Working prototype of $100 MIT notebook computer

[K. Eng]

From the CNN article:

"The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen,
...
If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type," Gates said.

The jibe at the hand crank is unjustified. Not everyone has a spare electric socket, and you only have to crank for a few minutes to get a decent amount of power in the battery.

And so what if there's no HDD? If the machine is being used for email and web browsing, it doesn't need tons of storage space. Flash memory is fine, and a lot more durable.

I didn't expect Gates to have any praise for this computer, since MSFT doesn't get any benefit from it. But the constant bashing of this machine from Intel and Microsoft IMO demonstrates that American executives don't understand the environments or needs of developing world users.

[Kyocera]

K. Eng:

American executives don't understand the environments or needs of developing world users.

I think they understand the needs of the "developing" world fine, maybe they don't understand the needs of "non-industrialized" or third world users. There is no money there, executives are about making money not giving stuff away because it feels good. It feels good to drive a porsche and live in a mansion, at least I think it would.

[DIGITALgimpus]

I'm not sure why many Americans hate the UN. The way the organization is set up virtually ensures that it can do nothing without American approval.

Mainly because it's a puppet of the US government (since as you said, it can't say/do anything with out American approval).... and the rest of the world uses that as an argument against the US.

It's a joke to the US... it's a symbol of a faux organization to the rest of the free world.


Anyway...

The laptop has a lot of potential. People forget how a large number of the people in the world live in poverty, and don't have things as simple as electricity. There's a HUGE divide in the world as a whole.

The device seems to meet the needs of it's target audience. It's cheap, it can do the job of providing modern communications, and it doesn't have external dependencies (electric outlets for example). It's allegedly rather rugged too, since people won't be keeping them on nice desks in climate controled dwellings.


Gates is a bit upset, because Microsoft was hoping people would pay $100 or so for Vista Starter Edition... meanwhile that's 2-3 months food for the majority of that audience. I doubt people feel a CD containing Windows Vista is worth that.

Gates has laughed at many things over the years claiming they will never work. The internet being one of them.

He's no genius... just a guy who was in the right place, at the right time. DOS didn't do anything special that another OS didn't do... it was just available and ended up with the right computer (the IBM PC) for it to take off. No skill was involved. It's a Myth that Gates and Microsoft wrote DOS...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QDOS#Creation_of_PC-DOS

Ultimately the success of this product relies on UN backing, and distribution... I think there is a fair chance. It's very reasonable, considering what it can do. I'd expect it will end up in doing quite well in schools in 2nd and 3rd world countries. Also wouldn't be suprised if Peace Corps eventually get involved with the program.

$100, for a computer that could give a school in a poor remote area a connection to anything/everything the net can offer... is a pretty good deal. It's really hard to beat.

Just remember how much even old textbooks can cost. Wikipedia alone is a $500+ value. Back in the 1950's, researchers would have paid thousands for the ability to perform research as quick as a Google query. Now a schoolchild can do that (anyone who remembers card catalogs, or had a library ghetto enough to keep them around for the purpose of forceing kids to learn how to use them knows how great Google is).

The target of this computer is a schoolhouse in the middle of nowhere. Who may have a handful of books for a village of students.

Regarding storage, it's not really necessary... online storage can suplement that. Google themselves are working on GDisk as we all know. There are dozens of free storage providers out there.

[christopher_wolf]

Well, such things come with drawbacks too

The UN has enough issues running itself, much less in terms of acting as a puppet.

And there is *no way* that one can use Wikipedia as serious textbook material, or as a reference in a scientific paper, to replace a $500 textbook; it still has its issues to work out.

Google is good, but I haven't found it of too much more use. I use it, I find something that is kinda related to what I want; then I go back, make a better guess, and then come back with a query that gets the right answer. Quite frankly any search engine from Yahoo! to Google would do, and that is about it. By no means a revolutionary step from my POV as I could still find the information I want quickly enough.

There is always the library too; many a time I have gotten better results, with less distraction and...Oddities, by going to the library and getting what I need.

[DIGITALgimpus]

The UN has brought a lot of grief on itself in the last decade or so. It always seems to be getting in the middle of our taking over countries, searching for WMD's and not finding them etc. I don't particularly dislike the UN but I do think its global political position has shifted a lot, it seemingly used to be a somewhat benign organization with little real clout, but now the US has moved it way ahead of the blue helmeted guards that were peacekeepers.

The US still hasn't found them either, despite accusing the UN of intentionally overlooking them, so that argument is moot.

I hope the rest of the world won't jump on the internet bandwagon and say we are evil for not turning it over, it would break down three days after it happened and never be the same. It really is so far fetched that I can't believe it is actually all over the news.

I'd love to hear the explanation of this one. Considering the VeriSign deal that just went through the other day... you must have some top secret info. The heavy handed US control over core parts of the Internet have stifled international growth, which has negatively effected the net.

The only reason the US wants to retain control over the internet is for 2 purposes:
- More power to dictate laws regarding data mainly regarding encryption, and the rights to observe network traffic (CIA projects).
- Right to refuse other nations full, or any access to the Internet. Thanks to the influence over ICANN, they have done things like hold Iraq's .ir (I'm sure you remember that debate over if/when it should be returned).

The fact that the one government could potentially hamper the net at any given moment is pretty evil. (remember VeriSign is contracted by ICANN, which is essentially controlled by the US government, despite claiming to be "independant"... which it ironically seems to stop trying to claim).

He who controls the root servers, has a lot of power. Considering how many countries economies now depend on the Internet... that means congress controls how most countries economies operate.

Just a few keystrokes by the right people... and yea, it could get ugly.

The net is decentralized, but the root servers do still form a semi-backbone. With no domain names, most commerce would stop.

I'm positive the US wouldn't let another nation have that much power over it. I don't expect the rest of the world to tolerate it either.

Those poor kids will never get those laptops, they need batteries, electricity to charge them, cell towers for band width, a backbone for a connection, all the infrastructure to be able to use the thing is just not there yet. It really is a nice thought, I have an old toshiba satellite with win95 and one of those funky track ball mouse that plugs in to the side, I could donate that. It works. I'll even through in the pcmcia network card so they can Cat5e into their cardboard hut walls make some drops.

Heh... most 3rd world countries have better cell phone communication than the US. Simply because they skipped wiring the whole nation. Cellular communication is within reach for any potential market for the product.

The communication grid is much more vast than America thinks. What Americans don't realize is that for a good part of the world, American cell phones look ancient, and extremely over priced, considering the even the new ones, where state of the art in Asia 18 months earlier. Want to see what the next big thing is? Ask someone who has been to Japan.

The cost of an ethernet based network far exceeds the $100 laptop, and cheap cellular telephone that would likely be part of a kit. Odds are they wouldn't even cell the phone, just a coupler to attach a modem into an existing cell phone.

Why reinvent the wheel? Cellular networks are big business in most of Africa. Cheap to install, and everyone wants a phone these days. While America was just getting used to having more than 1 phone company, others were racing to Africa to get in on that business. The only problem is that it's not cheap enough for everyone to use yet.

If an AID organization made a deal to buy bulk minutes and distribute them... would work very well.

Now where the heck do you think they would plug in your old laptop? And where would the ethernet wire end up going? I'd love to know the logic of that plan. Have a generator, and a broadband connection to donate with that? Otherwise, it's a paperweight after the battery drains it's charge.

[DIGITALgimpus]

Well, such things come with drawbacks too

The UN has enough issues running itself, much less in terms of acting as a puppet.

And there is *no way* that one can use Wikipedia as serious textbook material, or as a reference in a scientific paper, to replace a $500 textbook; it still has its issues to work out.

Google is good, but I haven't found it of too much more use. I use it, I find something that is kinda related to what I want; then I go back, make a better guess, and then come back with a query that gets the right answer. Quite frankly any search engine from Yahoo! to Google would do, and that is about it. By no means a revolutionary step from my POV as I could still find the information I want quickly enough.

There is always the library too; many a time I have gotten better results, with less distraction and...Oddities, by going to the library and getting what I need.

There are still schools in the US who have textbooks that discuss countries in present tense that haven't been on a map in a decade. You wanna guess how bad some of these books they use are?

Bottom line is what you have. If your in a remote village, I doubt that library you go to is available to them.

If you've ever seen some video, or documentation what Peace Corp workers have at their disposal when volunteering... you'd be rather depressed. A textbook or two, likely old and donated. Not quite adequate for any real education.

Going from nothing to something is a big advantage... Google Scholar holds more than 3X as much info as a stack of textbooks from the floor to the ceiling.

Education is rather hard without some means. Books are proven effective, but to expensive to produce/ship in quantities needed (remember they aren't light either, so even if donated used... the shipping costs often make it cheaper to buy closer to where it's going to be consumed).

$100 for access to anything on the Internet is a good deal. Hopefully textbook publishers will open up online assets they all have to such programs.

If someone like lexus-nexus, or even a newspaper like the WSJ donated subscriptions... it's golden.

[christopher_wolf]

Believe me when I say I have seen how bad some of them are; but if the student is *serious* about learning (not just browsing pages mind you), then they can still be used. In terms of heavily scientific material, and not pop culture, I find that Wikipedia doesn't have a significant advantage over other sources that are also readily available. It is nice to change an article when you find a problem, but keep in mind that this can get quickly reverted (by somebody who may have less knowledge about it than you) and lead to some nasty exchanges on the discussion boards. ThinkWiki is actually a model Wiki, IMHO...But it doesn't get modified that much.

True Google Scholar is huge, but then again...It is still the internet.

There is little to no hope for any publishers to open up the content free of charge, there is a large demand, low supply market; it cannot be expected of them to not reach a pareto-efficient point at the cost of an externality, much like that of public good, by putting up the stuff that they price at $500 for free.

In Education, however, the most valuable asset is the Brain...You can't write a book on how to win the next Nobel Prize, that has to be done by a person.

[Kyocera]

Kyocera wrote:
The UN has brought a lot of grief on itself in the last decade or so. It always seems to be getting in the middle of our taking over countries, searching for WMD's and not finding them etc. I don't particularly dislike the UN but I do think its global political position has shifted a lot, it seemingly used to be a somewhat benign organization with little real clout, but now the US has moved it way ahead of the blue helmeted guards that were peacekeepers.

DIGITALgimpus:

The US still hasn't found them either, despite accusing the UN of intentionally overlooking them, so that argument is moot.

I honestly think finding large chemical weapons stashes and weapons to deliver them qualifies as Weapons of Mass Destruction, that is just my opinion. Were we only supposed to qualify Nuclear devices or the materials to manufacture them as WMD's? Chemical weapons are as dirty and destructive as it gets in war, it's a nasty horrible death, do the research, thousands can die a most painful, torturous death, this to me qualifies as mass destruction.

Kyocera:

I hope the rest of the world won't jump on the internet bandwagon and say we are evil for not turning it over, it would break down three days after it happened and never be the same. It really is so far fetched that I can't believe it is actually all over the news.

DIGITALgimpus:

I'd love to hear the explanation of this one. Considering the VeriSign deal that just went through the other day... you must have some top secret info. The heavy handed US control over core parts of the Internet have stifled international growth, which has negatively effected the net.

This is an old thread and perhaps you are confusing it's relativness with some news from this year. This would put my statement totally out of context with any deals happening recently.

Kyocera:

Those poor kids will never get those laptops, they need batteries, electricity to charge them, cell towers for band width, a backbone for a connection, all the infrastructure to be able to use the thing is just not there yet. It really is a nice thought, I have an old toshiba satellite with win95 and one of those funky track ball mouse that plugs in to the side, I could donate that. It works. I'll even through in the pcmcia network card so they can Cat5e into their cardboard hut walls make some drops.

DIGITALgimpus

Heh... most 3rd world countries have better cell phone communication than the US. Simply because they skipped wiring the whole nation. Cellular communication is within reach for any potential market for the product.

Well if you think wireless is better, more secure, more reliable, than wired you are correct. But if you work with wireless and wired networks and speak honestly, wired networks are way more reliable than wireless, I am not saying they are easier to manage, just less prone to disconnects.
Therefore your theory that most third world countries have a better communication grid would be less than correct.


DIGITALgimpus

Now where the heck do you think they would plug in your old laptop? And where would the ethernet wire end up going? I'd love to know the logic of that plan. Have a generator, and a broadband connection to donate with that? Otherwise, it's a paperweight after the battery drains it's charge.

This was humor with a twist of ridiculousness, much like the whole third world laptop feelgood make everyone in the world happy thing.

[christopher_wolf]

This was humor with a twist of ridiculousness, much like the whole third world laptop feelgood make everyone in the world happy thing.

LOL

[JHEM]

Now where the heck do you think they would plug in your old laptop? And where would the ethernet wire end up going? I'd love to know the logic of that plan. Have a generator, and a broadband connection to donate with that? Otherwise, it's a paperweight after the battery drains it's charge.

My God! How arrogant. What? Afraid the natives will stop using their drums for communication Bwana?

I have shipped, literally, hundreds of used computers to Africa, Asia, eastern Europe, Russia, etc., etc. over the years, both desktops and laptops, and none of them went unused for lack of AC. Where ethernet isn't available, modems serve quite well.

Laptops can charge very easily from the lighter socket in passing Land Rovers or the odd Toyota pickup, which are ubiquitous. There's also photo-voltaic panels, which we have shipped with laptops on many an occasion.

You'd be amazed at how adaptable "natives" can be when addressing a means to attain a desired result. Just look at all the TVs connected to satellite dishes out in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

Regards,

James

[BruisedQuasar]

For the first time ever, I think I have to agree with Bill Gates on this one. He point by point criticized the project's product and politely concluded with some comment about University Computing Professors.

[BruisedQuasar]

I am fully confident that the ivory tower creation of top of the line mediocre university PhD computer scientists will do what all academic hatched creations do. Prove very successful for the PhDs involved, while doing nothing positive for the alleged target groups.

Academics really do need to stop defining for people, they know nothing about, what their needs are and the solution to those ivory tower defined needs. Such hothouse, arm chair thinking turned India into a nearly impossible breeding ground of mass starvation & death

Fortunately, Indian leaders began applying their own definitions and solutions begining with Indura Ghandi and now India has real hope where American University types had created self-fullfilling prophecies of doom.

Beware if the American ivory tower academic. They rarely have a firm foot in the messy real world like many British gentlemen-scholars have and do. American academics do have a proven track record for one real world activity -- feathering their personal nests.

[BigWarpGuy]

For the first time ever, I think I have to agree with Bill Gates on this one. He point by point criticized the project's product and politely concluded with some comment about University Computing Professors.

Bill Gates will probably complain or criticize anything that does not use Windows.

I think it would be great if they used ReactOS. It is a WinNT clone that is open source and free. http://www.reactos.org

[dsvochak]

I turned on 60 Minutes last night and there was Nicholas Negroponte. Though it's now called "One Laptop Per Child", it's now a reality. Closer to $200 than $100 but that's life

Two news articles:
http://www.boston.com/business/technolo ... ers_surge/

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314802,00.html (written by a guy from PC MAG)
From the Fox story:

I got the mother of all pouts when I had to take the XO-1 back from my 9-year-old tester (my daughter). I'd say that's a stirring endorsement from the target market.

I guess it wasn't such a strange idea after all.

[flashstar]

The OLPC program is still hopeless for the following reasons:

-Hungry kids would be better off with food and text books than cheap laptops
- Each laptop is over $150
-Already, developing nations are questioning the reasoning behind purchasing many many laptops for hungry children when most American and European kids don't have laptops.

It's a thoughtful idea, but like the Kyoto protocol it is completely unfeasible.