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Peru Orders 260K OLPCs, Mexico to Get 50K
eldavojohn writes "Perhaps in response to recent news that the lawsuit against the OLPC may be a scam, Peru's government has announced they want 260,000 OLPCs and a Mexican billionaire by the name of Carlos Slim has also asked for 50,000 that he wishes to distribute in Mexico. Things are looking good for the OLPC."
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Mexico to get goatse
The One Laptop Per Child program should be preloaded with call center software and a "bad English" tutor to prepare 3rd world chldren for their future.
Are we handing them out at the border or something?
http://wiki.laptop.org/
Since Slim owns CompUSA, maybe he's creating new customers.
If people had bothered to read the "OLPC Lawsuit-Bringer Has Past Fraud Conviction" (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/03/0526202) article, they would have seen that it mentioned Peru's and Mexico's purchasing plans.
If we didn't listen to you the first 63 times you posted that, what the hell makes you think we're going to listen to you on the 64th?
<sarcasm>I'm sure you'll get your message across one of these times, keep trying, hang in there.</sarcasm>
I guess Carlos can afford to hand out these $200 laptops.
The lawsuit is Nigerian, but it's not so clearly a scam. It seems to be a claim that a keyboard layout (i.e. which key goes where) is a patentable design. Of course in most of the world keyboard layouts are standardized, denying us the fun of learning a new keyboard layout whenever we buy a new keyboard -- but perhaps this isn't the case there. If anything, I would suspect it to be a harassment tactic. I wonder if this Nigerian company has recently started a strategic partnership with a large American software company ...
It would be great if at this point we started thinking how to evaluate the laptops' impact. Surely there won't be enough for *all* children, so starting a data collection effort on the children, maybe assigning them randomly to schools or towns (otherwise, how to ration them?), and comparing results down the line could be an interesting project. Negroponte should think of funding a few data collection efforts, I think.
Peru's government has announced they want 260,000 OLCPs [CC] and a Mexican billionaire by the name of Carlos Slim has also asked for 50,000 that he wishes to distribute in Mexico.
In other news Colombia has proposed to help the OLPC organisation respond to the increased demand by manufacturing hundreds of thousands of OLPC laptops and shipping them to the USA, thereby only letting the non-profit organisation take care of the worldwide distribution of the laptops.
You just got troll'd!
I thought they swore that taxpayers would never pay for OLPC? That was one of the main selling points, originally. WTF?
I suggest you read Slashdot
Carlos Slim recently surpassed Bill Gates as the world's richest man. I found it sort of jarring that whoever wrote the summary hadn't seemed to have heard of him.
Carlos Slim is not Mexico, in much the same way as Bill Gates is not the United States.
Troll, you're right, Slashdot doe SUX0RZ, and we need you to keep doing your hilarious customized goatse captions.
Who'd have thought that a troll on slashdot was one of the better parts of my workday?
To me, a language learning software package for deployment in Mexico would be the killer app. Mexico should have a leg up on India and China when it comes to importing stuff to the United States. Mexico is much closer and the time difference isn't much if any. Mexico is getting shoved out of nearly all markets however due to their inability to compete. China is shoving them out of the goods market because of their low prices (and associated poor environmental and human practices). India is beating them on call centers because many Indians are willing to learn English and have a chance to do so- something most Mexicans can not or will not.
Mass adoption of English as a second language could give Mexico the enormous economic boost that India has enjoyed in recent years. Can the OLPC fill this gap in Mexican education? Will Mexicans care to learn English? I doubt it. There may soon be a time when large numbers of Indians stop immigrating to the US because there are plenty of good jobs in India. It would be nice to think that Mexico could get to that point too.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
I still don't see how spending $200 for a $100 gimped Lunix machine which doesn't even work isn't a scam. Scamming orders from people who don't know any better is supposed to make it less of a scam?
Since the OLPC project is, allegedly, "all about the kids"... than why is it being used as a pretty blatent attempt at force-feeding a non-Windows and non-Intel tinker toy on them? If it were "all about the kids"... wouldn't they be cheering about the $200 Intel Classmate and the $30 Windows/Office package?
But of course not. This is just another lame FOSSie attempt to force people into using Lunix... which realistically nobody wants. They've tried to claim that anyone providing alternatives to the OLPC is somehow racist, and they've tried their hardest to torpedo any alternative to OLPC. They've even had upper management threaten to quit if the OLPC ever goes with a Windows based solution.
So please... tell us again the OLPC isn't, like Lunix, a project with a hidden agenda, a project which has nothing to do with helping kids in poor countries.
They'll find they can run a lot more programs concurrently. Don't believe all that '640k is enough for anybody' bumf.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Could the poor children get some Macs instead... please save the world!
I travelled briefly in Peru in 2005 and saw the crushing poverty both in and out of the cities. It's worse out of the cities, and not uncommon to see houses with no electricity and water delivered from wells.
In Cuzco begging is rife, and the kids usually try to sell something to justify giving them money. Postcards are pretty popular. These kids are smart too, learning enough English to have a conversation and show their sense of humour. I think that giving them an opportunity to learn valuable skills can only be a good thing for them and for their country.
Intel and Microsoft should be ashamed for their attempts to poison this fantastic project.
How we know is more important than what we know.
the summary said peru ordered 260K OnLine Complex Processings (olcp). that's not going to help the cause of One Laptop per Child (olpc)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Kirby
...by the name of Carlos Slim.
Uh, just the richest man in the world. Funny how no one ever hears people refer to Bill Gates as "An American Billionaire by the name of Bill Gates".
Dear eldavojohn... you must be very ignorant.
only one of the richest men in the world link [ wikipedia.com ], richer than Bill Gates.
I have to ask. Despite whatever good intentions exist in giving laptops to kids, do all these laptops really go to children? As cheap as they are, and even with the low specs, might they still be of interest to poor nations for government offices, businesses, or even Nigerian (or the like) spammers in poor countries wanting a laptop of their own instead of having to use the ones at the local internet cafe that gets raided periodically?
Hello? They have been speaking English in India for a very long time. And installing a language tutor isn't going to instantly create a population of fluent English speakers. Extensive fluency in a population requires a that they converse in that language.
-- http://thegirlorthecar.com funny dating game for guys
I was going to jump in with the inevitable, "Mexican billionaire? So about $34 American?" Then I remembered the peso's worth slightly more than the dollar now. So... uh... yay... Go him!
How much, do you really think that the raw materials and the cheap underpaid, overworking employee cost the Chinese manufacturer ?
I really doubt that such cable could any way cost more than 1$ to the factory, and I think that I'm still grossly over-estimating the price.
A couple of cents may be a very close to reality figure.
I mean, Chinese companies can make whole DVD players which are sold, including the scart cable (at least as much complex as a parallel printer cable), for not more than 50$ in the shop and everyone along the chain makes profit (they can't sell at a loss something for which they can't apply the same technique as for inkjet printers).
Do you genuinely think that the cable cost 10$ to produce ?
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I can't figure out if that's 266,240 and 51,200 or 260,000 and 50,000. Oh, it has something to do with computers, so it must be powers of two, right?
Currently this article is tagged 'tobadsosadms'. Personally, I like the snarky comments people leave in the form of tags, but this one is bad in many ways. Most important, and I hope you all thought the same thing when you saw it, it's not even intelligible English. "To bad so sad"? To what? To infinity and beyond? To be or not to be? What is the tagger talking about? Did he mean "Too"? Seriously, once you're past first grade, the difference between To and Too should be abundantly clear. For the sake of the tagger's brain, I really hope it was a mistake and not a misunderstanding.
Preserved tissue?
I bet it tastes like chicken!
Mammoth steaks anyone?
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
I wonder how long it is going to take 1st-world governments, particularly Canadian and American, to get these OLPCs in the hands of *our* schoolchildren. I wonder how long it will take them to figure out that if they don't, our kids are going to continue to be dumb and dumber on average.
The OLPC folks aimed to make a laptop for poor kids. What they have done is make the best tool for childhood education ever created. If you don't believe me, check out some of the features...
I'd love to try out the OLPC software on my ThinkPad, but I've futzed around with couple of Virtual Machines and image files all weekend and only got as far as a plain white window. If OLPC want their play and learn machine to take off, they have got to get their software into the hands of the world's education administrators, the target audience, and the parents and teachers thereof.
So, which VM and which image file should I d/l to attempt to make a LiveCD so I can show this off to my grandaughter's teacher and school administrator?
Anybody got an OLPC emulation to actually go?
I prefer to buy laptops that are darker in color than my Mountain Dew.
It's from NIGERIA forchrissakes!--- This is what the Nigerian Prince does when his scam spam server is down...he's a patent troll!
So that's why all those (cough!) undocumented workers in the US have to send all that money to their families back in Mexico --- to pay the phone bills!
But guess what: in absolute numbers, today more people in the USA speak English than ever before. What the hell are you complaining about, then?
No, you don't. Did you read what I said?
The Spanish menus are for people who speak Spanish, regardless of whether they speak English or not. In fact, many companies that market their products in Spanish are primarily trying to reach Spanish-dominant bilinguals and full bilinguals. Why? Because the bilinguals as a group have better jobs, and thus, more money to spend than the ones who only speak Spanish.
Do you seriously think it's easy to live in the USA without knowing a fair amount of English? And care tell me, why are the Spanish-language TV networks so full commercials for home courses in English? (The latest one I saw, the course is in MP3s, and they throw in a cheap MP3 player for you to play the course in.)
You know, American xenophobes think we live in a fantasy world where recent immigrants that move into the USA and militantly refuse to learn English or assimilate to American society. At the same time, they believe that in the glory days of past, when their own immigrant ancestors came to the USA, they integrated trivially and effortlessly into the USA. Neither of these is true.
Are you adequate?
"a Mexican billionaire by the name of Carlos Slim"
LOL - he is the richest guy of the world, not some Mexican billionaire.
Hahaha! Referring to Carlos Slim as some run-of-the-mill Mexican billionaire is funny. You do know the man is one of the absolute RICHEST MOTHERFUCKERS ON THE PLANET!? Like, number 3? Just give credit where credit is due, is all I'm saying.
> Things are looking good for the OLPC
On-Line Porn Collection? Let's hope things are looking good!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
GPL v3 protects your right to tinker, and OLPC is supposed to have , if it is in in the final version I don't know.
PS you can use the id in too link within a page.
PS you can use the id in div id="muu" too link within a page.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
He is not just a Mexican billionaire, he became the richest man in the world this year.
Amongst many businesses, Mr Slim owns Telmex, the Mexican telecoms monopoly (bought from the government at a bargain price).
Most Mexicans pay the guy some dosh daily, depending of the goods and services you get, but anybody with a phone is paying him.
Makes the MS tax pale in comparison.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Some of them are immensely rich, but the balance of wealth as moved to entrepreneurs, oligarchs and a few pop and sport stars.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
He got the company lawfully.
It is disgraceful that politicians literally handled it to him in a silver plate, but the guilty party is Mr Carlos Salinas and his corrupt government who were the people responsible to ensure proper privatization should have taken place (i.e. ensuring fair competition would arise at some point).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
You could have paid US$30/month for ADSL and then got yourself a calling card.
But I agree, that price is comparable to the ones paid in developed countries, a real rip-off in relative terms.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
The Spanish speaking people will have enough muscle (cultural and political) to be able to keep their culture inside the US if so they wish.
At some point Hispanic culture will be so overwhelming than nobody will make a fuss about it. The US will become part of the Latin sphere of influence and that frankly would not be a bad thing (you know, we are tired of the US trashing our countries every time it feels like it).
Being now the biggest minority (at least in the derided way in which minorities are counted in the US, in which "Hispanic" related mostly to a shared common language is treated in a similar way to African-American, which is a racial stereotype), Hispanics should not trouble themselves much with integration. They have never been welcomed anyway, so they can as well get on with life on their own.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Mexico has had a ministry for the environment for ages. Although it is far from perfect it has real teeth and promotes numerous environmental projects and is willing to listen to ecological organizations (several development projects in places where endangered species would have been put at risk have been stopped, this includes protecting whales in Baja California, Monarch butterflies in Michoacan and teporingo rabbits in Mexico City).
In recent years also unleaded gasoline was forbidden and the conversion of cars (in the government and public transport) in Mexico City has progressed as fast as possible. Mexico City was in a siuation similar to the one in Beijing now but people got of their asses and tried to do something about it.
As for human rights, you surely are joking. Although Mexico's record in human rights is not as good as the ones of some EU countries, we don't execute people like China (or the US), have a free press (unlike China), levels of censorship have been steadily falling (I don't think there has been a movie or book banned in Mexico for at least 20 years) and have an independent Human Rights commissioner ensuring that the governments respects them.
Mexico is signatory of all kind of treaties regarding the protection of Human Rights, unlike China (and in some cases, unlike the US).
So yeah, Mexico is not perfect, but it is ludicrous even to attempt to compare it with China in these two topics.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Honestly. Take a trip down to Mexico some time, it is not that far.
Which exploding birthrates are you talking about? Birthrates in Mexico have been falling since the 70s, as well as life expectancy has been rising.
Lack of natural resources? We have oil, gas, coast, silver. I could go forever.
The only valid points you make are capital and health and sanitation (up to a point, all Mexicans have accesss to a lesat basic medical services now, provided by the state).
So now, pray tell me, who would want to invest in Mexico (the capital bit) if there is not an educated population to take those new jobs?
China and India are creating thousands of Engineering graduates, in Mexico out of 100 only 4 or 5 students get an University degree, forget about relevant disciplines to allow the country to grow its exports (sorry, but a degree in history or philosophy, although important, will not help much to bring the bread to the national table so to speak).
Medium to highly qualified jobs go vacant in Mexico for months, that is a problem that only education will solve, but education starts at the very bottom. Many people of my generation still find computers puzzling and technology threatening, having a new generation of kids comfortable with technology, independently of their economic situation (not all are in abject misery, and even those that are may benefit from this) is a huge plus.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.