OLPC - right?

I came across an article today about OLPC resuming their "get one give one" project through amazon.com. A few thoughts immediately came to my mind. The first being that I'm not sure how many people will actually be into this idea, I don't think your average joe (the plumber) has $200 just lying around, especially in this economy, to give away- but maybe they do. The second is whatever happened to the $100 laptop project? Are they giving up on this? When I went to a google info session at my school to hear about google's jobs and projects and everything the woman giving the talk mentioned the "$100 laptop project" and explained it. I wasn't going to be "that girl" who obnoxiously raised her hand and said "umm wait a minute, don't you mean the one laptop per child project" but it was definitely on my mind. If this google rep is going to toot google's horn about all their great projects and everything, don't highlight the company's inability to reach their initial goal to well-informed students (ahem). I'm not saying that I think that the project is a huge failure or anything, I LOVE the project. I'm just saying- it's double the price that they initially thought it was going to be.

OLPC = a secret microsoft mission

I recently read that OLPC is thinking about using windows instead of the open source os, Sugar, that they had originally planned to use. When I first read this I though, damn, another one bites the dust.. meaning how in the world does microsoft get its hands in everything? The one laptop per child mission is a good one I think, giving computers to children in underdeveloped countries. Part of the mission is to make it a charitable, not a profitable act. Though I guess there's always money to be made. If microsoft can make some money out of it then more power to them I suppose. I'm surprised though that some linux or other open source company isn't jumping on the opportunity to market and make "Linux" a household name. I think that linux in general is good, it's just a good operating system, secure, customizable and in many instances it's free (like free beer) what could be better? Money quote- "Will using Windows help kids in developing countries? Or is One Laptop Per Child compromising its mission and just helping Microsoft spread its software into new markets?" good question, right?

I think I'm going to throw up..

Oh and on another note, there's a guy who comes to the bryn mawr fitness center to work out occasionally. He's middle aged, fluffy (not terribly thin) and while I usually don't pay attention to people of the like I couldn't help but notice him toting around a laptop of the famous one-laptop-per-child variety. I appreciated seeing one of the devices in real life and everything but WHY OH WHY ARE YOU BRINGING IT TO THE GYM!?!?!?! And why do YOU have it?! This is supposed to be a laptop that will break boundaries and change lives in third-world countries for CHILDREN, not furthering your ego as a main line millionaire. This laptop was brilliantly engineered to be in horrible conditions for poor poor children! I guarantee that the designers didn't sit down and think "now what about the middle-aged male demographic that want to watch the news while they work out on the elliptical". Arghghghghghhg!!

One laptop per child

Productions went underway today for the formally "$100 laptop project" now one laptop per child. They couldn't get the costs under $200 but in the grand scheme of things I think that's alright. $200 puts a brand new kid-friendly "XO" laptop in the hands of the poorest kids in developing countries. What an amazing idea! Everything was specially engineered from the network to the power supply,

for use at home and where power is not available—the XO can be hand powered. It will come with at least two of three options: a crank, a pedal, or a pull-cord. It is also possible that children could have a second battery for group charging at school while they are using their laptop in class.

The website goes into extreme detail how everything works. The best part is how the network works, if one computer is connected to the internet, the laptops connect to the internet via the one connection. So where resources are limited, internet can be shared between computers that aren't necessarily connected through a landline. So the computers are kid friendly, environment friendly, and resource friendly- brilliant. I really think this movement will do a lot of good for the children of developing countries, let's sit back and watch what happens!