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A Child's View of the OLPC
Finallyjoined!!! sends us a BBC account of a dad who traveled to Nigeria and brought back an XO laptop for his 9-year-old, Rufus. Here is Rufus's review, a child's view of OLPC. "Because it looks rather like a simple plastic toy, I had thought it might suffer the same fate as the radio-controlled dinosaur or the roller-skates he got last Christmas - enjoyed for a day or two, then ignored. Instead, it seems to provide enduring fascination... With no help from his Dad, he has learned far more about computers than he knew a couple of weeks ago, and the XO appears to be a more creative tool than the games consoles which occupy rather too much of his time."
America scams Nigeria!
That doesn't sound terribly impovrished or deprived to me. Food is a lot cheaper than those things, and typically a higher priority on the to-buy-list.
I returned from Nigeria with a sample of the XO laptop
I did RTFA, and no mention of HOW he got the laptop... I know everyone was talking about these things ending up all over the world in the black market, don't tell me it's ALREADY there.
Now the boy can lookup and edit cognitive dissonance.
I thought the XO laptops had a kill switch to disable them if they leaked out from their target demographic (african schools), into secondary markets?
Isn't the article's premise the exact situation which the OLPC designers feared?
Of course, the article mentions "a sample of the XO laptop", so I hope this this specific laptop wasn't obtained through such a secondary market...
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
Is there an emulator of this device out there or does the machine actually run a common distro of Linux? I don't know much about the project, obviously, but I'm wondering if this is more like a normal functioning laptop or more like a LeapFrog learning device.
Just curious.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
The XO laptops connect through a school Jabber server, so if his laptop was set to use the same Jabber server, then he could see all of the people at that school, even if he's not on their local wireless network.
ttuttle is a rankmaniac
How does you wandering around with your DS have any bearing at all on how a totally different system with totally different software and totally different requirements works?
Oh yeah, it has no bearing at all.
Maybe you should go read up on the OLPC software stack.
The one thing that struck me the most was the part where the kid asked about what his "friends" were saying to him, and how hes learned hola. This is more than enough of a learning tool to master a language. I personally know from first hand experience how this can work from a game I used to play that people from all over the world played. From starting the game at age 10ish one of my friends had learned english, finish, german and a little french. The ability to talk to other kids from different areas with language barriers is a great way for people to learn a language. Also for all the people who are talking about how food would be a better choice than education etc you are missing the point. There are plenty of charities and other donations to help starving kids. Not every kid out there is starving, but even some that are not starving are education deprived. I think this program could help alot of these countries get more education for thier children which in the long run will help them with money and food issues hopefully.
The Dad is Rory Cellan-Jones, a seasoned BBC reporter on technology. A better link (with pictures) is here BBC News
Apparently it's easy to use them to connect to WiFi networks, his dad already ran one, and then you can apparently join OLPC chat rooms over the normal Internet. Not really the same as directly connecting to other OLPCs.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
"With no help from his Dad, he has learned far more about computers than he knew a couple of weeks ago."
The kid has made such a fast advancement that he has already been offered a job by Chris Hansen.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/news/business/video/138000/bb/138961_16x9_bb.asx
or
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7140000/newsid_7140600/7140604.stm
But what about a child's view of the $200 laptop?
Also, somebody might have pointed this out already, but this guy took a laptop from Nigeria to bring to the UK? That seems to defeat the point (from how it's stated in the article, it doesn't seem that it was from the buy one/give one program).
-Daniel
I don't doubt for a moment that this thread will be filled with the usual /. grousing about the usefulness of the entire project, but let's give credit where credit is due: it looks like they have made a product that appeals to children. Perhaps they know what they are doing?
Something smells...and it aint my pants
It's your pants. Totally.
I found int intriguing reading the part of the article about the chat system. He suddenly found himself able to chat with Spanish speaking kids. I wonder exactly how the whole OLPC chat system works and if this is truly a "feature" or a fluke. I say fluke because the article says the chat system identified itself as chatting with others in Nigeria. Will the OLPC's be "region encoded" so kids can only chat with other local kids? Or will kids be able to easily chat with kids from the other side of the world as well? I can see the second alternative, purposeful or not, as a way to help foster a knowledge of other cultures that these kids would otherwise be entirely unaware of. True, language differences would probably minimize the impact of this sort of thing, but as the article demonstrates even a language barrier isn't enough to keep curious kids from making friends half way around the world.
"a BBC account of a dad who traveled to Nigeria and brought back an XO laptop"
So...did he scam a Nigerian?
Name...That...Autocomplete!
All of those third world kids will finally get up off their butts and away from their Xbox 360's and Playstation 3's!!!!
So Rufus is using his laptop to write, paint, make music, explore the internet, and talk to children from other countries.
Sounds like Rufus is a lot smarter than your kid. Figuring out all this stuff on his own. Before you know it, he'll be like his Dad, buying goods off the black market.
My 3 year old son knows how to turn on PC + monitor, how to use mouse, double-click icons on desktop (Windows Vista Home Premium), knows which icon starts which program and so on. Heck, after a couple of minutes of practice he learned how to run Counter Strike Source, create a server and join the team he wants (usually CTs). He knows also how to start MS Paint and create some really cool post-modern art ;)
He likes to surf the web a lot, especially pictures of dragons and such. Because he can't read or write I wrote a little program for him which has image buttons that opens IE (embedded inside the program) to Google image search with predefined query parameters. Program uses a little XML configuration file so I can easily add more parameters to it.
9 year who can use OLPC? Wow! That's really amazing! ;)
You don't know what you don't know.
Ok, that makes sense! Thanks for clearing that up
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
How does you wandering around with your DS have any bearing at all on how a totally different system with totally different software and totally different requirements works?
Yes, I realize that they have entirely different software, but as with ALL new things - its rarely so straightforward as that example. Heck...even with a WiFi enabled PDA its pretty difficult to get anywhere - let alone CHAT with someone - be it Jabber or anything else, you have to be in the right spot, all connections running perfectly and to get in properly. Its just painted so "rosy" that it seems more like a staged scenario rather than real life.
Believe me - I wish it success - but nothing like that happens the same day its released, give it a year or two - so many MANY people all over the world actually HAVE one - then we will talk.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
On his blog, Freedom to Tinker , Prof. Ed Felten at Princeton has two more reviews of early versions of the XO laptop, the B2 and the B4, both (very well) written by a 12-year-old neighbor.
"Heck...even with a WiFi enabled PDA its pretty difficult to get anywhere - let alone CHAT with someone - be it Jabber or anything else, you have to be in the right spot, all connections running perfectly and to get in properly. Its just painted so "rosy" that it seems more like a staged scenario rather than real life."
/server
Hmm.
Install zsIRC
Type
You're chatting
How hard is that on a WiFi-enabled PDA?
Even easier on this XO laptop - software is preinstalled and there is a preset chat server.
The problem with the DS (at least in terms of your complaints) is that chat is (as far as I can tell) local-only, or with people with whom you have already exchanged friend codes. The DS design in terms of multi-person communication is VERY paranoid in this regard - chatting with random people isn't what it was designed to do, and for all practical purposes it's not even capable of doing such a thing.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
No wonder Microsoft tried to bribe it out of Nigeria.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
John Negroponte ("Director of National Intelligence", "Ambassador" to Iraq), older brother to Nicholas Negroponte probably doesn't let any of Nicholas' educational toys get sent to Iraq because they'll be handy to the resistance fighters. It must have been *torture* to have John Negroponte for an older brother. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte
Freedom is free.
The OLPC is just an amazing machine, not only is it able to connect with any Wi-Fi network (no matter how far away or how secured), instantly make your child a programming virtuoso, make them a math whiz it can also make them instantly fluent in any language. Merely possessing the machine enables them to read and speak the language of the person they're chatting with. Not even Apple is so insanely cool.
I even tried to entice my son by talking a bit about encryption, thinking he would make the connection of "aha! I can hide stuff from the old man!" but even that lure failed to get him to open the Missing Manual book. I keep hoping to find an encrypted container indicating that he's learned something, but alas he lacks my secretiveness. Kids today!
Has anyone gotten their OLPC from the "Give One Get One" program in the mail yet? I have yet to receive mine.
Everyone says education is empowerment to the people, I think this is the first step to empower most people around the world. This is a step to help people/children easily communicate and play over large distances, talk and share ideas. You should take a million of these laptops and drop them on Lima, Peru, and see what happens. Imagine one million people using the computer to do new stuff, just producing new creative material, sharing, critizing.
This is actually a tool that would allow these counties to get ahead of EU & US. Because this will empower children when they are most active at learning, at 9 years old you can learn alot, that will get us alot of creative people, writers, programmers and artist in a 4-9 years.
The question is will these children need to learn english, or can they just create local economies, based on heir own language?
The article doesn't make it clear where the laptop came from, but it probably isn't one of the production laptops (i.e. one sent to Give-One-Get-One recipients or to children in participating countries). This is supported by (1) the picture in the original article which doesn't appear to have the stippled texture that was added to the production laptop case and (2) the fact that the laptop came configured to point at a Jabber server shared between schools (afaik, production laptops won't do this). So it is probably a pre-production model, maybe used in the Nigerian pilot study or for development/promotional purposes.
The BBC has been covering the pilot study, so perhaps the reporter was already in Nigeria to cover the story and was given a souvenir from the phased-out machines?
Can't it be both?
Why do I get the feeling that I'm living not just Science Fiction, but in "The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" (Neal Stephenson)? True education is subversion, because true education will give you the tools to challenge the status quo.
First George Orwell, now this. Where does it end?
"If god did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him" --Voltaire
Admittedly, this optimism extends a bit beyond intellectual pursuits. I know a lot of parents paying for basketball camp hoping that their kid is the next Kobe Bryant. I guess it can't be avoided.
The DS chat works very well. The problem is that it's local. You can only chat with people in the same room as you. People who are so close you have no reason to talk to them. In addition they need to be sitting and waiting in the chat room for someone to talk to. Not a lot of fun so no one does it. The only time I have used it for any kind of real reason was to talk to my friends in class with out bugging the prof. But after about 2 minutes on it we all would just say fuck it and start a game of Mario kart. The only story of it's use that makes any real sense to me is at cons. Where you are looking to randomly start talking to people you don't know. And even then it's kind of dumb.
I'm sure the OLPC chat is just a normal chat program. I'm sure it has a server somewhere and can work all across the world with just an internet connection, Just like AIM or gTalk. I'm willing to bet it can also do the local talk thing like the DS. Since it was designed with the idea of giant mesh networks in mind it should work way better.
The kid is connecting to a central chat server via his home WiFi, and chatting to other people who are connecting to the same server via whatever network is near them. All he had to do was switch on the machine, enter the wireless key, and view the people in his 'neighbourhood'. What part of that is painted as "rosy"?
You can download an XO virtual machine and try this right now if you don't believe it: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/VMWare
Not to take away from the article but I would like to read a review from a kid who has not been exposed to technology/computers as much as Rufus. It would be interesting to read about their reaction to this technology and how it affects their daily lives. I grew up in Peru and was not exposed to technology to the degree that I am now, I know a laptop like that would have made a world of a difference to me.
[alk]
Install zsIRC, Type /server, You're chatting, How hard is that on a WiFi-enabled PDA?
For you and I? Duh...
But picture this: Laptop for KIDS... then picture this: 3rd world Kids!
Many of these havent even ever seen a laptop.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Please tell me your uncle is Bill Gates.
My six year old was playing with one of these at a science-fiction convention and we only got it away from her with some difficulty.
If they became commercially available in the US I'd buy one - and yeah, I missed the "buy 2 get 1" promo.
No Longer a Menace to Society.
Alexandria Morrigan born 2/22/01 l. 20.5in wt. 7 lbs. 5 oz.
Actually if he's connected to a Jabber server and that server is connected to the internet, he can talk to anyone on any internet-connected Jabber server. Kind of remniscent of SMTP servers connecting to remote servers when necessary, although the mechanism is a bit different.
My son has been fascinated by computers almost since he was born. First he liked to play with the laser mouse, then he liked to tap on the keyboard, and now, at 2, he knows how to arrange the monitor, keyboard and mouse, and plug all in correctly, so that he can ask me to "watch choo choo train"... otherwise known as Thomas the Tank Engine videos on YouTube.
He likes the notebook too, and when I'm surfing, he'll use the page up and page down keys to scroll back to a part that he liked on the page. We can spend hours together using google images to look at all the different kinds of animals, trains, things that move. He's fascinated by all of it and it stays with him.
This is my sig.
Can't it be both?
Probably not.
this guy took a laptop from Nigeria to bring to the UK? That seems to defeat the point (from how it's stated in the article, it doesn't seem that it was from the buy one/give one program)
Not being in North America, the author is not eligible to participate in the Buy One, Get One program.
And while I'm sure Nicholas Negroponte would prefer that OLPC hardware being re-exported from third-world to first-world countries be an exceptional scenario rather than a common one, it's not necessarily a bad thing. If he obtained the laptop with the full knowledge and blessing of the program administrators -- rather than stealing it, or buying it off some kid for US$10 -- I see nothing wrong with it.
I guess we know who got the cool in that family.
Actually, that might not be true... good ol' Nick isn't really cool, just not evil.
Think of the worldwide catastrophe it would be for a shipment of these to fall into terrorist hands:
a) connect to other terrorists worldwide, creating an easy-to-use terrorist network
b) learn to hack by pressing "view source" button
c) a nearly indestructible ad-hoc network that world governments would be unable to take down
Clearly, the OLPC is a threat to freedom and the American spirit everywhere.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Kids are amazing. I don't think I ever really thought about it much until my daughter came along, but those sayings "little eyes make big pictures" and "monkey see, monkey do" are really true
She's 18 months and will pick up a Wii remote, point it at the TV, and wave it around like she's seen daddy do. On top of that, she's seen me use my iPhone enough that she knows that to turn it on you push the button and then slide the on-screen slider. She even knows that you touch the clock icon to see the "tic tic"--though it's hard for her to touch just the one portion of the screen, since she's usually holding it in a way that her thumb or another finger is on it too.
It reminds me to model the type of behavior I want her to have when she mimics even simple things like this.
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
Who cares what this multinational brat's view of the OLPC is? I want to see my view of the OLPC. Hurry and ship me my give-one-get-one already!
With respect to this being adopted so well by his son, I'm wondering if it's just a matter timing. That is, computers are truly ubiquitous now and other elements in place making it more likely for children to take them in. As I ponder this I can't help but flash back to a small child I saw recently playing with a squishy, noise-making Fisher-Price-like toy. The catch was that it was a toy cell phone and he was actually using it like I'm sure he learned from parents and everyone around him. He could identify with it enough and compartmentalize is such that it was engaging. If it were the 1980s or even most of the 90s I don't think he would have cared at all.
Even an underprivileged child will likely know the concept of computers today since they are ubiquitous. Even if they don't they're certainly going to still be engaged due to the rarity of having something new and the wonderous abilities it affords them compared with what little they've had. Give them such a laptop in the 90s and it would have similar success, I think. However, do the same for the spoiled rich son of a Texas oil tychoon in the 90s and I doubt he'd give it a second look. That is, unless he already inherently has an affinity for computers but I'm talking mass kid appeal.
That's just my POV... no more, no less.
South Africa, The Iraq, and the Asian countries still need a lot of help from our education over here before they're ready to get XOs and build up our future.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
That's the point: it's a laptop for 3rd world kids, hence it has been made easy.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
No surprises in the article - in fact it sounds like a typical experience of a small child given any computer and allowed to just play with it. (Especially a child, like Rufus, who already has some experience around computers.) Jim Lileks has reported much the same thing with his daughter and the Mac she was given. I've heard similiar reports from friends who've let a child loose on a machine prepared for them.
So far as the length of his fascination - let's hear back in another week or two, or another month, or next year. From late November to now is a matter of three weeks, tops. Even for a nine year old this isn't particularly long.
The program was extended to Dec 31, according to the web site.
http://www.laptopgiving.org/
Malcolm solves his problems with a chainsaw,
And he never has the same problem twice.
Oh I dunno, Nicholas seems like a nice chap too. Bit geopolitcally naive perhaps, but essentially well meaning. Soft power has its uses too I suppose.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
South Africa, The Iraq, and the Asian countries still need a lot of help from our education over here before they're ready to get XOs and build up our future.
Actually, I think they just need more maps.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
I believe the G1G1 promo for the OLPC was continued until 12/31. You can still get one.
duke out
Let them eat laptops.
Sounds like you've been visiting my home state.
Good ol' South Cackalacky...mmmhmm...
Even speaking as someone with Asperger's, I started school at exactly the same time as everyone else, which meant 1st grade occured sometime around "6 going on 7" (so 12th grade coincided with turning 18 at some point)
That struggling to perform is not the Autism, that's skipping two years of pre-grade learning!
I want one for the child geek in me: (Plans abound already)
Flexible DC power: 11 to 18 V input usable, -32 to 40V input tolerated
'Geek Key' on keyboard to show source code of activity you are running.
WiFi card can run mesh network even when CPU powered down.
Screen can continue to display even when CPU powered down.
Screen can run in BW mode, disable back light and be visible in sunlight.
Built in camera can disable level and automatic gain and be used for measurement.
Built in audio card can be placed in mode exposing A/D converter for measuring some voltages.
Full details at: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Hardware_specification
He named his kid Rufus? WTF is a matter with people these days? Someone call child services.
The article states: The One Laptop Per Child project is struggling to convince developing countries providing computers for children is as important as giving them basic facilities like water or electricity. A laptop is _as_ important as clean water? Interesting take on Maslow's hierarchy.
With a name like Anonymous Coward, you definitely have a tiny penis. Am I right?
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
He spent most of his childhood getting waterboarded in the toilet and undergoing intensive interrogation via atomic wedgies.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Firstly to Slashdot editors, thanks for posting this article.
I went to a poor rural high school a long time ago. When I was 12, a teacher somehow got an Apple II. It stayed in the staff room. Magically, the same teacher who bought the computer put the manuals in the school library. I discovered the Apple manuals one day, and I started reading about programming. A few weeks later, I was given access to the machine and off I went; that started me on a path that took me to my country's best university and then all over the world. That was just because I found a book on programming. Imagine how much more wonderful it will be when someone like me, in Nigeria or Uruguay, can use a real computer right away. They may be only one in a hundred kids like this, but it's one in every hundred kids, not just one in a hundred western kids, and now more of them will get connected to computers they can actually start programming on. This is amazingly great project.
As they themselves say, and as I have repeated ad nauseum here myself, the OLPC is justified on a pure financial basis. It replaces print textbooks with digital textbooks. The print textbooks are usually hand me downs from foreign countries in foreign languages, out of date, expensive to acquire and distribute on a per-copy basis. The digital textbooks have only the upfront cost, either in translation or original material, no distribution cost or delay, up to date, and the OLPC can carry all of them on the long walk to school and back without any extra weight or bulk penalty.
The acquisition and distribution costs alone pay for the OLPC. The other benefits are pure gravy.
It is also pathetically patronizing to tell these people to stop growing their own food and rely on handouts from foreigners for such basic necessities. "We're foreigners and we're here to help because you are too dumb to grow your own food" just doesn't cut it. Far better to grow their own food and rely on OLPC handouts that they *can't* make themselves; at least that is the beginning of a way up the ladder to a better life. Begging for food isn't.
Infuriate left and right
Jesus H Christ on a stick! Imagine gettin pwn3d by a 3 year old. At least he'd have and excuse for bad spelling when saying "hahahahah i haev pwnd joo!!~111one".
Now I'm never going to play online again, just to save on the embarressment.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
we have an old desktop I can get working, too.
No Longer a Menace to Society.
Alexandria Morrigan born 2/22/01 l. 20.5in wt. 7 lbs. 5 oz.
Yup, I am going to get one of those that Mr. Slim will be distributing in Mexico. I am sure they will end in one of several Mexico's grey (or black...) markets like Tepito.
Why don't I buy one for $400, well firstly I am in the UK, secondly I am not a rich American or European guy, I am instead, a poor Mexican student who is surviving with a scholarship.
But those OLPC computers are really cool.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Wow. Overpriveledged british kid gets a laptop toy and enjoys it. Why dont they give interesting information about how useful it is for kids in africa that have never used technology that can't read?
He's enjoyed it for a whole COUPLE WEEKS!
I know RTFA is a dirty word, but even from the summary you ought to have guessed that this is a British journalist bringing back an XO to the UK (clue: he writes for the BBC, and he "brough back" the XO, so he's obviously not stationed in Nigeria). And despite the fact that British food makes many people here want to starve ourselves, the UK isn't exactly a third world country.
The OLPC chat also links the applications so that multiple children can view the same game, paint etc. Conceivably you could create a cluster computer with these things very easily. Of a cluster of children working on the same problem. Like the old stadium of "computers" (people doing ballistics prediction math).
How I wish I had modpoints for that. :P
I think the OLPC project is indeed about education as Negroponte keeps insisting. The magic isn't in the laptop hardware (ok, some of it is revolutionary, such as the display) but more in the potential for collaboration and learning. It's a laptop designed to be an education tool and designed for learning. The paradigm behind it is very different than what microsoft, intel and asus are in it for, and that changes the results significantly.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
pants == NULL
This code will never run
It's obviously not his pants because he isn't wearing any.
Sounds like they reinvented the Atari 800/Commodore 64, i.e. the Personal Computer as opposed to the PC.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
Inferring that these kids will become techie is like saying that every kid who eats a sandwich will become a blue ribbon baker.
For most people, playing games is hardly learning. Writing games.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
With children in Nigeria chatting unsupervised with children across the world, the One Laptop Per Pedophile project has just been launched. Congratulations!
It could.
Because there's a drastical difference in the on-line presence of those populations.
On the "classical" computers environment, 3rd world people are completely under-represented, both for economic reasons (fewer have access to computer AND internet connection compared to europe or japan), and because of language (and litteracy) barriers.
Also, when kids go on-line with classical computer environment, they tend to chat with their friends (specially because every one is telling them to stay out of stranger who might be predators), and they tend to play games, on-line games while connected on geographically local servers, the most foreign player they can meet in the game will probably live a couple os states apart(*). So there's very few incentive in going to meet all those people living on the other side of the globe.
Outside of school organised pen-pal programs, western kid will probably seldom meet kids from poorer countries.
Inside the OLPC community, the distribution of pupulation is the exact opposite : 3rd world country populations are OVER represented. Mainly because rich kids get their XO laptop only through Get-1-Give-1 program. Whereas 3rd world country kids get the exact same amount of computers from the G1G1 program (obviously) AND in addition get many more through government sponsored programs as currently under way in South America and Africa.
When the kind has finished using the XO computer locally (for typing text, doing math or playing games) and want to go on-line, the Sugar interface is done in such a way that it is very easy to find other (unkown) users of the laptop and engage chat with them.
Now if you add into account the over-representation I mentioned above, the kids are most likely to meet kids living in 3rd world countries.
The whole stuff happen to be organised in a way that encourages meeting people from abroad.
-----
(*) except maybe, when meeting a group of Chinese gold farmers working in some WoW-sweatshop.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
What I see here is "what about the children", food, clean water and shelter There are other agencies trying correct those problems. The real danger is that those kids will learn a real language "squeak" and take over the world.
This is true, he can probably chat with GTalk users and the like, but there is a difference in that he can't "see" them since it only autodiscovers users connected to a given server (if I recall correctly). For other users he'd have to know their address (bob@gmail.com or whatever). I'm not even sure if the built in chat function has a UI element to do that (although it probably will eventually).
OMG, such people really DO exist in US. I couldn't belive this before. Pray tell me - is Poland a state or a country? ;p
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
#
if((pants) & (!pants)) {
printf("Your fuzzy truth value is at (0.5). Paradox eliminated.\n");
}
Anyone who is fretting over whether they should be going all-out trying to get their kids to be on the football team, cheerleading squad, or the prom king/queen's throne, is no more likely to raise a happy well-adjusted kid than someone who is obsessed with raising someone who is a CS/IT expert before they even have pubic hair. Strive for some balance instead, and please, remember, parenting is about *helping* and *protecting* your kids, not about leading them or thinking for them.
In my country, the minimun salary is about US$300. Do you think that is a good idea to buy this, instead of spend it on something more useful? ;) )
I think that this is only for increase the external debt of poor countries. Only see who is promoting this.
Sorry for my english, i'm from South America. (Indeed, America != USA. Remember it
The linked article is titled "A child's view of the $100 laptop". Can we please stop calling it the 100 dollar laptop???! Ot is it forever burned into our synapses?
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
> Isn't the article's premise the exact situation which the OLPC designers feared?
Perhaps what they feared was that without controls to limit the distribution of the cheap devices they could be distributed to a wider audience and become a very good cheap alternative to much more expensive equipment the manufacturers that are needed to make the devices sell to the public.
The specs are very good for business use. A cheap and "childproof" device is something a company can supply to workers who would not get a laptop, and this device can probably do much more than a cellphone, even a modern expensive one. And if they can for their own wireless network with all endpoints acting as routers then perhaps a western city full of such devices would create much less demand for communication services (bandwidth) from whoever currently sell them (telecoms etc.)
So perhaps the limitations are not there to prevent children of developed countries from enjoying the benefits of the OLPC XO but rather to make sure that those companies that need to cooperate do not feel threatened that wide adoption of the technology might risk some of of their sources of income?
Hah! maybe he got it off the black market and it bricked itsself.. so thats why he couldn't get the WiFi to work?