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Former OLPC CTO Aims to Create $75 Laptop
theodp writes "Mary Lou Jepsen, who left her One Laptop Per Child CTO gig on Dec. 31st, has reemerged with her sights set on a $75 laptop that will be designed by her new company, Pixel Qi, which is described as a 'spin-out' from OLPC. In a Groklaw interview, Jepsen calls for 'a $50-75 laptop in the next 2-3 years' and says it's time to go Crazy-Eddie on touchscreen prices as well."
This is probably good news to Bruce Perens, who thinks that the recent report of Microsoft's dual-boot XO project (with Windows as well as the Linux-based Sugar OS) is a feint driven by Microsoft's fear of "the entire third world learning Linux as children." Update: 01/10 21:22 GMT by T :
ChelleChelle adds a link to an excellent interview with Jepsen in the ACM Queue, in which she discusses OLPC and some of the technologies it contains.
Love the smell of Vapor in the morning.
That's "vapour", for my fellow POHMs.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
We already have the $10 laptop
At least maybe it will brew a decent cup of Coffee? (for those who don't get the joke; read the book: http://www.amazon.com/Mote-Gods-Eye-Larry-Niven/dp/0671741926
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
...and it will end-up being $175 instead. We all saw how the $100 laptop dry run went.
The game.
When I was young, all the computers at school ran MacOS. My entire introduction to computing was done on Apple IIs and Macintoshes. However, when it came time to buy a computer for home, our family bought a Windows machine because it had better specs. Starting these kids out on Linux doesn't necessarily mean that they'll stay with Linux.
We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
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So I'm guessing she was upset from the cost and believes that she can cut cost by doing again what she did for the OLPC, designing a better, cheaper display. This time, she can probably negotiate better deals as I'm sure the # of XOs in development causes display manufacturers to salivate.
So, before you accuse this of being vaporware, I would caution you that she has held up her end once for the OLPC
Now, what makes me salivate is the site's promise to keep everything open. The software's a given at this point but open hardware would be revolutionary and present yet another learning possibility for users.
My work here is dung.
When I was young, all the computers at school ran MacOS. My entire introduction to computing was done on Apple IIs and Macintoshes. However, when it came time to buy a computer for home, our family bought a Windows machine because it had better specs. Starting these kids out on Linux doesn't necessarily mean that they'll stay with Linux.
Why not, Linux is widely recognised as having better specs.Better specs don't sell though. Marketing and subsequent mindshare do (case in point : Windows - various incarnations).
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Made from the freshest electrons.
When I saw the quote, I thought about the scene in the book where the Moti Engineer took apart and put together Lady Sally's palmtop computer which was thought to be impossible because everything was one single unit.
To hit $75 for a laptop, the same technology will be required.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Q: I understood that you have one or more patents in screen technology which are in the XO laptop. Are you taking those patents with you for licensing, or do they belong to OLPC? Can you clarify the patent situation for us?
Mary Lou Jepsen: When we eventually filed papers to make the OLPC 501c6 real, we also then started hiring (in early 2006). I then assigned the inventions that I had both already made and would make to OLPC. Pixel Qi -- my new company -- is now licensing my inventions from OLPC. This isn't an OLPC employee benefit, it's a deal I created with OLPC and Pixel Qi, and the benefit will go to OLPC and to the children of the world, lowering the price of the laptops, and thus allowing more kids to get laptops.
You might want to read the Groklaw interview. It is said there that her new company is licensing the tech she developed for OLPC from OLPC.
As you see, your post is plain wrong and very unfair to Ms. Jepsen. Too bad it was modded +3...
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1096
That just shows you how overpriced graphing calculators are. Don't you think the prices should have dropped a bit more in the past 10 years? I guess when every HS student across the country has to buy one for their college prep classes there's not much incentive to compete on price.
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As an educational tool, it doesn't have to be that complicated. Look at the laptop type devices being put out by Leapfrog, V-tech and Fisher Price. All in the $50 range. Adding a larger screen and internet access, might be possible for $75. It depends on what you want it to do and the profit margin expected. My Atari 2600 put some darn good games in 4K. The XO laptop is close to duplicating a full featured laptop for only $200. It is a resounding success. If for profit companies can build on that with a number of educational appliances that cost $75 and down, even better. If OLPC and the XO have a problem it isn't the hardware, it's software designed to allow kids to learn themselves and an inability to market that idea. Like schools in the US, the administration wants control, and they often resent kids learning on their own.
Using more than one OS ensures that they'll learn general skills instead of just learning how to use app ABC on OS XYZ.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The Nintendo DS...
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I don't see the LCD screens getting down to a price making this possible.
Hmm, I dunno, maybe Ms. Jepsen will create some innovative new display filter technology that allows 200dpi color-capable LCD screens with backlighting to be built for roughtly the same cost as a 75dpi monochrome LCD screen. Wouldn't that be something...
OLPC is good enough to access content like MIT Open Courseware. Expanding access to content like that from what was previously available to these kids is just amazing.
There are a lot of brilliant people in the world who, for lack of access to good education cannot realise their potential. I would prefer that your lack of imagination not prevent them. We are going to need them.
I would also prefer that the next billion people to come online in the digital age not be burning 300 watts each to support Microsoft bloatware. That's a lot of carbon for no real benefit.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Or why not just make sure they all get their vaccinations, a good supply of pencils and paper, and an interesting book to read from the nearby library each week? Doubt that would cost more than $75 per child in desperately-poor Thirdworldistan.
E. F. Schumacher wrote an interesting and provocative book (Small is Beautiful) several decades ago about the routinely inappropriate "help" the First World often sends the Third. To grossly oversummarize, it's like we see someone painfully hauling a load of firewood down a dirt road in a poor country and decide to "help" by giving him a hybrid-electric pick-up truck. Of course, he has no good supply of gas, no way to maintain such a complex machine, no good roads to drive it on...and a mule would be a lot more appropriate and helpful.
It's hard not to wonder whether a focus on supplying cheap laptop computers is fully appropriate for kids whose principal problems probably lie more in the areas of crappy public hygiene, rampant preventable infectious childhood disease, AIDS and its consequences (e.g. becoming an orphan), civil unrest and insecurity, not to mention oppression in many places, and their parents not being able to get decent jobs close to home.
Maybe a Linux laptop at the right price point is a silver bullet for some of this nasty stuff, somehow, although I don't quite see it. I guess we'll find out.
But you fail to see that whatever computer she creates may not compete with the OLPC at all. The OLPC is aimed at underdeveloped countries and is a non for profit effort, whereas this new computer could be aimed at the general American market (open market). They are completely two different kinds of markets, and it can even be argued that one of them is not a market.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
There's nothing a graphing calculator can do on a test question that you couldn't do faster with a regular scientific calculator and some clever thinking. They're not only overpriced, they're a crutch that directly hinders college prep classes.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Hitchhiker: You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?
Ted Stroehmann: Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the excercise video.
Hitchhiker: Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.
Ted Stroehmann: Right. Yes. OK, alright. I see where you're going.
Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?
Ted Stroehmann: I would go for the 7.
Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.
Ted Stroehmann: You guarantee it? That's -- how do you do that?
Hitchhiker: If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from "A" to "B".
Ted Stroehmann: That's right. That's -- that's good. That's good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you're in trouble, huh?
[Hitchhiker convulses]
Hitchhiker: No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody's comin' up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart goin, not even a mouse on a wheel.
Ted Stroehmann: That -- good point.
Hitchhiker: 7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 doors. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby. Step into my office.
Ted Stroehmann: Why?
Hitchhiker: 'Cause you're fuckin' fired!
http://imdb.com/title/tt0129387/
My work here is dung.
$75 per child might get you a school library of a couple thousand books, but wouldn't you rather give them all of Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg?
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
This is huge news. I've always said we need a computer that many people in the world can afford. With 5-6 Billion People a 600 to 700 machine is so far beyond their reach. I'd really like to see a $25 machine but $75 great.
My theory, un-tested is that most family's can't afford to budget more than 1 weeks income every 3-4 years for a computer. Of course the wealthy can do whatever they wish. Personally I spend $800 on a monitor every 5-7 years and $400 to $500 on a new CPU/Box every 14 months.
With a price at $75 I would expect that means there is at leaset 1 BILLION people whose family can now afford such a device, and may be more than that. I'd like a machine that 4 Billion people could afford every 3-5 years. They we will have a real shot a planet wide culture. Today we have A few 100 million to a Billion people spending most of the $$, most of the energy, etc.
Putting a cheap computer in their home will not change economics but it can help teach them to read, and give them a path to education, which might take a few generations but will help all over time.
Personally low powered desktops would be better than laptops esp. a model that could use the TV screen to lower costs, for those homes that have TVs.
http://www.hawknest.com/
You can use the HP graphing calculator instead, you just have to know how to use it. In fact, from what I have heard the HP calculators dominate in the actual engineering working world while the TI calculators are mostly limited to education. That ought to tell you something about the relative usefulness of HP calculators compared to TI.
And if you measure in Euros, it'll be 60 of 'em before and after.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Fact is giving cheap computers to "poor" nations does not make them any happier, healthier, richer, or more educated. It just means that they have cheap computers. It may change the social dynamics around a bit, like reading a book at home on a computer instead of at the local school or library. It may even mean that somebody may get to work for IBM as a programmer through one of their off-shoring initiatives.
At any rate, since computers started to become superfluous in the West I have NOT noticed that people became more educated, happy, employed, etc (I'm sure those ppl still making big $$$ in the IT field would disagree). Yep, a shift in jobs for some people, and easier to do some second-hand research; but overall (unless you are a Gamer) I wouldn't say it has had a dramatic effect (for the better) on people's lives.
Don't get me wrong, I am certainly in favour of cheap computers, especially for poor people, but people should realize WHY they want this, and the reality of their ideals.
Crazy Eddie is supposed to fail.
The TI calculators are a prime example of how a market can stagnate when there's no competition. Pretty much since HP abandoned the educational market (which struck me as a bad idea, given how the professional market is getting eaten up by computer software packages) TI has rested on its laurels. Sure, every once in a while they toss out an incremental upgrade -- a little more RAM or Flash here, a little better screen there -- but by and large they're not doing a damn thing with their lineup, and they haven't decreased the prices much at all.
The TI-89 isn't bad -- it's probably the best handheld calculator out there, depending on how you feel about the HP-49 series -- but I can't help but wonder what we'd have if TI actually had some motivation to actually turn out a new model and cut prices every year or so, like the rest of the computer-hardware industry.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Joe Worker may not care much about 'computers' either way, but he can now make long distance phone calls for a fraction of what they cost a few decades ago. I suspect within a generation, the idea of "long distance" phone calls being different from "local" ones will probably be lost on the young, if it hasn't been already. And there are cellphones, which except for very rural areas I don't think you can say haven't had an impact.
And even beyond that, there's all the goods that you can buy down at your local MegaMart or even grocery store. One of the only reasons you can buy so much cheap stuff from halfway around the globe is because of logistics and supply chains that have been honed to razor-thin margins by computer models, managed using computers, and operated over information networks. Huge amounts of global trade are only feasible because of computerization. And that doesn't even get into the personal-communication and leisure activities that are only possible because of them.
Of course, some people will always argue that technology and development haven't done anything to promote "happiness," and perhaps we'd all be better off if we'd never developed agriculture in the first place. But to me, that represents a lot of second-guessing (from the very cushy armchair of modern civilization) of decisions made by our long-dead ancestors, who have felt at every step of the way that new technologies were a benefit and chose to implement them.
So: will giving computers to poor nations necessarily make them happier? I've no idea. I also don't know if it necessarily will make them richer or more educated -- that really has more to do with how the computers are used, than the computers themselves. But without computers they're going to be kept out of a vast amount of the economy, and that will almost certainly assure that they're poor. They aren't a guarantee of anything, but they seem quite absolutely necessary as a starting condition to have much of a shot at all.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
The $100 OLPC initiative was start when $100 was worth substantially more. It they have gone with a 100 Euro laptops, they could really trick the thing out.
I think EIC is US thing? I'm not really sure. I'm fairly sure that the bulk of the world's poor, up to 5 Billion of them in places like China, India, Africa, etc. don't get EIC.
http://www.hawknest.com/
I'm an Engineer.
I was not allowed to use a programmable or graphing calculator on any exams. I used a Sharp EL-546 for my scholastic career. It was about $25. For that, I got matrix solutions, simpson's rule, algebraic substitution, polar and rectangular vector calculations, stats, function recall (so you can go back) and a bunch of other goodies.
At work, I do not use a "graphing" calculator. I use that old sharp (or calc.exe) for the few minor calculations that I have to do. For anything else, I use the simulation programs on the computer.
Really, who uses a calculator for anything important? You get the right tool for the job. As far as I'm concerned, using a graphing calculator instead of a sim (or RW tests) is the same as using a wristwatch.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
As a former employee of TI I can ensure you that TI does in fact make extremely good profits on calculators. I think their desired comfort range is somewhere in the 400-600% range. If you compare a TI calculator to an equivalent or better Casio calculator, they typically cost a lot more.
However due to their monopoly and influence over school calculator choices and rules for calculators in tests, they can keep this huge profit and still have 99% of the market. They actually try to, and successfully do, change / mold rules to ensure the competitions products have features that are disallowed on tests. Teachers also greatly affects the choice of calculators (basically it's mandated by the school). If this isn't a monopoly with questionable business practices, I don't know what is.
I should perhaps clarify that the information in this post was mentioned in meetings by higher ups. One of the reason a project I was working on was canceled was that it couldn't really be sold at the kind of margin they are used to.
I unfortunately do not feel comfortable posting this with my account name exposed.
"Citation needed", except you're probably merely talking about the OLPC target price of $100 versus the recent actual price of $188. Well, duh, "target price" is a hope for the future. Initial price being higher is not "admitting they can't maintain their own goals". Sheesh.
"Citation needed", very definitely. "Mired" is unsupportable, and "political bullshit" is created by their enemies (clearly including Intel at this point), but you phrase it as if OLPC themselves did something wrong. I call bullshit.
"Citation needed" once again. You make me tired. Talk about hyperbole. No OLPC person has ever said that the OLPC goals will "cure all their ills". That's bigtime bullshit, and you should be ashamed for the misrepresentation, you really should.
"Citation needed" yet again! They are shipping. They're an ongoing concern. There is no strong evidence that they have actually "failed" (either short term or long term) in any sense at all.
I searched Netcraft and saw nothing about OLPC, but maybe I just wasn't thorough enough. Still, this smacks of merely more of your trolling.
Before posting, I checked your slashdot journal and your website. Your research seems interesting, you seem superficially as if you might be an interesting person, but apparently once in a while you just get irrationally angry on some topic and, given what you yourself have said on the topics in question, do not understand that that's what you have done. Introspect more, then you will see why (once a year or so, since you post infrequently) people say you are a big time Troll.
You're being so much of a troll here that it makes me wonder what you did 5 years ago to get +1 Karma. Maybe you should wonder, too, and then try to repeat your positive side, rather than your negative side!
Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary
I've never had my DS, PSP, XBox 360, PS2, Wii, or Gamecube crash. Ever. And I've used each one of those systems more than I've ever used a graphing calculator . . . and curiously enough, I have had my TI-81 crash. Lost all its saved data too.
Modern technology doesn't imply frequent crashing. Modern technology and complex code doesn't even imply frequent crashing. I have no doubt that you could build a cheap graphing calculator on a 400mhz XScale chip, with maybe 128mb of storage, with a full GUI and a hierarchical filesystem, just as stable as they used to be.
Probably based on Linux.
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
like reading a book at home on a computer instead of at the local school or library
Heh I grew up in Pakistan, not exactly the most impoverished of nations and the largest city has one large scale public library (there are local ones in high-end areas that cater to local neighborhood residents).
In order to read say a 3 investigators novel in middle/elemntary school I had to fork over 10 cents / day to a local private library. The household income at this point was in the range of 200 dollars (6k rupees) a month on which a family of 7 lived. And we were considered middle class. In comparison buying a new (pirated) book was around a dollar with a 'genuine' copy being around 6 dollars.
As you may guess even renting books from the local library was not exactly affordable in great quantities.
Far more relevant though, is back in the day my school had computer programming classes (BASIC) which I was virtually flunking, the whole thing seemed completely alien to me. A generous uncle bought us our first computer and my grades went from 50/100 to 99/100 and stayed in that range. I'm now earning well above the middle class in the US as a software engineer. For every person like me that actually got access to a computer and was able to leverage that there are probably hundreds if not thousands that were smarter then me and didn't. Imagine the potential lost, regardless of which field of study you think of.
imnsho this is a brilliant idea provided the likes of small minded governments and Intel don't completely screw it over.