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Negroponte Responds to $100 Laptop Criticisms
teefaf writes "Wired News is running an article on the most recent developments surrounding Nicholas Negroponte's (of MIT) $100 laptop project. The project aims to make 'cheap' computers available to children in developing countries. In the article, Negroponte responds to the inevitable criticism from Intel and Microsoft, "When you have both Intel and Microsoft on your case, you know you're doing something right", and elaborates on his vision for the future of the project, "He also said the display and other specifications could change as enhancements are made. In other words, he seemed to be saying to his critics: Don't get too hung up on how this thing operates now, 'The hundred-dollar laptop is an education project,' he said. 'It's not a laptop project.'". The article also states that the initial production cost of the laptops is expected to be $135; the $100 price-point probably won't be hit until 2008. It's possible that the cost could drop as low as $50 by 2010."
I think Bill Gates has a lot of nerve to critisize a project designed to help children and educate poor people in villages to do alot of great things.
What exactly has he done to spread technology?
Oh, thats right the project competes with their own Orgami sub $1000 thingie.
Sorry Bill but I dont give a damn about the price of your stocks or your selfishness
http://saveie6.com/
Everyone is very quick to speak ill of Negroponte's efforts here which are all about building a project that works and places computers onto the desks (or laps) of the "have-nots." Based on what I have read of the man he's an original thinker and very creative.
Usually, the entrenched tend to be very frightened of those types.
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
I thought the most interesting thing about this was Negroponte saying "The hundred-dollar laptop is an educaton project. It's not a laptop project."
Given that, it hardly matters what OS it runs, as long as school systems, educators, and students have the ability to write and run the educational software they need on it.
IMHO, the real value of a machine like this in a students hands (especially if they are taught programming) is that they learn problem solving, not just information.
skeptics have questioned whether the device can meet Negroponte's goal of inspiring huge educational gains
Why do skeptics decide? Of what value is the opinion of a skeptic? Why do people listen to skeptics at all? Offer something constructive, or SHUT THE FUCK UP.
"Geez, so why criticize me in public?" Negroponte said.
Good question. Why everyone isn't on this guy's side is beyond me.
Microsoft did not immediately return calls for comment.
Wait, wait. Let me guess. A meeting! Right?!?!
In time, Negroponte expects the $100 laptop to be a misnomer. For one thing, he believes the cost -- which is actually about $135 now and isn't expected to hit $100 until 2008 -- can drop to $50 by 2010 as more and more are produced.
This man should be given a standing ovation everywhere he goes. Anyone who criticizes him should be ashamed of themselves and their companies. This is a worthwhile, workable project, and it should be supported.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
If this project really takes off, it would be interesting to see if it gives Linux a foothold (dominant market share?) in developing countries. Ten years down the road we might see people in these countries sticking with Linux over Windows when they get a decent computer because that's what they grew up on. Surely this is the main reason Gates is pissed, that it could lose Microsoft the foothold in these developing markets.
Not every community in Africa is starving and lacking teachers.
Think of what benefits would result if every student in a small Kansas town were given a $100 laptop with Net access.
THe sole reason why undeveloped countries stay that way is because of the large unproductive workforce that is uneducated.
If Africans (just an example) learn basic computer skills and children use education programs and can learn and connect with the rest of the world and be better informed the result would be tremendous!
Many employers could then setup shops and hire people. One of the reasons India is hot and Sudan is not is because the Indians speak English and are more educated then the Sudanesse.
Computer skills are essential and its silly in the US because any kid knows how ot use a computer but back in the mid 80's here in the first world, it was serious a problem with training. Not everyone knew how to be productive with a spreadsheet for example.
http://saveie6.com/
This project is designed to benefit countries as a whole. Some countries have populations with no high-level skills. By providing these cheap laptops (along with a wireless infrastructure) to their citizens, they can prepare them for more high-level work, which will attract business, which will create jobs, which will put bread on the table.
Ergo, $100 laptops will [indirectly] put bread on the tables of those who need it.
Where can I get a crank for my laptop? I'd buy just the crank if it could recharge the battery.
In 1990 I was given an old x86 machine that ran DOS off of floppy, and then Word off of floppy. I took to that computer immediately, and 17 years later, after many different jobs, I work in IT. Without that x86, I wouldn't have pushed my parents to get me a 486 for my birthday, or tried to get a job at the college helpdesk before I arrived at college. Maybe I would have still ended up here, but I doubt it. Putting a computer in the hands of a child can be a powerful thing.
Why knock it?
It reminds me of a picture I saw in a sociology book that showed half a dozen people crowded around a T.V., and all of them were poorly clothed, and they were sitting on a dirt floor.
/.?
They talked to the leader of the village and he said how people told him how television was going to bring the village knowledge and information (the weather for example), but now all everyone does with any spare time is sit in front of the T.V. and watch shows (sit-coms).
So, how long before these lap-top users hit
I don't even think it's worth it anymore trying to apply any critical thinking to this laptop situation, at least not here. You'll either be modded down, or be bombarded with the responses of karma whores. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HELP THE POOR! IT BRINGS KNOWLEDGE SO YOU CAN TRADE PRICES WITHOUT HAVING TO TRAVEL! YOU CAN SEE THE WEATHER!
T.V. can do a lot of things, though no dynamically, that these laptops can do. So can radio. But they don't. And before someone goes off saying about how I can't compare T.V. and radio to the vast expansive future that the internet offers, consider this.
Radio. How long before this turned to shit? T.V. How long before this turned to shit?
Internet? It's shit.
But whatever, I guess Negroponte can do whatever the hell he wants, and spend money he raises anyway he wants, the same as some guy with eleven houses and 12 hummers is free to.
Either way, when it comes down to it, it's not really under our control anyway.
It is just me, or does it seem that this project is much more interested in publicity than in actually producing cheap computers? If it were all about cheap computers for poor nations, just publish the specs and be done with it. Or just collect and ship used throwaway computers overseas. Instead I get the sense that more effort is being spent promoting Negroponte as a wonderful humanitarian than is being spent actually helping the poor.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Well, it's not like it's running from straight ROM. It has a gig or two of flash space. A hard drive would be too fragile for the conditions this thing is built to endure.
Sidenote: If they throw a single USB port on that thing, I'll buy one in the US for whatever they'll sell them to us at (probably roughly $250).
I've upped my standards, so up yours.
Let me get this straight... this laptop is $100, can be manufactured, distributed, and purchased by huge numbers of impressionable, ingenious young people, can form a mesh network with its peers, and comes with a variety of useful F/OSS software.
...I think this laptop idea is brilliant.
So when the kid grows up, and maybe due to his computer fluency perhaps starts living in a "higher" society that uses MS software, overpriced "Extreme Edition" hardware, and ISP's that want to rape their customers and extort service providers while providing service an order of magnitude poorer than can be found in places like Japan... well, perhaps this person will be less inclined to even think of putting up with this crap?
"First, they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win."
It appears that we are currently transitioning from 2 to 3.
While in theory, I wholeheartedly support this, in practice, this could have some unintended negative consequences. One aspect of this that is often overlooked, is whether or not these laptops will be used at all. Remember, $100 in the US (and many other countries) is very cheap. In the countries that this is intended for, it's a lot. Perhaps even several months wages. When you are looking at not being able to feed yourself or your family, that laptop will most likely become a bartering tool, or sold outright to get food on the table. Taking it a step further, you may even see people losing their lives over this. In some under-developed countries, it's nothing to take someone's life over something worth a small fraction of the value of these laptops.
Because teenage pranks are fun when you're about to die!
Gates doesn't have a problem with a sub $100 laptop. His problem is that someone other than Microsoft will receive the praise associated with it.
As Microsoft continues to trip over their dicks geting VISTA out the door, I for one am glad these kids will get these laptops prior to becoming senior citizens.
I'd like to take a minute to remind everyone that there are areas in the US that aren't much better off than the third world, and could benefit from devices similar to this. Here's a parts list if you'd like to try your hand at constructing one :
P III ULV Single Board Computer with 10/100 NIC, USB and I/O riser for IDE and LCD : $65 , these usually come with a power supply.
128 MB SODIMM $30
Linux (free)
LCD : $10 - $15 depending on what you can find on e-bay.
Enclosure : You can use almost anything you want thats non conductive. Get creative.
Throw in a small travelstar drive , keyboard and mouse and you're slightly above the $100 limit, however only by $20 or so. Still much cheaper than conventional. Easy to build.
If you are an educator, you may consider having some of your kids strive to build a project similar to the one featured in this article. I'd love to see Gates go after an army of 12 year olds. Start a pen pal program to go along with it and send their creations where they are needed.. be it Indonesia or Kentucky.
Teach kids to enrich culture, compassion and not (always) their wallets so we limit the amount of future 'Gates' produced.
Is he trying to piss off the world? Or just so self absorbed he doesn't notice he's doing it?
A few more years and economies of scale, the Nintendo DS will be the $100 PC. Just add a $6 usb keyboard and tweek the lcd to a fullsized 640x480.
Plus you'll be able to play mario cart ds over wifi. Sorry to say but all these mit/benevolent groups have already lost the race.
Microsoft and/or Intel have no right to criticize because they are Microsoft and/or Intel and we are doing this for "poor children", and we're using open source and we know that open source is great and it doesn't matter what the outcome is because as long as it "feels good" to us MITers and as long as its open source and....
The action in third world countries seems to be in adding features to cell phones, not trimming down PCs. A cell phone is inherently useful; you can make calls. Adding on extra features doesn't run the manufacturing cost up all that much. The niche Negroponte sees will probably be filled by some cell phone based product that looks like a Blackberry or a Game Boy or a Palm Pilot.
Why do these countries need a widespread distribution of $100 computers?
It's aiming to be more than just a laptop, it is being designed for the express purpose of being an ideal educational tool for children in third world countries. Haven't you ever read "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson? Think of it as our primitive version of "The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" based on the technology we have available at our disposal currently. That sounds like a worthy goal to me.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Gates once stood up at a do-gooder tech conference (saving Africa with wifi or some such) and said: These people don't need computers, they need security, clean water and medicine. Bash Gates and MS for their ugly tech all you want, and I do, but he ponies up cash for real health problems. I honestly doupt MS is worried about market share in the Sudan.
Flame away, I can take it.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
This is an excellent point.
When I was doing undergrad in Moscow I had two friends whose specialization was hydrodynamics.
Obviously they needed to write and run some code, but computer time was hard to come by. So they put their savings together and bought an IBM XT clone for $5. It was that cheap because at that time 386 were already low end. That XT machine was still very useful - and all theirs.
In a similar fashion, what Negroponte is going after is not performance but capability - a device that has a screen, a keyboard, some processing unit and a wireless card makes a whole lot of difference versus the absence of such device.
Other African countries have... well, few things so extreme, but sometimes they have things to prevent their population from being "exploited". And it may just be that a little exploitation is the price of economic success. I have a random column on the matter of Africa by some award-winning economist if you care for a peek.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
No, it will be an excellent business machine. Writing documents, doing spreadsheets, inventory, email. We used to do that on 286s 10 years ago. That's 98% of what most small businesses use a PC for. And there are lots of more specialised apps on SourceForge, they can probably use DOS apps under emulation, and with millions of these machines around there will be a demand and market for more to be created. That's what Gates is afraid of, a whole world of non-MS software.
So is this targetted at the poor, but not poor enough that they actually have electricity? I was under the impression that the main issue affecting the poorest people of the world is the real basics, like food and water. Only on /. could the critical problem of world poverty be brought down to a windows vs linux argument.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
Wait a second there ... now, I'm willing to give Gates credit where credit's due, particularly in terms of being a shrewd (one might say ruthless) businessman, but I think it's totally out of line to just hand him credit for the PC revolution. Anybody who believes that is either seriously misguided, or getting a paycheck from Redmond, or both.
If IBM had gone with a different company to make an OS for its computers, nobody would have ever heard of Bill Gates or Microsoft, 90% of the world would be running some other operating system, and we'd still have computers on our desks. In fact, if you wanted to find a single company to give the majority of the credit to, I'd say Compaq is probably the most deserving, for reverse-engineering the IBM BIOS and producing the first clones, thus breaking IBM's pricing structure.
Really I think the only credit you can give Microsoft and Windows is for driving a very rapid hardware upgrade cycle over the last decade; this created sales volumes which led to economies of scale in the past few years which have kept the price of computer hardware on an ever-decreasing spiral.
I don't think there's anything that Microsoft did that you can't argue would have happened anyway, had they never existed or had IBM adopted a different OS. And frankly I can think of several scenarios which might have resulted in better outcomes for the average PC owner than the current one.
On the other hand, maybe you were just trolling.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I lived in Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama) for two years, back in 1972-74. The literacy rate in Honduras and Nicaragua at that time was around 25-30%; there were no public schools; still, most people had electricity and a significant number had telephones. I knew lots of bright kids and young adults who would have benefitted tremendously from something like the $100 laptop. Using the US consumer price index as a crude measure of purchasing power, a current (2006) $100 laptop would be a $25 laptop back then--and lots of families I knew could have afforded that (and would have leapt at the opportunity).
..bruce..
Interestingly enough, the literacy rate in neighboring Costa Rica at that time was something over 95%, higher than even in the US. The people were well educated, but (compared to the US) poor. I can argue that they would benefit even more from the $100 laptop.
Several posters here seem stuck on a image of giving these laptops to Masai tribes in unelectrified Kenyan backcountry. The potential market for such laptops is global; there are many millions of people who live in countries with the requisite electric infrastructure, who could eke out $100 for one of these laptops, and who could benefit thereby due to poor educational opportunities in their countries.
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
You're 25 miles from an electrical outlet. You don't have a car and the bus doesn't come by for two more days. Your powerbook battery just died.
Which computer is more useful? Your shiny $2000 powerbook, or the $100 computer that can be charged with a hand crank?
Pretty obvious if you think about it.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
We, the people who live in those needy countries do not need cheap computers.
Thank you Nicholas, but we need some other stuff first if you guys want to help us. And our governments are so stupid that they will buy these computers for our people instead of using that money to address some other issues.
The will is ok, but it will end up doing us worse.
In my country (Argentina) all those computers will end up in wrong hands. We dont need computers for education; it seems that americans believe that are helping the world, but from this side of the counter it is all different.
Countries dont need to be invaded to get help... not with your armies, not with your patents, not with your companies that take full advantage of our corrupt governments (as this project)... It is our fault, but please stop "helping" us in those ways because it harms people seriously.
Your banks lend money to our govs, that money goes somewhere else, no-one controls that seriously and we all end up paying that "help" and nobody gets anything.
Nicholas, if you want to help then travel to our country and do something punctual. But SKIP governments; or else you will be feeding corruption and you will never know.
Regards,
AiZ
umm.. actually..
Putting a computer in the hands of a nerd can be a powerful thing.
I am sure if the said computer was given to Chuck Norris as a child, the computer would have ended up as a totally shattered thing.
The laptop is going to be distributed for free by governments and NGOs.
That's the one part of this plan that I have the most serious reservations about.
Here's what I think is likely to happen. Plane full of laptops is unloaded at airfield in Uganda. Negroponte gets photo op, handing first unit to smiling child. Technology companies, computer users, all get warm fuzzy feeling.
Cameras go off, Negroponte and cadre go home. Ugandan government officials come out, confiscate laptops, load into trucks, take to black-market smuggler, trade for AK-47s. Laptops go in shipping container, shipped to India where workers in sweatshops file serial numbers off, then to LA where they get sold in stores and via eBay for $125. Ugandan goverment officials draft children into Army, give each one an AK-47.
Net result: African children get guns, Americans get warm fuzzy feeling and cheap black-market technology.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
And you bring up a good opportunity for sales of the machine...business machines for companies in developing countries...and how much more likely would they be to buy one if they knew that for every laptop they bought, they would be helping to pay for the children down the road to get laptops for school??? It certainly looks good on a local level...not to mention the infrastructure that will probably shoot up overnight to support/upgrade these new laptops...
Dell may not have a service center close by, but an enterprising school that has been issued these could easily open their repair shop to local businesses (for a fee of course)...
" Maybe it was cool to you, but most kids in your class thought it was lame"
3 62304-2355308?v=glance&n=283155
No, actually most kids in my school _did not have computers_ at all! Like I said, you weren't there. You're not old enough to witness the transformation from _not_ having computers to _having_ them. Even the lowest powered machine, something on the order of a Kaypro luggable (talk about rugged!) suitcase computer can give culture shock.
"but solving this other problem would be even better!"
It would! Give them teachers, books, literacy, and a stable society and the rest will take care of itself. You'll then _get_ electricity for things like refrigeration (ooh!) for food and drugs, and to be able to power, of all things, computers.
"It will have much longer range transmission than regular WiFi"
It will? Where does it say that? It takes electricity to drive radio waves, there, and the more distance needed to communicate, the more power you need.
"The laptop is going to be distributed for free by governments and NGOs"
Hahahahahah!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401352014/102-7
Read that. Then get back to me when you have a clue.
--
BMO
Wow, that's probably the most cynical thing I've ever heard. Someone got up on the wrong foot this morning...
He's holding pro-education banners to mask the fact that this is a non-profit cash cow for his darling media lab. Having experience in high volume manufacturing and design in this area, I totally agree optimized systems can be knocked down in price, but they are pitching a way to rosy picture to everyone with respect to features, schedule, and cost. The original releases were saying volume in 2006 targeting $100. Notice how the cost is now listed as 'actually $135', less than $100 in 2008, and the magic crank dropped? Well wait and see cost goes up and features get dropped or schedules get pushed. He's a master at vision and hype, and likely a master of getting away from the fan before reality hits it.
One of the greatest drivers of economic development across Africa is the mobile phone. It's done more for development than almost any number of international agencies. The mobile phone has enabled people to find out what's happening in other parts of their country, or other parts of the world, without having to go there. It enables farmers to find out what prices are in markets, or traders to find stock. It's even allowed millions of kids to set up their own telecoms businesses, with phone booths providing affordable calls to local people. Affordable computers will enable similar progress. Not everyone needs one - although you'll be surprised how many people will be able to scrimp, save and trade. But many communities will, in one way or another, get one. Typical ingenuity will enable people to do all kinds of things we won't anticipate. Allowing them the freedom to share, innovate, discover and get entrepreneurial will drive incomes up and improve democracy. So much better than the usual well-meaning but ineffectual direct attempts to improve lives in developing countries.
For the one-hunderth-time! These laptops are NOT for people who are goig hungry or living in a tent in some barren wasteland. You go to any village in China, and you can see what Negroponte etc. are talking about. People who farm, who have gone to schools and are already educated, but don't really make a whole lot of cash. People who would otherwise be left out in the cold as far as a higher education goes.
THOSE are the people who would benefit from these laptops! Oh, I forgot, you gringos don't know a damn thing about the world, as the only thing you know you get from CNN. To you, the rest of the world is a bunch of Somalians living under a tent in some dry field. Well how about using some of that cash of yours and go out and visit the world. And I'm not talking about getting drunk in a Cancun hotel room.
Infact, alot of the people working in hotels in poor countries could really use a laptop, but can't afford one. They already have an income and plenty of food, would they sell it for food?
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
In fact, I'm willing to agree with a post somewhere above you and say, if this laptop costs $100 to a developing country poor person, I'm willing to pay $200 for it here, to get myself a $100 laptop AND get someone else a $100 laptop. Absolutely. I mean, I'll get a cheap laptop, someone else will get a free one, and the world is a slightly better place.
~Will
sig?
Another noteworthy thing about this project is that it's going to be based on entirely free software. Free as in beer, and free as in speech, right down to the BIOS (LinuxBIOS in this case). And seeing how LinuxBIOS + GNU/Linux breaks their dreams of controlling everyone's machine via "Trusted Computing" (Or whatever they're calling it these days) I doubt Intel and Microsoft are very fond of the deployment of this machine on a grand scale. Their own greed has caused them to be cut out of the picture like a cancer.
;-)
OLPC is on the virge of doing what the fossils in these companies and in governments have only been able to talk about for the past several years--Bridge the digital divide. I'll bet the FSF people are happy they can now have their 100% free software+firmware laptop, though maybe not in the form they were expecting it
This $100 laptop has in its design a way for it to work in a P2P fashion by acting as frame/packet/both forwarders. (Now will this cause signal loops?) To connect to places outside its pool all it needs is a single access point that acts as a router per school/village/block that connects to a copper wire. Though in this case I'm very worried about effects of constantly being exposed to source of radiation transmitting so close to the body.
This $100 laptop would not work universally in all situations. Though I'm sure there will be places where something like this would be of much benefit.
In my particular example poverty was caused by war and bad government. The telecoms expertise was definitely there. The copper wire trunk line infrastructure was there as well.
Even if the infrastructure isn't there, maybe they can come up with ingenious ways to exchange information. For example by giving their memory cards to the to the teacher on his visit to the city and let him download information for them.
In case anyone remembers, the Tandy 100 was the first "laptop" with a small black/white display and ability to run on AAA batteries for weeks. It had a 300 baud modem that could be used nearly anywhere (ears that would connect to a payphone). It was one of the last programs that Bill Gates worked on prior to becoming worth gadzillions.
My cousin was a reporter for a US paper working in Central America and she one. She could write reports of the wars from nearly anywhere and send them back to her office. She didn't have to worry about 2 hours between charges, keeping the laptop overly safe in a $50 protected case, finding a power source, etc. She didn't have to worry about power or even having a hotel with a non-dirt floor. She could use just about any pay phone to send her reports back home.
The bottom line, the T100 was a good, very low-power device that served a good purpose just about anywhere but didn't have much memory (hence no e-book, limited education software, etc.). Now 20 years later we have the $100 laptop. The world is ready for it and it is ideal for education: able to run graphical applications, serve as an e-book, support wireless networking, and not even need batteries or connecton to the mains because of its hand crank. The timing is right with wireless networking, the Internet, cheap but powerful hardware, good low-power hardware, etc.
The downside is that it doesn't run Windows or have an Intel processor -- oops, as so many have mentioned on this thread, that is most likely Bill's objections.
The main risks to the laptop are political (Microsoft and Intel, their lobbies, etc.), and cultural (will they sell it for food or guns).
The non-industrialized world (and poorer parts of the industrialized world) need health care, clean water, food, communications, and education. A Jewish friend mentioned that during WWII, they could take your house, business, job, etc, but couldn't take your education, hence after the war many Jewish could rebuild -- they had the foundation. Edumacation and speling are very impotent.
Negroponte has I believe said IIRC from one of his presentations that as tech improves, the $100 pricepoint could be maintained but keep improving the machine. To me, this means that as an economy improves the machine will appear cheaper while becoming more powerful.
People used to laugh at him about even being able to do it for $100, the key I think he had said was a $30 LCD. Looks like he did it.
Consider there are perhaps the same number of geniuses (in literature, chemistry, particle physics, politics, whatever) born per million in population in the third world as in say the U.S.A. or other countries. The number of Nobels handed out would seem to speak more of the educational system. What if there is no way for geniuses to get more than grade school teaching?
Imagine the same exact you was born in the third world. If you are a slashdot geek maybe you are a self-starter and just need the machine in your hands. Personally I used Pascal, 6502 Assembler and two flavors of Basic on my Apple ][ and it was great. But I was so frustrated having hear a whisper of something called the Internet (not public then) and being able to figure out how to reach it. Got stuck in BBSs and finally the Source (Compuserve). They were not really the gateways to knowledge I was trying to find but I used what I could get to. Screw politics and economic systems. Tell me you wouldn't want that machine. I used to dream of something called a Dynabook described in the World Book Encylopedia's Year Book, in which you could make a character move around using Smalltalk commands. I saw it in my sleep. Of course these kids need medicine and food, this assumes that is available for at least smart kids.
I helped support a Cambodian school for children with no parents called Future Light. A friend who started it got Apple to donate a bunch of Macs, and it is growing perhaps the next generation of Cambodia's leaders, at least as that friend believes.
A representative from Nigeria at a conference I remember said you cannot solve everything with IT - there is a problem finding firewood, and the worst problem is the brain drain from rural to the city. Maybe these machines would help support the rural populace too. Assume the smartest people you have ever met live in an economically disadvantaged locale. Are you telling me they couldn't do anything with a laptop like this which makes its own grid lan?
I think one thing a lot of people are not understanding is that people need help at all economic and social levels that are sub-standard. Sure, people who are starving can't afford this, and people who use their computers to play the latest 3D game won't want it. But it misses the point that there are people who do fit the profile this project will help. If I donate to a local food shelf, am I an idiot or heartless bastard because some of the people who receive services there aren't dirt-poor and on the brink of starvation? Of course not.