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OLPC Launches Buy One, Give One Free Program
Tha_Big_Guy23 writes "For the first time, and for a limited period only, people in North America will be able to get their hands on the XO, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's rugged little laptop that's designed specifically for children. And for each cutting-edge XO purchased in the West, another will be given to a child in a developing country. For $399, customers can order a laptop for themselves; bundled into the price is the cost of delivering a second XO to a child a poor country."
With so many other options for low cost linux based laptops coming up, how many would lap up the XOs? Yeah some geeks & some philanthropists ... the tech loving & God fearing maybe ... but will it sell like the Dells?
-- Prem
Aiming to tweet on a rice
Just ordered one a few hours ago.
Nice way to help a worthy cause and not a bad deal for a years t-mobile service.
I will agree that what America has is what I could call "material prosperity". There appears to be infrastructure everywhere but people are hurting in the pockets. These days, the American dollar has also taken a hit, so everyday stuff is expensive.
I've been wanting one of these for my niece. Now she'll have one.
For those interested, here's a link to the actual order page.
The two laptops will cost $399.00 USD, and shipping is $24.95 USD (for a total of $423.95 USD). Open to residents of US and Canada only. Paypal is the default payment option (credit cards are also accepted). Of that, $200 is considered a tax-deductible donation. Your contribution also gets you 1 year of free Wi-Fi access at T-Mobile hotspots.
The website says that they will try to deliver the laptop before the holidays, but that initial supplies are limited (TFA says 40,000 units in this first month, with 20,000 ready before Christmas), so if you're keen to get one of these things, you should order sooner rather than later.
I'm certainly curious to see how many orders get put in. If a large number of geeks buy these things as hacking toys, then they could very well become the best platform for a variety of tasks. For example, maybe this will finally be a viable e-book reader (portable, rugged, long battery life, display that can be used in ambient light, etc.). Should be interesting.
I'm sure that this has probably shown up in other OLPC arguments, but is this project really what the Third World needs? I would imagine that it is far more important to get essentials such as medicine, clean water, food, and adequate shelter before we start worrying about something like this.
... but do you get a letter and a picture from the impoverished child that gets your laptop donation?
How so? The Asus one costs twice as much.
"If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
"The number of nigerian presidents wanting to use your bank account to transfer money in a rush has recently doubled"
I was about to say 13256278887989457651018865901401704640, but it appears this number is private property.
Can't I just buy one for myself and let the volume productions reduce the price for everyone?
I bet if they tried the freemarket approach they could get the retail price down to, oh I don't know, maybe 100USD. They could name it "the $100 laptop"
No? Oh ok, I'll just have to buy two Eee PCs for the same amount.
US society already has high technology. Giving a poor kid an OLPC in North America may help him or her. Giving a poor kid an OLPC in someplace where they don't have computers available at the library down the street (which the kid never goes to because his parents and peers think libraries are for geeks and morons) will help that kid interface with the modern world and help bring up the whole country.
Now, I'm not saying poor folks in developed countries brought it upon themselves, or are willfully poor, but I do think that there is greater room for improvement across populations as a whole in other places.
Considering I picked up two full-feature Acer laptops at Wally World two Fridays ago for under $350 each.
Why would I pay $399 for a OLPC laptop when I can buy a NORMAL full featured laptop from CC for $299 on Black Friday or $400 any other day?
Id rather get one of those tiny little asus(?) sub-notebooks for that sort of price.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Is it guaranteed that my purchase will be matched by the delivery to a child, or am I simply throwing my money into a huge black pit, in the hopes that the number of people who buy one in the US will be the same as those delivered to children, apart from their already-planned deliveries?
I'm glad they followed through with the g1g1 idea, after all of the suggesting and petitioning.
.. if slightly poorer.
... *cough*
Ow, that put a dent in the amex. Oh well, great cause, new toys. If more people catch on to that formula we'll all be better off
And hey it was only USD. After hyper-inflation gets fully underway
Can I go to bed now?
<script>alert("I never liked JavaScript, really; it just seemed a bad idea.");</script>
The North American model sadly doesn't come with the hand-crank. It's not clear if those will be available for purchase later on, or if I can use (or mod) my cell-phone hand-crank to work with the XO laptop. Excited to try out the XO though, and I'm very happy to support this project.
With the worth of the US dollar dropping so rapidly, most Europeans could afford to buy a couple of these with the loose change in their pockets. $399 is about 3.99 Euro these days. Maybe a slight exaggeration there, but we're not so far off the 100 Euro laptop :-)
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
If I had mod points I will mod you up funny. Not sure you intended to, but you surely are. Wasn't this project (XO) started as the 100$ Laptop ? :P
You seem to be under the faulty impression that the OLPC laptop is meant to teach children how to use computers. It actually tries to teach them far more basic (and important) skills than that; reading, writing, math, etc. Things that will give these children a way to earn money and escape poverty in the future. That they'll also be able to learn about computers and the internet is just a bonus but irrelevant to whether the OLPC will be succesfull.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
... should be "Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil". Same literal meaning, but yours is not the common French usage.
:wq
Considering I've been hearing about the OLPC constantly for years so it's permanently etched in my brain, and this post is the first I've heard of the Asus one, I don't think the upstaging has gone very well.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
And the way to change the landscape is to get people used to using something different in a place where there isn't a de facto standard. Or $diety forbid teach them to think and learn so that they can make the choice themselves as to what OS to use when their country becomes less technology challenged.
Or is education of the end-user not the ultimate goal here?
"Bah!" - Dogbert
I would order one in an instant!
...you're missing the point. "Why buy an Eee when I could get a normal, higher-powered 15" laptop for less?"
I own an Asus Eee, and it's a near-perfect little sub-kilo device. But if I had a kid in the 3-8 age group, I'd pounce on this OLPC deal so fast my keyboard would smoke. For the same price as the Eee I can get something way more kid-friendly AND support some third-world future 1337 h4ckz0r?! I can't think of a more noble place for my nerd-donation to go. But my altruism only extends so far. I prefer the Eee for my own use, so that's what I bought.
The pain was excruciating and the scarring is likely permanent, but that just means it's working.
if you were a parent. If it's designed for youngster level wear and tear, then why not? If I had a kid, I'd much rather buy him one of those than an x-box. (Yeah, I know x-boxes have gotten cheaper, but a full set with controllers and games would likely cost about the same).
What's the value of information that you don't know?
Anyone know if these laptops have flash support? Or if it can easily be added? (Probably easy to add, since it is linux.) Planning on getting one for my kid and it would be nice to know. :-)
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
They should have set it's price in ounzes of gold, then the price would remain stable due to the intrinsic value.
I will have a sig when the market demands it.
Actually it can be considered to be better than a eee PC which costs about the same (well $100 less). I would love to have a Solid state laptop (no fan!) and a high res monochrome screen (reading!), and low power (green!).
Bad luck I'm in Scandinavia, may be you can buy one and send it to me?
As a programmer, I look forward to seeing the software efforts that are built atop this platform. There's plenty of room for free educational software for kids and this looks like a good platform for it. Surely someone will port the platform stack to a standard Linux distro, and then any software you write for this, you can run on your PC you bought at Wal-Mart.
Cheers, Frank
I would not tie getting one laptop to sending one overseas. If they want money to further their mission then just focus on that and drop the gimmick. We do not need production of these devices being diverted to this country, let alone to geeks who need someway to feel good.
There are hundreds of good charities to give money to where all the money goes to the cause. I haven't seen a guaranteee of that from OLPC. However I would be more than happy to buy the two OLPCs provided BOTH went to kids and that I had some guarantee that they did reach my intended target
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I don't use windows since XP, I actually never touched vista, and probably never will. I'm well employed, and the future seems bright for people with gnu/linux knowledge here (Brazil).
Also, the XO was made to make children think, not to be locked in a specific system.
`echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
Does anyone know if the OLPC can be claimed as a charitable organization in Canada i.e. can you claim an exemption?
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
The intent is to provide alternative power generation for these laptops. Ideas include human power, animal power, solar, wind, water, etc. See this page for details.
Education of the end user IS the ultimate goal, but not education in computer skills. The XO laptop is a learning tool, and is likened by its creators to a "pencil". Their goal is to give each child in the developing world their own "pencil" to create with. No one will be reconfiguring their kernels on these things.
To go with your pencil analogy here it doesn't matter if you use a Ticonderoga or a Rotring mechanical - it's still a tool to learn with.
When you've learned more and you can make a choice then pick the pencil that suits you. But until then the "pencils" being handed out will suffice in these cases - because the students have no "pencil" at all.
"Bah!" - Dogbert
If they'd called it "the 120Euro laptop" it would probably STILL be the 120Euro laptop.
But the US is pissing it's money up the wall, so now it's the $200 laptop.
Wrong, on many levels. First, I do get a 200 charitable contribution tax deduction. Second, as a registered non-profit OLPC is subject to audit by state and federal authorities.
Third, not everyone is a crook.
I can't wait till I get it! It is a great plus to get the year of wifi too.
I'm interested in this deal, but would like more technical specs. In part because I have specific ideas about how I'd like to use one and would like to know if it will work for what I want. Is there a page somewhere (I don't see one quickly) detailing what is and is not in the machine?
Nobody said you ONLY give to one thing. You can do both !!
:) (You can't get one any other way yet. I *want* one for my kids, although I can't afford it now :(
And there are other factors, besides just 'locally':
1. I get an XO for $200
2. The levels of poverty plus the administrative costs etc can make a big difference. A small amount of money (say $10/mo) *can* change the life of a really poor kid in a '3rd world' country, whereas it will probably have a negligible effect on any American kid.
I give time to local causes. Money ? Maybe it has more impact somewhere else.
(America in the geographical sense, of course...)
I'd love to buy one. It looks great; not only would I find it useful as well as being a really cool toy, but I think this is a cause highly worth supporting. Alas, the offer is only valid for people in continental North America (plus island states of the USA). Since I live in the UK, I'm stuffed.
Hopefully at some stage they'll run a European G1G1 programme.
(Actually, maybe the G1G1 programme will show enough demand that some budding entrepeneur will order a million and start selling them in high-street stores. The OLPC would make a superb alternative to these 'learning laptop' toys.)
Sounds like you're charging 251x what you should be for your labor. Who says your skills are valuable or difficult?
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
The question is: what is the procedure for getting into a bash shell?
A related question is whether the kid stuff can be turn off to expose the underlying Red Hat window manager (whatever it is), for adult geek usage. What is the underlying window manager?
did access to computers increase us students math/language scores? of course not. its books and teachers and basic infrastructure that matter but thats not sexy so gadgets are sold as miracle cures, and geek bazillionaires think they are saving the world. its fine if you give them away, slightly dodgy if you ask their poor governments to pay for this toy. i mean seriously, you are asking them to spend money on a toy when they cant even get electricity to some of these people, as acknowledged by the olpc's hand generator and other such nonsense.
It also has twice of just about everything. 4x the storage, 2x the processor, and 2x RAM. Of course, the OLPC has some very innovative hardware (dual-mode display, stylus/finger touchpad, hardware designed for worst-case environments) and is much more power efficient. That said, I'm more than satisfied with my Eee, and it's perfect for what I bought it for (cheap ultraportable to use on my college campus, and avoiding potential trips to the chiropractor), and I'm using it right now.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
$423 including shipping.
Yes, some child in a developing nation will definitely get one if you order the buy one give one package. You get one too. I have a 4 year old daughter who currently borrows our laptops to play the flash games on PBSKIDS.ORG. I am hoping this will be easy for her to use.
It runs Linux. Good battery life. Interesting screen. Modest CPU and graphics horsepower.
There is no crank.
Order soon, supplies are limited.
Yes, I ordered one.
I wonder how long it will take until a black market around these things evolves. I'm sure the parents' kids in Africa wouldn't mind having 100$ instead of an OLPC laptop.
I'd like to know why there will only be limited quantities available for the NA market. Is there some reason for that? Don't they want to accept as many donations as possible?
I strongly considered getting an XO laptop for myself. (Screw the kids, why should they have all the coolest stuff. :-)) I ended up going with the Asus Eee PC because it has a more traditional LCD screen, more RAM, more storage and a built-in SD card slot. Battery life isn't nearly as good with the Asus, and it is only about as rugged as a normal PC. But hey.
I've almost finished setting up my Eee PC with standard Debian GNU/Linux (testing). Don't have open-source drivers for the WLAN, Ethernet, camera, and SD card. Did get the WLAN running with ndiswrapper though. I don't think I'll go back to the default Xandros install, I'd need to recompile too many other packages I get from Debian by hand.
The XO is not a substitute for a computer. It is a substitute for a text book and somewhat word processor/typewriter (keys are small though).
It allows techers to send notes home to illiterate parents, and parents to respond back (camera/microphone). It allows for reading off of the internet, an ebook, or teachers notes.
The cost of text books can be crippling, event he cost of printing could allow one of these to pay for itself with enough use. Simply as a monochrome e-book reader with a pull cord for power it has quite a bit of value, the logic based games and other computer-like funtionality are a bonus. Internet access (where available is also great, but I expect the receiving of reading materials over the mesh is where this will shine. Everything else is just extra.
I hope we will see efforts for K-12 level text books that are free and open like the reading one recently posted here.
For half the price of a laptop this is a tool for educating, not a tool for computing. And it probably does a better job of educating in environments where dusk and dirt (Africa etc.) and spills (classroom) are a regular part of the day.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
I set the alarm clock for 5:40 (EST), and refreshed the order page a few times ... but discovered I had to update my PayPal info, so I missed my chance to have the order in at 6:00 am on the dot ;)
One thing I'd like this for is to take on my next (very infrequent) plane flight -- the cheapo laptops I have right now have both terrible battery life and more heft than airline trays like. (Oh, and don't open well in that tiny space the airlines call enough room for a passenger.) With the T-Mobile deal, it also means I can take it to the local Borders bookstore.
If I were more employed than indebted, I'd have gotten one for my niece, too; maybe next year they'll have another (next-gen) sale of XOs, if the project is still around.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
I just ordered one by phone from the Netherlands with my Dutch credit card, no problem. I'll have it delivered at a friend's address in New York.
Is there one?
;)
...
A thermometer-style disply, or maybe an odometer? Such displays reached a nearly baroque complexity when counting hits to personal web pages was the cool thing to do, so you know it's possible
I'd like to see some sort of active feedback about the sale, the same way Woot offers lots of little statistics (how many people bought more than one? Where do the sales cluster? etc.)
Why? Curiosity on my part, but also I think it might be a good sales tool. Some people might buy because the sale's going slower than expected, and they want to push it faster (there are clearly a lot of people excited about OLPC as a concept), others might buy sooner rather than later because extrapolating current figures might mean they'll be gone by the time they *had* planned to make a purchase, if at all.
*Is* there a sales meter / stats page somewhere, which I'm just missing? Wouldn't be the first time, or even the 101st
Cheers,
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
There is a lot of flame bait and rather than reply directly to it, I will just reiterate some basic facts about the
laptop and the project.
A lot of super-reputable people at MIT and some of the best employees at a number of key players in the
semi-conductor/hardware/software industries have put together a laptop specially designed for children
in the developing world.
* It has super low power requirements, so that it can be powered by things like a hand crank
* You can read the screen in full sunlight. It's also ruggedized to survive rough handling, so the
build quality has to be high.
* It's small and lightweight so a child can lug it around.
* The wifi antenna is way more powerful than the average laptop, and even in places with no internet
connection at all, children will be able to network with each other via the mesh network. Moreover,
given the antenna range, it's possible that there could be a mesh network over large regions of a
country, which could replace conventional telephony, or provide telephony in places that don't have it.
* It has a suite of software and an interface that would appeal to children. Developers have spent
oodles of time coming up with packages that reside in the relatively small memory and hard disk space.
* It has great internationalization support in the software. This much is necessary if it's going
to be used in non-english speaking countries all over the world.
* It has a camera. This camera might be the first one, or one a few in the places where this laptop
will wind up.
* When production scales up, it is designed to cost roughly $100. The only thing preventing this
from happening now is cautious countries who are waiting to place large orders.
Based on these points, I would say that a lot engineering challenges have been met and this is a kind of
watershed event in the history of the distribution of computing technology.
Why is a laptop important for education?
While you can certainly waste time and goof off on the web, there is also a wealth of instructional
material, learning material, free encyclopedias, and help of all kinds to be had on message boards.
Children could learn, for example, methods of improving local sanitation, agricultural techniques,
and health information which could end up saving the developed world millions or billions
of dollars in humanitarian aid. They could also learn other languages which could open up entire worlds
to them.
Even if they didn't have the internet, they could learn how to program, how to compute, make art, photographs,
drawings, and a whole bunch of other stuff with it. Not to mention the fun factor. It's not an educational
panacea but it WILL change the world.
You're operating under a misunderstanding. When you go to the bank and ask for "your money", they don't give you back the bills that they've been keeping in a drawer somewhere. The money has been invested, etc. Likewise in this case, the money that you're giving will be spent in the way that the program feels will be most productive to their overall goals. Be happy about this! They know a lot more about the details than we do...
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3447051.html
The differences in charity between secular and religious people are dramatic. Religious people are 25 percentage points more likely than secularists to donate money (91 percent to 66 percent) and 23 points more likely to volunteer time (67 percent to 44 percent).
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
How many textbooks can you get for $200? Not a whole lot.
I lost my sig.
Playing casually (but I think reasonably) with the numbers is what led me to $64 in the subject line -- by that I mean $424-$360 (OLPC two-fer deal, inclusive of shipping, less the rack-rate for the T-Mobile access). It definitely swung me from heavily-considering to have-now-actually-purchased.
I have not yet even tried to find, never mind read, the fine print associated with T-Mobile sign-up, where they ask for the drop of blood and have you relate your sexual history while lying in the coffin, etc, but I am encouraged to be hopeful by this phrasing:
Hopefully someone who is currently using T-Mobile's service can comment on this; do you need to register each device with T-Mobile, and if Yes, can you register more than one? (That "or" before "Wi-Fi enabled mobile phone" could swing either way) Or is it a simple password scheme, so as long as you supply the right login-password, you're free to beam and receive?
Worst case (not bad) scenario, if it's strictly for one-device-on-a-contract, is that you choose which of your Wi-Fi devices you like best or find will be used most likely in Hot-Spot situations, and put that one one. It specifically does not limit you to using the XO as the connected device, even if that's the implication of what people would want to do. (If it *is* limited to one device, I think it'll be my XO that gets the honors.)
One more thought on this topic: A best-case scenario I see in several locations wrt the capabilities of the internal antennae is 2km (unobstructed), which (thanks to a quick googling) I now know to be about one and a quarter miles. Let's assume that's wildly, fraudulently inaccurate, and 1/4 of a mile is more reasonable. Or even 1/8 of a mile. If it adds even a hundred feet to your (my) typical distances for reasonable reception, that means that the area within which you can be connected to one of these hotspots (or any Wi-Fi transponder, of course!) is vastly increased. (The new circle modulo the old circle
(Now, if only the mesh networking could be cajoled to work as DHCP/NAT/repeater droids for ordinary 802.11 base stations
timothy
* If that already works, awesome! My impression is that the mesh networking stuff requires upstream cooperation from the OLPC routers. Would be happy to be proven wrong!
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
We have poverty in America to ...
Then this is YOUR opportunity to buy a couple of these computers and contribute one to a child in a developing country AND one to a child in America. Or even better, N to each. The best part is is that you'll be able to pick the child in America that you want to donate yours to.
Action is what counts, not complaints.
I just put in my order for the Give 1 Get 1.
>>> I have held both an XO and an Eee in my hands (and a ClassMate, too)
So you have quite big hands?
I wonder if they made any effort to survey demand for this and estimate a demand curve to maximize their profitability on this venture, so they could give away as many free laptops as possible. How did they arrive at the $400 price to buy one laptop for a poor child, rather than any other price, like $600 to buy two more laptops, or $300 to buy half an additional laptop. In most cases, charging a 100% premium for charitable purposes isn't the number that's going to maximize charitable contribution, especially for big ticket items. I expect that if Apple charged twice as much for a Product Red iPod and donated all that extra money (plus whatever they're donating now), they'd end up with lower total contributions, because hardly anyone would buy one.
Maybe they did research this and they're charging a reasonable price to maximize the surplus brought in through the program, and hence the number of extra laptops they can buy. It's just that nice, round number of "once extra laptop," combined with the relatively huge 100% markup on a big-ticket item, that makes me wonder if anyone bothered to think about the economics and how to maximize their charitable impact, or if someone just made up some number that sounded good. Personally, I think I'd get one for $250, and I'd think about it for $300, but $400's just too much from the point of view of the value of the laptop to me. From the point of view of charity, a $200 gift is a whole lot for me right now for a single gift. I believe in their mission, but there are a lot of other charities I believe in as much or more, and I'll split my charitable contributions among them. If I thought of it as a $200 laptop plus a $50 gift, I'd definitely sign up for one at $250. Are there four people like me for every one who'd pay $400? I don't know, but I sure hope that the OLPC project bothered to make an intelligent guess.
One intelligent thing they may be doing is testing the market, rather than surveying it. That is, perhaps they'll be $400 for a few months, and see how many they sell, then $350, etc. That would be reasonable behavior to maximize their profits and thereby contributions on this program, possibly netting a larger portion of consumer surplus than any (even carefully arrived at) single pricing plan.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
I tried to order twice this morning, but got an error during checkout. Now they just put up a text saying "Only US and Canada" which probably explains it: I'm from Europe. This is a shame: with the dollar being so low I know several people that said they wanted to get one at the $400 level (even though we don't have the tax deduction incentive here).
This sig is just as redundant as the rest of this posting
Sorry for the silly questions:
Does it run a JVM of any sort? Any in the works?
Wikipedia just mentions Python, but with 256 MB, a JVM should be possible.
Lies about crimes
I been reading about this for quite a while now and its nice to see it finally happen. However, I do have a question about our (meaning those who purchased one) laptop. I am interested in checking out out, developing on it, etc. This got me to thinking, is it even necassary to have the laptop to develop for it? I am not familiar with its environment so I just wanted to find out if I could. If so, then I probably end up giving the laptop to some local charity to help out at home as well as abroad. I have read different bits about developing for individual projects; but what I want to do is, is there an IDE (not necassary GUI based) for it?
Philanthropic Speed-Cubers can get a deal as I just announced on my forums that I'm offering a $5 discount on speed-cubes to anyone who purchases an XO through the Give-1-Get-1 event.
You can read the full offer here:
http://www.puzzleproz.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=902
Has anyone else mentioned that they reduced the length of the event from 15 days to 12 due to the high volume of sales in the first 12 hours?
I'm glad I got my order in already!
Cube On! (http://stores.ebay.com/PuzzleProz)
Holy crap. Is that normal now?
They're probably not, but you seem to be under the impression that labor ought to be priced entirely by what business owners see fit to pay. Care to elaborate?
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
Asus EEE PC
'nuff said.
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
Yeah, that's great.
So, um, why does it have game controls on the screen? Was the gameboy successful in some market I am not aware of?
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
Ive just ordered one, and cant wait to recieve it. It is weak, and slow, but that is totally besides the point.The small size, the unconventional design, and least but not last, the near total rethink on how a computer should work makes this the coolest ebook reader, and portable browser! Oh, and it is a good cause! Go Negroponte!!!
Why can't they just go out and buy their own?
Normally I ascribe all life to intelligent design, but in your case I'll make an exception.
http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/terms-and-conditions.php In connection with your payment of US$399 to OLPC Foundation, OLPC Foundation will provide you with one XO laptop, and a second XO laptop will be given by OLPC Foundation to a child in one of the least developed countries1 in the developing world.
Of course not! I'm saying that labor ought to be priced entirely by an agreement between what business owners see fit to pay and what potential employees see fit to be paid. If someone else is willing to do your job for 1/250th of the price, I don't think a business owner is at fault for looking into it. If you want to keep your job, I don't think you're at fault for trying to price yourself even lower.
/your/ paycheck do you spend on advertising yourself? I'm guessing it's less than 0.01%
Business owners and employees are both selling things. Business owners are selling speaker cables, while employees are selling "the ability to manufacture speaker cables". Businesses are no less a consumer than you are, they're just consuming different things.
If X-Mart offers a speaker cable for 1/250th of the price of Z-Mart, you'll shop at X-Mart.
Z-Mart is expected to catch on that they're selling for way too much, and try to out-do X-Mart by selling for even less.
Z-Mart may of course offer other incentives for keeping their price a little higher than X-Mart, but 2500% would be quite a hard sell. I suppose they could spend that extra on advertising, but how much of
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
How about to turn pages when the eyboard isn't exposed (as e-book)?
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg