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Give One Get One Redux, OLPC XO-1 Now On Amazon
404 Clue Not Found writes "The One Laptop Per Child project's XO-1 laptop is once again available to the general public via its Give One Get One promotion, where $400 will buy two laptops, one for the purchaser and one for 'a child in the emerging world.' Having learned from their delivery and fulfillment headaches the first time around, this time they partnered with Amazon.com to handle shipping. But a year after its initial release, the market has become saturated with Eee-wannabe netbooks from every major manufacturer. Can the XO-1's charitable appeal, unique chassis and dual-mode screen compete with the superior performance and standard operating systems of its newer peers?"
If you want to donate a PC you can always just buy a single PC for $199 and not bother with getting one for yourself.
They never wanted to make a machine that can compete with the other laptops. They wanted to make one that'd be good for kids in a 3rd world countries. Not one that'd be great in your living room. The only reason to get one has always been the uniqueness of it, not it's specs.
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
If they just sold the thing for $200, they might get enough volume to get down to the $100 laptop.
The real problem with the OLPC, though, is that it's now a 3 year old design. The OLPC is being overtaken by commercial products.
"Can the XO-1's charitable appeal, unique chassis and dual-mode screen compete with the superior performance and standard operating systems of its newer peers?" Would there be Eee wanabees without the XO? The world is a big place, and products (hopefully) evolve with demand. XO is still a good idea and has served a useful purpose. I'm sure that if someone wants to send a competitor oversees to an underprivileged child, that's ok, too.
I'm not a human, but I play one on T.V.
People are charitable in small ways; A few dollars to a beggar. Copies of Windows XP for libraries. Buying a friend who's broke lunch. That kind of thing. But would you, say, pay 20% more at Best Buy to send a second iPod to a poor starving child in Africa? No. You'd go across the street to Super Electrono Mart and buy it there without the "charity tariff", and maybe use the extra money to buy that broke friend of yours some Burger King. You know, if you were feeling charitable. -_-
Charity isn't a selling point. Cost, reliability, performance -- those are selling points. They'll only be in business as long as they can stay ahead of the competition, otherwise the only thing this enterprise will be good for is tax write-offs and guilting government officials. Not to say there isn't money in that too... But it's not a business model that would survive free market forces.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Paper and pencils are one thing. Books are an entirely different beast.
Sure, you could get a lot of physical supplies for the cost of an XO and in that light it isn't a good deal.
The number of e-books and online information the xo can access versus dead tree books is the kicker. Size and weight matter for shipping, transport and delivery. A collection of bits is a lot easier to move around and copy than ink on paper.
Paper and pencils - a whole lot of both.
Books - now there's the clincher. With a internet-enabled XO (or any other computer), you can theoretically access any and all knowledge that's out there, including a whole lot of books (textbooks or other kinds). Now, if you had $199 to spend, could you buy enough books to give you the same variety of knowledge? Could you carry it with you as easily?
Ok, maybe you and your neighbor in the next hut get together - you buy some books, and he buys some others, and now you have access to both collections. But what if, one day you are interested in 19th century literature, and the next day introductory computer programming? Shall we ask a third neighbor to step in? What if you want to know what the latest commodity prices are, to figure out whether to sell your crop now or hold it for another week - what printed book would tell you that? Do you have access to today's newspaper in your village? Now, $199 dollars doesn't seem to go as far.
Scale it up to an entire country, where millions of dollars are available, and you can have a pretty good library that captures a good portion of human knowledge in books. But, now you have the problem of distribution - everyone from around the country has to come and get the books. There's also the problem that you only have or two copies of everything, so only one or two people at a time can access it.
Buy yourself an EeePC through regular channels and send a donation cheque/check to OLPC.
Or just send them a cheque...
Engineering is the art of compromise.
We have the OLPC to thank for this year's Netbook explosion, as manufacturers discovered that there was a real market for modestly spec'd machines in a tiny form factor. Unfortunately, the OLPC looks lame in comparison. It's a great example of how academic projects have difficulty competing in a commercial environment. And, no matter what idealists might proclaim, any time you get into large-scale manufacturing you are forced to operate in a commercial environment. Producing millions of machines "for academic use" requires the same skills as running a for-profit company. You need a sales staff to convince countries to buy the machines by the millions. You need financing for R&D and production. You need hardware and software engineers, and you need a clear roadmap.
Doing this stuff is tougher in academia, and OLPC was hamstrung by a heavy dose of ideology (we've gotta design really clever custom software, make it cute and bleeding-edge, etc.) that commercial manufacturers could side-step. As a result, the OLPC crew futzed around with a very ambitious software framework. They futzed about endlessly tweaking the hardware design. In comparison, Asus actually built a cheap little machine and threw it into the marketplace as a crude first try. It ignited the imagination of manufacturers and consumers alike. Asus is now on their third generation (I think... I've lost track) of netbooks in a little over a year, and others jumped into the fray as soon as they could get their hands on Intel's Atom processor. There is no way that OLPC could keep up with such an aggressive hardware program. The result is that their once revolutionary device now seems quaint.
"you can theoretically access any and all knowledge that's out there, including a whole lot of books (textbooks or other kinds)."
If you have internet access. and if those books are not protected and kept away from evil you for not buying them.
Finally, IF those books are in the language you can read.
using the magical, Billions and billions of books, are in fact not a reality for a third world kid sitting on a dirt floor 1200 miles away from the nearest starbucks and free wifi.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The issue is access
How many of us would have jobs if we were not computer literate, and how many of us started our computer literacy before we reached out teens years? Be it a teletype, a dumb terminal, or a microcomputer, how many of us were able to do significant things with computer because we had years to play with them? How would our lives be different if people had thought 'they are just playing with computers' and 'it isn't worth paying for such technology.' For myself, I grew up with seven segments displays, so I know how they work.
Like a tuppence for paper and string, a small amount for a computer and an occasional internet access can open up a world. Sure some will sell the machine. Most will just play games. But many will use it to learn. Download GIMP and draw. Download Maxima and calculate. Download qucs and build circuits. Download eclipse and program. Download novels and read. Download LaTex and write. Sure most of this can be done with paper and pencil, but where are the transferrable skills?
I am clearly talking about the above average student, but, talking to people from developing countries, these are the students that attend and succeed in many of the village schools. I can't imagine these students not using the tools to help them succeed. From the stories I hear they do not destroy books as first world students do. They do not throw away food knowing the government will supply them with more. And overall, they are not forced to waste their time at school sleeping when a field needs plowing.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Just curious... How do you think it would go over if those textbooks were digitized then put on the laptop?
I truly believe that here in Guatemala we could benefit from the OLPC. I want to get 2, because the true benefits come from having at least 2. Al the fun about sugar is the neighborhood.
Sure there is need for food, sure there is a need for infrastructure for many things. But being able to see the world, even from a small screen can definitely change your world view.
For me, nothing has shaped me, or my carreer that going abroad and studying in the US. Now I now that there is a better way for government to work. I know that my government has to change, and I have the power to change it. I could bring this knowledge to 1 child, even if it's through a small laptop. I'll do it.
How many pads of paper, pencils and books does $199 get? Maybe be of more use than a computer?
False equivalency. You can't video conference with a pencil. Or make (decent) music with a piece of paper. The OLPC's capacity for re-use is also somewhat superior.
I live and work in the South Pacific. Let me assure you that, while paper and pencils are in short supply, it's mostly because paper doesn't last very long in any useful state in a tropical climate.
The OLPC, on the other hand, is standing up quite well to the elements in the pilot project we're running here.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Given the 'bait-n-switch' move to Windows, the OLPC program has left a bad taste in my mouth. My OLPC sits unused in a pile of electronics gear that 'one of these days' I'll get around to offing on ebay or craigslist.
I liked the idea of it, I liked the technology of it, I really hate the idea of using it to introduce so much of the developing world to Windows. Can you imagine the issues we'll have with the net once the spam/bots manage to hide in the always-on routing chip of an OLPC?
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Hasn't it been hijacked by MS ?
The whole point of openness will be undone in the next version and they simply will get a cut down XP so that the best they can do is look for hided excel Easter eggs
I appreciate hearing your voice of experience - when theory and data disagree, go with the data.
I'm curious to know your other opinions on this - putting economics aside - I'm wondering if textbooks are less intimidating than a computer in that regime? Our kids have had so much tech for so long, I wonder if this isn't overlooked - and I don't know what it's like to be around non-tech driven kids. I done a LOT of foreign travel, but never to such a technological extreme environment as the one you're describing.
Also - theft / damage / reliability - a single textbook can get munged (I lost or screwed up a few when I was a kid) - and I was out a textbook. If all of one's knowledge resource are on a single device, then isn't that an opportunity for a single-point failure to have multiple consequences?
It's easy to imagine being you in Uganda - but when ImaginationLand is left behind, it's insanely difficult to visualize a place I've never been and experiences I've never had - for me, anyway. Thanks in advance for any further light you may find time to shed on this.
I think that the OLPC folks might say the PC in addition to books - but as Bucky Fuller pointed out, a great many things would change were resources less scarce.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
The problem is in the phrase "connecting to ..."
The modem I'm using right now (which has an upload speed of maybe 200 bps and a download speed right now--and this is the non-peak middle of the night speed-- of 7 kbps) costs 90,000/= per a month which is a typical 3 month salary here (I made dinner for five people tonight for less than 1,000/=). Schools have no money to buy internet access (I've been to only one school so far that had it and it was WOEFULLY slower than my current connection). One possible solution might be to get a group of families together to purchase one and pay for it jointly (the purchase of a modem is currently 10 months typical salary). Many of these kids get one meal a day and their parents have trouble affording that, I really just don't see this happening soon. Also, I don't think that educational sites are necessarily a great replacement for textbooks, but I'll admit that I'm ill informed on the subject and you'll probably make me insert my foot in my mouth over that comment =D.
It may be that laptops are in the future for this area and they might be an aid to education but I just don't see them as a silver bullet.
I think before something like this would be viable here a serious amount of retraining for teachers and staff would be required alongside community based projects that involved the parents of the kids and lots and lots of funding. In the meantime it would really be (maybe I should say, Until that happens it really be much more) useful to get some textbooks for the kids so they can learn.
You can guarantee that M$ will not upgrade them if they can't even run windows XP out of the box. The issue is that Windows doesn't run on open firmware, which is the default for OLPC.