$100 Laptop Takes Flight in Thailand

EmperorKagato writes "Nicholas Negroponte's project for every child to have a laptop will come true for over 500 students in Thailand. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expects each child to receive a laptop instead of books as the books will be provided electronically. The laptop, mentioned previously on Slashdot, will now be brought to children in Thailand in October and November, with hopes for future shipments to Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina in 2007." This story selected and edited by LinuxWorld editor for the day Saied Pinto.

Comments

Re:where can I order mine?

[joe 155]

according to this site; http://www.laptop.org/index.en_US.html you won't be able to buy one, although I had previously heard that you could buy them for $300 as a way of donating 2 to children in the 2nd/3rd world

It's a trial run.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

There are only 500 children in Thailand?

It's a trial run - from tfa:

More than 500 children in Thailand are expected to receive the machines in October and November for quality testing and debugging.

Re:Ebooks for the poor

[mrchaotica]

Reading DRM'd books on an 8 inch screen.

The books are NOT DRM'd. The entire system is strictly freely-licensed.

And all you have to do is turn the crank madly to see anything.

It doesn't have a hand crank anymore.

So, in other words, STFU because you're either ignorant or trolling.

Re:where can I order mine?

[4solarisinfo]

Your only real shot at getting one (legally) is in the form of a petition suggesting geeks would be willing to help fund 3 computers, if they got one (paying $300 for a $100PC and a warm fuzzy feeling). We discussed it here: http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=19204 0&cid=15771034

Re:where can I order mine?

[lmfr]

http://www.pledgebank.com/100laptop, and you're right, that movement was external to the project.

No Hellboy arms actually

[nacs]

And all you have to do is turn the crank madly to see anything. These poor kids are gonna end up with right arms like Hell Boy.

Actually, the real models (ie: non-3d illustration) dont have cranks:

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.

Re:No Hellboy arms actually

[siriuskase]

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Green_and_white_ma chine.jpg