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OLPC To Be Distributed To US Students

Posted by kdawson on from the seizing-the-initiative dept.

eldavojohn writes "The One Laptop Per Child Project plans to launch OLPC America in 2008 , to distribute the low-cost laptop computers originally intended for developing nations to needy students here in the United States. Nicholas Negroponte is quoted as saying, 'We are doing something patriotic, if you will, after all we are and there are poor children in America. The second thing we're doing is building a critical mass. The numbers are going to go up, people will make more software, it will steer a larger development community.'"

5 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. I think Vista will increase digital divide... by jkrise · · Score: 0, Troll

    Unless the OLPC is widely avbl. in the US; kids elsewhere will learn proper computing while kids in the US will be brought up on an unhealthy diet of Allow / Cancels; viruses, trojans, activation keys and insecure PCs. MS will be forced to release a slimmed down and truly secure OS for the OLPC; else they risk being exposed for churning out second-rate code.

    Like the OLPC and the EEE PC; more such mini-PCs will signal the demise of Vista and the downfall of MS as we know it today. Let there be more OLPCs I say.... it should even be made avbl. to corporate users, IMO.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
  2. Re:what the hell... by El_Oscuro · · Score: 0, Troll

    That tag is totally fucked up.

    --
    "Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
  3. Re:The problem with constructivism. by QuantumG · · Score: 0, Troll

    If you think Americans are mostly literate then you either have a different definition of 'American' or you have a different definition of 'literate' to the rest of us.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  4. Re:what the hell... by towsonu2003 · · Score: 0, Troll

    ..is with the messed up tag: "onelaptopperblackchild"? Am I the only one who thinks that's slightly wrong?
    what is "slightly" wrong is that the US (and the rest of the world to which colonialism "touched") is a racist society and it treats its black people almost as the same as the people of its colonies... Though others might use the tag as irony or something, I think there is merit to the use: it is not known for the US to test everything first "on" its black almost-citizens; to cast them away and starve them to death; to finance only those public services, which it knows will probably fail at the end; and to force them to be poor and stay poor. So I think there is more to the tag than just irony and error... It's rather insightful, if you ask me.
  5. Re:US loves wasting money by jorghis · · Score: 1, Troll

    That review mainly gave the XO the edge because it was based on the idea that you are living in third world conditions (no power outlet) and the XO wins on being able to recharge in different ways. This is not an issue that anyone living in the US is going to face.

    That video has an adult in the background clearly giving them advice. A random 8 year old with parents who dont know anything about computers will be very unlikely to be able to replicate that.

    Furthermore, why assume that an American kid should get the cheapest laptop available. (ie not consider anything over $250) When I said the best cost to value ratio that meant getting the most you can for the money you have not necessarily buying the cheapest thing you can find. There are laptops out there that are only slightly more expensive than the XO and superior in prettymuch every way.

    If you really believe that the XO is the best thing since sliced bread then why is it that companies arent lining up to buy them for their employees? If it really was the best deal wouldnt everyone want them?