One Laptop per Child: Working Model of $100 Laptop Steals MITX Spotlight

[Sgent]

At an event put on to honor the top technology innovations from Massachusetts companies, a technology designed for users far from the halls of MIT and Harvard stole all the thunder.

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But Negroponte used his time at the podium to talk about his current job as chairman of the One Laptop per Child association and its goal of putting what is commonly referred to as the $100 laptop into the hands of children in developing countries.

Negroponte didn't just talk about the association and its goals; he also brought the first working model of the $100 laptop.

This working model sported many differences from the early prototypes that were seen previously. The biggest change is that the laptop no long features a directly attached crank for powering the laptop in areas without electricity—the crank has now been moved to the power supply.

EWeek Report on One Laptop Per Child

[cornermouse]

1. When do we get a chance to distribute them to the hands of

chidren in an undeveloping country? Ours?

[HughBeaumont]

2. We cost too much.

Didn't you know? This is the RepublicON plan to create a low-wage, obedient third-world underclass for LIFE. Our workers? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. They'd better get used to manufacturing cheeseburgers or become geophysicists. No nothin' in between no more.

[unpossibles]

3. this is cool, but...

.... it doesn't make sense - I thought they hated giving things to poor people. Oh wait - the laptops for children is so they can punch in for their sweatshop jobs coming soon.

[BR_Parkway]

4. The RNC just spent $100 per vote on the Busby race - isn't it a shame

that we could be doing so much for American citizens if we got rid of corporate bribery funding for political campaigns?

[superconnected]

5. I think this is wonderful.

I think they guy is driven by much higher ideals than making a buck.

I really like that the laptop runs on only 2 kilowatts.

I have energy star lightbulbs, but I can't replace all my household appliances right now. Does anyone know if there is some form of converters out there to plug in things like a high wattage old friderater to make it not suck so many watts?

[Barrett808]

6. I always wonder what the two Negroponte brothers discuss at Thanksgiving

One, the good brother, the other evil. It's almost mythic in its scope.

[customerserviceguy]

7. These things are evil

...that's what my grandfather, toasterrepairguy says...

[mikelgb]

8. how about we make sure everyone is fed first n/t

[Sgent]

9. Because feeding alone

will not solve the problem.

A multi-pronged attack on third world poverty is needed, and feeding merely meets the immediate needs. Education is the next (if not the most long term) need to be met.

A self sustaining people need education, and this happens to be a good, inexpensive way of increasing the educational opportunities.

[Occulus]

15. Because the common person is a simple creature

(this is paraphrased from a fictional book, but it rings strangely true to me for some reason)

The common man wants his belly full, his body warm, and his income sound. He wants that food to arrive daily, that warmth to be available at will, and that income to be sufficient for the needs of his hearth and home. He wants his family safe, his children cared for, and their inheritance certain. If you give him these things, and make sure they are always taken care of, he will not concern himself with how that food arrives, how that heat is provided, how that income is assured, how his family is protected, how his children are made safe, or how their inheritance is guaranteed.

Provide these things for the common man, and you will have him in the palm of your hand.

Not that I agree completely with all that, but there really are an awful lot of people out there who don't think about the chain from A to B to C that gets them their conveniences or needs. In fact, we all think with that mindset occasionally, to an extent- have any of us considered the petrochemical footprint all our fancy crap we're using to post right now while we're posting? Did you think on it tonight before I mentioned it?

See?

[skids]

10. How about a $100 100W solar panel, or $100 windmill...

I mean a laptop is a pretty complex piece of equipment. If they can do this then...

..well, let's just say it belongs in the "things that make you go hmmm" category.

[yurbud]

11. now that's a great idea--find the price point for each of those

[yurbud]

12. I wonder how much you could power with $100 solar panel

That would probably be able to take care of most the stuff in my apartment except the fridge.

[skids]

13. These days $100 buys you about 15W...

...enough to run a radio and a laptop.

If you can plop down a good few thousand, you can get the price down to around $4/W.

Now at $1/W, assuming it lasted a good 15-20 years, one would be foolish not to buy solar panels. We can only hope.

[yurbud]

14. seems like those plastic instead of silicon ones should drop in price

pretty fast once they start mass producing them.