Slashdot Mirror
India Will Show Its $10 Laptop Prototype
Tech Ticker writes "The Indian Government last year announced the development of a cheap $10 laptop, but was later rectified as $100 laptop. Now the government has announced that HRD minister Arjun Singh will unveil the prototype of a Rs. 500 ($10) computer. The computer is developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. No specifications were revealed but DNA, a daily newspaper, has mentioned that it will be small and portable, will feature Wi-Fi, LAN, and expandable memory, and will operate on 2 watts of power."
... a $1000 beowulf cluster of those!
Sorry, had to be done...
I gave up sigs almost a year ago.
Great scott! The only thing capable of generating 2 watts is a battery.
But they hope for a lower price with mass production.
"At this stage, the price is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down," R P Agarwal, secretary, higher education said.
Meanwhile, this laptop is still priced at $12.25.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
That is a cheap graphing calculator!
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
well, they can save money by insourcing the software development...
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Who can they outsource?
Included will be a voucher for your trial version of Duke Nukem Forever.
Also, a calendar going up to 2050 specifying exactly the year of "Linux on the Desktop."
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I was thinking Etch-A-Sketch, and second hand at that.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It's a misuse of the term labtop.
I really don't know how they could have misused that term.
I thought "third world" was outdated terminology.
I'm sure "developing countries" is the modern, PC, terminology.
I'm sure "non-viable markets" is the modern, Mac terminology.
The sheer hubris of this announcement made me wonder: When did M. Night Shyamalan start making computers?
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
Let me guess,you watched Slumdog Millionaire,right?
A $10 notebook is yet more proof that free markets, competition and Globalization will ensure the future strength prosperity of Western Civilization!
But can we get that price lower? I think we *can*!
1.) First, we have to trim the lowest 10% of performers from every organization. (Pay bonuses to executives for doing this effectively.) Tip: trim Human Resources last -- we need them to do the hatchet work while senior management strokes the shareholders and analysts.
2.) Repeat 1.) a few times and what will remain is a lean and absolutely *amazing* company of workers who do more error-free work with a facial muscle spasm than other schmucks do in 6 months with both hands and 20/20 vision!
3.) Next, we find cheaper workers. India's labour costs are a big part of that $10. Whom will we get to do the work? EASY... we train bonobos. We don't even have to feed them much -- those suckers are pretty lean.
4.) Sack all Testing and Quality Assurance people. With our lean, superproductive staff and well-trained bonobos, we won't need to test. And if there's a problem, we'll silence talk of it with legal threats and "promise" to fix the bug(s) in a future release. (Ha ha!)
5.) Squeeze as much free money as we can out of the government. If the government is Pro-Business, say we're creating new jobs in a cutting-edge market. If the government is Green, say we're saving the bonobos. If it's a coalition, say whatever you have to say no matter how self-contradictory or idiotic.
6.) Spend cash from 5.) on bribes to steal someone else's technology. R&D is for losers.
7.) Throw the product over the wall and pump up the advertising! If it fails, lock the workers out and give senior management a round of bonuses. But it won't fail, because using the above strategy, I think we have the $10 notebook down to $2.35.
Unless of course "$10" is a typo.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
> I don't see why Negroponte's OLPC project didn't succeed before.
the N word
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
The original would likely have been Chinese to begin with, so being a Chinese knockoff wouldn't necessarily mean anything. :)
yet a laptop with a quarter of the power and less functionality can't be built for less than 200$ for the OLPC.
I don't know. The more I hear about this "laptop" (portable, operating off of 2 watts, expandable memory...) the more I'm convinced it's the real deal.
Soon, all Indian children will have calculators.