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$100 Laptop Repriced at $175
prostoalex writes "The $100 laptop introduced by Nicholas Negroponte as part of the One Laptop Per Child program will end up costing $175, Associated Press says. The demand for the program is apparent as 'seven nations have expressed interest in being in the initial wave to buy the little green-and-white "XO" computers — Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, Thailand, Nigeria and Libya — but it remains unclear which ones will be first to pony up the cash.'"
and thanks to Moore's law.
This isn't news, they've been saying this for over a year now.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Expressed interest. Expressed interest. Expressed interest. That's all we hear. Expressed interest. When's someone going to express a little cash?
Desktops are only more repairable if you have a geek-type house with a stash of spare parts. Try troubleshooting a desktop on a dirt floor in a mud hut and you'll find that it's a lot more delicate than a sealed unit. It looks to me like the OLPC is aiming at the sweet spot between 'rugged' and 'cheap', which will let the units get the maximum use per dollar in their target environment. Kind of like those kiddie computers you can buy (sealed unit, membrane keyboard, small LCD) but with enough grunt to be useful as an actual work or learning tool.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Not everybody with a valid complaint about something know the immediate solution.
I think that likely the reason the GP was so harsh was that they're tired of reading dismissive comments posted without even the most basic research into the problem, which happens all the time whenever OLPC is brought up. I am tired of such comments too.
It seems to me that they could probably get the first batch paid for by us geeks who have been drooling over the OLPC hardware for a while.
Hell, I'd pony up ~$400-$500 for a unit. I wonder how many orders at that price point would be enough to get manufacturing cranking.
Plus, from my way of thinking, the OLPC project could use some more content creators doing homebrew design on the OLPC hardware.
. Penguins Surely Ca
Neither Microsoft nor Sony are charities trying to bring free education to the poor of the world.
Why should we judge the OLPC project by the same standards that we judge multinational profit machines?
Why do I even have to ask this question?
What is wrong with you?
Jesus H. Christ.
How we know is more important than what we know.
You don't need a low power rugged laptop in a society with ample power and concrete floors.
On the other hand, if you're interested in starting a project to help inner city schools, why don't you?
How we know is more important than what we know.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Also, please remember, there is a NPO behind all this with the goal of decreasing the price as much as possible per unit, not a large company with the goal of trying to charge as much as possible to increase profits. It is a primary goal to make these things cheap, and maaaan THEY ARE COOL!
"I might get modded off-topic for saying this, but ..." on slashdot people regularly post the question "How would slashdot react if Microsoft did this?" This post is usually modded insightful because the mods see it as thinking outside the box—it looks like you are breaking away from the herd mentality when you post this question. The only problem is that people regularly post this question, or a paraphrase of this question, so it really isn't too insightful.
This post usually gets one of two responses: "It would not be the same because..." or "Slashdot is not one person, the members of the slashdot community can disagree with each other."
This sig cannot be proven true.
And the specs on it are actually not half bad, not as bad as you might think:
15.4" screen
1.5 ghz Via C7-M
512 ram
128 meg shared video
DVD +/- DL burner
60 GB HDD
802.11 b/g
10/100 ethernet
v.92 modem
Vista Basic
Just one question: Where would you plug it in? Most of the people destined to use these have no mains power.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
A million school children with an ability to appreciate freedom of information, and the open source ideals that are the antithesis of Valenti's anti-copying propaganda... I just think of it as Jack's ideas being dead along with him.
On a more serious note, as for the priorities, should I stock up on beer or snacks for the Jack Valenti is Dead party?
Prove it.
No wait, if you're proving something, you're using logic, which is a math skill.
The best thing the federal government could possibly ever do for the public schools is actually put some funding behind the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and No Child Left Behind. They make a fuckton of demands on the public schools, but then they don't back it up with funding. It's been like that since the 70's. Frankly if you're going to place strict requirements on the schools that they educate *everyone* even at significant expense, you should put your money where your mouth is.
Would you be upset if your boss told you "Okay bub, do this, this, and this. But I'm not gonna pay you for it since you're doing such a good job already."
And as for our schools being shitboxes I've got a questionnaire I'd like to ask you:
1.) Can you read?
2.) Can you write coherently?
3.) Can you do mathematics?
4.) Do you have a job that is not simply menial in nature?
5.) Do you have a decent understanding that there is a world outside your state?
6.) Were your parents able to work while you were growing up?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you may have benefited from a free public education.
SRSLY.
They're useless because they are not designed for the lower power, rugged environment where they will be used.
How we know is more important than what we know.
The problem is endemic to a society that does not value education, and does not place personable responsibility above entitlement. In this case, the knife cuts both ways: stingy and selfish people do not want to fund schools; and apathetic and irresponsible parents do not enforce proper behavior in their children either at school or at home.
I guess that some people believe that other places have the opposite problem of the USA; whereas the USA has too many resources and not enough personal responsibility, there is a belief that other places, especially third world countries, have personal responsibility but not enough resources. So the goal of projects like this is to try to help people who, it is believed, would actually make something out of themselves given the chance, instead of squander whatever resources are spent to attempt to help them better themselves.
My personal opinion is that, the difference between the uneducated in the USA and the uneducated in a third world country is likely to be alot less than what other people may believe. I have been to a decent number of places in the world and the thing which strikes me most is that people everywhere are pretty much the same. The only real difference is the larger circumstances, usually beyond their control, that they find themselves living in. I think that more children in a third world country would benefit from something like OLPC than would children in the USA, but more because of their circumstances than anything else. In both cases, I think the number of actual children who will benefit from being given a free laptop with educational tools on it is not as high as philanthropists would like to believe.
That being said, I am a 100% supporter of OLPC because, first I think it's a cool project from a technical standpoint, and second, I think it *will* provide some benefit to today's generation of third-world children, and that this benefit will be multiplied as these children grow up and can help to educate even more of the next generation of third-world children. Also I like to hope that I am wrong in my assessment of humanity, and that things will go much better than I would have predicted.
Drop Vista and install Linux and you can save a few bucks
You mean add a few bucks. There's a price break for crapware. It pays for the cost of Windows and then some.
neutering the technology
No harddrive less memory, but better LCD, more efficient and flexible OS. Not to mention wireless meshing capability. It's specifically designed to interact with other devices of its kind and to display information - only allowing for simple mechanisms, crude mechanisms for data input.
Its exactly like a high-end PDA.
Is a PDA a neutered PC? Is a golf cart a neutered car? Is a housecat a neutered lion?
It's a different beast.
So while this computer is cool how will it's usefulness fare long term when people discover they can't do all the stuff people are doing with their normal computers in the developed world?
"S'ils n'ont plus de pain, qu'ils mangent de la brioche."
Assuming that they could get PCs, about as well as PDAs fare in the developed world. Really, though, the point is that every single dollar counts.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Suppose they way just a little bit and they buy them at USD$150. Suppose you could buy 1,000,000 Pentiums...wow, no wait, better have another million kids close to technology for free! And the functionality is different. These are rugged notebook computers with low consumption tailored specifically at kids. I don't get your point.
unfinished: (adj.)
They want part manufacturers to cooperate, and they don't want enter into a messy war with OEMs, and they do not do it for a profit, and couldn't do it for a profit (a retail/logistics organizations add a lots of costs, the same notebook could end up costing $400 or more to end users, without any benefit for the OLPC).
unfinished: (adj.)
May Peace Prevail On Earth
The difference in face value is not a reason for concern.
A fast change in the exchange rate is.
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
The Sinclair Spectrum changed my life and was less featured and same priced as this machine, I could not found a reason to be against this OLPC program ...