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."

Comments

Re:Just for third world counties?

[Reality Master 101]

I'm in an engineering degree, and I'm shocked at the lack of this ability in college students at american schools!

You're an engineer, and you're shocked that not everyone wants to be an engineer. Why am I not surprised?

How many musical instruments can you play? How many countries are you an expert in their history? How many languages can you speak? How many crafts have you mastered? How many sports are you expert in? How many cooking disciplines are you expert in? How well can you sculpt? How good a hunter are you? How well can you farm? How well can you broker deals?

It seems to be unique to engineers they think that not only should every WANT to be an engineer, but that things should be designed purposely difficult so that every should HAVE to be an engineer.

Guess what? Very few people care about how things work. And I submit that it's perfectly OK to not care, and just want to use things that other people build.