One Laptop Per Child

[wenster 0]

 

This is the laptop created by Nicholas Negroponte. He is the co-founder of the MIT Media library. Well basically he had this idea of allowing children in poverty stricken countries or developing countries to have a laptop that cost only $100 USD. Its really interesting how they were able to produce such a laptop and at a low cost too. The laptops are designed to educate and develop their intellect.

 

O creates its own mesh network out of the box. Each machine is a full-time wireless router. Children in the most remote regions of the globe—as well as their teachers and families—will be connected both to one another and to the Internet.

 

It features a 7.5 inch, 1200?900 pixel, TFT screen and self-refreshing display with higher resolution (200 DPI) than 95 percent of the laptops on the market today. Two display modes are available: a transmissive, full-color mode, and a reflective, high-resolution mode that is sunlight readable. Both consume very little power: the transmissive mode consumes one watt—about one seventh of the average LCD power consumption in a laptop; the reflective mode consumes a miserly 0.2 watts.

 

The laptop selectively suspends operation of its CPU, which makes possible even more remarkable power savings. The laptop nominally consumes less than two watts—less than one tenth of what a standard laptop consumes—so little that XO can be recharged by human power. This is a critical advance for the half-billion children who have no access to electricity.

 

what's cool is it runs on very little power but yet it has like a camera built in and wifi capability and all these hardware. You can recharge the laptop by some manual labor like cranking some handle for a couple of minutes or whatever.

 

Here's a link to the site to learn more about the purpose or maybe even look at the specs of this thing.

 

Guess what its run on Linux OS. lol. Great!@!!

 

ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD

Edited May 18, 2007 by wenster (see edit history)

[Saint_Michael 3]

I wouldn't be cheering about it really because once again politics rears its ugly head over this laptop. First he decided to bump up the price to $175 because of the hardware and software that would be installed but also the fact Microsoft decided to put it's greedy little hands in the project to help bump up that price tag as well. And like OMG on this, how stupid can you be to put a hand crank generator on a computer, do we all live in the early 1900 or something? I would think a lower powered battery would work well with these computers, of course I will admit that this would only be beneficial to those without electricity and what not, but think about this you be spending mos of your time "Hand cranking" a computer in order to use it.Using pen source software yo run the computer was great idea to make it very cheap computer to buy and still be powerful enough, making a deal with Microsoft to install a operating system on that computer stupid idea because of the price increase and the fact Microsoft can charge whats his name a lot more money to use their stuff. Of course as of yet no one has ponied up the cash to get this going yet since they need 3 million orders to get this going, which shouldn't be that hard to get since there's like over 6 billion people on the planets and 70% +/-5-10% who are poor or live in undeveloped nations.To me this is a great idea and I would like to see this go, however, I think more should have gone into the thinking process with this computer to clear out the bugs of what is going to be in it. They claim the price will drop eventually but I don't see that happening especially once updates and patches start strolling in, thanks to the Microsoft graft that will be coming in with this computer.

[Mermaid711 0]

Well Saint Michale, I do believe that the price raise is a tad obnoxious. But about the hand crank generator- They don't have internet cafe's in Africa- for the most part. At least the children are getting a chance to learn and expand their grasp on the universe. But about the price raise, most of thepopulation in Africa barely has enough money to eat. Shame on Microsoft and everyone else you jacked the prices up!

[slushpuppy 0]

Finally! An act of human humanity in this selfish world despite the high price, I do believe a cheap laptop will increase the chance of a philanthropist sponsoring a few thousands for the uneducated.

[Ridwan sameer 0]

Hey,Nice Find over here wenster. But basically i woudn't pay 100$for it. I mean people like us. But this is surely one of the greatest things i have seen. You know why? I'll tell you why. As you said US$100 That's pretty cheap for a laptor right. So, Thinking of the people in Nigeria, Algeris, IRaq, Iran and other countries in war and countries Where even the Pres. has Had a streak of poverty Just thinking of them. I would like to thanks Nicholas Negropantefor this amazing artifact. Just ine qauestion. Is this one of those kiddy aptops that tyeaches you nnumbers or sumthing? LOL or is it a real laptop Maybe with just some small Liabilities. Well anyway a real nice find here. Is t Already out? or when will it be out?.Thanks anywayMight Buy one myseld :)Thanks. Hope Nicholas has helped people on The stroke of povertyThanks alot. :)Cya

[FolkRockFan 0]

These laptops will definitely make the philanthropists of the world feel good about themselves.I just don't see the point, myself. The concept of the super-affordable laptop is great. I love the idea. But honestly? Some of these third-world countries are having *huge* problems that no amount of technology will solve. When more than half the population is dying of deadly diseases...when the rebels and the government are too hard to tell apart because they all love to get together and massacre dissenters...well...I don't see how a laptop is going to make a difference.Some of the kids will benefit, I'm sure. I'm not saying that this is an *entirely* bad idea. It just seems, IMO, to be more about patting oneself on the back than about actually trying to help.

[Renaissance 0]

Although it's an excellent idea I have mixed feelings as well.My main concern is literacy, written and computer, if these people can't read or don't know how to use a computer then it doesn't make much sense. True they could have people go their to teach computers and such but that would involve more human resources; time, money, and dedication - I doubt they'd be paid.Philantraphists aside, I'm hoping this is one of the stepping stones to reducing the costs of computer components. Hopefully computers will be as common and affordable as a telephone. The hand crank is awesome; I could use that during blackouts at my cottage.

[okm1888 0]

the computer looks pretty good the hand crank thing seems good

[SNiped 0]

It's a nice idea but i mean, these children are not going to be able to use this computer as in most poverty stricken countries they have to work all hours of the day. After having to do pretty labouris (Not all that great with spelling, please forgive me ) work all day then just to learn having to crank something learn for 5 minutes then crank again, it would just be so tireing. Would be a nice idea though, i would have to get one just so i can play with the crank.

[anarchy 0]

The last thing we need is more kids on the internet con-ing and phishing they way around paypal and your cards.

[srujanlive 0]

This could be quite a revolution if it works as planned initially. But the politics have stepped in to destroy it as is their wont. This could actually work. The poor children working in fields may not use it but some of the children who actually study could benefit a lot by it. They in turn would be helpful in bringing a change in their nation so that more children would study and benefit from learning. Change takes time. And technology like this would definitely help.

[AceGirl 0]

That is a very interesting story. I do not think it will work very well. But hey! In the US people will go crazy here over a cheap laptop with those capabilities.

[13slc 0]

cool laptop, nice and interesting. it is good that people around the world are owning a computer/laptop each

[shahrukhmalik3.142 0]

So, there are people who want to spread tech after all.

[imskaterpunk 0]

i think that some billionaire computer designer should make a laptop that any kid can use and that only cost like anywhere from 100 to 300 but more towards the 100 area and then he ship them out to everyone that way kids all around the world can login and play diablo 2 and ghost recon