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One Laptop Per Child and Intel Join Forces
dan the person writes "A Wired piece informs us that Intel and the OLPC project have put their bickering behind them. They have joined forces to ensure 'the maximum number of laptops will reach children'. '"What happened in the past has happened," said Will Swope of Intel. "But going forward, this allows the two organisations to go do a better job and have better impact for what we are both very eager to do which is help kids around the world." "Intel joins the OLPC board as a world leader in technology, helping reach the world's children. Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child. The new agreement means that Intel will sit alongside companies such as Google and Red Hat as partners in the OLPC scheme.'"
Wonderful. Intel, maker of the Classmate PC, a DIRECT COMPETITOR to the OLPC (or so they say) is now teaming up with it. This is a transparent bid to relegate the OLPC to permanent second-class citizenship. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
~Eien no Inori wo Sasagete~ Searching for my Hatsumi...
Just give them a Speak & Spell. It'll have as much value at a quarter of the price. Plus it already exists.
that AMD processor won't last long in the OLPC machines ...
Before the US becomes a 3rd world country due to competition from
India and China who can get the OLPC Laptop in special deals to
make their next generation of children more competitive?
*** Sigs are a stupid waste of bandwidth.
The RIAA is really looking forward to the day when every child in the world has their own computer. There's tons of countries in the developing world that they'll now be able to target with threats of lawsuits for downloading copyrighted music!
that we're going to have a lot more children discovering internet porn sooner? :O
I can just imagine the next generation of kids.
OLPC guy #1: Looks like we're not going to be able to make this thing for $150. How are we going to get costs down?
OLPC guy #2: Guess it's time to sell some more ad-space. Where are we on the phone list?
OLPC guy #1: Looks like we're doing to the "I"s.
OLPC guy #2: Start dialing.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I expect one of three things to happen:
1. The second generation of OLPC units will ship with Intel inside.
2. Intel will suck as much information as it can out of the OLPC project before going its own way again.
3. Intel will stay onboard at OLPC but do its best to bog the project down while pushing its competing solutions to the developing world.
None of those scenarios particularly appeal to me, but if I had to choose between them I'd go for the first one.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
It's a great idea and a noble goal. But there's still a lot of valid questions about how good an idea this specific project is. Aside from the clear opportunity for people, government and corporations to take advantage of good intentions, there's a consistent theme of imposing western/northern hemisphere values for the wrong people place/application.
It's not unlike the good intentions that led to rebuilding of "better" houses in Sumatra for instance after the great Tsunami. Modern, western style housing just doesn't make sense there. It uses and demands much more freshwater than traditional homes and no-one can afford to run them. As a result the population has typically abandoned the new homes, which remain unoccupied, in favour of traditional homes.
In fact I would argue that corporations (and governments who use money to buy these computers) will likely breed more hostility and resentment than anything by disseminating computers to people who can't afford three squares a day.
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Science -- Sealed, Delivered.
Two laptops per child!
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The current device that the OLPC has created is neither the last nor possibly the only unit that the project might support. If you look at roadmaps, esp since Intel is 18 months ahead of AMD on manufacturing process technology, it will have much more powerful cpus than the dated old National Semi Geode technology that AMD bought - in a similar or lower power profile. Check out Silverthorne to see what's coming.
Negroponte was probably right to use Geode when the the first OLPC unit was designed, but looking into the future, Intel cpus will make much more sense for this.
In any case, there's no reason Intel can't create a different model for other markets, but with full embrace of OLPC by Intel, the project is actually much more viable.
One of the key requirements for the OLPC is that all the components are open source (even the firmware for the wireless component). AMD has worked very hard to make the OLPC compatible with LinuxBIOS and OpenFirmware, which are 100% Free/Open Source. I certainly hope Intel will do the same.
Actually, Intel's Classmate PC is designed to run either Windows or Linux, and on all of the reviews I have heard thus far Mandriva Linux was the installed OS.
Additionally, although it's unlikely to work well within the system's constraints, Microsoft is also at least evaluating the OLPC, and is one of 1500+ developers signed up with them.
Finally (slightly off topic), now that Intel has sold off the ARM division, I don't know that they have a low-enough wattage CPU at this time that could be a viable replacement for the Geode.
But at the same time I feel like it's a waste of money compared to better causes, like I dont know, FEEDING or MEDICINE for kids. Granted I grew up poor, and I wish I had a laptop when I was in high school and younger would have been able to kick start my career even earlier. But even then if it came to me having a free laptop, or seeing the kid down the street who eats government peanut butter on bread (no jelly) every day and no medical insurance. I'd gladly give it up to feed him/her for a while.
From a small thinking perspective this project is great, from the big picture it's just diverting funds that could have been better used. For those about to flame me, Yes we should go to Mars! But we should we get things straight down here first.
I know it's off-topic (sorry), but (s)he asked, so here goes....
For starters, you're talking about houses that are built on the assumption of a centralized water supply system, which doesn't currently exist to any meaningful degree. The same can also be said for the new schools and nurseries. In addition to assuming water will be supplied, the builders assume an availability and usage rate of water that while reasonable in North America or Europe for instance (and we use LOTS of water, btw) is simply unrealistic and prohibitively expensive to run -- it becomes a burden. It's like driving a SUV when you can only afford gas for a moped.
It's not a simple issue, but to provide some context even a family that manages freshwater sparingly (saltwater for bathing, etc) will spend about 30% of their household income on water. Aside from the potential losses in the house itself (from e.g. higher flow rates than would otherwise be used), the very nature of centralized systems (which are typically leaky and lossy even in modern North American and European cities) raises the expense for a user, even before factoring in excessively leaky pipes and the repercussions from a lack of metering.
If you're interested/curious about other aspects, let me know and we can talk more about it in a more appropriate forum.
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Science -- Sealed, Delivered.
Silverthorne is described as running at 5W or more, while the Geode LX runs at less than 2W average for most applications when correctly using suspend/resume. The Geode should remain the choice in places where regular power is lacking. Although OLPC availability should speed up access to electrical power in many areas, on the Articulate Voting Populations principle.
(Disclosure: I worked on Geode documentation for National Semiconductor in 2000. AMD has the descendants of my documents online.)
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