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First Photos of MIT $100 Laptop
An anonymous reader noted that MITs $100 laptop was unveiled at the Seven Countries Task Force Meeting. It runs a special version of the Fedora linux and it comes with native wireless lan support. You can see the
photo album, and you can pledge to buy one at triple price... in order to donate 2 of them to children.
Awwwww, look at their little ears! I just wanna pet them!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
The final photo in the set shows three different colours - they all look fantastic - this photo shows the fedora desktop. Also looks great!
It should be noted that the 'horns' are for directional wireless (and also cover USB ports when not in use) - remember that if you want to mock them!
I say kudos to AMD, Brightstar, Google, News Corporation, Nortel, and Red Hat for making this possible. It's a pity Gates & Jobs couldn't join in rather then attempting to downplay the fine efforts of this group.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
I don't understand something, these are supposed to be crank powered to solve the situation where there isn't any electricity. On the blog link, you can see the crank in the back. On the Flikr account, I can maybe see it being concealed in the blue-ish laptop but I can't figure out where it is on the other two. Perhaps it is folded up?
Why are they showing us pictures of them just sitting there? Why aren't their pictures of people powering them up or people checking e-mail/forums?
Possibly the biggest problem working on this laptop is its small 12' screen. I wish I could see what kind of resolution that results in but I can't see the screen in any of these shots.
If you want to make the pledge but don't know the specs, check out the Wikipedia article on it.
My work here is dung.
Are they claiming that screen is the production version, or just a placeholder? Because last I heard the (specially lowcost) screen was still being developed...
And if they do intend to engage in price discrimination, I hope they have found a way to prevent arbitrage, or else people may make businesses out of buying them at $100 and selling them at ~$200 in the countries where the negative price discrimination policy is in effect.
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
Photos have been out for some time, actually.
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
How is it forced charity? Forced charity would be if we were paying taxes for third world orphans to get gov't-funded laptops.
This is just like being nice and giving to public radio, and they give you a sweet tote bag in return. Here, you're paying $300 to charity, as a nice, charitable human being, and you're getting a laptop in return.
Don't be so whiney.
I'll pay for three and donate two any day of the week. I'm not rolling in cash mind you, but if I can help by providing something for those that can't afford it, then I think that is my responsibility, especially if I espouse the Free Software ideal.
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
It's hard to be certain because you can't zoom in, but this may be the coolest example of the /. effect ever.
Does it come with the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer?
[Insert pithy quote here]
Did you even read the pledge to buy one page??
It specifically stated that it was not associated with the MIT project and that infact that MIT has specifically stated that they cannot garantee that this is even possible. BUT it was implied that given a large enough order it may be. So some guy setup a website to see if he can meet a goal of 100,000 pledges in hope that MIT will agree.
http://www.laptop.org/map.en_US.html gives a colour coded map of planned distribution areas
and from the FAQ (laptop.org/faq.en_US.html):
The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, with a dual-mode display--both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white reflective and sunlight-readable at 3× the resolution. The laptop will have a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data.
That's also price discrimination; it only works because you can't easily resell medical care.
Otherwise, I'd find some bum on the street, pay him fifty bucks to go into the medical center and get my "care," then buy it off of him for less than I'd actually pay.
There's a reason you don't see too many 'sliding scales' used for physical goods: it's too easy to turn around and resell them. Really, you can only vary the prices by less than it would cost to transport the good to an area where prices are higher. (Unless you have some artificial scheme for preventing the movement of goods, i.e. DVD region codes.) Otherwise, it doesn't take Adam Smith to figure out that people will just ship the low-priced goods to the areas where they sell for more, undercut the "official" channel, and make a profit.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I heard the juvenile colors were intended to discourage light-fingered adults against stealing them from kids.
Dark Reflection
Oxfam does this. But if you actually gave a shit you'd know this already instead of blindly bashing the $100 laptop project. After all there's more than one way to try to help others and nobody is forcing you to do it their way.
How does a 7-person democracy cut a pie? Into 4 pieces.
Features: * CPU: AMD Geode GX2-533@1.1W * CPU clock speed: 400 Mhz with 0.25 W power consumption. * SVGA 7.5 diagonal transmissive and reflective liquid crystal display used in one of two modes: o Reflective "sunlight readable" monochrome mode with 1200 by 900 pixel resolution (for ebook reading outdoors--this is 200 dpi) o Transmissive Color/DVD mode with approximately 693 by 520 pixel resolution with backlighting (for laptop use) * 128 MB of DRAM * 512 MB of flash memory * Wireless networking using an "Extended Range" 802.11b wireless chipset run at a low bitrate (2 Mbit/s) to minimize power consumption. * Conventional layout alphanumeric keyboard localized for the country of use. * Touchpad for mouse control and handwriting input * Built-in stereo speakers * Built-in microphone * Audio based on the AC97 codec, with jacks for external stereo speakers and microphones, Line-out, and Mic-in * 3 external USB ports. * Power sources: o AC Cord that doubles as carrying strap o two C (R14) or D size rechargable batteries and a hand-crank generator o four C (LR14) or D (LR20) alkaline batteries.
Intentionally omitted features: * no motor driven moving parts o no hard disk drive o no optical drive (e.g. CDROM or DVD drive) o no floppy drive * no IDE interface (as there are no drives with which to interface) * no PCMCIA card slot
Meh.
And we all want one for $100, and we'd all gladly pay up to $400 for one. I've got a PowerBook, and I'd still love one. I wouldn't have to worry about it, but it would be really handy.
This may indicate a market for such a device. Not a PDA, not a full-on "outfitted for war" laptop, not a (god damned useless) e-reader, not a handheld gaming rig, but the space between.
This is the space for essentialy a portable, truly open device that will let us surf the web, and run shells, and edit text files or to-do lists, but that won't break us financially if it's snatched from us on the subway.
MIT is showing us the market, and they're refusing to compete! Why have none of us embraced this yet?
My formula would be a Gumstix and an eInk display, maybe? Anyone have any better ideas?
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
The priorities seem out of whack to you because of your bigoted views of the developing world. Not everyone is starving to death
In that red/orange color and with those ears/horns, it kina makes me think it should be running bsd.
Im not here now... Im out KILLING pepperoni
This isn't for areas where people are starving. This is for areas where people have food but now need to advance to the next level. Education is the only tool to prevent people from collapsing to starvation again.
Why PC's instead of books. Because 1 internet capable pc can contain all the books in the world in their most recent version with an infinite amount of paper and pencil.
Books are expenive as hell, ask any student, and schools in poor countries often got to work with hopelessly outdated material and practice books that gotta be reused time and time again.
Cheap PC's make sense, not in starvation areas but in those countries were the basic needs have been taken care off and now education is the most pressing concern.
Because hopefully educated people will be more concerned with creating a better world and not with waging war on each other. Right?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
You're right, books are important. Those $100 should be used to buy books for schools in developing countries, instead of buying useless gadgets for them.
Hey, I have an idea! Instead of buying paper books, it would be better if we spend that money on e-books, so they can get new and updated books every school year, at almost no cost. But in order to do that we would need an e-book reading device...
I hope someone came up with such a device...
Oh wait...
Green wins by the way. Not only does it miss the hump of the blue one but it got Neko ears instead of bunny ears. Neko for the win!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The children have to be taught how to spam. It doesn't come naturally.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
OS X wouldn't even begin to fit on this laptop, and without having free source, not only could they not slim it down, they couldn't use it is part of the learning environment it is meant to provide. He knew the requirements, he knew OS X was useless, so his offer was nothing but grandstanding.
Infuriate left and right
I laud your efforts to benefit our fellow human beings in the way you see fit. Certainly I have no criticism for you on that count.
What you suggest, by way of your post, troubles me:
1) Children must be taught, or compelled to learn
2) Material must be dumbed down because children aren't capable of assimilating it in its original format.
3) Teachers will only accept this abbreviated "curriculum," perhaps due to their own incapacity to teach directly from the masters, or because teachers must be mass-produced and don't have time for deep learning.
4) Learning doesn't happen without a curriculum.
The $100 laptop is merely a tool - one capable of providing access to the greatest library that the world has ever seen.
I'm reminded of a story that Richard P. Feynman told, about how he used to check books out of the library when he was a boy. One day he brought a book about calculus to the librarian, with the intent of checking it out. He then related the criticism that he received from this librarian, who couldn't conceive how a book on calculus could possibly be useful or interesting to a mere boy. You remind me very much of that librarian. That a child should step out of the commitee-mandated curriculum and pursue advanced topics of interest is inconceivable!
It may be that much important literature is written in language foreign to many people. The mind would necessarily need to be expanded in order to understand the principles of those great individuals who originally thought them. And what is wrong with that? You discount the power of human passion, once that desire to learn has been ignited. We have classics suitable for all types of people, and need only the right access to them. Instead of teachers, they need mentors to inspire them.
I'm sure we can find a place for "school" somewhere. Unfortunately, most of us waste too much time in that pursuit for entirely economic reasons. When has school ever produced a master artist or statesman? Instead we make employees and complacent citizens.
It may be that your ideals are realistic in our estimation - we live in a mass-produced utopia every day thanks to our state-mandated curriculum and business-sponsored systems of bureaucratic education. Having all found good jobs, we're now too busy to pursue our real interests (recreation makes us feel better about this sad loss), and certainly there is no time left for reading classics. Let's not export these chains to our neighbors who we wrongly consider less fortunate.
If anything, access to the world's literature is a prize worth more than many a mediocre teacher.
Just my opinion on the matter. As it is, the $100 laptop might end up becoming yet another way to export our Western excesses and vices (gambling, porno, etc), and not be used as a learning tool at all. I'm worried about it in that regard.