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2nd Generation "$100 Laptop" Will Be an E-Book Reader

Posted by timothy on from the xo-is-a-nice-reader-anyhow dept.

waderoush writes "At a conference sponsored by the One Laptop Per Child Foundation this morning, OLPC founder unveiled the design for the foundation's second-generation laptop. It's actually not a laptop at all — it's a dual-screen e-book reader (we've got pictures). Negroponte said the foundation hopes that the cost of the new device, which is scheduled for production by 2010, can be kept to $75, in part by using low-cost displays manufactured for portable DVD players."

59 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Bye bye books by 1155 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bye bye books. We'll miss you!

    Maybe schools in the states can get these and stop spending my hard earned cash on books. Oh wait, they already paid for them. I used the same book my mom used in high school (her name was on it!).

    1. Re:Bye bye books by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, it is if she were a victim of abstinence-only education which, in addition to being boring and therefor not helpful, also fails to teach kids to put on a damned condom, then it would be the school district's fault.

      or Bush's... whichever option is worth more karma.

    2. Re:Bye bye books by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Even if the schools did spend money on these devices, there would be no content to put on them. The same problem exists for the original OLPC project. Luckily they had Open Source software, and were able to get a working machine with no software cost, but I still don't think there's a lot out there in free textbooks. It's a wonder that the US Government just doesn't hire a few people to write some textbooks that they would use in their schools. For gradeschool and even highschool, the material is simple enough that it wouldn't take that much to get the job done, and then they could have textbooks for the cost of the paper, or if they used ebook readers, then copies would be free. Is there any particular reason textbooks are bought from third parties instead of just written once and used in all the schools?

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:Bye bye books by j-beda · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have thought the same myself - surely basic texts need not change much from year to year, and big markets like Texas and California have to spend enough on textbooks that the cost of writing them "in-house" would be cheaper than purchasing them.

    4. Re:Bye bye books by xSauronx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Textbooks are clearly a lucrative business, good luck getting enough people to care about the costs to overcome whatever lobby various publishers would put together to keep the status quo.

      --
      By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. -- George Carlin
    5. Re:Bye bye books by digitalgiblet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hmm. Are you sure you want the government writing the textbooks?

      Currently local governments (or at least state governments in some cases) SELECT the textbooks, but there are options. There isn't that much competition, but in this case ANY competition is a good thing. Government written and mandated textbooks sound pretty scary to me...

    6. Re:Bye bye books by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      nope. it will never happen. Professors and their desire to rape the students by publishing slight revisions of their drivel year after year for insane prices are what keeps ebooks from being common.

      If I could carry my entire semesters books in one reader I would be in heaven. All college students would love this.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    7. Re:Bye bye books by mr_mischief · · Score: 2, Informative

      The form factor is that of a dual-screened eBook, but they have a popup touch-screen keyboard as an application. It's a computer, kinda like a super-sized Nintendo DS. There are pictures of if accepting typed input, of it being held like a book, and of it laying flat like a board game between two kids.

      I know the site listed in the summary is almost gone under the load, but there are lots of sites with news and pictures if you Google for "2nd generation OLPC". Two of them (spread the load!) are Laptop Magazine and GotteBeMobile, both of which are responding well as of right now.

    8. Re:Bye bye books by mhall119 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Google open textbook and you'll find lots of sources and initiatives for free educational texts.

      --
      http://www.mhall119.com
    9. Re:Bye bye books by digitalgiblet · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Government written and mandated textbooks sound pretty scary to me... Is it for an actual reason or just the usual nonsense paranoia where we have to hate/fear anything that the government does without any rational reason to do so?

      Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean the government isn't brainwashing you via their "official" textbooks.

      Be careful what you ask for.

    10. Re:Bye bye books by lbgator · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Check out WikiBooks. They aren't quite there yet, but some of their stuff is quite good - and being a wiki, your inputs are encouraged.

      With cheap laptops/ebook readers on the horizon, and projects like WikiBooks / Project Gutenberg I am hopeful that we are only a few years from prolific material availability.

      Also, slightly off topic - but since you mentioned schools I'd like to refer you to Lockhart's Lament. Do we even really need text books?

    11. Re:Bye bye books by servognome · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why does it have to be all bound up nicely? In college many of my "books" were professor notes that were essentially photocopies printed out on plain paper with cheap plastic binding - cost maybe $5.
      Have students pay for the printing and the taxpayers pay for the content.

      --
      D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
    12. Re:Bye bye books by Arterion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Some students can't even pay for lunch. How are they supposed to pay for printing their books, too?

      --
      "That which does not kill us makes us stranger." -Trevor Goodchild
    13. Re:Bye bye books by value_added · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, it is if she were a victim of abstinence-only education which, in addition to being boring and therefor not helpful, also fails to teach kids to put on a damned condom, then it would be the school district's fault.

      You've got to look at the bright side of life.

      Abstinence-only education tends to encourage casual oral sex (frequent, one would hope) as a substitute for losing one's virginity. Or making babies.

      Who could be against more blowjobs? Not me.

    14. Re:Bye bye books by AmishElvis · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not sure I like the idea of the government being the one to decide what my child learns in school. I know they do already to an extent with standardized tests, but actually letting government write the textbooks seems dangerous. It seems like it would lead to a lot of sugar coating of history. Also, I'm pretty sure we'd find "the cost of the paper" to be pretty expensive. Government is incapable of doing things cheaply.

    15. Re:Bye bye books by Ana10g · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Currently local governments (or at least state governments in some cases) SELECT the textbooks, but there are options. Which is a dreadful disaster in many cases. Just look at Kansas and the creationists polluting local school districts to get their nonsense put into schools. While I agree that having the creationists polluting local school districts is a bad thing, this wouldn't solve it. The Kansas state government, in this case, would just write the textbooks in such a way that the creationists are still polluting the curriculum.

      There isn't that much competition, but in this case ANY competition is a good thing. Yeah, you either spend $0 on one book or $145 on the other book, if there even is a second book available in the subject, that's basically identical. Well, actually, using an E-Book in this situation wouldn't be free. It would be free to distribute and publish, sure, but not to write. I'd be really surprised if you could find someone (especially a state employee) to write an entire textbook for free.
      --
      just an analog boy living in a digital age.
    16. Re:Bye bye books by Rogue+Haggis+Landing · · Score: 2, Informative

      nope. it will never happen. Professors and their desire to rape the students by publishing slight revisions of their drivel year after year for insane prices are what keeps ebooks from being common.

      FWIW, the textbook "upgrade treadmill" of constant small revisions is driven by publishers, not professors. The majority of professors are not textbook authors, and my experience working in university libraries is that a lot of them work pretty hard to keep the costs to their students down.

      But the publishers want to put out a new version every year or two, and I can't exactly blame them. Otherwise, their new sales would be completely overwhelmed by the used market. If the majority of students resell their Econ 10 textbooks it doesn't take too many years until there aren't any sales of new textbooks. So the constant small changes. I don't like the effect of it, but the reasoning is absolutely clear. Just another small miracle of capitalism!

    17. Re:Bye bye books by CodeBuster · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The cost is not just in the writing but also in the peer review, editing, and re-checking of facts to ensure accuracy and completeness. That is why really good textbooks are relatively more expensive than their page count, material, and binding might suggest.

    18. Re:Bye bye books by LordVader717 · · Score: 2, Informative

      It isnt the Kansas state government thats screwing things up, its the local districts. I doubt they will be willing to write whole textbooks.

    19. Re:Bye bye books by jmorris42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > Textbooks are clearly a lucrative business...

      Exactly. You could get the top experts to put out free ebook texts that were total works of art, where not a single complaint could be lodged against them and school districts would still buy texts from the usual suspects. Too many bribes to overcome.

      Think it through. Go examime what states (just in the US) spend on texts and imagine how much less exensive it would be for them to pool a fraction of that money into paying quality experts to write really good sections/chapters/units/etc. on every topic, illustrated by top notch artists and have all the supplementary materials created, all as works for hire and then released into the public domain as official government publications. Then each school district could pick and choose the chapters they want and either have em published on demand or loaded onto ebook readers. Either option would be far less expensive than what they currently pay. And since only the chapters actually being used would be printed, kids wouldn't be lugging around so much dead weight.

      Doing it this way would mean that after the initial expense was sunk only minor revisions would be needed in successive years. But it would be a net financial win in the FIRST set of textbooks issued to students and all of the current fights over textbook content would instantly become local issues amendable to the local political process, thus the warfare would end.

      But what I just proposed is totally self evident, so that it doesn't happen and has no realistic chance of happening means the fix is in.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    20. Re:Bye bye books by timbck2 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'll put a plug in here for the Distributed Proofreading Project [www.pgdp.net], a volunteer, web-based organization that processes books that have gone into the public domain into e-texts suitable for Project Gutenberg.

      It's a great project, and kinda fun (for geeks like us).

      --
      Absurdity: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. -- Ambrose Bierce
    21. Re:Bye bye books by mollymoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The form factor is that of a dual-screened eBook, but they have a popup touch-screen keyboard as an application.

      Arrrgh! There was some future computing expo featured on /. a few weeks ago that was full of touchscreen keyboards as well. It's a horrible idea. There's no tactile feedback and no give to absorb the impact, so your fingertips will take much more of a beating than using a conventional keyboard. Touchscreen keyboards are fine for, say, typing a few numbers at a checkout, but for anything like serious input they're just an awful idea.

      I never really understood why the OLPC project insists on reinventing the wheel. The mesh networking and screen were impressive tech, but why reinvent the computer desktop in the form of Sugar? Now they're going with an untried form factor. Just build a decent, inexpensive, robust laptop and ship the damn thing. I find it more than a little patronising that kids in less developed countries apparently can't be expected to use similar software to kids in the first world. When they grow up chances are they're gonna be using Windows, Gnome or KDE (or Aqua, if they're incredibly rich by local standards). They're all more like each other than they are like Sugar. I say start 'em young.

      --
      Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
    22. Re:Bye bye books by mc_secular · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, the corruption problems (kickbacks from vendors; revolving door hiring policies, etc) are way bigger and more real than creationism or spooky government control. I work in an urban school district, and while creationism might be the textbook problem in Kansas, we spend a ton of money on textbooks recommended by insiders who will later go on to work for the vendors. Needless to say, that $ could go towards other things. The XOXO would be awesome for our district.

    23. Re:Bye bye books by moosesocks · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I agree with you to a very large degree.

      However, the revolution doesn't have to come with eBooks. Many schools make extensive use of publishers such as Dover Books, who specialize in printing out-of-copyright material very inexpensively.

      If good public-domain textbooks were available, an entire industry would quickly spring up to print these books as cheaply as possible. Printing doesn't have to be expensive, and a good book can last through several generations of student... I've been a big critic of the OLPC project, primarily because these free texts don't yet exist, and because their existance would allow us to print dozens of books for less than the cost of an XO.

      Many educators are fed up with the "New Maths" that have been shoved in their faces, and I imagine that there (hopefully) will be some sort of grassroots effort to build a solid base of public-domain educational texts. Although I wouldn't be terribly keen on the government literally "writing history", I'm sure many state governments would be willing to fund such an effort.

      Frankly, I preferred the old texbooks, and the traditional methods of teaching to the new stuff that was forced on us. Writing a textbook that teaches basic concepts, and provides a few homework questions for reinforcement isn't rocket science. "The rest" should be left up to the Instructor to fine-tune to their own individual students.

      Also, thanks to Wikipedia, much of the framework is already in place. It should be fairly trivial to restructure (and verify) Wikipedia content into a series of educational textbooks, given that most of the hard work has already been done.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    24. Re:Bye bye books by kesuki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      OLPC is basically a way to stick big bills to small countries for 'educational laptops'

      in TFA OLPC 'complains' about how many countries thought they should have designed the whole thing around cellphone chipsets and displays (and inputs) to get even cheaper costs, and their argument is 'cellphones aren't laptops' typical imperialistic ideals...

      all you need is something that can display informational text that should be able to be changed slightly each year, and for each region...

      and possibly some way for the end user to take quizzes or tests on the material they read....

      India wanted $10 laptops, and they made their own program, and i have no doubt they actually used small cheap processors like the ones in cell phones to make their project. they only got down to $50 last i heard, but still OLPC were $200 devices, and this one 'will be $75 in 2010' India expects their 'device' to be a lot cheaper by 2010. (though there is little known about the project in India, I assume they will try to use as much cheap cell phone tech as possible)

      they also find the OLPC program to be suspect, why would you target grade school children in less developed countries to use expensive laptops that could be sold on the open market for three times the price paid by their countries for them as educational tools...

      why teach children in poor countries on computers, when it's not even standard in developed nations? I definitely agree with India's problems with the OLPC project, consider the countries that have welcomed the project,

      "Rwanda (G1G1 pilot)[42]
      Americas
      Haiti (G1G1 pilot)
      Mexico (50,000 laptops bought by billionaire Carlos Slim)
      Peru (270,000 laptops bought, now receiving laptops)[43]
      United States of America (15,000 laptops bought by Birmingham, Alabama)[44]
      Uruguay (100,000 laptops bought, now receiving laptops)[45]
      Asia
      Afghanistan (G1G1 pilot)
      Cambodia (G1G1 pilot)
      Mongolia (G1G1 pilot, now receiving 10,000 laptops"

      Nigeria was going to order a million, but then elections were held and they haven't solidified the contract, Nigeria the number one source of Internet crime, was the most interested in OLPC.... bah, there is no reason for less developed nations to buy laptops to train kids, it's all a con to get those countries to go into debt to buy things that won't help their economies, that will do nothing but create a cast of children who want fancy electronic gadgets that they can never afford... unless they're as corrupt as Nigeria and create a class of criminals who focus on stealing as much as possible from developed nations...

      if OLPC was serious about creating bare-bone education devices they would have modified cellphone style devices, instead of starting around a general purpose CPU with a complex operating system and complicated displays etc etc...

      computers were originally designed around micro controllers for microwave ovens, basic text parsing and display is easy and cheap if you don't encumber the device with a fancy OS...

      and for 'interactive textbooks' especially when you're targeting less developed countries, should focus on being as simple (and as cheap) as possible. OLPC isn't about bringing electronic textbooks to everyone, it's about making fancy electronic devices and teaching impressionable children to desire them...

      --
      https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  2. laptop is an e-book reader? by hansraj · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have some beach-front estate to sell. It is not near any beach and it is actually a chair.

  3. Obligatory by Uncle+Focker · · Score: 2, Interesting

    But can it run Linux?

    1. Re:Obligatory by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Funny

      But can it run Linux?
      No, but it's been certified Vista Ready, and they haven't even built one yet.
      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  4. Wrong summary and title by Etrias · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you had read the article, the original, version 1 of the OLPC laptop will be $100. This new version has no price set in it's unveiling.

    1. Re:Wrong summary and title by PaintyThePirate · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Negroponte says the cost of this 2nd-generation device, which uses dual-touch screens with 16:9 aspect ratios, will be kept to $75."

      The plan is $75. That doesn't mean it's any more realistic than the original $100 goal for the XO-1. I'd be surprised if they could get it below $150 at launch. The only way $75 is possible is if companies are donating hardware to it.

      --
      eclecti.cc
  5. Soo... by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OLPC's goals have gone from providing a platform that allows full intellectual expression and room from growth and development, to running XP so maybe kids and type a book report or something, to now merely being a way to passively consume printed media?

    And last week I thought that this project couldn't get any farther from good.

    1. Re:Soo... by PaintyThePirate · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because it's shaped like a book, it must be a book, right?

      This is not a book. It's, I imagine, going to have an x86 cpu and an OS capable of running Activities already written for the XO-1, plus anything else imaginable.

      Negroponte's presentation showed two kids playing pong on one laptop and suggested the same could be done with games like chess or checkers, as one example. It is a laptop with two touchscreen displays, which is nothing short of amazing.

      --
      eclecti.cc
    2. Re:Soo... by PaintyThePirate · · Score: 5, Informative

      Oh, I see where the confusion was. As usual, the Slashdot headline and summary are at best vague, and more likely completely misleading. There is better information here: http://blog.laptopmag.com/first-look-olpc-xo-generation-20.

      That article also contains the news that Give 1 Get 1 will be restarting in August or September.

      --
      eclecti.cc
    3. Re:Soo... by gad_zuki! · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly. i played with an XO for the first time about three months ago and as I held it I thought "Why isnt this thing in the form factor of an e-book?" So much real estate is wasted on trying to make it a general purpose computer. Kids, in real life, wont be hacking code 90% of the time, they'll be reading ebooks for their studies. This form factor is a lot smarter for how these students are actually going to use them.

      Heck, Im still pissed there's no affordable e-book reader out there. I already have a couple of nice laptops and a nice desktop. I dont need another machine, but I would love a cheap (sub 150 dollar) e-book reader that accepted all sorts of formats and was easy on the eyes. I dont know why sony and amazon think the price point for these things is 300+ dollars. It 99 dollars or less. If the XO people do this it will be pretty revolutionary.

  6. Re:Mass Production by Uncle+Focker · · Score: 2, Funny

    and the next generation only 3 years later, in 20010, I think 20010 is more than 3 years after 2007.
  7. that's not the only factor by sootman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Negroponte said the foundation hopes that the cost of the new device, which is scheduled for production by 2010, can be kept to $75, in part by using low-cost displays manufactured for portable DVD players...
     
    ... and in part by waiting until 2010 to make it. In two years you'll be able to buy a used first-gen iPhone, iPod touch, or Kindle for $75. At least he's aware of it: "Negroponte said the foundation plans to bring out the second-generation device by 2010. By that time, he added, the cost of the original XO Laptop will also have been brought below $100."
     
    Also, the "low-cost displays manufactured for portable DVD players" bit worries me some, since those displays don't have a particularly high pixel density. Who wants a 7, 8, 9" screen to read from that's only ~720x480? Yeah, it'll work, but it'll be far from ideal.

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  8. Power usage? by Coopjust · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Doesn't the OLPC use a lower power screen? How does the battery life with these cheaper, power hungry screens? It would kind of defeat the purpose of this if you could only use it for an hour without plugging it in...

    1. Re:Power usage? by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Informative

      Doesn't the OLPC use a lower power screen? How does the battery life with these cheaper, power hungry screens? It would kind of defeat the purpose of this if you could only use it for an hour without plugging it in... The system will employ the dual indoor-and-sunlight displays, which was pioneered by former OLPC CTO Mary Lou Jepsen. The design will provide a right and left page in vertical format, a hinged laptop in horizontal format, and a flat, two-screen continuous surface for use in tablet mode. âoeYounger children will be able to use simple keyboards to get going, and older children will be able to switch between keyboards customized for applications as well as for multiple languages,â the press release reads. The device will also reduce power consumption to 1 watt.
      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    2. Re:Power usage? by Grisha · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Interesting, given that they aren't touch screens... So he makes an analogy to portable DVD player screens, then says they plan on using OLPC displays, and _then_ says they'll be touch screens.

      So how can this possibly be had for $20 a screen? that's $20+OLPC Screen Cost + Touch Screen Cost = ???

      He has some effed up math.

  9. Fool me once, shame on you by mlwmohawk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Fool me twice, shame on me.

    I have nothing but rage and contempt for Negroponte and the OLPC project. I will not support a project that betrays its contributors by abandoning the principles that motivated them.

    Windows on the OLPC is an outrage and clear evidence that the OLPC project is no longer about helping children and only about making money and creating a new form "Microsoft Tax" for the poor and developing nations.

    Its bullshit. Its like giving money and time to a charity called "one meal per child" and find out it has decided to use your contribution to bring dollar off coupons for McDonalds happy meals.

    1. Re:Fool me once, shame on you by mlwmohawk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Really? Rage and contempt? Over a value priced computer aimed at educating kids who otherwise would never get to use ANY computer?

      Yes, helping Microsoft expand its monopoly is bad for the world. Its bad for the industry. The amount of money and control that Microsoft exercises because of its monopoly has ruined the ISO, destroyed companies, and kept back innovation in the marketplace.

      Selling "Windows" when they could give away free software is not a good will gesture.

    2. Re:Fool me once, shame on you by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Really? Rage and contempt? Over a value priced computer aimed at educating kids who otherwise would never get to use ANY computer?

      As has been pointed out repeatedly, "educating kids" is an utter impossibility when OLPC+Windows combination is involved. The term you are looking for is "indoctrination". It is so for many, many reasons mentioned already a million times here, not the least of them the lack of any useful free "educational" software for XP, never you mind the storage for it on the OLPC.

      Using "ANY" computer, "education" does not make. If that was the case, a far more cost effective way then the OLPC would be to simply ship used throw-away computers that clog our city dumps here (some of them far more powerful then the OLPC will ever be) to Africa in bulk.

      You are confusing granting haphazard access to some fraction of the Western commercial technology, which requires a (very expensive) ecosystem of other commercial technology to be useful and which will never be available at the prices those kids can afford, with "educating" them. This is a purely corporatist view of the world and if it were up to people like you, education in the West would consist of giving kids a brand-name calculator (with no instructions) and calling it a "mathematics and electronics course" and as the parent poster insightfully mentioned, "a cooking course" would consist of a bunch of McDonalds coupons, etc and so on.

      And there is of course the wee little bit of the matter of active mis-representations Negroponte has engaged in over the years on behalf of the OLPC project, but I guess that is far too esoteric for you to grasp.

      You should see a mental health practicioner and get your priorities in order. Your stupidity is clouding your view of reality.

      In the light of the actual facts you should take your own advice on this.

    3. Re:Fool me once, shame on you by mlwmohawk · · Score: 3, Informative

      No it is clear evidence that the momentum for Windows can't be ignored

      Windows has no momentum, it is an obstacle. Vista is a joke. People are sticking with XP. Macintosh is starting to out-sell Wintell on high end desktops.

      The *only* reason Windows hasn't been abandoned by its disgruntled users is because of Microsoft's continued illegal actions in maintaining its monopoly. All too many users say "I hate it, but have to use Windows."

      There is *no* practical reason to put Windows on the OLPC. It brings nothing to the table but additional cost. The only purpose for it is to satisfy a vengeful and corrupt monopolist.

    4. Re:Fool me once, shame on you by mlwmohawk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Your complaints and corrections would only shift things around, not change them.

      The economic facts are against your argument. Assuming the market stays constant and additional competition does not increase the marketplace (as almost always happens), taking the gross and net income of Microsoft, and divide it across 6 companies, 3 OS companies roughly balanced between 25% and 30% market share, and 3 office product companies, again, 25% to 30% market share.

      The six companies would employ more people and have a lower profitability. The lower profitability of the companies would mean that they spend more and cause more circulation in the economy and decentralize and distribute the wealth better.

      More people with more wealth means a better economy.

      With multiple companies competing, there would be competition, competition would mean actively supporting your competitors formats so that you can hope to take their users. Competition would mean standards that enabled the various vendors to interact, because they would have too.

      Startup companies would have a much lower barrier to entry in entrenched markets.

      That's what capitalism is all about and why a monopoly destroys it.

    5. Re:Fool me once, shame on you by mlwmohawk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Spare me.
      I don't think I can.

      In 1980 the 5 MB Winchester hard disk drive would have set you back about $2000.

      In 1970 a 5 MB RKO drive was about $10,000. And guess what, Windows wasn't needed for the price drop.

      The Geek builds his Linux PC using commodity parts designed for the mass market Windows platform. Apple builds the Mac out of commodity parts designed for the Windows platform.

      In 1978 I build my first computer out of commodity parts too, no Windows needed (or DOS for that matter.)

      The concepts of commodity parts and rapidly accelerating technology development lowering prices is the nature of technology. I remember 256K DRAM chip prices sky high and falling fast, no Windows involved.

      The fast track is the Windows implementation. The Windows driver.

      Only because the caustic Microsoft monopoly. If there was competition, there would more standards in place and innovation would probably been even faster, or at least less wasteful.

  10. right, so? by SuperBanana · · Score: 4, Funny

    Negroponte said the foundation hopes that the cost of the new device, which is scheduled for production by 2010, can be kept to $75

    Is that 75 Real Dollars, or $75 Negroponte Distortion Field Dollars? And it'd be nice if the press actually took a stab at how realistic those "hopes" are- I mean, I hope that someday I'll shit strawberry-flavored lollipops while driving in my flying car, on autopilot while I bonk my supermodel wife...

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
    1. Re:right, so? by servognome · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Given how far the US dollar has slipped against other currencies $150 laptop would be close to a $100 laptop in 2000. Parts and labor in Asia is becoming more expensive when priced in US dollars.

      --
      D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
  11. WTF by steveha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm just confused by this. My initial gut reaction is that Negroponte wants to completely scrap what came before, and put his own stamp on the project. But that makes no sense, because it was his project, and his stamp was on it already.

    They will be able to sell this new device for under $100, this time for sure. Okay, I'll agree that using standard DVD player screens might help. But why two screens then? Isn't the screen the most power-hungry part of the device? The OLPC screen has special power-management features; won't standard screens burn more power? And won't having two screens double the power?

    The article spoke of "dual touch screens". At first I thought this meant "multi-touch screens" but now I think it just means both screens will be touch screens. Even so, how do you make a standard DVD player screen into a touch screen?

    And once again. Why two screens? Yes, it looks more like a book. Big deal. This dual-screen design has a hinge! It's got to be easier and cheaper to make a slab tablet device, with maybe a hinged cover (note that a cover has no electrical connections and need not break a waterproof seal).

    So, no keyboard; just an onscreen virtual keyboard. I'm guessing no onboard camera, since none was mentioned and they are being aggressive about price. Not one word about openness of software stack... Negroponte just doesn't care anymore, I guess.

    The OLPC project hasn't just jumped the shark. They went out and found a new shark and they are jumping over it now.

    steveha

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  12. OLPC has to change its name by whtmarker · · Score: 3, Funny

    OEBPC doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

  13. How about spending some time on the education part by no_opinion · · Score: 3, Insightful

    New hardware is nice and all, but it's really of minor importance compared to the elements of the platform that should be there to help kids learn. I think there's a reason that the press never covers how fantastic and ground breaking the educational aspect is. The technology is interesting, but as far as I can tell, the educational aspect is an afterthought.

  14. Not an eBook Reader at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Despite all the knee-jerk reactions (including the author of the article) to this being a glorified e-Book... it is NOT. It is clearly much more than that

    It is a functional laptop in an eBook-like shell. Just look at the pictures. There is a pic of a kid holding the thing like a laptop with a virtual keyboard on the bottom display, and a game being played on the top display. This indicates that it has much more than eBook capabilities, and likely incorporates multi-touch capability.

  15. Smart by Yurka · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, that's certainly a way to deal with all those XO keyboards falling apart - not having a keyboard at all.

    --
    I can assure you, the best way to get rid of dragons is to have one of your own.
  16. Bruce Perens vindicated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Bruce Perens predicted this:

    The purpose of OLPC is not to give third world kids a laptop. It's to give them books. You see, those third world countries don't have an annual budget of $100/student to buy kids textbooks. So, OLPC is an efficient means to deliver e-texts to those kids. ... Microsoft will partner with textbook publishers to make free or low-cost but time-locked and otherwise DRM-encumbered electronic versions of their textbooks available on OLPC. People associated with the project denied it, now it looks certain he was right.
  17. Another great idea from Mary Lou Jepsen by davide+marney · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ignore the slashdot headline. Read Mary Lou Jepsen's blog, http://www.pixelqi.com/ for the technical vision.

    Mary Lou's vision of the next generation of display technology is:

    - Daylight readable
    - Color
    - Fast enough for video
    - Embedded Wireless
    - Touchscreen
    - Embedded solid-state storage
    - Extremely low power (1 watt)
    - Embedded battery
    - Battery life measured in days, not hours
    - Embedded processor

    Mary Lou's point is that with a machine like this, who needs a heavy-weight OS? Just about everything one needs on the OS side would already be in the hardware.

    These are clearly the ideas behind what Nicholas is describing.

    --
    "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
  18. Re:I've lost confidence by jmorris42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    > It saddens me that my $200 is going to be going toward 67 Windows licenses instead of something useful.

    The truly sad part is that it is just so obvious that the fix is in at OLPC. If it were true that they were having trouble getting acceptance because of Linux, and that a 'product' OS was needed to close deals, I can believe that part. The real world has idiots in it. But Steve offered em OS X for zero dollars and they refused on the ground it wasn't open source.

    And I remember the way they argued so irrationally when anyone suggested a non x86 CPU to lower power consumption when the ONLY reason to put an x86 in a machine like that was to keep the door open to Windows.

    --
    Democrat delenda est
  19. who is he going to get in bed with now? by nguy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, after he sold OLPC 1.0 to Microsoft, how can he trump that for OLPC 2.0? Easy: sell out to Amazon. The device may be $75, but the DRM will be priceless. Instead of running Sugar on Linux, it sounds like it may run Amazon's reader on WinCE.

    Seriously, Mr. Negroponte, make up your mind what you want people to volunteer for. An eBook reader? A constructionist learning device? A low-cost laptop to sell stripped down Windows versions to the developing world? When you figure it out, maybe the volunteers will come back.

    But don't bet on it.

  20. barking up the wrong tree by nguy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nice theory. Except: the professors assigning the textbooks aren't usually the ones making the money from them.

    Like it or not, good textbooks cost a lot of money because few people can write them and students are willing and able to pay those prices.

    Why are few people able to write them? Because tenure committees and university boards demand publications and grant money and that's what professors have to spend their time on. Writing a textbook is a career limiting move, and professors simply don't have the time to create their own teaching materials from scratch, given all the other obligations imposed on them.

    If you don't like that, go to a teaching oriented school, and/or complain to your university and state legislators that they should set different priorities.

  21. Game Changer -- in Bizarro World by BookRead · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Working for a textbook publisher I can say that no one is currently worried about eBook options for textbooks (although I've been trying to tell them it's coming). OLPC seemed to me to be a potential game changer for education but I think it's lost its way. Falling into the MS reality distortion field was the first mistake. I think the proposed form factor is interesting but I think the hardware target is lame and uninspired.

    The big problem is that they leave out the content. Creating textbook content is key and requires a serious investment to match the curriculums. Yes, textbooks are expensive (and profitable), but much of the cost is in creating the content and customizing the content for each school. The problems with eBooks isn't the hardware it's having enough content. Amazon is semi-close with Kindle. Reading for pleasure will likely never happen with eBooks but it could work for education with enough of a commitment.

    Negroponte's close but, as usual, the Media Lab orientation is light on content and high on concept.

  22. opportunity by zogger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the entire project needs to be forked away from laptop.org, both hardware and software. Then it could just be an "anyone who wants one" little machine, like through a co-op for bulk hardware purchases. Most of the design specs are available and near as I can see the really expensive bits involve the display. which might be fixable. It needs to be reintroduced with the original idea of onboard power generation (or at least a foot pedal), and just use a low bloat normal linux distro for the software and dump sugar as reinventing the wheel..