NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn8338/dn8338-1_600.jpg
I was reading my favorite annual magazine special of all time, the New York Times Magazine's "Year In Ideas", which came out today. If you have any way of getting this, I sincerely urge you to do so; it contains a veritable encyclopedia of fairly short but fascinating reports of new ideas and inventions that are in the works or are creating a stir in the US and abroad.

But to me, the most exciting invention I read about in this issue was an article fairly titled "The Laptop That Will Change The World" It is in development at MIT, and several nations and the state of Massachusetts have already asked about puchasing thousands of the things. What makes it so special? This laptop, which will only be availabe to educational and governmental markets (so don't look for it at Circuit City) costs only $100 USD! It will allow disadvantaged children or tightly bugeted school sytems to provide children with laptops that:
A. Are much more durable than an average laptop
B: Can be powered by a hand crank so it can be used in areas with no electricity (1min cranking=40mins of power)
C: Can be used in a local network with other children even if there is no internet service
D: If even one person on the local network has an internet signal, everyone on the network can acess the internet
E: Is made out of more earth-friendly materials than other laptops

Now, of course there is the possibliity of a "the gods must be crazy" scenario(great movie by the way), with children is isolated communities being exposed to both the good and the bad of western culture on the internet, but considering the enourmous educational possibilities a computer, with internet or not, can open up, I hope that this will help to bridge the insanely wide technological divide between rich and poor nations, making a better world for people everywhere. But, I'm a bit on the optomistic side of my personality right now. So, your thoughts?

By the way, an article about the laptop is here (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8338). Again, if you can, pick up or have someone get you a copy of the New York Times Magazine's Year in Ideas which is the one from today, DEC. 10th, which contain many subjects just as fascinating as this one. It's reading time well spent.:)

My God, are those specs for real?

1 minute of cranking for 40 minutes of power? Jesus...

Wow your magazine has been behind the times
MIT's laptop has been all over the internet for months now

Great. Now third world kids will be able to download photoshopped pictures of Britney Spears getting screwed by a dog.


Seriously. It's a good idea. Expose people worldwide to the free flow of information on the internet. It could end up destroying the monopoly on information that many third world governments enjoy.

I think we can all agree, that rocks.

i heard on the news that there's enough money in the (supposedly UN) budget to give each child in formal education in africa one of these :)

great idea... lets hope it happens :)

Nice. Shame about the colour.

Wow your magazine has been behind the times
MIT's laptop has been all over the internet for months now
It's not behind the times. It is simply always published at the end of the year. even the most up to date person will probably find ideas or inventions they missed over the course of the year.

1 minute of cranking for 40 minutes of power? Jesus...
Yeah, but you have to listen to "Pop Goes the Weasel" the whole time you're cranking.

Seriously, though, what a great gadget. I want ten.

Nice. Shame about the colour.
I like the colour

I love it. Not only will the poor countries have a chance to be part of the 'digital revolution', but also they won't have all the problems of software monopolies and vendor lock-in:

The laptops will also run on free software – probably the Linux operating system – rather than propriety software such as Microsoft's Windows or Apple's OSX.

Hopefully OSX, Linux is clunky as hell.

It's a great idea, hopefully it'll make it.

I like the colour

:eek: Well, you would:p

Seriously, though, what a great gadget. I want ten.
As I said, It's being bought by governments at different levels, as well as school districts. Mass. is the only American state voicing interest so far. You won't be able to buy it commercially though.:(

As I said, It's being bought by governments at different levels, as well as school districts. Mass. is the only American state voicing interest so far. You won't be able to buy it commercially though.:(
Oh that's easy. Simply "lose" the gadget if you're handed one as a student and pay the $100 replacement.

As I said, It's being bought by governments at different levels, as well as school districts. Mass. is the only American state voicing interest so far. You won't be able to buy it commercially though.:(
Maybe not right away, but good technology always has a way of getting to market.

You won't be able to buy it commercially though.:(

That's a shame... I wonder why not.

Hopefully OSX, Linux is clunky as hell.

It's a great idea, hopefully it'll make it.
Bah BS if you think linux is clunky you have been using the wrong distro's

(may want to note that OSX is *nix based (not linux but BSD))

Maybe not right away, but good technology always has a way of getting to market.

I say it gets on eBay within the first 48 hours.

Hopefully OSX, Linux is clunky as hell.

It's a great idea, hopefully it'll make it.
I looked again and the interested parties are: OLPC is currently in discussions with five countries - Brazil, China, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa - to distribute up to 15 million test systems to children. In addition, the state of Massachusetts is working with MIT on a plan to distribute the laptops to its schoolchildren.

Hopefully OSX, Linux is clunky as hell.
*launches religious war* I think localised versions of Ubuntu will be much more suitable for the African market than OSX.

I have to seriously wonder about this. I admire the idea behind it, but is a million hand-cranked laptops really what under-developed countries need? This is miles off of the margin.

*launches religious war* I think localised versions of Ubuntu will be much more suitable for the African market than OSX.
I would guess eduntu version (overall)
Thats what I would go with for desktop replacement

I mean I love my FreeBSD and all but its not exactly desktop friendly

Maybe not right away, but good technology always has a way of getting to market.
Right now, MIT is not ready to create the huge amounts of these they want to, so governmental interests are given a priority. If this was sold commercially in the US, they'd probably remove the hand crank, which is not only less needed here but, as it said in the article, a weak point in the current prototype that breaks easily.

I have to seriously wonder about this. I admire the idea behind it, but is a million hand-cranked laptops really what under-developed countries need? This is miles off of the margin.
Giving school children access to an expanded educational world at no cost to them (they will be bought by the governments, though I have no doubt charities will pay for them as well) increase the education rate, and thus speed of advancement, of a society. This will not detract at all from current aid programs, which we can agree is good.

I agree with Vittos Ordination. I mean, if you're scared for you life, like so many countries in Africa, do you really care about what you can find on the internet? Not to mention that I doubt many Africans in the worse off areas speak any of the primary languages found on the internet.

Further, do you know how expensive $100 is to those people? Sure, it's cheap to us, but even so it's only about $200 cheaper than basic regular laptops (after their rebates). The vast majority of the people in question could never afford such a massive expense, and there's no way their governments can afford to buy enough to just give out evenly to kids. You think they'd get those back? Yeah right. China is the only place I can see it being useful.

If this was sold commercially in the US, they'd probably remove the hand crank, which is not only less needed here but, as it said in the article, a weak point in the current prototype that breaks easily.

Two words: Removable crank.

I mean come on, you practically get a laptop that has an infinite battery!

What a cool idea... hopefully this will give a much-needed boost in connectivity to the world and education to third-world countries.

I agree with Vittos Ordination. I mean, if you're scared for you life, like so many countries in Africa, do you really care about what you can find on the internet? Not to mention that I doubt many Africans in the worse off areas speak any of the primary languages found on the internet.

I learned English almost exclusively from the Internet and TV. And if you asked me a year ago, I wouldn't even say almost.

Wow your magazine has been behind the times
MIT's laptop has been all over the internet for months now

just about to say that. You, my friend, are far behind on tech news

just about to say that. You, my friend, are far behind on tech news
Well it hasn't come up on general so nobody really cares how behind the times it is.

I learned English almost exclusively from the Internet and TV. And if you asked me a year ago, I wouldn't even say almost.

But you come from a different culture, I assume than they do. All the laptops in the world are worthless if the infrastructure of those nations are bad.

I agree that there is benefits to this, I just wonder if the money could be better spent.

Nice. Shame about the colour.
Actually, the color was a deliberate choice. From articles I was reading about them, the idea was to make them appealing to children but not appealing to adult thieves.

I agree with Vittos Ordination. I mean, if you're scared for you life, like so many countries in Africa, do you really care about what you can find on the internet? Not to mention that I doubt many Africans in the worse off areas speak any of the primary languages found on the internet.

Further, do you know how expensive $100 is to those people? Sure, it's cheap to us, but even so it's only about $200 cheaper than basic regular laptops (after their rebates). The vast majority of the people in question could never afford such a massive expense, and there's no way their governments can afford to buy enough to just give out evenly to kids. You think they'd get those back? Yeah right. China is the only place I can see it being useful.
Here's (http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html) the FAQ from the group that's organizing this. It gives a good explination of why this is a good thing. By the way, I also found out on another site the UNDP will help poor countries with the cost.:)

But you come from a different culture, I assume than they do. All the laptops in the world are worthless if the infrastructure of those nations are bad.

I agree that there is benefits to this, I just wonder if the money could be better spent.

I do agree on the last part, but it appears that people don't want the money better spent so, hey, a crank-powered laptop's better than nothing!

just about to say that. You, my friend, are far behind on tech news
read my response to UT's comment. Also, there IS new news, as it has recenly been introduced at a UN confrence and to Kofi Annan. Lastly...why is the date this began to be reported on so important to you? It hasn't been discussed here, and it's a current event...stop raining on my parade;) And for your information, just because I don't read EVERY tech news story the moment it comes out, I do keep well informed on tech news, and more so on news in general (Woot Woot for CNN/BBC junkies!)

I do agree on the last part, but it appears that people don't want the money better spent so, hey, a crank-powered laptop's better than nothing!
As I keep saying, a lot of these will likely be paid for by the UNDP or other organizations. Obviously, this is for places with an educational structure. Places with famine, plauge, chaos etc. will OBVIOUSLY be given more importance than education...and once things get better, a good educational system IS needed to increase the nation's prosperity. Honestly, the UN isn't entirely stupid. They know that you shouldn provide laptops if the user will be dead of starvation in a week...they do have priorities, though education is almost as big as life threatening events or poverty.

I do agree on the last part, but it appears that people don't want the money better spent so, hey, a crank-powered laptop's better than nothing!

Some people may take this completely wrong, but I am going to say it anyway. It's like dog food, we think "Oh, it tastes like chicken and fish, so the dog will love it," when the dog is perfectly happy eating a dead bird and its own shit.

Everyone tends to think that what would be great for them would be great for others, but the others have completely different needs. Maybe we should be working on hand-cranked refridgerators.

lol this seemed relevent http://news.com.com/Intel+calls+MITs+100+laptop+a+gadget/2100-1005_3-5989067.html?tag=nefd.top

Intell is calling the latptop a "gadget" lol

This is also relevant, at least to us naysayers:

http://news.com.com/Brazils+bumpy+road+to+the+low-cost+PC/2100-1041_3-5928985.html?tag=nl

Actually, the color was a deliberate choice. From articles I was reading about them, the idea was to make them appealing to children but not appealing to adult thieves.
Yes, I can see it now:
"Hey, Thug2, see those things the kids have?"
"Yeah?"
"They go for $100 apeice, and there is only kids holding them. With just 5 of them we could buy enough AK-47 rounds to finish killing all the innocent bystanders that we missed during the last civil war!"
"BRILLIANT PLAN, THUG1! But there is just one problem."
"What?"
"Bright green is just not my colour."
"Damn, it was a perfect plan except for that."
"Shame."

uber-bump!

lol this seemed relevent http://news.com.com/Intel+calls+MITs+100+laptop+a+gadget/2100-1005_3-5989067.html?tag=nefd.top

Intell is calling the latptop a "gadget" lol
I wonder if it was that has anything to do with the fact a 500MHz Intel would never be cheap enough for a $100 laptop.

http://moddb.com/images/cache/mods/44/4478/gallery/thumb_24982.jpg

:mp5: :mp5: :mp5: :mp5: :mp5:

Um...what's that?

http://moddb.com/images/cache/mods/44/4478/gallery/thumb_24982.jpg

:mp5: :mp5: :mp5: :mp5: :mp5:

What the hell is in that pic and what does it have to do with this thread?

i heard on the news that there's enough money in the (supposedly UN) budget to give each child in formal education in africa one of these :)

great idea... lets hope it happens :)Screw the kids in Africa. *I* want one!

By the way The Jovian Moons: I've noticed always end your posts with repeating gunner smilies. This is pretty n00bish, and I personally find it annoying. Please cut down on it, will ya?

Bumpy McBumpbump

Great. Now third world kids will be able to download photoshopped pictures of Britney Spears getting screwed by a dog.

Hey now, better than pics of her getting screwed by Federline.

Hey now, better than pics of her getting screwed by Federline.

What's the difference?

What's the difference?
Under no circumstances could Kevin Federline produce a suitable pedigree.

Under no circumstances could Kevin Federline produce a suitable pedigree.
*writes on sticky note*
*places sticky note on forehead*