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Working Model of MIT $100 Laptop a Hit
capt turnpike writes "The One Laptop per Child association and its chairman, MIT Media Labs's Nicholas Negroponte, unvelied a working model of their $100 laptop at the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX) show, and the little laptop that might was a hit. It's got a version of Fedora Linux, is rugged, and each unit will work as part of a wireless mesh automatically. From the article: "However, as Negroponte put it in his address, One Laptop per Child isn't all about the laptops. The main goal is to tap into the ability of every child to toss away a manual and figure out how to make gadgets work on their own, thus helping children help themselves to learn." eWEEK.com also has photos."
I was there at the event and got to try it after Nick spoke. It is definitely not a toy. He said people might be able to buy one in the U.S. next year (paying double so half could buy a kid in another country one). It was very light and the screen (which has two modes) was really nice (1200 x 900). The orange plastic was cool and the little rabbit ears (looked almost like devil horns) move freely to get optimal wi-mesh signal. It's definitely Fedora, but is "skinny" as it has been modified somewhat.
The specs?
500 Mhz chip
128 MB RAM
512 MB Flash Memory
Here's the page where you can pledge to buy one for triple the price, donating the other two.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
From the caption of the first pic:
"According to Negroponte, the $100 laptop will initially cost around $135 and he expects the price to drop to $50 by 2010."
Don't keep it in your car. High temperatures degrade Li-ion batteries.
*sigh* back to work...
From the article:
"This working model sported many differences from the early prototypes that were seen previously. The biggest change is that the laptop no long features a directly attached crank for powering the laptop in areas without electricity--the crank has now been moved to the power supply."
Seriously, aren't bright reds and oranges supposed to make you a little nuts if you're surrounded by them too much?
Not really. Colors have different effects depending upon the culture. For example, Americans tend to associate orange with hunger, but in the far East it is considered soothing. Some colors do have cross-cultural implications, like splatters of red increasing blood pressure and stress, but those are usually less prominent. Offering a variety of colors provides options for different regions.
As initially envisioned, the laptops sported a hand crank on the side to generate power, but Negroponte has scrapped that idea because the twisting forces that would be bad for the machine. Instead, some form of power generation device, likely a pedal, will be attached to the AC power adapter, he said.
this point. He said they never necessarily assumed it would be precisely sub-$100 - rather the media picked that idea up and ran with it like crazy. He also went on to say that it will cost what it costs when it gets built, and there is little they can do to impact the precise dollar amount once down into the $100 range. He does however expect the price to fall as they build more and more - and eventually he expects the range to be closer to $50.
You know, when I grew up, we had to make do with 22x23 characters on screen at once :)
So there :-)
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004543.html
I found this bit fascinating:
I can Google and order food off the internet with my laptop, but I can't afford it because I have NO MONEY.
As I have said before, improve the infrastructure of most third world countries so that every citizen has access to food, clothing, shelter, clean water and medicine, then I will support the idea that children in these countries need a computer.
Children need to eat before they need to learn! MIT doesn't seem to think this is necessary, they even developed a computer that will kill off a child starving of faminie more quickly by forcing them to have to use up what little energy they have to wind their computer up. I think this will be used as a form of genocide. Don't worry about sending in the Red Cross, just air drop cheap laptops, that will take care of all those poor starving children!
Sorry, this will be a gimmick product that will sell well in developed countries but I don't believe for a second they will improve the life of third world children.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
It offers 3 USB ports and there is an oversized mouse touchpad below the keyboard (a bit hard to see)
They are fairly clear that they are looking for national ministries of education to purchase them in bulk and distribute them nationally through schools on the basis of "one laptop per child", not only is this goal reflected in the name of the project (One Laptop Per Child), but detailed more specifically in the FAQ:
How clear can they be?To be fair, Jobs did offer to give them a gratis license to use OSX freely; they turned him down because OSX is not open-source.
Karma: Oldschool
The crank still exists, basically -- its just on the external power supply, and I think they are focussing on a foot device. The essence is the same. It makes more sense that way, especially as its a part that may need replaced.
Hm, buy one for three times the price and give away two... What a great idea! Go here and promise to do just that.
Not A Sig
And when you do go that route, might I suggest "pinfo"?
Actually, I kinda like both. I like 'man' pages because often time I have no idea what section will answer a particular question I have. Since a man page is flat, I can just grep through it looking for phrases I think relate to the issue. With Info pages, everything's all subdivided and categorized, so if I miscategorize my question, I'm going to be there awhile.
That said, Info files tend to be more complete than their man-page counterparts.
--JoeProgram Intellivision!
I put it up on the internet at: http://wcitvideo.com/?p=16 Full 28 minute keynote of the One Laptop Per Child chairman at the WCIT in Austin texas last month.
Actually, they've explained that the crank was removed mostly because they've come to understand that young children often don't have the power (or perseverence or coordination) in their arms to make it work well. A plug-in foot-powered charger would work better. But the emphasis is on an external battery charger, so that assorted power sources (commercial, solar, whatever) can all be used.
A separate crank-powered charger is still a possibility. If cranked by a larger person, it could charge several of the laptops at once. So we'll see communities with a bunch of burly teenagers with Popeye arms.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
The original model let the keyboard fold into the back of the screen, turning it into a tablet computer. That was as perfect a ebook as you could want. Now the thing works like a normal laptop. Oh well.
= 700&a=180353&po=4,00.asp
One they were demoing definetely has a screen you can rotate around and fold. http://www.eweek.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l=&s