U.N. Lends Backing to the $100 Laptop 253
willki wrote to mention an AP story stating that The United Nations has pledged support to the $100 Laptop. From the article: "Kemal Dervis, head of the U.N. Development Program, will sign a memorandum of understanding Saturday with Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of One Laptop per Child, on the $100 laptop project, at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. The program aims to ship 1 million units by the end of next year to sell to governments at cost for distribution to school children and teachers. UNDP will work with Negroponte's organization to deliver 'technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries,' the U.N. agency said in a statement."
Keyboard Layout (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Keyboard Layout (Score:2)
It should ship with the bare minimum necessary to get things started. Once the regional economy picks up (in part because of programs like this one), you can start shipping $200 laptops with more advanced features.
Re:How are keycaps and config expensive? (Score:2)
Re:You are correct (Score:2)
For example: Poor people in developing countries have a need for basic computing devices that are cheap and robust. One way to meet this need is to use off the shelf components and mature, common technologies. Therefore, it would make sense to meet the need in this way.
How many of these things... (Score:5, Insightful)
The aim is to have governments or donors buy them and give full ownership to the children.
I'm going to be real curious as to the after market value of these things. If it goes above $100, you can bet that those kids won't be getting them.
The devices will be lime green in color, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and, so the thinking goes, to fend off potential thieves.
So, if I paint a Ferrari lime green and put a hand crank on it, nobody will steal it?
Re:How many of these things... (Score:3, Funny)
Absolutely! Why do you think all of those ricer's are painted with the gaudiest schemes possible? Those vinyl graphics aren't just for looks...they're a theft deterrent.
Re:How many of these things... (Score:2)
l33t hand-crank computer (Score:2)
Cylinders are extremely draggy. If you make them into little airfoils the hand cranks will have a lot less resistance.
Re:How many of these things... (Score:4, Funny)
Depends on the size of the hand crank.
Re:How many of these things... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How many of these things... (Score:2)
Re:How many of these things... (Score:2)
So, if I paint a Ferrari lime green and put a hand crank on it, nobody will steal it?
No guarantee, but if it's ever stolen and you see someone driving a lime green Ferrari with a hand crank on it, chances are pretty good that it was yours. Same idea here - you see an adult carrying around a lime green hand-cranked computer, chances are pretty good that it's stolen property (<hudsucker_proxy>"You know, for kids"</hudsucker_proxy>)
Re:How many of these things... (Score:2)
I would like to buy one just for the hell of it ... like a donation, I would even pay more in order to subsidize others
I wouldn't be surprised if they do come out with a non-kiddy version of it, in a more "professional" color (i.e. just about anything except lime green) to differentiate it from the kiddy version. I could see a modified version (with standard power supply instead of the wind-up generator) being used by people who just want something simple for e-mail, browsing, and word processing.
And y
Re:How many of these things... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
More Good Intentions? (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe they have the food/water/basic education working but widespread corruption keeps the country poor. Do you see where I'm going? How is this computer going to eliminate pervasive political/social problems or otherwise redistribute wealth?
All of the boot-strapping capitalists will flame me for "denying others the opportunity to...." That would be avoiding my question.
Re:More Good Intentions? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bad Assumptions (Score:2)
You are assuming that the computer is somehow critical in the educational process when the opposite can be argued quite effectively.
Would training the unwashed masses to use computers for the year 2020 Call Center staff raise the living standards in a country? I don't have a good answer either way...
Re:Bad Assumptions (Score:2)
Some things I expect this device to do:
Re:Computers are Cheaper? No.. (Score:2)
Worldbank.org stats make some interesting reading...
Let's see what $4000 would buy using their Gross National Income figures with the very handy PPP calculation already figured in...
low income country $0-$825 59 countries (at least 4 teachers)
lower middle income, $826 - $3,255 54 countries (at least 1 teacher)
$3,256 - $10,065 upper middle income 40 countries (maybe 1 teacher)
$10,066 or more high income 55 countries (no teac
Re:Bad Assumptions (Score:2)
No. From what I understand, the model for the $100 laptop is one where the most effecient way to transmit information is electronically. How much do CDs cost again? Once you get a bunch of these laptops out into the hands of interested parties, how much would it cost to give each and every person a literal wealth of texts on agriculture, engineering, history, language, et
Your right... (Score:2)
Why trolls have so little imagination? (Score:2)
"Why give a computer to a child that has no pure water to drink?"
"Corruption, not lack of computers, is the true cause of poverty!"
"They should give books, not computers, to poor children!"
And a few more similar banalities, usually rewarded by a few "interesting" or "insightful" mod points.
There are some very poor people living in Inglewood, CA, or Harlem, NY that do have access to drinking w
Re: Can I Eat Imaginative Food? (Score:2)
I agree they don't live in perfect conditions. My sister teaches in Inglewood, so I've heard her stories. That's as difficult and intractable a problem as poverty in developing nations.
Giving computers to poor people who need computers doesn't preclude giving water purifiers to people who need them.
Yes it does. The funds for developing nations are finite. I would choose water filters over a laptop any day.
Re: Can I Eat Imaginative Food? (Score:2)
When you consider different orders of magnitude, the funds are essentially infinite. A laptop computer costs $1000, a water filter costs $10. Having a $100 laptop means you can buy 90 filters and one computer for $1000. Let each of the 90 kids with filters bring a glass of water to the kid with a computer.
Re: Can I Eat Imaginative Food? (Score:3, Insightful)
Bullshit. Billy Gates sticks his big Windows dick up your ass and all of a sudden a free computer's the most wonderful thing in the world. Or do you retract your fawning praise you made over Microsoft's charitable donations all those times in the past?
Educational Material? (Score:4, Interesting)
And for those of you who would link to wikipedia, etc., that's not a suitable starting place for young kids. Who is supplying the basic educational material the laptop recipients will need to get started?
Re:Educational Material? (Score:2)
There are also open-source educational books coming up to speed in various quadrents of the net.
Re:Educational Material? (Score:2)
Um, Stanford, [slashdot.org] perhaps?
(I know, I know, I'm starting an academic flamewar. Well, lukewarm war.)
New Campaign Slogan (Score:3, Funny)
Bad Idea (Score:3, Insightful)
With high tech countries like the US performing so poorly in math/science and just about everything else... why on earth would we unleash this on poor nations? Would they be better of with a $100 device that makes clean drinking water? I mean there has to be something better to put all this effort towards. I understand its a noble cause, but I think its misdirected.
http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]Wrong focus. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wrong focus. (Score:2)
Okay, then, go to it. No one is stopping you. Give everyone a laptop.
Negroponte figured a way to do it for nearly free. I'm interested in how you are going to pull it off.
Seriously, if you don't like what he's doing, go and do what you think needs to be done yourself.
Re:Wrong focus. (Score:3, Insightful)
How about for the geeks? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How about for the geeks? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:How about for the geeks? (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Big failure or big success (Score:2)
Otherwise, I just don't see how these people who know nothing about manufacturing and operations can just waltz in and accomplish what a 100 billion a year industry can't. Everyone in the industry is ALREADY focused on making laptops as cheap and plentiful as possible. If they do eventually g
Re:Big failure or big success (Score:3, Interesting)
I bet you were imagining $100 laptops that were exactly the same as the laptops we have now. That's what I get from your statement "Everyone in the industry is ALREADY focused on making laptops as cheap and plentiful as possible". That is quite wrong. Th
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Big failure or big success (Score:2)
Just try to find me a laptop that is powered by D cells and a handcrank. Or a laptop without a hard drive. Or a laptop with a screen that switches between color and monochromatic.
The D cell and handcrank thing is probably going to get dropped, and is very likely useless. Anyone without access to electricity probably isn't thinking about laptops. Electricity is more plentiful than people realize. Just take a look at this comment [slashdot.org]. Like the guy says, these are not going to be used by people in jungles. They
Re:Big failure or big success (Score:2)
If people in the laptop industry aren't interested
Re:Big failure or big success (Score:2)
The Apple eMate meets most of the requirements you are talking about. There was even a hand crank for the eMate that I seem to recall reading about on Slashdot.
Re:Big failure or big success (Score:2)
Even better: the plan is for them to become nodes of a wireless mesh network.
The first countries to have more cellphones than landlines were African. I don't for a second doubt that wireless is going to be the cheapest way to deliver internet conn
Default home page? (Score:2)
Re:Default home page? (Score:2)
Pessimism is unwaranted (Score:5, Insightful)
In reality, these laptops would probably be used by the urban poor and working class or those in well developed rural areas in rapidly developing countries. I have been to Fujian porvince in China, stood in a rice field and then used the internet, in a small village composed of mostly really old windowless stone buildings.
Urban infrastructure was near enough to provide internet and electricity to those who could afford it, but even so, people were very poor. This is the kind of setting I can easily see the laptop coming to its own. Those people were poor enough so as not to be able to afford good educational material, but can sustain themselves and would not benefit from food or whatever Slashdotters are offering instead of laptops.
I think those pessimistic views reflect an inherent ignorance about the world. The media often paints a rather bleak picture of the rest of the world, whereas most people get along fine, though could always use a little help.
Completely Agree (Score:2, Insightful)
Give a man a fish, (Score:5, Insightful)
It might seem a bad idea to offer laptops over water, food and shelter, especially to governments/organizations, who in the past have held donations at ransom or misappropriated funds.
However, one can only hope, there are some smarter distribution plans this time.
As to the value;
Give a man a fish and feed him for a day...
Teach a man how to fish, and feed him for a lifetime.
Best to think of the project in these terms, no?
Re:Give a man a fish, (Score:3, Insightful)
These things are made out of plastic and silicon some of the cheapest materials we have.
They are largely built by machinery and mass produced.
They are mainly based on old technology so they don't require a lot of research.
Basically these are some of the most useful and cheap things they can be distributing.
Good Question... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Good Question... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Good Question... (Score:2)
The key to the industrial evolution in the west... (Score:2, Insightful)
Giving people food fixes the problem for a short time, they will be hungry again in a week, giving them tools nessesary for groving their own food fixes the problem permanently. Starting with the children is a very smart move, they learn quicker and do not have the limitations (and bad habits) their parents has learned from their parents...
I do however still not understand why mr. Negroponte don't want to sell these laptops on the free
Re: (Score:2)
Re:And the greatest idea of all... (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not surprised (Score:2, Insightful)
The UN is funding this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Secondly, I really take offense with the notion that "the UN" is backing the laptop. The UN is primarily funded by the USA. They take up a sizeable portion of valuable real estate on US land. And the US government gets funded by "non-voluntary contributions" from US citizens. Therefore, the title should read, US Citizens Backing the $100 Laptop (Involuntarily). The distinction is important. It's very easy to spend other people's money on ideas which may not be the best use of the funds.
(Sorry, just got done spending about 3 days working on my taxes, sending uncle sam and arnie $20,000 of my hard earned, so they can put about 1% of it to good use, and blow the rest on politics and vote-buying.)
Here's hoping for success... (Score:4, Insightful)
If someone wants to use their talents to make this happen, I applaud it. One cannot dictate to other the form of charity they wish to participate in. There are many dedicated to feeding the malnourished. There are others who work towards better treatment of disease and preventing the spread thereof. Perhaps there are those who think passing out crackers is a higher priority than passing out condoms, but there are valid arguments for both. Only by taking a big picture approach can the third world nations be granted the tools to bring themselves out of poverty. This laptop program is a commendable step in the right direction, and only one of many neccessary.
windows key? (Score:2, Informative)
Cheap laptops for America (Score:2)
I'm looking forward to picking up one of these cheapie laptops in a year or two, even if it ends up costing $200.
Let them eat cake (Score:2)
Let 1st world users sponsor them (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Let 1st world users sponsor them (Score:2)
Lets not be cynical (Score:3, Informative)
Instead we have shortsighted speculation about its uses betraying an unbelievable ignorance of our own experience with technology. You can bet recipients will find creative and innovative ways to enrich and improve their lives.
The only problem will be distribution and ensuring the laptops ends up in the hands on the intended recepients which is a perennial problem in developing countries. And if there is demand for these laptops in first world as has already been displayed in some of the posts you can bet an active blackmarket will thrive to divert them back to the first world.
why (Score:2)
I'm sure today's $100-200 technology can beat my Pentium II Compaq Armada 7400. I just want a laptop that can word process like a champ, and my PII won't cu
Discount price on EBay? (Score:2)
What is the big deal?!?!?! (Score:4, Interesting)
Battary Powered Monitor (Item# E21591) = $33.12 [qvc.com]
6v Battary powerd Computer that has a HUGE library of educational/business/entertainment software = $24.99 [amazon.com]
Hand crank generator for charging the battaries = $39.95 [dynaco.com]
Total = $98.06
Now if I can find all of the components to put together a $100 laptop in 15 minutes, I'm sure someone smarter than me could do it better. This is $100 with a huge amount of waste. Extra light, built in radio, siren, and compass. Not to mention the cost that was added for retail profit, and the cost of putting together three seperate packages.
Some may whine that 'It's only an 8-bit computer' or 'It's already outdated'. Well, the $100 laptops that are being proposed are propriotary machines that are also very outdated today. With a C-64 based laptop, at least the end users would have access to actual software. I think these people would be perfectly happy having the standard of living we had in the 80's, and that is what the C-64 would bring.
What this tells me is that there are some people out there that are going to try to make a lot of money by asking for dontation that are way out of line for what they are providing.
Re:What is the big deal?!?!?! (Score:2)
Re:What is the big deal?!?!?! (Score:2, Insightful)
It is also extremely, dangerously wrong to assert that this will be proprietary. The design is wedded to open source designs; the demo units are running a commercial (redhat) Linux distro. This is less, it is not at all, a way of bashing this vendor or that. Rather, the idea is this. Imagine the outcome of million laptops. Many, frankly, perhaps even most,
Useable Used Notebooks (Score:2)
food or computer? (Score:2)
The Definition of Hypocricy: (Score:2)
Slashdot reaction: "God bless Bill Gates! He is truly a philanthropist for our time!"
Microsoft donates eight computers to Botswana [www.gov.bw]
Slashdot reaction: "I'm going to petition the Pope to canonize Bill Gates as a Saint!!"
Microsoft donates ten computers to citizens of Philadelphia [camcobra.com]
Slashdot reaction: "I take it back! He's not just a Saint, he's an ANGEL SENT DOWN FROM HEAVEN!!! All I want to know is where's the line so I can get in it to kneal and KISS BI
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
It required strong leadership to get the project off the ground and through the UN. It is probably not likely that the same guys could have found a solution within their area of expertise to those other problems you mentioned. So, while those problems might be worse, and efforts to solve them might be in more need of
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:3, Funny)
The only thing that the organizers have succeeded in doing is whipping the geek media into a frenzy.
But, while we're on the subject, I'm working on building a car for developing countries that will have most of the features of modern cars, b
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
As for the dot commers...excuse me? I can understand hype over a content-free product, but this is hardly "vaporware." Or do you feel the same way about AIDS research which has yet to develop a cure?
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Oh well...while you continue to complain, some of us with a little less cynicism will keep an eye out for more news. This has a good chance at improving the quality of life in the third world considerably.
Oh, and for you: http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Invincible_Ignora
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
this program is targeted for poverty stricken children but children that are above the point of survival..
not everything is about the absolute worst off, some programs are *GASP* desigend to help other people too.
basically those children you mentioned have nothing to do with this article or the focus of this device.
the children that will greatly benefit are already going to some form of school (which will hopefully be made quite a bit better with some technology)
different programs have different targets, this program is not targeting the child prostitutes and orphans of the world.
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Stomp the trolls right now (Score:5, Interesting)
And money isn't what those starving countries need. It's social order usually. America pays farmers for their food and buries it to control food prices. We have PLENTY of food to give away. Getting it in the hands of starving people is the problem. More often than not they will end up in the hands of warlords or destroyed. Throwing money at the problem isn't going to help those countries. Until dictator X is overthrown their people will continue to starve. And the UN isn't about raiding countries to overthrow dictators.
Re:Stomp the trolls right now (Score:2)
AMEN TO THAT!!! I clicked on this discussion thinking "Let's see who's flaming about this project now." Second thread: I wasn't disappointed.
I'm sure all the people complaining about the $100 laptop project have really consciencious grounds to object, since they themselves have traveled abroad devoting their lives to help the needy, have volunteered all their lives with Greenpeace, and have done so much to help the world. I have no doubt th
Re:Stomp the trolls right now (Score:2)
Most public health issues in 3rd-world nations aren't a result of a lack of education. People in Africa who don't have access to safe drinking water are not defecating near their wells. Harsh living conditions in these areas arise from not having developed public infrastructure which includes sewage/sanitation systems, water processing plants/irrigation systems/plumbing systems, as well as an education system. But these problems all arise from social unrest. Thinking that Africans need people to tell them n
Re:Stomp the trolls right now (Score:2)
$100 is high? I guess the warlords will do what they with the food: give it to their troops before letting the civilians get any, if there's any left.
I guess the warlods want their troops to have brightly-collored, hand-cranked, radio-emitting laptops... for... some reason.
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
( ) Technical innovation in a developing country
(*) Product shipped to a developing market
( ) General discussion about IT in the devbeloping world
The location is:
( ) Africa
( ) India
( ) Bangladesh
( ) China
( ) Somewhere else in Asia
( ) South America
( ) Central America
(*) Other unspecified
You're objecting to it on the basis that:
(*) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in that country yet
( ) American jobs will be lost
Your argument is bogus because:
( ) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in the developed world either, that doesn't mean we should halt all technological research
(*) This will not adversely affect any efforts to alleviate poverty
(*) This will help to alleviate poverty
( ) Poverty in that country isn't as widespread as you say it is
( ) The US does not have a divine right to keep all the cool jobs
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Pretend that instead of MIT doing it with Linux computers to help the entire world, Bill Gates is plugging eight Winduhs boxen into a ghetto school to brainwash yet another generation of userslaves into the One Microsoft Way (you know, those stories that appear on Slashdot all the time?). Your reaction is now:
( )throw a ticker-tape parade
( )canonize Bill Gates as a Saint
( )Bypass the Saint thing and replace the Pope with Bill, period.
( )Flame/ mod down anybody suggesting BG is anything l
Now these poor children... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Now, if you want to argue that there are more cost-effective ways of educating people in poor countries, then there may be valid points to make there. Is it easier to provide information via textbooks and teachers than laptops? Will this reduce the amount of money available for other education programs. I d
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
If you're worried, then get to work and start helping those people. Negroponte is in the laptop business end of it. You all take care of the rest.
Problem solved.
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
It'd be nice if we could make everything good right away but that isn't really likely to happen. It'd take a world wid
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Re:Laptops are great, but... (Score:2)
Future headlines:
"Cambodian child prostitute uses wireless laptop to contact police"
and
"Text messaging reunites orphan with parents in africa"
Re:Trade agrements (Score:2)
And those companies would have a pretty strong case too. If anything (in my opinion, of course), Mexico needs more capitalism and a smaller government.
Re:I have visions ... (Score:2)
Re:I have visions ... (Score:2)
Or, Saddam Hussein [worldnetdaily.com] amassing 4,000 of them to further his nuclear program.
(Well, perhaps the next nuclear gaming LAN party will be in North Korea...)
Re:The Warlord Laptop (TM) (Score:2)
Warlord? Pah. I'll take on a Warlord any day of the week and pwnz! I play on King, and only lay off Emperor 'cos the cheating AI pisses me right off.
* pulls out four 1993-vintage double-density floppies, grabs a Third World Kiddie laptop and fires up Civ 1 *
My words are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS, dammit!