Slashdot Mirror
Why OLPC Struggles Against Educators, Big Business
afabbro writes "The current issue of BusinessWeek has an expansive article of the history of OLPC and why it has, to date, been a flop. Among the reasons: no preparation for the educational systems expected to use it, uncertain pedagogical theories, poor business management, competition from Microsoft/Intel, and no input from education professionals in designing the software. As BusinessWeek quotes one educational expert, 'The hackers took over,' and the applications are too complex for children to use. To date, 370,000 laptops have been shipped — a far cry from the original 150 million planned to be shipped by end of 2008."
tim russert is dead for god's sake! please, have a bit of humanity and take the time to recall his life and the gifts he gave us all with his insight into politics and broadcasting.
r.i.p. old boy.
If I was dictator of the U.S., Fox News would be my first
choice for Gitmo incarceration.
It's unlikely that this letter will win me many friends or even garner much attention. However, writing it is the only way I know to tell you a little bit about Fox News and its imprudent obiter dicta. The nitty-gritty of what I'm about to write is this: If we foreground the cognitive and emotional palette of Fox News's delusional editorials rather than their pathology we can enter vitally into its world. Why do we want to do that? Because Fox News's indifference only adds to the problem. But what, you may ask, does any of that have to do with the theme of this letter, viz., that its disquisitions are indistinguishable from the ones it condemns? I hardly know. But I will stake the immortality of my soul that Fox News's commentaries are like an enormous denominationalism-spewing machine. We must begin dismantling that structure. We must put a monkey wrench in its gears. And we must take steps toward creating an inclusive society free of attitudinal barriers because I like to speak of Fox News as "footling". That's a reasonable term to use, I assert, but let's now try to understand it a little better. For starters, everybody is probably familiar with the cliche that its avowal that it knows 100% of everything 100% of the time is all cant and hogwash. Well, there's a lot of truth in that cliche.
If you think about it you'll see that Fox News's adversarial litanies are merely a distraction. They're just something to generate more op-ed pieces, more news conferences for media talking heads, and more punditry from people like me. Meanwhile, Fox News's underlings are continuing their quiet work of advancing Fox News's real goal, which is to invent a new moral system that legitimizes its desire to send children to die as martyrs for causes that it is unwilling to die for itself. We have a choice. Either we let ourselves be led like lambs to the slaughter by Fox News and its shills or we weaken the critical links in Fox News's nexus of intransigent Dadaism. While I don't expect you to have much trouble making up your mind you should nevertheless consider that Fox News will probably never understand why it scares me so much. And it sincerely does scare me: Its remonstrations are scary, its inclinations are scary, and most of all, it twists every argument into some sort of "struggle" between two parties. Fox News unvaryingly constitutes the underdog party, which is what it claims gives it the right to promote the counter-productive op-ed pieces of repulsive purveyors of malice and hatred.
Fox News recently went through an extremism phase in which it tried repeatedly to bring discord, confusion, and frustration into our personal and public lives. In fact, I'm not convinced that this phase of its has entirely passed. My evidence is that to believe that without Fox News's superior guidance, we will go nowhere is to deceive ourselves.
Fox News would not hesitate to talk about you and me in terms that are not fit to be repeated if it felt it could benefit from doing so. Fox News wants you to believe that it acts in the name of equality and social justice. You should be wary of such claims. Be aware! Be skeptical! Think! Do not be diverted, deceived, or mesmerized by Fox News's homicidal solutions.
Fox News's planning to exploit issues such as the global economic crisis and the increase in world terrorism in order to instigate planet-wide chaos. Planet-wide chaos is its gateway to global tyranny, which will in turn enable it to create massive civil unrest. Fox News always demands instant gratification. That's all that is of concern to it; nothing else matters -- except maybe to render unspeakable and unthinkable whole categories of beliefs about power. I tell you this because Fox News can't fool me. I've met putrid knuckle-draggers before, so I know that Fox News maintains a "Big Brother" dossier of information about everyone it distrusts, to use as a potential weapon. Is your name listed in that dossier? This i
You know, it's not often that a trollbot gets things more-or-less right ... this is a big day for AI.
Ok, I think I need to give your troll a bit of a review. Consider this an intervention.
Ok, lets take the first sentence.
You are all full of crap.
Now this is a great example of an opening statement in a troll post, well done.
I can't suggest many improvements, although you might want to consider putting it all in capitals, or adding some exclamation marks next time.
Now for your second statement
I know that there are people that want these because they do not have the money that you clearly have.
Ok, you let yourself down here a little, since there is no clue as to my fiscal state in my post. Here's a hint, try to stay on topic with your troll for at least a couple of sentences, you probably lost a lot of your potential audience at this point.
Ok, now for your third statement
These were for a very good purpose, and I can't even believe that you bring up hacking with these.
Ok, back on topic, well done on that, but you have let yourself down somewhat by revealing a lack of understanding of the various uses for the term 'hacker'.
I recommend a little time on Wikipedia looking up the term. That should help you avoid this problem in the future, and may provide you with sufficient information for a really great put down next time.
And finally..
Shovel your crap, but these will not be in it.
Ok, your ending is reasonable, you start with an insult, that's a nice touch. However you then let yourself down by concluding with a sentence that doesn't seem to relate to your previous statements. I suggest that next time you end with an insult and resist the temptation to continue typing.
One last thing, you just got owned...
A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
Westlake, you have done an awful lot of Microsoft promotion and free software insult in the last year or so. Here are some of the whoppers:
Why do you do this in a Linux forum? Why don't you drift away to the MSDN or MySpace?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.