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OLPC's XO-1.75 Laptop To Have a Multitouch Screen
angry tapir writes "One Laptop Per Child has revealed it is adding a multitouch screen to the upcoming XO-1.75 laptop and is modifying software to take advantage of the new hardware. The XO-1.75 with a touch-sensitive 8.9-inch screen will start shipping next year. The laptop will run on an Arm processor and is the successor to the current XO-1.5 laptop, which runs on a Via x86 processor. OLPC will also add a multitouch screen on the next-generation XO-3 tablet, which is due to ship in 2012. Fedora will continue to be the base Linux distribution for XO-1.75 as the laptop changes from the x86 to Arm architecture."
"One C&D per child"
Will there be another "Buy One, Give One" promotion?
The one thing with multi-touch is the possibility of patents interfering with the ability to use it. While this might not be a problem for some OSS projects or large companies with the ability to add in a few dollars to the price to pay for patent fees, I can see this being an issue for something as cost-conscious as the OLPC's laptop because even an extra $5 could make a huge difference.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
STOP TOUCHING MY MONITOR.
Yes, caps are like yelling. That was my intention.
There are a lot of places that have clean water and enough food, but lack ways of getting ahead, lack good educations, etc. The internet and computers can change that and help train people to actually use technology and get ahead.
What good is surviving based on food and water without any progress?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Then give them real computers and not toys.
Computers have nothing to do with a successful general education. I imagine if the proper research was done a negative impact would be discovered.
They are just a way to waste time and resources.
Therefore, this is a not so secret scheme to keep the third world the third world.
Considering the resources being wasted this is all very cruel.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
How many children have the OLPC already? Three? Wouldn't it be better to focus on cheap production methods instead of adding the latest fad?
-- Cheers!
What's your definition of a "REAL COMPUTER?"
Shit that's outdated compared to today's watches put our ass into space.
It's still a real computer.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
...Ok, so what do -you- think we should be sending the third world? $999 Macbooks? $300 Celeron 900 cheap laptops? A $1,200 Core i7 notebook?
The OLPC makes -sense- because it is A) Cheap, B) Very readable in sunlight C) Is Linux-Based and puts a high priority on development and D) Has decent-ish specs.
Think of your first computer. Chances are, unless you were relatively wealthy when you got your first PC, it was a generic, low-end system, sometimes not even a compatible model to what was the "standard" of the time. For me, it was a Commodore 64 way after its prime and way after IBM-compatible systems were the standard. It taught me BASIC and the fundamentals of programming and computer use, could I get a job just by knowing that Commodore 64? No, but it set the foundation to make learning MS-DOS, Windows and later *Nix very easy.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
How convenient for you to say that, from behind a keyboard and living in place where virtually anybody who wants can have at least rudimentary access to a computer & the web.
One that hath name thou can not otter
"General" education isn't always needed in the third world, skills however are. Who cares if you can read Virgil in Latin, know all of the kings of England and have the periodic table memorized. However, if you can download a diagram of how to build a simple well and treat the water, that is useful. If you can find organic fertilizers that work to make the crop harvest better. If you can figure out more efficient ways of building huts, learn science to contradict harmful superstitious beliefs of your tribe, etc. you have something valuable.
General education is a luxury really only useful in the third world, for the rest of the world, skills are paramount, "education" doesn't matter.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
These are far more advanced than my first several computers. They are certainly not toys. If you are referring to the user interface decisions that are geared towards making the system more child friendly, then all I can suggest is that they are trying to make learning more fun. Not necessarily a bad idea. The machines are still capable of doing all of using productivity applications that are needed in a non-toy computer.
Right, because the movies you learned from had only two kinds of people - those who have basically anything, and those who are starving.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Cheap netbook with a touch screen, runs Linux on ARM, readable outdoors? Sounds perfect; how much and when? Hopefully the price will be a bit closer to that $100 mark.
Multi-touch aimed at children in third world countries. Is it a laptop or a seedy, illegal tour of Bangkok?
I live in Thailand and there are plenty of kids here who could use these things. Upcountry get a lot of donated books for example in learning english, that's great except they're all different books so learning in the classroom is extremely difficult. Also no one wants to teach there because it's in the middle of no where.
Giving kids a computer with ebooks that have all the same material and/or can speak out english to help them pronounce better would be a huge win. Even cost isn't an issue, the Thai government has already wasted billions on useless thrown away ID cards, this would be a drop in the ocean.
So what benefit did that really have on your knowledge of computers? The OLPC isn't designed to be an expensive top of the line computer because how many do you think we could send? For the cheapest "standard" laptop you can buy which is around $300, you could send 2, perhaps 3 OLPCs to the third world. Did you go out and buy a Ferrari for your first car too?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
It's easy to say that when your only experience is of a western education. Why don't you come to a third world country and see for yourself. The teachers don't know the subjects they're teaching, they can't get good teachers because no one wants to live there, the students books are all different in the class room because they are all donations.
Spending money of computers as reading devices IS the right decision here. It allows everyone to share the same material, it allows media to be played so kids can learn new languages even if the teacher doesn't know himself.
The title and summary of the story contradict themselves.
Title: "OLPC's XO-1.75 Laptop To Have a Multitouch Screen"
Summary: "OLPC will also add a multitouch screen on the next-generation XO-3 tablet"
The title is wrong; the summary is correct. Multitouch in XO-3. XO-1.75 will only have a touchscreen. Way to edit. I'm sorry for RTFA, I'm new here, won't happen again.
3 seconds without facebook.
3 seconds without Slashdot.
FTFY.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Somebody very close to me did a stiny in a fairly well-known (not religious) organization that travels around the world and teaches poor civilizations self-sufficiency, also helping them modernize their businesses and agriculture.
She went in an altruistic, bleeding-heart hippie ready to give it her all. She came out with strong anti-immigrant sentiments, resentful that the people she had worked so hard to help just kept asking for handouts instead of making any effort to better themselves. She lamented that the current soft approach was, "treating the symptoms, and not the illness."
I have always disagreed with this project. I think there is so much more to learn using books, paper, pencils and good teachers. /grumble grumble
The whole project is very misguided. All you're going to teach those kids to do is use technology that the rest of their country can't afford anyway, so as soon as it breaks they will have lost any gain they had.
Also, sending high-priced items to developing countries for cheap or free is really really really tempting fate as far as graft and corruption are concerned.
Imagine a whole bunch of $1000 laptops are given away free, or even for $250 to the third world, thanks to generous donations and so on. Then mysteriously, a bunch of laptops, each worth $1000, show up on ebay for $750, and certainly unrelatedly, a whole bunch of sub-$500 laptops actually get to the intended audience. Must have been a mixup in shipping. Pay no attention to the man buying the golden toilets.
And like you say, what's the improvement? There's not a whole lot more you can do with a performance computer when you haven't yet learned to use computers. You don't need to lend them your Ferrari so they can learn to drive, either. It's common sense.
What ever happened to all the cool features?
Like mesh networking , solar panel, hand crank.
And all the kids in the small African Villages creating a huge network of knowledge?
And didn't they move to MS Windows for these things?
I thought that the humanitarian OLPC was dead?
Exactly, and further on the point of improvement, I know for me the greatest learning experiences I have had is when technology didn't work out as planned. A screwed up update taught me how to restore a broken bootloader, a broken HDD taught me how to use unconventional methods to recover needed data (and to back up more frequently...) and problems with my wireless router taught me how to use DD-WRT and to configure various settings to help eliminate those problems.
Computers that work flawlessly might be nice, but they don't teach you anything more than how to consume and people don't really need taught that, they need to learn skills to help them make money and cut costs to get ahead.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Seriously, no 3D? How are they expected to use these things without 3D?
If they really want to add something of value, add 3D and include a set of 3D glasses, it's clear this is where the future is headed. The writing is on the wall for 2D, OLPC needs to get with the times.
I.O.U One Sig.
No, I learned that from living in America.
Why? Is there a free WoW account with each laptop?
from what I have heard... glass is not a very durable material. Just saying... kids are hard on stuff.
Is this a new troll?
All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
It is possible to have a working linux system without any GNU components at all.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
No. The Linux kernel still requires GCC to compile.
General education is a luxury really only useful in the third world, for the rest of the world, skills are paramount, "education" doesn't matter.
You have an interesting point - but I'm guessing that's a typo, and you meant first world there?
E) Durable as hell. I challenge anyone to find a $200 netbook that is waterproof, let alone one that can be dropped from 7 or 8 feet repeatedly without worrying about if it will survive. F) Grid networking. Instead of crowding around a single access point that might not be in reach, a school full of OLPC's can piggyback on eachother's signals to get much further than otherwise possible.
And let's not forget that the XO project is partially responsible for the existence of netbooks. Intel and Microsoft both made reference netbook platforms in response to the perceived threat of OLPC platform. (politics, someone else can jump in with the sordid history, I'm sure). Basically, when it was announced a $100 (cough $200) laptop was considered ludicrous, and a lot of effort went into making viable platforms. Now, netbooks are almost an impulse buy.
The keyboard's pretty terrible, but other than that the OLPC is a surprisingly well designed platform for the environment it finds itself in.
The ______ Agenda
No. The Linux kernel still requires GCC to compile.
Sure about that? There are non-gnu compilers, both free and non-free. If I build the system with DECC have I created DEC/Linux? Linux doesn't need a compiler to run.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Micro$oft charity...
One thing that amazes me is how persistent Nicholas Negroponte is. Despite having setbacks, scandals, poor reception of his devices, countries renouncing their support of his project, and as far as I can tell no real success, he still keeps on coming. I don't know if he will accomplish anything with this next model, but if there is anything at all that can be accomplished by giving children one laptop each, this man will accomplish it.
Qxe4
I don't think anyone here is unaware of GNU's contribution to Linux. But what is commonly referred to as Linux and Linux distributions also includes things like Gnome, KDE, bootloaders, Firefox, Open Office, etc.
It's called Linux. Torvalds gets some credit, Stallman gets some credit. But it's damn well called Linux. It's not called Linux because of some silly pissing match about development credit. It's called Linux because that's what everyone calls it. Deal with the fact that GNU gets to be in the credits, but doesn't get to be in the title.
Also, GNU is unpronounceable without years of undulation training, and that BS has probably set back popular adoption of Linux for years already. If you name yourself &%^nk, don't be surprised when everyone calls you Frank.
Be happy that it is getting widely used, and it revolutionized how we see, develop on, and interact with servers. But the pissing match is long over.
No. The Linux kernel still requires GCC to compile.
Sure about that? There are non-gnu compilers, both free and non-free. If I build the system with DECC have I created DEC/Linux? Linux doesn't need a compiler to run.
And tcc builds the linux kernel: http://bellard.org/tcc
What part of `yes no` don't you understand?
How can you build a well, if your math education keeps you from being able to measure and calculate correctly?
How can you define "organic fertilizers" without understanding what "organic" means, what organic chemistry is, etc?
How can you build better huts without understanding what raw materials you have on hand?
And that science you claim will keep people safe from "harmful superstitious beliefs", like calling the poisonous plant by its official latin name, instead of saying it has "bad spirits" and shouldn't be eaten?
That is the problem with "western" thinking, we think we know more than we do, because we're better educated. In the process, we've become stupid and it shows up repeatedly in our "enlightened" approach to people who are different.
As you destroy the culture of those living in harmony with their surrounding, whom you're trying to help, let me know how you feel about that when you realize that you're not really helping.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Touch, but don't look!
.
- aqk
F U
It would be nice to be able to buy some, for testing.
Fight Spammers!
You just made me remember that scene from Apocalypse Now, where they cut vaccined arms...
Do you really think laptops will survive once they start to fight tribe superstitions?
http://opencm3.net, http://www.nongnu.org/gm2/
That's why they are activated by the school server, and secured by Bitfrost. If a non G1G1 XO ends up on EBay, it will not function.
3 heartbeats without actual heart beating. :D
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
The OLPC is easily thousands of times as powerful as your first computer.
The ______ Agenda
"One library of text books per child" might have been a good idea for a project too, but guess which one seemed more expensive.
If you seriously want to improve education in third world countries there are only so many things you can do. Providing internet- (and thus "all the knowledge in the world")- accessing devices with a full productivity environment built in seems like as good an approach as any. Unless you have a secret stash of trained teachers (will travel) or are the owner of a stationary factory willing to make some donations, I'm not sure what else you might suggest.
G) Passively cooled with no moving parts. Try wandering around Best Buy throwing sand into off-the-shelf laptops and see how long before you're thrown out with a huge repair bill.
The ______ Agenda
Communication is also very important. I know a lot of people in developing nations who can't afford to talk on phones, but have large communities of people and resources they reach over email. These help them develop their businesses, get visas to travel abroad, etc.
The ______ Agenda
What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux.
Here's a kleenex.
Can't say that the experience in my country has been a wild success, but still things has changed since most school children here in Uruguay got their XO, and not just for the children.
And if well it went for children for most social classes (they were deployed in all public schools, so some private schools didnt got them) somewhat chokes you to see poor children on the streets playing with them or browsing internet close to places with free wifi.
Excellent...
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
It's Old World, New World and Thirld World
You know, people were building wells and using organic fertilisers for hundreds of years, even in the west, before formal education came along. You might not be able to do a precision job but that doesn't mean there aren't simple rules of thumb you can use instead to do an effective job. And nobody's suggesting that these should replace teachers, the OLPC project tends to only work in areas where the importance of education is already recognised, and in those access to information can be an etremely valuable resource. This trendy "they need teachers more than they need laptops" argument is just as bad as the attitudes you are criticising, because it also demonstrates that you think you have the right answers when perhaps you don't and OLPC can make a difference.
Sounds like she grew up a little bit.
It also sounds like there's a little more growing left to do.
Your parents were wealthy if they could afford a top of the line system. Being able to spend that much on anything nonessential to survival puts you easily into the top 10% of the world's population by wealth, and probably into the top 5%. The OLPC system is aimed at far less wealthy people than your parents.
One of the people who's just become involved with an open source project that I run is in India. His parents' annual income is only slightly more than the cost of my laptop. He is using a 300MHz Celeron, which he managed to scrounge, and it's the fastest machine that he has access to. It has 64MB of RAM, so nontrivial compile jobs cause a lot of swapping. His Internet connection is heavily metered, so he can only download things in the middle of the night (when it's off-peak time). He is the sort of person that this project is aimed at.
The first computer that I learned to use was a BBC Model B. This had a 2MHz 8-bit CPU and 32KB of RAM, in a time when a typical PC had a 12MHz 286 and 1MB of RAM. The first computer that I owned was scrounged from my father's workplace and was an 8MHz (16-bit) 8086 clone, with 640KB of RAM running MS DOS and Windows 3.0, in a time when my father's laptop was a 126Hz (32-bit) 386 with 5MB of RAM.
Now, most of the work I do is on Mac OS X, FreeBSD, or Solaris. How much do you think I learned on a BBC or a DOS PC that is directly relevant to those platforms? A lot. Both had easily accessible developer tools.
The BBC booted directly into a dialect of BASIC that supported structured programming, direct interfacing with the hardware (for controlling robots and suchlike via the array of easy-to-use I/O ports it had) and even had things like a built-in assembler. For the PC, I had a PL/M compiler, which taught me about low-level programming and made it easy for me to learn C (I later got a C compiler for the machine, but C feels painfully primitive as a low-level language in comparison to PL/M). When I got a 386 (my father's old laptop, when he got a 486), it ran Windows 3.11 and have Visual C++ 2.0 installed.
By the time I arrived at university, I was already moderately competent in about a dozen programming languages. This would probably not have been the case if my first computer experience had not been with something like the BBC, where programming was the easiest thing to do. That is the point of the OLPC. The user is able to modify absolutely any part of the software stack, and is encouraged to do so. Do you really think they'd be better off with machines that functioned as appliances and didn't encourage understanding?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Not true. Linux compiles with ICC and with Clang. It used to compile with some patches with TCC too, but I don't know if it still does.
That said, it's a lot easier to build a GNU system without Linux than a Linux system without GNU.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Is it just me, or does anyone else think this explains why Apple as in a rush to get the iPad out?
Negroponte may be in the process of out-Steving Jobs.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
Unless of course the school administrator is paid to look the other way or even register unauthorised devices, or fake schools are set up just to acquire these devices. That's leaving aside any technical solutions involving hacking the hardware.
The most sophisticated lock-down cannot work around human corruption - at some point in the chain you have to have people you trust. It's a game of cat and mouse with 1 cat and 10,000 mice.
That's not to say that XOs are not a good idea, but we should be realistic about the limits of technology - DRM always has a workaround.
.Ok, so what do -you- think we should be sending the third world? $999 Macbooks? $300 Celeron 900 cheap laptops? A $1,200 Core i7 notebook?
*puts on flame retardant suit*
Honestly? I think we should send the third world some papers explaining why their constant violence and lack of everyone being held accountable by the law keeps them from being able to move up, no matter how much technology they get.
If they just cut the constant violence and crime, companies would start building factories there and would start bringing technology with them. No sane company is going to build a new factory in the middle of a war zone.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
I (wildly) wonder how much of that is really needed. My first computer had MSX-BASIC and a programmers manual. It took quite some figuring out how even to start a game. It took even more guts on trying to make or hack a game. It made one heck of a learning experience. Then again, I was pretty much set on understanding computers, not so much as doing anything useful with it.
PS. And Dijkstra is wrong, you can start off by learning BASIC and become a good programmer :) Then again, MSX-BASIC probably was one of the least murky versions of BASIC that ever existed.
Hmmm.
My initial response was, "Huh? BSD is not Linux."
Okay, the Linux kernel is not actually GNU, even though it is (GNU-)GPL-licensed. That is, the copyright is not owned by the FSF.
But I worry that people will read such statements as yours and misunderstand that it would be possible to distribute a Linux distribution under another license.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
For a long time, I have wanted a tablet like device which I can write/draw on, and use with pen-optimized input systems like ShapeWriter or HexInput. (Though ideally, I would like to write one myself...)
Is there any such hardware? As far as I am aware, it should be possible to offer multitouch and a stylus in the same device. The lack of both makes such devices much less compelling.
OMFG I MUST MAKE ANOTHER POST!!!!1111!! RATE LIMIT IS KILLING ME! and so is the capitals filter. *gasp* *gasp* *gasp*
Fool. The names are to do with positions in the cold war. The first world was the West, and allies/empire, the second world was the Soviet Union, China, and allies/empire, the third world was neutral and often less developed countries. Third world is used as a name these days for the countries on the bottom of the economic pile, as since the end of the Soviet Union the terms 1st and 2nd world have become obsolete.
But your creation of Old World, New World and Thirld (sic) World is nice and funny. A sign of a someone truly raised by TV! The old world refers to the known world before Columbus found the Americas, and I'll let you figure out the rest.
"There are a lot of places that have clean water and enough food, but lack ways of getting ahead, lack good educations, etc."
I always hear this argument bandied about in reference to the decadence of the OLPC project, but can you name just one such country? Plenty of food and clean water generally implies infrastructure, which requires wealth and education. My objection to the OLPC project still stands.
So you say we should send them propaganda?
I still think sending them laptops is a better idea for the same goal. This way they can *act* to cut violence and crime, by becoming better educated, instead of just *hear* what they should be doing.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
Doh! I wonder why no-one thought of that before, it sounds so simple once you put it like that.
Clown.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
G) Passively cooled with no moving parts. Try wandering around Best Buy throwing sand into off-the-shelf laptops and see how long before you're thrown out with a huge repair bill.
Throw sand in their faces and see if they can catch you.
F) Grid networking. Instead of crowding around a single access point that might not be in reach, a school full of OLPC's can piggyback on eachother's signals to get much further than otherwise possible.
Isnt this pretty much a software/firmware feature? i doubt that the OLPC has some really special hardware inside to make this work..
But yeah, the OLPC is pretty much a rugedized netbook, putting normal netbooks in the same environment wouldnt work well
People, what a bunch of bastards
Sounds like the typical stupid romantic spoiled middle-class girls got home-sick and subverted all her "beliefs". If you have more of these friends, please advise them to stay at home. It's a tough world without hair stylists out there.
Setting my indignation aside, my reasoning for concluding your friend is an imbecile brat is as follows: if I am to believe you, she apparently was quick to convert her bad experience into a vile generalization in the form of "anti-immigrant sentiments"; she directed her laments towards the behavior of those she was there to "help", excusing herself from attempting to contextualize the problems she found in cultural and historical issues; she blames the recipients of her aid for her incompetent approach of "treating the symptoms, and not the illness".
E) Durable as hell.
This should not be underestimated. If you haven't actually had the opportunity to play with an OLPC you may not understand how remarkably rugged they are. Yes they are a little heavy compared to nice slim laptops, but they are very solidly built and can take quite a beating without worry. The fact that they are waterproof and lack moving parts (hence less damage from falls etc.) is just icing.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Yeah, I'm sure that the people who cause these wars will obviously realise their error when they receive your leaflet. I'm sure they wouldn't laugh and toss it in the bin at all.
And when the people suffering receive your leaflet, they'll obviously realise all they have to do is overturn Governments with a military, and then set up a working corrupt-free Government in its place. Obviously they were too stupid to realise the current situation was bad, until you pointed it out to them.
(And if you believe education and information is the way for long term benefit, sure, that's why it's good to give them computers!)
So Cuba is a Second World Country, just like North Korea, Vietnam? West Germany was a First World Country, while East Germany was a Second World country?
Where would you classify Switzerland (which was the definition of neutrality in the last couple of hundreds of years, if not more?) Also a Third World country?
Why not just give these kids cheap desktops? You can get a decent computer, likely more powerful than that OLPC, from Dell for maybe $200-$300. It doesn't have to be from Dell. I'm sure most of these nations have computer vendors assembling machines from low-cost Chinese components. Set up a deal with Microsoft for cheap copies of Windows, although I'm sure there are already these kinds of programs in place. I realize that the idea of running Windows on these machines is offensive to some, but the fact is that most of the developed world still runs Windows. So why not get these kids familiarized with what most people are using? If that prospect is so troublesome, go ahead and install and open source OS. It doesn't really matter. The point is just keep things simple.
If there are problems with getting a computer in these parents' home keep them in a lab at school where they can be better managed. That's where the learning is going on anyway. Going with desktops would probably be the true low-cost approach, but notebooks have gotten so cheap that I suspect it would be trivial to undercut the cost of an OLPC by setting up a deal with some Chinese or Taiwanese manufacturer. And a multi-touch screen is completely superfluous. I sure hope there aren't kids being denied computers because of some administrators somewhere stupidly waiting for OLPC's.
These OLPC's may be a noble idea but they're unnecessarily complicating things. I personally think it's a big waste of money and resources trying to solve a problem that already has plenty of better solutions. Hell, for all the effort and expense being expended they probably would be better off just shipping these kids iPads.
F) Grid networking.
IMO that should be built into every netbook, notebook, and PC. We could make ISPs almost obsolete and internet access free for all but those in rural areas, without costing anyone anything.
Free Martian Whores!
His parents' annual income is only slightly more than the cost of my laptop.
You have to remember that prices for most essentials (esp food & shelter) would be far lower than where you live as well. When I was stationed in Thailand in 1974 the average taxi driver made ~$1k/yr, but you could feed four in a nice restaraunt for under a dollar, take a cab anywhere in the country for $3, or a bus to anywhere for a nickle. The bungalow I rented cost $30 a month.
In fact, I was able to get an audipohile-quality stereo system on a GI's salary because I didn't have to pay import taxes on it; the speakers four way with six drivers in each enclosure, including a fifteen inch woofer and a supertweeter.
But aside from the tax and such, many things were of course unaffordable for most; almost nobody had a car or a TV, for example.
Free Martian Whores!
Many of those "poor civilizations" (gee, could you not find something more offensive?) have a strong culture of sharing.
So it is perfectly reasonable to ask from those who have more, because in the future you will share if you do.
The notion of "bettering yourself" is an USian middle class delusion, based on the assumption that each one is on his own and will achieve something in life only by being quite selfish.
It shall also be pointed out that many peoples in poor countries know that at some point or another their ancestors tried to "better themselves" only to be beaten to a pulp by tyrants of all stripes or people that knew what was better for them.
An example: the government of Botswana (one of the more succesful and enlightened in Africa, if you don't believe me then tell me: when was the last time you hear news about this country?) decided to prove settlements for San people in order to make their lives better (that word again) but completely ignoring their ancestral culture of hunting gathering.
The San could not make a living, since their excellent skills to lead a nomadic life in the bush are worth nought in modern society, so having too much time on their hands they drawned their sorrows with alcohol and learned to live from government hand outs instead of trying to follow a way of life that was a dead end.
I wonder how your acquaintance would have acuited himself if landed with these people?
Finally I have no sympathy for somebody "going to help" becoming a racist (the code phrase you use gives the truth away anyway, since immigration is not only from poor countries, so it is quite telling that somebody becaomes "anti immigrant" after making such a lousy effort to be good immigrant himself), it only shows an utter lack of understanding of why the hosts of this person act in a certain way.
Why don't you come to a third world country and see for yourself. The teachers don't know the subjects they're teaching, they can't get good teachers
That sounds like the US. You have history majors teaching math, and math majors teaching biology. They can't get good teachers because the pay is abysmal.
Free Martian Whores!
Many of the countries that are buying (note, "buying", which, not being given as charity, is the main way OLPCs are getting to countries) do not have "constant violence" and "lack of everyone being held accountable by the law".
Not all places outside of the most developed countries are alike, and mostly the kind of places where your complaints are valid are the kind of places the OLPC isn't going anyway.
A bit off topic.
I was browsing the Anadtech ~13" laptop reviews.
Seems that one has to compromise on either decent performance with good battery life (Asus UL30vt, UL30jt, U30jc) or a decent screen. Can't have both. Sigh.
If you are referring to the user interface decisions that are geared towards making the system more child friendly, then all I can suggest is that they are trying to make learning more fun. Not necessarily a bad idea. The machines are still capable of doing all of using productivity applications that are needed in a non-toy computer.
Newer builds for the XO-1 and XO-1.5 come with both Sugar (child-friendly) and GNOME (> 12 years).
The prices only change significantly for things where the labour cost or tax is the majority of the price. Locally produced and prepared food is an extreme example. You can get a hundred manual labourers in some places for the cost of one minimum wage employee in the UK, which reduces the operating costs for an unmechanised farm hugely. With low labour costs, there is less of an incentive to mechanise too - why bother with a machine that lets one man do the job of ten, when it costs a hundred times as much as a person? In a restaurant, the costs are food, rent, and staff. If the food is cheap and the staff are cheap, that only leaves rent on the premises, which is likely to be cheap if people renting it don't have much money.
Things like laptops are priced similarly wherever you get them, because the cost of the labour is a small fraction of the cost. You might get a 10-20% variation due to shipping and taxation, but not much more than that.
The chance of him being able to afford a laptop like mine new is very small, although he might be able to find one that no one wants in a few years. Something like the XO-1.75 or XO-3 would be faster than his current desktop, and yet still affordable.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
a Windows fanfoi no doubt. These people are afraid to learn something new, afraid to understand that it is the educational software on top of the OS which really makes the XO shine. But they all look at the hardware as strange because it is not like the laptop they know even though it does laptop stuff. I've shown the laptop to many friends and explain that it is for children but constantly their review of it ends with something like "but the keyboard is too small to be useful". For some reason, people can not get it through their skulls about the part it is for children, they look at it as if it is for them even when told first and foremost it is for children.
When all the 'put Windows on it' press and blogs were going around, they only ever talked about Windows as if it was an entire educational system. As if looking at and learning the Windows desktop GUI was what learning how to use a computer was all about and that the XO was about learning how to use a computer. They _never_ talked about it in terms of the SUGAR based educational software which is what is loaded on it and front and center.
And don't even get me started on how every Joe with a netbook design has had people saying how it was better then the XO and that there's no need for the XO anymore. They seem to forget about the drop testing ruggedness, the dust protection and water resistance of the XO design. They forget about the mesh networking, the camera/mic and the ease of replacing parts. Nope, it looks like a laptop so it is just some kind of small Windows based laptop or should be. That is the mentality of the people who post stuff like "give them real computers...". IMO
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Yes it was a typo, stupid /. not letting you edit your posts...
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Watches?
Every child in Uruguay has one
Uruguay was the first country to have reached, in 2009, full coverage of their primary students (and their teachers) population by the OLPC's (One Laptop Per Child) XO through the Plan Ceibal.
Thus Uruguay has 3 children only !
That's why they are activated by the school server, and secured by Bitfrost. If a non G1G1 XO ends up on EBay, it will not function.
Which is an excellent reason to use cheap, secure, custom-created hardware and software rather than stock, full-powered, high-priced machines.
If you created custom, secure, full-powered, high-priced machines with the same safeguards, it would just create a significant incentive to hack those safeguards and get, once again, to the loot, giving the intended end-users the shaft once again.
But it has the control key in the right place...
"a Windows fanfoi no doubt"
Most likely. AC is just a fool, as most ACs are.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
The OLPC has flip-up rabbit ears, which helps with reception. Because of this, my OLPC gets better reception than my laptop.
It's mostly a software feature, but it works automatically and it is well integrated.
The ______ Agenda
Microsoft's "Diminish, Distract and Undersell" policy will work eventually but I hope the OLPC project can hold on long enough to give the world's poor children a chance to compete.
Dysfunctional American teenagers still triumph Greed, Ignorance and Respect for authority almost make a viable ethical system... cobbled together from their little twisted minds. Only a world of the self educated will expose their dysfunction.
Getting good teachers is completely different from more then 80% of the teachers failing in their own subjects.
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Personal Responsibility Man! Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap intractable problems in a single round (of blame-the-victim)!
Scene: A woman is being held up at gunpoint. Personal Responsibility Man is flying overhead. He lands.
Mugger: Oh, no!
Woman: Thank God! Personal Responsibility Man! Save me!
PRM: You know I don't do that, miss. You must be thinking of Superman. Unlike that bleeding heart liberal, I help people help themselves. Much more effective that way.
Woman: What do I do?
PRM: Simple. First, shout something to distract your attacker. Like, "Officer, help!" Then, when he takes his eyes off you, deliver a kick to the knee, then grab the gun with a twisting motion. It's easy!
Woman: That's crazy. I've never taken self-defense classes.
Mugger: I have.
PRM: Er, well then. You'll have to talk your way out of it.
Woman: [hesitant] Okay. Um... I'm barely making ends meet. If you rob me, my landlord will throw me out on the street. I have a little girl.
PRM: Very persuasive.
Woman: You think so?
PRM: Absolutely. I mean, if you're trying to convince a communist. [whiny high-pitched voice] Oh, please mister criminal! Don't rob me, feel sorry for me instead! [/whiny] He's a mugger, for Rand's sake! He already knows he's screwing you over. You have to explain to him why mugging you isn't in his self-interest.
[Mugger is beginning to look bored.]
Woman: Ooookay. Look, aren't you afraid of getting caught?
Mugger: [shrugs] I guess.
PRM: [whiny] Aren't you afraid of getting caught? [/whiny] By who? How dare you foist the job of bringing this man to justice off on the rest of us? His crime is against you, not "society" or some other liberal claptrap. I should just let this guy rob you and be done with it.
Woman: That seems to be what you're already doing.
PRM: [sighs] Here's what you do. Point out to him that he's unfairly expropriating wealth that he did not earn, and that the proper foundation for society is the free exchange of value for value, unencumbered by government regulation and bureaucracy.
Woman: [resigned] Yeah. What he said.
PRM: Good. Now, offer him a compromise which allows him to give as well as receive value. Like, have him reshingle your roof or something.
Woman: But I live in an apartment.
Mugger: And I'm no good at construction. Can I take her wallet now?
PRM: Wash your car?
Woman: No.
PRM: Babysit your kid?
Woman: [horrified] No!
[They stand there in silence for a few moments.]
PRM: You know, it was really stupid of you to cut through here after sunset.
[Woman nods.]
[A police officer walks by.]
Officer: What's all this, then? [For some reason, the officer has a British accent.]
[Mugger runs.]
Woman: You saved me!
PRM: You fool! How will this good citizen ever learn to defend herself if she suffers no consequences for her poor decisions and lack of preparation? You're just teaching her dependence! Socialism!
[Officer and woman exchange an annoyed glance.]
Officer: Walk you home, miss?
PRM: [grumbles] My tax dollars at work.
[flies off]
PRM: I mean, if I paid my taxes.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
It may be easy for you -- from the safety of your mom's basement -- to blame the ills of the third world on poor governance and high crime. But those things don't exist in a vacuum. Public safety is something that wealthy societies generally buy with their tax dollars. Prisons cost money. Rehabilitation programs cost money. Alternatives to poverty and desperation -- like job programs, job training, unemployment insurance, and welfare -- cost money.
Now, your job as Personal Responsibility Man is to explain how the impoverished country should raise that money,* or explain how their society can cut crime without bulking up their public sector. Because what you've proposed so far is exactly what people of your ilk accuse liberals of doing: trying to create a better society through obnoxious nagging.
Not that we Westerners are in any position to scold. We are responsible for much of the trouble in the third world. Imperialism did great damage back in the olden days. But the thing is, it never really went away. It evolved in its character, but the fundamentals remain: We extract the labor and natural resources of less advanced countries for pennies on the dollar. We do so because it's much cheaper to bribe a few with obscene sums of money than to bribe an entire population with education, medical care, etc.
We happily loan billions to dictators, knowing full well that the money is probably headed to the Caymans, and not to build the infrastructure that would help them pay off those loans. But when the dictator gets kicked out, the population is still on the hook for our bad faith loans. The money they spend servicing their debts is money that won't be spent on their own needs.
It must be kind of nice, going through life able to ignore the plights of others, because you've determined that they have only themselves to blame.
* Without raising taxes, I presume.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
80% failing their own subjects? Wow, that IS bad.
Free Martian Whores!