Slashdot Mirror
OLPC Wins Popular Science Award
paulmac84 writes "Popular Science has released their Best of What's New 2006 awards. In the computing section the One Laptop Per Child project took home the Grand Prize. From the article: 'The goal of the XO is simple and noble: to give every child a laptop, especially in developing countries, where the machines will be sold in bulk for about $130 apiece. But the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit, formed at MIT, didn't just create a cheap computer. In addition to cutting costs — by designing lower-priced circuitry and using an open-source operating system, among other things — it also improved on the standard laptop by slashing the machine's energy use by 90 percent, ideal for a device that could be charged by hand-cranked power in rural villages.' The Innovation of The Year Award went to 'the alpha nail that makes your home twice as tough'. Sometimes the simple ideas really are the best."
Winning a Popular Science Award is not necessarily a good thing, as most of the prizes tend to go to vaporwares!
Yup, I understand that some people think OLPC will make for a better world. But this is geek thinking. However for the poor in rural villages, there's much more need for more basic things like clean water and other non-geeky needs.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
For 130 dollars you can probably immunize a child against most contagious diseases.
It'd be nice to see some of the cost cutting ideas carry over to computers sold over here; I'm by no means poor enough or remote enough (or young enough for that matter) to qualify for olpc, but at the same time, the idea of sufficiently upgrading my current system has been well outside my grasp for some time now.
... looks a lot like that (c) Colornagel.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Last night we crossed over 16,777,216 comments in the database. The wise amongst you might note that this number is 2^24, or in MySQLese an unsigned mediumint. Unfortunately, like 5 years ago we changed our primary keys in the comment table to unsigned int (32 bits, or 4.1 billion) but neglected to change the index that handles parents.
Slashdot editors discovered a lost mediumint that prompted the community to flog itself in unthreaded frustration. Commander Taco reassured the community that no dupes will come out of this event. But inquiring minds are not sure about that.
Talk about an embarrassment of riches. In any case, winning is better than losing. Way to go Linux.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
.. writes a furious letter to Popular Science, complaining that this is giving children access to violent video games and that he's personally go round to each child's house and stomp on their laptops?
Give the laptops to the girl children and point out some websites about emancipation, human rights and birth control!
That would be a big step in solving one of the biggest problems humanity faces.
And it would realy annoy the fundamentalists...
Are these laptops edible? Do they come with anti-theft protection?
I understand and agree with the point that many of the places where these are going already have fresh water, food, etc. and investments in education are absolutely critical to their growth. But how are laptops really going to help at all? Computers are magical educational devices. You need good teachers for computers to be effective at all in the classroom. I don't know how much training teachers in these countries have using computers as educational tools. And then, why not just have a few shared computers? I don't think there's a single Western country that even approaches one laptop per child, and that's because they aren't the alpha and omega of education like some think them to be.
Are you trying to say that exposure to the vast collection of pr0n on the internet isn't a basic need these poor children must have in order to survive? Oh the humanity!
So I guess they plan to give or sell these laptops to schools, not individuals right, because giving poor kids laptops would be a waste. We will see OLPC laptops on ebay the day they start giving them out if they aren't very selective in who gets them.
If they don't have electricity I really don't see how they are going to need laptops.. cmon MIT get practical.
This is a classic case of how industrialized culture is completely out of touch with developing nations. These people need an entire infrastructure to use computers. It's like giving them cars but not building them roads or gas stations.
Seems to me what they need are libraries and schools, not laptops. In most developing countries people access computers at libraries and internet cafe type places. Developing cultures are much more community based so they don't mind sharing as much even in industiralized areas like Cario internet is still expensive so community internet shops are the way average people can use computers. In this day and age what point is it to give someone a computer if they can't get on the net? They are missing the entire experience and the most powerful and useful feature of computers. DOWNLOADING PORN !!
I guess it is a nobel effort at least, probably misguided however. We'll see.
From second TFA: finally, a tape that no hooker can break!
Sorry, I saw Borat tonight, I'm a little punchy.
If all my base are belong to you and I attempt to retrieve my base, does that mean I'm freebasing?
We have rational philosophical foundations, rule of law, and a culture recognizing that you can't just exploit people to death. We have freedom.
MIT has come to symbolise technocracy; that is its right, but it does so in its rational self-interest: so that the institution, and its members, may earn reputation and money. The moment it pretends to be altruistic, it becomes just another bunch of intelligent elites paving the road to hell with good intentions.
The world is full of single-minded crusaders, but they are curtailed in the West by a rational culture; it is only when they have the chance to exert their philosophy in the underdeveloped world that the chaos begins.
20 years of laptops, and 10 years of global Internet, have not made the world a much better place. They are tools, sometimes useful, though much of the time introducing nothing but unnecessary complexity for its own sake - that's fine if you enjoy it, but crusading is just that: imposing what you love because you think everyone needs it.
A parting consideration: what use is a tool that cannot be fixed? In the past 20 years, electronics have finally reached the stage where it is not just difficult, but impossible, for consumers to do anything but the most elementary repairs. This lack of self-reliance is harmful enough for us, but much more disabling in a developing nation.
Funny how these 100$ systems don't seem like the type to take tons of time loading. I remember 13 years ago watching Doom II install on a mac and take an hour and half more or less. With what a person who has never done computing might do it'd seem blazing fast and like a movie.
So, why are these laptops different? Because of two fundamental things. First, no money is being given to Third World governments, only the technology to use the investment. Second, computers give poor people something they need much more than clean water: information and education.
After all, it's not like cheap water purifiers don't exist. With a computer they can buy their water purifier online for the equivalent of less than US$18.
You can ...you're aware that vaccination is centuries-old technology, right?
-immunize 100 children against those diseases
OR
-give 100 people the ability to access, share and store enough information that they can learn how to develop vaccines themselves, and immunize as many as they need to, not only against currently-known diseases but many others that could crop up...
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
- on the PopSci.com website because they're encoded with proprietary codecs... When will web designers decide to publish using open formats? I'm straying from the topic, but is there a favorite video format for us to rally around? Flash is nice, but also proprietary - has anyone used the Democracy Player http://www.getdemocracy.com/?
Yes, Children need housing, food, water, medical care, parenting, etc.
Nobody has ever argued against this.
But children also need an education.
They need it, their communities need for them to be educated, as a global society we need them to be educated.
Furthermore, not all developing nation children are starving refugees in camps. Many are rural children living in stable housing, going to school part of the time. Or urban children in comparable circumstances, with water & food but facing little upward mobility.
The OLPC projct is a way of getting these children tools. Electronic texts. Texts that they can download for free. Text in their native languages. Reference texts, ones they can use to apply to their, and their families, lives. It's about providing them with spreadsheets and a basic mathematics curriculum. The latest news in their communities, in their languages. It's about them communicating with their peers. It's about browsing the web and learning about the world beyond their immediate view.
The budget for educating these children is typically small, often less then US$20/year.
The OLPC project is a way of stretching that money, by delivering a tool that can read many things, updated, freely, throughout a community. It will focus attention on children and education in their communities. The children will have, for the first time, a tool they can use to make their own materials, to share with their peers & parents & teachers, and to pass on to the children after them.
I'd have thought the /. community would understand the importance of access to tools one can learn with, build with, get into and interact with, finding other folks passionate about the same areas of interest. What has driven /.'ers also drives developing world children.
It's an experiment. But it's an experiment based on solid research that has gone on before it. The goal is not usurping funds for other priorities but building on local and international resources to provide the children with a multiple use tool that can they & their communities can use to directly address their educational needs.
I know it is asking a lot of some /. posters, but before mindlessly posting with complaints about what you think the OLPC is about how about investing 5 minutes into going their websites and learning about the research that has gone before it and the thinking that has gone into it.
Oh, and this isn't only for developing world children, also the children of Massachusetts.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Yes, simple ideas are best... LIKE USING SCREWS INSTEAD OF NAILS.
You'd think for hundreds of thousands of dollars, construction companies would spend one second longer to actually make your house hold together... But no.
Tell all the libertarians, this is their system (no goverment forcing them to improve safety/quality), at it's best.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:EToys_-_new_displa y.jpg
Logging in and running X (or equivalent) as root.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
The budget for educating these children is typically small, often less then US$20/year.
The OLPC project is a way of stretching that money, by... consuming the entire budget for a primary school education, and then some for one finicky electronic gadget, before any loaded content is even paid for. Sounds like a good plan, when you put it that way.
The children of Massachusetts need food, clean water, and shelter before they need $100 laptops! Many children on the mean streets of Wellesley, MA die of starvation or exposure every day, or join local warlords as child soldiers so they can get a few scraps to feed themselves. How are these laptops going to help them?
-A MA resident
Obviously if they have electricity to charge and use the laptops they are gonna have Water. Most of you people think most 3rd world countries dont have food/water. Well they do, or they would be dead. You got this image in your head from what they feed you on TV. Donate to X chartiy to save Y kids from dying due to lack of water. Im not saying that everyone does have access to clean water. But im sure if they have televisions and microwave ovens then they got water. The next step is to boost these kids education through the use of computers.
The point is that they'll be able to read slashdot and be just as ejumacated as YOU!
No sig today...
... since currently I can't see anything on it when using it outdoors, and they don't seem to offer old-good black and white screens anymore ...