We all sincerely hope that you will understand that not all developing countries suffer from famine, the most typical and wrong stereotype of developing countries. For some countries, or part of them (including the US) other problems including education are far more pressing. That's where the laptop comes in.
They are better off hanging from the trees, throwing rocks. Let's not educate them, they could be a pain for people like you, too busy playing with your brand new PS3 and listen to your latest iPod. Maybe they can be smarter than you and someday steal your job. Yeah, sure, they don't need laptop.
Unless you give access to the library through other, less "physical" means. That's were the laptop comes in. And again: software and training are non issues. The former is and will be open and free. The latter is really a not a problem considering how quick kids can learn. As far as content, the internet is right there available.
So as far as the laptop is concerned, you can afford the book, even if you can't afford the house.
quote:
"First, are all those people supposed to just magically pick up a computer and know how to use it?"
You could say the same about a book (mostly considering what you are saying later).
quote:
"Couldn't MIT do a training exchange program instead, or even at the same time?"
This is exactly what the program is all about, giving the chance of training the kids. Do you have any idea how a preschool kid learn? If structured as a game, they adsorb everything (a language, how to use a computer etc). THey just need the proper input.
And then again. Brazil is not only favelas. US have their own "favelas" too (New Orleans?), but that makes it hardly a developing country.
Consider this scenario. You are a windows user. You have been convinced to switch to a Mac. Your new Mac laptop may cost about 1000USD. Then you find out that:
1. All your windows software doesn't work. So you need to buy the version for Mac (office, photoshop...).
2. You decide to run windows on it, so you buy a windows license.
3. Training.
Count all these options, and the price of your laptop is twice the original. Does it mean the actual price of the laptop is 2000USD? No.
The same goes for OLPC laptop. The machine itself costs 140 USD, period. The infrastructure (networking) and training are something different.
Similarly, if you want to upgrade a public library, the cost of a book is the price on the cover, not the price of that plus the price of the infrastructure itself (the building, bills, etc).
Quote:
"How different is it than MSFT placing its products (Internet Explorer) in a premium marketing position (embedded in the OS)?'"
You choose to use Google. Microsoft chooses you (by forcing you to use their products).
There is a flaw in what you are stating. If Ford makes cars with faulty breaks (or bad tires, as it actually happened), you cannot blame the customer, but only Ford itself. Sure the customer may be idiot enough to make accidents, but still, that holds Ford responsible for not giving the customer the best protection.
Ten years ago, Apple was marginal both in image and market share. Who would have said how successful it would have been 10 years later? This is to say that making predictions of the next future 10 years (and worst, 30 or 40 years) is plain stupid. Tech market is very volatile. For what matters I can say that by then 90% of computers will run Linux. It may be not true, but it is still equally possible.
If you develop for MS Windows, using your own code, I really don't see what Microsoft has to do with it... Are you saying that every piece of code developed for windows is "property" of Microsoft?
The concept of developing country assumes that these countries believe in evolution. I wonder how many great things the OLPC would do in Kansas.....
Sorry, I had to.
You TOTALLY missed the point of the project. Lots of people have the wrong perception of developing countries as starving countries on the edge of civil wars. Sure those countries exist, but the vast majority of developing countries (Argentina, Lybia, Thailand, Brazil for example) are not starving, yet they don't have the resources of a developed country. These countries are looking at ways to improve their educational system, because other problems are overall solved. The OLPC is aimed just at that. In fact the project is potentially so important that could benefits rural areas in developing countries (which I am sure you elitist don't belong to and have no idea of what is like).
So, please stop trolling (by the way are you contributing to the reduction of the world starvation yourself?).
You don't seem familiar with solid state physics. A 'pure conductor" is defined very well as a material where electrons are present in the conduction band, and weekly bounded to the core. A pure insulator has the conduction band empty. and a big band gap prevents electron from the valence band (closer to the core) to make the jump into the conduction band. Semiconductors are somewhere in between, they have a small gap so electron can effectively make the jump into the conduction band under specific conditions (by applying an external voltage for example).
As we say in my country: "Before you talk, shut up" (and think).
Silicon is a semiconductor (at room temperature, undoped). If doped and at 0.35K, it becomes superconductive. Saying "superconductive semiconductor" is quite misleading, like saying, "liquid ice". It's the same material, but it has different properties at different Temperatures.
Please! Since when everything is supposed to make sense only if it has tech applications? You seem to be missing the point of science really. The fact that doped silicon exhibit superconductivity is per se a great discovery. There are plenty of examples of "useless" science: black holes, dark matter, superfluidity. You may not care (busy playing your new PS3?). The rest of us really do.
Interesting considerations. However when I mentioned the conditions in some parts of the US, I was not referring to the "homeless". I was talking about thousands of kids which do not have access to an education which is expected in a civilized country. Proper science and language labs, small classes, prepared teachers. I am talking about schools where social science teachers are forced to teach physics for example. I am talking about areas where the primary goal at school is not to get involved with drugs, gangs and so on. Those kids may have an home. They just don't have an healthy environment where to grow and to receive proper them motivation. I welcome the state of Massachusetts's decision. However I hope they will select specific targets for the deployment of the OLPC. Not all kids need those, specifically those that are already benefiting from all the goodies of healthy schools. For this reason I would rather see deployment in difficult school district, instead of to "every kid in the state"...
Being in several grades school around the country (and not in rich areas), I realized that there are plenty of "third world" type of realities in middle America. Underfunded schools, unmotivated students in depressed areas, many of them with huge literacy problems (reading deficiencies). From experience I can tell that what those kids need is motivation, something that they can get excited. So, why not deploying the OLPC in these communities/schools? It seems that people here are talking of the US as a very homogeneous country. They are not. Very poor areas exist, and kids there are no different (unfortunately) with their pairs in Brazil.
(free as in freedom). According to GPL, free as in beer does not mean free as in freedom. I know it seems trivial to most of us, but some companies seems to make some confusion....
Slashdot Mirror
Is this a new version of Microsoft "Get the facts"?
I do. I am just quoting from a blog. And if that was really a flame bait, the editors would have never published the story....
Since the OLPC is an educational project, here something for you, so you can get some real education on the topic:
7 6&cid=17168844
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2107
We all sincerely hope that you will understand that not all developing countries suffer from famine, the most typical and wrong stereotype of developing countries. For some countries, or part of them (including the US) other problems including education are far more pressing. That's where the laptop comes in.
They are better off hanging from the trees, throwing rocks. Let's not educate them, they could be a pain for people like you, too busy playing with your brand new PS3 and listen to your latest iPod. Maybe they can be smarter than you and someday steal your job. Yeah, sure, they don't need laptop.
Grow up, that would be about time.
Unless you give access to the library through other, less "physical" means. That's were the laptop comes in. And again: software and training are non issues. The former is and will be open and free. The latter is really a not a problem considering how quick kids can learn. As far as content, the internet is right there available. So as far as the laptop is concerned, you can afford the book, even if you can't afford the house.
quote: "First, are all those people supposed to just magically pick up a computer and know how to use it?" You could say the same about a book (mostly considering what you are saying later). quote: "Couldn't MIT do a training exchange program instead, or even at the same time?" This is exactly what the program is all about, giving the chance of training the kids. Do you have any idea how a preschool kid learn? If structured as a game, they adsorb everything (a language, how to use a computer etc). THey just need the proper input. And then again. Brazil is not only favelas. US have their own "favelas" too (New Orleans?), but that makes it hardly a developing country.
Consider this scenario. You are a windows user. You have been convinced to switch to a Mac. Your new Mac laptop may cost about 1000USD. Then you find out that: 1. All your windows software doesn't work. So you need to buy the version for Mac (office, photoshop...). 2. You decide to run windows on it, so you buy a windows license. 3. Training. Count all these options, and the price of your laptop is twice the original. Does it mean the actual price of the laptop is 2000USD? No. The same goes for OLPC laptop. The machine itself costs 140 USD, period. The infrastructure (networking) and training are something different. Similarly, if you want to upgrade a public library, the cost of a book is the price on the cover, not the price of that plus the price of the infrastructure itself (the building, bills, etc).
Quote: "How different is it than MSFT placing its products (Internet Explorer) in a premium marketing position (embedded in the OS)?'" You choose to use Google. Microsoft chooses you (by forcing you to use their products).
True, although I don't see much difference. Attacks (ohps, I meant accidents) would not be so common if the software was not so broken.
Sorry, I meant "brakes"... I should use that thing called "preview"... Oh well, it's Friday.
There is a flaw in what you are stating. If Ford makes cars with faulty breaks (or bad tires, as it actually happened), you cannot blame the customer, but only Ford itself. Sure the customer may be idiot enough to make accidents, but still, that holds Ford responsible for not giving the customer the best protection.
Ten years ago, Apple was marginal both in image and market share. Who would have said how successful it would have been 10 years later? This is to say that making predictions of the next future 10 years (and worst, 30 or 40 years) is plain stupid. Tech market is very volatile. For what matters I can say that by then 90% of computers will run Linux. It may be not true, but it is still equally possible.
Yes, it's the most "serure" OS. No wonder it suffers so many security problems...
If you develop for MS Windows, using your own code, I really don't see what Microsoft has to do with it... Are you saying that every piece of code developed for windows is "property" of Microsoft?
Why not targeting many Microsoft developers instead? That would help everybody in the FOSS community.
The concept of developing country assumes that these countries believe in evolution. I wonder how many great things the OLPC would do in Kansas..... Sorry, I had to.
You TOTALLY missed the point of the project. Lots of people have the wrong perception of developing countries as starving countries on the edge of civil wars. Sure those countries exist, but the vast majority of developing countries (Argentina, Lybia, Thailand, Brazil for example) are not starving, yet they don't have the resources of a developed country. These countries are looking at ways to improve their educational system, because other problems are overall solved. The OLPC is aimed just at that. In fact the project is potentially so important that could benefits rural areas in developing countries (which I am sure you elitist don't belong to and have no idea of what is like). So, please stop trolling (by the way are you contributing to the reduction of the world starvation yourself?).
Because they are not. They are targeted to developing countries where food and starvation are not an issue.
See this post: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=208030&cid=169 61506
You don't seem familiar with solid state physics. A 'pure conductor" is defined very well as a material where electrons are present in the conduction band, and weekly bounded to the core. A pure insulator has the conduction band empty. and a big band gap prevents electron from the valence band (closer to the core) to make the jump into the conduction band. Semiconductors are somewhere in between, they have a small gap so electron can effectively make the jump into the conduction band under specific conditions (by applying an external voltage for example). As we say in my country: "Before you talk, shut up" (and think).
Silicon is a semiconductor (at room temperature, undoped). If doped and at 0.35K, it becomes superconductive. Saying "superconductive semiconductor" is quite misleading, like saying, "liquid ice". It's the same material, but it has different properties at different Temperatures.
Please! Since when everything is supposed to make sense only if it has tech applications? You seem to be missing the point of science really. The fact that doped silicon exhibit superconductivity is per se a great discovery. There are plenty of examples of "useless" science: black holes, dark matter, superfluidity. You may not care (busy playing your new PS3?). The rest of us really do.
Interesting considerations. However when I mentioned the conditions in some parts of the US, I was not referring to the "homeless". I was talking about thousands of kids which do not have access to an education which is expected in a civilized country. Proper science and language labs, small classes, prepared teachers. I am talking about schools where social science teachers are forced to teach physics for example. I am talking about areas where the primary goal at school is not to get involved with drugs, gangs and so on. Those kids may have an home. They just don't have an healthy environment where to grow and to receive proper them motivation. I welcome the state of Massachusetts's decision. However I hope they will select specific targets for the deployment of the OLPC. Not all kids need those, specifically those that are already benefiting from all the goodies of healthy schools. For this reason I would rather see deployment in difficult school district, instead of to "every kid in the state"...
Being in several grades school around the country (and not in rich areas), I realized that there are plenty of "third world" type of realities in middle America. Underfunded schools, unmotivated students in depressed areas, many of them with huge literacy problems (reading deficiencies). From experience I can tell that what those kids need is motivation, something that they can get excited. So, why not deploying the OLPC in these communities/schools? It seems that people here are talking of the US as a very homogeneous country. They are not. Very poor areas exist, and kids there are no different (unfortunately) with their pairs in Brazil.
(free as in freedom). According to GPL, free as in beer does not mean free as in freedom. I know it seems trivial to most of us, but some companies seems to make some confusion....