Slashdot Mirror
$100 Laptop Takes Flight in Thailand
EmperorKagato writes "Nicholas Negroponte's project for every child to have a laptop will come true for over 500 students in Thailand. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expects each child to receive a laptop instead of books as the books will be provided electronically.
The laptop, mentioned previously on Slashdot, will now be brought to children in Thailand in October and November, with hopes for future shipments to Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina in 2007."
This story selected and edited by LinuxWorld editor for the day Saied Pinto.
I am anxious to see these laptops in action. I have heard a lot of criticism that rather than laptops, the poor children of the world need clean water and nutritious food first. This is, of course, true. But such criticism supposes that all the poor are living in mud and filth. Not true - some have their basic needs somewhat met, and perhaps education is next on the list of needs.
Dark Reflection
each child to receive a laptop instead of books as the books will be provided electronically.
While good to get some tech in these kids hands, I can't help wondering about permanence. Without the printed page, past facts are easily changed to suit current attitudes. I know this isn't quite the case yet. But as we go farther down the road with ebooks, it will be a concern.
Who are we at war with today?
we still prohibit children to use computers at schools, well mostly
Yes, and I seriously wonder why, everytime (after the announcement of the 300$-project) this story has come up after that, the editor hasn't bothered to keep including the link to that.
/. frontpage-posts), I always see a lot of posts of "I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of them just for tinkering", and 300$ gives you AND good karma, and a very funny lil' computer.
When this project is brought up (and it had its share of
By keeping to mention the 300-dollar deal, I think it's easy for the editors to keep people aware of this possibility, and do their little contribution to which is, imo, a very good start in helping the third world countries partially keep up with the rest of the world.
Public school children are mostly prohibited from having laptops in class, many private schools only allow laptops with special permission, and the private schools that use laptops still force their students to deal with paper textbooks. What I want to know is, when do we get "a computer for every child" in the US?
Remember kids, tin foil doesn't work, so use LeadHat.
hence the 500 unit real-world test environment... if this was a 5 million unit deployment... I'd understand this post having validity... but this is a 500 unit deployment... a real-world test... I don't understand your getting irritated calling this "snake oil" because it hasn't been tested... well, this article is a bunch of propaganda about the product, based around the 500 unit test. don't call it snake-oil yet. let the real-world test go through its paces before you get defensive...
Which is just dumb! Can you imagine the cool things you can do with a fully open hardware/software platform? For hobbyists, or instruction in school?
This is more than just giving poor countries affordable computers, it's ubiquitous computing. I mean, farmers can use this, hobbyists can use this. I could use this. They should let everyone buy one. The sales will help further their overall aims, as a well funded non-profit will be more capable of getting it out there to everyone.
The deal has not, as far as I am aware, been discussed as a possibility officially. It is only a proposal made by unrelated people, and due to the wording of the pledge (signatories pledge to only purchase the laptop for $300, and only if over 100000 people sign by October), it is inconceivable that it will be successful except as an indication that there is interest in buying the laptops at an increased price.
Also, from the prices I have seen, $300 barely pays for two computers. It certainly won't pay for three - the laptops cost significantly more than $100 to build.
It would be a far better to discuss the possibility of buying the laptops at a greatly increased price (probably more around $500 or $600) directly with the project. If a show of support is necessary, then a petition on much more general terms would be far more useful (something like "I would be interested in buying one at a greatly increased price.").
About two days after delivery.
This is a tired old argument. The idea ia that these children can have clean water, food, AND an education. They don't have to be mutually exclusive. This laptop not only provides them with electronic books, but also access to computer hardware, software and potentially the Internet. Just using computing as an example, using this laptop some of these kids might learn how to program, create great software and may eventually land themselves a place in a great university or a great job. I'd guess that the poor want direction in life and an opportunity to educate themselves, do interesting work and improve their lot in life as much (if not more) than the not-so-poor do. It's not *just* about food and water, even though of course these basic necessitiies need to be met. It's important to note that this laptop is aimed at countries, like Thailand, that have an infrastructure in place but are still relatively poor when compared to the US, most of Europe, Japan etc. There are many countries like this throuought Asia, Africa and South America that could really benefit form these laptops.