believe me if you couldn't eat, were crapping out worms and 75% of your family is going to die from aids by the time they're 25 years old you may think differently.,
THis isn't a pissing match between bill gates and someone who wants to create a laptop for the poor, it's about what REALLY needs to happen to solve the problems of the poor and 3rd world countries the world over.
Get over yourself dude
As opposed to your idea of using smart phones with 2.5" screens and 2 hours of battery life? Okay, sure.
Secondly, the students in, for example, grade ten wont be moving into an office job for at least three years, if not six. For promary school users it is even further. That means the technology they are currently learning will be SIX YEARS OR MORE OUT OF DATE.
When I was a kid I learned computing on Commodore 64s. I later moved on to DOS and Windows 3.1...
All of the above are now technologies so old as to be utterly laughable. But you know what? I still learned things. I learned some BASIC on the C64 and wrote a few programs. I took a class on Pascal and learned to code better. I no longer code in BASIC or Pascal but that was the start of an ongoing learning process. The arena changes as time goes on, but that doesn't mean what I've learned is valueless. The particular processes for solving problems with the computer are much the same today.
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
1) no one doubts that food, medicine, and clothing are needed by the poor of the world. Yet, we often see humanitarian efforts fail or come up short; not because these thing aren't useful, but because distribution and infrastructure (or local stability) is insufficient.
2) regardless of where you stand on the usefulness of a $100 laptop, the required distribution and infrastructure will not be there to support it. It will fail.
Gates knows this very well. he way savvy enough to get in a dig at the technology (a bit of sour grapes) to suggest that is the reason.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
Taking care of people today is counter-productive and can destroy opportunities in the future.
Computers don't make opportunities. Teachers don't make opportunities. Public funding of projects, businesses and markets doesn't make opportunities. Opportunities come when a given community finds that is can accomplish something that others in a market want.
South Africa started a very innovative housing project a few years ago. They couldn't afford to construct the hundreds of thousands of homes that were needed and the people who needed them couldn't remotely dream of being able to afford anything even close to what you or I would refer to as a "house." In order to get those people to become productive, they, quite obviously, needed some basic level of living conditions. Catch-22.
So, being a pragmatic lot, they granted the land, poured foundations and dropped off bricks. So, you get a house...provided you build it. Really, quite an ingenious idea. But, but, but! Those poor investors who were deprived of income by gifting that land! What of their plight!! Well, now they have a labor force that is farm more willing and able to contribute to production. Damned good investment, IMHO, and I'd dare say, it produced many, many opportunities.
That's the problem with this man-as-island all-or-nothing thinking. Sometimes, people do need help, whether it is feeding them, getting them into school or putting a roof over their heads. Seems to me, from this corner of the world, people's self-righteous pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps attitudes usuall stem from a willful disregard for all of the charity that has been bestowed on them, but damn it, I'm "self-made!" Baloney.
And when will you stop referring to the target market as "there"? STOP IGNORING WHAT I'M SAYING. The developing world is diverse, and most of the countries interested in this laptop are not starvation-filled, AIDS ridden hellholes. Most are in Latin America, for one thing. They are going to people who AREN'T STARVING TO DEATH.
As I've already said in another reply to someone similar to you: I too say that this is not about Bill Gates. Thing is, dickhead, it's not about "what REALLY needs to happen to solve the problems of the poor and 3rd world countries the world over" either. It's about an educational laptop for kids in developing countries. You got a better way to teach kids about computers than to give them one? I'm all ears, unlike you, who've repeatedly ignored every one of my points. Can you not see the irony in this phrase: And i won't read anything you have to say because your as closed minded as they come.
Bill could make his X box a better candidate. Remove all of its security and make it into a PC. Install a simplified Windows and a few games. Kids in third world country gonna love it. Most third world country has eletricity and TV, the only thing missing is a PC. and they do not need mobility that much.
Anyone care to refute this?
"I'm sick to death of smug Slashdotters pissing on this project as if they know better than MIT and the UN."
/. comes not from the reason of dissent, but in the method of execution. But I don't think of /. as a place where tact is a positive thing (that may be why I like it).
I think that there are a few angles that can be brought up against both parties...
The first, is that the UN probably knows jack shit about technology. If an organization that was famous for producing technology came up to them and said "We have a great idea for empowering people in developing nations using technology." The UN would at least listen, and have very little room to critize any logistics (from your logic, who does the UN think they are if they can critize MIT about technology?)
Likewise, MIT could have an oversight and a technology that would be better suited to assist people may be possible (not that there is, or isn't, I have no idea of the status of these nation(s)). The point is that "the technology experts" may not see the full potential of an idea where "the people" are concerned (IBM + HP ignoring the PC market for years would be an example).
To be honest, I don't know where I stand on the whole issue. I see people in the western world who have full access to technology, and do practically nothing with it. Yet, from personal experiece, I know that technology can be a very positive thing in some people's lives. I do think that a durable and inexpensive laptop would be great to give a young child (in any country) as a first computer.
But I do have to disagree with you, some people on slashdot might be perfectly eligible to give advice on this issue. Prehaps someone has volenteered as a teacher, missionary, or prehaps they've always lived there. In general you are probably right, but at the same time, who are we to disagree with Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Dvorak, or even a partly like Infinium Labs? The answer is that we are observers who try to call things the way we see them. And if we get something wrong, then it is a good thing that we aren't being listened to, but if we (in general) get something right when the experts get it wrong, then maybe that "expert" opinion shouldn't be trusted in the future.
What I'm saying is that dissenting perspective isn't necessarily a bad thing. If a random programmer finds a bug in the Linux kernel, is that person met with hostility, or thanks, for critizing others work? I would venture a guess that your criticism of
Am I open minded towards open source, or closed minded towards closed source?
Actaully, that's not the last thing. The last thing you want is to have these laptops run Windows. And, frankly, even being in the first world, I'd prefer the $100 laptop to Microsoft's Origami, which is the usual brittle, sluggish, overpriced, short-lived crap companies like Microsoft like to put out.
... and this is from the same guy that said 640K is enough for anybody.
Urban Legend - B.S. - I read the magazine article (yeah, remember those days before things like slashdot...)
do your thinking for you?
an ill wind that blows no good
This whole project is so amazing. It's just like the end of the Diamond Age where the 400,000 Chinese girls each grew up with a copy of the Primer and suddenly become a huge political force. These laptops are going to give whole swaths of society unprecedented amounts of social power.
So, you suggest, "let's do nothing"?
Fucking idealogical asshole. Is Rush yo' daddy? or Maybe Bill O'Reilly?
What the blazes is Microsoft doing running a Government Leaders Forum? We already know that Gates isn't fit to run a country.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I think it's safe to say the UN are going to be biased in this matter. One possibility is that their enthusiasm comes from the amount of goodwill potential this project offers. They can make themselves look very relevant and useful by getting themselves into a headline along with a name like "$100 laptop".
However, I am more prepared to trust a comparatively impartial group such as the UN or MIT, than a publically traded company such as Microsoft or Intel - the two most vocal critics of the project in my opinion. And just as the UN is ignorant of technology, Bill Gates can hardly be considered an expert on the wants and needs of the poor.
In any case, the real issue is the educational value of the thing, and my point of view on this is quite simple: the $100 laptop is better than nothing, which is what a lot of people are proposing here.
My criticism of the dissenting view isn't what you think it is. In my opinion, Slashdot doesn't have 'dissent' as such. It collectively picks a side and moderation forces people to run with it. Most of the time I just roll with this. It's just that something about this subject makes me get all angry and before I know it I'm reaching for CAPS LOCK.
"Africa's $100 Laptop Mocks Gates"
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
If this 100$ laptop was equipped with 640K RAM - Bill would say YES! instantly, because it would be enough for everybody.
In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.
Yet - with this simple hardware, he and many others founded companies, some of which still exist to this day!
Low power computing doesn't equal useless computing, not at all. If it is Turing complete, all bets are off - any computer that is Turing complete can simulate any other computer that is the same. Hardware is software in physical form. It may take one computer longer to compute than another, but so what?
Where is the real payoff of computing? It is an introduction to logic and rationalism, for computers cannot be understood without understanding those two principles (that doesn't mean they can't be used without understanding those principles - but if you don't have a grounding in those principles, and an understanding how to apply both of them, you won't get very far after your computer crashes - better hope - pray! - the reboot works).
These principles are what governments fear, because they ultimately lead to questions, as well as answers, about power and freedom. The People cannot have that at any cost...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I would bet that quite a few /.'s careers started tinkering with these machines. Only used floppies or a tape drive. If you absolutely mad, you could score a 5 Meg hard disk.
Heck, I was power mad when I got my 16K cart.
Need I go on?
Now, there a better things to give a 3 world country than relatively cheap PCs. Clean water, food, and a solid education (and not one run by a charity with an agenda, either...) But, hey, Bill is just plain wrong.
So sayeth he who claimed that 640k should be enough for anyone.
~ Wizardry Dragon
You are not allowed to give computing to the poor without paying me money. mouth starts to foam... money money money money money... arr developers developers developers....
What a c*nt! I won't be buying Vista, and I'll avoid using it when I can. And I recommend everyone else do the same...
:)
Do it for the little people! Who's gonna speak for them in the world forum? Send a message back to the pretentious 'bigger' ones, i.e. Gates and Bullmer.
It's true that God helps those who help themselves... so don't do Bill any favours... he seems to have all he needs while some kid in Africa with worms in his or her belly might get a first real glimpse of the future...
It gives them something to hope and live for. All Bill hopes for is that some sucker's gonna line his pockets for the next decade or so.
Bill can play with his light switch all day if that keeps him happy, but some people unfortunately do not have that choice or option...
Hasta La Vista, M$!
This is an intrinsically useful project even if it fails. No one has tried to design and deploy a low cost information appliance that will address the needs of the third world. Just the attempt will teach us a lot about both information technologies and social and economic issues related to computing in the third world. The closest similar effort is the use of cell phones to avoid the cost of landlines. This is more ambitious, so it is riskier and more interesting.
Maybe it will not work. May be we need another generation of low power CPUs and cheap OLED displays and fuel cells for power. If so, this project will pay off in the next generation. That does not mean that trying it now is a bad idea.
And as for all you prophets who KNOW that no one in the target communities will benefit, please lend me your crystal ball, mine's broken. Given how bad a job everyone has done in forecasting the course of development of information technology, it's nice to know that you super-geniuses have figured it all out.
Even if there is a one in a thousand chance of this doing something importatn, it seems like a useful effort.
to those who also possess 40 billion dollars.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Or does this sound like the standard practice of established and entrenched business? "No, that new thing wont work, keep buying our old thing..." Or in the case of the RIAA "keep buying our old thing, or else!"
First: how odd that he should be mocking an attempt to get these laptops in the hands of poor children, considering his company's vision statement is (I believe) "A computer on every desktop". Oh, wait, I suppose his complaint is because these children are too poor to afford desks?
Second: complaining about "cranking...while you're trying to type" is just plain ignorant. The goal is to have a laptop you CAN crank if you don't have access to other power sources, and the cranking/use ratio is certainly going to be more than one minute of cranking to ten minutes of use.
Finally: the last time I checked, people used to use laptops with non-TFT screens that were tiny, and people used to use computers that had little 5" CRTs that only displayed one color over black. His complaint here is like an auto manufacturer saying that people want cars with air bags and leather seats and four-wheel-disc brakes -- certainly they do if they have access to the latest-greatest and funds to pay for it, but if you're poor, you'll take a car that gets you where you need to go whether it has amenities or not.
Sheesh.
So Bill sez: 'The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen... geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text...'
And this differs from Origami how?
The last thing you want to do for a well from is have it be something without an electrical pump
In other words, in this story, Bill Gates is a Marie Antoinette impersonator, telling the people who no longer have any flour for bread to eat cake, or the people living in the middle of nowhere to use some batteries and get a broadband connection.
It's been a long time.
They are asking questions Microsoft hasn't bothered to ask yet after 30 years of selling PC's for profit. It's a tall order, but if they make it work, Microsoft is DEAD on so many levels.
First of all, welcome to slashdot!
Second, I regret to inform you that wrongness and assholeness are the Siamese twins of the slashdot psyche. You will rarely, if ever, see one without the other.
I guess if you're the sort of person who thinks that people can be depended upon to be altruistic and generous it sounds like a good idea. And clearly Negroponte is such a person - I mean his whole OLPC program is predicated on donations of $100M or so to produce and distribute these things.
That's not unreachable, it's inevitable. Radio shack is already selling $200 PCs. (http://www.presidianpic.com/) Between Moore's Law and economics of scale, the $100 price point is probably a couple years away at most.
In fact I'm pretty sure that the free market will bring $100 PCs to market before MIT does.
You seem to be saying that entertainment is impossible without good graphics and sound. Well, the problem here is that you are mixing the container with the content. Just because I have a beer mug doesn't mean I can't drink orange juice from it.
There are plenty of entertainment options available for low-res devices, or have you forgotten how popular Infocom used to be? How fast a graphics card do you need to play Tetris? One of the popular online games out there today is the Kingdom of Loathing, a game with stick figures and no real animation (other than a couple of animated GIFs). To claim that the computers have to run games like we know them today shows a lack of imagination.
As I responded to another poster - you don't fucking get it.
It IS the library. The families don't buy them themselves, they're given away (because of sponsors or governments, or paid for by Westerners who buy $200 versions). You don't need broadband to the internet - you just need 100 e-books on survival, agriculture, medicine, and you've just raised the bar by a thousandfold.
Picture if you KNEW you were going to be on a desert island for the rest of your life. Wouldn't you want a hand-crank computer with the green beret survival guild, the boy scout manual, a photo gallery of poisonous foods...? Do you have a BETTER idea of what you'd want, if you were forced to survive on your own in a harsh environment?
The readily available information alone makes these things worth the price of admission, if you ask me. (Especially if you talk about a talking / video version of the books, so you don't even need to be literate to get started using them.)
Education is the silver bullet.
I remember the communication in the age of FidoNet. Mail often took days to get between nodes dependent on dialup. But it got through and it was better than nothing and it was cheaper than the alternatives. These machines allow a wide range of communication, and that includes the "packet driver" - a driver with a packet of floppies.
Also don't forget the possibility of rigging up packet radio from the already-present HAM equipment. Granted, this equipment has limited availability, but you can distribute the data manually from such nodes of connectivity.
You talk about needs. Communication is one of the most important needs; correctly used, it makes satisfying of the other needs significantly easier.
The long-term impairment of Billy's chances to make money on Africa is only a relatively insignificant added value.
The rest is history - I programmed it to play a simplified version of the Nim game, which got me interested in programming and was enough to convince my parents to buy me the famous ZX Spectrum a few years later. I got my MSc in CS, now working on my phD. Which I probably won't finish, because the calculator had no big colourful screen and no broadband. Ok, that was a cheap shot - I am not trying to say that 10 character display should be enough for everyone. But I think that even a very modest feature set can activate a bright kid's potential, which is of course a worthy case.
He doesn't want to, but he will once MIT's computer becomes widespread and millions of 3rd-worlders use open source software, anything not to have the market going in the wrong direction. Look at what happened when Thailand started discussing Linux as a standard platform - instant price drops on thai Windows.
There's no 'on' position on the Slacker switch!
Geez Bill - why don't you take a look in the mirror and give yourself a slap some day?
:/
His statements just prove His and Microsoft's stance on the world today. Just as war makes America more money, no computers for Africa keeps open source projects and freedom for technoology out of reach for less advances user bases, and keeps Microsoft in that more than comfortable monopoly loop.
I dream of the day when I can meet Gates face to face and tell him what a spoiled little cheating brat he is. Maybe someone should also give him a tutorial on using a computer, because if XP or Vista is anything to go by, im sure the kids using these $100 computers will be miles ahead than MS's design team.
I'm not saying I have anything *against* Windows. Just the people controlling the populations choices on EVERYTHING.
I apologise for my bad mood.
g00p.
or now, they're getting laptops, teach him how to phish...
For a long time I was of the opinion that initiatives like this would be not useful, and that people should concentrate on getting the basic things like books, pens, paper, etc. But today, as a volunteer science teacher in an African country, I would absolutely LOVE if my students had these.
As it is today my students don't have books. Books cost money. At least $10 a subject for each subject each year. That adds up to well over $100 in a 3 year secondary education. Whatever I write on the board (and, hopefully, some of what I say) is copied verbatim into their notebooks. What would be very nice for the students, and for me for that matter, would be a durable $100 laptop loaded with a web browser and pdf viewer, and then several (freely licensed) textbooks, project gutenburg, etc, and some good educational software. Quite simply this would be a more cost effective measure than buying my school hundreds of books for their library (shipping is expensive). The only thing I worry about is the durability... I don't think many westerners realize exactly how hard the environment in some african areas is on technology (not to mention kids).
One way around that would be to set up a mobile server with several wireless base stations and mount it on whatever reliable vehicle makes regular runs through the area. The post bus, library's bookmobile, health care workers, or others who make regular rounds could carry the server. Major uploads and downloads could be facilitated this way. There was a very successful project called OAUNET in Africa which sent such a bus around and used UUCP. Something like that could be used to supplement the mesh network.
Who cares what Gates says? He was wrong about the WWW, the Internet, and many other major trends, too. His utterances should be restricted to the political or business section of newspapers not waste space in information technology publications.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
honestly I'm not sure of the exact site. Schoolnet and Nambia are some keywords to google with that might help. It was basically a project to bring free internet/computer stuff to schools in Nambia.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
lol, internet!
Bill Gates assessment of the $100 laptop display an arrogance that many of us in wealthy countries are guilty of. Sure, the $100 laptop isn't much by our standards, and many people in poor countries won't be able to use them for anything. If you can't read or write, even a $2 laptop would be a waste. But there are plenty of places in the world where a $100 laptop may be within a family's reach, or it can be donated by individuals or organizations. In these cases, that laptop may turn out to be the window to a world those people never knew. As to the idea of a cheap, rugged laptop powered by a hand crank, I can think of times in my career when such a device would have been useful. Try reading your average laptop in the bright sun, and try using it for 8-12 hours outdoors without access to external power. As a geologist, I had to collect data in all sorts of places - most of which weren't computer friendly. True, there are now ruggedized computers and battery life is getting better, but the fact remains that the tyical laptop really can't get very far from a power supply. Field data collection and note taking generally doesn't require a really sophisticated computer.